HD-PVR recordings missing chunks

[popechild]

I haven't noticed this on the board yet, but I could've just missed it. Since football season started I've noticed a problem with my HD-PVR recordings of games, where "chunks" of the game will be totally missing.

The timeline doesn't show missing sections, and the HD-PVR isn't turning off or freezing completely, because it's not like the rest of the program is missing, but I'll be watching the recording (behind real time) and it'll suddenly skip forward a good few minutes. The clock on the timeline after a "jump" will move anywhere from 3-20 seconds ahead each second if that makes sense, as if it's trying to catch up or something.

The recording of the USC-Oregon St. game last night had it happen a number of times, including 3 missing chunks during times when teams scored, so it's obviously more than just a little frustrating. Looking in my recorded tv folder, it shows the game being in 7 pieces - the first one's about 8gb (I didn't notice any skips until a good bit into the game) then the others are all smaller. I haven't noticed this problem on shorter (1/2 hour, 1 hour) recordings, but I could have just ignored them or not been paying attention, or it could be that it's only happening on longer recordings like games.

Last symptom - I *think* this is related - twice I've been watching a game "live" and had it just go black on me. I could stop and re-start and it would still be black. I had to cancel the recording and re-start watching in order to see a picture again (which I would see - so the HD-PVR was still apparently working). I'm assuming this is the same problem. If I'm watching live, it just cuts to black for however long. If I'm not watching until behind real time - so that the picture has cut back in for whatever reason - it just skips ahead to wherever it picked back up.

Anybody with any thoughts for me, or links to other threads that might be about the same issue? (No problems for me on my OTA tuners)

Thanks.

[popechild]

BTW, mine's a C2, but is there any chance this is similar to the symptoms people have when they have the heat lock-ups? I always assumed that just meant the thing quit working until it was turned off and back on, but maybe what I'm seeing is actually what happens when it locks up?

[B-Figgy]

Hmm. The problem I'm having with my C2 might be the same as what's happening with yours. If I watch any of my Sage recordings while the HD PVR is actively recording something else (or if I am watching "live" TV) the PVR will occasionally stop after anywhere between 15 and 60 minutes. It picks up again after just a couple minutes of being off or, like you have done, manually stopping the recording and restarting it. I don't think it's a heat related problem because the unit never exhibits this behavior when it's running by itself, just only when I'm watching and recording simultaneously.

Just out of curiosity, what are your system specifications?

[popechild]

Was hoping this would be cleared up somehow with the beta driver, but it's still showing the same symptoms. If I'm watching an HD PVR recording while it or another one is being recorded it causes the current recording to start and stop and miss big chunks of time. I'm not sure if it happens if I'm watching a non-HD PVR recording while it's recording something from the HD PVR. I also haven't noticed it at all when I've been watching on the HD100, only when I've been using the server for playback.

B-Figgy, are you playing back via the HD100 or the server machine?

I wonder if I should just try to RMA it, since it seems unlikely that there's anything I can do to fix this particular kind of issue, and there don't seem to be enough people reporting it to make me think it's happening across the board.

[B-Figgy]

I'm doing my playback on the server and haven't tested it with a client. Perhaps I'll install a trial on my other machine and do some testing to confirm your results with the HD100. If it works fine then what would that mean?! I'm going crazy trying to diagnose this thing. I really don't want to have to RMA this thing a second time if there's a more elegant solution. Furthermore, if it's a system configuration, immature drivers or some other thing causing the conflict who's to say it won't happen with another brand new unit?

[redondo_se]

I'm having the same problem with OTA recordings from my HDHomeRun. Just last night I ran into this with a recording of the Amazing Race. It recorded in full Sunday night and I did not try to play it back while it was recording. I record an extra hour because Sunday football often causes the show to start late and run late.

I *think* I have only seen this on longer recordings. I first started having this problem during the Olympics (long recordings), which I think was using one of the Sage 6.4 betas. I'm now using 6.4.8 release on server and client. I do not play back on my server, only on client PCs. It could just be that there's a higher probability of running into this problem with longer recordings.

I just logged in remotely and looked at my recording directory. The Amazing Race recording from Sunday is in one piece. I'm going to try to play it back outside of SageTV later when I get home and see if it has the same missing chunks.

I have been using SageTV for about a year now. I never ran into this problem last year with long recordings like college football, but that was with SageTV 6.3.5 and also before my hard disks filled up. I don't delete recordings, I just let Sage delete stuff as needed. Maybe that's related?

I have also run into a few occasions where live TV will just freeze and start back up if you wait long enough. I usually just stop and restart before it un-freezes itself.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by B-Figgy

I'm doing my playback on the server and haven't tested it with a client. Perhaps I'll install a trial on my other machine and do some testing to confirm your results with the HD100. If it works fine then what would that mean?!

I'm not sure what it would mean. I'm not sure if playback on a client would be more likely to simulate playback on the server, or playback on the HD100. My guess is it'd more likely emulate the server than the HD100.

I'm going crazy trying to diagnose this thing. I really don't want to have to RMA this thing a second time if there's a more elegant solution. Furthermore, if it's a system configuration, immature drivers or some other thing causing the conflict who's to say it won't happen with another brand new unit?

No guarantees, but if were a driver issue I'd think there'd be more than 2 or 3 of us with the problem. It could be a configuration issue, but it seems more unlikely to me than the other possibilities, and with so many different possible configurations out there, and only a couple of us having the problem, I don't think we'd have enough test cases to determine where the problem is.

