WMC7, Prime, and Comcast = Skips and Starts

[sjwoo]

I think the final nail may have been driven into the WMC7 coffin. Sometime last week, my recordings became no longer viable. They skip, the audio drops out, etc. A little while back I had trouble with SNL episodes where the live segments were fine but prerecorded short films would skip/go blank, but then it stopped doing that and all was well... Until now.

If I use the HDHomeRun app on my Win 7 box, everything is perfectly smooth. So my guess is that Comcast has changed all of their fees to some compression/format that WMC7 can no longer handle.

Any advice would be appreciated...

[Scallica]

If I use the HDHomeRun app on my Win 7 box, everything is perfectly smooth. So my guess is that Comcast has changed all of their fees to some compression/format that WMC7 can no longer handle.

Before making assumptions, verify that your hard drive used for recording is in good health.

https://www.hdsentinel.com/

[sjwoo]

Before making assumptions, verify that your hard drive used for recording is in good health.

https://www.hdsentinel.com/

Thanks -- always good to check the drive. It's a Silicon Power 480GB SSD, in service less than a year. I just downloaded and ran HDSentinel and it says:

The status of the solid state disk is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found.
The TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance.
The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s): #231 SSD Life Remaining

No actions needed.

So yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong here.

I've limped along with WMC for so long now...it's served me well after SageTV was bought out by Google (damn you, Google!). The DVR by SiliconDust is $35 a year; Schedules Direct costs $25 a year, so it's just another ten bucks for the SiliconDust DVR. Looks like I'm finally moving away from WMC.

[Scallica]

Sometime last week, my recordings became no longer viable. They skip, the audio drops out, etc. A little while back I had trouble with SNL episodes where the live segments were fine but prerecorded short films would skip/go blank, but then it stopped doing that and all was well... Until now.

Try to play the recordings using VLC Media Player: http://www.videolan.org/

[sjwoo]

Try to play the recordings using VLC Media Player: http://www.videolan.org/

I actually did that already, but I did not check the codec media info -- turns out they are identical (comparing a good recording a week ago to yesterday's):

A52 Audio (aka AC3) (a52)
3F2M/LFE
48000 Hz
32 bits per sample

I see a fair amount of pixellation with the new recording. Every few seconds, the picture pixellates and causes the blanking out/hitches. One thing I'm noticing is that the file is smaller by a significant amount -- it's 1:45 of recording and all the previous weeks, they are 11.3GB but yesterdays is 10.8GB. Looking at the statistics in VLC, there are definitely dropped frames. So that must be the cause. Why would this suddenly happen, and to all the channels?

I just took a look at my cable modem's signals, and they are looking normal, nothing out of the ordinary with the upstream or downstream levels.

[Scallica]

Check if there is a firmware update for the Prime.

Sent from my KFMUWI using Tapatalk

[stuartm]

Run a packet loss test to the prime, the instructions are here: https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/trouble ... acket_loss
You may have a failing network component or network interface.

[sjwoo]

Scallica and stuartm -- I really can't thank you guys enough. stuartm, you were right on the money -- it was indeed a network issue. The HTPC is connected to a switch, and the switch was the culprit -- I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and voila, no more dropped packets.

I just bought that switch two months ago (TP-Link Litewave 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch from Amazon). I've never had this happen to a switch before -- have any of you encountered this?

[Scallica]

I just bought that switch two months ago (TP-Link Litewave 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch from Amazon).

TP-Link is garbage.

[sjwoo]

I just bought that switch two months ago (TP-Link Litewave 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch from Amazon).

TP-Link is garbage.

I have a router of theirs and it's been working fine for years, but yeah, this definitely makes me wonder. Which brands do you recommend?

[Scallica]

I have a router of theirs and it's been working fine for years, but yeah, this definitely makes me wonder. Which brands do you recommend?

For entry level un-managed switch, Linksys or Trendnet. For a managed switch, Cisco, HP, or Dell.