OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Thanks for all your help.

Out of curiosity, is OpenDCT honoring that time setting (I think I have up to 8 min now) you had me change?

I have no reason to believe that it's not, but the logging makes it seem like somehow it's still only waiting 2 minutes. Basically what happens when you return from standby is the the duration you have set is added to the current time in milliseconds. After each time the interfaces are checked, the current time is checked against the future time and as long the current time is lower, another interface check is started after 250ms. Some additional time is added (2000ms) if an APIPA address is detected because that usually means it might be a while before everything is talking again. The logic is fairly straight forward, but like I said, the logging is making me think it is stopping the checks early for some reason.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I have no reason to believe that it's not, but the logging makes it seem like somehow it's still only waiting 2 minutes. Basically what happens when you return from standby is the the duration you have set is added to the current time in milliseconds. After each time the interfaces are checked, the current time is checked against the future time and as long the current time is lower, another interface check is started after 250ms. Some additional time is added (2000ms) if an APIPA address is detected because that usually means it might be a while before everything is talking again. The logic is fairly straight forward, but like I said, the logging is making me think it is stopping the checks early for some reason.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

[AlphaCrew]

So it does appear that I'm seeing 2 different problems. After disabling all hybrid hibernation functions I'm no longer getting the OpenDCT crash logs.

Unfortunately I'm still missing shows on the Infiity4 turner. The conflict manager runs and because there are no turners for that channel line up at the time, it fails and the show is missed.

I discovered and fixed why some of the shows on the 2250's were also failing. I found them on the Infinity4 channel line up. So I've since put them on the 2250's channel line up and I'm now testing.

I don't want to upgrade to v9 until I get a handle on what's causing my Infinity4 to not work correctly in V7 with OpenDCT. I don't want to be compounding problems if at all possible.

So given that I'm no longer getting the crash logs, and yet still missing show recordings what do I look for now?

[AlphaCrew]

I'm curious, is any one else using hybrid hibernation functions with OpenDCT?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

I'm curious, is any one else using hybrid hibernation functions with OpenDCT?

I haven't slept my computer in years, but it honestly sounds like it's more an issue of the infinitv than it is OpenDCT.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I haven't slept my computer in years, but it honestly sounds like it's more an issue of the infinitv than it is OpenDCT.

I would of thought the same thing, but... (I even hate to say it like this), I did not have any of these problems with SageDCT. Which leads me to think it has something to do with OpenDCT.

[jhkoenig]

Fuzzy, I'm still doing something wrong! I have OpenDCT running, Sage v9 running, but I still can't get MediaServerConsumer to play back the "cable only" channels like HGTV or Bravo. Do I need specific settings in Sage? The only pattern I can find is that the broadcast channels are 29.997 FPS and the cable only channels are 60 FPS on Comcast in my area.

The freezing/stuttering continues, albeit the episodes are typically less than 1 second instead of 5. The good news is that my 6 year-old software configuration is now shiny new!

Any other thoughts? Thanks to you and EnterNoEscape for your expertise!

[egeller]

Originally Posted by jhkoenig

I still can't get MediaServerConsumer to play back the "cable only" channels like HGTV or Bravo. Do I need specific settings in Sage? The only pattern I can find is that the broadcast channels are 29.997 FPS and the cable only channels are 60 FPS on Comcast in my area.
Any other thoughts?

Is it all channels or only a few?

I have found that Comcast does strange things to certain channels the their encoding. You may need to use the FFMPEG alternative only.

The native SageTV remuxer may not be able to handle certain channels on a Comcast feed. If you had Ceton devices, then I'd point to bug #197. I am not sure how the Silicondust reacts to what Comcast does.

I hope I am not confusing issues here.

[jhkoenig]

Hi Egeller! The stutters are present on all channels. Ordering a new distribution amp to see if that helps. The MediaServerConsumer remuxer seems to choke on the 60 FPS channels (non-broadcast, like HGTV or Bravo, which REALLY impacts the WAF). I haven't dug into the finer points of OpenDCT configuration to get it to use different remuxers for different channels, but that may be my next challenge. Haven't seen any examples on the board, but it seems that a list of channel numbers shouldn't strain my abilities.

I'm open to any and all suggestions!

[Fuzzy]

If this was an HDHR Prime, I'd tell you to watch those channels from the HDHR's web interface, and see if they are clear there, but I know nothing about the InfiniTV devices and if that is possible, or if you can even view the signal strengths and quality on them while tuning.

[jhkoenig]

That's a great idea, Fuzzy! I'm using Primes, so I'll give the HDHR viewer a shot. Any examples of OpenDCT channel-specific remuxer configs you've seen on the web?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jhkoenig

That's a great idea, Fuzzy! I'm using Primes, so I'll give the HDHR viewer a shot. Any examples of OpenDCT channel-specific remuxer configs you've seen on the web?

I run everything default in OpenDCT with the exception of changing the consumer, and it works for all my channels basically flawlessly.

If you ARE using primes, then while recording of the problem channels in sage, browse to the HDHR's webpage -> Tuner Status -> Tuner [0,1,2], and look at your strength and quality numbers.

