OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner.

[nyplayer]

I am happy with the default remuxer and I do not see myself changing back to the remuxer built into SageTV. When I get a chance I will test the Sage Remuxer on my test system and post appropriate logs.

[ldl72]

Hello All

Can someone take a look at my OpenDCT logs and advise as to what might be causing out of memory issues.

I know that I am using version 0.5.0, but I have tried every version up to 0.5.13, and the 0.5.0 version is the only one that tunes my COMCAST channels immediately. With the other versions I would see long tuning delays or no tuning at all.

A restart of OpenDCT and I am good for a month or two.

Thanks.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by ldl72

Hello All

Can someone take a look at my OpenDCT logs and advise as to what might be causing out of memory issues.

I know that I am using version 0.5.0, but I have tried every version up to 0.5.13, and the 0.5.0 version is the only one that tunes my COMCAST channels immediately. With the other versions I would see long tuning delays or no tuning at all.

A restart of OpenDCT and I am good for a month or two.

Thanks.

The out of memory issues are stemming from an optimization I tried to do that ended up causing long term OOM issues. The latest versions no longer appear to have these issues. I'll agree that Comcast is my biggest nemesis when it comes to OpenDCT. They do some very strange things with their streams.

[ldl72]

Thanks.

Due to the immediate tuning, I will continue using version 0.50, and restart OpenDCT when I have to.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by ldl72

Thanks.

Due to the immediate tuning, I will continue using version 0.50, and restart OpenDCT when I have to.

No problem. Often when you see OOM errors, someone did some bad programming. Part of the reason things got so slow was that when I added MPEG-PS support, I no longer could return immediately back to SageTV because it would often get the file format incorrect. This issue is resolved in v9, but some users are still running v7. Since the EPG data will be dropped in 6 months, I will be dropping v7 compatibility fixes after 0.5 becomes the new stable.

[ldl72]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I am currently running Sage V9.

I am happy with 0.5.0, but I plan to install your latest version, and will report back my tuning experiences.

Thanks.

[sflamm]

Added a BM3000-hdmi entry to the OpenDCT configuration but it is NOT showing up in SageTV... the HDHR entries are:

sagetv.device.1765263925.always_force_external_unlock=false
sagetv.device.1765263926.always_force_external_unlock=false
sagetv.device.1765263926.consumer=opendct.consumer.DynamicConsumerImpl
sagetv.device.1765263926.delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0
sagetv.device.1765263926.device_name=DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 131104FC-1
sagetv.device.1765263926.encoder_listen_port=9000
sagetv.device.1765263926.encoder_merit=0
sagetv.device.1765263926.encoder_pool=dct
sagetv.device.1765263926.exclusive_server_address=
sagetv.device.1765263926.fast_network_encoder_switch=true
sagetv.device.1765263926.last_channel=-1
sagetv.device.1765263926.transcode_profile=
sagetv.device.1765263927.always_force_external_unlock=false
sagetv.device.1765263927.consumer=opendct.consumer.DynamicConsumerImpl
sagetv.device.1765263927.delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0
sagetv.device.1765263927.device_name=DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 131104FC-2
sagetv.device.1765263927.encoder_listen_port=9000
sagetv.device.1765263927.encoder_merit=0
sagetv.device.1765263927.encoder_pool=dct
sagetv.device.1765263927.exclusive_server_address=
sagetv.device.1765263927.fast_network_encoder_switch=true
sagetv.device.1765263927.last_channel=-1
sagetv.device.1765263927.transcode_profile=
sagetv.device.79219557.channel_padding=0
sagetv.device.79219557.consumer=opendct.consumer.DynamicConsumerImpl
sagetv.device.79219557.custom_channels=
sagetv.device.79219557.device_name=STB-1
sagetv.device.79219557.encoder_merit=0
sagetv.device.79219557.fast_network_encoder_switch=true
sagetv.device.79219557.http_password=
sagetv.device.79219557.http_username=
sagetv.device.79219557.last_channel=-1
sagetv.device.79219557.pretuning_executable=
sagetv.device.79219557.stopping_executable=
sagetv.device.79219557.stopping_executable_delay_ms=15000
sagetv.device.79219557.streaming_url=http\://10.0.0.39/0.ts
sagetv.device.79219557.streaming_url2=
sagetv.device.79219557.streaming_url2_channels=
sagetv.device.79219557.transcode_profile=
sagetv.device.79219557.tuning_delay_ms=0
sagetv.device.79219557.tuning_executable=

Please advise.

