Can watch live TV, but recording fails

Live TV & DVR
,
1

Server Version#: 1.17.0.1841
Player Version#:

Hi

New to Plex on Shield and am having all kinds of recording problems. Was not having these problems with PMS running on Windows.

One example is that I can happily watch live TV on the Shield, but if I set select record then the recording starts, but stops again after just a few seconds. This happens every time on every channel.

The recordings show up in the DVR Schedule, but if I select them it says “Error The file associated with this item is not accessible by the server…”

I’ve looked in the Plex Media Server log file and cannot see any ERROR entries that seem related, but I really don’t know what I’m looking for.

Would be very grateful if someone could help point me in a direction to try debugging this.

Many thanks

2

Have you added extra storage correctly?

3

Having exactly the same problem. I have a Sandisk SSD hooked up as an internal storage with around 40GB available. Below is what I was able to get from the logs.

Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.422 [22048] DEBUG - Recorder: It took 5.4 sec to start the session for http://127.0.0.1:32600/devices/compound_device062dvb%23v4l%23%2Fsys%2Fdevices%2F70090000.xusb%2Fusb1%2F1-3%2F1-3%3A1.0%3A0014043547/media/triplet%3A%2F%2F0%3A2157%3A1?param=<%3Fxml%20version%3D"1.0"%20encoding%3D"UTF-8"%3F> <tunedata><tt>8<%2Ftt><dq>0<%2Fdq><dr%2F><fr>36<%2Ffr><md>0<%2Fmd><sr>0<%2Fsr><pl>0<%2Fpl><lf>0<%2Flf><l1>0<%2Fl1><l2>0<%2Fl2><ls>0<%2Fls><pp>0<%2Fpp><hz>0<%2Fhz><in>0<%2Fin><fc>0<%2Ffc><t>2157<%2Ft><n>0<%2Fn><s>1<%2Fs><en>0<%2Fen><%2Ftunedata>
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.422 [23287] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpegts @ 0x23d5064800] sample rate not set
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.425 [23219] ERROR - [Transcoder] Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid argument
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.426 [23280] ERROR - [Transcoder]
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.438 [9401] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as **************
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.439 [23287] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.1:57704 (Subnet)] GET /status/sessions/background (15 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (****************)
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.440 [9401] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.1:57704] 200 GET /status/sessions/background (15 live) TLS GZIP 1ms 476 bytes (pipelined: 3)
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [9311] DEBUG - Jobs: ‘/data/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb/Resources/Plex Transcoder’ exit code for process 23316 is 1 (failure)
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [31691] DEBUG - Recorder: No more consumers, stopping.
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [22187] DEBUG - Grabber: Recording for ‘CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell - CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell’ on channel 2.1 stopped with status complete.
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [31691] DEBUG - Recorder: Asked to stop recording ‘CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell - CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell’ on channel 2.1.
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [22187] DEBUG - Grabber: Using recording status.
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [31691] DEBUG - Recorder: Stopping transcode session.
Nov 13, 2019 18:53:16.441 [31690] DEBUG - Killing job.

4

Sorry, I was away and wasn’t near the Shield…

For extra storage I have added a 500GB Samsung SSD as Internal storage (480GB free).

I have also added a 4TB Seagate HDD as Removable storage (2.7TB free).

I can see both types of storage over the network from another computer.

I have my Plex media libraries on the Seagate HDD. The Plex app says it is using 483MB in “Internal shared storage”. I see that the Plex app has permissions to access “Storage”.

Both USB ports power is set to “Always on”.

In Plex settings, Plex Media Server Storage location is showing as “Internal (user)”

I don’t know what else I should do to add extra storage correctly.

About all I can think of is that PMS was initially set up on the 16GB Shield with just the 4TB HDD attached for libraries. It soon ran out of space on the built in internal storage (all the apps froze up, recordings and pretty much everything failed). I then went and bought the SSD and added that as “Internal Storage” and since then it has been much happier (but several recording problems remain - this recording live TV is one of them).

It is possible that something got corrupted when the internal storage filled up, or that it didn’t move to the new SSD correctly and I wonder if I shouldn’t attempt to wipe PMS and reinstall it, but my googling makes me think that may also be easier said than done…

I attempted another recording of live TV today and it failed, as usual. There are no ERROR messages in the logs that I can see.

Happy to perform tests and post logs, just not sure what I should be looking for.

