Recording Skipping Over Sections

Channels DVR Server
#1

For the past bit when recording NBC Nightly News OTA portions of the recording basically get jumped over with no way to go back to the content. Even though the length is right, its as if that section of the recording just isn't there. Occasionally I can actually access the content by doing quick hops, but most of the time its no dice. Any clue what could be happening here? I did notice in the logs some instances of the buffer filling up - perhaps thats the culprit? Or is it something wacky with the commercial detection? If so, how can I address it? It only seems to be an issue with a few of the OTA channels and by and large with this particular broadcast - the rest don't have any problems. Thanks!

2021/05/14 17:30:00.127799 [DVR] Starting job 1621031400-1 NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt on ch=[11.1]
2021/05/14 17:30:00.572472 [TNR] Opened connection to 1059D86A/0 for ch11.1 KARE-HD

2021/05/14 17:30:00.671893 [DVR] Recording for job 1621031400-1 from 1059D86A ch11.1 into "TV/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt S2021E135 2021-05-14-1730.mpg" for 29m59.872144344s

2021/05/14 17:33:11.308420 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 50% full (clients=1, len=33555368)
2021/05/14 17:33:25.761184 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 75% full (clients=1, len=50333052)
2021/05/14 17:34:28.388705 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 50% full (clients=1, len=33556684)
2021/05/14 17:34:42.525376 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 75% full (clients=1, len=50346212)
2021/05/14 17:34:54.785966 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 95% full (clients=1, len=63754936)
2021/05/14 17:34:57.259937 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 99% full (clients=1, len=66438260)

2021/05/14 17:51:01.888859 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 50% full (clients=1, len=33564580)
2021/05/14 17:51:17.249565 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 75% full (clients=1, len=50342264)
2021/05/14 17:51:26.195607 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 95% full (clients=1, len=63765464)
2021/05/14 17:51:28.184842 [WRN] Buffer for 1059D86A ch11.1 is more than 99% full (clients=1, len=66439576)

2021/05/14 18:00:00.014829 [TNR] Closed connection to 1059D86A/0 for ch11.1 KARE-HD

2021/05/14 18:00:00.028789 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt S2021E135 2021-05-14-1730.mpg": ss=82%,80%-84% snq=80%,75%-85% seq=99%,85%-100% bps=9857810,1493472-13468320 pps=664,0-3517 neterr=30%

2021/05/14 18:00:00.014829 [TNR] Closed connection to 1059D86A/0 for ch11.1 KARE-HD

2021/05/14 18:00:00.451984 [DVR] Finished job 1621031400-1 NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt

2021/05/14 18:04:04.392466 [DVR] Processing file-7434: TV/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt S2021E135 2021-05-14-1730.mpg

2021/05/14 18:37:14.091801 [DVR] Running commercial detection on file 7434 (TV/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt/NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt S2021E135 2021-05-14-1730.mpg)

2021/05/14 19:07:34.383518 [DVR] Commercial detection for NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt S2021E135 2021-05-14-1730.mpg finished with 6 markers in 30m20.659120555s.

#2

The buffer filling indicates it’s not able to write to the disk fast enough. Your disk may be overloaded or failing.

1 Like
#3

Also I’m not a signal expert but your signal quality is in the 80s, which isn’t great. Also, the neterr is showing 30%, which seems higher than I would expect. How are the server and HDHomeRun connected to the network?

#4

The DVR server is running off of an nvidia shield which has a hard drive attached to it, connected to the network via WiFi. The HDHomeRun is directly connected to the router. The antenna and router are on the main level, shield is in the basement. I would have suspected the hard drive as well, but this problem seems to be exclusively related to recordings on this channel - either NBC news or the local news directly after. Other recordings via TVE seem to be ok. Odd thing is Jeapordy which is also on the same channel seems to never have issues, nor does watching the channel live…?

#5

This is most likely your problem - WiFi. You should have your Channels DVR server hardwired to the same switch as your HDHR tuner. If you can'r run ethernet cable you should look into MOCA or powerline adapters.

OTA broadcasts are high bitrate. TVE are much lower bitrate.

#6

If the shield drive is NTFS that would cause this issue.

#7

@tmm1 Thanks for chiming in. Never heard that before - Is this format an issue only if not hard connected network wise or just in general? The buffer issue only seems to occur on this channel which is OTA. For the record the drive is formatted to HFS+ :slight_smile:

1 Like
#8

Good point on the bitrate differences. I’ll definitely move the shield and see if that helps.

#9

See:

#10

NBC is a high-bitrate 1080i signal. It is higher bitrate than a channel like Fox or ABC, and way higher than anything TVE.

#11

So I moved the Shield over to connect to the same switch as the HDHR - we will see if the jumping problem goes away.

A new problem post the move is I can’t connect to the server via my channelsdvr net anymore. The IP address did change since connecting differently and all my streaming boxes serve up the content just fine.

Anyone know how I can regain web access?

#12

http://yourserverip:8089

#13

Toggle remote access off then on in the web UI.
Would be a good idea to set a static/reserved IP address for it in your router so the IP doesn't change.
I realize going from WiFi to wired means a MAC address change.

#14

This could be due to the HDD.
If it's an external USB powered HDD it could be the usb cable or the HDD.
Cheapest test is replace the USB cable.
Then consider an externally powered external HDD that doesn't rely on the Shield to power it.

Click this link for a forum search of your error '[WRN] Buffer for' that will list posts with that error message in order from most recent.
https://community.getchannels.com/search?q=%5BWRN%5D%20Buffer%20for%20order%3Alatest

#15

Toggle remote access off then on in the web UI.
Would be a good idea to set a static/reserved IP address for it in your router so the IP doesn't change.
I realize going from WiFi to wired means a MAC address change."

Toggling it on and off after direct connecting to the IP address worked - thanks!

This could be due to the HDD.
If it's an external USB powered HDD it could be the usb cable or the HDD.
Cheapest test is replace the USB cable.
Then consider an externally powered external HDD that doesn't rely on the Shield to power it.

Yea unfortunately I am still seeing buffering issues even after connecting the shield via ethernet, but again its only on the OTA channels. Maybe I'll play around with cabling, etc. Worst case I guess I can copy over everything to a new HD and give that whirl. Is that an involved process with channels or is it mostly a copy paste exercise?

#16

I had this when my signal wasn't good enough, it would artifact and then keep buffering, re-positioned the antenna and all good now

#17

Here’s the support article for moving recordings:

#18

I have seen my RPie DVR skip regularly if it is busy recording 3 or more shows at once while I’m watching something else. I’ve thought about moving back to a faster Windows 10 machine. Instead, I try to set up recording on less than 3 programs at the same time, when possible.

#19

Yea I do wonder if this is an issue as well. Unfortunately I am still seeing recording issues even after direct connecting, so it must be more related to the HD I would think. I’ll try another and see if that fixes the problem.