U4 Timeshift Very Buggy

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sun May 19, 2019 19:11

I've had my U4 for 12 months now and I've been putting up with the unreliable timeshift since day one. I was hoping that the new firmware earlier this year would help, but it's just the same.

If I'm just doing simple things with the timeshift then it is generally ok. For example if I pause it for a few minutes then come back and watch the rest of the show it is usually fine. But there are a number of random behaviours that I haven't been able to pin down to any particular cause.

While watching on timeshift:
1. Whenever the playback reaches the next event there is a slight skip in the playback, you might lose 1 second of dialogue. Not a big deal, but still annoying.
2. Sometimes it just pauses by itself, if I press play sometimes it resumes and sometimes it stays paused, I often have to press play a second time to get it to resume.
3. Sometimes when the playback reaches the next event it won't go to the next event, instead the timeshift stops and it goes back to live TV. I have to use skip and PREV to get back to where I was up to.
4. Sometimes when I use PREV to go back to the previous even it will not play, no matter what combination of skip, play, pause, left/right, etc. I press I cannot get it to play the previous event. I have to press stop to go back to live play, then PREV and try again. Sometimes it will work, other times it takes two or three attempts, sometimes I just can't get it to play at all.
5. Sometimes when I go PREV or NEXT it will jump to the end of the event and not play, I have to manually skip backward to get back to the start of the event.
6. When it doesn't play, sometimes I've noticed that the little green marker that shows up on the progress bar when you hold left and right is way past the end of the progress bar, you have to hold down left for several seconds just to get back into the range.

Anyone else having these issues?

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Sun May 19, 2019 21:53

The pause between events is expected. Because of the way the U4 stores timeshift files as separate events, there will be an inevitable gap between the two recordings between the different events.

The other effects I have not personally experienced.

I am guessing that you spend quite a lot of time in timeshift mode to be seeing there sorts of effects frequently?

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sun May 19, 2019 23:22

Yes, we pretty much use it every day. But the issues are quite common, off the top of my head it seems about 50/50, half the time it works ok and the other half the time there is an issue. Especially when trying to go back to the previous event.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Sun May 19, 2019 23:26

MrQuade wrote: ↑
Sun May 19, 2019 21:53
The pause between events is expected. Because of the way the U4 stores timeshift files as separate events, there will be an inevitable gap between the two recordings between the different events.

The other effects I have not personally experienced.

I am guessing that you spend quite a lot of time in timeshift mode to be seeing there sorts of effects frequently?

I meant more like, do you spend most of your time in timeshift mode? Fort example, I use timeshift every day myself, but usually just to go back over the last few minutes to review something I missed and then go back to live TV straight away rather than using it to go back one or more programs to catch up.

Just asking because it would be good to get an ideas of how to recreate the problem. Do you have a method that you can use to trigger any of these issues on demand?

Also, can you please post what the firmware build (the date) you are using. MENU->Information->About.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Mon May 20, 2019 10:22

I'm not home at the moment, so can't check. But it was the firmware update from February this year.

Quite often we will pause a show while we go away to do something else, so it may have been paused for up to an hour. We'll then continue watching from that point and just skip the ads. So we may watch the whole show, or several shows in timeshift.

We leave the TV on 9 Life most of the day without really watching it. We might pause or rewind to see something specific, but then not bother skipping the ads. So it may stay in timeshift for hours.

However, it doesn't seem to be related to time spent in timeshift. I could be watching live TV on the same channel for several events, as soon as I try to skip to the previous event I quite often have issues with trying to get it to play. As soon as I want to use timeshift I know it's going to be pot luck.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Mon May 20, 2019 18:08

MrQuade wrote: ↑
Sun May 19, 2019 23:26
Also, can you please post what the firmware build (the date) you are using. MENU->Information->About.

Bootloader: 2017-10-18 12:06:44
Kernel: 4.9.51
Drivers: 180411-16.4
Version: 17.5
Build: 20190207
Revision: 20190207
Enigma2: 17.5-819-gdd3f1fa
GStreamer: 1.15.0 (GIT)
Python: 2.7.13

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Mon May 20, 2019 18:27

Well I can certainly give it a try using the scenario you describe. Leaving the box in timeshift for an hour or two and then skipping/navigating around to see if it can be tripped up. (ABC Kids is a good one for racking up lots of events quickly).