Originally Posted by redondo_se

I'm having the same problem with OTA recordings from my HDHomeRun. Just last night I ran into this with a recording of the Amazing Race. It recorded in full Sunday night and I did not try to play it back while it was recording...

I just logged in remotely and looked at my recording directory. The Amazing Race recording from Sunday is in one piece. I'm going to try to play it back outside of SageTV later when I get home and see if it has the same missing chunks.

I could be wrong, but this sounds like a different issue to me. B-Figgy talked about his HD-PVR starting and stopping, and I'm guessing mine is doing the same thing - though I can't actually see any lights on it or anything since it's in a closet. But I'm certain that for every missing chunk of my recordings, there's a split in the recorded file as well. (So if I'm missing 4 chunks in an hour long recording, I can look in the recordings directory and see 5 files for that show, not 1.) If you're still seeing one single file, it sounds to me like your problem is either with playback, or a signal problem, as opposed to an issue where the HD-PVR is turning off/on on its own during playback.

[B-Figgy]

Well the 1.1 drivers are finally out of beta. Here goes nothin'.

[redondo_se]

Originally Posted by popechild

I could be wrong, but this sounds like a different issue to me. B-Figgy talked about his HD-PVR starting and stopping, and I'm guessing mine is doing the same thing - though I can't actually see any lights on it or anything since it's in a closet. But I'm certain that for every missing chunk of my recordings, there's a split in the recorded file as well. (So if I'm missing 4 chunks in an hour long recording, I can look in the recordings directory and see 5 files for that show, not 1.) If you're still seeing one single file, it sounds to me like your problem is either with playback, or a signal problem, as opposed to an issue where the HD-PVR is turning off/on on its own during playback.

I think you're right. I do have a single file and it plays back the same in all players. I think my problem is signal degredation/loss. Sorry for stomping on your thread.

Sean.

[kato]

I know this is an older thread, but...

I have this problem too - just got a HD-PVR rev. C2. Originally the HD-PVR would just stop recording after about 40+ minutes and then pick up again anywhere from 5 seconds to 10 minutes. A 1-hour recording was usually split into 2 files and a 2-hour recording could be 4-5 .ts files. The time gaps between files were according to when the HD-PVR just stopped recording. This problem did not happen if I used the S-Video input port, only on Component & HD. Arcsoft TME would record for hours without a problem. I have not had any lock-ups.

I've done a couple things since I discovered that problem:
1)removed other USB devices sharing the same root hub as the HD-PVR
2)set the delay_to_wait_after_tuning=4000
3)installed different driver versions including the latest Beta(currently using 1.0.5.3 WHQL)
4)switched from SPDIF audio to 2CH Stereo on the HD-PVR
5)disabled any power saving on the usb root hub the HD-PVR was plugged into

So far things are pretty stable except when the recordings are greater than 1 hour. In this case, there is still at least one file split at the 4.38GB mark which seems pretty consistent/suspicious(DVD-R size).

[B-Figgy]

Any news is good news I think and that's a nice summary of what I've tried as well. For what it's worth I still see these dropped recordings on a newer D2 unit as well. I've given up trying to find a solution and am convinced it's all down to drivers now.

[Skirge01]

This is meant as a question, not an attack. How can it be a driver issue, if TME records fine, practically forever? I've contacted Hauppauge and their response was "Does it work in TME?" And, if it does, then it's not an issue on their end. That's why I am trying to work with Sage to find the cause of the blips in recordings. I just sent them a debug log the other day and am hoping it brings some results.

[popechild]

I haven't responded to the thread in a while because frankly, now that college football season is over, I just don't watch many recordings any more that are longer than an hour. So it hasn't been an issue for me lately. I have a funny feeling that around next August I'm going to start seeing this issue creep up again though...

[B-Figgy]

That is an interesting point but I have had TME fail the same way so I'm not sure what the explanation for the disparity between my and katos experience is.

Good luck with the debug log though. I'd hate to have misdiagnosed this thing and spend more time trying to prove an invalid hypothesis.

[Skirge01]

Since I'm using WHS, I have to jump through hoops to record in TME (i.e. hook up a monitor, keyboard, etc.), so I've only tried once for about 5 hours and it recorded perfectly. Due to that one instance, I went the other route in thinking it was Sage. It sure would be nice to put a nail in this coffin, regardless of the cause.

[kato]

An update on my experience with this...

I "accidentally" discovered what was causing my problem - J.River Media Center 13.

I normally load JRMC when I reboot my Media server(Windows Server 2003 + has the HD-PVR attached to it). I use JRMC with Netremote/Mediabridge to play music remotely. After I made my post and on one of my server reboots I forgot to load JRMC. I had a few test recordings scheduled just after that and none of them had multiple .ts files/missing gaps. I've been running this way for over a week now and no major problems since. I've also rebooted the server, etc. and no re-occurences. I just have to leave JRMC off

I've even gone so far as using SPDIF only! I have noticed that the HD-PVR will briefly shut off during a recording(2 seconds or less) but turns on again right away. The recordings where this might happen have missing audio for that time period, but video is fine. So I suspect that is caused by the cable source/provider.

Anyone else have JRMC,iTunes, etc.(software that tries to interrogate USB devices to find out if they're MP3 players)?