Weird Geolocation error?

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

Send this to channels support this morning, but thought I’d post it here in case anyone else has seen anything like this.

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I just noticed some weird behavior on some TVE recordings that I had set up with their own passes. I have recorded with on these TVE channels before without error.

Here is a snippet from the log file:

2021/07/18 19:59:11.428135 [DVR] Starting job 1626656340-28 Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted on ch=[6070]
2021/07/18 19:59:11.859582 [ERR] Failed to start stream on channel 6070 via TVE-Cox: TVE: abcgo: 1002:You appear to be outside the United States or its territories. Due to international rights agreements, we only offer this video to viewers located within the United States and its territories.
2021/07/18 19:59:11.859655 [DVR] Error running job 1626656340-28 Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted: could not start stream on channels=[6070]: TVE: abcgo: 1002:You appear to be outside the United States or its territories. Due to international rights agreements, we only offer this video to viewers located within the United States and its territories.
2021/07/18 19:59:11.861242 [DVR] Starting job 1626656340-42 Kevin Can F... Himself on ch=[6086]
2021/07/18 19:59:12.104808 [ERR] Failed to start stream on channel 6086 via TVE-Cox: TVE: SMIL error: GeoLocationBlocked
2021/07/18 19:59:12.104883 [DVR] Error running job 1626656340-42 Kevin Can F... Himself: could not start stream on channels=[6086]: TVE: SMIL error: GeoLocationBlocked
2021/07/18 19:59:12.104918 [DVR] Starting job 1626656340-49 Animal Kingdom on ch=[6035]
2021/07/18 19:59:12.104947 [DVR] Waiting 8h59m47.895059s until next job 1626688740-44 5 Eyewitness News at 5:00AM
2021/07/18 19:59:12.487506 [ERR] Failed to start stream on channel 6035 via TVE-Cox: TVE: Content blocked due to location
2021/07/18 19:59:12.487611 [DVR] Error running job 1626656340-49 Animal Kingdom: could not start stream on channels=[6035]: TVE: Content blocked due to location
2021/07/18 19:59:12.487614 [DVR] Starting job 1626656340-42 Kevin Can F... Himself on ch=[6086]
2021/07/18 19:59:12.728104 [ERR] Failed to start stream on channel 6086 via TVE-Cox: TVE: SMIL error: GeoLocationBlocked
2021/07/18 19:59:12.728173 [DVR] Error running job 1626656340-42 Kevin Can F... Himself: could not start stream on channels=[6086]: TVE: SMIL error: GeoLocationBlocked
2021/07/18 19:59:12.728367 [DVR] Starting job 1626656340-49 Animal Kingdom on ch=[6035]
2021/07/18 19:59:12.729648 [DVR] Waiting 8h59m47.270375s until next job 1626688740-44 5 Eyewitness News at 5:00AM
2021/07/18 19:59:12.739444 [DVR] Waiting 8h59m47.260568s until next job 1626688740-44 5 Eyewitness News at 5:00AM
2021/07/18 19:59:13.207522 [ERR] Failed to start stream on channel 6035 via TVE-Cox: TVE: Content blocked due to location
2021/07/18 19:59:13.207617 [DVR] Error running job 1626656340-49 Animal Kingdom: could not start stream on channels=[6035]: TVE: Content blocked due to location

etc, etc, etc ……

Another less important strangeness is the way the errors are displayed on the schedule menu on my iPad vs my Apple tv.

On the Apple TV ALL three shows have the warning and show up from “last Sunday”. I noticed that on the iPad client, however, only two of the three shows are listed with the red exclamation point..

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The weird thing is that these two shows, despite the geolocation error DID RECORD. The third show, Kevin can F**k himself didn’t record.

Now there are a couple of things that make this particular issue a bit different than normal for me. This is the first time I’ve ever had more than two TVE shows scheduled at the same time (in this case three at once). Is there a TVE simultaneous recording limit in the channels DVR?

The only others thing that I can think of is that I was using a VPN on the server machine (a Mac mini running high Sierra) earlier in the day. It was off when the shows recorded, but I’m thinking that if somehow the IP address of the machine didn’t revert back to my providers IP, that certainly could confuse things, but I’m sure the vpn was closed for several hours before the recordings were scheduled

I’d appreciate any ideas. Would like to fix this and avoid same issue next Sunday, where all three shows are scheduled to record at the same time.

Thanks all

#2

Usually it is dns that providers use to determine your location and not ip geolocation (they see where an address resolves based on ping time etc) . However on a Mac it could be using the location services and it could be "stuck". Where does Google maps show your location? That's a good test. You might want to move your dvr server to a machine that is only used for that purpose going forward, just my 2 cents.

#3

No, there is no limit.

This is likely the cause. Networks often block the IP addresses of VPN and cloud hosting providers; the geolocation message is a general one returned, it may not necessarily indicate a location issue.

1 Like
#4

Howdy, what's interesting, VPN or not, when I use the browser on the server, I can see the regional channels. but via TVE on Channels, it's gives the same error message. is there a different entry point / API for each?

PS really loving the product so far. Again when using a VPN then using the browser on the server, no issues whatsoever.

Are there any test URLs which we can test with? I tried all the documented ones and they seem to work just fine.

Thanks!!

#5

I dont use a VPN with channels, and i make sure that if I use my VPN for other things that it is no longer running in the background.

In the case above i had inadvertently left it running for something else.

It is recommended by the developers to use your ISPs DNS for optimal TVE viewing.

Theres a good thread on DNS here:

Its a good idea when troubleshooting TVE issues to start at the link below and log into the providers web page directly. They do go down occasionally, and theres nothing the channels folks can do about that. Last week C-span was down for several days.