Since the problem is hit-and-miss though, it may be a bit hard to catch in the act. If you can figure out a pattern of usage that us more likely to cause the problem, then that would help a lot.

Otherwise the question goes out to any other heavy timeshift users to see if they have seen this, or if it is an isolated case.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Mon May 20, 2019 18:58

Was watching Celebrity Name Game on live TV from half way through, continued to watch live TV through to half way through Neighbours. Pressed skip back (15 seconds), pressed PREV and it jumped back to where I first started watching Celebrity Name Game and played correctly. Pressed Stop and it went forward to live TV on Neighbours correctly. Pressed skip back (15 seconds) again, pressed PREV, this time ended up with a black screen but in the top left it said Celebrity Name Game, +16:41, with a full blue bar. Tried pressing skip back, did nothing. Press and hold left, quickly saw that the green marker was to the far left of the minimum time on the progress bar (min 36:37, max 19:56), then it disappeared. Press OK, did nothing. Press and hold left, quickly saw the green marker in the same place on the left, pressed and held left again and the minimum time started decreasing. Kept holding left and eventually the green marker appeared on the far right of the progress bar (beyond 19:56), min was still decreasing. Kept holding left until the min and max were the same value and the green marker reached the progress bar at the max point. Pressed it a little longer so that min was now less than max. Pressed OK, Celebrity Name Game started playing. Top left showed an almost complete blue bar with +0:50. Let it continue to play to the end of the Celebrity Name Game event, flickered as it switched to Neighbours, but when it started playing it was already half way through Neighbours, and it didn't play properly, there was no sound and the video was stuttering. In the top left it had a full blue bar and +0:02. Pressed Stop and it resumed live TV.

prl · Post by **prl** » Mon May 20, 2019 19:55

A lack of paragraphs makes text harder to read.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Mon May 20, 2019 19:57

I've tried the scenarios you have described but can't reproduce the problems you saw. I'll keep trying on a few other channels though.

Are you timeshifting on the U4's internal drive? And is the internal drive formatted as ext4 (formatted by the U4)? MENU->Information->Devices (then see the HDD section)

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Mon May 20, 2019 21:17

Yes, it is ext4 and was formatted by the U4 when first installed. 714GB free.

Tried the same steps on a different channel. This time it had the issue straight away, skip back and PREV to the previous event and it didn't play first time. Progress bar was backwards again.

It is quite possible that I was recording on other channels at the same time.

Timeshift settings:
Location: /media/hdd/timeshift/
Start after: 2 seconds
Show warning when stopped: off
Save on zap: Ask user
Show while recording: off
Show warning in stream: on

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Tue May 21, 2019 17:29

I've tried on several channels and haven't been able to get it to play correctly again since that first time yesterday. Every time I try to use the timeshift it has the issue. It seems consistently that it is the timeshift progress bar that is messed up. It seems that it is not resetting the play position to the start of the event.

For example.
1. Watching live TV, press Pause
2. Press and hold Left
3. Progress bar shows: 20:10 --- 20:30
4. Press Exit
5. Press Prev
6. Press and hold Left
7. Progress bar shows: 50:11 --- 29:59
8. Press Exit
9. Pres Prev
10. Press and hold Left
11: Progress bar shows 80:10 --- 29:58
12: Press Exit
13: Press Prev
14: Press and hold Left
15: Progress bar shows 110:10 --- 29:58

To get that last event to play I had to press and hold Left for 30 seconds before the green marker was back within the progress bar. It was 25 seconds before it was even visible on the screen. Then the progress bar showed 27:07 --- 29:58.

It seems like the play position of that green marker remains at live TV time rather than resetting to the timeshift event.

While this is just one manifestation of the issues I'm having, the others may be related. As I mentioned before, sometimes when watching in timeshift as it skips to the next event the playback jumps forward to live TV rather than continuing at the start of the event.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Tue May 21, 2019 18:30

I've not been able to observe this even intermittently let alone consistently as of yet. Seeing as you are running into the issue so regularly then the problem looks to be isolated to your hardware/software/or settings.

