Topic: Very long TV recordings - sometimes (Read 14278 times)

imcardle · « **on:** April 16, 2016, 12:59:35 pm »

I've noticed that some (but not all) of my recorded TV subscriptions have started to generate really long recordings (in the region of about 23 hours) even though the show is scheduled for just 1 hour. Can anyone tell me what might be causing this and, even better, how to fix it?

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** April 16, 2016, 03:02:59 pm »

I don't know, but check your system date.

Yaobing · « **Reply #2 on:** April 17, 2016, 08:32:19 am »

Did you have some shows that failed to record while a show was being recorded super long? What type of tuners do you use?

RoderickGI · « **Reply #3 on:** April 17, 2016, 04:43:20 pm »

It's in his signature Yaobing:

TBS6284 PCIe quad tuner (DVB-T2)

Some details on this page: http://www.tbsdtv.com/download/

imcardle · « **Reply #4 on:** April 17, 2016, 05:13:23 pm »

Thanks for your replies everyone.

@JimH: I've checked the system time and it is correct.

@Yaobing: I'm not sure what you mean by failed recordings but what I'm seeing is that we have (for example) two subscriptions on the same channel that are scheduled to start at 23:00 and 23:30 respectively. The first one will often record for just a couple of minutes and produce a file that won't play back. Pressing play just kicks me straight back to the list of recorded TV shows. The second one starts recording at the scheduled time but continues for many hours. This one will play back - but it's unnecessarily long. Both programmes are meant to run for just 30 mins (not 1 hour as stated in my original post). Both programmes have similar names - as they are part of a 'double bill' of the same series. I don't know if any of this is significant but I mention it just in case it gives you an idea about what might be going wrong.

@RoderickGI: As you correctly pointed out, my tuners are the TBS ones in my signature.

muzicman0 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 17, 2016, 08:22:29 pm »

I actually had this happen just the other day. I am using a HDHomeRun Prime and HDHomeRun...don't remember which tuner it actually was.

Yaobing · « **Reply #6 on:** April 17, 2016, 09:38:41 pm »

Quote from: imcardle on April 17, 2016, 05:13:23 pm

@Yaobing: I'm not sure what you mean by failed recordings

What I was trying to find out was a particular situation in which recording A starts first, and successfully, and then recording B tries to start, but causes MC to hang in a particular thread. That hanging prevents recording A not to stop. In this case recording B is the failed recording.

The only reason I can think of that causes a super long recording is that something caused a thread to hang and prevents the stop command from being sent to the TV engine.

muzicman0 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 20, 2016, 10:05:30 am »

Just found another one. It was still recording Deadliest Catch from last night, and was at 45 GB. Used the HDHomeRun Prime tuner. I had to exit MC to get it to stop. This is now 2 within a few weeks, where it has never happened before...seems like something changed.

imcardle · « **Reply #8 on:** April 20, 2016, 10:11:12 am »

This happened again for me too. This time I noticed that one of the scheduled recordings failed to record anything while another that was scheduled to start at about the same time went on all night and only stopped when I rebooted my PC the next morning.

I'm not sure what information I can provide to help solve it.

Yaobing · « **Reply #9 on:** April 20, 2016, 04:25:03 pm »

Did you guys get log files?

imcardle · « **Reply #10 on:** April 20, 2016, 05:51:52 pm »

Here you go Yaobing:

https://we.tl/lUJA0cu8fR

I couldn't attach the log file because it is too big! The link above is valid only for a few days - so please download and save the file locally if you need it for future reference.

The programme that failed to record was 'Hot Fuzz', and the one which ran for ages was 'First Dates'.

Yaobing · « **Reply #11 on:** April 21, 2016, 12:31:32 pm »

Thanks for the log.

The log shows something very strange. It appears that DX D3D stuff failed, and for some reason a piece of code got repeatedly executed and it blocked the TV recording timer. I am still scratching my head about this behavior.

Maybe you can try updating your video/display drivers.

Also, as far as I can tell from the logs, both recordings "First Dates" and "Hot Fuzz" should have been recorded (both too long). The recording of Hot Fuzz started a couple of seconds before the other recording, and there were no indication of a failure. Another mystery.

imcardle · « **Reply #12 on:** April 21, 2016, 03:03:50 pm »

Hi Yaobing,

So the mystery deepens! I've no idea why the DX stuff would be misbehaving. I am actually relying on the Intel HD3000 graphics, for which there does not appear to be a recent update of the driver. Maybe I should spend some money and get myself a proper graphics card!

That's interesting what you found in the log file about the two shows that I was trying to record. I found that there are indeed listings for both of them in the standard view, but "Hot fuzz" doesn't show up in theatre view's recorded TV list. I discovered that I can playback the missing "Hot fuzz" if I click the "Watch" button in standard view - so the files are there, albeit 8 hours long. Maybe this gives you another clue?

