Mailing List Archive

On 2/26/23 16:20, Ram Ramesh wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  I have two HDHomeRun tuner boxes (a dual and another quattro) and I suspect one of them is broken. I strongly feel it is the
> quatrro, but for now, I am going to assume that anyone of them could be broken because the only evidence I have is that some
> shows turn out to be 0B recordings. I have already power cycled and tested with hdhomerun control/config app on win10. They
> seem to work fine when watching live TV in myth also. However one of the boxes very often produces 0 bytes recording.  I would
> like to record the same show on of both my tuner boxes at the same time to check if this is a transmission issue or tuner
> issue. My antenna is brand new and I doubt it is at fault.
>
>   Both units are several years old, so it could be that their adapter is broken. If so, my app on windows should create
> problem or attempting to watch live TV should produce errors, but I do not get any of those. So, I have not tried fixing adapters
>
>   Also, when I added my second HDhomerun unit (quattro) when I bought it, strangely enough, I got 8 tuners instead of 4. So, I
> am not sure if something is wrong with backend setup of this tuner.
>
>   I run standard debian 11.6 with default kernel adding mythtv 0.32-fixes using debian-multimedia repository. I have a gt1030
> nvdia card, but that is unlikely to be relevant as this is a recording issue.
>
>   Recording that produces 0B is coming on digital channel 18 (Dallas/KTXA-DT 21.1)
>
> Regards
> Ramesh
>
>
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> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
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> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org

Having double the number of physical tuners is normal. MythTV allows simultaneous recording of multiple sub-channels of a single
channel using a single tuner. It implements this feature with virtual tuners.

Check to make sure that the channel MythTV is recording on is the one you think it is recording on, and not some other channel
that has the same show in its schedule.

Is one of your tuners one of the original HDHomeRun tuners with the two inputs? If so, you need a splitter to feed both inputs
the same signal. At one time, you could have a different signal on each input and set them up independently, but MythTV
discontinued this feature, and it assumes all tuners in a box have the same signal.

On 2/26/23 18:32, Douglas Peale wrote:
> On 2/26/23 16:20, Ram Ramesh wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>  I have two HDHomeRun tuner boxes (a dual and another quattro) and I
>> suspect one of them is broken. I strongly feel it is the quatrro, but
>> for now, I am going to assume that anyone of them could be broken
>> because the only evidence I have is that some shows turn out to be 0B
>> recordings. I have already power cycled and tested with hdhomerun
>> control/config app on win10. They seem to work fine when watching
>> live TV in myth also. However one of the boxes very often produces 0
>> bytes recording.  I would like to record the same show on of both my
>> tuner boxes at the same time to check if this is a transmission issue
>> or tuner issue. My antenna is brand new and I doubt it is at fault.
>>
>>   Both units are several years old, so it could be that their adapter
>> is broken. If so, my app on windows should create problem or
>> attempting to watch live TV should produce errors, but I do not get
>> any of those. So, I have not tried fixing adapters
>>
>>   Also, when I added my second HDhomerun unit (quattro) when I bought
>> it, strangely enough, I got 8 tuners instead of 4. So, I am not sure
>> if something is wrong with backend setup of this tuner.
>>
>>   I run standard debian 11.6 with default kernel adding mythtv
>> 0.32-fixes using debian-multimedia repository. I have a gt1030 nvdia
>> card, but that is unlikely to be relevant as this is a recording issue.
>>
>>   Recording that produces 0B is coming on digital channel 18
>> (Dallas/KTXA-DT 21.1)
>>
>> Regards
>> Ramesh
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
>> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
>> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>
> Having double the number of physical tuners is normal. MythTV allows
> simultaneous recording of multiple sub-channels of a single channel
> using a single tuner. It implements this feature with virtual tuners.
Thanks. That makes sense.
>
> Check to make sure that the channel MythTV is recording on is the one
> you think it is recording on, and not some other channel that has the
> same show in its schedule.
What do you mean? The recorded time matches. As per my quick check, I do
not see the same show at the same time in any other channel. However, I
like to check from the database. How do I check this to be absolutely sure?
>
> Is one of your tuners one of the original HDHomeRun tuners with the
> two inputs? If so, you need a splitter to feed both inputs the same
> signal. At one time, you could have a different signal on each input
> and set them up independently, but MythTV discontinued this feature,
> and it assumes all tuners in a box have the same signal.
Yes, it is the original and it is connected to two different outputs of
the same signal amplifier that is connected to antenna.