If you are willing to experiment, then I would suggest that you try a fresh firmware installation from USB to see if that resolves your issue.
You can try this when you don't need to use the U4 and when there are no recordings coming up.

Back up your settings first.
Install the latest USB image, and do not restore your settings on first boot.
Go through the basic setup wizard and then when you have access to Live TV, try out the timeshift functions.
If there is no issue, then try setting a few timeshift settings to your preferences and test again.
If there are still no issues, then restore your old settings completely and then re-test the timeshift functions.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Tue May 21, 2019 19:00

I was having the timeshift issues before the firmware update in February, they've been there since I can remember. As I said earlier, I was hoping that the new firmware would fix the issue but it didn't.

In February I tried the automatic update but that failed and I had to reset the system and install from USB: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=13158

I'll try the reset and see if the issue occurs without restoring settings, but might have to wait until the weekend when I have some time.

Paul_oz53 · Post by **Paul_oz53** » Tue May 21, 2019 19:08

I tried reproducing this behaviour on the T4 and U4 but without success. They have identical 20190207 firmware.

When I use Prev to navigate to each successive program I get +59:37 ....... 60, for the first program and +29;57 ...... 30 for the second, and so forth for each program, as I expect.

In Menu>System>GUI settings I have Show elapsed time as positive set to Off and Show time remaining/ elapsed set to elapsed. Changing this to elapsed & remaining made no difference.

If you haven't done so since this started, I would reflash the firmware as MrQuade suggests. Instances of unexpected behaviour often come good following a reflash.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Tue May 21, 2019 19:46

Pat wrote: ↑
Tue May 21, 2019 19:00
In February I tried the automatic update but that failed and I had to reset the system and install from USB: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=13158

I remember that you had that issue and that could be some sort of clue as to an underlying problem, though I have no idea what it could be.

Another slightly less invasive thing to try would be to ensure that there are no corrupted files in the timeshift folder. I'm not sure if that could even be a problem though.
Try disabling timeshift, then change channel.
Open Sources/files and navigate to /hdd/timeshift
Check to see if there are any files in there and delete any that you find.
You can then reenable timeshift, change channel and check to see if anything works differently.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Wed May 22, 2019 00:42

Good investigative work and I think you are actually getting a bit of an insight into the problem. I think timing is everything in this case. In particular, I suspect that you are pretty efficient at button mashing the skips and what happens is that the "current position" fails to be updated to reflect where you want to be. Since the skips are relative to the current position, you end up trying to jump to somewhere that is actually not within the file being played.

Hard problem to solve. Big part of the problem is actually in the drivers failing to correctly determine the current timestamp in the stream. I guess the userland code could try to do more sanity checks on current playback position and if it remains patently wrong for too long could force an absolute skip to the target time. This is a major amount of (experimental) work, that may not end up working out. I don't have the spare cycles to look into it, real life commitments interfere.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Wed May 22, 2019 01:24

Pat wrote: ↑
Tue May 21, 2019 19:00
I was having the timeshift issues before the firmware update in February, they've been there since I can remember. As I said earlier, I was hoping that the new firmware would fix the issue but it didn't.

Just noticing from your step by step list that you are using the press-and-hold skips a lot. Do you use those more frequently than the regular tap skips?

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Thu May 23, 2019 12:59

peteru wrote: ↑
Wed May 22, 2019 00:42
... I think timing is everything in this case. In particular, I suspect that you are pretty efficient at button mashing the skips and what happens is that the "current position" fails to be updated to reflect where you want to be. Since the skips are relative to the current position, you end up trying to jump to somewhere that is actually not within the file being played...

I thought maybe I was doing things too quickly, or an odd combination. But I've tried all sorts of ways and it still happens. I tried going really slow between each button press and letting the UI boxes fade out before taking the next step. No difference.

MrQuade wrote: ↑
Wed May 22, 2019 01:24
Just noticing from your step by step list that you are using the press-and-hold skips a lot. Do you use those more frequently than the regular tap skips?

