Not sure if this helps… This bug showed up when I upgraded from 4325 to 4441. Haven’t had any issues until the upgrade. There was an upgrade between 4325 and 4441 that didn’t record any shows, hence why i went back to 4325. To confirm that 4325 is not having this issue, i will record something before I leave for work…
EDIT - Friday night on 4325, all shows recorded and post processed correctly… all versions above 4325 failed with the 100% or just failed to record…
@irishcaptainjack said:
What software can I use with my HDHomerun tuner to determine what my signal strength is and how do I interpret the numbers? Is -85db better or worse than -20db? Just curious so I can get a read on my situation prior to installing this next Plex patch.
I use this tool from the FCC’s DTV Reception Maps tool. You can use just your zip code or get more finite results with your full address. closer to 0 is better. -20dBm is a stronger signal than -85dBm.
Keep in mind poor signal is only one thing that could trigger this issue. Also, signal noise can fluctuate throughout the day based on a number of factors, such as the position of the sun, temperature, humidity, presence of fog, rain, etc. The channels that I used to reproduce the issue over and over appear in the FCC’s tool as having a strong signal for my location, but at certain times of the day (morning and mid-afternoon) those channels would cut in and out every 7-10 seconds.
Once testing is complete with this patch (there are several issues at hand they are working on), the fix will go out in a PMS release.
You can jut use your hdhomerun, tune to a station you want check, open browser and go to myhdhomerun.com, select tuner status then select the tuner that is being used it will show signal strength and quality at like 100% 80%
@rljnc said:
You can jut use your hdhomerun, tune to a station you want check, open browser and go to myhdhomerun.com, select tuner status then select the tuner that is being used it will show signal strength and quality at like 100% 80%
That’s a good way signal strength and quality, as reported by the HDHomeRun. Problem is, signal strength can be one indicator of this issue, but it’s not the only one, and not the root cause. You might find yourself hitting this issue with poor and strong signal quality.
@irishcaptainjack said:
What software can I use with my HDHomerun tuner to determine what my signal strength is and how do I interpret the numbers? Is -85db better or worse than -20db? Just curious so I can get a read on my situation prior to installing this next Plex patch.
I use Signal GH for iOS when aiming an antenna. It shows signal strength and quality using multiple tuners across multiple frequencies.
@noyzNAbore said:
I use Signal GH for iOS when aiming an antenna. It shows signal strength and quality using multiple tuners across multiple frequencies.
Awesome suggestion! Thanks for sharing.
Right now my DVR setup includes Mohu’s outdoor amplified antenna mounted indoors up against a single-paned window. Would like to get it mounted on the roof at some point. This is my laid back approach to hanging it (using the necklace from the badge provided to me when we did the CEDIA trade show). Temporary for testing. I’ve had it in worse spots to intentionally degrade the signal.
Little update here. Patch is looking good. It might not solve all issues with recordings, but should hit the key symptoms covered in this thread. We continue to investigate some other transcoder failures with DVR. I don’t have a date or specific version number, but expect this fix to get pushed into a PMS update very soon.
Can you give us a hint on what “very soon” means? I am about to cancel my current TV provider and just got everything set up with Plex this week. My recordings are all failing so I’m anxious 
Are we talking days or weeks? In the meantime, for the brave, is there a DLL we can replace or a setting we can change? I’m sure many of us would be glad to do some in-the-field testing. Thanks!
@prichards14 said:
Can you give us a hint on what “very soon” means? I am about to cancel my current TV provider and just got everything set up with Plex this week. My recordings are all failing so I’m anxiousAre we talking days or weeks? In the meantime, for the brave, is there a DLL we can replace or a setting we can change? I’m sure many of us would be glad to do some in-the-field testing. Thanks!
I hear you about that recording anxiety! The patch gets merged into the master and goes into code review with everything else in that release. The engineers working on it may decide to delay it if they have found additional related issues, but I believe they are moving forward with merging this patch. This is a high priority item, so it will go out sooner rather than later. I wish I could give you more specific timing, but i just don’t have it. Keep in mind, this fix will not address every recording failure ever reported, but should help in addressing what has been reported as “100% stuck.”
Sounds good. Thanks!
@kinoCharlino said:
Right now my DVR setup includes Mohu’s outdoor amplified antenna mounted indoors…
Amplifiers are a tricky business with digital signals. They worked great with analog and they work with digital because all transmissions are analog. The problem when using them for digital is the higher data resolution is susceptible to distortion. Where they may help with a weaker station they can also degrade a strong station to the point of failure. Case in point, we use an amplifier but to cut down the distortion we use a -3dB attenuator on the amp input. (yes input)
May be a good test case for development to try. Most of my failures have been on stronger stations.
