Bug with manual recordings

[Theradioguy 7]

I am experiencing what I think is a bug with newer versions of Emby server, which I don't believe was present in older releases.  What I am observing is the following:

1. Start watching a live TV program
2. Start a manual recording by pressing the 'rec' button in the GUI
3. Record for a few minutes, stop the recording
4. Continue watching the program
5. Some time later, start another manual recording
6. A few minutes later stop the recording

The first recording will start and stop at the expected times (when the button was clicked in the GUI), however, the second recording will start when the FIRST recording started, and will continue until the SECOND recording is ended, comprising of the total content from the Live TV channel between the two recording points (potentially many hours if it is a long program).

I have noticed this problem after upgrading to Emby 4.8.8, I don't believe the issue was present in the previous version I was running (4.7.14), however, I can't downgrade to validate.

If there is a setting I can toggle to disable this behavior that would be awesome, otherwise if this is indeed a bug hopefully it can be fixed in a future release.

[sa2000 674]

9 hours ago, Theradioguy said:

The first recording will start and stop at the expected times (when the button was clicked in the GUI), however, the second recording will start when the FIRST recording started, and will continue until the SECOND recording is ended, comprising of the total content from the Live TV channel between the two recording points (potentially many hours if it is a long program).

Are these two recordings on the same LievTV channel ?

And is it a different program being aired for the second recording or still the same one?

If it the same program and same channel then that would sound reasonable thing to do

Could you enable emby server debug logging - in server settings / logs settings and restart the server and reproduce and then capture the logs and also details of what recording files were produced - and noting down the times of each of your action and adding the info when you attach the server log covering this

 

Edited August 1, 2024 by sa2000

[Theradioguy 7]

Correct, these recordings are on the same live channel.

 

I have attached the requested debug.  In this example, I record for about 30 seconds, wait roughly 10 minutes, then record for another 30 seconds.  The first recording is about a minute in length (in line with expectations), but the second recording is 8 minutes in length, and includes the entire duration from when the first recording was started. 

embyserver.txt

[sa2000 674]

19 hours ago, Theradioguy said:

In this example, I record for about 30 seconds, wait roughly 10 minutes, then record for another 30 seconds.  The first recording is about a minute in length (in line with expectations), but the second recording is 8 minutes in length, and includes the entire duration from when the first recording was started. 

If it is the same program then I would not argue about the final recording covering the time of the earlier recording as well. Recordings are of programs. But could be better to implement as a multi-part program.

OK I looked at the log and both recordings are of the same program - the 2am CNN Intl airing of "CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip" 

Does it show as 2 versions ? one being this recording file 

"/var/lib/emby/data/livetv/recordings/CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip/CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip 2024_08_02_02_00_00.ts"

and this longer recording file 

"/var/lib/emby/data/livetv/recordings/CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip/CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip 2024_08_02_02_00_00 - 1.ts"

Can you confirm that the 2nd .ts file does also include the recording from the first .ts file.

What were you expecting to see the two recordings as ? I would think that a multi-part set of files would be better - but this is not a widely used use-case

Update: See my post below after I actually tested this

Edited August 2, 2024 by sa2000

[sa2000 674]

18 hours ago, Theradioguy said:

I have attached the requested debug

Noticed you are still on an old version of the Emby Server software - running 4.8.3.0 

I suggest bringing that installation to the current version - which is 4.8.8.0

 

[sa2000 674]

19 hours ago, Theradioguy said:

  In this example, I record for about 30 seconds, wait roughly 10 minutes, then record for another 30 seconds.  The first recording is about a minute in length (in line with expectations), but the second recording is 8 minutes in length, and includes the entire duration from when the first recording was started.

Update:

I have just tested this out using a recent beta version - 4.9.0.27

I recorded the news selecting record (not record series)

After 3 minutes I cancelled the recording

Then I waited a couple of minutes and clicked on record again - for the same program

After about a minute I cancelled the recording

What I have in the library after is two versions of the episode - one being 3 minutes and one being 55 seconds - which is what you want. Have a look at the durations showing in the screenshots

The 2 versions available in the drop down:

 

Edited August 2, 2024 by sa2000

[Theradioguy 7]

unfortunately even after upgrading to 4.9.0.27 I am seeing the same behaviour.  

In this example, I record the program for around 30 seconds, stop the recording, wait about 1 minute and start the recording again for another 30 seconds.

My expectation is that I have 2, ~30 second recordings, roughly 1 minute apart, the reality is that I have one ~30 second recording, and one 2 minute recording.

Possibly the difference in my testing and yours is that my testing is conducted while the channel is playing on another device?  If I stop the channel on all devices, press record, stop the recording, wait 1 minute, press record, start the recording again, I get the same as you - 2x 30 second recordings.

 

I would consider this a bug though, since it's not realistic to make sure all devices have stopped their playback.

 

[sa2000 674]

1 minute ago, Theradioguy said:

Possibly the difference in my testing and yours is that my testing is conducted while the channel is playing on another device

Yes probably = but this is not a real use case. I would not expect users to be doing start / stop recordings - I will mention this to the development team and see if it is easy to fix - it is an edge case anyway - because not only are you doing start / stop, you are also watching the LiveTV program on another device. 

I will follow up

 

[Theradioguy 7]

My use case (if it helps) is that I will often be watching the news and will see one particular story that I want to share, so I will record it and send it along.  Having the entire newscast recorded for one segment is annoying and requires that I import it into an editor and edit out all the irrelevant bits (time consuming).

If there is another way I can accomplish this goal (while still watching the program), such as with an API call let me know.

Edited August 2, 2024 by Theradioguy

[Luke 42077]

HI, what type of tuner do you have?

[Theradioguy 7]

I'm using an M3u8 playlist, but TVHeadend is generating it

[sa2000 674]

@LukeI have reproduced the reported issue on 4.9.0.28 with an HD Homerun Duo 

Steps I did to repro this behaviour:

- At 10:21 Start Recording an airing

- At 10:23 start watching the LiveTV airing on a device 

- At 10:24 Stop the recording

- At 10:26 start a second recording of the same airing

- At 10:27 stop this 2nd recording

The result is that we have two recording files - the second one is 5 minutes long instead of 1 minute

Note that when starting to watch the airing at 10:23 I was asked if I want to watch from the beginning of the buffer or from current time. i chose the latter.

When starting the 2nd recording at 10:26 we could look into asking if the recording should include the earlier captured buffer ?

This screenshot shows the resulting files for this test

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2024 by sa2000

[Luke 42077]

OK we'll take a look at it. Thanks.