Unofficial Kodi HDHomeRun DVR PVR Client

[djp952]

The HDHomeRun DVR log file (in the HDHomeRun share -> YYYYMMDD.log) might provide specific insight as to why it didn't record. I believe the times in there are all UTC so you'll have to adjust for your local time zone to find the right portion of the log.

I'm in Australia (UTC +10) and the program was due to start at 7:25pm (5 mins padding) so if my maths is correct that's 9:25AM UTC.

Here's the DVR log for around that time.

https://pastebin.com/embed_js/bc1rr7Cn

Note: When it had not started recording by 7:32PM I went into the EPG, selected the same program but on another channel but same network, right clicked and selected record. Both channels were now showing they were recording.

EDIT: Looks to me like the logs are showing the recording started on time. But there was no indication at all in Kodi. No Recording message in the TV library, No pop-up message saying recording started and no recording red dot in the EPG. I never looked at the NAS though to see if files were being created.

An easy thing to try is the HDHomeRun App. If you see the recordings there and not in Kodi, likely something wrong with the addon. If you don't see them there either, likely something wrong with the RECORD engine.

Whether you want to try that method or not, please do check to see if the file(s) are on the NAS. There have been a couple instances lately where RECORD isn't sending the complete file list. One user had to reinstall RECORD and it started working, the other just had to bounce the NAS and it started working. I've not experienced any issues with mine (v20200225 - WD NAS install).

If the files are on the NAS and yet not showing up in Kodi, can you do the following for me please?

- From a browser, navigate to my.hdhomerun.com/discover
- Find the item with the "StorageID", this will be the RECORD engine
- Locate the "StorageURL" and navigate to that

You will get back a big text file in JSON format. Try searching that for the filename(s) that you see on the NAS and aren't showing up in Kodi. There should be item(s) with matching "Filename" tags. If they are there and still aren't in Kodi it's likely a fault with the addon. If they are missing from that text, RECORD isn't sending them so they aren't going to show up.

One thing to keep in mind too is that the Recordings view in Kodi isn't real-time, it gets refreshed periodically. I believe the current default is 10 minutes. I also update it a minute or two after you add a new Recording Rule to try and pick up any "record me now" events.

If the NAS and RECORD look good, the next step will be to get the Kodi log to see if the addon is raising any errors. I'd go there first, but so far the recent recordings complaints have been outside of my control. I'm not expecting to see any errors here, if it had a problem your Recordings list would either be blank or just stay out of date (nothing new would ever show up).

[gregeeh]

@djp952 - I think you have misunderstood me, I will try to be clearer.

MasterChef was due to start at 7:25PM, with the 5 min start padding, and we were watching another program and channel at that time. I expected to see a message popup stating recording has started, but I did not see anything by 7:27PM so I went to the TV library and noted it was not showing a recording was is progress. I then went into the EPG and it too showed MasterChef was not recording. I never went the the Recordings listing in the Library nor did I check the NAS.

At 7:32PM I went into the EPG, selected MasterChef on another channel, same network, and right clicked and selected Record. MasterChef was shown as being recorded on 2 channels in the EPG.

If I go into the Recordings listing now, MasterChef is there and it's also on my NAS.

So I suppose the next thing to do is wait for tonight's episode and see what happens without manually starting a record. Will check this NAS this time.

TIA

Greg

[gregeeh]

Now here is something interesting. Just setup Iron Chef America to record, starts at 10:00AM with a 20 min start padding.



Note the time. Also note it is being recorded on the NAS.



Note the "Aired At" and "Recording Started" times.

[djp952]

Gotcha. I am not applying the start/end padding to the "Timers" view items. Up until recently that list was so inaccurate I guess it never came up I can do that!

Just to be 100% sure I do understand now ...

Let's say the program is scheduled to start at 7:30PM and run until 8:00PM. Today, the "Timers" and "Next Recording", etc will show "7:30PM" regardless of the start padding. Any notifications and/or indicators will not fire until 7:30PM. Since there is 20 minutes of start padding, the expectation is that "Timers", "Next Recording", etc will show a start time of 7:10PM. Any notifications and/or indicators will fire at 7:10PM.

This shouldn't be difficult to do at all, and I think it's a great suggestion/fix. Let me know if I'm still off base, otherwise I can probably have something for you to test in the next day or so!

Sorry for misunderstanding the concern.

[gregeeh]

Let's say the program is scheduled to start at 7:30PM and run until 8:00PM. Today, the "Timers" and "Next Recording", etc will show "7:30PM" regardless of the start padding. Any notifications and/or indicators will not fire until 7:30PM. Since there is 20 minutes of start padding, the expectation is that "Timers", "Next Recording", etc will show a start time of 7:10PM. Any notifications and/or indicators will fire at 7:10PM.

Sorry, I'm a noob.

You say "Any notifications and/or indicators will not fire until 7:30PM." then you say "Any notifications and/or indicators will fire at 7:10PM" Sorry, but I don't understand what you are saying here.

TIA

Greg

[Ken.F]

Gotcha. I am not applying the start/end padding to the "Timers" view items.

I think the complaint is the clock is two hours off in the QNAP UI.

[signcarver]

What is being stated is that cuttently timers fire at actual time of show (7:30), but that your expected behavior would take into account the padding, thus "should" fire at 7:10.

None of that really should matter as the engine does its own thing.

As far as what Ken.F stated, often there are timezone issues with the php of the qnap... the dvr actually uses times synced with SD so that shouldn't be an issue just cosmetic.

