[mythtv-users] Many recordings fail and then succeed a second later

[Tom Dexter]

On 1/19/20, Ross Boylan <rossboylan at stanfordalumni.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 19, 2020 at 4:56 AM Daryl McDonald <darylangela at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 19, 2020 at 1:56 AM Ross Boylan
>> <rossboylan at stanfordalumni.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> From that page it looks as if the tuning timeout is the relevant
>>> parameter for recordings.  Assuming this is the channel_timeout column
>>> in
>>> the database, I have the default value of 3 seconds.
>>> But the failure occurs only a fraction of second (~ 0.005 s =
>>> 15:58:00.145173 -15:58:00.140392) after the initial attempt.  So it
>>> doesn't
>>> seem even the values already set are being respected.  Even if the other
>>> timeout parameter of 1s is what matters, it's clearly well below that.
>>> Although the 2nd try is 1s after the first.
>>>
>>> Ross
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 3:29 PM Doug Lytle <support at drdos.info> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 1/18/20 5:06 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Less commonly, the recordings just fail.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Ross,
>>>>
>>>> Typically you need to increase your tuning timeout in mythtv-setup.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Setup_Capture_Cards#Card_type:_HDHomeRun_networked_tuner
>>>>
>>>> Doug
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>
>>> Any dual tuner, in Mythtv set up like yours can record four programs
>>> only
>> if they come from only two muxes, so a third recording from a third mux
>> will always fail.
>>
>> I don't understand how the remark about muxes (multiplexers?) relates to
> any of the previous stuff.  I do understand that I can exceed 2
> simultaneous recordings only if I record off multiple subchannels (I don't
> know the technical term, but I mentioned 9.1 and 9.2 in my original post).
> Are you saying that instead of 4 records in capturecard there should be 2?
> I don't think any of the failures I listed involved attempting to record >
> 2 programs.
> And I don't see how that relates to increasing the timeout, or the fact
> that my failures seem to happen faster than even the shortest timeout.
> Ross
>

I'd say you're correct that the number of multiplexes shouldn't be an
issue here unless you attempted to record more than two shows on
different multiplexes...for example shows on 9.1, 11.1, 13.1 at the
same time. You should however be able to record, for example, shows on
all four of 9.1, 9.2, 11.1, 11.2 at the same time...and your capture
card setup appears correct for that. You're SQL listing there doesn't
include the "videodevice" column, but I'm assuming that all of those
contain your tuner id. Prior to version 30, two of those would have
had <id>-0 and two would have had <id>-1, but as of 30.0 those suffix'
where removed. Yours all have a reclimit of 2 which is also correct
for that.

I have three of the dual tuner HDHRs. I've never had to change those
default timeouts (the same as you have listed). One possibility is of
course something that temporarily causes very bad reception. Another
possibility however...one that I got burned by...is this:

I had a short period where recordings were failing. What I discovered
was that intermittently the network light on the back of my first
tuner was flashing red, which indicates a network issue. I took me a
while to notice it because it was NOT doing it all the time. Once I
did, simply unplugging the HDHR and plugging it back in solved that
and it was fine ever since.

Tom