SiliconDust Website Down Late This Evening

[themusj]

I noticed my HDHomeRun app would not launch without an error, [b"]Error invoking Client Start."[/b] This corresponded with no access to SiliconDust's website or forum to post the error.

Now at 8:35 pm EST, I can now get to the website, but while the application comes up further, I have another error, "Your HDHomeRun tuner is not able to connect to the Silicondust TV guide service."

I read on Reddit from an older post that the tuner will not function without Internet access, is this true as it appears? A complete shutdown of its recording operations??

I spend a lot of time trouble-shooting this issue without support with the site down. It caused me to make some mistakes where now my NAS is rebuilding itself and I had to point my recordings to my local PC was it completes the rebuild.

We need some clarity on what to look for when these generic errors pop up. It is also a disappointment that the unit cannot function at least with what was spooled up prior to the Internet connection failing.

[jph1589]

I had the same thing and same messages. I now have access to my channels with no guide data. I thought that wasnt possible. I am on a Mac with a Flex that has been working fine for a few years. I couldnt get tp the support website until just mow. It showed cloudflare error of some kind.

[themusj]

Mine is recording now as it came up a few minutes ago. I have another follow-up question for the support staff at SD.

I have my RAID rebuilding since as I mentioned I rebooted it thinking it was a drive issue.

So I ran the HDHomeRun setup to record to my PC with the box unchecked "Store recordings on a Western Digital NAS Device.

Actually was using a QNAP, not a Western Digital.

But it is now recording to the QNAP despite telling it to record to my PC and entering the PATH. So not sure my recording will be any good. Why is not following the setup "Store Recordings on this PC." ??

[jph1589]

This is rather confusing. I cant believe we are the only two people having this issue. Some communication would be helpful.

[BillSili]

Yes, I confirm SD site was down so guide and other DVR nonsense was unvailable -
It's backup now, guide is loading -

As a backup to their interface you can use VLC just to watch content wo the fancy guide etc..I went to that
as soon as I saw the guide was down and the app wouldn't load, threw errors.

[jph1589]

That is all well and good but some communication from the mother ship would be useful so we dont start doing things to trouble shoot this that are completely useless.

[malos001]

I am seeing the same thing this evening. The app was not working at all (I use it on Mac OS and also Android) ; I was getting "Error invoking Client Start". Now the app is working and it DOES see my recordings (and it can play them) and I can watch Live TV but there is no guide information available. And there is no "record" button on the live tv window.

Also - yesterday my Mac OS app said there was a Firmware Update available. I've never had problems with those before. So I let it do that and it was successful. On the web interface - hdhomerun.local - it reports "Firmware Version 20250815" but when I start the App it says 20251227b. It wasn't suggesting the Firmware Update before yesterday (12/27). So I am confused. I have the Flex DUO model and I store the recordings locally on a external drive connected to my Mac Mini.

It's a very odd situation at this point. Maybe when their scheduling server catches up, everything will be fine. But the Firmware version thing is weird.

Bob

[themusj]

-That was the same error I had, "Error invoking Client Start."

Things happen, but I would like some sort of answers to the questions this thread has raised. Amongst the most important to me is why cannot the application/software still process what was already in the task queue without an internet connection? That should be a given for these interruptions. A buffer like that would overcome brief system failures on the 'mothership.'

[malos001]

I sent them an email this evening and they did respond. Their latest reply asked me to reboot both the Flex DUO and my Mac. I did that and now everything does appear to be working. The guide info is there and I was able to start a recording while watching the live tv window.

I'm still confused about this update the app did yesterday. The web interface still shows my Firmware as 20250815. So - was it just the UI that was upgraded yesterday to 20251227b ? If so, why did it say it was a Firmware update ? Confusing.

Bob

[malos001]

Support responded to me again this evening. They think I was running something older than the 20250815 firmware ; they said

"One of the issues fixed in the new UI version was that it was not properly alerting at startup when there was a firmware update available."

So - for me anyway - things are back to normal after the earlier reboots. But - like someone else had said - I hope they figure out how to better handle what happened with their servers today.

[themusj]

It would sure be nice to get some feedback from SiliconDust on this thread. IE. An acknowledgement the website was down and in particular why there cannot be some caching of the tasks queue to avoid downtime in the DVR process.

[dochwk]

But are we sure that the website really was down, as opposed to it being cloudflare making life difficult?

I've seen it hinder access on various sites over recent years.

[nickk]

It would sure be nice to get some feedback from SiliconDust on this thread. IE. An acknowledgement the website was down and in particular why there cannot be some caching of the tasks queue to avoid downtime in the DVR process.

Confirming we had an outage at our primary datacenter.

There is a cached task queue. Recordings occurred as per schedule during the outage.

[themusj]

Much appreciated response.

So when I was not able to bring up the DVR in the app; I didn't need to 'fret' that my scheduled recordings were going to be missed.

IE. they would have recorded per advanced schedule?

[signcarver]

Provided you don't stop/restart the dvr it can handle about an 8 hour outage but typically nothing new can get scheduled during that outage.

Unfortunately for flex/scribe users they are probably more likely to restart device to try and make things right and lose such cached tasks, while a nas most likely wouldn't get restarted.

Cloudflare was actually reporting to me that it was an issue on SD's server when trying.to access things during that time (when i waited long enough for a response) .so i didn't think it was anything that needed acknowledgement as it was obvious where the fault was from what was being reported.