Dvr recordings towards the end are choppy

I’m having a really hard time reproducing this issue. Is it happening on all recordings, or only some?

I tried on my Apple TV 4K running 11.0, and Apple TV 4 running 11.1 Beta.

Only on the recordings that also have a recording following them back to back on the same channel. The recordings are set for -30s/+1min.

Easiest test… find a “Law and Order” marathon (plenty of those around) and record multiple (2-4) episodes back to back.

Using an ATV4 on 11

It almost seems, though not sure, that something on the second recording is interfering or causing issues with the last minutes of the first recording…

That’s weird because the recordings play fine in other players, so it seems more like a player issue than an issue with the file.

How close to the end do you get before it starts stuttering?

Let me try some back-to-back recordings…

I just tried two back-to-back and it played fine.

I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the recorded file, but maybe you can send me a recording and I’ll try playing it here to see if it does the same thing.

I have been seeing choppy playback recently as well. I thought it was disk related when it happened a few months back, so I replaced the disk with a WD Purple and the issue seemed to go away mostly. However, it seems to be back. What is common is that these are heavy recording times. I’m wondering if this is more related to the server now that Windows 10 Creator’s update has been installed and there are more files to process for commercials while recording multiple cablecard streams at the same time? My issue is at the file level, I can play the file in any player and it cuts out, goes choppy green, then the image comes back and catches up with the sound. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary in the log.

Hardware seems like it should be able to handle the processing. I don’t know that it matters, but there’s an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 with 2 gb VRAM. I don’t know if that us taken advantage of with the DVR engine though.

Sorry if this isn’t related to the issue being discussed here.

OS
powerspec B351
Windows Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
10.0.15063 Build 15063

CPU
4 cores / Intel® Core™ i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz
RAM
4.28 GB
54.0% free

It’s possible you’re hitting a windows specific networking issue. Try changing your ethernet adapter’s “flow control” setting to off. See Windows DVR BUG: Glitches during recording

I’ll check the setting and see what happens! Thank you!

@TeddyR can you upload a recording to google drive and send me a link?

i have a few of these recordings… so far they seem to be on one channel. dunno if you are in the bay area but most of the NHK shows on 22.3 (KCRB, NHK world subchannel) seem to do this.

Seeing the Same. Seems to be last 60 seconds of a show. Seeing it on multiple channels and recordings. (CW and NBC). If it help when I watched the same shows (to see if there was a recording problem) in the Web Client, they played smoothly.

Can you try a TestFlight build from before 9/26 and see if the same issue occurs on those recordings?

Also please submit diagnostics when you see the issue.

So far from @TeddyR’s logs it appears to be some sort of bug in the player where it gets confused at the end of the file and keeps trying to buffer more data.

For recordings where this problem occurs, does it occur every time you try to play the end of that recording? Does it happen in the iOS app too?

Tried several other test builds with varying results. Most notable:

8.16.1733 - No problems with the example recording or 3 others

9.17.2130 and several other s after 9.17: Problems with the example recordings

maybe @OurFamilySpot can also try the 8.16.1733 build to see if it is also ok for his setup?

I’ve just started using Channels this week and have been experiencing this same issue. I can also confirm that playback of the mpeg file in another player works fine, but when played back from Channels, the last 30s - 60s or so are choppy. I have a few standalone recordings that playback fine, but the recordings that occurred back-to-back with other recordings have the issue. I am running version 2017.10.13.0017 of the DVR software on my QNAP TS-451+ NAS and version 3.0.3 of the tvos app. I have only recorded a handful of back-to-back recordings so far, but each one has this issue.

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This is much earlier than I expected, but really helpful in narrowing down the issue.

What about the 9.15 build?

checked/rechecked the following:

9.15.678 : issue
9.14.1430 : issue
9.12.204 : issue
8.16.1733 : Good; (a single quick “hiccup” right where the issue starts on the other builds but barely noticeable compared to the other builds)

Sorry been travelling. Back home today. You still need me to test?

Okay I finally figured out how to reproduce this bug. It only happens with closed captions turned on.

Yes! Nice job troubleshooting this. I can confirm that toggling closed captions is what causes the issue for me. I tested the recordings where I was experiencing the choppiness and turning off captions immediately resolves the issue; the problem returns when captions are turned back on.

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This is fixed in the latest testflight beta.

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