BUG: FTA recording failed for no apparent reason (iQ 24/04/2012)

[F1Mad]

Hi,

The saga with failed recordings carries on...

This time, I've got a failed recording for a FTA channel. This recording (for the film "Iron Man") did not record AT ALL. It shows up in the Recording List, but you can see that the duration midway on the Right hand side says "0:00". Sure enough, this recording failed:


Notice from that screengrab that the program above it, "World Rally Championship", started at the same time. This one DID record OK! So this rules out any issues with the HDD:


Seriously getting fed up now! I'm now very close to binning this xxxx xx xxxx!!!

 

[ellie1998]

You don't state how your feeding the box.
My son had 1 feed to the box and was limited as to being able to do simultaneous recordings, now he has 2 feeds from the dish he can watch one side and record another or do simultaneous recording but there are still limitations.
It looks like the box could only view 1 so selected 1 and ignored the other.
Do you have twin feeds or are you feeding it with 1 feed and hoping for best with the loopthrough ?, the loopthrough is a rubbish idea and only offers a limited improvement over a single lnb box.

 

[alex123]

just following the oe threads just a suggestion when reporting bugs as ellie has stated recording problem we should state if we have both tuners connectted to same lnb or to differant dishes also should we not be stating recoding to what ie usb stick ,usb hdd or internal hardrive and what size make and model or hardive if recording bugs are to be ironed out then all details are needed by support guys .
alex

 

[F1Mad]

just following the oe threads just a suggestion when reporting bugs as ellie has stated recording problem we should state if we have both tuners connectted to same lnb or to differant dishes also should we not be stating recoding to what ie usb stick ,usb hdd or internal hardrive and what size make and model or hardive if recording bugs are to be ironed out then all details are needed by support guys .
alex

ellie1998 and alex123, fair points! OK, here's my setup:
1) Single 60cm mesh dish, with quad LNB (so each tuner has it's own feed!)
2) HDD is a Seagate 500GB 3.5" internal one (ie using internal SATA connector).

I'm thinking of maybe trying a 1TB 2.5" one (same as I have in my Media Center) to rule out any issues with the Seagate. Also, the 2.5" could then be mounted in an external caddy, too, to be tried as a USB drive. That's if I don't give up with this box first!

 

[Abu Baniaz]

Have you configured the tuners as "single" or "equal to". Simple or advanced mode?

 

[F1Mad]

Have you configured the tuners as "single" or "equal to". Simple or advanced mode?

Oops, good point abu-baniaz.

The tuners are configured individually as "single" and "simples".

I should add that both tuners are known to work in this configuration, because in testing all this stuff, I have managed to record 2 channels from different transponders simultaneoulsy. Just NOT when I need them most! (you don't want to know how many important recordings I've missed! Hence why I can't rely on it any more!!).

 

[Bally12345]

I very occasionally get this error and think it was due to the hdd not waking up properly, this was with an older drive in another box not saying your hdd is faulty but couldnt hurt to try another if you are getting a lot failed recordings.

 

[F1Mad]

I very occasionally get this error and think it was due to the hdd not waking up properly, this was with an older drive in another box not saying your hdd is faulty but couldnt hurt to try another if you are getting a lot failed recordings.

Bally mate, you may well be right! To see whether your idea was viable, I had to check on the "Timer Overview" screen to see which of the 2 recordings was first marked as "done!". Basically, 1 encrypted channel and 1 FTA were due to start at the exact same time. The FTA that failed appears below the other in the list, implying that it may have started a split second before the other (unless of course it was below because it failed, and hence stopped, before the other recording!).

Anyway, I've not seen anything else that tells me there's a problem with the HDD (it worked flawlessly when it was in one of my Media Center machines), I do know that Seagates are problematic (I have several, and they've been failing, one by one, within 3 years).

I'll buy a new 2.5" drive from another manufacturer and see how I get on with that...

 

[ellie1998]

Have you tried recording to a network share ?, cheaper than a hdd, I hate the thought of wasting a good hdd on 1 machine when I can share it on my network, can watch from pc's and I can watch recording my son has made in his room (can but don't want to) and he can watch what we have recorded downstairs.
.
I wouldn't do it if the twin is wireless though it would need to be hardwired to the router.

