Already had two BAD mpeg4 recordings (comcast)

[tzr916]

Comcast has switched a few channels to mpeg4 and already had two recordings that are fubar. They were both on Syfy channel. Syfy plays fine with live tv and recordings on other mpeg4 channels have been ok so far.

The first one happened Wednesday night and may have caused WMC to crap on all recordings that were in progress at the time. Got several pops ups on the screen about "error in recording engine" or something. A few of the recordings that were interrupted automatically found another tuner and restarted, one of them I had to restart manually. The second bad mpeg4 recording happened last night and did not cause any errors at the time, even had several other recordings going on.

The mpeg4 files themselves appears full length and I tried playing them back but got some strange stuff... In WMC it was black screen and audio but could not FF or REW, the progress bar just sits in one place. In ZoomPlayer the video is a gray horizontal jumping bar across the screen with audio and I can scan the whole file, but it's all the same gray bar.

I would not have even caught this until weeks later when I eventually got around to playing these shows back, but I noticed that COMSKIP chokes on these and never completes the scanning process (obviously because the whole video is corrupt / just a gray horizontal bar). I have already scheduled these two shows for re-recording today and tomorrow and will be interesting to see if they come out ok. Also going to schedule them in JRiver to see if they record ok.

[Crash2009]

I would not have even caught this until weeks later when I eventually got around to playing these shows back, but I noticed that COMSKIP chokes on these and never completes the scanning process (obviously because the whole video is corrupt / just a gray horizontal bar).

You just knew this MPEG-4 thing was going to be a problem. What do you know about this that the rest of us don't? Have ComSkip, JRiver, or something else suggested anything?

Is it possible that ComSkip is causing the problem?

[spanner]

I have been wondering about this since i got that Comcast email awhile back. Are they changing over a few channels at a time or just some shows on random channels. Could we know the name of the shows? I would like to record them also just to see what happens on my setup/location

[Crash2009]

The mpeg4 files themselves appears full length and I tried playing them back but got some strange stuff... In WMC it was black screen and audio but could not FF or REW, the progress bar just sits in one place. In ZoomPlayer the video is a gray horizontal jumping bar across the screen with audio and I can scan the whole file, but it's all the same gray bar.

This sounds similar to what you would see if the recording was protected. Is the recording protected?

Can you do a screen cap, so we can see it?

[tzr916]

I believe they are changing one channel at a time, not show by show....

I am planning to make the full switch to JRiver very soon anyways and hopefully it does a better job than WMC. More testing is definitely needed.

I am 100% sure Comskip cannot be the cause of this because it waits a few minutes for the file to stop recording before it even begins it's scan (not doing live tv scanning), and does not ever modify the actual recording file whatsoever.

Files are NOT protected. The channel was Syfy comcast. Already deleted the bad files but if (when) it happens again, I will try a screen cap from zoomplayer.

[Crash2009]

undelete or did you empty the trash all ready

[tzr916]

Nothing in Recycle Bin. Deleted via WMC. Guess they just disappear? Maybe there is a setting in WMC to send to recycle bin vs perm delete but I don't use it.

[Crash2009]

till next time.....

[tzr916]

I believe they are changing one channel at a time, not show by show....

I just recorded a short clip off Syfy and was surprised to see it was mpeg2. So either they are in fact doing it show by show or my conclusion that these bad recordings were mpeg4 was wrong The reason I thought these were mpeg4, was because the Comskip log files flagged the video as mpeg4 (the same way it does for other good mpeg4 recordings). Maybe this was a false alarm. Have to see if how the new recordings come out.

[Crash2009]

Them guys are always switching gears with resolutions. I've noticed that with commercials. Transport stream switching (if that's what you call it) wouldn't surprise me. Especially in the early stages of transition. You'll catch it again.

Its a good thing somebody is keeping an eye on those bandits.