[gregeeh]

Gotcha. I am not applying the start/end padding to the "Timers" view items.

I think the complaint is the clock is two hours off in the QNAP UI.

I think there are two issues.

1. The clock is off by two hours. Fixed as wrong timezone is php.ini
2. I am not applying the start/end padding to the "Timers" view items

[Ken.F]

I think there are two issues.

1. The clock is off by two hours. Fixed as wrong timezone is php.ini
2. I am not applying the start/end padding to the "Timers" view items

OK, I just wanted to make sure djp952 wasn't fixing the wrong problem.

[signcarver]

Using your "original" example it was 5 minutes padding (start time of 7:25 with 5 minutes padding) And you checked at 7:27... we are assuming that by that first statement, the show's start time is 7:30 and currently the timer wouldn't have fired until 3 minutes after you checked.

[djp952]

That's what I'm thinking the request is. Kodi thinks the recording starts at 7:30, but the DVR actually started it at 7:10 because of the start padding. It's important for new users to know that the DVR does what the DVR does, the front-end (Kodi and the addon in this case) are separate and may not always reflect reality. I try my best, of course!

Applying the padding values to the timer objects makes perfect sense to do, even if I'm still confused about what the problem is Perhaps this whole quarantine thing is finally getting to me? I'm going craaaazzzzyyy ... mwa-ha-ha

[djp952]

This might solve gregeeh's concern, it might not, honestly "Cabin Fever" has set in -- to me the calendar says March 46th right now ...

Version 3.2.2~beta2 - April 14, 2020

• Update cURL library to version 7.69.1
• Adapt to HDHomeRun RECORD engine 20200318 breaking changes
• Apply recording rule start and end time padding deltas to the reported start and end times for timer instances
• Omit reporting of original air date for programs of type News/Current Affairs unless a specific season/episode has been specified

This beta adds a change to how the "Timers" in Kodi are reported to account for start/end time padding values from the parent Recording Rule. Until now, the (EPG) scheduled start and end time for the program(s) have been reported. The problem with this is that Kodi will not show accurate "Currently Recording"/"Next Recording" home page indicators, real start and end times in "Timers", or properly flag a program as recording (red dot) in the EPG. I think this is a good change (any defects on my part notwithstanding) that significantly improves the accuracy of the information being reported, and I sincerely appreciate gregeeh's time in explaining it to me.

If this doesn't solve the reported concern, or you think it's ill-advised for some reason, please let me know. March 47th and 48th are still available

Link to beta .zip files for Kodi "Leia" (OneDrive):
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgEGEEVzGNq-jI4ORBf ... g?e=a71J2C

NOTE: Beta releases are installed as if they were a 'new' installation - download and browse to the .zip file from Kodi. You can rollback to the last production release (v3.2.1) using the Kodi addon "Update" feature if problems arise. Otherwise, if you are happy with the beta release, it will auto-update to the formal version when it's been released.

[usafle]

I've got a (probably) dumb question; When detecting channels (either in my.hdhomerun.com or the Win10 App) I can get channels all the way up to 1900+. Some are DRM, some are not. I understand that Kodi won't play DRM protected channels (or show them in the channel lineup) but the ones that aren't DRM do not even show up in the Kodi add-on.

I've deleted the data from the Kodi PVR and let it re-detect everything. However a bunch of channels still won't populate. They show up in the HDHomeRun Windows app - they just won't show up in Kodi.

[djp952]

Is there a pattern that you can see, for example is there some apparent cutoff point at which channels "higher than" will not be displayed?

DRM channels are removed by default, as you noted, but there should be no reasonable limit on anything else. Sounds like a problem on my part, any additional info you can provide will be useful in tracking it down.

Thanks for letting me know, hopefully it can be a quick and painless resolution!

[gregeeh]

This might solve gregeeh's concern, it might not, honestly "Cabin Fever" has set in -- to me the calendar says March 46th right now ...

Version 3.2.2~beta2 - April 14, 2020

• Update cURL library to version 7.69.1
• Adapt to HDHomeRun RECORD engine 20200318 breaking changes
• Apply recording rule start and end time padding deltas to the reported start and end times for timer instances
• Omit reporting of original air date for programs of type News/Current Affairs unless a specific season/episode has been specified

This beta adds a change to how the "Timers" in Kodi are reported to account for start/end time padding values from the parent Recording Rule. Until now, the (EPG) scheduled start and end time for the program(s) have been reported. The problem with this is that Kodi will not show accurate "Currently Recording"/"Next Recording" home page indicators, real start and end times in "Timers", or properly flag a program as recording (red dot) in the EPG. I think this is a good change (any defects on my part notwithstanding) that significantly improves the accuracy of the information being reported, and I sincerely appreciate gregeeh's time in explaining it to me.

If this doesn't solve the reported concern, or you think it's ill-advised for some reason, please let me know. March 47th and 48th are still available

Link to beta .zip files for Kodi "Leia" (OneDrive):
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgEGEEVzGNq-jI4ORBf ... g?e=a71J2C

NOTE: Beta releases are installed as if they were a 'new' installation - download and browse to the .zip file from Kodi. You can rollback to the last production release (v3.2.1) using the Kodi addon "Update" feature if problems arise. Otherwise, if you are happy with the beta release, it will auto-update to the formal version when it's been released.

What a fantastic job you have done. Exactly the way it should be, and done sooooooooooo quickly too.

Your a bloody marvel.

Many thanks.

Greg