HDR-FOX T2 to HDHomeRun, my journey

Okay, so there is a known issue with Microsoft installing different versions of databases, try this from the installer instructions:

Installing SqlLocalDB will upgrade any existing older version, due to a bug in the setup routine from Microsoft this may cause an issue. If there are problems starting the DvrOnTime service please use the Registry Editor and check the following key:

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\UserInstances\{A Guid which
varies by machine}]

Check the value for ParentInstance, this should be: MSSQL15E.LOCALDB and if not, it may be left at a
previous version, for example showing 12E or 14E, edit this to have version 15E and try and restart the computer and try again.


So if you found that key needing changing, have another go with the installer.
 
Okay, so there is a known issue with Microsoft installing different versions of databases, try this from the installer instructions:

Installing SqlLocalDB will upgrade any existing older version, due to a bug in the setup routine from Microsoft this may cause an issue. If there are problems starting the DvrOnTime service please use the Registry Editor and check the following key:

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\UserInstances\{A Guid which
varies by machine}]

Check the value for ParentInstance, this should be: MSSQL15E.LOCALDB and if not, it may be left at a
previous version, for example showing 12E or 14E, edit this to have version 15E and try and restart the computer and try again.


So if you found that key needing changing, have another go with the installer.
Yes that key was already set to MSSQL15E.LOCALDB, so I guess I have the correct version installed. Maybe I need to update the .Net framework???
 
Yes that key was already set to MSSQL15E.LOCALDB, so I guess I have the correct version installed. Maybe I need to update the .Net framework???

You shouldn't need to update the .NET framework if the computer is updating using Windows update as they will get updated then.

So all we can do is make sure there are no remnants left behind perhaps stopping the installer. So if you could check that:

1) DvrOnTime has no entries in Add or Remove problems
2) If there is a folder at C:\Program Files for DvrOnTime then delete the DvrOnTime folder.
3) Where you have extracted the installer files, right click on the DvrOnTimeSetup.msi and under properties if it is saying it is untrusted, click to Allow Access. Also launch the installer DvrOnTimeSetup.msi rather than the Setup.exe, some have reported problems using the Setup.exe which just launches the msi installer.

Then try the installer again.

It's very hard to know what to suggest given I can't replicate the problem, as I've just tried in the installer on a Windows 10 laptop and working all okay as well.
 
You shouldn't need to update the .NET framework if the computer is updating using Windows update as they will get updated then.

So all we can do is make sure there are no remnants left behind perhaps stopping the installer. So if you could check that:

1) DvrOnTime has no entries in Add or Remove problems
2) If there is a folder at C:\Program Files for DvrOnTime then delete the DvrOnTime folder.
3) Where you have extracted the installer files, right click on the DvrOnTimeSetup.msi and under properties if it is saying it is untrusted, click to Allow Access. Also launch the installer DvrOnTimeSetup.msi rather than the Setup.exe, some have reported problems using the Setup.exe which just launches the msi installer.

Then try the installer again.

It's very hard to know what to suggest given I can't replicate the problem, as I've just tried in the installer on a Windows 10 laptop and working all okay as well.
Hmmm...there was indeed a DVROntime entry in Add or Remove Programs, but when I try to uninstall it I get an error - "There is a problem with this Windows installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel..."

So I manually deleted the DVROntime folder in Program Files, then tried the v1.0.6 installer again. It gives me the option to Repair or Remove. If I select Remove it fails with the same error ("There is a problem with the Windows installer package...."). If I select Repair it attempts to start the service, then times out and fails.

Is there a manual way of removing the application?
 
Hmmm...there was indeed a DVROntime entry in Add or Remove Programs, but when I try to uninstall it I get an error - "There is a problem with this Windows installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel..."

So I manually deleted the DVROntime folder in Program Files, then tried the v1.0.6 installer again. It gives me the option to Repair or Remove. If I select Remove it fails with the same error ("There is a problem with the Windows installer package...."). If I select Repair it attempts to start the service, then times out and fails.

Is there a manual way of removing the application?
Super, that is probably causing the issue. So it needs the Registry editor to be used, Start - Registry and it should come up. Not sure if you have used this before?

In the left hand side you need to navigated to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

Then try and find the DvrOnTime Entry, once you are on the Uninstall folder, use Edit and find... and search for DvrOnTime, hopefully that will take you to it, on my machine its the folder {2D92B198-A128-4F2C-B9A7-757BBE3890B4}. Just right click that folder and delete it, this should remove the Add Remove entry and allow it a clean install. Obviously its at your own risk as getting something wrong in the registry could cause you more issues.

Fingers crossed.
 
Super, that is probably causing the issue. So it needs the Registry editor to be used, Start - Registry and it should come up. Not sure if you have used this before?

In the left hand side you need to navigated to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

Then try and find the DvrOnTime Entry, once you are on the Uninstall folder, use Edit and find... and search for DvrOnTime, hopefully that will take you to it, on my machine its the folder {2D92B198-A128-4F2C-B9A7-757BBE3890B4}. Just right click that folder and delete it, this should remove the Add Remove entry and allow it a clean install. Obviously its at your own risk as getting something wrong in the registry could cause you more issues.

Fingers crossed.
Removing that reg entry allowed me to uninstall and reinstall DVROntime (v1.0.6), but it failed with a timeout when trying to start the service.
 
So is the service now installed? Can you try starting it manually then if it doesn't start, check the event log? Hopefully we are just back to the original time out issue.
 
