Buffer filling on new HD

#1

I am seeing issues where my buffer is filling up in the logs for some OTA recordings. Everything is hard wired and im using an HDHomerun EXTEND. Previously when this happened it was attributed to a new HD, however, the one I am using now is recently new. Any idea what else could be causing this? Suggestions on a fix (do I need to dial down my transcode settings, etc)? Logs below.

2022/07/03 19:00:00.005238 [DVR] Starting job 1656892800-28 60 Minutes on ch=[4.1]
2022/07/03 19:00:00.005782 [DVR] Waiting 2h59m59.994226626s until next job 1656903600-43 KARE 11 News
2022/07/03 19:00:00.006024 [TNR] Sharing existing connection to 1059D86A/0 for ch4.1 WCCO-DT (clients=2, len=0)
2022/07/03 19:00:00.059377 [DVR] Recording for job 1656892800-28 from 1059D86A ch4.1 into "TV/60 Minutes/60 Minutes S54E46 The Ritchie Boys 2022-07-03-1900.mpg" for 1h29m59.994163345s
2022/07/03 19:00:00.146998 [IDX] Generating video index for job 1656892800-28
2022/07/03 19:00:55.275347 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch4.1 is more than 50% full (clients=2, len=33555180)
2022/07/03 19:01:21.231674 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch4.1 is more than 75% full (clients=2, len=50332196)
2022/07/03 19:01:29.734912 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch4.1 is more than 95% full (clients=2, len=63753976)
2022/07/03 19:01:31.426820 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch4.1 is more than 99% full (clients=2, len=66438916)
2022/07/03 20:27:25.133698 [NAT] Successfully mapped port 8089 using natpmp
2022/07/03 20:30:00.017499 [TNR] Closed connection to 1059D86A/0 for ch4.1 WCCO-DT
2022/07/03 20:51:21.289410 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/60 Minutes/60 Minutes S54E46 The Ritchie Boys 2022-07-03-1900.mpg": ss=84%,75%-89% snq=91%,0%-100% seq=99%,0%-100% bps=12916239,0-16328928 pps=453,0-1398 neterr=59%
2022/07/03 20:51:21.289547 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/60 Minutes/60 Minutes S54E45 Looking Toward the Future 2022-07-03-1800.mpg": ss=84%,75%-89% snq=91%,0%-100% seq=99%,0%-100% bps=12916239,0-16328928 pps=453,0-1398 neterr=59%
2022/07/03 20:51:25.989757 [DVR] Finished job 1656892800-28 60 Minutes
2022/07/03 20:51:26.460086 [DVR] Finished job 1656889200-28 60 Minutes

#2

Buffer full messages mean resource exhaustion.

What filesystem is the drive formatted using? You may want to reformat with exFAT

#3

I am using exFat per I believe your recommendation on another thread from when I got the new drive :slight_smile:

#4

What drive is it? Does it have its own power brick? How long have you been using it? How full is it?

#5

Is a WD Black P10 5TB drive, about 30% full. Been using it for a week or so now.

#6

I thought LiveTV buffer when sharing tuners does not use the HD? It is obvious you are using tuner sharing ...2022/07/03 19:01:31.426820 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch4.1 is more than 99% full (clients=2, len=66438916)

It looks like the clients cannot process the buffer fast enough so the small buffer in memory at the server is getting full.

#7

Should I not be sharing? Couldn't find any setting or something related to tuner sharing. Also not sure if the transcoder should be set to something to help ease the load on the file (right now its at none). This only occurs on OTA channels, TVE ones don't see to have this problem.

#8
#9

IIRC, when using internet-based sources (non-HDHomeRun tuners) or when tuner sharing is enabled, the server maintains a small buffer of live streams to serve to clients. The WRN (warning) messages in the log refer to the server's inability to either keep up with the incoming streams, or the clients' abilities to keep up with the streams. (Either the data is coming in too quickly for the server to handle, or it is getting to the clients too slowly before new data can be handled.) As Aman stated, the root-issue is resource exhaustion; in layman's terms it basically means either your network is the bottleneck, or the storage device for your DVR (and its I/O or bandwidth) is the bottleneck (or both).

#10

Tuner sharing is a client setting, and only affects OTA/cable streams.

That is unrelated and will not affect the buffer.

I'm assuming then you are in the US, and these are MPEG-2 broadcasts. Also based on this:

I would wager your issue is an inadequate network.

#11

I thought that when watching LIVETV with tuner sharing there is no activity in the HD. The stream goes from the HdHomerun to the server buffer in memory then served to the clients.

#12

That may be, but the logs from the OP indicate this is a recording, not a live stream for OTA/tuner sharing.

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#13

I noticed the network error as well, but that doesn’t make much sense as everything is hardwire connected via Cat 6??

#14

You could have a bad cable. You could have a lot of traffic/congestion on your network. A router/switch could be bad.

There are many reasons why a network may have issues, even if it is hardwired.

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#15

Is there any way I could tease this out further? I did the DVR sever test via the channels DVR app on my shield and it came back with a download speed of just under 2000mbs and a latency of less than 1ms but I suppose thats all on device.

#16

If that's the case, then the issue is probably somewhere between your tuner and the DVR. (If you also experience no issues when viewing live TV with tuner sharing disabled, that will help you to further narrow down the problematic network segment.)

#17

Appreciate the help thus far. How do I disable the sharing?

#18

It is set per client, and off by default. If you never enabled it, then there is nothing to do. Otherwise, in the client it is found under Settings > Playback > Advanced > Tuner Sharing.

#19

Looks like it’s off and if I just have the channel on live there doesn’t seem to be much of an issue that I can tell

#20

I have two clients (shield and ATV) streaming different OTA channels with sharing off and I’m not see anything jitteriness or anything which is what I expect I would see with a high network error? Only other place I can look for info is the HDHR logs which don't say much or the tuner info which says the streaming rate is about 10-11 mbps. Anything else I should look for or is this a good sign that the network connection is sufficient?