[jhkoenig]

Will do, Fuzzy. Thanks. Hoping for something to jump out at me.

I'm also dreaming of a an OpenDCT config that uses the MediaServerConsumer remuxer where I can and the FFmpeg remuxer where I must. Shortening the recovery time from the glitches may be as much as I can hope for.

[Fuzzy]

That's entirely possible, that is what the Dynamic Consumer section of the opendct.properties file is all about. Keep the default set as mediaserver, and add the channels that need ffmpeg to the dynamic consumer's ffmpeg channel list property (can't recall off hand what it is, but I remember it being relatively obvious). It's just a comma separated list of channel numbers.

[realcap]

Copied from 1st post by EnterNoEscape:

Dynamic Consumer Options:
Channel Range Notation
Channel ranges are defined by a number then a hyphen followed by another number (8-10). Multiple ranges are separated by a comma (13-15,8-10). ATSC channels are defined by a number (frequency channel) then a hyphen followed by a the channel number then a hyphen followed by the sub-channel number (50-8-1). The use of two hyphens automatically makes it literally a channel instead of a range.
Ex. 8-10,50-8-1,13-16 will match the following channels: 8, 9, 10, 50-8-1, 13, 14, 15, 16

consumer.dynamic.channels.ffmpeg=
These are the channels that will always be assigned to the transcoding FFmpeg consumer.

consumer.dynamic.channels.raw=
These are the channels that will always be assigned to the raw consumer.

consumer.dynamic.default=opendct.consumer.FFmpegTransSageTVConsumerImpl
This is the consumer always used if the channel currently tuned doesn't match the channels under consumer.dynamic.channels.ffmpeg or consumer.dynamic.channels.raw.

[AlphaCrew]

So a little more information about my missed shows with OpenDCT and SageTV V7.

So I've been trying to pin down what in the would is going on here, and I've spotted a patern.

1) Recording machine wakes from standard sleep. (No crash logs)
2) Any recording on the OpenDCT will be missing when I navigate to the sage Web Server that was written by nielm, jreichen and emok.
3) If I open either the client from another machine or the main SageTV program on the server the conflict manager is running for a second or two and then it goes away.
4) If I refresh the web interface those missing programs now show up, as long as the start time did not pass.

So it appears there is some communication problem with the SageTV Service and OpenDCT regarding the scheduling, and opening either UI corrects it..

Is OpenDCT simply incompatible with SageTV V7 Service?

I would really like to understand this before jumping into V9 (This weekend plans) if this is supposed to work with V7.

[Fuzzy]

One of the first improvements made to v9 was in the more robust detection of network encoders like OpenDCT. If a decoder is found to be non-functioning, like may happen right after waking, it will continue checking it until it is found. v7 would essentially forget about it until something asked about it (usually by navigating to the source details screen, where it shows Functioning: True/False).

Also, the 'conflict manager' is not something that runs separate from the rest. SageTV has one scheduler that does all it's work, whether it is scheduling manual recordings, favorites, or even figuring out how to watch a given airing live when selected from the guide. It will always be doing its best with what it has to find the best way to record everything you want it to, and if at any point it finds it cannot, it will notify you of with the conflict icon. Many things will trigger the scheduler to rebuild the schedule: waking, changing the watched/don't like of an airing, watching an airing, an EPG update, time passing, a channel being added or removed or an encoder going on or offline. Upgrading to v9 will likely improve your situation.

[jhkoenig]

AlphaCrew, I shared your hesitation to upgrade from my "perfectly good" v7 installation. Not touched for 6 years, I think.

Then I upgraded to v( in an attempt to eliminate some stuttering. After some study and preparation, the upgrade took 5 minutes. Also kept a copy of the originial v7 directory, so if things went badly I could have rolled back with trivial effort.

Now I'm prepared for the summer cataclysm of losing the EPG feed as a side benefit.

[SteveW]

I've run into an error while trying to install OpenDCT (4.49 32-bit). It almost finishes installing, when I get this error:

Product: OpenDCT -- Error 1926. Could not set file security for file 'C:\ProgramData\'. Error: 0. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to modify the security permissions for this file.

I'm on Win10 Pro 64 bit. I haven't run into this installing other apps. I'm logged in with an account that is administrator, and when I compare the rights on the ProgramData on this PC with another PC I have, they look identical. Googling hasn't turned up much useful on that install error.

Any ideas?

Tnx

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by SteveW

I've run into an error while trying to install OpenDCT (4.49 32-bit). It almost finishes installing, when I get this error:

Product: OpenDCT -- Error 1926. Could not set file security for file 'C:\ProgramData\'. Error: 0. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to modify the security permissions for this file.

I'm on Win10 Pro 64 bit. I haven't run into this installing other apps. I'm logged in with an account that is administrator, and when I compare the rights on the ProgramData on this PC with another PC I have, they look identical. Googling hasn't turned up much useful on that install error.

Any ideas?

Tnx

That's interesting. You just highlighted an issue I never noticed. The installer is giving write permissions one level higher than expected. I fixed this for the next release candidate. I'm not sure if Windows is preventing this from working or if your have some anti-virus preventing it from working.