Recording Glitchy

The built-in ARGUS TV recorder for digital TV
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Pete.
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:50 am

Recording Glitchy

Post by Pete. » Sun May 17, 2015 6:54 am

Hi...I am using Argus TV 2.3 on a Windows 7 64 bit O/S.

Streaming live TV across my home network works perfectly, however, I find that when I record live TV on the server and subsequently play it back it is full of glitches and errors. I'm wondering if there is anything obvious I am missing or any tips/tricks I can use to rectify.

Thanks,
Pete

logifuse
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:17 am

Re: Recording Glitchy

Post by logifuse » Mon May 18, 2015 1:40 am

How many tuners are you running? They work in opposite priority - the lowest number tuner does live, then the next highest one does live if a 2nd client needs it, etc, while recordings start with the 1st tuner, then the 2nd, etc.

Essentially what I'm saying is that with more than 1 tuner, recording vs live isn't a valid test as they're using different tuners.

It's quite possible (I would say normal) to have 2 or 4 tuners on a single card that vary enough in signal to see what you're seeing. Indeed, I have a quad DVB-T card that used to do this until I recently re-ran the signal cable from the antenna.

In the recorder console, you can do manual recordings for each tuner (specifying length, channel, etc) & then compare them. You can also view the logs for each tuner under the scheduler console. This includes things like signal strength & quality each time their used.

Pete.
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Recording Glitchy

Post by Pete. » Mon May 18, 2015 2:56 pm

Awesome response...thanks.....I will check that

Pete.
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Recording Glitchy

Post by Pete. » Mon May 18, 2015 3:26 pm

I have a dual tuner card .... I have been through the recorder log and find messages like: [Debug][TS Processor]: Fixed bad PCR clock......

I have then looked at the signal quality and find that sometimes it is as low as 30% and other times up to 100%, and it doesn't seem to matter which channel.

I have previously re-run the coax and tuned the aerial, so I'm wondering whether this is normal? I'm in a pretty strong signal area (not far from the transmitter).

logifuse
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:17 am

Re: Recording Glitchy

Post by logifuse » Mon May 18, 2015 11:35 pm

It's possible that the tuner is being over-driven by the signal. You could try putting a splitter in-line (leaving the 2nd split just empty with no cable) as that will drop the signal 3dB.

However, my experience has been that tuner cards are less sensitive (meaning they need more signal) than TVs & hardware STBs & PVRs, so you might need an amplifier. An amplified splitter near the PC/Server end can often work (I used one at my old house & it worked well).

The wildcard can be nearby WiFi interference. Does the PC have WiFi? If it's USB, then a longer USB extension cable to keep it away from the signal cable can help.

Pete.
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Recording Glitchy

Post by Pete. » Wed May 20, 2015 2:25 pm

Thanks for the reply. I live very close to the transmitter and so I tried a 9Db attenuator in-line. It made no difference at all.

An example of what I am seeing is one service has the following:

==> 2015-05-20 05:00:37.1013 [Info ][Graph]: Signal locked, quality: 100%, strength: 0

followed later by;

==> 2015-05-20 13:05:46.1673 [Info ][Graph]: Signal locked, quality: 25%, strength: 0

This sort of behaviour is occurring on both tuners on the card.

With regards to the messages, is the strength value of 0 relevant or is this a bug in the message output (I'm assuming the latter as the first message has a quality of 100% but a strength of 0)?

I'm trying to narrow down the potential issues here. So far I have:
* too strong a signal
* too weak a signal
* faulty card
* faulty cabling
* faulty software
* interference (eg: in the pc, or close by)

Any clues as to how I could go about identifying the problem?

logifuse
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:17 am

Re: Recording Glitchy

Post by logifuse » Thu May 21, 2015 2:07 am

The '0' signal strength might be the key. Either the drivers are poor & don't support showing the signal strength, or it's indicating that the signal is too high (code is often written to go to 0 when the signal is more than what is considered 100% - it's the same in a lot of ADSL routers).

9dB is a significant drop though, so it would have to be more than 9dB over-driven - that's a lot. That it didn't seem to change anything rules out low signal to me - it would have been an almost complete drop out after dropping a further 9dB if it was already borderline.

What model is the card & which drivers are you using?

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