I am on a Connect 4K just for background info.
Interesting. I have actually looked for alternatives and it always seems to be the only real choice.
Do you have a suggestion for higher quality options that can take a cable card? I would be happy to upgrade and re-purpose this HDHR Prime
I did check and they are both plugged into the same switch, but they are both going to a patch panel first. I can try and directly plug them into the UDM Pro which will ensure the smallest number of physical connections and see if that helps.
I can confirm that the Prime and its network support is "spotty". While it is the only HDHR device to have GbE, it is also the one with the most network issues.
Because I never used SiliconDust's software and relied upon their guide service, I was able to circumvent the Prime's extremely poor network by keeping it completely away from the rest of my network. Depending upon your own network savvy, you can likely do the same.
CableCARD has been deprecated, and few if any providers are going to issue or provision new ones. Additionally, cable technology has changed, and any new deployment will requirement additional hardware.
If you truly want to keep going that route, I have an unused Prime I'm willing to sell. Otherwise, your only real options are Hauppage/WinDVR cards that only have Win7 drivers for WMC.
I really appreciate the reply. My next idea was, as you started to hint at, to try and isolate the HDHR Prime.
But I am not complete married to the CableCARD setup, that is just what I started out with when I started building out my home lab. I think I am going to test some of the TVE options with Channels and see how they work.
The biggest benefit of the CableCARD was that I could easily avoid local sports blackouts when traveling without having to worry about using a VPN. I could just watch my cable from anywhere as if I was at home. I wonder if I connect something like Fubo to Channels if it will be behave the same way.
Regardless, thank again for the reply. It will prevent me from wasting too much time trying to chase down the issues and instead I will probably pivot to checking out better, long term solutions.
Are all of your devices on the same VLAN? If they are not, then for them to talk they must be routed which is CPU intensive. On the same VLAN, the traffic can be switched yet there is another weakness in the older Ubiquiti routers including the rack mount ones. The switch ports don't have a dedicated switch and use the CPU for switching. Idelay on a Ubiquiti network, you want to have latency sensitive applications avoid the router's CPU. The best way to do this is to have a switch or switches support traffic within a VLAN and leave the router to do the routing. The 10-Gb ports on those old routers are switched via a dedicated chip, the 1-Gb ports use the CPU. A common network design practice is to have a distribution switch connect to the router and then all other switches connect to the distribution switch. This allows for the use of lower cost layer 2 switches taking advantage of there fast switching and still allowing for inter VLAN routing by going back to the router. If there is a huge amount of inter VLAN traffic, then connecting the distribution switch via 10-Gb can help.
Hi Morris - If I am understanding, i'm pretty sure this is exactly how I have it setup. They are all on the same VLAN. I have a UDM Pro connected to my USW Pro 24 PoE via SFP. All of my devices are then connected to the switch - the 8 UDM Ports I leave empty. I do use a patch panel so I was thinking about cutting out that step for the HDHR Prime and channels server and making sure the are plugged directly into the switch.
But at that point, the ATV, Server and HDHR will all be connected directly to the switch.
Thanks for the reply, I do appreciate the help
What sports are you interesred in?
I really liked the ability to watch all the local teams when I'm traveling as if I am at home. I'm in the NY area, so for example, the Knicks and Rangers on MSG. When I travel to Boston and fire up channels, I still get MSG no problem. Same with the Jets on Fox or CBS. If I am in California, I don't get the local CBS/FOX game like I would with a TVE service, I still get the NY CBS and FOX.
I know I can use a VPN to skirt the issue, but I really liked the simplicity of Channels with the CableCARD. But with the increasing number of issues I seem to be having with the setup, I am open to exploring alternative routes.
Cable and termination quality can be an issue. As a first step before moving jumpers around, try telnetting into your USW Pro 24 PoE and look at the error counters. That will probably send you in the correct direction.
I really appreciate that advice, Morris. one of the most frustrating things about this so far is that I haven't been able to really determine a best course of action. This is a good concrete starting point.
Another thing that I have noticed after tracking it more closely - the number of buffering pauses in show stats on the ATV continues to go up (5 in an hr this morning) but the dropped frames does not go up as well.
Correction, it's ssh for Unifi devices.
Also check the error rates for the server ports and HD Home Run on your switch. Look at them when somethings is streaming or recording.
