Problems with BBC HD channels (Craigkelly)

Black Hole said:
It has long been my assertion that the wiki entry should link back to the relevant discussion topic.
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What's the point of that. It will undoubtedly give the reader hundreds of posts to read through, when the wiki could be the definitive on a subject without all the ensuing dross. (Just like Wikipedia?):)
 
Coming from another angle...
I was having this problem with BBC HD channels. I use auto-decrypt and auto-shrink and often the problem was that a previous recording was being decrypted/shrunk.
I updated the Auto-Processing settings to stop decryption/shrinking happening between 6pm and 3am. I then set a reminder for 4am to 5am to allow the box to do any outstanding decrypting/shrinking.
Since doing this I have had no problems at all.
 
Hmm. I don't think I have any auto-processing functions selected, but I've blocked out the period from 6am to 1am anyway, as well preventing any auto-processing while a recording is in progress.
 
If you look in Diagnostics and open the auto.log (if it is there), this will tell you what auto-processing functions are running.
 
prpr said:
I know that I had some problems with the aerial cabling after that
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Ah! Specifically, what?
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IIRC I had this bright idea to replace the cheap white RF cable with a proper bit of aerial cable with nice metal coax connectors. Unfortunately that didn't seem to work very well (quite possibly it was my dodgy assembly of the Belling-Lee connectors that was to blame). By the time I worked out where the problem lay I had, of course, misplaced the cheap cable that I'd been using without any trouble for the past n years, so I had to rummage in my "bits of stuff for the TV" drawer to find another one. That made things better, but might still be not as 'good' as the one I was using before, and so be a cause of the problems I've been seeing recently.

Basically, as far as I am concerned RF is all wizardry and black magic anyway so being forced to dismantle everything was only ever going to end in bad things happening...
peterworks said:
If you look in Diagnostics and open the auto.log (if it is there), this will tell you what auto-processing functions are running.
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Thanks, I'll have a look at that tonight.
 
peterworks said:
ejstubbs - Did you get anywhere with this ?
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I ran away when WWIII broke out over Belling-Lee connectors. There aren't half some argumentative souls on this forum...

I have checked auto.log and AFAICS there are no auto-processing functions selected. It does seem to check every time a recording finishes, and twice in the early hours of the morning, and does nothing:

Code: 
5000    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - Auto processing completed in 0.492 seconds.
4999    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - No mpg flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4998    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - No mp3 flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4997    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - No shrink flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4996    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - No decrypt flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4995    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - No dedup flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4994    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - No expire flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4993    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - Active flags:
4992    26/06/2017 04:32:02 - Scan completed (0.366 seconds)
4991    26/06/2017 04:32:01 - Scanning media for flags...
4990    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - Auto processing completed in 1.257 seconds.
4989    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - No mpg flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4988    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - No mp3 flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4987    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - No shrink flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4986    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - No decrypt flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4985    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - No dedup flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4984    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - No expire flags in filesystem, suppressing scan.
4983    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - Active flags:
4982    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - Scan completed (0.622 seconds)
4981    26/06/2017 04:21:02 - Scanning media for flags...
4980    26/06/2017 00:25:06 - autotrigger[3935]: done
4979    26/06/2017 00:25:05 - autotrigger[3935]: got lock
4978    26/06/2017 00:25:05 - autotrigger[3935]: will run for /media/My Video
4977    26/06/2017 00:25:05 - autotrigger[3935]: /media/My Video/Horizon_ Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue_20170625_2318
4976    25/06/2017 22:05:06 - autotrigger[21926]: done
4975    25/06/2017 22:05:05 - autotrigger[21926]: got lock
4974    25/06/2017 22:05:05 - autotrigger[21926]: will run for /media/My Video/Poldark
4973    25/06/2017 22:05:05 - autotrigger[21926]: /media/My Video/Poldark/Poldark_20170625_2100
4972    25/06/2017 21:00:06 - autotrigger[24440]: done
4971    25/06/2017 21:00:06 - autotrigger[24440]: got lock
4970    25/06/2017 21:00:06 - autotrigger[24440]: will run for /media/My Video/Antiques Roadshow
4969    25/06/2017 21:00:06 - autotrigger[24440]: /media/My Video/Antiques Roadshow/Antiques Roadshow_20170625_2000
4968    25/06/2017 20:00:06 - autotrigger[31575]: done
4967    25/06/2017 20:00:06 - autotrigger[31575]: got lock
4966    25/06/2017 20:00:06 - autotrigger[31575]: will run for /media/My Video/Countryfile
4965    25/06/2017 20:00:06 - autotrigger[31575]: /media/My Video/Countryfile/Countryfile_20170625_1858
 