No, not usually. I prefer to use the skip forward and back buttons. I have forward set to 30 seconds and back set to 15 seconds. But when the timeshift gets into a bad state, the skip buttons and FF/RW do nothing. Press and hold left is the only thing I have found that will allow me to recover.

MrQuade wrote: ↑
Tue May 21, 2019 19:46
Open Sources/files and navigate to /hdd/timeshift
Check to see if there are any files in there and delete any that you find.

It had pts_livebuffer_1 and pts_livebuffer_1.sc after disabling timeshift. I've deleted these and will see how things go when we get to the next event.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Thu May 23, 2019 13:55

Same issue.

Paul_oz53 · Post by **Paul_oz53** » Thu May 23, 2019 17:40

Pat wrote: ↑
Thu May 23, 2019 13:55
Same issue.

Hi pat,

When was the firmware last updated by you?

If you haven't done so lately, I suggest you do a save of your settings and then reflash the firmware from USB but Do Not restore settings. It is pretty easy to do if you follow the guide. Takes about a half hour if you have a FAT32 USB stick compatible with USB 1.0 (as used by the bootloader on the U4) handy.

Setup from scratch and, immediately you get a picture, see if timeshift works correctly. If not, maybe a hardware problem is at play.

If working, either finish setting up your other settings (best option) or, if you're brave, restore settings and test again.

Hopefully, it will still work ok with the old settings. If yes, great. Else, if not, it means that a rogue setting is the culprit. This will probably mean a second reflash and set up from scratch, which is why I recommend setting up from scratch as the better option.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Thu May 23, 2019 17:46

Thanks Paul, yes MrQuade had already suggested the same thing. I'm going to give this a try on the weekend when I have some time.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Thu May 23, 2019 19:59

Paul_oz53 wrote: ↑
Thu May 23, 2019 17:40
...Takes about a half hour if you have a FAT32 USB stick compatible with USB 1.0 (as used by the bootloader on the U4) handy.

The U4 bootloader can support USB3.0 flash drives and it also supports "spinning rust".

Paul_oz53 · Post by **Paul_oz53** » Fri May 24, 2019 01:34

Grumpy_Geoff wrote:
The U4 bootloader can support USB3.0 flash drives and it also supports "spinning rust".

Thanks. I keep forgetting the U4 is more flexible than the the earlier models.

These days I use one USB stick for all my machines, inspired by prl.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Fri May 24, 2019 11:34

Paul_oz53 wrote: ↑
Fri May 24, 2019 01:34
These days I use one USB stick for all my machines, inspired by prl.

Same here, for about two years now I've only used the one USB flash drive on my units, a Lexar Jumpdrive S50 USB2.0
I bought it from Woolies, and I spotted them recently still on the shelf (Woolies link). Some Big W stores have them too.

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri May 24, 2019 14:40

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: ↑
Fri May 24, 2019 11:34

Paul_oz53 wrote: ↑
Fri May 24, 2019 01:34
These days I use one USB stick for all my machines, inspired by prl.

Same here, for about two years now I've only used the one USB flash drive on my units, a Lexar Jumpdrive S50 USB2.0
I bought it from Woolies, and I spotted them recently still on the shelf (Woolies link). Some Big W stores have them too.

Just as an aside, the V2 upgrader is a good bit bigger than the older models, about 660MB for the current version. The difference is largely due to a much larger and more capable standalone upgrade environment (which at 528MB is considerably bigger than the 124MB of actual firmware files!).

ozskipper · Post by **ozskipper** » Tue May 28, 2019 19:21

Pat wrote: ↑
Mon May 20, 2019 10:22
I'm not home at the moment, so can't check. But it was the firmware update from February this year.

Quite often we will pause a show while we go away to do something else, so it may have been paused for up to an hour. We'll then continue watching from that point and just skip the ads. So we may watch the whole show, or several shows in timeshift.

We leave the TV on 9 Life most of the day without really watching it. We might pause or rewind to see something specific, but then not bother skipping the ads. So it may stay in timeshift for hours.

However, it doesn't seem to be related to time spent in timeshift. I could be watching live TV on the same channel for several events, as soon as I try to skip to the previous event I quite often have issues with trying to get it to play. As soon as I want to use timeshift I know it's going to be pot luck.

