Troubleshooting Corrupted File Message

[carljanderson]

Help me! I am out of ideas (well, I have one more idea left).

I am on Frontier FiOS in Southern California.
Windows 7 Media Center, InfiniTV4 Tuner.

So, a few months back we started getting a "Corrupted File" message when we would switch between channels on LiveTV. I finally got around to troubleshooting recently, and am close to out of ideas.

I can reproduce the error 100% of the time when I go FROM Channel 806 (Willow HD, yes, I will watch Cricket before bed) to Channel 623 (Investigative Discovery, yes my wife watches murder porn in bed). I can also get it from when I go from Willow to other HD channels like 664 (Food) and 570 (ESPN). I can get TV back by going to channel 3 and then to 623, etc. This is true on the HTPC itself and the two Echo extenders (Primary TV watching is on the Echos).

I reached out to Ceton and they responded with "That Error is a windows related. We do not change the stream and have no cases of InfiniTV caused file corruption".

Here is what I have done, to no avail..

Ran sfc /scannow and it did find errors, and "fixed" them by destroying all my customizations.

Reinstalled WMC

Reinstalled WIndows 7 on Same System

Used different Mobo with different CPU, different GPU and different SSD for C:\ drive

Changed Live TV recorder from 4 TB drive to 2 other drives in the system

Replaced 4 TB drive with new 4 TB drive

All of the above tasks have not solved the issue of the Corrupt File message when switching from 806 to 623.

Do I dare try to find an InfinTV 4 or 6 on ebay and try again?

Anything else I can try?

[newfiend]

Have you tried a different CABLEcard in the infiniTV? Could it possibly be that the cableCARD (the part that decodes the channels) may be going bad or needs an update? I would call your Cable TV Provider and get a new card and see if the symptoms persist.
Just a thought.
newfiend~

[Crash2009]

What is the "Complete Error Message"?

[carljanderson]

Have you tried a different CABLEcard in the infiniTV? Could it possibly be that the cableCARD (the part that decodes the channels) may be going bad or needs an update? I would call your Cable TV Provider and get a new card and see if the symptoms persist.
Just a thought.
newfiend~

Good thought. I will try that when I get some time. Never dealt with Frontier before, so I don't know what to expect.

What is the "Complete Error Message"?

Corrupt File.
Windows Media Center cannot play the file. The file is either corrupt or Windows Media Center does not support the format you are trying to play.



(Keep in mind, 806 and 623 play fine as long as I don't go from 806 to 623)

[newfiend]

Any codec packs installed?

[carljanderson]

Any codec packs installed?

nope. this is a basic rebuild at this point.

Needed to get TV back up and running before extending the functionality.

[newfiend]

I would have a go with swapping out the CC.. if that doesn't do it maybe try swapping out the tuner card.. I think you've covered everything else that I could think of to try.
What FW version are you using on the InfiniTV?

Also a couple other things to check.. open the Ceton Diag. Utility > Devices Tab > Go To InfiniTV Device Webpage button.
From there select a Tuner (not in use) and Tune Channel(s) you're having problems with and check that the Signal Level and Signal to Noise Levels.

SNR should be 32-37 and the signal level should be between -12 and +12 with 0 dBmV ideal. The ideal readings are 37 SNR with 0 signal. Something to keep in mind: you can have low SNR (32-34) and high signal strength (+5/+10) and be okay, or you can have high SNR (36-37) and have low signal strength (-5/-10) and be okay. You just can't have both low SNR and low signal strength and still have a good viewing experience. Finally, while these guidelines by and large hold true, the final determining factor is quality of picture. If your readings are low but your picture quality is acceptable, then those levels work for your setup.

If you are having a signal issue then that could also contribute to "tuning issues" and possible corrupt recordings.

newfiend~

[carljanderson]

Started at 15_1_13_152, and tried downgrading to 14_10_3_163.

[newfiend]

Updated ^ *Where I got my facts.. http://cetoncorp.com/support/index.php? ... -explained

[carljanderson]

I keep tuning back and forth, and the numbers are crazy.

Most are in that range, with the Signal strength a little high (in the +3 to +7 range). However, I did see a SNR of 21.0 db w/ a Signal Strength of 9.7 dBmV.

[newfiend]

I keep tuning back and forth, and the numbers are crazy.

Most are in that range, with the Signal strength a little high (in the +3 to +7 range). However, I did see a SNR of 21.0 db w/ a Signal Strength of 9.7 dBmV.

I would call your Cable provider.. have them come out and test the SNR and Signal levels.. The Ceton cards are a bit picky on signal strength.

Have the cable tech check your connections outside/inside and make sure they are clean and free of corrosion etc. and that you are getting good signal strength to the tuner.

I had Comcast out a few times here when I had issues with macroblocking on a couple channels. They ended up giving me a small amp I put just before it connects to my InfiniTV and Cable Modem. It fixed the macroblocking issue completely for me.