[sflamm]

The BM3000-hdmi is now showing up as a source... (guess it needed to be restarted).

But it is not working at all. The source shows up as input type HDMI.
When I try to preview is says request "Watch request failed null."

Attaching screenshots.

This is SageTV 7.


Thanks in advance.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by sflamm

The BM3000-hdmi is now showing up as a source... (guess it needed to be restarted).

But it is not working at all. The source shows up as input type HDMI.
When I try to preview is says request "Watch request failed null."

Attaching screenshots.

This is SageTV 7.


Thanks in advance.

Does http://10.0.0.39/0.ts open up in VLC? If it does, then I'll want to see the OpenDCT logs. Otherwise, you have the wrong URL.

[sflamm]

If I add the HDHR it shows up as input type "Digital Tuner"... but the BMT3000 shows up as "HDMI"

The sagetv configuration looks similar:

mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/broadcast_standard=
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/contrast=-1
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/hue=-1
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/last_channel=
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/provider_id=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/100/0/video_crossbar_type=100
mmc/encoders/45654455/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/45654455/broadcast_standard=
mmc/encoders/45654455/capture_config=8192
mmc/encoders/45654455/default_device_quality=
mmc/encoders/45654455/delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/device_class=NetworkEncoder
mmc/encoders/45654455/encoder_host=10.0.0.2\:9000
mmc/encoders/45654455/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/encoding_host=10.0.0.2\:9000
mmc/encoders/45654455/fast_network_encoder_switch=true
mmc/encoders/45654455/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/45654455/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/last_cross_type=100
mmc/encoders/45654455/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/45654455/multicast_host=
mmc/encoders/45654455/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/45654455/video_capture_device_name=DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13185194-0
mmc/encoders/45654455/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/45654455/video_encoding_params=Great
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/broadcast_standard=
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/contrast=-1
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/hue=-1
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/last_channel=
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/provider_id=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/6/0/video_crossbar_type=6
mmc/encoders/944891802/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/944891802/broadcast_standard=
mmc/encoders/944891802/capture_config=2048
mmc/encoders/944891802/default_device_quality=Great-H.264
mmc/encoders/944891802/delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/device_class=NetworkEncoder
mmc/encoders/944891802/encoder_host=127.0.0.1\:9000
mmc/encoders/944891802/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:9000
mmc/encoders/944891802/fast_network_encoder_switch=true
mmc/encoders/944891802/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/944891802/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/last_cross_type=6
mmc/encoders/944891802/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/944891802/multicast_host=
mmc/encoders/944891802/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/944891802/video_capture_device_name=STB-1
mmc/encoders/944891802/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/944891802/video_encoding_params=Great

[sflamm]

Does http://10.0.0.39/0.ts open up in VLC? If it does, then I'll want to see the OpenDCT logs. Otherwise, you have the wrong URL.

It does. It plays fine in VLC.


Attaching logs.

[sflamm]

Running 0.5.22-RC4

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by sflamm

It does. It plays fine in VLC.


Attaching logs.

OpenDCT doesn't show that SageTV was talking to it. The issue is most likely on the SageTV side of things. I think you can get that error if you're using the SageTV Windows client. I believe the fix for that is just closing the client out and re-opening it.

[sflamm]

I am running the client on the server... have restarted both the server and client... same result.

Isn't it odd that SageTV thinks the source is "HDMI" and NOT "Digital Tuner"?

[sflamm]

Ok - the solution was something embarassing... I was working on the machine via RDP and it of course did not like the renderer....

Switched to local machine and it is displaying properly.

[AlphaCrew]

Well spent pretty much all day converting my entire system from V7 to V9, got through it and resolved quite a few issues.

Guess what issue is still around.. You guessed it, I'm still missing all scheduled recordings on the Infinity4 and OpenDCT logs are still be created on a resume from hybrid sleep.

