NextPVR Stops Recording

[Jakesty]

I had NPVR stop the other day on me for no reason.  I rebooted and it started working again.  Just two days later I believe, it happened again.  I check the Service which was running, the application was recording at the time it crashed. When this has happened, I cannot get into NPVR remotely either via the IOS app.  The server doesn't even show the IP address.
I rebooted again tonight and immediately created logs in hope of nailing it down as to what's going on.  I have another system built, using windows 2016, but I can't get NPVR to see the NAS drive like windows 10 can.  I used 2016 trying to get a more stable OS, but I'm stuck.

Thanks for your help, Jake

[mvallevand]

Look like NextPVR is running out of memory

Code:

2024-05-09 17:33:02.063    [ERROR][19]    Unexpected error in RecordingRequestHandler.HandleRequest():
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.GC.AllocateNewArray(IntPtr typeHandle, Int32 length, GC_ALLOC_FLAGS flags)
   at System.GC.<AllocateUninitializedArray>g__AllocateNewUninitializedArray|66_0[T](Int32 length, Boolean pinned)
   at System.Text.StringBuilder..ctor(Int32 capacity, Int32 maxCapacity)
   at NShared.Extend.RecordingRequestHandler.GetRecordingList(Dictionary`2 parameters)
   at NShared.Extend.RecordingRequestHandler.HandleRequest(String method, Dictionary`2 parameters)
2024-05-09 17:33:02.063    [ERROR][81]    Unexpected error in RecordingRequestHandler.HandleRequest():
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.GC.AllocateNewArray(IntPtr typeHandle, Int32 length, GC_ALLOC_FLAGS flags)
   at System.GC.<AllocateUninitializedArray>g__AllocateNewUninitializedArray|66_0[T](Int32 length, Boolean pinned)
   at System.Text.StringBuilder..ctor(Int32 capacity, Int32 maxCapacity)
   at NShared.Extend.RecordingRequestHandler.GetRecordingList(Dictionary`2 parameters)
   at NShared.Extend.RecordingRequestHandler.HandleRequest(String method, Dictionary`2 parameters)

Your Windows event logs might show these out of memory states. I'm not sure how the mapped memory works but maybe check your C: Drive to make sure it has space even when you record to a NAS.

It is impossible to really go back an look at your logs because you spam them from post processing because you don't redirect the ffmpeg output in post processing, but turns out that might give us a clue.

I would monitor your memory while you are recording the news. Certainly at news time you run 3 tuners back to back and you are running ffmpeg a lot. With NextPVR that is twice per show for timing and thumbnails, but those can overlap at the end/start of the show because of speed and multi-rec so that is 4 per tuner On top of that in post processing whatever you do is only running at less than real time at 24fps, so that is also running twice per tuner overlapping. Is is therefore quite likely that would be running 18 instances of ffmpeg.

Martin

[Jakesty]

Interesting. I assume that FFMPEG is being run by COMSKIP? I have 8GB of memory dedicated to the VM and another 8GB of page/swap file for the HD, so I'd hope that memory would never be an issue.
As a test then, I've disabled Postprocessing.
Lets see if there's something going on there then. (This is one thing I'd hope server class OS's would handle better. I'm looking at testing with Win 2022 next)
Jake

[mvallevand]

Comskip is built on ffmpeg libraries. Why would you think Windows server would be better running apps that are designed for a desktop? You aren't even writing your files to it, which might the only advantage I could think of.

Martin

[Jakesty]

I turned off all postprocessing jobs, something still failed.  Logs attached.  recordings didn't show up, and I could not access the system from my Iphone.

I'd say the server group at MS has to have much greater testing since corporations depend on it's uptime.  It is also a different group of developers from what I understand, so hopefully they're platform is more solid.


Jake

[mvallevand]

I don't see any failure but you did restart the server at 17:09 causing a restart. You need to capture logs when the problems occur

I don't buy your argument, there are many enterprise clients for Windows desktop too. The server team probably won't be as concerned about media and tuners (BDA drivers aren't even supported), ffmpeg, h/w graphics, graphedit etc. NextPVR doesn't optimize Kestrel for Wiindows Server versions either.

Martin

[Jakesty]

I will keep testing and give you anything that might help. I appreciate you looking at this, I'm still unable to access NPVR from the phone, but I'll try some more things. I didn't change routing or ip addresses, or vpn/firewall. Nothing.

[mvallevand]

If this phone is not on 192.168.0 extra security settings kick in but no remote connections were noted. Maybe send the logs right after you try from the phone too.

Martin