Most of the recordings are from this 2-tuner box and they are fine. So,
I doubt it is this box. I could potentially switch all shows to my
second hdhomerun, but reluctant to do this as I might loose entire day's
recording to 0B issue.

Regards
Ramesh
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums:https://forum.mythtv.org

On 2/26/23 16:51, Ram Ramesh wrote:
>> Check to make sure that the channel MythTV is recording on is the one you think it is recording on, and not some other
>> channel that has the same show in its schedule.
> What do you mean? The recorded time matches.

If, for example, you have two ABC stations, one with good signal, one far away with intermittent signal. MythTV might choose to
record from the far away station.

Hoi Ram,

Monday, February 27, 2023, 1:20:14 AM, you wrote:

> Hi,

>  I have two HDHomeRun tuner boxes (a dual and another quattro) and
> I suspect one of them is broken. I strongly feel it is the
> quatrro, but for now, I am going to assume that anyone of them
> could be broken because the only evidence I have is that some
> shows turn out to be 0B recordings. I have already power cycled
> and tested with hdhomerun control/config app on win10. They seem
> to work fine when watching live TV in myth also. However one of
> the boxes very often produces 0 bytes recording.  I would like
> to record the same show on of both my tuner boxes at the same
> time to check if this is a transmission issue or tuner issue. My
> antenna is brand new and I doubt it is at fault.

>   Both units are several years old, so it could be that their
> adapter is broken. If so, my app on windows should create problem or
> attempting to watch live TV should produce errors, but I do not get
> any of those. So, I have not tried fixing adapters

>   Also, when I added my second HDhomerun unit (quattro) when I
> bought it, strangely enough, I got 8 tuners instead of 4. So, I am
> not sure if something is wrong with backend setup of this tuner.

>   I run standard debian 11.6 with default kernel adding mythtv
> 0.32-fixes using debian-multimedia repository. I have a gt1030 nvdia
> card, but that is unlikely to be relevant as this is a recording issue.

>   Recording that produces 0B is coming on digital channel 18 (Dallas/KTXA-DT 21.1)

> Regards
> Ramesh


How is the situation with your storage? A zero byte recording can be
the result from some failure to store the stream to disk. A problem
with a tuner more often will result in a damaged file not a zero byte
file.


Tot mails,
Hika mailto:hikavdh@gmail.com

"Zonder hoop kun je niet leven
Zonder leven is er geen hoop
Het eeuwige dilemma
Zeker als je hoop moet vernietigen om te kunnen overleven!"

De lerende Mens

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On 2/26/23 19:18, Hika van den Hoven wrote:
>
> How is the situation with your storage? A zero byte recording can be
> the result from some failure to store the stream to disk. A problem
> with a tuner more often will result in a damaged file not a zero byte
> file.
>
>
> Tot mails,
> Hikamailto:hikavdh@gmail.com
>
>
No storage issues. Myth status reports 1+TB storage available to record.

I should have been more careful when I said 0B. It shows up as B under
mythweb, and I assumed 0 byte. Upon inspection, the file is missing.

Regards
Ramesh

On 2/26/23 18:20, Ram Ramesh wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  I have two HDHomeRun tuner boxes (a dual and another quattro) and I
> suspect one of them is broken. I strongly feel it is the quatrro, but
> for now, I am going to assume that anyone of them could be broken
> because the only evidence I have is that some shows turn out to be 0B
> recordings. I have already power cycled and tested with hdhomerun
> control/config app on win10. They seem to work fine when watching live
> TV in myth also. However one of the boxes very often produces 0 bytes
> recording.  I would like to record the same show on of both my tuner
> boxes at the same time to check if this is a transmission issue or
> tuner issue. My antenna is brand new and I doubt it is at fault.
>
>   Both units are several years old, so it could be that their adapter
> is broken. If so, my app on windows should create problem or
> attempting to watch live TV should produce errors, but I do not get
> any of those. So, I have not tried fixing adapters
>
>   Also, when I added my second HDhomerun unit (quattro) when I bought
> it, strangely enough, I got 8 tuners instead of 4. So, I am not sure
> if something is wrong with backend setup of this tuner.
>
>   I run standard debian 11.6 with default kernel adding mythtv
> 0.32-fixes using debian-multimedia repository. I have a gt1030 nvdia
> card, but that is unlikely to be relevant as this is a recording issue.
>
>   Recording that produces 0B is coming on digital channel 18
> (Dallas/KTXA-DT 21.1)
>
> Regards
> Ramesh
>

I made a mistake in mentioning 0byte recording. Mythweb shows as B and
the file is not present in storage directories.

