Topic: Recordings Creating Multiple Files (Read 3388 times)

sftaylor · « **on:** July 12, 2018, 10:44:30 pm »

Today all of a sudden my TV Recordings are making multiple files, typically 3, and it shows up as 3 programs in TV Shows. So far, two of them are approx. 5 seconds, and the third is full run time (so far anyway). Any clues or experiences with this issue? FYI, there are no events in windows event viewer to log what happened.

Yaobing · « **Reply #1 on:** July 12, 2018, 10:59:51 pm »

Running build 41?

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,116585.0.html

sftaylor · « **Reply #2 on:** July 12, 2018, 11:11:02 pm »

Yes, it is build 41. The weird part is that it just started, and I have been running this config for 2 months. I have a large disk, and the same antivirus I have been running for the duration.

sftaylor · « **Reply #3 on:** July 12, 2018, 11:28:03 pm »

Now I am discovering that some of the broken recorded sections say no tuner available and will not let me view it, even though it is not live and recorded on the HDD. I don't know what happened, but this software was working flawlessly until this week

Update: Now I have noticed that if I cancel a current recording, and then try to go watch it in TV Shows, sometimes it says "No Tuner Available" and won't let me watch it - what? Even if I use Easus Backup to recover the original partition, it makes no difference.

Yaobing · « **Reply #4 on:** July 13, 2018, 10:08:44 am »

"No tuner available" indicates you were trying to watch a show live.

Your situation may be different from what tzr916 reported. His was caused by clients synchronizing with the server and the server not handling the recording action cache correctly. That problem was fixed in the next build.

If you were not running clients at the same time the problem occurred, it might be possible that it was caused by other things. I can't however think of anything that could have caused it.

sftaylor · « **Reply #5 on:** July 13, 2018, 11:51:58 am »

I was trying to watch it from the Video/Shows section. There were 3 files for the show, and they all said No Tuner Available when trying to watch the program.

Yaobing · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2018, 04:35:55 pm »

Quote from: sftaylor on July 13, 2018, 11:51:58 am

I was trying to watch it from the Video/Shows section. There were 3 files for the show, and they all said No Tuner Available when trying to watch the program.

Have you tried rebooting your computer? It might be possible that the recordings, not being properly terminated, had a "still recording" flag on. That would cause MC to try locating the tuner that is supposedly still recording the file.

sftaylor · « **Reply #7 on:** July 14, 2018, 10:20:17 am »

Rebooting did resolve that, but here is something else new. I was using JTV file format when I had the problems with multiple files, so I switched to TS. After that, at least for a short duration I had no problem. I kept monitoring the recorded folder, and later I saw where 3 shows were being recorded as JTV files in a folder, even though I have it configured to record as TS file. I seem to have a ghost in this software.

Yaobing · « **Reply #8 on:** July 14, 2018, 10:42:08 am »

What are the filenames of those JTV files?

sftaylor · « **Reply #9 on:** July 14, 2018, 11:56:13 am »

These images will show you

tzr916 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 14, 2018, 01:46:25 pm »

I believe that is normal, while the recording is going on, to allow for timeshift/watching while recording. Once the recording "finishes", those JTV files/folders should automatically delete, leaving only the one TS file.

sftaylor · « **Reply #11 on:** July 14, 2018, 02:10:23 pm »

Thanks tzr916

Here are two images showing two different results when recording a program. The top one works, the bottom does not.

Yaobing · « **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2018, 06:07:42 pm »

Do you use a client computer to watch TV show live? If you do, the server will have jtv files showing up as recordings, but they are not playable. They are there to remind users at the server that someone is connected to the server. In the description of such a file you will see "currently serving clients".

sftaylor · « **Reply #13 on:** July 14, 2018, 08:31:03 pm »

No, I use the same computer that JRiver is installed on.

Note: I will be gone for a few days, so I won't be able to reply, but it is important to me to get this running right. So, I will follow up when I get home.

Yaobing · « **Reply #14 on:** July 15, 2018, 09:11:58 am »

Some questions for you when you come back:

Did you record the show "Ready Or Not" on July 14? Was the recording successful? Did you watch this show live?

Are all three entries JTV files?

You can go to Standard view and check these entries and find out exactly where they are, and what file names they have.

Do you have your TV recordings folder watched by MC and auto-import from it? TV shows recorded inside MC need not be auto-imported since they are already imported upon recording. From time to time some TV time-shifting files may end up being left on disk, usually incomplete files that are not playable. If they get imported, you may end up having those entries in MC but can not play them.

You can run "Clean up time-shifting folders" from time to time to eliminate these orphaned files. You can find this tool in two places: Right-click "Television" tree branch, or in TV Options, in "General" group.

sftaylor · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2018, 05:44:56 pm »

I see where the folder was in auto-import. I removed it, and will let you know if it is fixed after a day or so of using it.

sftaylor · « **Reply #16 on:** July 18, 2018, 10:19:43 pm »

The only issue I've had since yesterday, was when I watched a recorded TV show from the beginning while still recording. It had two files in recorded shows folder, one said the minutes recorded, and the other said still recording. I chose the first and it played fine. So, I exited, and after the program ended recording, I went back to watch it in it's entirety, and there were two files still. One was the file I started to watch, and the other was the remainder of the program. It had split prior to me watching it and stayed that way, Now I have a two part recorded program?

UPDATE: Another show did the same exact thing.

