running #% and starting - stuck (dual card) Options

[paul_ahb]

I have two Vision Plus cards and I have been experiencing this problem for a few months now.

The problem is that a recording gets stuck at #% and the next recording gets to the "Starting" state but then nothing more happens.

It seems to happen when Java crashes (which is about every few months). Restarting the macihne doesn't resolve the problem becuase the state of the two recordings are still in "Running #%" and "Starting" and they tie up both cards. This of course results in any future shows not recording. (In fact they try to start every minute and create a new file for themselves but find there is no free card and just result in a 0kb file. Maybe it could look for a free card before creating the file?)

Would it be possible to run a cleanup process occasionally to look for (and kill) recordings that are still running (or starting) and are outside their recording time? Maybe this could be done:
-when start-server starts
-when a new show is attempting to be recorded.
-every hour...

I am still on v2954 if that makes a difference.

Paul

[bear]

paul_ahb,

The problem is that a recording gets stuck at #% and the next recording gets to the "Starting" state but then nothing more happens.

Can you post what DTV cards & drivers you are using as well as what OS version, eg. XP SP2 DX9c etc, have a look at your Directshow.log arround the time of the problem occurs. Also look for processes in taskmanager that may activate and stuff you about.

[paul_ahb]

2 Vision Plus Cards
Spectrum BDA 1.5.3.3 drivers
XPsp2
DirectX 9a (it is definetally 9, I think it is 'a')
and here is an extract form the DirectShow.log

CODE

win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d15 h21 m14 s15)
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Getting next free card.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capturing to file : T:\\The 4400 (11-15 20.30).mpg.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=0
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 625 a = 626 on card 0
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 212500 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 625
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 626
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 77
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 96
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 1
win32-DLL-BDA : About to leave RunGraph with code 0
win32-DLL : Trying to clean up card 1
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d15 h21 m14 s15)
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d15 h21 m29 s15)
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Getting next free card.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capturing to file : T:\\Media Watch (11-15 21.15).mpg.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 512 a = 650 on card 1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 191625 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 512
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 650
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 80
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 94
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 1
win32-DLL-BDA : About to leave RunGraph with code 0
win32-DLL : Trying to clean up card 1
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d16 h9 m32 s15)
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d16 h9 m32 s15)
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Getting next free card.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capturing to file : T:\\Sex and the City (11-15 21.35).mpg.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 33 a = 36 on card 1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 184500 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 33
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 36
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 82
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 96
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 1
win32-DLL-BDA : About to leave RunGraph with code 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
win32-DLL : Process Attached : CaptureEngine.dll Version:4.5.0.5 (BDA)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here obviously it crashed and I restarted the start-server.bat

I didn't stop the existing current recordings though and they remained in their Running 39% and Starting state even after the start-server was started again.

Recordings from then on started and failed repeatedly until I manually aborted the Running 39% and Starting recordings. here is an example of an attempted start:

CODE

win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d16 h11 m29 s15)
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Getting next free card.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capturing to file : T:\\Play School (11-16 09.42).mpg.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=0
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 512 a = 650 on card 0
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 191625 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 512
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 650
win32-DLL-BDA : Cannot run graph
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 77
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 96
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 1
win32-DLL-BDA : About to leave RunGraph with code 800700aa
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Failed to run graph for capture: 0x800700aa
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 512 a = 650 on card 1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 191625 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 512
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 650
win32-DLL-BDA : Cannot run graph
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 82
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 95
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 1
win32-DLL-BDA : About to leave RunGraph with code 800700aa
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Failed to run graph for capture: 0x800700aa
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Free card not found.
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d16 h11 m29 s15)
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d16 h11 m29 s15)
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Getting next free card.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capturing to file : T:\\Play School (11-16 09.43).mpg.
w

etc.

Paul

[bear]

paul_ahb,

I think it would be best for you to upgrade to the latest spectrum BDA drivers 1.6 build 2. This has solved a lot of issues I had with the 1.5.3.3 drivers failing to release the VP card DMA after an un-usual exit condition. With these later drivers it should allow the card to be released after a java crash so the recording retry should be successful.