I have similar issues with my TS that I've previously posted and my usage is very similar to yours. The gap between two different programs I can live with, but often the TS will just crap itself and refuse to move to the next program - my only option is to change channels so it leaves the TS.

There doesn't seem to be a particular reason for it but a lot of the time it's Ch7 but admittedly that's where we spend a bit of time.

I don't doubt TS works well for the majority of users, but it has been a bit hit & miss for us. All my firmware is up to date also, so maybe it's just a quirk with some units.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Tue May 28, 2019 19:32

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Tue May 28, 2019 19:21
but often the TS will just crap itself and refuse to move to the next program

Can you describe that in more detail?

When the event finishes, and the U4 doesn't progress to the next event, what is displayed on the TV? A black scree, a paused image, or maybe your TV's no signal message?

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Tue May 28, 2019 19:21
my only option is to change channels so it leaves the TS.

If you press STOP, does anything happen?
Likewise for PREV/NEXT buttons?

ozskipper · Post by **ozskipper** » Tue May 28, 2019 19:51

MrQuade wrote: ↑
Tue May 28, 2019 19:32

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Tue May 28, 2019 19:21
but often the TS will just crap itself and refuse to move to the next program
Can you describe that in more detail?

When the event finishes, and the U4 doesn't progress to the next event, what is displayed on the TV? A black scree, a paused image, or maybe your TV's no signal message?

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Tue May 28, 2019 19:21
my only option is to change channels so it leaves the TS.
If you press STOP, does anything happen?
Likewise for PREV/NEXT buttons?

The TS will just freeze, for want of a better description, on the last image. In some instances PREV/NEXT will drop it into the next program but you can guarantee that the critical ending that you are trying to catch just disappears and I'll get the next program start 5-10 secs in.

On other occasions, it'll roll over to what is obviously the next program slot (the image / sound pauses) and then you'll miss the last 5-10 secs of the previous program and then the first 5-10 secs of the incoming program.

When the TS decides to freeze up completely nothing works except for changing channels so it forces the onscreen dialogue box of leaving time shift.

TBH I'll have to keep some notes of when & what happens - it always seems to be around the news in the evening but that's usually when the TS is kept on for any real length of time. My experience is a bit anecdotal at the moment, which makes it hard for you guys to replicate, so I'll try and keep some notes when it does it.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Tue May 28, 2019 19:55

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Tue May 28, 2019 19:21
I have similar issues with my TS that I've previously posted and my usage is very similar to yours. The gap between two different programs I can live with, but often the TS will just crap itself and refuse to move to the next program - my only option is to change channels so it leaves the TS.

I get that sometimes, when either I've paused live TV (so entered the timeshift buffer) or paused the timeshift playback, and the now/next changes (the "live" program has ended and transitioned to the new one).
Have you tried a skip back and then PLAY to resume play?
What about pressing (slow) REW or (slow) FWD to resume slow play, then PLAY for normal speed?

When the above happens to me, I press PLAY/PAUSE twice in quick succession and then OK and it resumes playback. Pressing REW or FWD would also resume slow play and then OK would get me back to normal speed play.
My button settings have 'Behaviour of PLAY/PAUSE when paused' as 'Single step (GOP)', so I normally need to use OK to resume play in any case.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Tue May 28, 2019 20:10

If you are left with a frozen screen it would suggest to me that the U4 isn't finishing the TS recording file properly and Gstreamer is expecting more data that is never forthcoming (end of the event's TS file is not detected), so it just sits there waiting for the rest of the TS file.

A similar problem used to affect some media files where the Wiz would refuse to play the next file in a directory.

ozskipper · Post by **ozskipper** » Wed May 29, 2019 18:48

So tonight was a fairly typical issue:

- paused TS at 1800
- pressed play at around 1815
- started with picture and audio for around 30-45 secs
- TS jumped into Live TV
- Rewinding only took it back to 1816
- Skipping back to the original TS just took it back to the start of the previous TS block but no there was basically no picture or audio
- Skipping forward just took me back to the 1816 time / live tv
- Changing channel gets you the leaving time shift warning
- Better half has a hissy fit