@noyzNAbore said:
@kinoCharlino said:
Right now my DVR setup includes Mohu’s outdoor amplified antenna mounted indoors…Amplifiers are a tricky business with digital signals. They worked great with analog and they work with digital because all transmissions are analog. The problem when using them for digital is the higher data resolution is susceptible to distortion. Where they may help with a weaker station they can also degrade a strong station to the point of failure. Case in point, we use an amplifier but to cut down the distortion we use a -3dB attenuator on the amp input. (yes input)
May be a good test case for development to try. Most of my failures have been on stronger stations.
I take it that you can’t adjust the the db level on the amp? Curious what db boost is the amp doing?
@noyzNAbore said:
@kinoCharlino said:
Right now my DVR setup includes Mohu’s outdoor amplified antenna mounted indoors…Amplifiers are a tricky business with digital signals. They worked great with analog and they work with digital because all transmissions are analog. The problem when using them for digital is the higher data resolution is susceptible to distortion. Where they may help with a weaker station they can also degrade a strong station to the point of failure. Case in point, we use an amplifier but to cut down the distortion we use a -3dB attenuator on the amp input. (yes input)
May be a good test case for development to try. Most of my failures have been on stronger stations.
Very interesting. I’ve shared that with the devs, just in case. I believe they are using antennas with less amplification than I am currently. I also have the Mohu Leaf to test with, which has less amplification than my outdoor antenna. It also fades away into the architecture a bit better!
@cayars said:
I take it that you can’t adjust the the db level on the amp? Curious what db boost is the amp doing?
Hahahaha as if these antennas came with such controls! 
Actually that would be useful, but alas not an option with Mofu at least.
I checked out my signal strength using the HD HomeRun Prime interface, and discovered one of my tuners was only getting about 86% on the signal quality score. I had an old Radio Shack splitter connected to the system. I also had an extra splitter outside that was sending signal to an empty room. I replaced the RS splitter with the Comcast splitter, disconnected the empty room cable, and moved the location of the equipment around in the house until I am getting 100% signal quality on all 3 HD HomeRun devices.
Config Tuner Channel Sig Strength Sig Strengh dBmV Signal Quality Quality dB Symbol Quality Notes
C 172.16.10.25 712 95% -5.3 100% 36.8 100% Removed outside splitter
C 172.16.10.26 712 82% -10.9 100% 36.6 100% Removed outside splitter
C 172.16.10.27 712 92% -5.3 100% 36.8 100% Removed outside splitter
I still might call Comcast to have them check on the signal strength. One of the tuners is at 82% signal strength. The other 2 are 92% and 95%. Even with 82% strength I have 100% quality. The one with 82% is -10.9 dBmV.
Of the 3 devices, I’m only using 2 for Plex. I’m using the other device to serve the Apple TVs using the Channels app. Plex didn’t like to share the tuners so I got a third device to keep it away from sharing. I might try to throw the device getting 82% to Channels, with the devices getting 95% and 92% to Plex.
I noticed this yesterday. A few of the recordings I copied out of the .grab folder and found they were 100% complete and correct. I was planning on copying the rest this morning, but after I reboot the .grab folders where completely cleared of all recordings…
I noticed initially when I had two programs recording at once, one would copy over after a very long delay, the other wouldn’t. Each set of recordings the delay got longer, until neither stream was copying over.
I can confirm that I am seeing the same behavior as @docbillnet. My Plex server was able to record all shows for a few days (although the recordings took a long time to be finalized). Yesterday all recordings failed and two of the three were only partially recorded. A restart of the server cleared one of the files and the other partial file remained after the restart.
@mdsp1989 said:
I’m still on 1.6.1 until this is resolved
How do I roll back to 1.6.1
Another update. We’re expecting the patch to go out in the next PMS release. Expect it soon. This patch should fix a large majority of DVR recording issues, but probably not everything. I think opening up a new thread post-patch would be good to speed up identification and filing of the issues the patch didn’t resolve.
I would like the unaddressed issues to be identified _before _ I decide to upgrade. Now that this product has moved out of beta I have made it my production recording system. Unfortunately, I am much less tolerant of these issues for something that I rely on daily.
@gadgetgeek2000 said:
I would like the unaddressed issues to be identified _before _ I decide to upgrade. Now that this product has moved out of beta I have made it my production recording system. Unfortunately, I am much less tolerant of these issues for something that I rely on daily.
The difficulty with putting out a list of what this patch won’t cover is that there are a lot of different variables in users’ home setup, hardware, network, local signal quality, etc, (which we want to capture) and while the patch is expected to address the key root causes that were surfaced from this thread, there might be other things we just can’t predict. It’s up to you if you want to update, but this should be a solid improvement over the last release.
