Ghost recordings?

GreyzardBigME

usually, when i set an autorecording, the "record" button appears on the event at the right moment and, after some seconds, the file begins to "gain weight", sometimes however the file size field remain empty and the file is not generated at all, i call them "ghost recordings" because once the scheduled time ends, they simply disappear from the list with no trace in the finished or failed recordings and not even in the log on the bottom!
is there a way to investigate?

DeltaMikeCharlie

My first thought would be that you are not receiving any data from your broadcaster to write to the file.

Check to see that you can tune to the channel in question to watch live TV.

Have a look at the TVH log to see if there are any error messages.

GreyzardBigME

i believe you, even if the signal seems to be fine every single time i test it with tvhplayer (the internal player of the web interface shows a lower quality compared to an actual recording, while the software itself seems "faithful" to the actual quality), sometimes i get a regular, fully working recording even the exact same day, and for the log... it's empty, without any error! (unless you mean another log, maybe a file?)

DeltaMikeCharlie

GreyzardBigME (unless you mean another log, maybe a file?)

You can enable detailed logging.

Configuration -> Debugging -> Configuration.

Enter a file name for the log. It should be in a place where the user running TVH has write permission.
Enable 'Debug trace'.
In both 'Debug subsystems' and 'Trace subsystems' add 'dvr'.
Press the 'Apply configuration' button.

Once you notice a ghost recording. Stop the logging and then review the log file from just before until just after the ghost recording occurred.

If that shows nothing, repeat the logging with 'all'. The log file will be HUGE but hopefully you can find some clues.

Chris G

I experience this too, and I just caught one happening.
I try to "play recording" in Kodi (whilst it's recording) and I get failed to play (or words to that effect).
If I try to play the channel rather than the recording, it players perfectly.
If I cancel the recording, then start it again from the Kodi interface, it records as expected.

DeltaMikeCharlie

Chris G I try to "play recording" in Kodi (whilst it's recording) and I get failed to play (or words to that effect).

I just tried chaseplaying on 2 different combinations of TVH and Kodi versions and both worked for me.

I would start by trying to reproduce this on demand.
I would also have a look at the Kodi log to see if there is a more detailed explanation.

Chris G

DeltaMikeCharlie

There were no files on TVH.
It's not related to Kodi.
This recording, and almost all of my recordings, are set up in the TVH web UI.
Like the OP describes, no errors, no failed recordings... It just didn't record, but TVH thought it was.

DeltaMikeCharlie

While a 'ghost recording' is happening, you could try lsof -p $(pidof tvheadend)|grep "REG" to see what file TVH thinks its writing to.

You could also have a look at ps -T -p $(pidof tvheadend) and see if there are an DVR-related threads running.

Neither of these commands will provide a definitive answer, but they could provide useful hints as to what is going on inside TVH if the log files are not showing anything.