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Wed May 29, 2019 20:57

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Wed May 29, 2019 18:48
So tonight was a fairly typical issue:

No such issue for me just then -

At 17:19, zapped to 7flix, current program Dr. Ken, next program M*A*S*H @ 17:28
After approx 3 mins, pressed PAUSE to "enter" timeshift activity within the buffer
At 17:28, observed Now/Next transition to MASH
At 17:36 pressed OK. As known, no playback due to pausing of timeshift playback over now/next transition. so pressed PLAY/PAUSE x 2 then OK, playback resumed okay. Timeshift bar showed Dr. Ken and infobar showed MASH (as I expect).
PREV begins playback at the beginning of Dr. Ken, as expected.
NEXT begins playback at the beginning of MASH, as expected.
UP skips 180 secs in MASH, as expected
UP again skips 180 secs, as expected
PREV begins playback at the beginning of Dr. Ken, as expected.
I skipped to within a few seconds from the end of Dr. Ken and let playback reach the end of the buffer segment
Play then began seamlessly (AFAIK) into the MASH segment
I could skip through the MASH segment
Pressing NEXT drops me into live TV as expected since I was in the last buffer segment
LEFT then put me back into the MASH segment
PREV begins playback at the beginning of Dr. Ken, as expected.
NEXT begins playback at the beginning of MASH, as expected.
Whilst playing from within the MASH segment, I observed the now/next transition for Seinfeld
Wait a few mins
NEXT begins playback at the beginning of Seinfeld, as expected.
I can skip within the Seinfeld segment okay
PREV begins playback at the beginning of MASH, as expected.
NEXT begins playback at the beginning of Seinfeld, as expected.
I can skip within the Seinfeld segment okay
I paused Seinfeld segment playback for a while (at least 23 mins, as buffer segment #4 for Seinfeld#2 began after 17 mins)
I could resume playback okay, and move to the four different segments using PREV/NEXT as expected

REC shows 4 timeshift buffer event segments as expected

: REC_TS_events.png (56.54 KiB) Viewed 3672 times

Timeshift files:

Code: Select all

root@beyonwizu4:/hdd/timeshift# ls -altr
drwxr-xr-x   12 root     root         12288 Apr 16 09:03 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           164 May 29 17:19 pts_livebuffer_1.meta
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           154 May 29 17:19 pts_livebuffer_1.eit
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           276 May 29 17:28 pts_livebuffer_2.meta
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           266 May 29 17:28 pts_livebuffer_2.eit
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        230256 May 29 17:28 pts_livebuffer_1.sc
-rw-------    1 root     root     171472920 May 29 17:28 pts_livebuffer_1
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           296 May 29 18:00 pts_livebuffer_3.meta
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           286 May 29 18:00 pts_livebuffer_3.eit
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        801040 May 29 18:00 pts_livebuffer_2.sc
-rw-------    1 root     root     600508660 May 29 18:00 pts_livebuffer_2
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           275 May 29 18:29 pts_livebuffer_4.meta
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           265 May 29 18:29 pts_livebuffer_4.eit
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        746704 May 29 18:29 pts_livebuffer_3.sc
-rw-------    1 root     root     634581968 May 29 18:29 pts_livebuffer_3
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         16384 May 29 18:29 .
-rw-r--r--    2 root     root        218800 May 29 18:38 timeshift.H0QKNB.sc
-rw-------    2 root     root     189816832 May 29 18:38 timeshift.H0QKNB
-rw-r--r--    2 root     root        218800 May 29 18:38 pts_livebuffer_4.sc
-rw-------    2 root     root     189816832 May 29 18:38 pts_livebuffer_4
root@beyonwizu4:/hdd/timeshift#

The only issue was the known jerky playback when skipping/playing from the last segment as it reaches the end of the segment. STOP drops me into live TV as expected, and the four buffer segments are still all usable.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sat Jun 01, 2019 21:22

Reinstalled firmware today, went through manual setup, timeshift worked fine.

Restored settings backup, timeshift was broken.

Reset to factory defaults, timeshift worked fine.

Manually set up all my settings (as best I could remember), timeshift still seems to be working fine.

Is it worth me trying to retrieve the settings backup for anyone to analyse?