Any ideas gratefully accepted

5

Using a device with a browser goto https://app.plex.tv/desktop
Hover over your server name and click on the 3 vertical dots > Manager Server > Settings
Click on General
Check “Enable Plex Media Server debug logging”
Uncheck “Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging”

Restart PMS, then create a recording and wait two - three minutes after it fails then go back to the browser app, server settings and click on Troubleshooting , download the logs and post them here.

Live TV writes it temporary files to where Plex is installed unless you specify an alternate directory Via the Transcoder settings “Transcoder temporary directory”. You can use this to test if you have the right/write permissions set on the TV library by setting it to the same path which is where recordings temp files are written to. If Live TV starts failing then you know the path is wrong or has a permission problem.

6

Many thanks for your help.

I believe I followed your instructions exactly. I restarted the entire Shield, then went to Plex and successfully watched a live TV show called “Breakfast”. I then stopped watching it and attempted to record it instead. As expected, the recording failed after a few seconds. This took place at 8:35am on the system clock.

This time I do see a heap of ERRORs in the PMS log starting at 08:35:03 - along the lines of:

Nov 15, 2019 08:35:03.520 [9383] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264 @ 0x21cd12d500] SPS unavailable in decode_picture_timing
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:03.521 [10076] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264 @ 0x21cd12d500] non-existing PPS 0 referenced
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:03.523 [9959] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264 @ 0x21cd12d500] SPS unavailable in decode_picture_timing
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:03.524 [10077] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264 @ 0x21cd12d500] non-existing PPS 0 referenced
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:03.525 [9962] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264 @ 0x21cd12d500] decode_slice_header error
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:03.526 [10082] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264 @ 0x21cd12d500] no frame!

…
And then later I see

Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.440 [10077] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpegts @ 0x2b86464e00] sample rate not set
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.442 [9962] ERROR - [Transcoder] Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid argument
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.443 [10082] ERROR - [Transcoder] 
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.475 [8893] DEBUG - Jobs: '/data/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb/Resources/Plex Transcoder' exit code for process 10256 is 1 (failure)
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.475 [9542] DEBUG - Killing job.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.475 [9542] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 10256 with 9
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.475 [9542] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9542] DEBUG - Stopping transcode session de39f1f5-5795-408c-9b59-977019034816
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9882] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x25fb04b518:de39f1f5-5795-408c-9b59-977019034816 with reason Recording failed. Please check your tuner or antenna.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9851] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: No more consumers, stopping.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9851] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Asked to stop recording 'Breakfast - E211 - Breakfast' on channel 1.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9851] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Stopping transcode session.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9851] DEBUG - Killing job.
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9851] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 10253 with 9
Nov 15, 2019 08:35:10.476 [9851] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.

That looks like the death of the recording to me, but it doesn’t help me understand what to do about it. “Please check your tuner or antenna.” - check it for what? I can watch TV with it just fine (both on the TV and via HDHomerun App and via Plex Live TV. I can also record TV fine on the Windows-based PMS. What else is there to check?

Appreciate your help. Here are the logs (I removed my email address from them).

Many thanks

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-11-15_08-37-15_clean.zip (4.2 MB)

7

Plex needs Read/Write permission. Was the drive already formatted and containing files?

How are your Paths set for TV Shows and Movies? Did you make two folders under NVIDIA_SHIELD for the libraries?

When you attach a USB drive or microSD card as “Removable Storage”, a new NVIDIA_SHIELD folder is automatically created on the drive (if that folder already exists, the content in the folder will be left alone and the folder will become writable). Only content in that folder (and its sub-folders) will be writable. All other content on the drive will still be read-only.

8

I don’t believe that Plex has a problem writing to the HDD.

Yes it was already formatted and containing files.

Yes I created a folder called NVIDIA_SHIELD and in that I created sub-folders such as Movies, Music, Photos, TV, etc…

In the TV sub-folder I see a folder called “Breakfast” (which is the show I attempted to record live this morning - refer to logs above). In that folder there is a folder called “Season 2019” which contains a 0KB size file called “Breakfast - S2019E211 - Breakfast.ts”. The folder “Breakfast” and everything below it has been created by Plex this morning, so I doubt that write permissions are the problem.

There are other subfolders of TV which contain recordings that have worked. Plex, running on the Shield, has managed to create these.

Is there something in the logs I posted above that leads you to believe that Plex is having problems writing to the HDD?

9

Need an Android person to speak up, I think it is because the transcoder pipeline fails so nothing is written to disk. If the latest version doesn’t cause a lot of grief you may consider upgrading the server version.

10

Just upgraded to 1.18.2.2031. Problem fixed!!

11

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