The Disappointment continues

Looks like I'll be spending the day setting up Windows Media Center on a spare laptop today.

Channels DVR was initially looking good, but after my first run with it on my Thecus W5810 NAS Thecus W5810 and seeing that something was not up to the task of simply recording TV shows so I could watch them later. (I say "something", because there are many 'moving parts' to making this work... was in my HDHR Primes?, was it my 1 GB home network?, was it because I run a Domain at home? Was it because the Thecus W5810 did not have the horsepower to record 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and or 6 shows at once, yet alone watch one? Was it my Nvidia Shield being used only as the front end Streaming device? Was it Solar Flares?... perhaps it was the Earths Magnetic Flux and the planets aligning and a full moon?...

So, to rule most of that out, I installed the Channels DVR Server on the Nvidia Shield and purchased a 6TB WD Mybook and connected it to the Nvidia Shield. I exported my settings from the Thecus W5810 / Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Server system that was running the Channels DVR server, and imported it to the newly installed (after a factor reset of the Nvidia Shield) Channels DVR server on the Shield. (After the hiccup of Channels decided to set it's recording path to the folder I just imported settings from.... without telling me it was going so...., I set six recordings for a certain time.. and went to bed... only to wake up and see the test failed... because... trying to shove six recordings onto the internal 16 GB storage of the Shield.... just didn't work so well....(Imagine that)... so, after sending my logs to [email protected] i was told I was probably recording to the internal storage... Yep... I ...er Channels opted to change the path I had set on other than the internal 16 GB path that I had copied the settings to from my windows system to import to the Shield based Channels Server

So...I had a File Manager installed already (thank goodness, or I don't know how I would of been able to manage files on that 0 KB free 16 GB internal storage), and started deleting the empty folders that Shield attempted to record to and hit a brick wall of not having any space to record to. And then deleted the folders and small mpg files that made a valiant effort to stuff those 1's and 0's into the unavailable real estate... then I moved the shows that did record over to the 5 TB drive.. and my Shield appeared to be somewhat functional again.

So... test time.... set six recordings all starting at 11pm last night, went to bed... woke up this morning...and well..."The Disappointment continues"....

"A picture is worth a 1000 words":

image

image

image

image

I'm at a loss for what to do here....

Perhaps the Western Digital myBook is my issue? WD MyBook 6TB Drive

Anyways... I'm tired of being a beta tester for a product I'm paying for... so, I guess it's back to Windows Media Center or renting a working DVR solution from my TV Provider... or perhaps heading over to a paid streaming service such as Hulu and/or the streaming services from Direct TV or Dish TV, etc...

Sigh.. I just want it to work without investing way too much time and effort at trying to overcome all of the issues I'm seeing (and this isn't just with Channels DVR... it is with Plex Live TV & DVR, as well as the HD Homerun DVR offering....

If someone from Channels wants my logs... I'll send them... but at this point... to steal what someone else posted... "I'm giving up on Channels DVR as my WAF approved DVR solution in the house.. it just can't meet that seal of approval"

Thanks for the ride... i'll be cancelling my subscription.

Stephen

you have overcomplicated things.

1 Like

I'm regularly recording 6 programs at once or recording multiples and watching different channels and I've never seen that. Good luck in your next endeavor.

Send in your logs and I will have a look.

The images you posted show mpeg2 corruption. I'm guessing packets are dropping on your network somewhere. How is everything wired together? Are the hdhomerun and shield connected to the same switch?

sounds like he needs to scale down big time to a simpler setup and network configuration to see if it all runs "normal" and then build from there if he wants the ability to record half a dozen shows a night.

There are many many customers here which are happy with Channels DVR including myself. Yes, there are issues but they are minor and the product is working just fine.

I had issues to begin with but it revealed 2 things:

1- The network cable I was using was damaged thus the speed slowed down to 100 mbps instead of 1 gigabit

2- I used a fixed IP address for the tuner but there was a ghost network device (network printer adapter) that was using the same IP which caused conflicts.

Since I resolved the above, it's been working flawlessly since.

All this to tell you that your issues sound particular to your setup and feed in as much information you can because the guys here are very helpful.

My Channels DVR runs from a cheap Core i5 NUC recording to a NAS thru a wired Gigabit network.

Good luck!

1 Like

This experience isn't representative of all. My wife has used Windows Media Center and Xbox Media Center extenders since 2009, and she doesn't like change. I've been recording to both Channels (for me) and WMC (for her) for 6 months. I've noticed her using Channels recently, but kept quiet. Then this weekend I asked her "when's the last time you used WMC?" and she said it's been months. She just uses Channels. So I'm shutting down my WMC, Channels "just works" (on my Win8 PC that also ran WMC). I recommend starting Channels in the same setup that you know worked for WMC, confirm that all works in the same scenario, and then make changes in a manner that allows easy troubleshooting and less hair pulling.

1 Like

I run things off a 2007 Mac Pro that also runs Plex and as well its syncs iTunes on the machine with a Autonomics music server, I can record from all four tuners at the same time without corrupted recordings, I can watch and record at the same time as well as listening to music streaming from that same box at the same time without problems.

I have all Ubiquiti network gear, no Vlans and things work fine. Perhaps you have a failing drive or bad cables?

I set this all up in hours and the WAF is high in my household, dropped satellite subscription after 20 years and just run OTA, Netflix,Prime and Plex and life is good.

I highly suspect you have a network problem, what kind of switches and router are you using and are you using premade or cables you terminated, if you terminated cables have you verified with a quality tester?

1 Like

Your problem is almost certainly one of network bandwidth/quality. When I initially setup Channels, my power line adapter for the HDHomeRun unit wasn't in an optimal location so pulling more than two streams off it at once would result in corrupted video somewhat similar to what you are seeing. Moving the Power line adapter to more a optimal location that got a better connection really helped a lot. I had a similar problem when I added my second HDHomeRun unit (two antennas, each of which pull different channels here) and ended up resolving it the same way.

In terms of server horsepower, I doubt that's your issue. Channels DVR requires practically no real CPU power on a real time basis unless you are asking it to transcode video somehow (e.g. playing recordings in the web browser). I'm personally running it on an ODroid XU4Q SBC running Linux which has a 4 TB HD connected via USB3 and I could not be happier.

1 Like

I'd agree with the sentiment that the original poster has too many moving parts. I'm running Channels on a 2008 Macbook with 4 GB of RAM and recording to an external USB2 hard drive and don't experience any problems recording two shows at the same time while watching another. My home network is Gigabit and everything is wired in. I have two Dual Tuner HDHR with two separate antennas (pointed at different markets). I don't transcode video, though, and I don't watch it remotely.