More than 2/3s of recordings are interrupted

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

Recording interruption has become a regular event recently. I think about 2/3s of all recordings are interrupted.
Below is the relevant log from last night.
Is there any clue what may be causing it?
It could be either my cable company, the cable card or the HDHR Prime. I doubt it's the network judging from the mention of "no data was received for 6s."
Any troubleshooting suggestions are appreciated.

2022/11/21 21:00:00.001278 [DVR] Starting job 1669082400-27 Daytime Jeopardy on ch=[503 3]
2022/11/21 21:00:00.581935 [TNR] Opened connection to 13275C21/0 for ch503 My Network-DTV
2022/11/21 21:00:00.594273 [DVR] Recording for job 1669082400-27 from 13275C21 ch503 into "TV/Daytime Jeopardy/Daytime Jeopardy S38E216 2022-07-11 2022-11-21-2100.mpg" for 29m59.998570089s
2022/11/21 21:00:01.240753 [IDX] Generating video index for job 1669082400-27
2022/11/21 21:13:08.571333 [TNR] Cancelling stream 13275C21/0 ch503 after no data was received for 6s
2022/11/21 21:13:08.581632 [TNR] Closed connection to 13275C21/0 for ch503 My Network-DTV
2022/11/21 21:13:08.707057 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/Daytime Jeopardy/Daytime Jeopardy S38E216 2022-07-11 2022-11-21-2100.mpg": ss=100% snq=100% seq=99%,0%-100% bps=5628679,0-11144640 pps=481,0-955
2022/11/21 21:13:08.826739 [SNR] Buffer statistics for "TV/Daytime Jeopardy/Daytime Jeopardy S38E216 2022-07-11 2022-11-21-2100.mpg": buf=0% drop=0%
2022/11/21 21:13:08.834751 [DVR] Job 1669082400-27 Daytime Jeopardy ended prematurely: 16m51.165265096s
2022/11/21 21:13:09.052656 [DVR] Starting job 1669082400-27 Daytime Jeopardy on ch=[503 3]
2022/11/21 21:13:09.613562 [TNR] Opened connection to 13275C21/0 for ch503 My Network-DTV
2022/11/21 21:13:09.613700 [DVR] Recording for job 1669082400-27 from 13275C21 ch503 into "TV/Daytime Jeopardy/Daytime Jeopardy S38E216 2022-07-11 2022-11-21-2100.mpg" for 16m50.941907706s
2022/11/21 21:30:00.002474 [TNR] Closed connection to 13275C21/0 for ch503 My Network-DTV
2022/11/21 21:30:00.152123 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/Daytime Jeopardy/Daytime Jeopardy S38E216 2022-07-11 2022-11-21-2100.mpg": ss=100% snq=100% seq=99%,0%-100% bps=6014943,0-11134112 pps=516,0-953
2022/11/21 21:30:00.255285 [SNR] Buffer statistics for "TV/Daytime Jeopardy/Daytime Jeopardy S38E216 2022-07-11 2022-11-21-2100.mpg": buf=0% drop=0%
2022/11/21 21:30:00.255521 [DVR] Finished job 1669082400-27 Daytime Jeopardy

#2

Your tuner stopped sending data, so Channels closed the stream.

The seq=99%,0%-100% portion indicates an error. The ss=100% can indicate that the signal is actually too strong, which can lead to errors.

2 Likes
#3

Zeroes in the [SNR] Statistics snq, seq, bps and pps could be a red herring.
I gave up beating that dead horse.

I would check the logs to see if it's limited to a single channel, single cable frequency or single tuner in the Prime (13275C21/0, 13275C21/1, 13275C21/2).

Debugging unpredictable network issues
#4

It's not a specific channel. Happens across all channels.
It's happening with multiple tuners - mostly 13275C21/0 for obvious reasons, but definitely with 13275C21/1 too.

What do you mean by the cable frequency?