Regards
Ramesh

On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 12:52 AM Ram Ramesh <rramesh2400@gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, it is the original and it is connected to two different outputs of the same signal amplifier that is connected to antenna.

If it is one of the original HDHomeRun's, and you have not replaced
the power supply (at least once), it would surprise no one that it
is dying, and one of the symptoms is that one, or the other, tuner
may not be able to operate reliably (if can happen when both
need to work at the same time that one fails). If you have a spare
power supply, it should be easy to swap it in and check.

FWIW, each generation of tuner has gotten better at reception,
so it is also possible that the quatro can handle certain reception
issues better than one of the original devices. It is possible to
change the order of tuner selection such that the quatro would
be used before the original tuner if one wishes to use the quatro
in preference.

Note that the logs (and the recording details itself) should show
which tuner (inputname) was chosen for the recording, so you
should be able to determine which tuner was (attempted) to
be used.
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On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 18:20:14 -0600, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
> ?I have two HDHomeRun tuner boxes (a dual and another quattro) and I
>suspect one of them is broken. I strongly feel it is the quatrro, but
>for now, I am going to assume that anyone of them could be broken
>because the only evidence I have is that some shows turn out to be 0B
>recordings. I have already power cycled and tested with hdhomerun
>control/config app on win10. They seem to work fine when watching live
>TV in myth also. However one of the boxes very often produces 0 bytes
>recording.? I would like to record the same show on of both my tuner
>boxes at the same time to check if this is a transmission issue or tuner
>issue. My antenna is brand new and I doubt it is at fault.
>
> ? Both units are several years old, so it could be that their adapter
>is broken. If so, my app on windows should create problem or attempting
>to watch live TV should produce errors, but I do not get any of those.
>So, I have not tried fixing adapters
>
> ? Also, when I added my second HDhomerun unit (quattro) when I bought
>it, strangely enough, I got 8 tuners instead of 4. So, I am not sure if
>something is wrong with backend setup of this tuner.
>
> ? I run standard debian 11.6 with default kernel adding mythtv
>0.32-fixes using debian-multimedia repository. I have a gt1030 nvdia
>card, but that is unlikely to be relevant as this is a recording issue.
>
> ? Recording that produces 0B is coming on digital channel 18
>(Dallas/KTXA-DT 21.1)
>
>Regards
>Ramesh

Recording rules do have an option to set the "Preferred Input". If
you edit a recording rule, go to Schedule Options and change the
second selection box from "Use Any Available Input" to the input you
want it to use. If the preferred input is not available due to using
it causing a scheduling clash, I believe the scheduler will then use a
different input, but I have never actually had that happen as I have
too many tuners to get many clashes.

It is difficult to create two normal recording rules to record the
same programme. The only way I can think of is to use one of the API
interfaces, such as the Services API, to create the second rule. If
you try from the GUI, you only get offered the option of editing the
current rule, and it may be that the Services API will reject creating
a second rule for the same showing. The only way to find out would be
to try.

However, you can create two manual recording rules for the same time
period on the same channel. Mythfrontend > Schedule Recordings >
Manual Schedule, then create two manual recording rules with the same
settings, but give them different titles. On the second page of the
settings there, use the Schedule Options to set them to use different
inputs.

To see which tuner was used for any recording, in mythfrontend go to
the recording and press the I (Info) key twice. Then scroll down if
necessary until you see the "Recording Input" field. This is the
capturecard.displayname field from the database. I have manually set
all of mine so that the different virtual tuners can be distinguished,
but the defaults should show which physical tuner was used.

In the mythbackend.log file you can find a report line for each
recording that is written at the end of the recording which will tell
you the recording's status and the virtual tuner number
(cardinput.cardid):

cd /var/log/mythtv
grep "overall_score=" mythbackend.log

A good recording should look like this:

Feb 27 16:04:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[1446471]: I TVRecEvent
tv_rec.cpp:856 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[11]:
FinishedRecording(1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z) good
recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="1"
key="1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z" continuity_error_count="0"
packet_count="17913081" />

That is all one long line in the log - my email client wraps long
lines. The virtual tuner number is the [11] after "TVRec".

