Recording Starts off with No Video

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

For the last few weeks, I've been having problem - when I start a recorded program - about half the time I get no video - ie the screen is blank - I seem to be getting audio.

restarting the channels app on my nvidia shield fixes it about half the time - restarting the nvidia shield seems to take care of it all the time the video plays back fine

I have my channels DVR on a QNAP and the issue seemed to begin with the lastest the QNAP Channels App update

I have reinstalled the channels DVR app with no benefit.

what should I do ?

#2

Try changing Settings > Player > Decoder to Software

#3

Thanks, Have done this and will give it a couple of days and report back

interesting how little impact there was on the performance with software transcoding selected.

everything worked as before (fast forward/rewind) etc. I saw no increase in the cpu utilization of my server (Intel based Qnap) and maybe slight increase in the Nvidia shield client cpu usage

#4

That setting controls the decoder not the transcoder. Your dvr is not doing anything different, only the app is.

#5

Setting the client to software decoding appears to have fixed my problem ! thanks

hardware decoding appears to be the default on the android tv client. will this issue be fixed in an update ? what is the advantage of hardware VS software decoding?

#6

I hadn't experienced this issue on my Shield 2019 Pro yet, but my Note 20 was doing this. I'll give software a try.

Often times, software decoding does a better job than hardware, it just requires more CPU cycles (which equals more heat), and some devices may not be able to do it fast enough to keep up with 'live' viewing.