Project

General

Profile

Weak Stream?

Added by Karl P almost 6 years ago

Hi,

I've noticed over the past couple of months a few of my recordings are being marked as having a weak stream. In one instance when this happened, the file was deleted before I could watch it, and typically there was no repeat - which was extremely irritating.

Looking further into this, every file that I've seen this happen on is actually perfectly fine with zero recording or data errors noted and I've watched them all without issue.

The last one it happened on was last night's repeat of 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown (Christmas Special). Again, zero errors in the recording and it played perfectly.

This seems to be something of a bug to me, but I'm unsure what I can do to stop it.

Tvheadend version - 4.2.7-39~g7e960a8a9.
Ubuntu Server 18.04
1 x Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD
2 x Hauppauge WinTV-dual HD

I also note someone has posted a bug report [[https://tvheadend.org/issues/5351]], but he does say he's getting errors, whereas I'm not.


Replies (9)

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Joe User almost 6 years ago

I posted in the linked issue. Basically it is not about error count, but file sizes...

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Karl P almost 6 years ago

Thanks, but that doesn't really explain my issue as mine was a new recording. The link I posted may be a little misleading as Mark's issue is slightly different but did mention weak stream problems.

As far as I know my streams are fine. I've never had any corrupt or failed recordings due to signal strength, but Tvheadend recently started deleting perfectly good recordings for some reason I don't quite understand and I'd rather it gave me the option as to whether to delete it instead of making a unilateral decision based on some algorithm that seems faulty (in my opinion of course).

I know the files were fine because, as soon as I realised what it was doing, when I saw it mark a recording as a weak stream, I copied the file elsewhere and then watched it without issue.

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Joe User almost 6 years ago

Karl P wrote:

The last one it happened on was last night's repeat of 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown (Christmas Special). Again, zero errors in the recording and it played perfectly.

Sorry, I assumed "repeat" was a re-record...

But a quick check did not show any other place where the "weak stream" is set???

~/tvheadend_official/tvheadend (master)*$ grep WEAK_STREAM -r src
src/dvr/dvr_db.c:      dvr_entry_completed(de, SM_CODE_WEAK_STREAM);
src/dvr/dvr_db.c:      de->de_last_error == SM_CODE_WEAK_STREAM)
src/streaming.h:#define SM_CODE_WEAK_STREAM               107
src/streaming.c:  case SM_CODE_WEAK_STREAM:
src/htsp_server.c:  case SM_CODE_WEAK_STREAM:

But that is the latest code, I did not check 4.2

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Karl P almost 6 years ago

No problem, it was my fault for not being clear enough. :)

It was happening all the time when I recorded Hustle which is currently showing on the Sony Crime Channel. I got into the habit of copying these files elsewhere after it recorded them as Tvheadend deleted the pilot episode before I got to see it ...

I can generally tell when it's been marked as a weak stream because I can't play or delete the file using the Tvheadend Kodi addon, which was the case with 8/10 Cats last night. I had to go through the Videos menu instead to watch it.

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Karl P almost 6 years ago

And it's just happened again.

I recorded Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on 5HD this afternoon (who doesn't love that!? :))

It's now sat in the failed section with a file size of nearly 9GB and no errors. I've just cut all the adverts out with VideoReDo as well and there were no errors there either. Something's definitely not right somewhere. I get a decent signal where I live and I rarely have errors in my recordings, yet Tvheadend is failing more and more things.

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Mark Clarkstone almost 6 years ago

I'll set up a number of recordings running 4.3.1704 & see if I get the same, and report back. I don't think I've ever seen "weak stream" before.

Even though tvh marks it as failed you can still move it to finished if you want.

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Karl P almost 6 years ago

Thanks Mark

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Joe User almost 6 years ago

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

Even though tvh marks it as failed you can still move it to finished if you want.

Part of the problem is that it is not just marked as failed, it is also marked to be removed in 1 day. Maybe this should be changed to at least 1 week for people who are not constantly monitoring all recordings (like me... :) )

RE: Weak Stream? - Added by Jack Bamford over 5 years ago

Karl P wrote:

Hi,

I've noticed over the past couple of months a few of my recordings are being marked as having a weak stream. In one instance when this happened, the file was deleted before I could watch it, and typically there was no repeat - which was extremely irritating.

Looking further into this, every file that I've seen this happen on is actually perfectly fine with zero recording or data errors noted and I've watched them all without issue.

The last one it happened on was last night's repeat of 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown (Christmas Special). Again, zero errors in the recording and it played perfectly.

This seems to be something of a bug to me, but I'm unsure what I can do to stop it.

Tvheadend version - 4.2.7-39~g7e960a8a9.
Ubuntu Server 18.04
1 x Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD
2 x Hauppauge WinTV-dual HD

I also note someone has posted a bug report [[https://tvheadend.org/issues/5351]], but he does say he's getting errors, whereas I'm not.

Ive recently bought the same card QuadHD the card works perfectly fine here in the UK. How did you build your firmware? i have noticed that there are certain times that the +1 Channels are broadcasting. ITV 3+1 and 4+1 when not broadcasting they show up as no signal but this is a Freeview thing. Other than that the card works perfect.

    (1-9/9)