However I did have one momentary issue similar to ozskipper while testing out the timeshift.
- Skipped to a few seconds short of the previous event and let it play to the current event.
- But it froze at the end of the previous event, on screen the video was paused.
- Pressed a few buttons (don't remember which ones, possibly Next) then it went to the current event;
- it was playing in timeshift but at the point of live TV, so video and audio was all stuttery.

Edit: now seems to consistently freeze when trying to play from one event to another, but pressing Next will un-jam it. Can't work out how I made it skip to almost-live play.

Edit 2: was consistently freezing, but then I pressed play several times and it resumed, now I can't get it to freeze again.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sat Jun 01, 2019 23:45

ozskipper wrote: ↑
Wed May 29, 2019 18:48
- Better half has a hissy fit

Hmm, I have that problem too.

Paul_oz53 · Post by **Paul_oz53** » Sun Jun 02, 2019 02:34

Pat wrote: ↑
Sat Jun 01, 2019 21:22
...

Is it worth me trying to retrieve the settings backup for anyone to analyse?

However I did have one momentary issue similar to ozskipper while testing out the timeshift.
- Skipped to a few seconds short of the previous event and let it play to the current event.
- But it froze at the end of the previous event, on screen the video was paused.
- Pressed a few buttons (don't remember which ones, possibly Next) then it went to the current event;
- it was playing in timeshift but at the point of live TV, so video and audio was all stuttery.
...

No, it would be if restoring a particular setting could be isolated from the settings file but it is not usually practicable when there is no "smoking gun". A corrupt settings file is a frequent cause of strange behaviour, which is why we recommend doing a clean install and setup if you have a problem, but it is a pain sometimes to remember your personalisations!

It is a known behaviour of the media player to freeze up or stutter when it is very close to real time.

Personally, I save the programs of interest from the timeshift buffer (and the one after each that I want in case they went overtime!) then watch them. I think that gives less prospect of missing something.

ozskipper · Post by **ozskipper** » Sun Jun 02, 2019 19:54

Hmm, maybe I'll have to do the same as Pat (and sorry for slightly hijacking your thread) and see if a complete wipe and re-install resolves it.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:03

Issue has come back. The timeshift was working ok since the factory reset and manual setup. I haven't changed any setup options since, but today was watching a show on timeshift, when it reached the end of the event it then skipped to live play instead of continuing at the start of the next event. So I pressed skip back, then prev, and was faced with a black screen. No combination of play or skip could get it to work. Pressed and held the left button and the progress bar came up with the left number greater than the right number again, pressing and holding left for ages brought the green marker back into range, then I could play that event.

Paul_oz53 wrote: ↑
Sun Jun 02, 2019 02:34
Personally, I save the programs of interest from the timeshift buffer (and the one after each that I want in case they went overtime!) then watch them. I think that gives less prospect of missing something.

Save event only saves the exact start and end time. TV programming is not that reliable and you usually miss the end of the show. Is there any way to save the event with padding?

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:31

Pat wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:03
Save event only saves the exact start and end time. TV programming is not that reliable and you usually miss the end of the show. Is there any way to save the event with padding?

If you save a previous event from the timeshift buffer (one that has already completed), then you shouldn't need padding. The timeshift buffer is started and stopped when the live event data transitions from one show from the next, so it is far more accurate than the EPG info.

You should complain to your local TV station if they are not updating the EIT event information at the correct times, as that should generally be spot-on as they happen live.

There is currently no way to save a previous event with padding. This would be a pretty intensive process for the Wiz to chop a portion off the previous and following shows and then splice them back together as a single recording.

If you are saving the current event, then the start of the recording will be from the start of the current timeshift buffer, and it will actually save the timeshift buffer at the end of the event (when the event ID changes to the next event). If you change channel before the event ends, then the timeshift buffer for the current event will be saved as a recording, and then a timer will be set to make a second recording from the current time to the end of the event as it is shown in the EPG plus your default padding. The two recordings are then joined together afterwards.
So in this case, your end-padding should be already getting used.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:36

Sounds like you might have a regional broadcaster with dodgy operating practices. In particular, they may have lots of PTS discontinuities, which could imply they are broadcasting a signal that does comply with the standard. Where are you located, which transmitters are you receiving from and what services do you experience issues with?