As far as the recording crashing at 39%, this maybe something else like the CLMux didn't like a corruption of the TS stream or I guess it could have be related to the drivers or something else hogging the PCI buss. You may want to check your disk drive space at the time, as this can cause a similar situation. I think null has a fix for this in a later version.

Dan.

[paul_ahb]

thanks bear,

I'll definetally upgrade the BDA drivers.

Drive space is good for me at the moment, I recently bought a 200GB drive (lucky me). And I monitor it to make sure I don't run out of disk space.

I still think that it would be a good idea to do an audit of all currently scheduled recordings when a recording starts to make sure that everything is running as it should. But if the problem goes away then I'll be happy

Paul

[paul_ahb]

I have another freezup last night (after upgrading to the latest spectrum BDA drivers and webscheduler.

The problem happened at 6:30 when starting to tape a programme. We were watching a programme through DVRview at the time and the whole computer ground to a halt.

I stopped DVRview but everything was still slow - so slow that the mouse pointer wouldn't even move. I attempted to bring up the task manager to find out what process was taking up all the tims but it would not start.

I eventually gave in and restarted the machine (that was a very slow process to get to the shutdown option)

After the restart the 6:30 show still showed as "starting". Other recordings after then continued to record fine (on the other card). But even after the the 6:30 show was scheduled to stop it was still in the starting state. I had to manually stop and delete the entry to make it go away.

Is it possible to make web scheduler cleanup its recordings that are overtime?

Paul

[null_pointer]

Is it possible to make web scheduler cleanup its recordings that are overtime?

No, they are usefull for falt finding, did you check the directshow.log file to see what it was doing when it locked up?

[paul_ahb]

yes, sorry, I mean not delete the entries but abort or stop them instead.

here is the directshow.log up to the time I restarted the computer

CODE

win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d19 h18 m29 s15)
win32-DLL : Setting Wake up Time (y2004 m11 d19 h19 m59 s15)
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Getting next free card.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capturing to file : T:\\Gardening Australia (11-19 18.30).mpg.
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=0
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 512 a = 650 on card 0
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 191625 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 512
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 650
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 75
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Not Locked
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Failed to run graph for capture: 0xffffffff
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Found a free card and will try to set it up: card ID=1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to build Capture Graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Starting build of capture graph
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Network Provider
win32-DLL-BDA : Creating Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Submiting Tune Request
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Tuner Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Loading Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): THDTV DVB-t BDA Capture Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : About to Load Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : Registering Graph in ROT
win32-DLL-BDA : Configuring Main Demux
win32-DLL-BDA : LoadFilter(): BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Capture Graph Built
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : Trying to Start Capture of Pid v = 512 a = 650 on card 1
win32-DLL : BDAwrapper : About to setup Capture Type (CyberLink Mux Cap)
win32-DLL-BDA : Changing Frequency 191625 bandwidth 7.
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Video PID 512
win32-DLL-BDA : Mapping Audio PID 650
win32-DLL-BDA : About to get Signal Strength using iTuner->get_SignalStrength()
win32-DLL-BDA : Signal Strength 80
win32-DLL-BDA : Stopping TIF filter
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_Topology interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Control Node 1 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Found IBDA_SignalStatistics interface 0
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Quality : 92
win32-DLL-BDA : Got Signal Locked : 1
win32-DLL-BDA : About to leave RunGraph with code 0
win32-DLL : Process Detaching


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
win32-DLL : Process Attached : CaptureEngine.dll Version:4.5.0.5 (BDA)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any ideas, or anymore information that I can get for you?
Paul

[paul_ahb]

I had another incident last night where Java Crashed. This resulted in two recordings that were in progress to stop.

