live TV intermittent pausing when recording T4

[srh5080]

I am looking for some help on a problem which has only recently just begun. I have scheduled recordings which when they start pauses live tv for a few seconds every 30 seconds or so. Never had an issue with the T4 but this is driving me crazy. Any insights or fixes would be most welcome.

Many thanks.

[MrQuade]

I've not heard of this problem before, sounds unique!

Is the live tv image actually pausing, or is it freezing and then jumping ahead to catch up?

Do you have audio when the screen is paused?

What version of firmware are you running?

[srh5080]

TV image actually pauses for a second or two then jumps ahead and catches up. No audio when this happens. I am running v16.1-20170310 firmware.

[MrQuade]

When you at watching live, is the recording grabbing tuner A and your Live view is using one of the other tuners? Do you still get the freezing of you are live watching on the same channel as the recording?

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Like MrQuade, I've not seen this reported before either.
Is this pausing/catching up occuring on the same service as the current recording(s), or a different service on the same broadcaster, or a different broadcaster?
If same service, do the resultant recordings have an issue?
Does it occur every time a recording starts?
How many concurrent recordings are occurring when this is noticeable?

[srh5080]

Tuners are set to auto so could be using tuner A. The resultant recordings have the same pause catch up problem. I have just set the preferred recording tuner to C and the main tuner to A to see if the problem goes away. Both of these were set to auto. I have also altered the fan settings to on from auto in case there is an overheating problem as the unit is in a theatre unit. There is usually only one recording happening at time but can be as many as two when time slots overlap. The problem happens as soon a a recording starts and all through the recording length, live TV wil pause and catch up every 30 seconds. The viewing of live TV goes back to normal when there are no recordings happening.

[peteru]

Sounds like your recording media is not keeping up with the required data rate.

Are you recording to a network drive? USB drive? Is the HDD in your T4 failing? What happens if you disconnect the Ethernet cable (or WiFi dongle) from your T4?

Have you tried a full reboot? Long press POWER button, then select reboot.

[MrQuade]

Sounds like your recording media is not keeping up with the required data rate.

I was thinking something similar. Maybe the SATA cable has come adrift or suffered some damage and is now throwing a ton of errors.

[prl]

If so, they would show up in /var/log/messages. But IIRC disk write errors in recordings show up in the UI as a popup and the recording is terminated.

[srh5080]

Thanks everyone for your insights and replies. I have replaced the internal HDD with a Samsung 850 Pro SSD which I had spare. Seems to be working ok now and the SSD has dropped the heat down within the unit quite markedly.
I have had the Beyonwiz units for years and swear by them. Never had an issue. I am looking at the U4 as I am feeding the T4 into the OPPO 203 which is upscaling to UHD. Thoughts ???

[MrQuade]

I am looking at the U4 as I am feeding the T4 into the OPPO 203 which is upscaling to UHD. Thoughts ???

You probably see marginally better picture quality since the U4 has more pixels to play with when it does is own image processing. The GUI scaling should be a bit sharper as well considering 4k=3 x 720p resolution (a nice round multiple as opposed to 720p-> 1080p)

The biggest benefit will be the HEVC playback capability and the improved audio bitstreaming (but only if you like to play non-recorded media files)
.

[stevebow]

I have replaced the internal HDD

Which HDD were you using, out of interest?