Possible to see Linux Server Log?

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi All,

I am having an issue where I always get a tuner conflict when switching between OTA channels when I only have 1 tuner available. This means I always have to hit play twice when changing channels.

I opened the topic below in the AppleTV forum, but realize it might be more appropriate in the server forum as I have the issue regardless of whether I am on AppleTV or my iPhone. I am running the latest pre-release Channels DVR Server on Ubuntu 24.04. (but issue happens with latest stable as well)

I assume it is an issue with my server, so was wondering if anyone knows where I can find more detailed logs in linux that might help me understand what is causing the issue? I contacted support a few weeks ago, but after providing logs from Apple TV and server I have not heard anything else, I assume they are busy, so I figure I am on my own to debug this issue.

Any advice would be much appreciated as I am fighting the family desire to go back to DirectTV. :slight_smile:

#2

If tuner sharing is enabled in your Channels client settings, its connection to your HDHR tuner will go through Channels DVR and you can look in the Channels DVR log.

If tuner sharing is NOT enabled on your Channels client settings, it will connect directly to your HDHR tuner, bypassing Channels DVR, so it doesn't know about it.

#3

Correct. So I am trying to figure out why the issue is happening, and why I believe it is server related. Turning tuner sharing to off is not really an option for my household. The DVR log doesn’t show anything other than a tuner conflict because the channel change is happening so quickly, requiring the 2nd press of the play button. Was just wondering if there was a more detailed log similar to what the channels dev team would use to debug this.

#4

My understanding is that with tuner sharing enabled on the client, the server tunes the channel, creating a small buffer. This is slower that with tuner sharing disabled, so the server will take a bit longer to dump the buffer, close the connection and open a new connection for the new channel and create the small buffer again.

You could try changing this setting on your Channels client to see if it helps.

Direct

Direct uses MPEG-TS over a single TCP connection. This has the benefit of having the lowest latency for tuning and lowest overhead for your DVR and network.

Stream

Stream Because each HLS segment is 1 second and the additional processing that must happen, tuning into Live TV can take 1-3 seconds to load (which is generally higher and less consistent than Direct).

They're slowly building up their documentation (support articles/knowledge base) here Channels Support — Support Articles and here Knowledge Base - Channels Community.

#5

First of all, thanks for your responses. I think what you are saying though would indicate that with Tuner Sharing enabled (which it is in my case when this is happening), the channel changes should actually be slower, which should provide more time for the HDHR to release the stream before being requested to tune the next channel. It almost seems like it would be nice to have an option where if Channels DVR thinks all tuners are in use, it tries 1 second later, just to add some delay for cases like this before reporting all tuners in use.

I was really hoping to have some insight from the logs I submitted to support though, and maybe there is some linux setting I am missing or something else going on that is causing this...

I did just try it with delivery set to Stream as well, and the issue actually seems to go away, but the channel changes seem way slower and the quality doesn't seem quite as good.

Thanks again for the responses.

#6

With Channels DVR, it will retry for a recording, but not watching Live TV.
There have been many requests to eliminate it asking you to try again and just make it automatic.
AFAIK, it's never been explained why that can't happen.

1 Like
#7

Not that improvements shouldn’t be made on trying to reconnect to the stream a few times but your problem is easily solved by buying another Hdhomerun. 2 tuners is not enough in my opinion when you are using dvr software. Do yourself a favor and get another Hdhomerun.

#8

Thanks. Yeah, you're right, this would solve my problem. We just never need more than 2 tuners and I can easily just hit the play button to have it try again, its just more for the others in the family, always trying to make it easy on them, but you are correct, another HDHR would solve this. It just seemed like something was wrong on my server, so wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something since it seems that my use case should work with a my 2-tuner HDHR.

#9

Maybe a fix?

#10

Yeah, I still had the issue with 0634, sent the logs to Eric and they did another update a few minutes ago that seems like it has now resolved it for me. Really appreciate your replies here as well as the quick fix from @eric !

#11