Transient picture breakup on HD recordings

Dave Ell

Member
I am getting transient picture breakup on HD recordings. Generally maybe 1 or 2 per hour and each lasting a couple of seconds. I am not sure how long this has been happening but certainly for some months. I ran fix-disk at the end of May and the output is below (I have updated to CF 2.16 since then).

The signal strength on channel 30 (the London HD channel) is about 80% and the quality is always 100%.

Last night, I viewed an HD programme live while recording it. The live broadcast was perfect but the picture on the recording broke up for a couple of seconds about 17 minutes in. I assume from this that it is a disk-related problem but since fix-disk didn't seem to remedy it, I don't know how to proceed.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Dave

Menu version 1.05
Enter system PIN: ****
/---------------------------------------------\
| M A I N T E N A N C E M O D E M E N U |
\---------------------------------------------/
[ Humax HDR-Fox T2 (humax) 1.02.32/2.15 ]
1 - Check and repair hard disk (fix-disk).
2 - Clear persistent EPG data.
x - Leave maintenance mode (Humax will restart).
diag - Run a diagnostic.
cli - System command line (advanced users).
Please select option: 1
Any additional options (or press return for none): -x -c
Are you sure you wish to run the hard disk checker (-x -c)? [Y/N] y
Running /bin/fix-disk
Custom firmware version 2.15

Checking disk sda
Using superblock 0 on sda3
Using superblock 0 on sda1
Using superblock 0 on sda2
Unmounted /dev/sda1
Unmounted /dev/sda2
Unmounted /dev/sda3
No pending sectors found - skipping sector repair
Checking partition /dev/sda3...
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
/dev/sda3: Updating bad block inode.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
?Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
?Pass 5: Checking group summary information
??
/dev/sda3: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda3: 14/655776 files (7.1% non-contiguous), 90579/2622611 blocks
Checking partition /dev/sda1...
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
/dev/sda1: Updating bad block inode.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
?Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
??
/dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda1: 15/65808 files (6.7% non-contiguous), 14246/263064 blocks
Creating swap file...
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 1073737728 bytes
UUID=f4870485-bcbd-443a-a21a-311e35aa020f
Checking partition /dev/sda2...
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
/dev/sda2: Updating bad block inode.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
?Pass 2: Checking directory structure
?Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
?Pass 4: Checking reference counts
?Pass 5: Checking group summary information
??
/dev/sda2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda2: 5624/29860704 files (7.3% non-contiguous), 46360182/119209984 blocks
Removing extra swap space.
Are you having problems with a delete loop? [Y/N]: n
Skipped
Finished
Press return to continue:
 
I am getting transient picture breakup on HD recordings. . .
CF2.17 (and CF2.18 not yet released) have modifications to "reduce likelihood of stealing CPU time from the main Humax TV" so it may be worth upgrading to 2.17, also, it won't do any harm to re-run Fix-disk to see if it helps
 
If you "rewind" and replay the recording does the break up re-occur (at exactly the same place).
The answer to this should help determine whether the problem occurred at the time the recording was made, or only when replaying an otherwise good recording.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I have updated to CF 2.17 and just completed a fix-disk -x -c run. I will post an update next time I record an HD programme.

One thing I noticed while fix-disk was running is that the fan is disabled and sysmon subsequently shows the disk temp as 63°. The maximum in normal operation is 56°

Harvey: yes it does.

Dave
 
I would give CF2.17 some time to see it has made things more stable, If the problem turns out to be still present, it might be worth comparing results with and without sysmon running, it has been mentioned by users in the past in connection with picture break-up and although it has subsequently been fixed it's worth a try
 
I would give CF2.17 some time to see it has made things more stable, If the problem turns out to be still present, it might be worth comparing results with and without sysmon running, it has been mentioned by users in the past in connection with picture break-up and although it has subsequently been fixed it's worth a try

I removed sysmon and, three perfect HD recordings later, the problem seems to have been resolved.

Thank you

Dave
 
Do you have auto-update installed? If not, do you check for updated packages? A defect was found in sysmon a while ago, and thought to have been corrected.
 
The most recent version of sysmon that I had was 1.0.9-1. Was that the bad one?

I have now updated and upgraded all my packages and note that the latest version of sysmon is 1.1.0 but haven't installed it yet.
 
The most recent version of sysmon that I had was 1.0.9-1. Was that the bad one?
There were changes made from 1.0.9-1 to 1.1.0 that could improve Picture break-up so it's well worth trying the latest version, It is also recommended that after installing the latest version that you run WebIf >> Diagnostics >> sysmon/purge >> Run Diagnostic. It would be interesting to see if you can run sysmon 1.1.0 without picture break-up, so maybe you could keep us posted
 
Back
Top