Playback failure HDHR Prime

Channels DVR Server
#1

I have an instance of the DVR installed on a spare laptop, with an HDHR Prime. The installation was nominal, but it will not play any of the Prime's non-DRM channels. With the web client,it displays "Transcoder starting", but never actually starts. I've also tried the Android client, which doesn't display any error, just an infinite delay. TVE channels successfully play.

The log only contains an entry for the playback starting, and then ending when it is manually stopped. No errors are displayed. I can see that ffmpeg is running on the server when the web client is initiated.

This setup includes the laptop (Dell 5559 2.5 Ghz I7, 8G RAM, 1TB disk), and the HDHR Prime.

#2

I spoke too soon about errors in the log. It's weird, though, the errors are logged after closing the stream. I also tried recording a 20 minute live show, then playing the recording. That also failed, and the resulting mpg file seems malformed. Here are the log entries:

2019/09/15 17:24:42 [TNR] Opened connection to 13224843 for ch4 KITV
2019/09/15 17:24:42 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 4 from 192.168.5.130 (encoder=h264_mf, resolution=1080, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=10000)
2019/09/15 17:25:31 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch4-dANY-ip192.168.5.130 @ 0s
2019/09/15 17:25:31 [TNR] Closed connection to 13224843 for ch4 KITV
[mpegts @ 000000000120c140] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 0 channels, fltp): unspecified sample rate
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
[mpegts @ 000000000120c140] Could not find codec parameters for stream 1 (Video: mpeg2video ([2][0][0][0] / 0x0002), none(tv)): unspecified size
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
[mpegts @ 000000000120c140] 2019/09/15 17:30:00 [TNR] Closed connection to 13224843 for ch3 KHON
2019/09/15 17:30:00 [DVR] Finished job 1568602800-ch3 Xploration DIY Sci
2019/09/15 17:30:00 [DVR] Processing file-1: TV\Xploration DIY Sci\Xploration DIY Sci 2019-07-12 2019-09-15-1706.mpg
2019/09/15 17:30:01 [DVR] Running commercial detection on file 1 (TV\Xploration DIY Sci\Xploration DIY Sci 2019-07-12 2019-09-15-1706.mpg)
2019/09/15 17:30:01 [DVR] Commercial detection failed with exit status 1
2019/09/15 17:30:01 [IDX] Generating video index for file-1: Xploration DIY Sci 2019-07-12 2019-09-15-1706.mpg
2019/09/15 17:30:01 [ERR] Generating video index for file-1 failed: No Keyframes were found in the stream

#4

Does the official HDHR app work? Sounds like there's no video data coming through, maybe due to improperly paired cablecard.

#5

Damn, you're good! :wink:

Turns out the power supply for the Cisco cable card adapter died...

I predict problem solved with a replacement adapter... :slight_smile:

#6

Turned out to be a little more complicated than merely replacing the power supply. It probably would have been simple if they actually did just that, but they opted to replace the tuning adapter as well, consequently, it needed to be re-authorized before it would actually work.

After connecting the new tuning adapter, I found that the HDHR management page was displaying "Initializing" as the status of the tuning adapter, and it never changed. Then I tried pulling the card from the HDHR Prime out and plugging it back in. That enabled it to completely initialize, but it still would not play any channel. I took a look at the HDHR Prime log, and noticed that every time I tried to tune a channel, there was an event saying that the channel was subscribed, followed by a message that the channel was not subscribed. Then I called Spectrum support again. This time the technician connected me with the cable card support group. After explaining the problem to them, and waiting for the tech to talk to their supervisor, the HDHR Prime started working!

#7

Oh, and the Channels DVR is working perfectly now!

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