Problems with HDHR on unRAID

[wayner]

I have been playing around with a new setup and for now I am using my HDHR OTA tuners since they are easy to use on any PC on your LAN.

Last night and early today I was able to record a couple of shows, but now I am having issues. I am able to get a signal when I go into the Channel Setup screen, but when I try to record I am not having any success. I see the file created in my TV folder but the file stays at 0 bytes. I tried rebooting the HDHR and that allowed a file to record for about two minutes and then the recording died.

Anyone else have issues with an HDHR under docker?

Here's an example from the logs:

Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [FSManager@6be70986] Async encoder halt detector found a halt; kick the Seeker so it can restart the device file=MediaFile[id=118828 A[12792,4393,"NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt",31507@0107.18:30,30,T] mask=TV host=gullane encodedBy=HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0 WGRZDT format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 10572 kbps [#0 Video[MPEG2-Video 29.97003 fps 1920x1080 16:9 interlaced id=e0]#1 Audio[AC3 48000 Hz 6 channels 384 kbps MAIN idx=1 id=bd-80010000 eng]#2 Audio[AC3 48000 Hz 1 channels 192 kbps idx=2 id=bd-81010000 eng]{SeriesInfoID=12308123}] /var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg, Seg0[Sat 1/7 18:30:09.207-Wed 12/31 19:00:00.000]] size=10777608
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] Seeker awoken
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] MemStats: Used=363MB Total=385MB Max=1908MB
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] MARK 1 currRecord=FA[stationID=31507 NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt time=Sat 1/7 18:30:00.000 dur=0:30:00] enc=HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0 clients=[UIManager:localhost@@448a5b24fb26-e4a05cf] ir=false
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] Seeker in AUTOMATIC mode nextRecord=null nextTTA=9223372036854775807
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] newRecord=FA[stationID=31507 NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt time=Sat 1/7 18:30:00.000 dur=0:30:00]
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] Record was enabled on what's already being recorded; update status.
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] Keeping record just the way it is.
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.104 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] MARK 1 currRecord=null enc=HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 1 clients=[] ir=false
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] Seeker in AUTOMATIC mode nextRecord=null nextTTA=9223372036854775807
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] newRecord=null
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] NOTHING TO RECORD FOR NOW...
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] RootFile=/ fstype=0x9123683e fileLength=10777608 file=/var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] SEEKER HAS DETECTED A HALT IN THE ENCODER...TRYING TO RESET IT file=/var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg size=10777608
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] VF.submitJob(VFJob[InactiveFile r=0.0 t=0 file=null ifn=/var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg])
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] VF.submitJob(VFJob[InactiveFile r=0.0 t=0 file=null ifn=/var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg])
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] stopEncoding for HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.105 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] Waiting for capture thread to terminate
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.107 [HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0-Encoder@514f4a56] HDHR_closeEncoding0(0x2b0b689199c0)
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.132 [HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0-Encoder@514f4a56] HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0 capture thread terminating
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.133 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] MediaFile startSegment enc=null MediaFile[id=118828 A[12792,4393,"NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt",31507@0107.18:30,30,T] mask=TV host=gullane encodedBy=HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0 WGRZDT format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 10572 kbps [#0 Video[MPEG2-Video 29.97003 fps 1920x1080 16:9 interlaced id=e0]#1 Audio[AC3 48000 Hz 6 channels 384 kbps MAIN idx=1 id=bd-80010000 eng]#2 Audio[AC3 48000 Hz 1 channels 192 kbps idx=2 id=bd-81010000 eng]{SeriesInfoID=12308123}] /var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg, Seg0[Sat 1/7 18:30:09.207-Sat 1/7 18:31:23.133]]
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.133 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] MediaFile created subfile:/var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-1.mpg MediaFile[id=118828 A[12792,4393,"NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt",31507@0107.18:30,30,T] mask=TV host=gullane encodedBy=HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0 WGRZDT format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 10572 kbps [#0 Video[MPEG2-Video 29.97003 fps 1920x1080 16:9 interlaced id=e0]#1 Audio[AC3 48000 Hz 6 channels 384 kbps MAIN idx=1 id=bd-80010000 eng]#2 Audio[AC3 48000 Hz 1 channels 192 kbps idx=2 id=bd-81010000 eng]{SeriesInfoID=12308123}] /var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-0.mpg, Seg0[Sat 1/7 18:30:09.207-Sat 1/7 18:31:23.133]]
Sat 1/7 18:31:23.133 [Seeker@4d93e0ef] startEncoding for HDHomeRun 1040e3e1 Tuner 0, file=/var/media/tv/NBCNightlyNewsWithLesterHolt-12792-1.mpg, chan=

[wayner]

A bit more insite on this:
It looks like Sage V9 for Linux/Docker will not let you watch or record from an HDHR even though only one of two tuners is in use. This is not the case with Sage V9 for Windows.