There is a difference however, the actual OpenDCT service is now fatally crashing on a resume.

Ive attached the logs and the plain text from the windows event viewer on the program termination.

Here is the final process I took to upgrade the server.

Backed up everything.
Uninstalled everything
Installed SageTV V7
Installed SageTV V9
Installed Latest Version of OpenDCT
Dropped in Sage.Properties and Win.biz files
Setup both Sage and DCT services to run under administrator accounts
Started up SageTV V9 and when through system configuration process.
Switched all channel lineups over to SD and set up all lineup for all listed tuners.
Removed every single plug-in and any remnants of their support files (some left overs in my Win.biz file was giving me all manor of grief.
Rebooted SageTV
Reinstalled all needed plugins without problems.

A brief check of all SageTV server functions was OK. Off to my other clients for upgrade.

Completed, around 7ish, all seemed "good to go" let server go to sleep, for an 7:58 show. Server woke 10min early as it is setup to do, but once again none of the Infinity4 tuners are available and all scheduled show are 'managed by Sage', but this time the service crashed.

[Monedeath]

A question and a feature request. The feature request first:

How much pain would be involved in setting up a monitoring routine that periodically(choose interval) checks for a signal strength drop on a given tuner over time and set it to pass an alert if it sees a change happen that exceeds a specified threshold?

IE it detects if the signal strength drops by 6db compared to the day before, and the drop is a sustained (long duration) decrease. Just had a round where we had our 40+ year old OTA Antenna decide to fail, and in the process of implementing a solution until we're able/willing to climb up on the roof to figure out what happened(of course it waited until there was a foot or so of snow up there), we accidently disturbed the cable connections on some other tuners tied into CableTV. Made for quite the troubleshooting party...

The question is: How well does this OpenDCT behave on a 32-bit (Windows) Operating System alongside SageTV? I know it works as a 32 bit program, but that's not quite the same thing when you have 64 bit memory space for other things to work within.

At this point, it is starting to look like CableOne is starting to test the limits of SageDCT even without us messing with the connections to the CableCard. Getting Sage on a 64bit system is on the to-do list, but we'd like to wait a little longer on that if we can.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Well spent pretty much all day converting my entire system from V7 to V9, got through it and resolved quite a few issues.

Guess what issue is still around.. You guessed it, I'm still missing all scheduled recordings on the Infinity4 and OpenDCT logs are still be created on a resume from hybrid sleep.

There is a difference however, the actual OpenDCT service is now fatally crashing on a resume.

Ive attached the logs and the plain text from the windows event viewer on the program termination.

Here is the final process I took to upgrade the server.

Backed up everything.
Uninstalled everything
Installed SageTV V7
Installed SageTV V9
Installed Latest Version of OpenDCT
Dropped in Sage.Properties and Win.biz files
Setup both Sage and DCT services to run under administrator accounts
Started up SageTV V9 and when through system configuration process.
Switched all channel lineups over to SD and set up all lineup for all listed tuners.
Removed every single plug-in and any remnants of their support files (some left overs in my Win.biz file was giving me all manor of grief.
Rebooted SageTV
Reinstalled all needed plugins without problems.

A brief check of all SageTV server functions was OK. Off to my other clients for upgrade.

Completed, around 7ish, all seemed "good to go" let server go to sleep, for an 7:58 show. Server woke 10min early as it is setup to do, but once again none of the Infinity4 tuners are available and all scheduled show are 'managed by Sage', but this time the service crashed.

Very interesting. Based on the times you're giving me, I can finally make more sense of the logs. Windows told OpenDCT that it had resumed 5 minutes after it had told it that it was going to sleep. OpenDCT started it's resuming operations, then Windows actually went into standby. When it came back, more than the allowed time had passed so OpenDCT thought there was a serious problem and restarted.

Try changing pm.network.resume_timeout_ms to pm.network.resume_timeout_ms=0. That will disable the timeout.