And this is what I got for a bad recording recently:

Feb 1 22:34:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[105007]: I TVRecEvent
tv_rec.cpp:841 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[94]:
FinishedRecording(10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z) damaged
recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="0.8"
key="10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z" continuity_error_count="45265"
packet_count="25817462" />

I think I had rain fade on my satellite dish that day.
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On 2/26/23 20:10, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 12:52 AM Ram Ramesh<rramesh2400@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, it is the original and it is connected to two different outputs of the same signal amplifier that is connected to antenna.
> If it is one of the original HDHomeRun's, and you have not replaced
> the power supply (at least once), it would surprise no one that it
> is dying, and one of the symptoms is that one, or the other, tuner
> may not be able to operate reliably (if can happen when both
> need to work at the same time that one fails). If you have a spare
> power supply, it should be easy to swap it in and check.
>
> FWIW, each generation of tuner has gotten better at reception,
> so it is also possible that the quatro can handle certain reception
> issues better than one of the original devices. It is possible to
> change the order of tuner selection such that the quatro would
> be used before the original tuner if one wishes to use the quatro
> in preference.
>
> Note that the logs (and the recording details itself) should show
> which tuner (inputname) was chosen for the recording, so you
> should be able to determine which tuner was (attempted) to
> be used.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums:https://forum.mythtv.org
I didn't realize that the tuner information is present both in "upcoming
recordings" and details of "recorded program" in mythweb. Now I know it
is the quatro that is failing. I noticed that most of the time the
original two tuner unit is used for recording. When there are too many
programs around the same time, quatro is used. About 50% recording
attempted with the quatro results in no recording. I mean there are no
files in the storage matching the recording and backend.log has error
message for them missing. Less than 10% of the time recording is badly
broken and stopped after a couple of seconds.

Yes, original hdhomerun power supply is new, but quatro is not. I am
sure it is, at least, 4 years old. However I can watch live TV with it,
and I do not notice any glitches or bad behavior. Is there a better way
to diagnose the problem? Can we measure something at the outputs of PS?
Or is it load dependent that it is best to check by swapping PS? I think
it is 5V, 1.0A PS. Hopefully, I can get one from Amazon.

Regards
Ramesh

On 2/26/23 21:29, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> Recording rules do have an option to set the "Preferred Input". If
> you edit a recording rule, go to Schedule Options and change the
> second selection box from "Use Any Available Input" to the input you
> want it to use. If the preferred input is not available due to using
> it causing a scheduling clash, I believe the scheduler will then use a
> different input, but I have never actually had that happen as I have
> too many tuners to get many clashes.
>
> It is difficult to create two normal recording rules to record the
> same programme. The only way I can think of is to use one of the API
> interfaces, such as the Services API, to create the second rule. If
> you try from the GUI, you only get offered the option of editing the
> current rule, and it may be that the Services API will reject creating
> a second rule for the same showing. The only way to find out would be
> to try.
>
> However, you can create two manual recording rules for the same time
> period on the same channel. Mythfrontend > Schedule Recordings >
> Manual Schedule, then create two manual recording rules with the same
> settings, but give them different titles. On the second page of the
> settings there, use the Schedule Options to set them to use different
> inputs.
>
> To see which tuner was used for any recording, in mythfrontend go to
> the recording and press the I (Info) key twice. Then scroll down if
> necessary until you see the "Recording Input" field. This is the
> capturecard.displayname field from the database. I have manually set
> all of mine so that the different virtual tuners can be distinguished,
> but the defaults should show which physical tuner was used.
>
> In the mythbackend.log file you can find a report line for each
> recording that is written at the end of the recording which will tell
> you the recording's status and the virtual tuner number
> (cardinput.cardid):
>
> cd /var/log/mythtv
> grep "overall_score=" mythbackend.log
>
> A good recording should look like this:
>
> Feb 27 16:04:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[1446471]: I TVRecEvent
> tv_rec.cpp:856 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[11]:
> FinishedRecording(1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z) good
> recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="1"
> key="1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z" continuity_error_count="0"
> packet_count="17913081" />
>
> That is all one long line in the log - my email client wraps long
> lines. The virtual tuner number is the [11] after "TVRec".
>
> And this is what I got for a bad recording recently:
>
> Feb 1 22:34:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[105007]: I TVRecEvent
> tv_rec.cpp:841 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[94]:
> FinishedRecording(10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z) damaged
> recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="0.8"
> key="10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z" continuity_error_count="45265"
> packet_count="25817462" />
>
> I think I had rain fade on my satellite dish that day.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums:https://forum.mythtv.org

Stephen,

  Thanks for the detail. I have one other question regarding this. What
happens if my backend is always on and the tuner gets a new IP on DHCP?
Will backend not find the tuner and give up on recording? What happens
if the same happens during a recording is in progress?