How do I know this? I currently have three SageTV systems running. Sage V9 for Win was using tuner 0 of an HDHR to record. When I tried to watch or record on Sage Linux it would give me No Signal. Sage V7 for Windows would allow me to watch or record from this tuner.

However, I could go into the channel setup and preview the channel, but it wouldn't record or let me watch live.

So it looks like there may be a locking issue somewhere. This won't be visible unless you have multiple devices trying to access an HDHR.

[alfi33]

Originally Posted by wayner

A bit more insite on this:
It looks like Sage V9 for Linux/Docker will not let you watch or record from an HDHR even though only one of two tuners is in use. This is not the case with Sage V9 for Windows.

How do I know this? I currently have three SageTV systems running. Sage V9 for Win was using tuner 0 of an HDHR to record. When I tried to watch or record on Sage Linux it would give me No Signal. Sage V7 for Windows would allow me to watch or record from this tuner.

However, I could go into the channel setup and preview the channel, but it wouldn't record or let me watch live.

So it looks like there may be a locking issue somewhere. This won't be visible unless you have multiple devices trying to access an HDHR.

I don't seem to have this problem. I was able to watch something in VNC on one tuner with my HDHR while watching something else in Sage using the other tuner.

Do you have a tuner merit set up so the Windows server is preferring the tuner that happens to be free.

[wayner]

You might be right as when I start a recording on Win V7 server I can still use the unRAID server, but when I start a recording on the Win V9 server it kills anything on the unRAID server. So maybe it is a merit setting that is different on the Win V9 server. I will check that out. But shouldn't the unRAID server try to record on the other tuner if the one isn't working?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

You might be right as when I start a recording on Win V7 server I can still use the unRAID server, but when I start a recording on the Win V9 server it kills anything on the unRAID server. So maybe it is a merit setting that is different on the Win V9 server. I will check that out. But shouldn't the unRAID server try to record on the other tuner if the one isn't working?

Sage will only use a lower priority tuner if the higher priority tuner is not functioning. Just having problems recording is not enough to get it to mark it as 'not functioning'. Sage assumes signal issues in this case, and just hopes it will improve with enough retries.

OpenDCT does have the ability to lock tuners in use, and pool tuners so that multiple sagetv instances would be able to share the available tuners, but sage still would end up failing to record things if one instance wants to record more things than opendct has available tuners for.

Ultimately, this sounds more like an issue of multiple sage instances trying to access the same resource than it does sage simply not working with a particular tuner type. Sage was never designed to play nice with others, even other sage instances - the design basis of sagetv is that it's the only thing doing your recording, and everything is consolidated together for you to watch from multiple clients connected to the same server.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by wayner

You might be right as when I start a recording on Win V7 server I can still use the unRAID server, but when I start a recording on the Win V9 server it kills anything on the unRAID server. So maybe it is a merit setting that is different on the Win V9 server. I will check that out. But shouldn't the unRAID server try to record on the other tuner if the one isn't working?

There is a difference in how Linux and Windows interact with the HDHomeRun tuners. In Linux, it's using the same libraries as the command line utilities. In Windows, it's using a BDA driver that probably uses the same libraries at the command line utilities. One thing I've noticed when using the BDA driver appears to force unlock tuners. The Linux libraries will not do this and I believe in both cases, the tuner ends up being locked and does not unlock unless the SageTV service is stopped.

[wayner]

In my instance it didn't require the service to stop, it just required the other machine to stop using the tuner. And I was even able to start a good recording on the unRAID server, let it run for a few minutes and then I could kill the recording by starting to use the tuner on my Windows V9 server - the unRAID system would say No Signal.