Picture Freezes

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

I have an issue I just can not seem to fix and I need help. I’m not sure if I have a HDHomeRun issue or a Channels Plus issue. What happens is everything is working fantastic then out of the blue the picture and audio freezes for 3 to 6 seconds. It will then typically pixelate and pickup where it left off sometimes audio seems to speed up for a few seconds and then 10 to 12 seconds later everything is fine. When it happens I watch the signal quality from HDHR on my iPad and everything looks normal. (Typically 100%) Nothing shows in the log either. If I remove the HDHR and system by plugging the same antenna feed directly into the TV it always works normally. I have reached out to SiliconDust Support and sent them the Diagnostics. I mentioned that the only thing I found on the HDHR forum was one person said the same thing happened to them when they upgraded to the same Firmware I have. HDHR Support said that it was doubtful that the FW was the issue. The only other thing they mentioned was that the HDHR was possibly getting overloaded with too much signal and they had me remove the amp. (it is still off as this antenna can be used with or without it. Passive & Active). The antenna guy was kind enough to replace the antenna with a new one (same model as that is all he uses in this area and even replace the entire coax cable run) I then added the LTE Filter hoping that would help but it did not. Last I heard from Support was 10 days ago asking for me to resend the Diagnostics Info which I did. Anyone out at there have any ideas? I really love this new system since killing my satellite TV with this one exception. Any help would be really appreciated. I posted this in the SiliconDust forum as well as I really can’t figure this out. Thanks!

My System:
DINOVA Boss Mix Antenna Model: 144282 with LTE Filtering - Professionally Installed
HD HomeRun Connect 4K HDHR5-4K Firmware 20210624
SiliconDust LPF-608M LTE Filter
Client: Nvidia Shield TV Pro - Hardwired
UHF Broadcast 8 miles away, no hills or obstructions
Virtual Channel 5.1 KSTPDT
Frequency 497.000 MHz
Program Number 3
Modulation Lock 8vsb
Signal Strength 100%
Signal Quality 100%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 10.654 Mbps
If only one stream, It always chooses Tuner 2 by default if that means anything.
Mostly we only use one stream but it happens with one or more streams as well.
Nothing I can see in the logs when it happens
Channels Plus DVR using TV Everywhere
Server: Synology DS920+ (That is the only App on it currently - CPU & Resources are never high)
Everything Hardwired gigabyte Ethernet

Thanks in advance for the help!

#2

On the surface this sounds like a client issue to me. I noticed you mentioned your client is a Shield Pro connected via Ethernet. Do you have any other clients. Even a phone? It would be good to try snd see if the issue only occurs when viewing through the shield or on all clients.

#3

Disable the amp on the antenna.
Remove the SiliconDust LPF-608M LTE Filter since your antenna has a good one built in.
Add a splitter or attenuator between the antenna and the HDHR as you're probably getting too hot a signal if the transmitter is only 8 miles away.
Try for a signal strength slightly lower than 100%, but you need symbol quality at 100%.

UPDATE: Sorry, meant symbol quality 100%

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#4

Client….. Good idea! I have one other Shield Pro and a regular Shield I can try and I could try watching on my iPad. Not sure about the signal quality too high. I had an older antenna that would not get one of the channels and did the same thing.
The previous antenna specs were:
Modulation Lock 8vsb
Signal Strength 61%
Signal Quality 75%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 8.286 Mbps

#5

Yeah, Sorry.
I corrected my post. I meant to say you want Symbol Quality at 100%.
When your Signal Strength shows 100% it could actually be anywhere from 100% - 150%

From my notes
Signal Strength
100% = 0dBmV = -48.75dBm and a change of 5% is a 3dBmV difference, so every 1% change is equivilent to 0.6dBmV. A signal strength of 80% (-12dBmV) or higher is recommended for OTA operation, 60% (-24dBmV) minimum recommended. OTA ATSC specs minimum as -30dBmV (50%)

#6

Thanks for the help. Nothing I try corrects the problem. Thinking of giving up. SiliconDust believes it is not their issue although it only happens when using the HDHR. Locast, Philo, and all my other streams never has the issue. I wish I had not bought the fancy antenna and HDHomeRun.

#7

Is it only the one UHF channel having the issue?
What did you get for Signal Strength on that channel when you added an attenuator or splitter?

The SD HDHR tuners can easily be overloaded by too much signal.

You also didn't mention in your posts here that you're seeing "Tuner network problems- Network problems are causing issues with signal." and that SD said "The HDHomeRun is receiving channels fine. The problem is the downstream path isn't accepting the data fast enough. The trigger point looks to be right at 10Mbps - when the video stream is 9Mbps it streams ok, but when it hits 10Mbps there is a problem."

