WTV File/Seek Broken

[wassupTC]

I've been having an issue lately with my Media Center recordings. On what seems to only be extended length recordings (greater than 1 hour); when I play the recording I'm not able to seek within the recording and sooner or later playback of the video terminates and I receive a 'Video Error' message from WMC.

Is there a setting or some kind of update that I need to install to correct this? It hadn't been a problem up until recently--possibly a Java update (?). I always move my recordings from each client machine to the server a minute after the recordings are complete. Could this problem be occurring during the moving of the file from the Client to the Server, or is it an issue with the Client that the file is corrupted during the recording stage?

Lastly, are there any utilities available to fix broken WTV files? I'm currently working with MC-TV Converter to convert the files into MKV format and then I'll check them out from there to see if a repair can be made. I think it's a bit of a longshot, but here's to hoping.

Thank you all for your help!
TC

[Scallica]

What happens if you play the video on the client machine before moving it to the server? What happens if you play the video using VLC Media Player?

[wassupTC]

Well, I just tried playing the file on VLC and the timestamp at the bottom right of the program window shows 1:08:00, but the show length is supposed to be 1:30:00. If I fast forward ahead in the file it stops playing at around the 48 minute mark and I can't even get to the one hour mark. I haven't tried playing a longer recording from my client machine yet, but having played shorter recordings before they are completed has worked out just fine.

I've got the DVBLink Server Network Pack and use Hauppauge Colossus cards to bring the TV feeds into the DVBLink server. Before about three weeks ago, everything was working perfectly...and then I started trying a few different things with the server machine and made a goof on my Windows System Protection settings and lost my restore points that were set before I started experimenting. Lesson learned. If you'd like to get in on some of the history and discussion of that mess, it can be found here:

http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... efb1be8819

I'm thisclose to wiping the drive clean and starting over or creating a new partition on the OS drive and starting over. So...that may (may) fix the whole thing. Blech!

Thanks for the response, Scallica. I appreciate your interest in my issue and your help.

Take care,
TC

[Scallica]

Yea, something is definitely corrupting those files. An OS reload is not a bad idea. Definitely take OS snapshots before making any changes to your systems. Also, do the testing on the client systems for good measure. Let us know how things go.

[wassupTC]

Yuck! This 'little' issue has turned into a major fiasco. The 4TB RAID-5 Array somehow got corrupted today, so right now I have a Backup Utility finding all of the files so that I can back them up to an external hard drive.

After all of this hiccups and bumps, etc. it would probably be best if I just completely wiped everything out and started over from scratch. I don't want to do that, but at this point I don't think that I can trust anything on that machine.

ShowAnalyzer seems like such a cool piece of software, but I'm having doubts as to whether or not it's healthy for a computer to have that program running. It may not have been ShowAnalyzer, but it seems like it was the first piece of software on the computer that started to crap out. Just sayin'...

I wish there were someone that I could just sit down with and figure out what is and isn't safe to install on my server.
Gigabyte MB
AMD Phenom x6
8GB G.Skill RAM
1TB Samsung OS Drive
3 - 2TB Samsung HD (Currently in RAID 5--which may change after all this)

I got a little too adventurous and maybe the ShowAnalyzer software wasn't the problem. Maybe it was installing and then uninstalling MediaPortal. Maybe it was Remote Potato. Maybe it was MediaMonkey. Maybe it was DVRMSToolbox. Handbrake? DVDFab?

What has been everyone else's experiences? Have any of you out there tried some of these different softwares only to end up getting burned?

So frustrating! The system was working perfectly and then in a matter of a month it completely fell apart. I really need to know what to avoid in the future, so if anyone has any suggestions as to what to avoid I would definitely appreciate it. Two-three more hours down the drain won't be too much of a sacrifice so long as I know which programs to avoid like the plague.

Anybody?

Thank you in advance!
TC

[adam1991]

ShowAnalyzer didn't make your setup crap out--but it may have been the first piece to sound the alarm, due to what it does.

I have DTB and SA and Remote Potato installed. I also have something to convert WTV to M4V, although it's completely manual and I've used it very little. Other than that, mine is just a DVR--no Media Portal or anything like that.

The system was working perfectly and then in a matter of a month it completely fell apart.

In my opinion, that's a "welcome to Windows" revelation.

In addition to being careful what software to add to the mix, I think the weakest part of your solution is the RAID setup. What controller? Onboard?

I helped a friend a couple of weeks ago set up a new 7MC box; he had two 2TB drives, and we just let Windows combine them into one piece of storage and he's using that. I haven't heard anything bad about it yet.

Some here are recommending Drive Bender to bring all your storage together.

[wassupTC]

ShowAnalyzer didn't make your setup crap out--but it may have been the first piece to sound the alarm, due to what it does.

In my opinion, that's a "welcome to Windows" revelation.

In addition to being careful what software to add to the mix, I think the weakest part of your solution is the RAID setup. What controller? Onboard?

I helped a friend a couple of weeks ago set up a new 7MC box; he had two 2TB drives, and we just let Windows combine them into one piece of storage and he's using that. I haven't heard anything bad about it yet.

Some here are recommending Drive Bender to bring all your storage together.

The info about ShowAnalyzer is good to know. The "welcome to Windows" felt more like a hazing incident instead of the Welcome Wagon--"Thank you, sir, may I have another!!!".

The controller is on-board, but ain't going to get used when I rebuild the machine this week--lesson learned. RAID5 may produce some fool-proofing, but a simple drive has all of the bits and bytes in the same place--a lot harder to bork it, and apparently I'm a bigger fool than I thought Suffice it to say I ordered a 3TB external drive last night. All files will be backed up nightly or at least weekly, and I will no longer "move" recordings from clients until I need extra space, they will be copied to the server instead.

Clients:
AMD E-350 Gigabyte all-in-one
4GB G.Skill RAM
1TB drive

Any more info on ShowAnalyzer would be great. Like how it works. I've browsed through the forums over there, but being that the developer provides little to no support, I figure I will get more here. Should the Commercials XML folder be somewhere else? Is it better to have a separate machine analyzing the files instead of the server?

If this is too far off topic at this point I'll start another thread (but won't unless someone tells me to), but thank you again for the responses!

Take care,
TC