I noticed that my broken recordings are really missing files meaning no
recording was made at all. I am wondering if this has to do with missing
tuner

Regards
Ramesh

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 21:47:39 -0600, you wrote:

>Yes, original hdhomerun power supply is new, but quatro is not. I am
>sure it is, at least, 4 years old. However I can watch live TV with it,
>and I do not notice any glitches or bad behavior. Is there a better way
>to diagnose the problem? Can we measure something at the outputs of PS?
>Or is it load dependent that it is best to check by swapping PS? I think
>it is 5V, 1.0A PS. Hopefully, I can get one from Amazon.

Cheap switch mode power packs often fail in a way that the voltage
reading is fine unless they are under load, so you can not just check
the voltage on a meter. Sometimes, the device they power will be able
to boot but will not be able to do much more than minimal operations
before it draws more power than the power pack can now provide. Or if
it is a multi-device unit, one of the devices will work OK, but using
another at the same time will trigger failure.

When replacing power packs, it is rarely a good idea to buy an
identical replacement. The ones originally provided are often lowest
price units that are never going to be reliable. So you should choose
a much better device with similar or better specifications. Here in
New Zealand, I usually buy from Jaycar as I have never yet had one of
their power packs fail. But the price is much higher, typically
NZ$20-40, where I could get the same specifications from AliExpress
for NZ$2. But the AliExpress ones would be illegal to use in NZ, as
they are not certified properly, and they would inevitably fail sooner
rather than later and have a relatively high probability of failing
dangerously, such as starting a fire or electrocuting me.

In the USA, buying from a reputable place such as RadioShack is what I
would recommend - they seem to be a similar sort of shop to Jaycar. So
I would recommend getting a good power supply from a place like that,
preferably one with multiple connectors and selectable polarity so
that it can be used on different devices. This is the current Jaycar
one that would be what I would buy here in NZ for the specifications
you gave:

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/5v-dc-1a-ultra-slim-power-supply-7dc-plugs/p/MP3144

Of course, you will need one that works from your mains supply. As
well as the output voltage and ampage, you also need to check that one
of the connectors provided will match the socket on the HDHR.
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On 2/26/23 21:10, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> In the USA, buying from a reputable place such as RadioShack is what I
> would recommend

Radio Shack went out of business a few years ago in the USA.

Might find a supply at Digikey, or Mouser. Amazon is hit or miss.

I have been lurking in the archive but this is my first posting to this forum so please forgive if it goes astray!

I was interested in your symptoms of zero byte recordings.

I have been chasing this (or a similar) problem for months, and am in active dialogue with a developer.
I'm running xubuntu 22.04, mythtv v32 with quad HDHR, DVBT/T2 in the UK.

Symptom: Zero byte failed recording; log shows it takes too long to acquire a tuning lock.
Rarely, it will 'lock up' the tuner until the HDHR is rebooted or power cycled.

I can reproduce the fault readily and have eliminated power supply, LAN connection, simultaneous recordings, EIT tuning, antenna overloading and disk spin up times.

I can reproduce it if I alternate recordings from mplex 5 and 1. I can do this very readily with a perl script using API which swamps the backend with short recordings.

Interestingly, mpx5 has a 167KHz offset, but Mpx 1 is the one which fails.

The story is here:
https://forum.mythtv.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5130&sid=77389d8c7f146eb35b326eb655eecbf1

Please join in over on the forum or shout if you'd like a copy of the code to generate lots of recordings.
Phil

On Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 04:07:31PM +0000, Philip Brady wrote:
> I have been lurking in the archive but this is my first posting to this forum so please forgive if it goes astray!
>
> I was interested in your symptoms of zero byte recordings.
>
> I have been chasing this (or a similar) problem for months, and am in active dialogue with a developer.
> I'm running xubuntu 22.04, mythtv v32 with quad HDHR, DVBT/T2 in the UK.
>
> Symptom: Zero byte failed recording; log shows it takes too long to acquire a tuning lock.
> Rarely, it will 'lock up' the tuner until the HDHR is rebooted or power cycled.

Does your HDHR support transcoding and is it enabled? If so,
recording multiple streams from the same multiplex won't work.

