Can't tune any channels when a record engine goes offline

[ppasteur]

Here is my setup. I have three tuners. A duo, a Quatro and a 4K. I have three record engines 2 run on Nvidia Shields and one on a Synology NAS. I set them up that way for failover.
I have all of the tuners and record engines running the latest versions of software and firmware.

Last night I could not tune any channels. I would select a channel and just get a black screen. I checked in the device menu and saw that the record engine running on the Synology (The one that the system uses for recording, I think because it has the most space available). The three tuners showed up and so did the remaining 2 record engines. (Note: I was using a client on the same Shield box where a record engine is running) I found that the power cord on the Synology was unplugged. I reconnected it and when the Synology booted up, everything was back to normal.

I have a few f questions.

Why would the system not allow me to tune anything? (BTW the guide info was there). I thought I could use the client without any record engine in place to just tune.

Why would the system not failover to one of the other record engines? I thought that this has been a feature for a long time. This is the function that caused me to setup three different record engine with their own storage.

What, if anything, can I change in my configuration to prevent the system from becoming useless if one of the record engines becomes unavailable?

Thanks for any and all suggestions or answers.

[signcarver]

The channel list comes from the tuners... if a record engine is detected, it will use a record engine for live. That engine needs to be able to stream and have access to the channel selected (double check you didn't disable recording on an engine). For cablecard drm, it must be marked properly or the engine doesn't respond properly to the app to tune directly.

There have been some changes that some old engines may not properly function so I would also make sure every engine is latest.

Personally I don't recommend engine on android as too often android updates cause issues with such.

[ppasteur]

The channel list comes from the tuners... if a record engine is detected, it will use a record engine for live. That engine needs to be able to stream and have access to the channel selected (double check you didn't disable recording on an engine). For cablecard drm, it must be marked properly or the engine doesn't respond properly to the app to tune directly.

There have been some changes that some old engines may not properly function so I would also make sure every engine is latest.

Personally I don't recommend engine on android as too often android updates cause issues with such.

Thanks for the reply!

My devices list on the client indicated the presence of the two record engines that were online. They are both set to be able to record.
I am not using any cable cards. I only use OTA.
All of the record engines and the client are on the latest available version of the software (verified as of today). The tuners have the latest firmware.

I understand your recommendation on using Android for record engines. But the two Shields have been working properly for a few years now. Nvidia does not release many Android updates. I think only 2 in the last three years. Mine have remained stable.

Am I incorrect in thinking that I should be able to tune channels available on the tuners with no record engine at all?

The question remains, why would only one of the engines not being available prevent me from tuning any channels? Shouldn't the system just use one of the remaining available record engines?

Is there anything I can do to prevent this in the future?

[nickk]

Even if the record engines go offline after starting the app you should still get live TV. It will try each record engine first, then try each tuner.

[ppasteur]

Thanks Nick.
But that is not what happened. The reason that I set up 3 record engines was just for the situation that occurred. (losing a single device). All I got was a black screen when selecting a channel. I force closed the client. But that did not help. As I mentioned all of the tuners and two record engines were present in the devices menu all with check marks. BTW I think the Synology record engine was offline when I started the app.
Fortunately this is not something that I expect to happen often. The solution in that case was to just bring the Synology back online. But I see a situation where that may not be possible.
So if something similar happens and it is not possible to bring one of the record engines back online, what would fix the problem? How would I make the client ignore the fact that any or all record engines are down and just tune channels?

[NedS]

Device ID?

[ppasteur]

Thanks Ned and Sorry for the delay! Which device ID do you need? Should I turn on send data on everything?

The system is working OK now. I think I would need to stop the record engine on the Synology to try to duplicate the problem.

here are the IDs for the Tuners
104EA976
107086F1
1080AB39
Record Engines:
Version 20250606
Storage ID [redacted by moderator]
Record Path /storage/5ED47CDED47CB9BB/Android/data/com.silicondust.view/files/HDHomeRun/
Search Path /storage/5ED47CDED47CB9BB/Android/data/com.silicondust.view/files/HDHomeRun/
Search Path /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.silicondust.view/files/HDHomeRun/
Free Space 2000 GB
IP Address 192.168

Version 20250815
Storage ID [redacted by moderator]
Record Path /volume1/HDHomeRunDVR/
Search Path /volume1/HDHomeRunDVR/
Free Space 8426 GB

Version 20250606
Storage ID [redacted by moderator]
Record Path /storage/A036-6A6B/Android/data/com.silicondust.view/files/HDHomeRun/
Search Path /storage/A036-6A6B/Android/data/com.silicondust.view/files/HDHomeRun/
Free Space 4000 GB

[jasonl]

The only logs I see on the night of the 4th were from the DVRs. It looks like you tried to tune 4.1 at 10pm MDT, the 2TB DVR sent the request to the HDHomeRun, then nothing happened for several minutes and then it failed with a write error. Meanwhile, the client had switched to the 4TB DVR after it got nothing from the first one and timed out, and that tuned and then nothing happened for 8 minutes before it finally errored out. You started the NAS DVR, then went to 7.1, which went through the 2TB and seemed to work fine. Not really sure what happened at first there other than maybe the Shield was asleep and not processing requests correctly? There doesn't appear to be a drive problem despite the write error, as it worked normally for the second part.