Odd recording/Playback issues over the last two weeks.

[bigbill]

I am recording OTA shows via a couple HDHR on a Sage 9.1.8 version of the software. Over the last couple of weeks some of the recordings are getting corrupted, or something I can't explain. My recordings usually show the green bar on the side to indicate the recording, It may show comskip segments or not. On a few shows i am seeing a very similar issue where the green bar only goes half way, then the second half of the show is red. When you try to watch one of them it just ends out immediately. The only way to get to watch a show that looks like that is to start the show with the Play button and simultaneously press a skip back button. Then you can skip all the way back to the beginning and the whole show is there. You get the hold one hour show in what appears to be a half hour. It seems to be random shows that air on different channels.
I did notice this similar condition in the recording detail from all the affected shows since I discovered the detail discrepancy on Friday.
A one hour show that airs 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM shows in the "Recorded from 8:59 PM to 10:00 PM Do i have something corrupt? See a screen shot attached. I highlighted what may be a clue in Yellow

PS. It been happening for a couple weeks now, so its not related to Daylight Savings time. I did check, and the time on the sage server is correctly being updated by an NTP server. I did turn off the sagetv server update option in the detailed setup a while back thinking there wasn't any more sage server to update the time anymore.

Oh, I rebooted the SageTV server Sunday morning around 9am as I thought there might be an issue there as it hadn't been rebooted in months. -Bill

[bigbill]

Here are more screen shots of what I am seeing.

[trk2]

It is possible you are seeing the issue Jeff addressed here. I don't believe these changes have been rolled into the latest Windows installer yet, if that is what you are using.

[bigbill]

It's close, but I don't have the erratic skip forward or back like Jeff has, once I am able to get back to the beginning of the file I am able to watch the show and skip the commercials. I posted to that thread and referenced this one.

Thanks for pointing out that thread!! -Bill

[bigbill]

I was thinking I may have to do with the clock change, but this recording of the news was after the change happened. It seems to think it started recording at 10:30 but the actual recording is from 11:00 to 11:30

I just added a second SS that does NOT have the extra line "Recorded from" Is that a clue?


-Bill

[Narflex]

If you can post the sagetv server logs from when one of these recordings is made...that'd be super helpful.

[UgaData]

The shows in error don't indicate which tuner they were recorded on.

The show without the error does indicate the tuner that encoded it.

Although you rebooted the Sage server, did you reboot the tuners?

Do the tuners have the latest firmware?

[bigbill]

Originally Posted by Narflex

If you can post the sagetv server logs from when one of these recordings is made...that'd be super helpful.

Ok, here are the logs in 7Zip format with the file extension changed to .zip so I could upload them. When making them with zip the files were 1.4 meg, with .7z they were 256 k. Geez... I am guessing you will need to rename them .7z to unzip them?
I also included a screen shot of the show that recorded oddly during that timeframe.

BTW, is there a translation key to the logs now that its not commercial anymore? I would love to understand all the terms in those logs so I can troubleshoot it myself.

[bigbill]

Originally Posted by UgaData

Although you rebooted the Sage server, did you reboot the tuners? Do the tuners have the latest firmware?

I had not noticed they didn't show the tuner used. I will look at other shows to see if any were recorded ok and missing that info.

I did not reboot the tuners, but I just did and updated to the new software & firmware from December. After I checked, the software is from December, but the firmware is now from September. I see new info in the firmware change logs info for December just no actual firmware to download unless I am blind...

I had updated them last summer to the newest version they had then, to the 20161117 version. Appears there were few updates starting right after I upgraded them last summer.

[Tiki]

Are you doing any post processing on the files that give you trouble (like transcoding them or something)? Or are they exactly as recorded?

Sometimes transcoding will strip out information like the tuner name and the station name. If the time stamps on the files are changed, it can screw up the timeline.

[bigbill]

Not on any of the shows having the problems. So far each one that had had the issue is an untouched MPEG2. I do transcode other shows that I probably won't watch for a while, mostly non prime time stuff.

That makes me wonder what might happen if i ran FFMPEG against one of them to create a MP4. I might just try that. -Bill


I guess the log uploads weren't helpful?

[UgaData]

Forgive any ramblings, too much coffee for being unencumbered by a thought process.

You could try OpenDCT to buffer recordings. You obviously don't need/have to use OpenDCT with OTA recording. But I think if you wanted to, you could and if there was minimal corruption in the stream, OpenDCT maybe able to help.