David

> I can reproduce the fault readily and have eliminated power supply, LAN connection, simultaneous recordings, EIT tuning, antenna overloading and disk spin up times.
>
> I can reproduce it if I alternate recordings from mplex 5 and 1. I can do this very readily with a perl script using API which swamps the backend with short recordings.
>
> Interestingly, mpx5 has a 167KHz offset, but Mpx 1 is the one which fails.
>
> The story is here:
> https://forum.mythtv.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5130&sid=77389d8c7f146eb35b326eb655eecbf1
>
> Please join in over on the forum or shout if you'd like a copy of the code to generate lots of recordings.
> Phil
>

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--
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On Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 4:43 PM David Engel <david@istwok.net> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 04:07:31PM +0000, Philip Brady wrote:
> >
> > I have been chasing this (or a similar) problem for months, and am in active dialogue with a developer.
> > I'm running xubuntu 22.04, mythtv v32 with quad HDHR, DVBT/T2 in the UK.

>
> Does your HDHR support transcoding and is it enabled? If so,
> recording multiple streams from the same multiplex won't work.
>
> David

As I recall, only the two tuner "Extend" (a US only
product) supports transcoding (a similarity named
product "Expand" is a 4 tuner DVB/x device for the
EU market which does not do transcoding).

Slow tuning can happen on certain mux's due to certain
broadcast artifacts and the broadcasters choices of
certain control information (in the US, some of the
"Music Choice" channels only issue I-frames about
once every 5-10 seconds, which has been known to
confuse applications (not just MythTV) looking to
decode the stream). Sometimes the only solution
is to increase the various signal/channel/dvb timeout
values to something much larger than the default
(which I think may be only 3 seconds for HDHR tuners).
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On Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 05:15:12PM +0000, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 4:43 PM David Engel <david@istwok.net> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 04:07:31PM +0000, Philip Brady wrote:
> > >
> > > I have been chasing this (or a similar) problem for months, and am in active dialogue with a developer.
> > > I'm running xubuntu 22.04, mythtv v32 with quad HDHR, DVBT/T2 in the UK.
>
> >
> > Does your HDHR support transcoding and is it enabled? If so,
> > recording multiple streams from the same multiplex won't work.
> >
> > David
>
> As I recall, only the two tuner "Extend" (a US only
> product) supports transcoding (a similarity named
> product "Expand" is a 4 tuner DVB/x device for the
> EU market which does not do transcoding).

Okay. I wasn't sure and knew it had been an issue recentely with
another user.

David

> Slow tuning can happen on certain mux's due to certain
> broadcast artifacts and the broadcasters choices of
> certain control information (in the US, some of the
> "Music Choice" channels only issue I-frames about
> once every 5-10 seconds, which has been known to
> confuse applications (not just MythTV) looking to
> decode the stream). Sometimes the only solution
> is to increase the various signal/channel/dvb timeout
> values to something much larger than the default
> (which I think may be only 3 seconds for HDHR tuners).

--
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david@istwok.net
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On Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 5:28 PM David Engel <david@istwok.net> wrote:

> Okay. I wasn't sure and knew it had been an issue recentely with
> another user.

