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Recording Playback Issues - Hard Disk Failing?

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  1. davidrew

    davidrew

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    I have been having some odd playback issues with a few recordings recently and are wondering if the hard disk could be failing?

    > British Touring Cars (ITV4). Part way in went into a loop repeating the same few seconds tried to navigate past it by using the thumbnails but ended with a blank screen and the progress bar had no start and end time. Could not view past this point.

    > Home & Away (CH5HD). Near the end just froze and stopped and went back to the recording's menu, would not play past that point.

    These are the two most recent and were next to each other in the recordings list, but recorded 24hrs apart, which made me more suspicious.

    I downloaded the original ITV4 programme off the Aura, as it's not encrypted, without issue and its plays in VLC on the PC but there is loss of sound and a bit of picture breakup where it loops on the AURA but it plays OK after that. I have also tried deleting the programme off the AURA and re-uploading it to the upload folder but it just disappears completely and is not listed in recordings.

    I was able to convert the CH5HD programme and it plays in VLC on a PC. There was a brief picture break-up at the point it stopped on the AURA.

    Neither programme showed the broken recording symbol.

    If it's not the hard disk, could it be a software issue corrupting the recording? Heat related, it's well-ventilated but these units do run a bit hot?

    Any thoughts appreciated.

    | Thu 1 Jun 2023 11:22:42 #1 |
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    Martin Liddle

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    davidrew - 5 hours ago  » 
    If it's not the hard disk, could it be a software issue corrupting the recording? Heat related, it's well-ventilated but these units do run a bit hot?

    Have you considered the possibility of interference? What is the signal strength and quality as reported by the Aura when tuned to Channel 4 and Channel 5HD?

    | Thu 1 Jun 2023 16:57:41 #2 |
  3. davidrew

    davidrew

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    Signal strength is around 85% and quality 100%. I'm only 15 miles from the transmitter with a clear line of sight.

    I had thought of interference initially but dismissed it as the issue seems to point to some sort of file corruption. If it was external signal interference, I would expect picture breakup/sound loss but the programme to carry on.

    It looks like the playback software just loses its location in the .ts file. There is no metadata in the downloaded file to be corrupted so it's not that. There must be another database that holds the thumbnails, programme length, and where you are in the programme to allow resume to work, and probably loads of other stuff, so I'm wondering if that is at fault.

    It's a pity there is no disk integrity check and cleanup option like there was on the older Humax PVR's.

    | Fri 2 Jun 2023 8:20:36 #3 |
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    sickofthesea

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    I'm having similar problems over the last few days.

    Recordings go into a loop repeating the last few seconds. Latest recording was Supervet on Channel 4. We have been able to skip past that part causing the problem and carry on watching.

    My first thought was the HDD failing? However, before this we have noticed a fair bit of pixelation. I went into the loft and there is a powered amp that splits the signal into two. We don't use the second one which goes to the bedroom (I think) so I removed that wire, but not much improvement.

    It's possible the powered amp and the quality of the signal, losing it's location in the ts file. So I'm going to try buying a new amp box.

    | Thu 3 Aug 2023 21:03:38 #4 |

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