 

[F1Mad]

Have you tried recording to a network share ?, cheaper than a hdd, I hate the thought of wasting a good hdd on 1 machine when I can share it on my network, can watch from pc's and I can watch recording my son has made in his room (can but don't want to) and he can watch what we have recorded downstairs.
.
I wouldn't do it if the twin is wireless though it would need to be hardwired to the router.

That might not be such a bad idea mate, as it then means:
1) I can use larger storage
2) It's much easier to check the state of a disk in another machine, eg on my Linux server, because I get good SMART diagnostics on that server
3) This *might* also cure the "green screen" issues I have occassionally had on boot up when the box has frozen up and needed a full power down/up whilst it was doing a disk operation. Maybe I could then put the Twin's chassis screws back in!

I can't quite work out what I'd need to do, though, to configure the Twin to use a network share. I've already got a network share set up, and it seems to be mounted as "/media/net/share-name", so would I only need to change the value of "Default Movie location" under "Menu > Setup > System > Recording Settings"?

BTW, I too agree on a central storage approach, hence why I've set up such a monster server!

 

[ellie1998]

I just went to network setings, I think it's called network browser let it scanned my network.
Then selected the server if you have a username/password then set them otherwise leave the defaults (it needs something in each field or doesn't work ?), I select cifs
It will add it as a network share.
then just change the default recording location and timeshift location.

 

[Abu Baniaz]

If you go to this thread, there is a very detailed description of how it was setup

https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/index.php?threads/284227/

 

[CG121]

Doesn't all of this sort of defeat the object of fitting a HDD to the Twin..

 

[VectorZ]

Doesn't all of this sort of defeat the object of fitting a HDD to the Twin..

You must be joking! I've got terrabytes of stuff on shares for Twin and a few PC's to access as read-only.... I wouldn't trust even 1 of the drives with anything important on it in the Twin box

 

[ellie1998]

Doesn't all of this sort of defeat the object of fitting a HDD to the Twin..

Not for me, I never fitted a hdd seems a waste of money putting a hdd in a tv box when I can put it in my server and everyone can view the files.
I don't use timeshift and to be honest if I did it would be to a 16gb usb stick as they are dirt cheap nowadays.

I don't earn enough to throw away a 1tb drive into a tv box.

 

[CG121]

My point was, if it's got HDD support, it should work..

A large percentage of end users are not advanced enough to have media servers running and simply want to buy a box and fit a HDD and be done with it.
[& yes it still bothers me that they let the general public buy computers lol]

 

[F1Mad]

I just went to network setings, I think it's called network browser let it scanned my network.
Then selected the server if you have a username/password then set them otherwise leave the defaults (it needs something in each field or doesn't work ?), I select cifs
It will add it as a network share.
then just change the default recording location and timeshift location.

Mate, I've managed to create a network share, but for some reason I can't change the location for Recordings ("Main Menu > Setup > System > Recording Settings > Default movie location"). I get the following On Screen menu, but can't select anything!

It's the same issue I have when I try to "Move" a recording from "List" screen. Basically, if I have a recording selected, and then click on "Menu > Move > Other", then I get the same screen, but can't select anything. Is this a bug??

 

[F1Mad]

My point was, if it's got HDD support, it should work..

A large percentage of end users are not advanced enough to have media servers running and simply want to buy a box and fit a HDD and be done with it.
[& yes it still bothers me that they let the general public buy computers lol]

I agree, you're right. Ideally, you should be able to do BOTH - actually you should be able to do any of the following:
1) Use internal HDD
2) Use USB HDD
3) Use network share

 

[ellie1998]

Mate, I've managed to create a network share, but for some reason I can't change the location for Recordings ("Main Menu > Setup > System > Recording Settings > Default movie location"). I get the following On Screen menu, but can't select anything!
View attachment 66110
It's the same issue I have when I try to "Move" a recording from "List" screen. Basically, if I have a recording selected, and then click on "Menu > Move > Other", then I get the same screen, but can't select anything. Is this a bug??

hit the menu button you will be given the option to go to filelist instead of bookmarks.

 

[F1Mad]

Doh!! Thanks for that, mate! Jeez, I didn't try "menu" on that screen before, because on the previous screen it would make the menu disappear!

Thanks again!