Yes, it was a good question to ask to eliminate one
more possible issue (as there are so many ways to fail)
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On 2/26/23 22:17, Ram Ramesh wrote:
> On 2/26/23 21:29, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>> Recording rules do have an option to set the "Preferred Input". If
>> you edit a recording rule, go to Schedule Options and change the
>> second selection box from "Use Any Available Input" to the input you
>> want it to use. If the preferred input is not available due to using
>> it causing a scheduling clash, I believe the scheduler will then use a
>> different input, but I have never actually had that happen as I have
>> too many tuners to get many clashes.
>>
>> It is difficult to create two normal recording rules to record the
>> same programme. The only way I can think of is to use one of the API
>> interfaces, such as the Services API, to create the second rule. If
>> you try from the GUI, you only get offered the option of editing the
>> current rule, and it may be that the Services API will reject creating
>> a second rule for the same showing. The only way to find out would be
>> to try.
>>
>> However, you can create two manual recording rules for the same time
>> period on the same channel. Mythfrontend > Schedule Recordings >
>> Manual Schedule, then create two manual recording rules with the same
>> settings, but give them different titles. On the second page of the
>> settings there, use the Schedule Options to set them to use different
>> inputs.
>>
>> To see which tuner was used for any recording, in mythfrontend go to
>> the recording and press the I (Info) key twice. Then scroll down if
>> necessary until you see the "Recording Input" field. This is the
>> capturecard.displayname field from the database. I have manually set
>> all of mine so that the different virtual tuners can be distinguished,
>> but the defaults should show which physical tuner was used.
>>
>> In the mythbackend.log file you can find a report line for each
>> recording that is written at the end of the recording which will tell
>> you the recording's status and the virtual tuner number
>> (cardinput.cardid):
>>
>> cd /var/log/mythtv
>> grep "overall_score=" mythbackend.log
>>
>> A good recording should look like this:
>>
>> Feb 27 16:04:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[1446471]: I TVRecEvent
>> tv_rec.cpp:856 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[11]:
>> FinishedRecording(1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z) good
>> recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="1"
>> key="1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z" continuity_error_count="0"
>> packet_count="17913081" />
>>
>> That is all one long line in the log - my email client wraps long
>> lines. The virtual tuner number is the [11] after "TVRec".
>>
>> And this is what I got for a bad recording recently:
>>
>> Feb 1 22:34:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[105007]: I TVRecEvent
>> tv_rec.cpp:841 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[94]:
>> FinishedRecording(10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z) damaged
>> recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="0.8"
>> key="10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z" continuity_error_count="45265"
>> packet_count="25817462" />
>>
>> I think I had rain fade on my satellite dish that day.
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
>> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
>> MythTV Forums:https://forum.mythtv.org
>
> Stephen,
>
>   Thanks for the detail. I have one other question regarding this.
> What happens if my backend is always on and the tuner gets a new IP on
> DHCP? Will backend not find the tuner and give up on recording? What
> happens if the same happens during a recording is in progress?
>
> I noticed that my broken recordings are really missing files meaning
> no recording was made at all. I am wondering if this has to do with
> missing tuner
>
> Regards
> Ramesh

After a bit more experimentation, I realized that my second hdhomerun
was on DHCP getting dynamic IPs.  My backend being on all the time had a
hit and miss on the IP address resulting in missing recording
completely. I remember putting my hdhomerun under static IP assignments,
but it appears in some accidental editing, I made a typo in ethernet
address of hdhomerun, and this made my server switch to dynamic IP. Once
I fixed the issue, and rebooted relevant machines, static assignment
happened and since then my backend has been consistently recording fine
from this unit. So, no longer I have this issue.

Thanks for everyone's help in guiding me to check for relevant
configurations/scripts/resources in debugging this issue.