So is the service now installed? Can you try starting it manually then if it doesn't start, check the event log? Hopefully we are just back to the original time out issue.
OK so I was able to start the service manually - must've been a genuine timeout....

So I stopped it again, replaced the three v1.0.6 files with the equivalent files from v1.0.7, made the changes to the config file, then tried to restart the service. This time I get: "Windows could not start the DVROntime Service on Local Computer. Error 1064: an exception occurred in the service when handling the control request"
???
 
Just checking - I inserted the new <setting> section inside the <configuration> section (just below the <runtime> section - is that correct?
 
Just checking - I inserted the new <setting> section inside the <configuration> section (just below the <runtime> section - is that correct?
The setting is just a modification of the existing setting, remove what you added then find the setting below in that configuration file:

Code:
 <setting name="DatabaseConnectionString" serializeAs="String">
           <value>Data Source = (LocalDb)\MSSQLLocalDB;Initial Catalog = DvrOnTime; AttachDBFilename=%Path%</value>
</setting>

Then after %Path% you are adding
Code:
; TransparentNetworkIPResolution=False"

So that whole setting now looks like:

Code:
 <setting name="DatabaseConnectionString" serializeAs="String">
         <value>Data Source = (LocalDb)\MSSQLLocalDB;Initial Catalog = DvrOnTime; AttachDBFilename=%Path%; TransparentNetworkIPResolution=False</value>
  </setting>
 
Doh! Sorry I hadn't spotted that the section already existed. OK I managed to correct the config and start the service. One step forward....

Now when I try to tune the channels the DVROntime service repeatedly crashes after tuning four of the six channels. The message generated in the Event Log is "The DVROntime service terminated unexpectedly."

Following each crash, there are no channels listed in the Guide - i.e. it seems to roll back whatever channel data it had successfully managed to detect.

dvr-tuning.png
 
OK so it seems that channels 22 and 28 seem to cause the crash when tuning. If I omit these then I can progress to updating the EPG. So everything appears to be back up and running.

Many thanks for your help!
 
OK so it seems that channels 22 and 28 seem to cause the crash when tuning. If I omit these then I can progress to updating the EPG. So everything appears to be back up and running.

Many thanks for your help!
Which transmitter are you on? Wondering if those channel numbers are getting a bad signal and it's causing errors that aren't being handled in the code.

Glad to hear things are up and running again.
 
So for Crystal Palace you would want to tune the following channel numbers: 23, 26, 30, 25, 22, 28, so it looks correct. It is possible one of those channels is giving back some data not expected or tested for causing a crash. There may be some more debug information for the crash in the Event log file which can be downloaded from the DvrOnTime Settings menu by choosing the day you had the error and clicking Download. If you can attach that log here or just the bit about the error I can look into it for you. Note that whilst the log can't contain any personal information, it will include program names you've recorded, so feel free to just extract the relevant errors.
 
Thanks - yes, those were the six channels that I tried tuning. It was just 22 and 28 that caused the problem. It looks like Sky Arts is missing as a consequence, which is a shame as I use it alot.
I've attached the event log. I think I tried tuning for the first time between 21:20 and 21:45
 

Attachments

  • eventlog.txt
    58 KB · Views: 2
Thanks for the log. There seems to be several times DvrOnTime has failed to find a free tuner and had an error back from HDHomeRun of 503 No video data. It might be worth unplugging and plugging back in the tuner to reset it. Also it may benefit from the latest firmware, this can be installed by going to your tuner using a web browser so http://hdhomerun/system.html or http://192.168.1.54/system.html and it will tell you if new firmware is available. It also has its own logging that may have some information in it about the errors, this can be viewed by going to http://192.168.1.54/log.html, maybe check this before rebooting the box to see if it has logged any problems.

Once the tuner is reset have another go at tuning in the missing channel numbers to get your missing TV channels.
 
Thanks for the log. There seems to be several times DvrOnTime has failed to find a free tuner and had an error back from HDHomeRun of 503 No video data. It might be worth unplugging and plugging back in the tuner to reset it. Also it may benefit from the latest firmware, this can be installed by going to your tuner using a web browser so http://hdhomerun/system.html or http://192.168.1.54/system.html and it will tell you if new firmware is available. It also has its own logging that may have some information in it about the errors, this can be viewed by going to http://192.168.1.54/log.html, maybe check this before rebooting the box to see if it has logged any problems.

Once the tuner is reset have another go at tuning in the missing channel numbers to get your missing TV channels.
After resetting (i.e. power cycling) the HDHomeRun the DVROntime retuning process initially failed to find any channels at all. I then reset the HDHomeRun again and tried again. The DVROntime service crashed a few more times, but eventually the scan completed. There were no channels in the list/guide when it completed, however, despite reporting that it had found channels.
I've attached the latest log. Will try retuning again....
 

Attachments

  • eventlog (1).txt
    20.1 KB · Views: 2
Looking at the logs its just issues with connecting to the tuner now. It either doesn't respond with any data or the data is corrupted. Maybe a signal problem or aerial problem? Do you have the HDHomeRun app? Can you view live programs with it? When you are watching something or recording something you can view the tuner status at http://hdhomerun/tuners.html by selecting the in use tuner and it will tell you about the signal quality. Is the computer you are using connected via a wired Ethernet connection?

Not sure there is much more I can help with if the tuner isn't responding with valid data.
 
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