Unusual Problem

[NetworkGuy]

I had a unusual problem last night. We were watching a recorded show and when it ended, all I had was a spinning circle for almost a minute. When it cleared and I tried to watch another show, I again got a spinning circle for almost a minute.

I noticed an "i" system message. When I checked, I found the following message: (messages from sagetvmsgs.log)

pri=1;type=1052;time=1483063393506;msg=The recording of "Hell's Kitchen" on WNYWDT at Thu 12/29 20:00 was not completed because of conflicts recording on other tuners. A partial recording of that program has been saved.;VChannelName=WNYWDT;VStartTime=1483059600000;VTitle=Hell's Kitchen;VAiringID=22759663;

pri=1;type=1052;time=1483070400020;msg=The recording of "America's Got Talent" on WNBCDT at Thu 12/29 21:00 was not completed because of conflicts recording on other tuners. A partial recording of that program has been saved.;VStartTime=1483063200000;VChannelName=WNBCDT;VAiringID=22759775;VTitle=America's Got Talent;

When I checked recording schedule, it said there were no recordings scheduled. (I am guessing because there were no tuners available, but I am not sure why.)

I rebooted the system and everything seems normal.

I am not attaching the SageTV log, since nothing was written to the log.

I am on V7 and using OpenDCT.

Suggestions?

Thanks,
John

[EnterNoEscape]

It's hard to say what actually happened without any logs. The messages would indicate that OpenDCT stopped responding, but the reason why will likely being in the log archive (C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\logs\archive). If you can post the most recent log in that folder and C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\logs\wrapper.log, I can probably get an idea of what happened.

[NetworkGuy]

Log attached.

The only thing that changed in my setup was that I installed a new Cable Modem yesterday morning.

Thanks,
John

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Log attached.

The only thing that changed in my setup was that I installed a new Cable Modem yesterday morning.

Thanks,
John

You ran out of memory within OpenDCT. What appears to have happened was that some of the streams coming in where taking a very long time to be detected because the PAT and/or PMT packets were invalid and this chewed up a lot of on heap memory that for some reason did not trigger a garbage collection. I could not tell you if this won't happen again, but the good news is that this kind of problem appears to be fixed in the beta which will become the new stable version soon.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

You ran out of memory within OpenDCT. What appears to have happened was that some of the streams coming in where taking a very long time to be detected because the PAT and/or PMT packets were invalid and this chewed up a lot of on heap memory that for some reason did not trigger a garbage collection. I could not tell you if this won't happen again, but the good news is that this kind of problem appears to be fixed in the beta which will become the new stable version soon.

I had a problem with one of the HDHomeRun Primes. It forgot half of my channels, so I would get intermittent failures. I reran the Prime Channel scan and it fixed the problem. To test it, I was recording 6 channels at once. Something that I normally do not do. It has never happened before, so maybe that is what cased the problem.

I love it when there is an explanation and even better when there is a fix.

I will keep watch for when the beta becomes stable.

Thanks!

[NetworkGuy]

Hi EnterNoEscape,

I am guessing this is a re-occurance the same problem of running out of memory.

Do you have an ETA on when the Beta will become the new stable version?

Thanks,
John

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Hi EnterNoEscape,

I am guessing this is a re-occurance the same problem of running out of memory.

Do you have an ETA on when the Beta will become the new stable version?

Thanks,
John

This is a little different. The PMT packets appear to be either encrypted or non-existent resulting in a very long time to detect the streams. We are on RC2 in the beta, so I would consider that to be very close to a "stable" release. I don't see any harm in trying it out. There's one identified HTTP related issue with RC2 that doesn't effect anything you're doing.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

This is a little different. The PMT packets appear to be either encrypted or non-existent resulting in a very long time to detect the streams. We are on RC2 in the beta, so I would consider that to be very close to a "stable" release. I don't see any harm in trying it out. There's one identified HTTP related issue with RC2 that doesn't effect anything you're doing.

It always seems to happen on the same HDHR and always on one of the "premium" channels. (i.e. Bravo, Lifetime, etc.)

Do you think the HDHR could be failing? Are there any tests I can run on it?

Thanks,
John

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

It always seems to happen on the same HDHR and always on one of the "premium" channels. (i.e. Bravo, Lifetime, etc.)

Do you think the HDHR could be failing? Are there any tests I can run on it?

Thanks,
John

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with your HDHomeRun. This is an identified issue that was addressed in newer versions of OpenDCT and also with the internal remuxer SageTV uses. It's more likely a firmware bug.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with your HDHomeRun. This is an identified issue that was addressed in newer versions of OpenDCT and also with the internal remuxer SageTV uses. It's more likely a firmware bug.

Thanks for the explanation.

I really appreciate all of the great support.

[NetworkGuy]

Happened again. It always seems to be a premium channel (Bravo, TNT, USA, etc.) and happen on the same HDHR tuner.

Since it is only once seems to happen once a week with only one show, I will wait until the new release is stable.

Thanks!

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Happened again. It always seems to be a premium channel (Bravo, TNT, USA, etc.) and happen on the same HDHR tuner.

Since it is only once seems to happen once a week with only one show, I will wait until the new release is stable.

Thanks!

There is an RC available right now. I really recommend upgrading to see if it fixes this for you.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

There is an RC available right now. I really recommend upgrading to see if it fixes this for you.

I will give it a try this weekend.

Thanks!

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I will give it a try this weekend.

Thanks!

I mostly say this because if you're having a problem and it still exists in the beta, I want to have it fixed before I finalize the new stable release.

[NetworkGuy]

Hi EnterNoEscape,

I installed the Beta software and ran a test, recording 6 shows at once. Not only did the problem reoccur, but it seems worse. It is happening on more than one channel now.

Unfortunately, I did not backup the OpenDCT program directory before upgrading. What is the best way to go back to the previous release?

Thanks,
John

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Hi EnterNoEscape,

I installed the Beta software and ran a test, recording 6 shows at once. Not only did the problem reoccur, but it seems worse. It is happening on more than one channel now.

Unfortunately, I did not backup the OpenDCT program directory before upgrading. What is the best way to go back to the previous release?

Thanks,
John

Change hdhr.always_tune_legacy=false to true in opendct.properties. It looks a little like your HDHomeRun Primes don't agree on what channels they can tune in the web interface.

If you want to go back, you just need to uninstall the version you have installed, then you can re-install the older version.

[NetworkGuy]

OK. I made the change and have scheduled another test. I will let you know what happens.

Thanks,
John

[NetworkGuy]

OK. Same problem.

I went back and checked, EVERY time it happened it was always the same HDHR 13199518.

I switched the LAN cable and the port, so I know it is not that. I am thinking it has to be the TV Cable, the HDHR, or the CableCard. The problem had NEVER happened on the other Prime.

I looked at the 518 HDHR log and there are lots of problems. But take a look at the image. The signal quality is only 66%. Both HDHR's from the same spliter, so I am guess maybe the cable or the spliter.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

OK. Same problem.

I went back and checked, EVERY time it happened it was always the same HDHR 13199518.

I switched the LAN cable and the port, so I know it is not that. I am thinking it has to be the TV Cable, the HDHR, or the CableCard. The problem had NEVER happened on the other Prime.

I looked at the 518 HDHR log and there are lots of problems. But take a look at the image. The signal quality is only 66%. Both HDHR's from the same spliter, so I am guess maybe the cable or the spliter.

That's incredibly low. I would fix that.

[NetworkGuy]

I went out and brought a new coax cable. Take a look at the signal quality now.

I have a test running, recording 6 shows simultaneously and it appears to be running without any problems.

I want to thank you again for all of your help and support.