Tvheadend

Hi, I've been noticing this recently too. Some programs are fine and others seem to have this problem. The programs that have this issue also seem to have issues if you manually add an autorec entry using the program title regex. I think it may be to do with special characters, but I don't have enough data to prove that right now. Next time I see it happen I'll try and post the program name, although I'm 99% sure I saw it happen with "Would I Lie to You?" on BBC ONE HD in the UK.

What I found was that clicking the "Autorec" button from the details box would add a timer only for that specific episode.

I'm using 4.0.9-16~g63c1034~xenial (installed from the Ubuntu repositories).

Ah, good. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I was beginning to think my computer was haunted :-)

The two programmes I've seen it on are Public Eye and The Gentle Touch, both on Talking Pictures TV. The Gentle Touch righted itself after I deleted the autorec and added it again, but this didn't work for Public Eye: I now have to add each episode manually. Both autorecs worked to begin with, and I'm sure they even matched episodes that weren't yet in the EPG - exactly as this feature is intended. But then they both stopped working at around the same time. All other autorecs continue to work perfectly.

I'm on 4.2.6-84 on a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian Stretch).

I just tried recording Public Eye on my 4.2.6 installation. I get offered a 'Record Series' button, so why not use that instead of creating an autorec? It says it will record every episode in the EPG (currently tomorrow through next Monday)

Ah, sorry. I may have misunderstood the terminology. I thought that autorec was simply the way that TVH implemented a series recording; I hadn't realised that it is possible to create a manual autorec, independent of an entry in the EPG.

I did do a Series Record, from the EPG entry for any of the episodes, and this created an autorec. It also created individual episode entries for each of the episodes currently in the EPG. The problem is that this autorec, for this title, no longer creates additional episode record entries for future episodes as they get downloaded into the EPG, whereas it used to do, and still does for other titles added in the same way (go to an episode in EPG and select Series Record rather than Record Program).

I was expecting that after I had done a Series Record (which creates an autorec)it would record all episodes, including those which are scheduled too far in the future to be included in the EPG as of today's date but will be added in future updates of the EPG. It is weird that this worked fine, but then suddenly stopped finding any more new episodes.

I've deleted all the episodes and the autoerec for Public Eye and done a Series Record again. It's found all the matching episodes, so it will be interesting to see if it finds the new one for Wed 6 Nov which will be added in tomorrow morning's EPG update.

It was checking whether it was a known bug that an existing Series Record suddenly stops finding new episodes, and it looks as if at least one other person has had the same problem as me.

No, series recording / autorecs seems to have a problem.

I had two series, Public Eye and The Gentle Touch, on series record. Initially these scheduled all known recordings to be recorded and found future episodes as they were added to the EPG each day.

Then they both stopped finding new episodes, at about the same time. Deleting and re-adding the autorec that was generated by series record, together with the individual scheduled episodes, did not work: it found the recordings that were in the EPG but not any future ones.

I did manage to get The Gentle Touch working somehow, but having deleted and re-added Public Eye again (still doesn't work), The Gentle Touch has also stopped working.

I'm reluctant to delete all autorecs and episodes for all programmes, in case I stop all the other series recordings from working.

Is there any debug trace that I can turn on which might allow someone to investigate?

It could be that Public Eye has just started a new series (S6 on Wednesday) and so has Gentle Touch (S3 on Wednesday), so perhaps your series record records the series, but doesn't record the next series.

Are you using over-the-air tv guide (so not using xmltv)? How series link works is defined by the broadcaster (they broadcast a bit of information that links). It's certainly possible that some broadcasters might not series link across series, whereas others might.

Unfortunately, the autorec dialog doesn't show the extra information about series link ids (it could be non-printable iirc), and so it looks identical to one without series link.

In general, I'd create the autorec rule without series link and with some dup policy such as "unique episode", this means that even if you miss a recording on one day, you'll pick it up on the repeat, whereas series link normally also links at a broadcast time interval so you might only pick up a 9pm showing, not the 9+1 showing, or the following week's repeat.

It could be that Public Eye has just started a new series (S6 on Wednesday) and so has Gentle Touch (S3 on Wednesday), so perhaps your series record records the series, but doesn't record the next series.

