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More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: nurowolf on May 08, 2008, 09:59:04 pm

Title: Podcast download problem
Post by: nurowolf on May 08, 2008, 09:59:04 pm
Hi - I think this is my first post.  Generally pretty happy with MC.  But have a problem with Podcast downloads ever since that latest V12 update comae out.


Basically I have Auto Download enabled.  However after a couple of days it stops updating the feed.  If I close MC and reopen - podcasts resume downloading.

This was not a problem in the previous version (note I skipped a couple of updates before I accepted this lates one)

Any ideas how I could trouble shoot this.

Are there any ports that I need to ensure are open?
Could it be a router port forwarding issue?
Anything else that I could look at.

Please advise - my wife is not happy with me on this.

Regards
Nuro
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 09, 2008, 08:16:27 am
Are you getting any errors? What happens if you manually download the podcasts?

j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: nurowolf on May 10, 2008, 10:11:25 pm
I am not getting any erros at all.

The podcast information does not seem to be updating.

I am not sure how to manually download the podcasts within MC.  But externally (ie using iTunes or any other packages) the podcasts work fine.

Also.  If I close and restart MC - then the podcasts are automatically update.

I have the Podcasts settings set to check for new podcasts every 10 minutes and to do 60 retires for failed downloads.

I really dont know what has happened. It worked fine before the latest version of MC.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on May 15, 2008, 05:44:18 pm
I have been experiencing this phenomenon as well, but my experience isn't limited to the most recent build. Very hard to identify why these problems are occurring as they don't affect all feeds and they are solved with a restart.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: nurowolf on May 19, 2008, 05:59:44 am
Yes - they are solved with a restart.  However my system resides on a server and is controlled by Netremote clients.

It is a pain to have to restart the system and it drops all the NetRemote links and requires all clients to also be restarted.

It would be nice if it just worked.

One - note of difference.  I find that when it stops downloading new podcasts it stops downloading all podcasts (or at least all the 11 that I am listening to) not just a few.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: nurowolf on May 19, 2008, 06:01:06 am
The main reason I bought MC was because of its multi-zone and podcast support.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: JimH on May 19, 2008, 06:37:58 am
All podcasts?  Or a specific one?  Which one?

What build of MC are you using?
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: nurowolf on May 19, 2008, 08:15:45 am
Yep - all POdcasts stop downloading (or being updated).

A restart always fixes the problem.  I then go a few days no problem - and then bang. no update podcats.

MC Build is 12.0.487

Samples of podcasts stoping being updated include
http://www.abc.net.au/news/subscribe/amrss.xml
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/money/rss.xml
http://www.theworld.org/rss/tech.xml

So they are all from different sources.

I thought it might be a blocked port - but that doesn't make sense if a restart of MC fixes the problem.



Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: JimH on May 19, 2008, 08:27:11 am
MC has logging (configured under Help).  Try to see if you can learn anything that way.

I wonder if the machine loses its connection to the outside world after a few days.

If this was an MC bug, I'd think we would have seen it long ago.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: SwellGuy on May 19, 2008, 09:46:01 am
I wonder if logging isn't actually the cause of the problem. Will you try turning off logging, restarting MC, let it run for several days and see if that clears up the problem?
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 19, 2008, 10:25:03 am
Check your log status first - if it is turned off, turn on just the podcasting part, and post it here (or if it is too big, send it to me gateley @ jriver.com). If it is turned on, try Rick's suggestion

j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on May 19, 2008, 11:07:41 pm
I've turned on logging for podcasting only and restarted MC. FWIW, I run MC as a Media Server and only access MC through remote desktop. I'll send a copy of the log when the problem recurs.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on May 21, 2008, 08:15:23 pm
John, per the above, the podcasts stopped downloading and the log file is 150MB in size.  How would you like me to communicate the contents to you.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 22, 2008, 09:01:30 am
Save the log file (in case I need it later), then reset it so you are starting with an empty log. Let MC run long enough to (not) download the podcasts and send/post the new shorter log. If I need the longer one, I'll figure out how to get it.

j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on May 22, 2008, 10:56:35 am
Save the log file (in case I need it later), then reset it so you are starting with an empty log. Let MC run long enough to (not) download the podcasts and send/post the new shorter log. If I need the longer one, I'll figure out how to get it.

j


That was what I had done-- and ended up with the 150MB file.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: JimH on May 22, 2008, 11:00:47 am
I seem to remember that one of the plug-ins added a lot of chatter to the log file.  Which ones are you running?
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 22, 2008, 12:10:38 pm
Also make sure that only podcasting is turned on in the logging options. -- j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on May 22, 2008, 02:26:40 pm
I seem to remember that one of the plug-ins added a lot of chatter to the log file.  Which ones are you running?

Only those that install as part of the default setup and only podcast logging was checked.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 22, 2008, 04:23:46 pm
Can you put it on a website somewhere? I'll download it...

j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 22, 2008, 04:26:50 pm
Also, is it compressed? If not, that should be about 15Mbytes... -- j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: Alex B on May 22, 2008, 05:34:59 pm
You could try 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org). It compresses better than standard zip. I just compressed a 3.8 MB text file to a 89 KB .7z file.

If it is still too big for mailing you can use a free file sharing service like Rapidshare (http://www.rapidshare.com) or similar.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on May 22, 2008, 11:21:32 pm
Also, is it compressed? If not, that should be about 15Mbytes... -- j


Sent you a PM with the link. File is only 2.5MB zipped.
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 23, 2008, 10:58:02 am
Thanks. Got it and I think I know what's going on... -- j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on May 23, 2008, 01:07:45 pm
Fixed in MC 12.0.505. -- j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on June 13, 2008, 11:30:13 pm
This problem is still occurring. I'll PM you a link to my log file (only about 350MB this time!)
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on June 18, 2008, 11:45:41 pm
bump
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on June 19, 2008, 10:30:11 am
Can you give me a podcast this is happening with? I'll try to reproduce it here. -- j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on June 19, 2008, 12:46:06 pm
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/itunes
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: John Gateley on June 19, 2008, 02:48:20 pm
Actually, I just fixed a bug that might cause this, look for the fix in an upcoming build and give it a try -- j
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: mabes on June 20, 2008, 11:55:07 am
You could try 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org). It compresses better than standard zip. I just compressed a 3.8 MB text file to a 89 KB .7z file.

If it is still too big for mailing you can use a free file sharing service like Rapidshare (http://www.rapidshare.com) or similar.

A little OT but I've got 7Zip and it works pretty well, but yesterday both me and my brother were trying to compress 200 MB of files and they didn't compress at all. I had "maximum" checked. 
Title: Re: Podcast download problem
Post by: DWAnderson on July 26, 2008, 10:53:51 am
Actually, I just fixed a bug that might cause this, look for the fix in an upcoming build and give it a try -- j


I've been testing the new build for a few weeks and that seems to have fixed the issue. Thanks.