Intermittent Live TV

[Rich A]

Recently I've been having problems trying to watch Live TV. When selecting a channel to watch I get a blank screen with no audio. No errors. After waiting a while all I can do is hit <esc> to be brought back to the TV Listing screen. This problem is intermittent and has been happening more often over the last few days on seemingly random channels.

Some channels are more prone to exhibit the problem than others. Have tried repeatedly to view one channel for several times .. no joy. Then a few hours later I might be able to view that channel again. Varies from channel to channel.

If I try to record one of the channels that is not working .. I again get no errors but when finished the recording is not playable. Third party media players will also not play it.

I'm using the "TV Listings" plug in .. tried turning that off then turning the normal "TV Guide" back on but now the "TV Guide" crashes when I select it. And I did shut down all the NPVR services and reboot the program and PC after turning off the plug in. Had to revert back to the "TV Listings" plug in to be able to use the guide at all.

Also tried "Register filters" but that crashes. I've attached the logs of a short session I've just had where I tried to watch the first several shows listed in the TV Guide. A few of them (maybe 3 out of the first 10 or so) were not working with the blank screens.

I'm pretty sure I was able to switch between the "TV Guide" and the "TV Listings" plugin in the past. But now only the "TV Listings" plug in is usable. A note .. I only recently (within the last few weeks) updated my Nextpvr to version 4.2.4 (190307). I don't recall having any recurring problem like this in the last 2 or 3 years.

Tonight is a big night for recording, so I guess I'll soon see if this problem affects any recordings.

[sub]

From your description it sounds like you've got intermittent reception issues on some channels. ie, likely the signal is too weak.

If I try to record one of the channels that is not working .. I again get no errors but when finished the recording is not playable. Third party media players will also not play it.

If you're able to supply a sample recording, I'll check what's wrong with the file. I'll be able to tell if it's reception issues by looking at the file.

(unfortunately it'll need to be in the next 6 hours, otherwise I'm away for the next two weeks)

Also tried "Register filters" but that crashes.

There is no need to run that bat file these days, but if you did run it, it needs to run as administrator or it'll fail.

[Rich A]

No worries .. I think you may be onto something regarding the signal. Several days ago I was replacing some coaxial cables for the cable modem feed from my ISP as well as coax lines feeding the HomeRun Prime tuner. I'll bet I screwed up one of the connections to the HDHomeRun tuner cable or left it loose.

Enjoy your two week (holiday?) ... I think I'll have this fixed in a few minutes. Thanks ..

[Rich A]

That was a quick fix. You were correct. Was doing some cable management and had a big loop of a jumper cable that I've been meaning to replace. Just happened to have the right length cable in my "spare cable junk box" .. and well .. I guess the key word here is "junk".

I just made a nice new patch cable and no more problems. Thanks ..