Hey @tmm1 - So I did some more testing today. Just curious - with my old setup I had the channels data and storage directory on my TrueNAS core server, so it wasn't on the same server that channelsDVR was running on. This was an NFS share.
Today, I decided to install channels on a clean mini PC I had lying around and instead of mounting to TrueNAS, I made the channels data and store dir local on the mini PC. After a few hours of watching TV, everything was much smoother.
Is it possible or even a know issue that using a NFS share for the channels data directory could have led to the intermittent buffering and freezing? Thanks
There are no known issues with using network storage but all additional components (network gear, storage layers, compute layers) add additional complexity that can introduce hard-to-diagnose performance issues.
We always suggest using the simplest possible setup not because it can’t work well on a complicated setup, but because the more complex your situation is, the harder it is to understand when it goes wrong.
I've been using an SMB share for channels for years and use to have that share on TrueNAS Core and later TrueNAS Scale. Both worked great except for the fact that TrueNAS does not implement modern power saving which lead me to migrate to Unraid. I continue to get wonderful performance with Unraid. You did not say what your server was yet NFS may not have been the best choice. Another possibility is you had a network issue or a network card driver issue.
Thanks, Morris. I haven't been able to pinpoint any network-related cause for the issue. My original server was a repurposed gaming PC (9900K, GTX 1080, 64GB DDR4, etc.). I initially suspected a network card issue, but after testing multiple PCIe cards and even an SFP+ card, the problem persisted.
I've also been monitoring the logs on my switch, but I haven’t seen anything unusual there either.
Plex runs on the same server without any issues, though that may not be particularly telling. That said, I'll continue keeping an eye on performance with the mini PC running the N100 chip. I watched for an hour last night without any buffering, so I'm hopeful this setup will be more stable.
This suggests the old computer may have an issue. Did you move the hard drive from the old PC to the new one? Your old computer was way over powered for Channels DVR and Plex. Your N100 will save you a bunch of funds over time. I'm running both Channels DVR and Plex on the primary Windows 11 Pro install of my N100. I also have Hyper-V enabled and run some network management software on another Windows 11 Pro VM. Never any buffering, everything just works. I'm amazed what the little system can do. My storage is on a NAS yet that should make little difference for the load.
Hopefully your system stays stable. Time will tell
Unfortunately the issue persists on the mini PC as well and I have continued to troubleshoot. Here is a recap of the situation:
Intermittent Buffering on LiveTV
Tuner Hardware:
HDHR Prime
Networking equiptment:
Unifi UDM Pro Network Controller
Unifi USW Pro 24 PoE Switch
Sever Hardware (both with the same behavior):
- 9900k cpu / 32gb ddr4 repurposed gaming pc. Runs Plex as well with no issues
- Trigkey Mini pc w/ n100 chip
Affected Clients:
AppleTV 4K 2017 (A1842) - connected directly to the 24 port swtich
AppleTV 4K 2021 (A2169) - connected to a 8 port unifi switch which is connected to the 24 port switch
Recap of issue:
While watching liveTV, the feed will momentarily pause. When checking the 'show stats' option in the appleTV menu, the number of buffering pauses will go up by 1 each time.
All devices are hardwired directly to 24 port network switch
Silicon Dust Testing:
- Ran a packet loss test from the HDHR Prime to my Windows 11 PC for an hour with no packet loss reported. I have also watched liveTV directly on the AppleTV via the HDHomeRun app without any buffering pauses.
- Checked signal strength in the HDHR webUI to confirm strength and quality are 100%
Channels troubleshooting/notes:
- Behavior Occurs with both tuner sharing on and off
- Adjusting match content does not resolve the issue
- Behavior occurs through both direct and stream options
- I have pulled up a live channel on my iPad while also watching on the AppleTV. There are no buffering/pauses on the iPad when the issue occurs on the AppleTV
- Nothing in the Channels logs capturing the issue
Network troubleshooting:
- Replace cables and change ports
- Actively monitoring the unifi logs for any errors or signs of packet loss (none)
- Tested connected between the network controller and AppleTVs
Next Steps:
- I have an Amazon Fire Stick that I am going to test with. I am waiting on a ethernet adapter so I can test it wired. Curious to see if I get the same errors.
- Submit diganostics from Apple TV next time the issues occurs
I am trying to be a diligent as possible in diagnosing the issues, but it is becoming increasingly frustrating to not be able to capture it in a way that gives me some idea of where the issue lies.