It doesn't look like any of your equipment is that old, so it probably doesn't apply but .... (here comes the ramble) <ramble> Several years ago before the changes were made to Daylight Savings time, we (work) had a Linux based security camera system. After the new time change schedule was in effect, the recorded time stamps would be off by an hour for a week, maybe 2, (right around this time of year and again in the fall) because the camera system was on the older time change schedule. There was a newer version of the system (software upgrade) that needed to be applied to fix the issue. </ramble>

[bigbill]

Last night after most PT recordings were complete I browsed thru the recording that happened and none of them had the red lines. Afterward I moved a couple of the files I didn't want transcoded to the one drive that my FFMPEG script does not run against. After I move them I normally run the setup/scan imported media option.

Fast forward to this morning, I go back into Sagetv to look for anomalies and POW, the Blacklist that had recorded earlier in the evening yesterday had the red line.. that wasn't there two hours after it had finished recording last night, but its there this morning. None of the other shows I moved to that non transcoding drive has the red line. Is there some other post processing that could be doing this? I am pretty sure comskip doesn't write to the recording, but creates other files that mark the commercials.

If only there was a way to have certain recording always go to a particular drive so I didn't have to move them to a different drive if they don't happen to record there.

Does this make sense. I am moving them incorrectly? If so, why are most of the moved files fine?

-Bill

[Narflex]

That added information about you moving the files is very important. I can definitely see in the log when it re-imports the file, that it then decides to shift the timeline....are you copying them to another local drive on that computer, or to a network drive? If it's a network drive, I'm wondering if the clock on the other system is shifted by an hour so then it may report back a different file modification time.

[bigbill]

its just another local drive.

I have 3 tuners being recorded from. So they can record to E: F: G: based on bandwidth, not space.
My FFMPEG transcodes don't look at drive F: So any shows recorded we will watch in the near future and are not on drive F: are moved to drive F: And any shows that won't be watched soon that are on drive F: get moved to E: or G: to be transcoded to mp4 via a script.

Since they are local drives to that sagetv server, there cannot be a different time from what I understand. Except when the time changes occur twice a year. But I had no issue last Sunday morning. Do i need to wait longer before I move them, is sagetv doing some other processing overnight that i am not aware of?

Is there something special I should do when I move them? Normally I just CTRL Click on the files I want to move, cut them then paste them on the other drive. Sage is running. (that is what I remember I read years ago, that it had to be running when you moved files)



-Bill

[wnjj]

What do the bad files show for creation and modified times? Do they change when you copy them?

[bigbill]

The current file has a timestamp of 8pm, which is when it would have started recording. Based on what I am seeing of the other .mpg files the timestamp is from when they start writing it, not when they finish. Seems odd to me, but they all appear that way. So the timestamp doesn't appear to be changed.

This is puzzling. -Bill

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by bigbill

The current file has a timestamp of 8pm, which is when it would have started recording. Based on what I am seeing of the other .mpg files the timestamp is from when they start writing it, not when they finish. Seems odd to me, but they all appear that way. So the timestamp doesn't appear to be changed.

This is puzzling. -Bill

My .mpg's all have the time when the recording ended. Perhaps when Sage re-scans them it assumes the file time is the end and then applies the start time backward from there? Your first post seems to match that where it thinks they aired 1 hour early. Do 2-hour long shows shift by 2 hours or 30 minute shows by 30 when looking at the airing time within Sage? That would help eliminate the DST question. EDIT: Just reread your news episode and it’s off 30 minutes. I definitely think it’s assuming the “date” is the end time when it reimports the copied files.

I will also add this funny thing I noticed when copying the summer olympics onto a portable drive a couple years ago. Most episodes would leave the file date at the "end" time but some would change to the start (like yours seem to be). I couldn't find a pattern or reason and deleting and re-copying produced the same. I never viewed them as I handed them off to my brother but it made sorting them chronologically in windows explorer impossible, especially with long durations.

Maybe try one of those programs that lets you modify the date. You can also try copying using the command line 'xcopy'. The /k option may preserve the dates...not sure, assuming the copying is where things go wrong.

[wnjj]

The way Win7 deals with ‘date’ may explain some of this. Between copying which modifies the creation date and the possibility of EXIF data (if mpg’s have it) the dates get a bit squirrelly. https://superuser.com/questions/1475.../335901#335901

I don’t know if the displayed date is at all related to what the system returns when asked from the Sage java code so maybe all this Explorer stuff isn’t relevant.

[bigbill]

My sage servers are win 10