I have noticed that the crashes always coincide with the start of a recording and almost always happen while another recording is in progress. The file which conincides with the webscheduler "Starting" entry seems to always be 2kb in size

the most recent one contained:

CODE

 
ºD  

ŽŸø  
»  €ÇO!ÿààèÀÀ6  
¾Úÿÿÿÿ

followed by a very long string of "ÿ" characters

If I just restart the computer, it remains in the same stuck state as before.

If I restart "start-server.bat" and stop the two freezing schedule items then restart the computer, the aborted jobs just seem to change back into their state that they were before I stopped them (ie Starting, Running x% and both frozen)

To get things working again, I have to do the following:
1.restart "start-server.bat"
2.abort the jobs
3.delete the aborted jobs
4.restart the machine (not sure if this step is absiolutely neccessary)
5.restart "start-server.bat"
6.reload the epg to automatically reprogramme the items that I had to delete (or reschedule the item)
7.-recording automatically starts again here (phew)

Paul

[bear]

paul_ahb,

I have noticed that the crashes always coincide with the start of a recording and almost always happen while another recording is in progress. The file which conincides with the webscheduler "Starting" entry seems to always be 2kb in size

I believe this is just the header data that's produced by the CLmux at the start of a recording and just confirms your observation that the problem does occur at the beginning of a new recording. The fact that java crashes is because the capture filtergraph experiences a fatal error and since java is tied to the filtergraph it also takes a dive. The reason for this could be that the CLmux doesn't like the data it gets and bombs out or the card's PCI DMA has locked up making the card unusable. As the problem is not repeatable it makes it difficult to find. I guess the best place to start is to use a different mux for a while.

Q. do u have the longhorn demultiplexer filter installed, it can sometimes help with funny streams.

If I restart "start-server.bat" and stop the two freezing schedule items then restart the computer, the aborted jobs just seem to change back into their state that they were before I stopped them (ie Starting, Running x% and both frozen)

This is normal and is because their is no COM between the java & filtergraph once the capture is started except for when its told to stop. Java relies upon the capture to work and complete its job within the same java session.

I imagine to do otherwise would invite all sorts of other problems such as overwriting your recording if the crash occurs close to the end if the recording or if a constant failure occurs and you create new files then you end up with hundreds of files recording nothing. I think some fancy coding would need to be done to make a capture crash recoverable for all possible events.

To get things working again, I have to do the following:
1.restart "start-server.bat"
2.abort the jobs
3.delete the aborted jobs
4.restart the machine (not sure if this step is absiolutely neccessary)
5.restart "start-server.bat"
6.reload the epg to automatically reprogramme the items that I had to delete (or reschedule the item)
7.-recording automatically starts again here (phew)

You should be able to just abort the starting jobs, not have to delete them. Once you have aborted them you should be able to restart them by clicking on the "spanner" and re-submiting the schedule. If the card has locked or the file has locked then a restart "start-server.bat" is required.

If this does not work and you need to restart the PC then the DTV card's PCI DMA has locked and if this is occuring with the Spectrum 1.6. latest build drivers then revert to the 1.5.3.1 drivers to see if the problem recurs.

[paul_ahb]

I don't have a longhorn mux, how can I get it? and if I can get it how would I select it for use?

The only options that I see in WS are:
TS mux
Full TS
CL Mux
SS Mux
Separate Files
TS Mux + TF Full

I will try the show shifter mux to see if that stops these crashes from happening.

I will use the spanner next time. I don't know whty I din't think of that before

Thanks for your help,
Paul

[null_pointer]

I guess the best place to start is to use a different mux for a while.

Yep, agree with bear, use TS mux for a while and see if the problem goes away.

[paul_ahb]

can anyone tell me how to register the showshifter filter? When I try to register the file:
regsvr32 MpegWriter.ax
I get an error message:

"LoadLibrary("MpegWriter.ax") failed - The specified procedure could not be found."

I will try to use ts mux in the meantime, but getting .mpg files is more convenient, so I would like to be able to return to this if possible.

(is longhorn mux the same as ts mux?)

Paul

[nate]

here you go paul, http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?show...indpost&p=16048