Odd DVR overruns/underruns

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

I'm having a weird issue with the DVR recording too long or too short on a number of different shows on different channels. First off, I did check the passes to make sure I didn't have some ridiculous padding adding the extra time that's not the case.

So when I noticed that the recordings were running over yesterday, I checked the guide for the next day when these shows would record and they did show they were 30 minutes long. The length of the recordings are all over the place including a couple of underruns. The lengths are 162 minutes, 182 minutes, 179 minutes, 215 minutes, 187 minutes, 215 minutes, 23 minutes, 215 minutes, and 23 minutes.

Also, I did try playing back a number of the videos skipping forward to make sure it wasn't a metadata problem showing a wrong duration in the recordings interface. They are actually recording to the length shown. Another weird thing, in the FireTV recordings interface theres the circle on the side showing how far you've watched into the video and once you get to 30 mins, it shows the circle completely filled like it thinks its a 30 min video but it's not.

Currently running 2022.08.31.0122 prerelease on FreeBSD

EDIT:
I guess I should have attached an entry from my log, for this one it recorded for 163 minutes.

2022/08/31 07:59:00.105460 [DVR] Starting job 1661957940-52 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on ch=[6015]
2022/08/31 07:59:00.105547 [DVR] Waiting 29m59.894463623s until next job 1661959740-52 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
2022/08/31 07:59:01.380286 [TNR] Opened connection to TVE-Hulu for ch6015 VH1P
2022/08/31 07:59:01.382140 [DVR] Recording for job 1661957940-52 from TVE-Hulu ch6015 into "TV/The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air/The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air S05E09 1994-11-14 Love Hurts 2022-08-31-0759.mpg" for 30m59.894429402s
2022/08/31 07:59:01.714087 [IDX] Generating video index for job 1661957940-52
Later in the log conclusion of the recording: 2022/08/31 11:29:28.236883 [DVR] Finished job 1661957940-52 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

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#2

When did this behavior start?

#3

Can you see if this latest build is better?

#4

I will but I won't be able to report until tomorrow if it helped or not, and as for the question about when it started, it appears to be August 29th.

#5

Doesn't look like the update fixed it, I've got 10 new recordings that have all overran. Although there are no underruns this time.

EDIT:
In case it would help
0ce416d5-d6ad-4ad4-912b-9b729c7ce248

#7

Thanks for letting us know. That rules out the main culprit we had in mind, but we're investigating other potential causes and looking to see if anyone else has run into this to find a pattern.

#8

Some of my own observations now that I've had time to really load up the DVR with a ton of recordings to see what happens and maybe I could find a pattern:

The manage DVR page in the web gui doesn't show the actual length of the video file, only what it expects based on external data if I had to guess.

In the activity box on the status page of the web gui, the correct time the recording was supposed to stop is correct.

It doesn't matter if it's single records I made in the guide or part of a pass

It doesn't matter if it's more than 1 successive record in a row on the same channel or 30 mins between recordings.

Removing the padding from a recording doesn't seem to matter

Some channels appear to be immune. An emerging pattern is starting to suggest it only affects a certain block of channels but I don't have near enough data to tell you it's conclusive. There's a block of channels that starts at comedy central and ends TV Land that all are offending channels with the exception of MTV and BET (both of these channels I haven't tested yet). The next channel below TV land, Paramount Network is unaffected so far. Similarly the channels above comedy central NBC/ABC/FOX/CBS are unaffected. The known affected channels are Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, and TV Land though I suspect both MTV and BET will show similar behavior and both inside this block of channels.

If something doesn't make sense forgive me it's very late and i'm tired. I can probably square that around after I've had some sleep.

I'm in the Seattle area and using Hulu in case that might help.

#13

Thanks for narrowing this down. It should be fixed in the latest prerelease.

#14

Alright I've been able to record 6 shows on the affected channels to the correct length. Thanks for the fix!

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