Intermittent Scheduled Recording Failure - no errors

[Gyp Joe 2]

Hello:

 

I'm new to Emby and have been a faithful Media Center Fan since it's inception.

 

I tried Plex but found the interface to be confusing and it didn't work well at all.

 

I stumbled upon Emby and I really like what I see so far except some of my scheduled recordings fail.

 

It seems like it will record a few shows and then just stop recording.  It will resume recording scheduled shows after I restart the system.

 

I have a single Hauppage USB tuner and OTA Antenna.  Pretty simple setup.

 

Any ideas?

 

Log attached...

 

Thanks!logs.zip

[Luke 42078]

Hi there, welcome! Can you please go over an example? What failed to record and what time and day was that? Thanks !

[Gyp Joe 2]

Hi:

 

Pretty consistently the news fails at 6pm (unless I reboot before) but there have been others.

 

Thanks

[Gyp Joe 2]

I can automate rebooting her daily but is there any way to start Emby as-a-service in the background (non-interactive)?

 

Not the best fix but I'm so close to a media solution here!

 

Perhaps I need a different tv tuner?

 

Thanks

[Luke 42078]

@@Gyp Joe

 

Have you updated to Emby Server 4.1.1? Is there still an issue? Thanks !

[Gyp Joe 2]

She's @ 4.1.10 and says it's up to date.  Automatic updates are checked.

 

Is there a new version available and a way to get it?

 

Thanks for your help.

[Luke 42078]

That is the latest version.

[pwhodges 2012]

I have a single Hauppage USB tuner and OTA Antenna.  Pretty simple setup.

There have been a number of reports of Emby not always releasing Hauppauge tuners after use, so that it runs out of options for new viewing or recording.  Only some people see this problem, I believe.  I don't recall reading that the cause has been identified or fixed.

 

I can automate rebooting her daily but is there any way to start Emby as-a-service in the background (non-interactive)?

I reboot automatically for exactly this reason.  I run Emby as a headless Windows service, using nssm to control it - I believe I found the procedure in the wiki.

Edited May 8, 2019 by pwhodges

[Gyp Joe 2]

Interesting...do you think it would work with a non-hauppage tuner?

 

I'll look for that wikiki...rebooting would be better than nothing

 

Thanks!

[pwhodges 2012]

I think the problem is only (or mainly?) with Hauppauge tuners - I don't recall the same being reported for HDHomeRun tuners, for instance.  But if an Emby restart (not a system reboot) doesn't disturb you, it's harmless to do it anyway it seems to me (I have no other users, and restart at 6am).

 

The wiki article is here.

 

My restart batch file, which I schedule, is no more complex than:

c:
cd \Users\administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server
nssm restart emby
exit

[Sammy 790]

You've been a user of WMC and hadn't heard of Emby?

 

Emby comes from MB, the nickname given MediaBrowser in the forums because it is quicker to type.

 

MediaBrowser, ending with v2.6.3ish was a plugin for WMC that allowed for nice visual organization of locally stored content. It was started by @@ebr (Eric).

 

@@Luke joined up with Eric a few years ago and seeing the writing on the wall for the demise of WMC they created what you see today. It is still under development but I imagine that within a year or so it will be every bit as good as WMC in the DVR department.

[Spaceboy 2573]

It is still under development but I imagine that within a year or so it will be every bit as good as WMC in the DVR department.

Not a chance. Even if they worked on dvr non stop for the next year, it wouldn’t be worthy of being spoken of in the same breath as wmc. My concern is that this job is too big for them, concept and execution. I’ve seen nothing so far that would support their ability to deliver the sort of change you outline. Even if we get anything basic in terms of channel management I would be amazed. As every year passes it amazes me more how far ahead of the game wmc was

[Sammy 790]

I suppose so but I do know it is a focus of development.

 

Can't help but cheer for them as it really has become an amazing work this far.

 

Hopefully they will prove you wrong..

 

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

[Spaceboy 2573]

I suppose so but I do know it is a focus of development.

 

Can't help but cheer for them as it really has become an amazing work this far.

 

Hopefully they will prove you wrong..

 

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

yes it was supposed to be an area of development (actually just channel management) in 2019. It’s June in 3 weeks. Too busy fixing the things they broke while implementing things no-one asked for...

