Continuity counter errors with OpenELEC

Klaus Peters

Hi there,

I'm using Tvheadend as backend for OpenELEC. But it's not working very well, because I get a lot of Continuity counter errors. (https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv/issues/1614)

I still try to figure out what is causing this. A reason might be, that tvheadend is buffering the stream on the hard disk, which is too slow (USB-Stick). Is this possible?

Best Regards
Klaus

Jo Wijnant

Hi,

I'm using the same setup (openelec with tvheadend on a core i3, openelec v2.99.1 64bit, tvheadend v3.2.18) and I'm having these continuity counter errors as well. In XBMC while watching TV I notice that the value of the cache (press 'o', look at the third line) decreases with the occurrence of the continuity errors. The pattern is the following: when I start watching TV the cache reads 'cache: 0 B 25%'. Then after some minutes when I've got several continuity errors, the percentage is dropping to 13%, again after some more errors it drops to 0% and xbmc interrupts the tv and starts buffering again with a short drop of sound and video.

I have then reinstalled openelec on my SSD instead of usb-stick but I still have those errors.
After some googling, it appears that a lot of people have these errors but I haven't found any solution for it. So please, any help is welcome.

If I use Win7+Mediaportal_TVserver+XBMC, then the live TV just works, so my hardware is ok.

tvheadend log:
Jan 06 12:05:22 TS: DiBcom 7000PC adapter2/VRTmux1: 482,000 kHz/EEN: MPEG2VIDEO

 #4113: Continuity counter error
Jan 06 12:05:22 TS: DiBcom 7000PC adapter2/VRTmux1: 482,000 kHz/EEN: MPEG2AUDIO

#4114: Continuity counter error
Jan 06 12:05:22 TS: DiBcom 7000PC adapter2/VRTmux1: 482,000 kHz/EEN: TELETEXT

 #4115: Continuity counter error
Jan 06 12:05:22 TS: DiBcom 7000PC adapter2/VRTmux1: 482,000 kHz/EEN: MPEG2AUDIO

#4116: Continuity counter error

B. B.

Hi,

I can confirm the bug partly.

If I install Raspbmc on my RPi and activate tvheadend on it. I see those continuity counter errors, as well, which results in image and sound artifacts/errors. I always thought that it was a performance issue, but since Jo Wijnant says that he sees the same on a system with an i3 cpu, I doubt that it is a performance issue.

The other observation I made, however, is that if I install Raspbmc on my RPi and deactivate (or rather do not activate) tvheadend on it, install tvheadend on my desktop PC and connect Raspbmc or rather XBMC with that "remote instance" of tvheandend, I DO NOT SEE THOSE Continuity errors, anymore.

So this raises the question why can tvheadend and XBMC, or at least OpenELEC and Raspbmc can't run on the same machine? Bug due to some weird interaction between both on the same machine? Do they share any resources? A configuration issue?

Thx for any help on the issue!

Michele Mazzola

I confirm the same as B.B reported

I install an Openelec (3.0 RC1) as ION 64 and install tvheadend and hts client, it's full of continuity error (and glitches during vision)

If I install tvheadend on my HP notebook and use it as backend, everything is ok.

saltspork anon

I'm experiencing the same on Debian Wheezy (amd64) with 3.3.354 (from git), 3.2.18 and 3.2.34 (3.1.694).

The issue doesn't appear to be linked to disk speed, I'm experiencing trouble even with a local RAID array.

The only way around the issue is to stream directly from the service in VLC e.g. http://server.hostname:9981/stream/service/_dev_dvb_adapter0_ITE_9135_Generic_1191620000_0451. Playing the same service when it is mapped to a channel (or recording it for that matter) through any means (HTSP on XBMC with the latest addon or HTTP with VLC) yields the error and a very bad looking stream.

I'm not entirely sure when this started happening but it's occurring in every build I've tested (including some that have previously worked just fine). I've tried wiping my configuration completely and yet the same issue persists.

Edit: Definitely not just us. https://www.lonelycoder.com/redmine/issues/1534

I think this thread should be moved to the general forum, the issue doesn't appear to be exclusive to XBMC.

Bjoern Franke

I also get this issue on Arch Linux when my recording system (Athlon64 X2 3600+ (2x2GHz), 2GB RAM) has any other load (e.g. postprocesses a recording). It confuses me a bit, because if you use e.g. mplayer to dump the DVB-S stream directly on the harddrive, this does not occur.