Yaobing · « **Reply #13 on:** April 21, 2016, 03:38:10 pm »

Is it a movie or a TV show? In theater view they are in different locations (unless you have your own custom view which put them together).

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #14 on:** April 21, 2016, 03:48:24 pm »

Quote from: imcardle on April 21, 2016, 03:03:50 pm

Hi Yaobing,

So the mystery deepens! I've no idea why the DX stuff would be misbehaving. I am actually relying on the Intel HD3000 graphics, for which there does not appear to be a recent update of the driver. Maybe I should spend some money and get myself a proper graphics card!

A weak graphics card is not going to cause recording problems (maybe playback problems). I would lean more toward a funky TV card being the cause - if it doesn't turn out to be software related.

imcardle · « **Reply #15 on:** April 21, 2016, 04:08:01 pm »

Yes, you are correct - it's a movie and it does indeed show up in the movies list in theatre view - together with a few other movies that I remember setting up to record and then wondered why they never showed up in recorded TV. Well, I know now! Thanks for the tip.

As for the TV card, I'll see if there's a more recent driver for it but it's getting quite old now so they've probably stopped supporting it.

tzr916 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 21, 2016, 04:40:46 pm »

I had several very similar symptoms that appeared to be caused by the Server hanging/crashing when the Server was left in Theater View (not playing anything just showing the main menu). But no more hangs/crashes for me in recent versions (21.0.51 and up).

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=103143.0

muzicman0 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 21, 2016, 07:16:42 pm »

Nope, no crashes here. Just long recordings.

This is on my server, which is not used to watch, and very rarely goes into Theater View...only when I am testing something. And the server was very responsive to my clicks in MC.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2016, 05:09:25 am »

kstaurt posted information about the Hauppauge 955Q tuner on sale at Amazon for $40. I use the older 950Q which works very well, but at that price I think I get one too.
If you suspect that the Tuner is going bad, having a second Tuner to test with is helpful. I don't know what Country you are in or if the 955 is for USA only, so that would need to be checked.

Yaobing · « **Reply #19 on:** April 22, 2016, 09:55:28 am »

For this particular problem,I do not see the problem being the tuner. From imcardle's log, I saw a DirectX D3D problem that seems to be related to video rendering on screen (most likely in Theater view rendering). That was why I suggested updating video driver.

This is so baffling.

tzr916 · « **Reply #20 on:** May 14, 2016, 09:05:31 am »

Been holding off on upgrading Server until I see others report problems. Looked ok so did the upgrade. First night after updating to v81 and ran into a problem. Not sure what version I was running previously...

One of my recordings last night was still in progress this morning. "Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon" seven hours of recording 44GB on the drive and growing. All other recordings started and ended fine and MC on the server was working fine- Theater View navigation and live tv working. Closed MC and stopped the Media Server process in taskbar but the tuner did not release. Had to hard reboot the tuner. Link to log file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B82GqdDf8HSyY3ZJeUttNmZWT2M/view?usp=sharing

mwillems · « **Reply #21 on:** May 14, 2016, 09:14:38 am »

I had this issue three times this week after updating my server from version 70 on Monday (I think). It used to happen occasionally, but something has made it worse since 70.

I use an HDHomerun cablecard tuner. I can confirm that it seems to only happen when a second recording starts while one is already in progress. So, for example, if I record a show that starts at 11pm, and then another that starts at 11:30pm (on a different channel), one or both got stuck every time. I had overlap three times this week and every time lead to 40 or 50 GB files and had to hard reset the tuner. Then last night there was no 11 o'clock show, but only the 11:30 and it recorded fine, and all other singleton recordings worked fine.

imeric · « **Reply #22 on:** May 17, 2016, 08:05:54 am »

Was about to post a separate post but just saw that...Might be a different issue nevertheless logs are on their way to Yaobing (after having to force a restart this morning)
It just happened last night. I was recording 2 shows while watching another video file (not a TV recording)

Then wanted to go watch a bit of the game (1/2) recordings happening but MC froze in theater view and had to CTRL/ALT/Delete to get in the task manager. I just left everything as-is and went to bed as I didn't want to stop the recordings.

I ended up with one recording of 75 GB (the game) that should usually be around 17 GB and another of 26 GB (News that usually last one hour therefore should be 8GB)

But hey...I have my recordings

...(Another good reason why having multiple folders for recordings would be handy...It ate up all the remaining HD Space)

muzicman0 · « **Reply #23 on:** May 17, 2016, 08:55:34 am »

I also got another recording that didn't stop on Sunday night (Quantico). it was up to 77 GB before I caught it. No logs since this is so rare for me. maybe once every couple of weeks.

