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Pixelation When Recording HD

Not too strange, my experiences certainly seem to correlate with periods of high processor demand from "other" activity. Fortunately recordings don't seem to suffer, presumably they are mostly handled in hardware with very little processor involvement once they have started.

Idea: a custom software "all engines stop" control for critical periods?
 
Until we have a proper fix, the following script will enable/disable the rs services:
Code: 
#! /bin/sh
 
disable_cron() {
  tmpfile="/tmp/crontab.tmp"
  crontab -l > $tmpfile
  if grep -q '^ *[^#].*rs_process' $tmpfile; then
    sed -e 's/\(.*rs_process.*\)$/#\1/' $tmpfile | crontab -
  fi
  rm $tmpfile
}
 
enable_cron() {
  tmpfile="/tmp/crontab.tmp"
  crontab -l > $tmpfile
  if grep -q '^ *#.*rs_process' $tmpfile; then
    sed -e 's/^ *#*\(.*rs_process.*\)$/\1/' $tmpfile | crontab -
  fi
  rm $tmpfile
}
 
syntax() {
  echo "Syntax: $0 enable|disable"
  exit 1
}
 
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
  syntax
fi
 
enabledFile=/mod/etc/init.d/S55rs
disabledFile=/mod/etc/init.d/disabled.S55rs
 
if [ "$1" = "disable" ]; then
  disable_cron
  if [ -f $enabledFile ]; then
    mv $enabledFile $disabledFile
  fi
elif [ "$1" = "enable" ]; then
  enable_cron
  if [ ! -f $enabledFile ]; then
    mv  $disabledFile $enabledFile
  fi
else
  syntax
fi
 
I was thinking more of some button or other to stop everything, rather than specifically RS or having to uninstall an reinstall.
 
The only time I've ever managed to cause problems with normal box operation is when there is a lot of hard disk activity. Recording two HD programmes whilst playing back a third is pretty hard on the disk so if something else disk intensive comes along then it can cause these symptoms.

The odd thing is that RS doesn't do anything CPU, memory or disk intensive apart from once a day when it does a complete disk content scan. That's done a few minutes after the box boots for the first time each day so usually occurs during the 04:30 update check. Otherwise RS is very lightweight.

For anyone having pixelation problems, I'd suggest uninstalling everything - all packages - that you can and see if the problem still occurs, then you can reintroduce packages to try and pinpoint the issue.

The problem I have is that I don't see this problem and, as you can imagine, my box runs a fair amount of extra things.

By itself, with no additional packages, the custom firmware shouldn't increase the load on the box measurably so I would be interested to hear of anyone for whom just installing it causes problems.
 
af123 said:
The odd thing is that RS doesn't do anything CPU, memory or disk intensive apart from once a day when it does a complete disk content scan. That's done a few minutes after the box boots for the first time each day so usually occurs during the 04:30 update check. Otherwise RS is very lightweight.
Click to expand...
RS is indeed very lightweight and it is not its CPU usage that is causing the problem. The problem appears to stem from the fact that if you don't have a reliable network connection to its server, the rs processes never complete and their numbers build up over time. It is the sheer number of these processes that appears to cause problems.

Try powering up the Hummy, disconnecting the network and letting it run for 2-3 hours - hopefully it will start showing some of the problems described here.

Incidentally, I think most people will agree that RS provides a really useful feature and hence no one has suggested that it be uninstalled.
 
af123 said:
The odd thing is that RS doesn't do anything CPU, memory or disk intensive apart from once a day when it does a complete disk content scan. That's done a few minutes after the box boots for the first time each day so usually occurs during the 04:30 update.
Click to expand...
Is there a command in Diagnostics to initiate another scan/update?
 
sooty83 said:
RS is indeed very lightweight and it is not its CPU usage that is causing the problem. The problem appears to stem from the fact that if you don't have a reliable network connection to its server, the rs processes never complete and their numbers build up over time. It is the sheer number of these processes that appears to cause problems.
Click to expand...

The latest version has lower network timeouts so hopefully it will be better but I think it needs more work. Thanks for the pointers, I'll try and replicate that over the weekend.

no one has suggested that it be uninstalled.
Click to expand...

I think that if it is causing someone problems with the box's day job, then they should consider uninstalling it until the problem is resolved or during times that they can't afford something to go wrong with the box. It's a stateless package so there is no problem with just removing and reinstalling it as often as you like, you won't need to re-register each time. Your script doesn't stop the ana cronjobs btw.
 
Suffering quite badly with pixellation and stuttering - strange mine seems to be on the recording (or of course the unencrypt record stage?) because I can reproduce the fault every time if I rewind/replay?

I have temporarily removed RS and also altered the unencryptsetup to only run at time I KNOW there will be no recordings being made - made a note of the date and will see if any subsequent recordings are still affected.

Slightly off topic - regarding the diagnostic function - I notice there is obviously the default "general" and the "diskpush" mentioned above (saw another one somewhere - can't remember) - is there actually a list of the possible types of diagnostic that can be run as well as what they actually mean or do? Had a search and can't seem to find anything?
 
woodbar said:
I notice there is obviously the default "general" and the "diskpush" mentioned above (saw another one somewhere - can't remember) - is there actually a list of the possible types of diagnostic that can be run as well as what they actually mean or do? Had a search and can't seem to find anything?
Click to expand...

Just setting this up on the WiKi HERE , However it is still under construction if af123 can supply a list I can get it into the WiKi
 
They are pretty dynamic and some were created just for specific cases, but the generally useful ones are:

assignhd - HD model, assign an external disk for recording;
cpdiag - custom portal diagnostics;
flashmap - show flash memory layout;
removepw - remove password authentication from the web interface;
remove_mod_yes_i_am_sure - removes everything custom (same as clicking the reset button in diagnostics but more immediate)
 
sooty83 said:
Didn't know about the updated rs package with shorter network timeouts. Will give it a go. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Happy to report that the latest rs code has fixed the build up of rs processes. I have run it for 2.5 hours this morning without a network connection and there was no sign of slow down or other adverse effects. Thanks af123.
 
Been running for a while now with the new rs process and also some powerline av plugs and have not experienced any of the previous pixilation issues - thanks af123
 
I installed the custom firmware a few weeks ago and put the breakup in picture on recordings down to bad reception at the time, but this thread sounds very similar to my experiences and the signal quality is pretty decent when I check. It's also odd that I get no breakup at all when watching live TV and it's just on recordings, although I do sometimes get a few minutes where the box is totally unresponsive to any remote control key presses even when just watching live TV.

I was hopeful that the rs fix would help, but I have just checked and I am not even running the rs process. Any ideas what I can do to test my box and try and pin down the culprit? I'd rather not format the disk if I can avoid it as I have quite a few recordings I want to keep.
 
When you say signal quality is pretty decent - check it in the system menu - often the colour bars don't reflect what is really happening.
(when it starts to breakup quickly go into the menu and watch it for about 60 seconds - if you see significant bobbing about - thats probably the issue
if it remains stable you can probably rule it out - unless like us you suffer from flying aircraft interference in which case the pixelation will have stopped)
We get this really bad when the wind blows - today we had no watchable channels at all again (so I'm told)
 
Aerial is firmly in place and there aren't may trees about. It does seem odd that there is never breakup when it's live TV, so I can't see why signal quality would be only affecting recorded programs.
 
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