1 Like
#5

How do you tame a too strong a signal?

#6

Just like OTA channels, Cable has frequencies.

You can view the frequency a channel is on from your HDHR tuner using a web browser
Just change 127.0.0.1 to the IP address of your tuner.

json listing
http://127.0.0.1/lineup.json?tuning

xml listing
http://127.0.0.1/lineup.xml?tuning

#7

You can view the Signal Strength in dBmV on a Prime tuner
Looking at tuner 0 http://127.0.0.1/tuners.html?page=tuner0

Tuner 0 Status
Virtual Channel 52 TVLANDP
Frequency 249.000 MHz
Program Number 2413
Authorization subscribed
CCI Protection unrestricted
Modulation Lock qam256
PCR Lock locked
Signal Strength 95% (-3.4 dBmV)
Signal Quality 100% (37.9 dB)
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 2.190 Mbps
Resource Lock 192.168.1.4

For a Prime tuner you want the Signal Strength to be 90% (-6 dBmV) or higher, 80% (-12dBmV) minimum, +12dBmV maximum.
US Cable specs are 0dBmV +/- 12dBmV (80%-120%)

1 Like
#8

Either add a splitter before you feed the cable to the Prime, or an attenuator.

#9

Attenuator would be the way to go. But before that tell me a little about how you are configured. How does the cable come into your house? How many splits? Did you add any amplifiers, powered splitter etc yourself?

#10

Before anything else, I’d like to emphasize that I’ve been using the HDHR Prime and Channels for over three years.
Wouldn’t that indicate that it’s probably a piece of hardware like HDHR Prime that’s failing, rather than wiring or splits?

#11

I guess you do not have the HDHomerRun DVR ? If you did you can record with it and see how it performs. I always try other options before I assume it is the tuner hardware ... Can be a lot of things including the DVR server hardware itself. I would also ask Silicon Dust to look at the Prime logs.

#12

I've been having this same issue on and off for the last two months after working great for a year. I believe that I have finally solved the problem by replacing a cheap GB switch with a good managed switch. I'm now getting clean recording and the switch does not report errors.

1 Like
#13

The signal from the street could have changed etc. It could also be a piece of equipment failing. If you want some help troubleshooting we kind of need the info.

1 Like
#14

We have Verizon FiOS. No idea how the cable comes into our house.
The coaxial cable coming out from the ONT box is split into about 8 rooms, one of which goes to HDHR Prime.
But all of the TV sets at our house are served by the Channels DVR, so only one of the 8 splits is actually in use.
I did not add any amplifier or powered splitter myself.

#15

Ok VZ fios is a different animal. Your ONT is where the coax enters your house. A couple of thoughts here. You said it happens on both Hdhr's so it's unlikely that both of them have the exact same hardware issue at the same time. I would simplify your cable wiring and if you don't need the other 6 outlets then connect a 2 way splitter to the ONT and bypass the other splits. There isnt traditionally an 8 way splitter so does the cable from the ONT go to a wiring closet where the builder put in an 8way block distribution system? I'd like to know more about that. They suck in general but when they are amplified they suck even more. Basically if you can identify all points of failure I can help advise you. (I used to work for the cable company for about 7 years back in the day)

We also need to look at how the HDHR connects to ethernet. Explain that topology if you can becuase as others have said that can absolutely cause issues as well.

#16

This morning, this error message popped up on the upper right-hand corner of the screen, as we were watching the Thanksgiving parade.

image
image978×220 36.9 KB

This is a first for us, but then again we don’t watch TV real time that often.
Does this error message indicate what could be the problem?

#17

Your client (or DVR server if tuner sharing enabled) is dropping packets coming from the HDHR tuner

1 Like
#18

Ok, I think I'll start by replacing the cheap switch HDHR Prime is connected to.
No reason for me to suspect that the receiving end of the connection - a Synology NAS - is the problem.

1 Like
#19

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.