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[bellbuoy]

I have been trying to replace Windows Media Center with another DVR program for about five years.  I bought Media Center 21 and have been upgrading through all the versions since then.  I have used Media Center for music and for viewing recordings for all of those years, but I have never had success with recording OTA programming using my various HD HomeRun devices.  I have used an original two tuner device, an Extend, a Connect Duo and my current Connect Quattro.  They have all had the same problem, blockiness of varying degrees from annoying to unwatchable.

I have attached a snip of the blockiness. (I can not figure out how to use the "insert image" button)
I have attached the log of a recording I just made.   ( I have a rather speedy computer, but while I was making the recording with logging enabled, the entire computer slowed waaay down)

I have been using HD Homerun's DVR for making my recordings which come out perfect, as they also do in Plex.  I watch these recordings on Media Center,  whose playback quality, including closed captions, is the best by far.  I have been using EPG123 for guide data sourced from Silicon Dust.  For some reason I have to manually update it, but the data is worth it.  It includes ratings for old movies that I find very valuable.  When your silicon dust EPG gets the bugs worked out, that will be great.  I am looking forward to only having one media program to fill my needs.

I am running Win 10 home version 2004 (latest) with the latest silicon dust soft and firmware.  This is a Connect Quattro, which is antenna only, not a cable card so there should be no DRM issues, if I am not mistaken.   

[DeaneG]

I'm using Connect Quattros too and have not had recording issues. What antivirus are you running? Have you excluded media center processes and recording file locations from your antivirus?

[bellbuoy]

Thanks for the input.  I am glad to know that someone with a Quattro can get good quality recordings.  I am only using Windows built in virus protection.  I just looked in there and saw no accommodations to let apps or files through.  This is a brand new Windows installation.  I had to reinstall it due to a malware infection that occurred when I tried leaving my computer always on to act as a Plex server.  I'm not doing that anymore.  What virus protection are you using?

[bellbuoy]

I just tried changing to Red October HQ, no difference.   I noticed that it requires a speedy computer.  I am using an Intel Core i5-8400 CPU with 8 GB ram through an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti .  Should that configuration use Red October HD?

[Yaobing]

The type of Red October only affects playback quality, and does not change anything regarding recording.

[RoderickGI]

(I can not figure out how to use the "insert image" button)

You can zip the video file and attached it as you did the other zip files. Or you could upload it to a cloud storage site such as Google Drive, DropBox, or OneDrive, and share the URL with us.

I am using an Intel Core i5-8400 CPU with 8 GB ram through an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti .  Should that configuration use Red October HD?

That should be fine. I'm using an Intel® Core™ i5-3570K Processor with 16GB of memory and an MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card, and it can handle all video I throw at it. But as Yaobing says, that only affects playback, not recording.

Have you configured the HD HomeRun Connect Quattro to use JRiver BDA Compatibility Mode, as per the Wiki article? See https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/TV_Tuners#HDHomeRun 
Ah, I see you have done that: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,119484.msg826316.html#msg826316

I see you had help getting EPG123 up and running. You can certainly automate that process easily, either inside MC or externally. EPG123 is just another way of getting XMLTV data from Schedules Direct, and can be run from within MC quite easily. If you get stuck there are a lot of threads on the forum about EPG123. The EPG Wiki provides just about everything you need to know, and this post explains how to set up MC2XML to collect Schedules Direct data, which is similar to using EPG123.

As to the blockiness, that could be interference from other DVR programs accessing the HD HomeRun tuners. As you have a new Windows 10 installation I assume that you no longer have Windows Media Center installed on the PC. WMC could definitely cause problems with recordings, even when it wasn't running, as it always had tasks running in the background which touched tuners. I believe the Silicon Dust technical people suggested that could be the case with their DVR software.

Are you still running PLEX as well? That could also interfere with MC recordings. Note that because DVR software runs processes in the background, turning them off may not be enough to stop the interference, unless you dig deep into their configuration, and possibly the Windows Registry. Uninstalling them is the only way to be sure there is no interference. Also, you had PLEX running on your NAS I believe? It could well be communicating with the tuners. That would also need to be uninstalled, despite the risk of an uprising at home. WAF is real!

You seem to have made progress with all this back in 2019: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,119484.msg826354.html#msg826354
What changed?

[JimH]

Thanks for the input.  I am glad to know that someone with a Quattro can get good quality recordings.  I am only using Windows built in virus protection.  I just looked in there and saw no accommodations to let apps or files through.  This is a brand new Windows installation.  I had to reinstall it due to a malware infection that occurred when I tried leaving my computer always on to act as a Plex server.  I'm not doing that anymore.  What virus protection are you using?

