New User - DVR not working right

On the settings page of the DVR web UI, near the bottom there's a Web Player with quality setting. Set it to 720p @ 4mbps and make sure the Log says "encoder=libx264" (or under the player it should say Transcoding instead of Remuxing)

before I do that, note that I switched back to hardware encoding and my issues went away with live tv. I'm more interested in playing recorded TV without having the pauses I was having. If recorded TV is still hanging, I will try the encoder settings you mentioned.

Tried that on mine, but even though I changed the bitrate, it still remuxed instead of transcoding. Maybe because the source (Comcast h.264) is less than 4mbps, will try with a lower bitrate.

Had to go down to 480p @ 2mbps to get it to start transoding and it worked.

Appears to be an issue with remux of H.264.

This was BBC America 1280x720p H.264, 3-4mbps typical for Comcast.

Try with Chrome.

Borrowed a WIN10 laptop with latest Chrome browser today.
Works fine viewing both Live TV and recordings from it.
Must be Firefox or a setting in it causing the issues.
I'm not dependent on HLS streaming to a browser, just testing things out.

What is remux? I just noticed when tuning in HGTV that is says remux running at the bottom before I go full screen.

Remux means to repackage the stream for the browser, changing only the container, but leaving the video and audio streams intact. Transcoding means to change the video and/or audio stream from one format/codec to another.

Thanks racameron

@tmm1 . I am still getting artifacting and bright green bars over live TV, this time on ESPN even with hardware encoding enabled. To ensure it wasn't just the Channels app, I opened Channels in one monitor on the right and I opened the HDHomeRun app on the left monitor and took video to show that there is in fact something not right with the Channels app. If it were not isolated to the Channels app, then I would also experience it in the HDHomeRun app. I REALLY REALLY don't want to go back to the HDHomeRun DVR, so please I am asking for help to get Channels working. See video below. Once again, HDHomeRun on the left and Channels on the right.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1yx29hi6pg8zh4/IMG_2154.MOV?dl=0

We need to figure out if the encoding or decoding side is the problem. Right now both are happening on the same computer.

Do you have an iPhone, iPad or other computer you can use to access the DVR web page? Use http://x.x.x.x:8089 using the IP of your DVR PC. Try playback and see if the issues occur on the other device as well, or not.

pulling up the same live tv channel on my iphone using the channels app shows no artifacting/pausing/green bars..........so I pulled up the channels app on my PC and tuned into the same channel and no issues there either this time. Next time I experience the issue with live tv, I will also tune in with my iphone to try to further isolate the problem. The iphone was using my local WIFI network and not over LTE

To clarify, you need to use Safari on your iPhone NOT the channels app. You need to compare how it plays in the iPhone browser vs the PC browser, since that uses a totally different playback mechanism compared to the app.

ok. next time the issue occurs I will use Safari

we got artifacting and this time lots of intermittent vertical multi colored bars and an occasional horizontal green bar on channels on my pc using chrome on my right monitor. Simultaneously I had the HDHomeRun app running on my left monitor with no issues tuned to the same channel. Also I had my iphone using safari via WIFI tuned to the same channel and no issues.

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This points to a decoder issue in the browser. Can you try MS Edge or Firefox?

I will try both browsers tomorrow night after work.

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@tmm1 I'm trying Edge tonight to see how things go. If this resolves the issue, is there a way to make the systray icon, when being clicked on, to open in Edge instead of my default browser which is Chrome?

You would have to change your default browser I think. Lets see if it makes a difference first.

So tonight I've been watching a basketball game on ESPN. No issues for the first 1.5 hours. I had the Edge browser opened on my left monitor and the Chrome browser open on my right monitor. As you can see from the video below, both browsers are experiencing the same issue's I've had with live TV. Artifacting/Pausing/green bars/vertical multi colored bars. Let us move away from a browser issue or a PC issue. I've been running WMC for as long as I can remember and even on this Win10 PC without any of this. I've also been running the HDHomeRun app for over a year without any of this. If you aren't willing to do some real diagnostics by collecting logs, etc.......then I am switching back to the HDHomeRun DVR..........which I would really hate to do. Video below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghq8h9h3nfsd8lw/IMG_2159.MOV?dl=0

Unfortunately there's not much we can do. It works in safari on another device so the issue is with the decoder on your PC. I wish we had a native windows app so you didn't have to use the browser, but that's all we have available on Windows at the moment.

I understand if you need to pursue a different solution. If you need a refund you can email us at [email protected]