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Record TV not working


rikiwi

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rikiwi

Hi Krusty


 


I have gone through the article and checked all my settings in WMC. It's been a while since I last looked at it.


 


I then did 3 recording with Serverwmc not unning - result, perfect recordings.


Then I repeated 3 new recording with it running - Result; as each program ended I saw it disappear from the Recordings page on MBServer.


 


Note 1:


I have still got the config.xml file of serverwmc set to:


  <UseRecLibraryWatcher>false</UseRecLibraryWatcher>


Note 2:


I do not use the default folder for Recorded TV. I have always moved this to: F:\Recorded TV


Note 3:


My PC/server never goes to sleep


Note 4:


I do not run any backups for this folder


 


I'm not sure if any of this helps. Please let me know if you need any logs

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krustyreturns

Hi @@rikiwi,

 

Sorry I wasn't clear, I didn't want you to recheck your settings (but it doesn't hurt :)) I just wanted you to read the part where it tells you how to figure out why wmc failed to do a recording, I was thinking that might be a clue as to what is causing this problem. 

 

So follow the instruction it describes in the section:

Why didn't my TV show record?

And see if wmc explains why the recording failed.

 

The fact that you don't use the default folder is no problem.  You seem to be saying that the recording is happening, but for some reason the file is deleted at the end of the recording, right?  I am now wondering if it has something to do with the metadata being written to the file, which happens as soon as the recording stops.  Any chance they deleted file is moved to the trash folder?  Also does all the metadata in the guide for episodes show up correctly?

 

Also are you running any other software the monitors your recording after they complete, like comskip, mcebuddy or a script?

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rikiwi

Hi @krustyreturns

Once I got to WMC/Recorded TV/View Scheduled/History; I knew this is what you were referring to.

The recordings that got deleted showed something like "program terminated due to computer shutdown".

 

In my next post I'll copy the exact phrase from WMC for any recording failures.

 

Interestingly today I have been recording various programs all day, without any failures, just slight variations in the padding.

 

I just had a thought :o - EPG Collector, my TV scraper, also collects metadata for any found channels and puts it into WMC. I wonder if this is interfering with ServerWMC. I'll turn off this function and do more testing and see what results I get.

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rikiwi

Hi @krustyreturns

Back again.

 

I set another recording this evening and ended up with nothing being recorded, and the Recycle Bin was empty.

Here is the description in WMC History:

   " Recording of Campbell Live began late on 11/08/2014 7:17:44 pm due to a temporary failure caused by either a system malfunction or a power loss and was manually stopped on 11/08/2014 7:17:47      pm for use by another component."

So this looks as if I have done something on my PC at the time of the recording. i'm sure I was having dinner at the time.

 

I'll set more up in the morning and make sure I'm not touching the server during the process.

 

BTW where in Windows are the metadata files kept for recorded TV?

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krustyreturns

Windows stores the metadata for a recording directly in the wtv file tags after a recording stops.  Did you get the above failure after you turned off epg collector?

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rikiwi

Sorry for getting back so late, but I have been testing off and on with mixed results - even after stopping EPG Collector's scheduled run. I will just run this as needed towards the end of the week as the guide get emptied out.

 

Most programs have recorded OK with minor padding discrepancies, as usual (I have now changed padding to 3 mins. / 3 mins)

 

The odd program has been truncated by several minutes at the beginning, then I notice that it has been scheduled to record the next day, even though I never ever set series recordings. So it look like it's making sure I record the program if some is missed form the previous recording.

I'll keep trying different combinations and keeping notes of the results.

 

Another question? After deleting a recording the .wtv file is deleted from the Recorded TV folder, but the .jpg for the recorded program remains. Does ServerWMC clean these out periodically or do I need to delete these manually?

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krustyreturns

Wmc always reschedules a recording that fails if it can find another airing in the guide. 

 

You are making the padding optional so wmc is not really obligated to give you that padding and in conserving tuner usage in many cases it does not, so I wouldn't get hung up on whether you are getting the exact padding you wanted.  If you insist that the padding be there, then go ahead an turn 'forced' padding back on. 

