Playback of show being recorded stops and unable to resume

Channels Apple TV
#1

Tonight while watching a show that the DVR was actively recording the show stopped during playback. Was not able to resume playback of the show being recorded. This happened on both iOS and tvOS. Tried the beta version of tvOS and the normal release, same issue on both. Even rebooted the Apple TV, same issue, would not resume playback of show being recorded. Also could not resume play of show being recorded the web browser. I submitted logs from the iPhone for the playback issue. I was able to watch a show already finished recording.

This is some of the errors from the DVR logs.

2020/05/15 23:07:33.029278 [ENC] Starting encoder for Live PD S04E64 Live PD 051520 2020-05-15-2059.mpg in E:\Channels DVR\Streaming\file4034-ip192.168.50.11-038904039\encoder-0-746033434 at 0 (0.000000) (encoder=h264_nvenc, resolution=1080, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=10000 segment_size=0.01)
2020/05/15 23:07:33.352278 [HLS] ffmpeg: file4034-ip192.168.50.11: [mpegts @ 00000000025cc0c0] start time for stream 3 is not set in estimate_timings_from_pts
2020/05/15 23:07:33.352278 [HLS] ffmpeg: file4034-ip192.168.50.11: [mpegts @ 00000000025cc0c0] start time for stream 4 is not set in estimate_timings_from_pts
2020/05/15 23:07:47.344882 [M3U8] Generator: err=cannot replace "E:\Channels DVR\Streaming\m3u8\4034\stream.m3u8" with tempfile "E:\Channels DVR\Streaming\m3u8\4034\stream.m3u8274860279": replace E:\Channels DVR\Streaming\m3u8\4034\stream.m3u8274860279 E:\Channels DVR\Streaming\m3u8\4034\stream.m3u8: Access is denied.
2020/05/15 23:08:13.955707 [ENC] Stopped encoder for Live PD S04E64 Live PD 051520 2020-05-15-2059.mpg in E:\Channels DVR\Streaming\file4034-ip192.168.50.11-038904039\encoder-0-746033434 after encoding 0 to 0

iphone -0 2020/05/15 23:01:17.158080 New diagnostic log submitted under d7e0c9d8-b70c-4b98-b9ca-79bfcfd37919

-windows pc dvr 2020/05/15 23:09:08.160693 New diagnostic log submitted under efe760f5-1436-46d2-96ff-60f53062ec3f

Apple TV - 2020/05/15 23:12:09.581137 New diagnostic log submitted under 8dee16a2-e5ef-4808-857c-6607acf96c21

#2

Is there a reason you're not using Home Streaming Quality: Original ?

#3

I looked at my Apple TV and iPhone and both settings shows Home Streaming Original. Internet settings shows 8mbps, but I will change that to original.

#4

To add to this issue the recording even after it finished recording would not play back. :man_shrugging:

#6

And other recordings are fine?

Can you try playing the mpg file directly with VLC?

#7

My other recordings are fine. This one will only play up the point it froze. The DVR said recorded the full show but the recording ends at about 1 Hour 27 Mins when the show is three hours. I can play the file direct but not through Channels.

#8

I submitted additional logs to you, incase they are helpful

Logs have been submitted as 8a89f1d9-374c-4392-ac16-fcdd28ef4d7e .

#10

This is very odd. I am struggling to understand why this would be failing to play an in-progress recording at Original quality.

Those errors that you see (like the "Access is denied") in the logs are transient things that can be ignored. They are not impacting the streaming.

Could you turn on HTTP Logs on your DVR so we can get more detail about what's going on here?

I see your system is very powerful and has a lot of free RAM, etc. What kind of drive is E:\? Is it internal or connected via USB? We aren't seeing any warnings during writing files, so I think it's unlikely it's the disk, but I'm grasping at straws a little bit here.

The way that we stream files at Original quality is a very simple HTTP interface, so there is generally not a lot that can get in the way of you getting the stream, so seeing the timeouts that I'm seeing in the client is very confusing.

#12

In reviewing the logs further, something in the client logs caught my eye that looks important.

When you try to stream Live PD S04E64 Live PD 051520 2020-05-15-2059.mpg now does it work just fine or does it continue to have this issue?

If it still has problems, it seems like we've found an issue with how the client is handling a potentially corrupted file. If that's the case, it would be helpful for us if you could put the file somewhere (like dropbox) that we could download it from. If you could email the link to [email protected] it could help us fix this situation.

1 Like
#13

Hi eric,

The E Drive is a stand HDD. Not SSD or anything like that. It's a Seagate 4TB drive. I did a scan of this drive and it didn't report back anything. I did go ahead and turn on the HTTP Logs in the DVR settings for you. When I try and watch the file via web, ios, or tvos it fails to even start. It only shows it recorded the first 87 mins of the program and that is at the point it failed but the system said it was still recording. I will upload the file, if I can to dropbox, I am not sure of their file limit and will email you when done.

#14

I have uploaded the file. Sent you an email

#15

This recording is weiiiiiird. I've been able to add some protections in a couple places to make it fail more loudly to let us know what is going on in the next DVR pre-release.

For some reason when we run our metadata analysis of the recording it doesn't return a file duration (which totally messes with just about everything for us). It's going to take some more time to dig into why it is that this is happening, but for now it should make those instances where you are streaming at non-original quality print something more helpful for us in the DVR logs.

Is this the only time you've run into this sort of issue or has it happened with more recordings?

#16

This is not the first time. I have ran into this problem a couple of other times. It doesn't matter the channel or even the length of the recording.

I am not quite sure what you mean, but I have everything set to original quality. Granted I just changed internet streaming to original. But my in home streaming has always been at original quality.

I am running 2020.03.27.1730 of the Windows DVR software. Do I need to update to the beta build?

#17

If this does happen again, we can identify if this is the same issue or a different one by going to "View Details" in the DVR for the recording and seeing if "Duration" is 0.

I don't have a fix for you at this moment for this recording, so you don't need to update anything yet.

I'll regroup with @tmm1 to see if we can figure out why this recording is acting the way that it is and what we can do to fix it.

#18

OK, thank you for looking into this. If it happens again I will let you know. Tonight I watched LivePD as it was recording and nothing happened. It's random and from what I recall it only happens when I am watching it while it is recording.

#19

Curious if this is this OTA, CABLE or TVE?

I've had a few issues watching while recording cable.

For me it seems to be much better with the latest pre-release DVR version, but then I watch using a browser, where most folks use a client on their TV.

I tend to "chase" live tv by watching the recordings as they're recording so I can pause, ff/rew/etc.
I do this because I have issues chasing live tv.

#20

This recording was on Cable. This is the first time ever that I've seen a recording that is otherwise uncorrupted but we are unable to get a duration for. It's very odd.

#21

Did it record full length or get cut short?
I usually check my troubled recordings using TSReader, MediaInfo and VRD TVSuite.

#22

It appears to be full length and has no MPEG-TS discontinuities or errors and the HDHR recording statistics all show in normal ranges. I'm guessing there's something up with one of the non-audio/video streams that is tripping us up.

#23

Do you use a tuning adapter?

Does the HDHR system log (on my.hdhomerun.com) show any errors around the time of that recording?