peterworks said:
Well it was worth a try but you are correct, no auto-processing going on.
Unfortunately your problem still remains unresolved though...
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The problem seems to have reduced in severity since I retuned with COM4 on channel 41 from Black Hill. I'm reluctant to suggest that the retune has 'fixed' anything - I can't conceive how COM4 being on channel 42 could have had any effect on TV channels on other muxes nowhere near the same UHF channel - just that it's since doing the retune that the problem seems to have lessened. I still get the occasional brief glitch, but I haven't had the kind of extended picture freeze and garbled or completely absent audio that prompted me to start this thread. I will continue to monitor the situation (and maybe think about fabricating another aerial lead - though again, I can't think why a signal problem would affect only BBC HD channels).

A greater inconvenience at the moment is that the box keeps crashing when I'm accessing BBC iPlayer through the Humax portal. (I can watch stuff on iPlayer through other boxes I have, but I can't save the streamed programme like I can on the Humax.)
 
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ejstubbs said:
A greater inconvenience at the moment is that the box keeps crashing when I'm accessing BBC iPlayer through the Humax portal.
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I believe this is due to the crap bug-ridden network interface code Humax have in their firmware. I works fine as long as there are no network communications errors, but otherwise the errors are not trapped and crash the firmware.

Google "get_iplayer".
 
Depends. If the exception results in an infinite loop, you get a hang. If it results in the processor executing an undefined instruction, anything can happen (hang or reset). Whatever, they're all crashes.
 
Ah, just checking the crash wasn't a reboot.

I was never sure when my Humaxes hung whether they were still recording, so I was unsure whether to cold start them or not.
 
What is the symptom of your "hangs"? One sure sign is the VFD stops scrolling. If the picture freezes, it's hung and there is no point persisting (the audio often continues; presumably it's handled by a hardware subsystem that requires no further input from the processor).
 
ejstubbs said:
The problem seems to have reduced in severity...I will continue to monitor the situation
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Well, that was very odd. For the last few minutes of Doctor Who this evening (watching the recording) the audio went very weird. Half the music was there, more or less intact - if a little choppy at times - but the voice track (and, as I discovered when I re-watched the scene on iPlayer, half the music track) was missing. I was actually watching with the subtitles on, so I knew that there should have been speech. The picture was fine. When the continuity announcer started speaking over the end credits, though, that came through loud and clear.

I actually got to the point of thinking that it was a broadcast fault and there would be an apology for the poor sound quality, but that never happened. I've not found anyone else referring to it in the Who forums online, so I assume the fault must have been in my equipment somewhere. But goodness knows where.

EDIT: OK, turns out that it was a broadcast problem on HD in Scotland. I've now found a DS piece about the problem, and one on the RT web site. It seems that all the action was going down on Twitter, including the Beeb's apology. Silly me for not being fully plugged in to that attention-sucking pit of random people's unfiltered brainswill... Given the way that people whinge when the sound mix is poor, but not broken, I'd have expected this to have had a much higher profile, seeing that it affected such a popular programme. Maybe not that many people actually watch the HD channel?
 
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