Bug Report: HDHR Extend recordings do not transcode

Beta Community DVR Beta
#1

I am in New York right now and trying to watch recorded local news on my DVR in Baltimore. The DVR stores H.264 streams from a HDHR Extend.

Although I can transcode live streams from any channel without issue, I cannot successfully transcode H.264 recorded shows from stations that are broadcast in progressive scan. The bitrate is too high and makes these channels unplayable using the internet connections available.

I can, however, transcode H.264 recordings from stations broadcast in 1080i. For these stations, the shows are correctly re-transcoded to a lower bitrate to make internet streaming possible.

I would like to be able to re-transcode the H.264 recordings for internet viewing in a remote city… regardless of the format that the station is broadcasting. This would allow me to view all of my recordings over the internet, rather than just the ones the are broadcast interlaced.

Since it is possible to re-transcode some stations, I hope that this bug will be fixed and the same transcoding options work for all recordings.

#2

This has been fixed for recording playback in v2017.03.10.0234. Thanks for reporting the issue!

Live TV web playback with an EXTEND has not changed, and will always use the mobile transcoding profile on the HDHR.

#3

Wow! It works great now! Thank you for your work on this.

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#4

I am still not able to get my HDHR Extend to transcode. I am running version 2017.03.21.0415. I have my Transcoder option set to Heavy. However, my recordings are still MPEG and large. I also have an HDHR Connect, but I have the Extend higher in priority. I even disconnected the Connect to see if the priority was the issue. I am not sure what else to do. Thanks for any help!

#5

try adjusting the default on the hdhr web admin. you can also see the transcoder in the tuner status here. mpg is the container for the h264 encoded stream. a heavy setting should use about half the file space as none.

#6

Where did you set this? On the DVR or on your HDHR?

#7

I set this on the Channels DVR Page. I just went to the HDHomerun Page for the first time and also set it to heavy on that page as well. It was on mobile.

I thought the extension on the video file would change. But the file size for an episode of a show hasn’t changed, either, so I am pretty sure it is not functioning.

#8

Okay the setting on the DVR page is what’s used.

What kind of file sizes are you seeing for half and hour long shows?

#9

Mostly 500-600MB per half hour SD shows, 3GB for half hour HD shows, and around 6GB for hour long HD shows. This was the file size before I bought the Extend. I also have a Connect that I have been using for about a year. As I said, I disconnected it to make sure Channels was utilizing the Extend, but there has been no change in file size.

#10

I’ve got three Extends all set to None (no transcoding). I had a look at file sizes for one hour shows and they vary dramatically. It might be good to compare a specific show (better, a specific episode).

All below are 1 hour shows:

I have five episodes of Seven Colbert. All are 6.87GB.

I have five episodes of the Tonight Show that vary from 4.68 to 5.09GB.

I have nine episodes of Bones. They vary from 3.17 to 3.7GB.

I’d be happy to record a specific airing of your choosing today/night and report back for an apples to apples comparison if needed.

#11

As I mentioned before, you can see what transcoder is being used by checking the tuner in the hdhr admin page. Do this while the DVR is recording and you will know right away if your settings are working.

#12

You can also try to play the mpg files in something like VLC, and check if the video details say its H264 or MPEG2.

On the Channels DVR settings page, try to change the transcoder setting to None and then back to Heavy. It might have not gotten set correctly the first time.

#13

I have changed the settings back and forth. I have stopped the DVR, restarted the host PC, disconnected the HDHR Extend, and tried changing the settings of the Extend on the HDHR management page. My recordings are still MPEG. The file sizes on all of my shows has stayed the same, and I opened a few up in a transcoding application to verify that it is indeed MPEG.

It isn’t like this is an issue noticed on the front end. I wanted two tuners so I could record 4 channels at once if need be, and I decided to purchase an Extend to see how the transcoding would help storage space and also cut down on network traffic. If I can’t get it to work, I will probably return the Extend and purchase another Connect instead.

#14

The tuner status looks like this when it is working (with heavy transcode):

Pre-release testing of next DVR build (v2017.04.13.0150)
#15

@mcdonaldpd Can you check this tuner status page while your recording is in progress and see what it says for “Transcode Profile”?

The URL looks something like this: http://10.0.1.68/tuners.html?page=tuner0

#16

Sorry for my delay in responding. I was able to get the transcoding working. On a Mac you can right click and chose get info. It will show if the file is MPEG or H264. I didn’t have to use VLC. I changed the settings back and forth a couple times, and it finally worked. I am seeing a 25% reduction in size on HD video from most recordings. I thought it would be a little more. However, I have noticed that the additional transcoding has made a big difference on playback through PLEX to my iOS devices. As I wait for Channels DVR for iOS, I have been using PLEX to play back my recordings when using an iOS device. It is very glitchy with MPEG files. I am guessing that the iOS devices handle H264 better, but I guess it could also be the smaller file sizes over the wifi network, but I doubt 25% made that much difference.

Either way it is working now and is improving my usage. Thanks for the tips!

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#17

Glad this is working. For the next DVR build (available as pre-release v2017.04.13.0150), I’ve added an option on the web UI to view the audio/video codec details of a recording so you can easily check if its mpeg2 or h264.

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