You still have to configure Windows Defender:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114101.0.html

[tzr916]

In MC check out OPTIONS > Television > General > folder for recording and time shifting
Can you tell us what that is set to? Is it the "C" drive, or an internal serial hard drive, or network (nas), etc.
If NAS, can you change that to non nas for testing?

[bellbuoy]

I have JR configured to put the recordings in Z:\James River  where Z drive is a network drive for my WD My Cloud NAS. 

I also have HD HomeRun recording engine residing on the same NAS. 

I had not known about having to configure Windows Defender with exclusions until now.  I did so, following the advice in the tutorial.  I made another recording and it had the usual artifacts. 

[bellbuoy]

Regarding the progress that I seem to have made back in 2019, I did not make any, I just stopped.  It became too disruptive in the family to continue with every other DVR  uninstalled except JR and JR not able to make watchable recordings regardless of what we tried.  I had discovered that HD HomeRun (and Plex) made excellent recordings no matter what, and that they played back beautifully through JR, so that is what we have been doing.  I just supposed that there was some inherent problem with HD Homerun tuners and James River that was unsolved.  That is why I was thrilled to find that others were using them successfully.

[Yaobing]

JR MC runs time-shifting during recording.  That means it creates multiple files on disk and writes to them.  So it is important that the disk is fast (that is why you were asked about whether it is on a network drive).  It is also important that you don't let any anti-virus or other security software watch the folder because they tend to interfere when MC access the disk files.

As a test, you can try switching TV recording folder to a local drive, and see if the result is better.

[bellbuoy]

I changed the drive to my local C drive (which is a Solid State Drive) and made a recording.  The problems were much different.  There was still blockiness, but not as much.  But what was new is the jerking.  The entire program jerked at  intervals of less than one second without let up.  This even happened in live TV.  I moved the drive back to the NAS, and the jerkiness remained.  I looked at test recordings made the previous day, before changing drives, and there was no jerkiness at all.  I made a log of all that I just described.

[RoderickGI]

Signal problem? (Yes, I know PLEX and WMC didn't have the same issue, but maybe MC does.)

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,24031.msg878400.html#msg878400
https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=360866#p360866


Does it look like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHQqKw5eimE&feature=youtu.be

A signal that is too strong is just as bad as a weak signal.

[Yaobing]

You switched to Red October HQ a few days ago.  Switch it back to Red October Standard and try again.  It is likely that madVR for Red October HQ was not configured properly for your hardware.

[RoderickGI]

Another possible aspect to Signal Quality: Cables

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,126954.0.html

[bellbuoy]

I switched the Red October back to standard, no change.  What is Mad VR and can I configure it for my hardware so I can utilize HQ?
 I may have too much signal, however.  I have brand new (five years ago) highest quality RG6 co axial cable in a continuous run with no splices.  I installed this when initially trying to diagnose this problem.  I removed the old RG59 but retained the Channel Master 7777 amplifier.  I have to disconnect the amp on the roof.  We are in the middle of a large storm right now.  The forecast says I should be able to get up there in about two or three days.

[RoderickGI]

No fly-leads from a wall outlet to the tuner? If so, are they also new and in good condition?

That is a good idea to remove the amp for testing. A signal that is too strong is often a problem. You could get the signal strength tested at the tuner by an installer. They have good gear and the experience/knowledge to determine if there is an issue.

But I thought that would be a problem with other Apps as well, unless they monitor breakup and tell the tuner to do something to fix it. I guess that is possible. Only Yaobing would know.

Mad VR and RO HQ are all about video playback. You know that is working fine, as recordings from PLEX play fine. Don't start configuring MadVR manually. If anything try the different settings at "Options > Video > Quality Settings", which are preconfigured MadVR setting templates for different hardware capabilities. But as I said, that is for playback, not recording.

[JimH]

Can you say, with certainty, where the problem is?  Recording or playback?  File location?  Channels?

To test, as you probably know, you need to try alternatives.  Play with another program, record with another program.

Antivirus.  Your problem acts like limited bandwidth or CPU, since it is skipping regularly.  Antivirus can get in the way of writing and reading disks.

The Z drive is suspicious.  Network writes are slower.

Is the MC Library itself on a local drive?

If you have multiple tuners, try them one at a time.  Maybe one is blown.

Don't use ROHQ until RO Std works.

Bad power supplies on HDHomerun tuners have caused problems in the past.

Try to narrow down the conditions that cause the problem.