 

I understand you think I’m being negative, but like you I remember MB and I’ve seen far more over promising and under delivering in that time period than any customer/ user should have to suffer

[Luke 42078]

There have been a number of reports of Emby not always releasing Hauppauge tuners after use, so that it runs out of options for new viewing or recording.  Only some people see this problem, I believe.  I don't recall reading that the cause has been identified or fixed.

 

I reboot automatically for exactly this reason.  I run Emby as a headless Windows service, using nssm to control it - I believe I found the procedure in the wiki.

 

We updated to a newer hauupauge sdk with the latest server release. I have not been able to reproduce it.

[Gyp Joe 2]

 

I think the problem is only (or mainly?) with Hauppauge tuners - I don't recall the same being reported for HDHomeRun tuners, for instance.  But if an Emby restart (not a system reboot) doesn't disturb you, it's harmless to do it anyway it seems to me (I have no other users, and restart at 6am).

 

The wiki article is here.

 

My restart batch file, which I schedule, is no more complex than:

c:
cd \Users\administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server
nssm restart emby
exit

 

Thanks for your help with this - don't frown power down is that they used to say in computer school...lol

[Gyp Joe 2]

You've been a user of WMC and hadn't heard of Emby?

 

Emby comes from MB, the nickname given MediaBrowser in the forums because it is quicker to type.

 

MediaBrowser, ending with v2.6.3ish was a plugin for WMC that allowed for nice visual organization of locally stored content. It was started by @@ebr (Eric).

 

@@Luke joined up with Eric a few years ago and seeing the writing on the wall for the demise of WMC they created what you see today. It is still under development but I imagine that within a year or so it will be every bit as good as WMC in the DVR department.

 

No, but thanks for the brief history.

 

I never really had a need to organize local content - but I miss media center dearly - my kids have grown up with her...

 

I like Emby so far though, except for the dogging issues of course.

[Gyp Joe 2]

We updated to a newer hauupauge sdk with the latest server release. I have not been able to reproduce it.

 

Oh ok.

 

So we should expect an incoming release soon I can try?

 

Thanks

[Luke 42078]

No, that's already in the 4.1.1 release.

[Luke 42078]

Can you please provide a single server log file from the time that a recording should have happened? Thanks.

[Sammy 790]

No, but thanks for the brief history.

 

I never really had a need to organize local content - but I miss media center dearly - my kids have grown up with her...

 

I like Emby so far though, except for the dogging issues of course.

 

With that history comes the knowledge that Emby was/is a local media tool first. The DVR portion came out later although it has been about three years now. It has it's shortcomings for sure but I believe that eventually it will be a pretty nice product. I haven't seen issues with scheduled recordings with two HDHomeRun Quatros though.

[pwhodges 2012]

Thanks for your help with this - don't frown power down is that they used to say in computer school...lol

There's a related issue which I didn't mention initially.  When Emby doesn't release a tuner, the Hauppauge driver continues to write into the pause buffer ad infinitum.  If this is on the C: drive, it can crash the system if left going for long enough!  I first moved the pause buffer onto another drive, then when I started bouncing the Emby server I ran a second batch file immediately after to clear the pause buffer in case anything had got stuck there.  It might be worth your checking the pause buffer.

[Gyp Joe 2]

There's a related issue which I didn't mention initially.  When Emby doesn't release a tuner, the Hauppauge driver continues to write into the pause buffer ad infinitum.  If this is on the C: drive, it can crash the system if left going for long enough!  I first moved the pause buffer onto another drive, then when I started bouncing the Emby server I ran a second batch file immediately after to clear the pause buffer in case anything had got stuck there.  It might be worth your checking the pause buffer.

 

Yes!  That is what I thought was a secondary issue I'm seeing - however I haven't been pausing anything.

 

I have a small SSD for C - how did you move it?

 

Thanks

[Gyp Joe 2]

With that history comes the knowledge that Emby was/is a local media tool first. The DVR portion came out later although it has been about three years now. It has it's shortcomings for sure but I believe that eventually it will be a pretty nice product. I haven't seen issues with scheduled recordings with two HDHomeRun Quatros though.

 

Hopefully they work out the kinks...it's much nicer than Plex IMO

[Gyp Joe 2]

Can you please provide a single server log file from the time that a recording should have happened? Thanks.

 

It actually worked last evening - but I'll get back to you on that...

 

Thanks