#8

The readings varied but the last one was:
Modulation Lock 8vsb
Signal Strength 61%
Signal Quality 75%
Symbol Quality 100%
It happens on any channel coming off the HDHR. All available channels here are UHF. I wish I could watch the HDHR DATA rate live but I have to hit refresh to see it change. It happens when the rate is far below 10 and does not always happen when it is at 11 or 12. I can fire up all the tuners or just use one (normally only use one) and it does it either way. I do see the network message every once and a while but maybe only 1 time out of 10.

The Switch is a TrendNet TPE-1620WS switch and the port is running at 100 Mbps Full Duplex. The HDHR shows it is running at 100 as well.

19700101-00:00:00 System: reset reason = power on
19700101-00:00:02 System: network link 100f
19700101-00:00:03 System: ip address obtained: 192.168.0.45 / 255.255.255.0

I guess I got depressed. I’ll try again tomorrow. Thanks

#9

Although the OTA tuners only do 100Mbps, I had problems with my HDHR Prime (1000Mbps) and tried a few different switches until I settled on a Netgear ProSafe GS108. It's been up and running continuously with no issues since I bought it 4.5 years ago. Think I paid $45 for it.

#10

It should update on the dvr web UI activity section every few seconds with tuner sharing on

#11

Would you mind telling me exactly how to do this? I can’t seem to find this on the menus. Thanks

#12

Are you looking at the dvr web UI on your Synology?

#13

Something else that hasn't been mentioned.
Does it happen on all clients with tuner sharing on and off?

Really think it's the switch or a network connection.

The problem I had with my Prime years ago with Trendnet and D-Link switches was with streaming from the Prime. Once I put the 8 port Netgear ProSafe switch in, the trouble went away. That was just after SD fixed the problem with the Prime where it kept loosing its dhcp lease.

#14

I’m having a hard time believing it is my switch. My switch is not a consumer grade but a rack mounted 16 port managed switch nevertheless I plugged in my old Cisco switch a few minutes ago so I can eliminate that as the cause. Took me a while to find the shared setting. It was not the caus3 it paused within a few minutes after switching it. It does happen on all my clients. Thanks for the ideas. I will try any you send me. :slight_smile:

#15

Can you reproduce the issue in the official HDHR app?

#16

If you have made any recording from the HDHR source, look in the DVR log for the [SNR] Statistics line when the recording ended.

2021/08/29 22:04:00.143734 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/The Machines That Built America/The Machines That Built America S01E08 Home Tech Revolution 2021-08-29-2100.mpg": ss=90%-91% snq=99%,95%-100% seq=100% bps=3898815,470752-6561952 pps=346,20-568

It shows minimum and maximum values seen during the recording for these
ss=90%-91% Signal Strength
snq=99%,95%-100% Signal Quality
seq=100% Symbol Quality
bps=3898815,470752-6561952 Bitrate
pps=346,20-568 Network packets/second

EDIT to add: values are MIN-MAX, for those with three it's AVG,MIN-MAX
It polls the HDHR every 2 seconds for these stats during a recording Improvements to recording statistics

#17

Sheldon,

I’ve seen you on the SiliconDust forum. I know they don’t believe me over there. But I had this exact same problem. I narrowed it down by removing everything off of my network except the HDHR Prime and it was definitely the problem.

I found a post on Reddit where SD support recommended overriding the port on the network switch from auto negotiation to 100Mbps. I know it requires a managed switch but I swear it fixed this problem.

Try it if you can.

I’m not sure why it works but it does.

#18

The PRIME has a different networking chip than the CONNECT and is known to be extra picky.

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#19

You don't need a managed switch. If you're willing to sacrifice an Ethernet cable to the process, clip the blue and brown wire pairs in the cable; that will force 100Mbps, as both of those wire pairs are necessary for GbE.

Several years ago when the Prime firmware had really bad Ethernet issues, I resorted to making crippled Ethernet cables to force 100Mbps, as it was the only way to get the Prime's networking stack to acknowledge a DHCP offer.

SD's support is hit-or-miss. Personally, I find their support subpar. YMMV.

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#20

Sorry, my wife’s birthday so I had to pull off the trouble shooting. I replaced the switch with my old Cisco 10/100 and used new CAT6 cables. Ran a full hour without issue so I thought yippee but as I was doing the dance of joy…… you guessed it. It happened again.

I will catch up with the above posts tonight when I get home and try some of the suggestions. Sure is frustrating! Thanks again.