Amazon Fire TV Devices Stuttering After Commerical!

[signcarver]

I was getting that error on other devices but only with DRM channels (which amazon doesn't support) this was happening for me on any android device (which fire devices are a form of) with <3GB ram. Currently 1125 and 1127 work for me but fail on drm channels after 16 hours of playing if i reduce my lineup by half but after 8 hours if i keep my full lineup on both primes... but only if diagnostics are off (if on i see that message much sooner but when off it usually crashes completely out of program with no error). I don't get the error if i only use 1 prime (still 2 quatros in the mix). However this morning I noted that i decided to switch channels after being on a drm channel for 7 1/2 hours and the channel i switched to was ota and it still crashed when the 8 hours came up.

[brahmabullwf]

No DRM here on Fox HD. Thanks for trying to help. This has been my main test today. I have literally tried everything today. I am at my wit's end.

[jasonl]

I am not seeing diagnostic logs from the HDHomeRun app at the time you referenced, only the device and DVR.

[brahmabullwf]

My bad I thought we moved away from the app and were focused on the 3 devices. This still happens with recording so I thought it wasn't involved?

Did you get anything out of the data you have seen?

Thanks

[jasonl]

Yes, there is an odd error at that time. The CableCARD did not respond to the normal copy protection system handshake (the card and the host handshake once per minute to make sure nothing has compromised the communication path). I'm not entirely sure what happens if that fails while a channel is going, but it wouldn't surprise me if the card started scrambling data as a protection mechanism, and the player barfed when it started getting scrambled data. It wouldn't account for the earlier packet loss and stuttering, but it could cause the end of stream. Replace the CableCARD.

[brahmabullwf]

Hi Jason,

After some time, I did change the cable card out. It did not fix the issue. I just reproduced with all diagnostics logs on the recording side and the client side.

I only changed the CableCard for 1 HDHR so I disconnected the other during this test so you will only see the one.

My testing was on 806 (ABC), around 9am EDT. I received the "Unable to play channel: End of audio stream" message. I will say that instead of the channel then going black, it actually starts playing video again. In one case it replayed everything that it saw before the error, and in another case, it found the "new" live spot.

I've done just about everything, this seems like a bug I am uncovering.

What do you see on your side?

Thanks!!

[leerandall]

Hi Jason,

After some time, I did change the cable card out. It did not fix the issue. I just reproduced with all diagnostics logs on the recording side and the client side.

I only changed the CableCard for 1 HDHR so I disconnected the other during this test so you will only see the one.

My testing was on 806 (ABC), around 9am EDT. I received the "Unable to play channel: End of audio stream" message. I will say that instead of the channel then going black, it actually starts playing video again. In one case it replayed everything that it saw before the error, and in another case, it found the "new" live spot.

I've done just about everything, this seems like a bug I am uncovering.

What do you see on your side?

Thanks!!

What you describe sounds similar to what happened to me last night on my Shield. There was a momentary signal drop while I was watching live TV, and I got the "Unable to play channel: End of audio stream" message overlaid on the playing channel, except instead of live TV, it started playing video from about 15 minutes prior to live, I assume from the live TV buffer. I understand it is supposed to auto-recover if there is a momentary signal glitch, and I believe it made the attempt, but when the signal recovers, it needs to go back to playing the live TV stream, not jump back in time in the buffer, and not leave the "Unable to play channel: End of audio stream" message overlaid on the screen.

ETA - Here's the error message laid over a perfectly playing live TV stream, and it won't go away until I change channels:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmC2D9qWVVZHiFcwBhhtMrDho8fo

[brahmabullwf]

Jason - did the diagnostics come through? Very curious to understand this situation we have been working on together.

[jasonl]

No change, the card is still failing to respond within the timeout period at random intervals (it has happened 20 times in the last 18 hours). It looks like you don't have the sending of diagnostic data enabled on the 1316 device anymore. Can you enable on there so I can see if it's also happening on that one? If so, that would indicate something your cable provider is doing is interfering with the normal operation of the cards.

[brahmabullwf]

This is unfortunate. How would I be able to tell this or explain this to Comcast? Surprising that this would suddenly happen. I did enable diagnostics on the other card as well.

[jasonl]

Other one is doing it too, so that has to be something coming from the cable provider. Unfortunately, I don't know how you would get Comcast to do anything about it. I don't know what would cause the CableCARD to not respond in the allotted time like that, and I can't even remember seeing that before in the 8+ years since HDHomeRun PRIME was released. It's not uncommon to see weird things pop up from time to time, and usually they end up disappearing the next time they do a maintenance window and everything gets reset.

[brahmabullwf]

Hi Jason - I need further help. I have 1 Xfinity box from Comcast and it is working fine. Most channels work OK as well from the HDHRs, it just seems like mainly the network ones (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX). Also my Xfinity "stream" of LiveTV on the problematic channels works without a flaw. I do not agree that Comcast is interfering with the signal. Too much outside of the problem is working for that to be true.

I think I've uncovered some sort of bug. What can we do next to resolve this problem? I've been a loyal HDHR supporter for many, many years now. I'm also a technician by trade. I can't accept the "it will go away at some point" answer.

Please help!

[NedS]

Hi Jason - I need further help. I have 1 Xfinity box from Comcast and it is working fine. Most channels work OK as well from the HDHRs, it just seems like mainly the network ones (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX). Also my Xfinity "stream" of LiveTV on the problematic channels works without a flaw. I do not agree that Comcast is interfering with the signal. Too much outside of the problem is working for that to be true.

I think I've uncovered some sort of bug. What can we do next to resolve this problem? I've been a loyal HDHR supporter for many, many years now. I'm also a technician by trade. I can't accept the "it will go away at some point" answer.

Please help!

It still seems more likely that the issue is on Comcast's side. Xfinity Stream is not using the PRIME or any CableCARD device, that's coming directly from Comcast servers over the internet. Broadcast channels like NBC, ABC, etc, are also the only channels Comcast still uses MPEG2 with, which uses a lot more data than other channels, and has to make sure are using local video sources rather than national video sources, so it stands to reason that something Comcast is doing would only impact those broadcast locals and not the other nation-wide channels.

More than that, there's just nothing in the diagnostic data to suggest that the problem is on the HDHomeRun PRIME's side, or on the HDHomeRun software's side. The CableCARD itself is the gatekeeper in this situation.

Comcast needs to fix a problem on their side.

[brahmabullwf]

Argument understood. But I can't be the only one in my part of New Jersey using an HDHR with Comcast and others have to be working I'd think or SD would have open tickets.

Further, I knew the part of Stream being direct from Internet, but my XFinity box in theory is similar to HDHR.

Can you confirm others are working using Comcast in my neck of the woods?

[rpcameron]

Further, I knew the part of Stream being direct from Internet, but my XFinity box in theory is similar to HDHR.

No. Most Comcast boxes are usually IPTV, and therefore not using CableCARDs, but rather the same technology as Xfinity Stream.