 

I can't tell by your post if recordings are still failing, or whether its just padding that is having a problem.  If turning off epg collector seems to have worked, then consider turning the recordingwatcher back on - I would really like to know if that can cause a problem.

 

I'm a little confused about these jpgs.  Serverwmc does not store jpg's for wtv files, if it finds then in the EPG it just passes them onto MBS.  MBS caches them in it database, and I assume it will clean them out eventually, but I actually don't know.

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rikiwi

Sorry Krusty for taking so long to get back.

 

Last Friday WMC started crashing on opening and the only way to get it working was to uninstall Win7 SP1, and add all the Win Updates back. So a lot of time wasted.

 

After testing again with EPG Collecter off, I still got some good recordings and some failures.

 

I am now running everything pretty much as I was at first and am still getting some recordings perfect and some failures. When a failure occurs, nothing is recorded but it gets re-scheduled for the next play date. As you suggested I'm not getting too hung up with the padding, but am now re- trying forcing it in ServerWMC. I have also turned the Recordingwatcher back on.

 

I'm still getting .jpg images of recorded programs remaining in the folder (see attached) even after I have deleted the recording. I know I never had these before I started using MBServer. It's not a biggie, I just delete them manually from time to time.

 

I'll get back to you when I start getting perfect recordings consistently. Sorry I haven't been of much help.

 

 

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krustyreturns

I don't get these jpg images in the rec tv folder using MBS, so I don't know where these are coming from.  Are you running some other plugin that's monitoring the rec tv folder and generating these jpgs??  Maybe that's what's causing the problem.

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rikiwi

Yes you may be right....

 

All I have ever run is EPG Collector that scrapes for TV programming and also looks up Movies and TV Series metadata. I'm sure I have tried turning off the metadata look-ups, but i'll try again and check the Recorded TV folder afterwards.

I run WMC obviously.

MB Server (not as a service) at bootup

ServerWMC at bootup

I also have installed MBT and MBC (not starting at bootup)

...and that's it.

 

I hope that helps.

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  • 2 weeks later...
rikiwi

Back again, but have been testing TV Recording every day.

 

Generally recording are OK, with the odd one missing and being re-scheduled. 

I now have 5/5min. padding. 

Recordingwatcher is on.

EPG Collector runs every hour (to keep guide up to date)

 

However i'm still getting poster .jpg files remaining after recordings have been deleted. (See attached snips.) Should I start a new thread in another area?

The images show conclusively that the poster jpg's are being added by MBServer and not EPG Collector, of ServerWMC.

 

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krustyreturns

We need somebody from the MBS team to say if it generates these jpg files, all I can say is that I only run (on the server) wmc & serverwmc & MBS and I have never noticed these jpgs being created.  MBS imports program images, but it stores them in its database so far as I know. 

 

Does EPG collector also gather images?  Maybe the reason I don't see this happening is that the wmc guide has program images so MBS gets the images from serverwmc and maybe therefore doesn't generate images on the fly.  So maybe in your case it is generating these images - but I still don't get why it is storing them in the same folder.

 

Of course we also don't know if the jpg generation is somehow related to the rec fails.  I can't recall (and I am too lazy to go back and look):  Do the wtv  fails happen close to when the rec stops or when the rec begins?  Also, does wmc ever report a different reason for why the rec fails other than the one you posted?

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Latchmor

Sorry to jump in here but those jpgs are created by MBS because you must have added your Recorded TV folder as a library folder?

 

When MBS scans all folders it will create those if there are no other folder images (not exactly sure of the logic) as I've seen it on test folders in my setup.

 

Cheers

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

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krustyreturns

@@Latchmor don't apologize, I needed some ideas, I have been shooting blanks on this thread for a while now.  @@rikiwi please check and if you did add it as a library folder then remove it and see what happens with the recording reliability.  It this can really cause recordings to fail it would be important to know.