'Public Eye' broadcasts prior to 7 Nov have series link URI "crid://onid-2/584E0000211211", but the following day's episode has URI "crid://onid-2/584E0000211411" so will not be recorded.

For 'Gentle Touch' all episodes in the EPG seem to have URI "crid://onid-2/584E0000214571".

Gentle Touch S3 starts today, so I'm guessing since it is on the same station as Public Eye (which has different series link id for different seasons) that if the previous day was S2 of Gentle Touch then it would have a different crid and not link to S3 of Gentle Touch, which would explain new recordings not showing up for that if S2 was series linked last week.

Ah, if some broadcasters use different programme IDs for different seasons, that could well explain the problem. I thought it might have used cruder matching criteria like programme title (which has its own problems with false matching!).

Yes, both programmes are broadcast on the same channel.

I'll try creating an autorec separately from the EPG mechanism so it doesn't use the CRID and series link.

Just to make life more frustrating, I've also been making backup recordings on a dedicated PVR, but that seems to be deleting all the episodes from the list to be recorded after the first one has been recorded, even when I add them as separate episodes rather than as a series. That device seems to be very temperamental, and of course it's no longer supported as the maker seems to have pulled out of the PVR market and the URL given on its config screen points to a site in Chinese.

Apart from the series link problem (which I detected in advance of recording), and one episode that only partly recorded because TVH got into a silly mood and refused to write to the recording directory, even after several reboots, I've not lost a recording yet.

We're about to move house, and the house we're looking at seems to be in a small area (several streets that slope the wrong way!) that gets very poor terrestrial reception and it has only a dish not an aerial, so if we get that house I'll have to buy a couple of USB DVB-S2 devices and get to grips with how TVH works with satellite channels. That will be fun ;-)

The thing to remember with S2 is that more channels are separate, whereas T2 could have 30 channels on the same mux (so you can record BBC1 HD,2HD, etc at the same time). So that means the number of channels that can be recorded at the same time is reduced. So I'd look for a quad tuner if you will only have S2, or see if a good modern aerial will work.

Unfortunately, the autorec dialog doesn't show the extra information about series link ids (it could be non-printable iirc), and so it looks identical to one without series link.

That seems very unfortunate. Indeed I've only just realized that there are autorecs for each Series Record I've created, and several apparently identical ones in some cases, perhaps because I've previously had to create new ones for new series. Would it not be possible to display some information about series links?

At a minimum, an indication that there IS a series link would be useful in the main table. I see the help mentions it being displayed as 'read-only' but there is no read-only information section that I can see on any of the autorecs I have 'edited'. The examples shown so far have been printable, and if they are all URIs then they are all printable! If not, they could be forced to something printable, even if not meaningful.

We're about to move house, and the house we're looking at seems to be in a small area (several streets that slope the wrong way!) that gets very poor terrestrial reception and it has only a dish not an aerial

I would check the coverage maps carefully and consult a good local antenna specialist. Most people don't understand the first thing about antennas, and neither do many installers. There might be a local relay transmitter, or it might be possible to get better reception with a taller mast. Having said that, Freesat is likely a good option.

Dave H wrote:

We're about to move house, and the house we're looking at seems to be in a small area (several streets that slope the wrong way!) that gets very poor terrestrial reception and it has only a dish not an aerial

I would check the coverage maps carefully and consult a good local antenna specialist. Most people don't understand the first thing about antennas, and neither do many installers. There might be a local relay transmitter, or it might be possible to get better reception with a taller mast. Having said that, Freesat is likely a good option.

I looked at an online coverage prediction site http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/AudioVisualTV/TerrestrialTV/TerrestrialCalculator.shtml which is normally pretty accurate. For a default 10 m high aerial, it gave "no coverage"; for 15 or 20 it could see Emley Moor at a respectable strength. So height is important. I noticed a lot of the nearby houses had aerials on abnormally long poles, and some aerials had a larger number of larger elements.

Anyway, that's all fallen through: after the house had been on the market for a few days, the owners withdrew it from sale for "unforeseen personal reasons" :-(