MyCloudPR2100 swamped by commercial detection

I just installed Channels DVR yesterday. After trying two recordings with commercial detection enabled, I had to turn the NAS off and on both times because it had become completely unresponsive. I have both a HDHomeRun Prime and Extend. It was recording from the Prime. Just now I recorded a show with commercial detection turned off and had no problems with either recording or viewing.

I also use Plex with commercial detection/removal on the PR2100 and that does not seem to cause any problems. It looks like the Channels commercial detection code needs more work, at least for the PR2100. I am going to leave it turned off for now.

Otherwise I really like the Channels software. The user interface is much better than I have seen on other applications.

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That’s strange. Both Plex and Channels use the same comskip program for detection. Ours is configured to use only a single core so it should use less resources.

We have other users on the PR2100 who haven’t experienced issues. Can you check what the Log tab said about the previous commercial detections?

The portion of the log shown below is for the recording and processing of “The Middle” show. I had to restart the system around 20:40. It looks like the commercial detection started at 20:31:49. That caused another stream to timeout at 20:32:58.

When the commercial detection starts, the PR2100 becomes extremely non-responsive. My only solution has been to turn the system off and back on since I have been unable to access the system over the network.

2018/01/09 19:03:41 [DVR] Waiting 56m18.798218099s until next job 1515556800-1 The Middle
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [DVR] Starting job 1515556800-1 The Middle on ch=[10]
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [TNR] Opened connection to 1326DC47 for ch10
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [DVR] Recording for job 1515556800-1 from 1326DC47 ch10 into “TV/The Middle/The Middle S09E12 2018-01-09 The Other Man 2018-01-09-2000.mpg” for 29m59.988789057s
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [DVR] Starting job 1515556800-ch1221 American Experience on ch=[1221 15.1 11]
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [DVR] Waiting 29m59.523679522s until next job 1515558600-2 Fresh Off the Boat
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [TNR] Opened connection to 1326DC47 for ch11
2018/01/09 20:00:00 [DVR] Recording for job 1515556800-ch1221 from 1326DC47 ch11 into “TV/American Experience/American Experience 1998-02-09 Influenza 1918 2018-01-09-2000.mpg” for 59m59.523643633s
2018/01/09 20:30:07 [TNR] Closed connection to 1326DC47 for ch10
2018/01/09 20:30:34 [DVR] Finished job 1515556800-1 The Middle
2018/01/09 20:31:49 [DVR] Processing file-4: TV/The Middle/The Middle S09E12 2018-01-09 The Other Man 2018-01-09-2000.mpg
2018/01/09 20:32:58 [DVR] Cancelling stream 1326DC47 ch11 after 3s read timeout
2018/01/09 20:39:38 [TNR] Closed connection to 1326DC47 for ch11
2018/01/09 20:40:17 [DVR] Job 1515556800-ch1221 American Experience ended prematurely: 19m51.058977265s
2018/01/09 20:40:18 [SYS] Error checking for update: Get https://channels-dvr.s3.amazonaws.com/latest.json: dial tcp: i/o timeout

Thanks. Can you change the url to /dvr/files/4/comskip.log and send that file to [email protected]

That file does not seem to exist. Perhaps it was deleted when I restarted the system.

I used the following URL in the browser:
http://dvr-mycloudpr2100.local.:8089/dvr/files/4/comskip.log

I also looked in /shares/channels_dvr/Logs/comskip using an ssh log in.

Is your code based upon MCEBuddy?

I found it using ssh, so will email it to you.

Running on a PR4100 (same except 2 extra drives), recorded 7 shows yesterday 3 concurrent, ComSkip ran on all of them. Didn’t experience any issues or apparent slowness. Was watching recorded shows during the same time…

I am only using the PR2100 for being a DVR server. When comskip starts up under Channels, it seems to use a lot of CPU cycles to the point where the PR2100 becomes unusable for anything else. It may not be comskip itself, as I first noticed this when recording a repeat of the college football playoff game at 3:30 AM using Channels. I don’t believe that anything else was running at the time (I also have the Plex DVR on there). I just happened to wake up and check on it. When I saw that the PR2100 was so busy, I tried to bring up the MyCloud status page. Though that never fully came up, the Diagnostics panel was showing a red warning sign. At that point I physically turned it off since I was not able to do anything via the status page.

This behavior began when I installed the Channels DVR application. At this point I have it turned off as I am afraid to run it when not in the same room with the PR2100. Unless someone can diagnose the problem, I will not be turning it back on.

I have lots of experience with debugging Linux code, but I do not want to spend too much time trying to get the Channels DVR to work. I could try running shell scripts, etc. if they are interested. Otherwise, I will stick with the Plex DVR as that has been working well on the PR2100.

Do you have PLEX configured against the directories that Channels uses? I would not recommend have the PLEX DVR share the Channels recording directory. I have both as well. I do have the Channels recording directory configured as a library for TV shows, but a different directory is used by PLEX DVR for recording.

I have PR4100, with both Channels DVR & Plex DVR running on it.

They are in different directories.

I am currently trying two concurrent recordings with comskip enabled. Two new recordings will start immediately afterwards. The Plex DVR is disabled.

I will post the results of this test.

One other thought, I have seen a performance issue in the past after I had a power outage. I ended up running Scan disk (Settings/Utilities) then issuing a reboot from Setting/Utilities/Device Maintenance. That took care of it for me. I don’t know what really was behind it. Assume it was a devlock or something on a file / file system…