You could alternately have them bring a spare cableCARD to swap out your old one just in case that's the issue.. But If the Signal levels and SNR seem to be all over the place and it worked fine up until fairly recently it could be a connection issue on one of the lines coming into your place. If it is the cable tech should be able to clean them and get you a better Signal Level and better SNR or add an amp to boost the levels.. Hopefully that will fix the tuning issue and corrupt recording problems. Let me know if that helps... I'm not sure what else to suggest??

newfiend..

[Crash2009]

Here are a few different directions to go regarding weak signal.
My best hunch would be 1) or 2) 3,4,5, was specific to a different post

1) is that the signal just might be weak, easy enough to check, do a search here and look for a file called allcetonsignals.zip the file is in the following link

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 423#p73423

2) another idea is, WMC erroneously reports weak signal. Google that. There are a couple fixes out there.

3) windows updates are always a crap shoot. Use system restore to go back to when things were running good.

4) All though I have never experienced it, I've read that antivirus can cause WMC to throw a weak signal at you.

5) one more thing..... you might be experiencing problems associated with the MPEG-4 Roll Out.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 036#p95036
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 345#p99345

[newfiend]

Were we able to help any Carl? I hope you can figure out what's causing the issue for you.. seems like an odd bug for sure. Hopefully some of our suggestions help ya out. Keep us posted on your progress.
newfiend~

[glugglug]

Willow is one of the channels that has been switched to h.264. Probably not a coincidence. Possibly a codec issue as there are a lot of alternative h.264 codecs, and I'm not sure MS provides a protected path one for WMC to prefer (hence the protected h.264 channel issues)?

[glugglug]

I keep tuning back and forth, and the numbers are crazy.

Most are in that range, with the Signal strength a little high (in the +3 to +7 range). However, I did see a SNR of 21.0 db w/ a Signal Strength of 9.7 dBmV.

SNR of 21.0 db on a cable (not OTA) channel basically means no signal. On some models/firmwares of InfiniTV I think this is the minimum it registers if you unplug it. FiOS is normally cleaner than cable, I have gotten SNR above 38dB. The minimum for theoretically tuning QAM256 channels (near all cable channels) is around 27dB.

[glugglug]

One other possible factor: I recently noticed FIOS has started having a lot of mpeg2 channels with 4 to a QAM instead of 2 to a QAM like they used to do. Rather than losing quality to do this, the channels are now CBR encoded. I've noticed during fast action scenes the CBR encoding occasionally goes above the 19Mbps limit an OTA channel would have, sometimes 22-23Mbps for whichever channel has the action. Neither the haswell integrated video or the Xbox likes this and the playback gets much choppier than h.264 used to be. The h.264 channels play smooth since they started using 7-8 Mbps instead of 10-13Mbps h.264. I think ID might be a VBR channel and the transition between these two encodings could be having an issue on your system.

[tensoneu]

Stumbled upon this thread during a search. I'm experiencing the same issue but with channel 689 BBC America. Not sure when this started happening but it's recent, this was recently brought up to my attention.

Provider: Verizon FiOS - NYC
Affected Channel: 689 BBC America
Devices: 2x HDHomeRun Prime
Extenders: XBOX 360 Slim
PC: Acer DT.SUVAA.002 (CPU: J1900 | 8GB RAM | C Drive = 120GB SSD | D Drive = 4TB HDD)

The error message is the following:
Corrupted File
Windows Media Center cannot play the file. The file is either corrupt or Windows Media Center does not support the format you are trying to play.

Entering "689" or switching channels to "689" from 688 or 690 provides the same issue. Not sure what's going on.

[83v45magna]

A weak, failing power source caused me many 'corrupt recording' messages. The recordings were fine as it turns out. How old is your power supply?

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =5&t=10320

[Crash2009]

The error message is the following:
Corrupted File
Windows Media Center cannot play the file. The file is either corrupt or Windows Media Center does not support the format you are trying to play.

Entering "689" or switching channels to "689" from 688 or 690 provides the same issue. Not sure what's going on.

What does your say for Video Codec?

Google WMC Debug for instructions...411Info usually works on the remote

[carljanderson]

Were we able to help any Carl? I hope you can figure out what's causing the issue for you.. seems like an odd bug for sure. Hopefully some of our suggestions help ya out. Keep us posted on your progress.
newfiend~

I do apologize for hiding. Work and life have been crazy the last few months.

I haven't had Frontier come out yet. Was working with them yesterday to start, and they couldn't tell me if the signal was fine at the ONT. In the meantime, I do have old splitters and LPF. I am thinking I am going to replace them with new ones.

With the Ceton card do I still need the Low Pass Filter? Yes, this was one of the early batch Infinitv 4's where the LPF was needed with FiOS.

Has anyone seen a degradation in quality from Frontier vs. Verizon?