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krustyreturns

I hesitate to say great news for fear I will jinx it.  I will say good thing you mentioned those jpgs and that Latchmor butted in.  That's a key setup tip to remember.

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Latchmor

Ok cool it was just cos I didn't read the rest of the thread until after I posted and thought you may have covered this before. You haven't though.

 

See below my Test media folder with a couple files in it and MBS has extracted images for them same as rikiwi's pic above.

 

5400face076e4_Capture.jpg

 

Cheers

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rikiwi

Thanks guys.

I think my reasoning for having the Recorded TV folder in my library was to show it in MBT, but as Live TV now is included (Dev version,) this is not required.

 

Hopefully, now I can start concentrating on DLNA problems with my Sony smart TV

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rikiwi

I'm so pleased to report and confirm that you were spot on @Latchmor.

When I first wet up MBS ages ago I just included my Record TV folder in my library, and never thought about it again.

I have removed the folder from the library and done some more recordings - result: no more poster jpg's.  :) 

In hindsight it all seems totally obvious.

@krustyreturns, I'll continue to monitor future recording in regard to reliability improvements to my recordings, and post any results. Thanks a heap for your time.

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rikiwi

I have realised that I have had to reinstate my Recorded TV in the library as I'm still using the Android App to watch recorded TV.

 

As of this morning after Server update - Version 3.0.5355.25622 (dev) watching  live TV and recorded TV is almost impossible. Chrome on my tablet and server is unresponsive and keep locking up. I've made no changes apart from reinstating Recorded TV folder. 

These activities are fine in WMC.

Edited by rikiwi
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rikiwi

This morning I uninstalled my 3 TV Card drivers then rebooted Windows  and let it install generic drivers:

MBServer -   Version 3.0.5356.25680 (Dev)

Results:

  1. Server Web Interface (Chrome) - LiveTV - Good; RecTV - Good

  2. MBT (latest Dev.Version) - LiveTV - very jittery & slow to start; RecTV - Reasonable (a little jittery)

  3. On Nexus 7: Chrome Web Interface - Good LiveTV & RecTV

  4. Android App. - RecTV - No play at all.

Notes: I uninstalled then re installed Chrome and MB Android App on the tablet before doing new tests.

 

I'm not sure if this will help, but it's just what I'm observing at the moment.

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krustyreturns

Actually that helps, I was kind of lost as to what your problems were.  In a previous post you said you had to add the rec tv folder back as a library folder, is that still true?  Why do you need to do that?  Doesn't that still mess up your recordings? 

 

Serverwmc can't tell the difference between any of these clients so it should be behaving the same in each case, but to be sure, consider posting its log after the android client fails.

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Sorry for taking so long to get back here.

 

Since last time there have been many Dev. Server updates, as well as a major android Chrome update. These have resulted in vast improvements to watching live TV and watching Recorded TV.

Some recordings are still failing intermittently and my suspicion is this occurs when a new Server update is pending. I'll so more testing to try and determine if this is the case.

 

I reinstated my RecordedTV folder in order to use the android app to watch recorded TV. without the folder in my library is does not show up in the app.

 

I am still getting black spaces in the TV Guide even though I'm now running EPGCollector every hour. I have posted this problem in another thread but to date there has been no solution. Maybe I need to start a thread somewhere else.

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krustyreturns

You should be able to see your files in your rec tv folder through the live-tv interface, not by adding the rec tv folder as a library source.  Is it because the android app doesn't support live tv?

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Hi Krustyreturns

 

By not adding the RecTV folder as library source I can only access my programs in the server/browser UI, and MB Theatre. As soon as I add the folder I can also see them in MB Classic and the Android App. I'm hoping this will be addressed in the next android app. I did ask to be in the android testers but didn't hear back, I guess they got enough volunteers.

 

So far today all my test recordings have gone smoothly. I'm certain that my recording failures were not anything to do with pending server updates (as stated in my post above). Last night I noticed that my TV channel orders were different from WMC, So I re-scanned and re-sorted my channels. So that was probably what was messing with recordings yesterday.

 

I'll keep monitoring.....

 

 

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