[sflamm]

Exceptions occurring when stream started with source from OpenDCT connected to HDHR:

Sat 1/21 19:51:28.681 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC sent request to 127.0.0.1:9000 of GET_FILE_SIZE \\NAS\public\Test\DCTHDHomeRunPrimeTuner131104FC2on1270019000DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Sat 1/21 19:51:29.286 [MediaServerConnection@f6bbb3] Error in MediaServerConnection of :java.io.IOException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
Sat 1/21 19:51:30.380 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC received response from 127.0.0.1:9000 of 0
Sat 1/21 19:51:30.383 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC sent request to 127.0.0.1:9000 of GET_FILE_SIZE \\NAS\public\Test\DCTHDHomeRunPrimeTuner131104FC2on1270019000DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Sat 1/21 19:51:30.389 [MediaServerConnection@185a4a] Error in MediaServerConnection of :java.io.IOException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
Sat 1/21 19:51:32.539 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC received response from 127.0.0.1:9000 of 0
Sat 1/21 19:51:36.558 [PooledThread@f6bbb3] MMC sent request to 127.0.0.1:9000 of GET_FILE_SIZE \\NAS\public\Test\DCTHDHomeRunPrimeTuner131104FC2on1270019000DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Sat 1/21 19:51:37.120 [MediaServerConnection@f2976] Error in MediaServerConnection of :java.io.IOException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
Sat 1/21 19:51:38.369 [PooledThread@f6bbb3] MMC received response from 127.0.0.1:9000 of 0
Sat 1/21 19:51:38.374 [PooledThread@f6bbb3] MMC sent request to 127.0.0.1:9000 of GET_FILE_SIZE \\NAS\public\Test\DCTHDHomeRunPrimeTuner131104FC2on1270019000DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Sat 1/21 19:51:38.377 [MediaServerConnection@185a4a] Error in MediaServerConnection of :java.io.IOException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
Sat 1/21 19:51:40.578 [PooledThread@f6bbb3] MMC received response from 127.0.0.1:9000 of 0
Sat 1/21 19:51:44.686 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC sent request to 127.0.0.1:9000 of GET_FILE_SIZE \\NAS\public\Test\DCTHDHomeRunPrimeTuner131104FC2on1270019000DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Sat 1/21 19:51:44.838 [MediaServerConnection@f6bbb3] Error in MediaServerConnection of :java.io.IOException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
Sat 1/21 19:51:45.996 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC received response from 127.0.0.1:9000 of 0
Sat 1/21 19:51:46.000 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC sent request to 127.0.0.1:9000 of GET_FILE_SIZE \\NAS\public\Test\DCTHDHomeRunPrimeTuner131104FC2on1270019000DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Sat 1/21 19:51:46.007 [MediaServerConnection@185a4a] Error in MediaServerConnection of :java.io.IOException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
Sat 1/21 19:51:48.103 [PooledThread@f2976] MMC received response from 127.0.0.1:9000 of 0
Sat 1/21 19:51:48.134 [PooledThread@f2976] Seeker.finishWatch(/127.0.0.1:54108@@SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI)

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

A question and a feature request. The feature request first:

How much pain would be involved in setting up a monitoring routine that periodically(choose interval) checks for a signal strength drop on a given tuner over time and set it to pass an alert if it sees a change happen that exceeds a specified threshold?

IE it detects if the signal strength drops by 6db compared to the day before, and the drop is a sustained (long duration) decrease. Just had a round where we had our 40+ year old OTA Antenna decide to fail, and in the process of implementing a solution until we're able/willing to climb up on the roof to figure out what happened(of course it waited until there was a foot or so of snow up there), we accidently disturbed the cable connections on some other tuners tied into CableTV. Made for quite the troubleshooting party...

The question is: How well does this OpenDCT behave on a 32-bit (Windows) Operating System alongside SageTV? I know it works as a 32 bit program, but that's not quite the same thing when you have 64 bit memory space for other things to work within.

At this point, it is starting to look like CableOne is starting to test the limits of SageDCT even without us messing with the connections to the CableCard. Getting Sage on a 64bit system is on the to-do list, but we'd like to wait a little longer on that if we can.

That depends on what passing an alert means. It's trivial to poll values. There's already a thread that tracks all of the tuners that checks for copy protection flags and if they stop streaming data for any reason. Did you want something to show a message in SageTV or just show a warning in the logs?

I haven't done any testing on 32-bit Windows. I can say that the JVM is limited to 768MB and for most people get gets nowhere near that.