My series recordings stopped working

[chjohans 32]

EMby server 4.7.8.0 and Live TV through the NextPVR plugin. All of a sudden my scheduled news recordings stopped working. I am pretty sure it's because the "episode" just passed 1000. The last recording was S01E1000, and it looks like EMby and/or NextPVR actually interprets that as S01E100. See the attached screenshots both from my NextPVR guide, and the same program in the Emby guide.

 

Do take note that both says "Episode S1 E1006" for this show, but then it says S1:E100. I believe the problem is that the last digit in the episode number is just ignored, so every day will have the same episode. I bet it will record every 10th day, when it gets to "Episode S1 E1010" then this will be S1:E101, then 10 days later S1:E102.

My data source for the guide is a XMLTV I'm grabbing with WebGrab++. The episode data in this source is correct, this is the same show in the XMLTV souce that NextPVR gets guide data from:

 

<programme start="20221007020000" stop="20221007030000" channel="CNA">
    <title lang="en">Asia Tonight</title>
    <sub-title>Episode S1 E1006</sub-title>
    <desc lang="en">CNA correspondents bring you the top stories of the day with 'live' reports and interviews to keep you up-to-date on the day's events.</desc>
    <icon src="https://production.togglestatic.com/shain/v1/dataservice/ResizeImage/$value?Format='jpg'&amp;Quality=85&amp;ImageId='5230082'&amp;EntityType='LinearSchedule'&amp;EntityId='26082941-ae82-41c4-a01e-3380e3fb1d92'&amp;Width=1280&amp;Height=720&amp;device=web_browser&amp;subscriptions=Anonymous&amp;segmentationTags=all" />
    <episode-num system="onscreen">S1 E1006</episode-num>
  </programme>

It looks like the issue might start in NextPVR since NextPVR also shows a truncated episode number, but the only thing I know for sure is that series recordings stopped working when the episode went past 1000.

 

Any idea? @emveepee @Luke ??

[emveepee 112]

How are you populating the guide in Emby, via mapped XMLTV or imported guide data?    If the guide data is coming from NextPVR it could be a NextPVR parsing issue and you might be able to fix it by using XMLTV mapping in Emby.   If sub doesn't respond here I will let him know.

Martin

Edited October 6, 2022 by emveepee

[Luke 37066]

What did it show in Emby Server? Did the recording fail, or did it not even try? Please provide a server log from when the recording was supposed to occur. Thanks.

[chjohans 32]

@emveepeeSorry I though that was clear from my posting.

* NextPVR gets the guide data from my XMLTV source

* Emby gets the guide data from NextPVR via the plugin. I have *not * added any guide data sources in Emby si everything goes through the plugin.

 

@Luke Emby does not even try, because as far as Emby is concerned the episode has already been recorded. But every 10th showing will be scheduled and recorded in Emby, because of the "logic" I explain in my initial post.

 

@emveepee Not sure what you mean, you mean I should import the XMLTV guide data in Emby? I have very very bad experience with using a plugin (that provides guide data to Emby, like the NextPVR plugin now does) and at the same time adding a XMLTV source for guide data in Emby. If this is indeed a parsing issue in NextPVR, should it not be fixed within NextPVR? My understanding is that you are somehow connected to the development of NextPVR? If that is not the case, do you thin I should copntact NextPVR support instead re this?

 

I really need this to be fixed, my series recordings have finally been stable for a few months, then of course an issue like this pops up out of the blue, like always...

[emveepee 112]

Looking at the strings that are in the dll and I think there is a regex issue in NextPVR, but to be fair 1000 episodes in one season is rather unusual use case.  If you really want to get it fixed, you should contact WebGrab+ for parsing monthday as an episode number.  NextPVR  might even be parsing this from the subtitle since the onscreen episode markup is not even supposed to be parsed.

I agree the parsing could be fixed in NextPVR as a low priority but I don't see that you have opened a support post on the NextPVR forum yet.  Sub is the sole developer of NextPVR and it shouldn't be up to  me to get his attention on other forums I visit.

Really though you should be using XMLTV in Emby and avoid updating the EPG in NextPVR altogether.  The integration with the new one way API will be much more efficient. 

Martin

 

 

 

[chjohans 32]

@emveepeeSo you think that by just adding the same XMLTV source to Emby, under "Live TV", that would solve this issue? And remove the guide from NextPVR?

That would mean I can't use native NextPVR, but I guess that's less of an issue...

But in any case, if this is indeed a parsing bug in NextPVR, don't you think it should be fixed? Even if it's unusual to have 1000+ episodes for a show? I mean, I have several "shows" for which that is the case, and series recoding broke for all of them.

Not saying this is "up to you", I don't know "who is who" and responsible for what. But I'll post this in the NextPVR forum as well and see what's the response. Thanks!

In the mean time I guess my series recording is broken, again....

[chjohans 32]

Another question, before I do something "silly" and upgrade. I'm currently running Version: 5.2.7.220410 of NextPVR, and I see that Version 6.0.0.220904 is now available. Looks like a "main release" based on the version number, so before I go ahead and upgrade, does anyone know if the current Emby NextPVR plugin is compatible with NextPVR Version 6.x? @emveepee @Luke Anyone?

I thought maybe the issue has been solved in the latest version, or at least it's worth it to check out, and if/when I do report this in the NextPVR forum it would probably be best to be on their latest version. Thanks!

[chjohans 32]

I did the following, which seems to have been working:

1) Deleted the XML data source from NextPVR, which means I have no guide data in NextPVR but I guess I can live with that

2)  Cleared the guide data in NextPVR

3) Added the same XML data source to Emby under "Live TV" and "refreshed" the TV guide in Emby

Now my EPG in Emby shows the correct episode numbers, add my series recordings appears to be scheduled correctly again. So it indeed looks like the issue is with how NextPVR is parsing the episode data.

I did not "upgrade" to NExtPVR 6.x as I'm still not sure if the EMby plugin is compatible with that version.

I'll post a request to have this issue fixed in the NextPVR forum.

[emveepee 112]

Thanks I saw the post.  I think it will need some discussion since apps like Kodi would need to support it to for some columnar views.

If you don't update the guide in NextPVR then you don't need to worry about keeping the guide in sync or even scheduling daily updates in NextPVR at all.  I think that will make your life a lot easier.

The API for v6 didn't change.

Martin

[chjohans 32]

@emveepeeThank you, I'll leave it as it is now then and not update my guide in NextPVR, since that works just fine with my setup. And I'll leave it to the NextPVR dev if and when to solve this in NextPVR.

 

I'll do the upgrade to NextPVR 6.x just to be on the latest version. Thanks again

[chjohans 32]

Broken again, a few hours after I removed the XMLTV feed from NextPVR it has pulled the EPG data as DVB/ATSC EPG, and I see no option to disable that in NextPVR. The source for this is the same as for my XMLTV feed, so the episode numbering is the same, and of course NextPVR again truncates the last digit and feeds the wrong episode number to Emby.

Anyhow, it looks like there is a fix coming for NextPVR soon.

 

[emveepee 112]

In addition to just disabling the update Emby users  can go  to Settings->Channels->Advanced and automap their tuners to None.

Martin

[chjohans 32]

Thanks, I missed that setting, I have not played around with NextPVR much!