Recordings either interrupted or don't record at all

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

This is my first post to the forum here. I've been unable to find a solution to my problem, despite thoroughly searching the forum.

For quite a while now, I've had recordings start and seem to record well past the program end, or they don't record at all, or they're interrupted, all for reasons that I've been unable to determine why. These problems seem to occur when I have either overlapping programs or simultaneously recorded programs. I've been trying to see if limiting the simultaneous programs to only two would help, but it hasn't.

The latest of these happened tonight, with the first program recording just fine until about 54 minutes into a one-hour program. According to Channels DVR Server settings page, it was still recording 2 hours later. The second program, which immediately followed the first, didn't record at all.

Here is what I believe to be the relevant log data:

Blockquote
2023/05/16 18:00:00.006720 [DVR] Starting job 1684285200-39 Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death on ch=[6107]
2023/05/16 18:00:00.016537 [DVR] Waiting 59m59.983487957s until next job 1684288800-8 Signs of a Psychopath
2023/05/16 18:00:02.080370 [TVE] stream timestamps: investigation-discovery: start_at=2023-05-16T17:59:04-07:00 end_at=2023-05-16T17:59:32-07:00 live_delay=25.273355324s
2023/05/16 18:00:02.080855 [TNR] Opened connection to TVE-Comcast_SSO for ch6107 INVESTIGATION-DISCOVERY
2023/05/16 18:00:02.155266 [DVR] Recording for job 1684285200-39 from TVE-Comcast_SSO ch6107 into "TV/Evil Lives Here Shadows of Death/Evil Lives Here Shadows of Death S05E05 City of Angels 2023-05-16-1800.mpg" for 1h2m59.983473009s
2023/05/16 18:00:02.317801 [IDX] Generating video index for job 1684285200-39
2023/05/16 18:26:54.216199 [NAT] Successfully mapped port 8089 using upnp
2023/05/16 18:55:35.930399 [TNR] Cancelling stream TVE-Comcast_SSO ch6107 after no data was received for 2m0s
2023/05/16 19:00:00.009798 [DVR] Starting job 1684288800-8 Signs of a Psychopath on ch=[6107]
2023/05/16 19:00:00.016979 [DVR] Skipping job 1684288860-13 House Hunters
2023/05/16 19:00:00.017128 [DVR] Waiting 3h0m59.982918965s until next job 1684299660-ch6104 House Hunters
2023/05/16 19:26:54.250291 [NAT] Successfully mapped port 8089 using upnp
2023/05/16 19:52:08.296278 [DVR] Deleting skipped job 1684288860-13 House Hunters
2023/05/16 19:52:08.298475 [DVR] Waiting 2h7m51.701539742s until next job 1684299600-ch6107 Signs of a Psychopath
2023/05/16 19:52:45.330638 [DVR] Waiting 1h7m14.669371892s until next job 1684296000-ch6107 Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death
Blockquote

All recordings are set to start on time and run until 3 minutes after a program ends.

Here is my setup:

HDHomeRun Scribe 4K

Channels DVR Server Version 2023.04.20.0310

OS
NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV

Android
(kernel: 4.9.141-tegra-gfad87a91fd8a)

CPU
4 cores / Cortex-A57
load averages: 15.80 14.72 11.78

RAM
2.88 GB
25.3% free

For what it's worth, I had Comcast come to my house a week or so ago. They had reached out to me, saying that they had identified some problems with my network, which needed to be addressed. All of which is to say, I don't believe I have a problem with my network.

Also, I read something on one of the Channels DVR support documents that suggested to make sure to use Cat6 ethernet cables, so I have those on both the Nvidia Shield Pro and the HDHomeRun. The same support document also suggested to use an Ethernet switch instead of connecting cables directly to my router. I don't have that, but I do have a high quality Netgear AX5400 router.

In any event, I could use some help with this.

#2

Just guessing from similar scenarios, but the issue seems to be internet related. (Not spotty connection at your site, but rather a spotty connection at times between you and the websites hosting the streams.)

This is actually more common than you think, and not really something Channels can fix. The problem is that content-hosting servers are not 100% reliable.

#3

Thanks for your reply.

The provider in question here is Comcast. Seems to me that if this were internet related as you say, you would have quite a few Channels DVR subscribers complaining of the same thing, but I haven't seen that.

I hope someone can post a better solution to this problem. Otherwise, I'm starting to really regret paying for a whole year of Channels DVR, as it really hasn't performed to my satisfaction and has required way too much babysitting to get it to work.

#4

Logs don't lie.. You have an internet issue. Channels is not your problem. The issue could be localized to just your connection or it could be something further upstream. Start by installing ping plotter on a computer (make sure to use ethernet) and do a continuous ping to Google or something and see if you rack up loss. If there is loss across the board (not just to a single hop upstream) then you likely have a localized issue. If it's fine then we need to trace the url that you are using for that tve channel to see if there is a hop that is having an issue.

You can also look at your modem status page (usually at 192.168.100.1) and post your modem signal levels. I used to be a cable tech back in the day and can assist you. Also if you have or will have fiber available at your location, switch. Cable internet can sometimes be plagued with rf issues especially if the provider doesn't take care of the local plant.

#5

I download Ping Plotter and ran it for a while tonight. Unfortunately, one of my recordings was interrupted when Ping Plotter wasn't running (grrrr!). Just when I needed it most.

I'll have to try again tomorrow when I have more scheduled recordings.

#6

Update on my problem. After feeling like I was spinning my wheels and way over my head trying to diagnose a network problem, I decided I didn't have anything to lose and migrated my Channels DVR server from my Nvidia Shield to my PC. I've only recorded 2 shows since doing that. The first show for sure finished with no problems, as I've already watched it. The second one just completed, and according to the log, also finished with no problems. (Well, there was one little glitch on it - a TVE not authorized problem, but I was able to easily resolve that.)

As for why Channels DVR server doesn't seem to want to play nice on my Nvidia Shield, who knows? All I know is, this problem seems to be resolved.