I use HDHomeRun's (2 of them) and HDHomeRun Prime's (also 2 of them).

Yaobing · « **Reply #24 on:** May 17, 2016, 09:49:38 am »

I wonder if some kind of security software such as antivirus is preventing MC from taking certain actions. This is just a wild guess. What do you guys use?

mwillems · « **Reply #25 on:** May 17, 2016, 10:10:00 am »

Quote from: Yaobing on May 17, 2016, 09:49:38 am

I wonder if some kind of security software such as antivirus is preventing MC from taking certain actions. This is just a wild guess. What do you guys use?

I only use Microsoft Security Essentials/Windows Defender, and I've exempted all of MC's processes and directories.

I've managed to narrow down the case that causes it for me, and it's actually the same case that has caused locked tuners for me in the past. I'm recording with an HDHomerun Prime to .jtv format. It's not just two simultaneous recordings, it's the following scenario:

1) Recording of show 1 on channel A begins at 11pm
2) Recording of show 2 also on channel A begins at 11:30pm
3) Recording of show 3 on channel B also begins at 11:30pm.

So to make it concrete, I record the Daily Show and the Nightly Show, both on comedy central back to back starting at 11. At the same time the nightly show is starting, the Late Show with Colbert begins on another channel. Both tuners stay locked and the Late show and the Nightly Show seem to keep recording indefinitely. That happens repeatably. The server instance of MC is also sometimes locked.

So something about the handoff from show one to show two, and the startup of show three around the same time is goofing something up. In the past when I had tuner lockups it also seemed to relate to the handoff of two back to back shows on the same channel. I've noticed that JRiver seems to record two shows back to back in the same directory and using the same physical tuner. I understand why that's the way it works (from a performance and tuner conservation standpoint), but would it be possible to use an unused tuner to start the second show with a low priority if a tuner is available? I say this because I have three tuners and there's never a time when all three are in use, so it would workaround the issue for me. If it's not possible or doesn't make sense I understand, just a thought.

I'll note that I also have an EPG refresh scheduled at 1am, but that shouldn't affect anything as they should all be done recording by then if everything is working.

muzicman0 · « **Reply #26 on:** May 17, 2016, 11:15:51 am »

I actually don't have any thing on my server for antivirus...I should probably remedy that, but at least for now, that means that it is not interfering.

Windows Firewall is off (I have a hardware firewall on my gateway).

imeric · « **Reply #27 on:** May 17, 2016, 12:17:31 pm »

McAfee with all Mc *.exe files excluded

imeric · « **Reply #28 on:** May 17, 2016, 12:21:26 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on April 21, 2016, 12:31:32 pm

Thanks for the log.

The log shows something very strange. It appears that DX D3D stuff failed, and for some reason a piece of code got repeatedly executed and it blocked the TV recording timer. I am still scratching my head about this behavior.

Maybe you can try updating your video/display drivers.

Also, as far as I can tell from the logs, both recordings "First Dates" and "Hot Fuzz" should have been recorded (both too long). The recording of Hot Fuzz started a couple of seconds before the other recording, and there were no indication of a failure. Another mystery.

Do you see the same in my logs? This seems very similar to what I had where the display froze and then the long recordings.

This seems like a new isseu as I didn't have this a few versions back. Wasn't something changed for Direct3D stuff lately?

Yaobing · « **Reply #29 on:** May 17, 2016, 03:13:58 pm »

Quote from: imeric on May 17, 2016, 12:21:26 pm

Do you see the same in my logs? This seems very similar to what I had where the display froze and then the long recordings.

This seems like a new isseu as I didn't have this a few versions back. Wasn't something changed for Direct3D stuff lately?

No, this one is different from the previous one. The previous one seems to be caused by some kind of memory corruption that caused the TV recording manager to skip a block of code (that would stop recordings when they should be stopped). This new log shows DirectShow hanging when you tried to play one of the recordings. The hang prevented the TV manager from be invoked.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #30 on:** May 17, 2016, 05:55:54 pm »

Quote from: imeric on May 17, 2016, 08:05:54 am

MC froze in theater view and had to CTRL/ALT/Delete to get in the task manager.

This is a side issue, but; I found Theatre View locked when I woke my HTPC from sleep, after I had been doing some maintenance on drivers etc.

I was able to unlock Theatre View just by using Ctrl+1 to switch to Standard View, then I could Ctrl+4 back to Theatre View which was then functional. This has worked for me on a number of the very rare occasions when I see lock ups of Theatre View.

Have you tried that instead of just leaving it in the state it was in, or forcing a close, or rebooting etc.? It might work. But it doesn't always.

imeric · « **Reply #31 on:** May 18, 2016, 07:35:11 am »

Nope. Thanks for the tip I'll try this next time.

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Author Topic: Very long TV recordings - sometimes (Read 14278 times)