Pixellation & Stuttering - TVE

Duh! Reading comprehension skill is lost this late/early

@DebbieFL I’m running channels on similar hardware (QNAP HS-251+) with Xfinity in SW Florida and not seeing the issues you’re describing. Are you running a lot of additional services on your NAS? I’m pretty much only running Channels and Plex. While a beefier processor would be nice (commercial detection for a 1 hr show takes about 30 min), I’m not sure that is what is causing your issues...

Thanks for posting results for the 251+.

Three (3) very similar results (30m for 1hr file) for the ds218+, 251+ and 251A tend to support that processor is not the cause (as you stated) and that something else is wrong with my network/Qnap 251A (as @tmm1 stated).

I will be running a few more tests to try to identify the root cause before just throwing new hardware on my system. Thanks for your suggestion.

I tested on the i-Mac and it was perfect.

Still doing some more testing

@DebbieFL. I have both the DS1019+ and the DS918+. My wife is on the 1019 and I am on the 918 (great setup). Both use the same CPU. I also added Cache Memory to both because it was cool :slight_smile: Not sure how much improvement it is. I have 4 of 5 drives in the DS1019+ and only 2 drives in the DS918+. Wanted room for expansion. I also run PLEX on the DS1019+ which I share with my kids remotely. I also use the DS1019+ as my primary offsite backup for the office and I use the DS918+ as the local backup for the DS1019+. I have 2 Synology devices at the office. So I am sold on these devices.
I do have 1 remote Channels user that is on multiple hours per day playing KTLA CH5. And it is OTA MPEG2. Since my upload is 200mbps we do not use transcoding. I have ask @tmm1 to add KTLA (free and no logon) so I could at least use MPEG4 but seems not a priority. I have 4 families (maybe more) that would probably add Channels DVR if they would support LOCAL Channels including KTLA. Not sure why the resistance. Nobody I know is keen on getting OTA.

We do not record a lot but here is one example. Looks like 45 minutes for a 1 hour show.

2019/07/30 18:00:00 [DVR] Processing file-8: TV/Tucker Carlson Tonight/Tucker Carlson Tonight 2019-07-30 2019-07-30-1700.mpg
2019/07/30 18:00:00 [DVR] Running commercial detection on file 8 (TV/Tucker Carlson Tonight/Tucker Carlson Tonight 2019-07-30 2019-07-30-1700.mpg)
2019/07/30 18:45:58 [DVR] Commercial detection finished with 14 markers.

EDIT: No Pixellation here. My wife is on it a lot and she is happy with Channels DVR TVE. Live is good again :slight_smile:

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I will continue to investigate after the kinks are worked out on:

Included on this thread is a favorable posting on using DS 218+, which does have a higher rating on Passmark, hence the root cause is likely not enough CPU processing power on Qnap 251A.

My firm belief is my inability to achieve positive results is not due to a failing NAS

The types of issues you're seeing are indicative of fried ram or disk due to power outage or spike. Maybe there is some sort of RAM test on the QNAP you can run.

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Thanks for some new tips, I’ll investigate.

On my test I was running from web UI, I increased buffer but it didn’t seem to help (was @ 30sec now at 1 min)

What I meant is to increase the web-player bitrate, like try setting it to 1080p 8mbps, which is higher than TVE. So TVE will just remux instead of transcoding.

Sorry for the confusion...

On post: The buffer info was based on my initial test...just a further FYI. And thanks new for tips.

PLANNED to try the bitrate tip later :wink:

Changed bitrate to 1080p @8mbps:

Glad to see remux, however, same problems as before. Maybe not as pronounced but these are just quick tests.

Oh well, I was really hoping that it would alleviate...but back to the drawing board. Still maintain the belief that the CPU is just too underpowered vs @tmm1 failure opinion...but at this point, it’s moot.

Bottom line...need a better solution.

@djcastaldo Thanks for all of your help. And also @chDVRuser

CC: @tmm1 ... can see your :roll_eyes:

The issues you're seeing are not playback problem, but during recording. If you play the file with VLC it will show the same corruption. Recording uses very little CPU, so unless your QNAP shows 100% CPU usage due to something else it is unlikely to be the cause. My TS251+ has an even slower CPU than yours (J1900 vs N3060) and is fine. We also have users running on RPI2 with very little CPU available and no problems.

Can you try recording from ch6774 CMC and see if the recorded file has corruption. (Show in the Logs in [MTS] entry as well, or via playback in VLC or other player).

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QNAP is supposed to have a Memory Test Diagnostic app but I can't find how to install it: https://appcenter.qnap.com/eng/qpkg/overview/diagnosticApp

The other way to test RAM is more complicated: https://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/Memory_Test

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Major stuttering tonight, first time ever. Was having trouble on all streaming. Rebooted router getting 80 down consistently. All other services are working fine.

Edit. Probably because I’m recording 4 things and processing 2

Since you are also having problems with ATV4K/iPad...

If your modem is separate from router...I’d also reboot modem.

I removed plex live tv from Nvidia Shield and moved my channels data to seperate mount drive.
I see improvement and no issues now.

Yes, I have a separate modem/ router. My issue is the channels DVR front end keeps losing connection to my Apple devices and defaults to an out of home stream.

I received a support email from another user on TS-251 J1800 who is having the same issue with skipped=XXXX causing corruption.

I did some more tests on my TS-251+ J1900 and still cannot reproduce the problem. I am now running QTS Beta 4.4.1, which could be one difference.

@DebbieFL maybe you can provide remote SSH access to your QNAP so I can run some tests on the device. It's possible the other user also has a hardware issue, but perhaps there is an edge case software bug only triggered in certain situations.

Gladly!

What’s best method to set this up?

A post was split to a new topic: Problems recording OTA and TVE