Regards
Ramesh

> On 4 Mar 2023, at 10:39 am, Ram Ramesh <rramesh2400@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/26/23 22:17, Ram Ramesh wrote:
>> On 2/26/23 21:29, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>>> Recording rules do have an option to set the "Preferred Input". If
>>> you edit a recording rule, go to Schedule Options and change the
>>> second selection box from "Use Any Available Input" to the input you
>>> want it to use. If the preferred input is not available due to using
>>> it causing a scheduling clash, I believe the scheduler will then use a
>>> different input, but I have never actually had that happen as I have
>>> too many tuners to get many clashes.
>>>
>>> It is difficult to create two normal recording rules to record the
>>> same programme. The only way I can think of is to use one of the API
>>> interfaces, such as the Services API, to create the second rule. If
>>> you try from the GUI, you only get offered the option of editing the
>>> current rule, and it may be that the Services API will reject creating
>>> a second rule for the same showing. The only way to find out would be
>>> to try.
>>>
>>> However, you can create two manual recording rules for the same time
>>> period on the same channel. Mythfrontend > Schedule Recordings >
>>> Manual Schedule, then create two manual recording rules with the same
>>> settings, but give them different titles. On the second page of the
>>> settings there, use the Schedule Options to set them to use different
>>> inputs.
>>>
>>> To see which tuner was used for any recording, in mythfrontend go to
>>> the recording and press the I (Info) key twice. Then scroll down if
>>> necessary until you see the "Recording Input" field. This is the
>>> capturecard.displayname field from the database. I have manually set
>>> all of mine so that the different virtual tuners can be distinguished,
>>> but the defaults should show which physical tuner was used.
>>>
>>> In the mythbackend.log file you can find a report line for each
>>> recording that is written at the end of the recording which will tell
>>> you the recording's status and the virtual tuner number
>>> (cardinput.cardid):
>>>
>>> cd /var/log/mythtv
>>> grep "overall_score=" mythbackend.log
>>>
>>> A good recording should look like this:
>>>
>>> Feb 27 16:04:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[1446471]: I TVRecEvent
>>> tv_rec.cpp:856 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[11]:
>>> FinishedRecording(1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z) good
>>> recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="1"
>>> key="1003_2023-02-27T01:58:00Z" continuity_error_count="0"
>>> packet_count="17913081" />
>>>
>>> That is all one long line in the log - my email client wraps long
>>> lines. The virtual tuner number is the [11] after "TVRec".
>>>
>>> And this is what I got for a bad recording recently:
>>>
>>> Feb 1 22:34:00 mypvr mythbackend: mythbackend[105007]: I TVRecEvent
>>> tv_rec.cpp:841 (FinishedRecording) TVRec[94]:
>>> FinishedRecording(10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z) damaged
>>> recq:#012<RecordingQuality overall_score="0.8"
>>> key="10070_2023-02-01T07:29:00Z" continuity_error_count="45265"
>>> packet_count="25817462" />
>>>
>>> I think I had rain fade on my satellite dish that day.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users@mythtv.org <mailto:mythtv-users@mythtv.org>
>>> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users <http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users>
>>> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette <http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette>
>>> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org <https://forum.mythtv.org/>
>>
>> Stephen,
>>
>> Thanks for the detail. I have one other question regarding this. What happens if my backend is always on and the tuner gets a new IP on DHCP? Will backend not find the tuner and give up on recording? What happens if the same happens during a recording is in progress?
>>
>> I noticed that my broken recordings are really missing files meaning no recording was made at all. I am wondering if this has to do with missing tuner
>>
>> Regards
>> Ramesh
>
> After a bit more experimentation, I realized that my second hdhomerun was on DHCP getting dynamic IPs. My backend being on all the time had a hit and miss on the IP address resulting in missing recording completely. I remember putting my hdhomerun under static IP assignments, but it appears in some accidental editing, I made a typo in ethernet address of hdhomerun, and this made my server switch to dynamic IP. Once I fixed the issue, and rebooted relevant machines, static assignment happened and since then my backend has been consistently recording fine from this unit. So, no longer I have this issue.
>
> Thanks for everyone's help in guiding me to check for relevant configurations/scripts/resources in debugging this issue.

Hmmm using fixes/32. I had a single very bad recording so I went hunting to see if THAT tuner is bad:

[seagull] /var/log/mythtv [1998]% grep 'overall_score' mythbackend.*
mythbackend.20230219020210.2421.log-20230302:<RecordingQuality overall_score="0.5" key="10032_2023-03-01T13:32:00Z" continuity_error_count="224286" packet_count="15540838" />

The *only* entry is for that recording and it does not identify the tuner.
I've not gone spelunking but are there debug flags to set?

James

On Sat, 4 Mar 2023 15:16:22 +0800, you wrote:

>Hmmm using fixes/32. I had a single very bad recording so I went hunting to see if THAT tuner is bad:
>
>[seagull] /var/log/mythtv [1998]% grep 'overall_score' mythbackend.*
>mythbackend.20230219020210.2421.log-20230302:<RecordingQuality overall_score="0.5" key="10032_2023-03-01T13:32:00Z" continuity_error_count="224286" packet_count="15540838" />
>
>The *only* entry is for that recording and it does not identify the tuner.
>I've not gone spelunking but are there debug flags to set?
>
>James

You may need to add the "-v record" option on the mythbackend command
line. In Ubuntu, you do this by creating a
/etc/mythtv/additional.args file:

root@mypvr:~# cat /etc/mythtv/additional.args
ADDITIONAL_ARGS=-v record,dvbcam

This file is read by systemd in the
/lib/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service file:

root@mypvr:~# cat /lib/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service
[Unit]
Description=MythTV Backend
Documentation=https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Mythbackend
After=mysql.service network.target

[Service]
User=mythtv
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/mythtv/additional.args
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mythbackend --quiet --syslog local7
$ADDITIONAL_ARGS
StartLimitBurst=10
StartLimitInterval=10m
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note that my email client wraps long lines - the $ADDITIONAL_ARGS line
is actually on the end of the previous line.

Not all systemd setups do this, so it depends on your distro - you may
need to add the -v record directly on the mythbackend command line.

I always have -v record as you never know when you may need to
diagnose a bad recording.

Even if the log does not show the tuner used, the I key twice on the
recording should show the tuner.
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