WMC says no signal but records just fine anyway

[twegner]

This is a non-problem, more of a puzzle. I use WMC with over-the-air TV in Houston. An example of the puzzle would be just yesterday (Saturday). WMC gave a message in a rectangle on the main screen saying something like "No signal detected on channel 2.1, Saturday Night Live will not be recorded" (going on my memory, not the exact message at all). But Saturday Night Live DID record perfectly! That's why I say this is a non-problem. But I would very much like to know what causes the "no signal detected" message, in case I have something configured wrong.

Running WinTV-DualHD on an Intel NUC.

Would appreciate any informed comments, after of course, you help others here who have something actually not working!

Tim

[stuartm]

This sounds like you may have multiple tuners. You can get this message if the first tuner tried did not have a signal. WMC will then go on to try another tuner which seems to have worked. It could indicate you ahve a failing tuner.

[technodevotee]

If you look in history under scheduled recordings you should see entries that failed and by opening one up then scrolling down to the bottom it should tell you which tuner didn't work.

It may simply be a loose antenna connection somewhere.

[unclebun]

I have cable, but sometimes I will see something similar. Even though I have multiple tuners, that's not what's happening. It's just slow to tune for unknown reasons, and you'll get the popup about no signal, then it manages to tune and starts recording. If there's really no signal, you'll get the popup something like 5 times before it actually gives up trying to record.

[StinkyImp]

I have cable, but sometimes I will see something similar. Even though I have multiple tuners, that's not what's happening. It's just slow to tune for unknown reasons, and you'll get the popup about no signal, then it manages to tune and starts recording. If there's really no signal, you'll get the popup something like 5 times before it actually gives up trying to record.

I only record OTA and I've had this "non-problem" for years. After going through my system from top to bottom I've come to theorize that the manufacturer (in my case Hauppauge WinTV Dual HD) has a built in undocumented, non-configurable "sleep" mode in the actual hardware.

In my case it's very, very consistent and occurs for exactly 10 seconds but only if my tuners have been idle for hours. If they've been active for any reason the recordings occur with no issues.

• For the first six seconds I get the "no signal" message.
• At seven seconds the audio starts playing.
• At nine seconds the video starts but it's pixelated.
• At 10 seconds everything syncs up and it's perfect.

There was a huge discussion about this phenomenon a while back and I don't think there was ever a solution.

Since it's a non-problem the solution for me is "live with it".

[technodevotee]

I'm not sure the problem is specific to any particular make or model of tuner because I've had this on every PC with every tuner I've used ever since I started using WMC (XP MCE 2005).

Various models of Avermedia, ASUS Tiger, Hauppauge DVB-S / DVB-S2 and DVB-T / DVB-T2, TBS 6982 and 6902 - they have all done it and I've tried *everything* but it doesn't make a scrap of difference.

This leads me to believe that WMC is just impatient.

[Space]

I've never had this problem with the HDHomerun Prime unless there actually was a problem with the signal. For instance if there is a sporadically weak signal on a particular channel, it might be unable to get a good signal when it first tries to tune in to it on tuner0, so it gives that error and then tries tuner1, etc. If it is able to lock on to the signal on one of the tuners it will record but the quality of the recording may be bad.

I would assume like others here are saying, if you have a problem with a particular tuner (not due to a bad signal), it may be the reason you are seeing that message, but then the recording is fine. I have three tuners on the Prime and I would get that error message three times if there was completely no signal on the channel being recorded, one for each tuner (unless the other tuners were busy recording another channel).

[twegner]

Wow! What great responses! Thanks everyone!

As was suggested, I can certainly just live with it. But I plan to go through all the responses carefully and see what I can learn.

For what it's worth, my WinTV device has two tuners. In the "olden days" I used a Soekris box (before it died), and I would leave the box running 24/7. These days I boot the HDTV box a few hours before it is needed, so I don't leave it on 24/7. Occasionally I start the box just before it is needed (I haven't tried to automate this). One action I will take is to keep records so I can correlate the "no signal" messages to when the box was booted. Part of the puzzle is I don't see the "no signal" message very often, but I have seen it from time to time for months. Maybe it has to do with how long before recording the box is booted.

If I learn anything I will report back, but meanwhile, thanks to everyone!

Tim

PS - I have been diligently searching (and googling) for the WMC logs with no luck. Can anyone tell me where they are or a file name to search for?

[technodevotee]

PS - I have been diligently searching (and googling) for the WMC logs with no luck. Can anyone tell me where they are or a file name to search for?

WMC doesn't really create operational logs but events that are generated can be seen in Event Viewer under Applications and Services - Media Center.

Alternatively, you could use the Recording History Viewer created by our friend StinkyImp. It is neat!

[Space]

You can also view the log (these are just the Event Viewer logs filtered to just show the WMC specific ones) within WMC itself by going to "View Scheduled" -> "History".