JimH · « **Reply #17 on:** July 19, 2018, 12:31:43 am »

Choose from within MC, not from the file system.

sftaylor · « **Reply #18 on:** July 19, 2018, 01:38:30 am »

I am going thru Media Center. The top one is 39 minutes, and the bottom is 23 minutes. Both play, and this is the second time this has done this to me within the last day. The recorded TV folder shows it exactly the same.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #19 on:** July 19, 2018, 02:41:25 am »

As you have had recordings that wouldn't play, displaying the "No tuner available" message, and you have single programs being broken down into multiple files, I would say you have a tuner reliability problem. Either something has changed in the signal path to your tuner (antenna, cabling, the line of sight to transmission towers has been obscured) and the signal you are receiving is now weaker, or the tuner(s) is failing, or the power supply for the tuner(s) is failing.

The "No tuner available" message occurred because something went wrong in a recording process, and the tuner failed to tell MC it was free again. Rebooting the PC fixed that.
The multipart recordings could occur (I think - Yaobing can confirm or otherwise) if during a recording the signal is lost, so MC finishes the recording, and then the signal comes back, and as MC knows it should be recording that program, it starts recording again. (I know I can force multipart recordings to happen by rebooting the PC while a recording is in progress, and then on restart of MC the recording restarts.)

What sort of tuner(s) do you have?
What brand and model, specifically?
How old are they?
If they are external (non-PCIe) tuners, have you rebooted them?
Have you been having any issues with your electricity provider, such as Brown-Outs? (A dropped voltage on the supply line could cause a tuner to hiccup, while the PC manages to continue running.)

sftaylor · « **Reply #20 on:** July 19, 2018, 07:58:24 am »

I tried different tuners prior, with the same result. However, since I removed the Recorded TV folder from auto-import, I haven't had the "no tuner available". The only issue I have had over the last two days, is two recorded programs had were split into two files in both MC, and the Recorded TV folder. I know what you are saying about possible causes, but when the split file events happened, there was no events in Windows Event Viewer, or bad weather, and they were on two different channels.

Yaobing · « **Reply #21 on:** July 19, 2018, 09:27:40 am »

Next time when you get a chance, turn on logging and try to reproduce the issue. Then email me the log.

sftaylor · « **Reply #22 on:** July 19, 2018, 09:39:39 am »

I will Yaobing

sftaylor · « **Reply #23 on:** July 19, 2018, 11:20:24 pm »

Yaobing, I have a log file to send you, but can't find an email to send it to...

Yaobing · « **Reply #24 on:** July 20, 2018, 07:30:13 am »

Quote from: sftaylor on July 19, 2018, 11:20:24 pm

Yaobing, I have a log file to send you, but can't find an email to send it to...

yaobing at jriver dot com

Yaobing · « **Reply #25 on:** July 20, 2018, 11:12:28 am »

Thanks for the log.

The problem appears to be the same as the one reported by tzr916, linked by me in my first post here, although it may have a different trigger. Some un-logged database procedures caused TV recording actions cache to be reset. This should have been fixed. Please try the next build when it comes out.

sftaylor · « **Reply #26 on:** July 20, 2018, 11:47:09 pm »

Thank you for assisting. Curiously asking, do you have an approximate eta for a new build?

Yaobing · « **Reply #27 on:** July 21, 2018, 08:31:25 am »

I do not know when a new build will be released. I guess it will not be too long.

If the issue bothers you too much you may consider rolling back to build 40 until the new build is out.

sftaylor · « **Reply #28 on:** July 21, 2018, 09:25:08 am »

Thanks Yaobing. I can deal with it rather than setting up a new media center, only just to do it again fairly quick. With the "Watch All" feature, it helps compensates for the multiple files. That said, I do look forward to the new build when available.

DeaneG · « **Reply #29 on:** July 24, 2018, 07:33:18 pm »

I am also suddenly getting multiple fragments of recorded TV shows - 2 seconds, three minutes, etc, with five fragments in about ten minutes. I've been running version 41 more or less since it was released, with no problems before this. Rebooting didn't fix the problem. A standalone setup - not client/server. Have not seen any "Tuner not Found" type messages.

Yaobing · « **Reply #30 on:** July 24, 2018, 10:49:48 pm »

Quote from: DeaneG on July 24, 2018, 07:33:18 pm

I am also suddenly getting multiple fragments of recorded TV shows - 2 seconds, three minutes, etc, with five fragments in about ten minutes. I've been running version 41 more or less since it was released, with no problems before this. Rebooting didn't fix the problem. A standalone setup - not client/server. Have not seen any "Tuner not Found" type messages.

Did you do something related to database (deleting files, renaming, etc.)? Database change is the trigger that I know of.

DeaneG · « **Reply #31 on:** July 25, 2018, 01:59:47 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on July 24, 2018, 10:49:48 pm

Did you do something related to database (deleting files, renaming, etc.)? Database change is the trigger that I know of.

I believe not, other that the usual things that happen when a TV show is recorded, then watched, or watched while being recorded. I just did a cleanup and it showed 12 orphaned folders.
I also just found out that a parent folder to JRiver's TV recording folder was set to auto-import, so I deleted that entry from the auto-import list. it probably got that way when I moved some TV recordings to this PC some weeks ago. Maybe it'll be OK now, I'll post back if not.

tzr916 · « **Reply #32 on:** July 25, 2018, 03:13:27 pm »

I don't understand all the confusion... https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,116585.0.html Version 41 has a bug and there's an EASY workaround - install the previous version of MC over the top of version 41 until the next (fixed) version comes out.

DeaneG · « **Reply #33 on:** July 25, 2018, 09:19:17 pm »

Right, thanks, I rolled back to v40 and turned off auto-update.

Yaobing · « **Reply #34 on:** July 30, 2018, 11:11:19 am »

Build 24.0.45 is out on MC24 board.

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Author Topic: Recordings Creating Multiple Files (Read 3388 times)