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Thu Jun 13, 2019 19:00

Pat wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:03
...So I pressed skip back, then prev, and was faced with a black screen. No combination of play or skip could get it to work. Pressed and held the left button and the progress bar came up with the left number greater than the right number again, pressing and holding left for ages brought the green marker back into range, then I could play that event.

In that situation, to go back a big jump amount, try a long-press of either the LEFT button or the << (REW) button (either should work in timeshift playback).
Whichever of the long-LEFT/RIGHT or long-<</>> (REW/FWD) is assigned as seekbar activation will bring up the seekbar for greater granularity in seeking, and the "other" will bring up the time entry popup for skip jump.
The button assignment is in MENU>>Setup>>TV>>Recording settings, 'Seekbar/time entry skip activation' on the second page (CH-).
The seekbar will move in greater 'Seekbar skip' setting amounts, whilst the 'Skip back/foward (min)' popup will allow you to enter the jump amount. Either should avoid the need for multiple skip button presses.

Pat wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:03

Paul_oz53 wrote: ↑
Sun Jun 02, 2019 02:34
Personally, I save the programs of interest from the timeshift buffer (and the one after each that I want in case they went overtime!) then watch them. I think that gives less prospect of missing something.

Save event only saves the exact start and end time. TV programming is not that reliable and you usually miss the end of the show. Is there any way to save the event with padding?

Paul was talking about 3 x saves, but from memory you have to wait for one save to finish before saving the next one.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Thu Jun 13, 2019 20:42

peteru wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 13, 2019 18:36
Sounds like you might have a regional broadcaster with dodgy operating practices. In particular, they may have lots of PTS discontinuities, which could imply they are broadcasting a signal that does comply with the standard. Where are you located, which transmitters are you receiving from and what services do you experience issues with?

Located in Tasmania, signal from Round Hill, but Launceston does the scheduling. I find that more often than not the end of the event does not line up with the end of the show on most, if not all channels. The timeshift usually always has to play to the next event to see the end of the show.

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 13, 2019 19:00
In that situation, to go back a big jump amount, try a long-press of either the LEFT button or the << (REW) button (either should work in timeshift playback).
Whichever of the long-LEFT/RIGHT or long-<</>> (REW/FWD) is assigned as seekbar activation will bring up the seekbar for greater granularity in seeking, and the "other" will bring up the time entry popup for skip jump.
The button assignment is in MENU>>Setup>>TV>>Recording settings, 'Seekbar/time entry skip activation' on the second page (CH-).
The seekbar will move in greater 'Seekbar skip' setting amounts, whilst the 'Skip back/foward (min)' popup will allow you to enter the jump amount. Either should avoid the need for multiple skip button presses.

Yes, I'm using the seek bar, it is the only way to get timeshift playback to work. It is the seek bar that is stuffed up. When I long press to get the seekbar the minimum time is far larger than the maximum time. I have to continue long press to get the green position indicator back into range, when it finally comes back onto the screen then the minimum time is less than the maximum time, then I can play.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 00:41

Hey, just a thought that occurred.

Pat. When you had this issue, can you recall if you were able to see the "Autotimer" entry in the main menu?

I just ask, because there is a circumstance where if you have never performed a clean USB update on a U4 that came with factory-programmed firmware, you can have some weird issues. One of the telltale symptoms is missing "Automtimers" from the main menu.

One other user was reporting timeshift issues and had this other issue.....possible link....

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 18:45

So I upgraded to the latest firmware 20191106, but I'm still having the same issues with the timeshift. As before, when I zap back to the previous even the current position on the event seek bar does not jump back, it is positioned off the screen beyond the end of the event/seek bar.

@MrQuade, yes the Autotimer option is available from the main menu. I don't use it, but I think it was always there.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 20:07

Pat wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 28, 2020 18:45
So I upgraded to the latest firmware 20191106, but I'm still having the same issues with the timeshift.

And if you do the same again as below is it okay?

Pat wrote: ↑
Sat Jun 01, 2019 21:22
Reinstalled firmware today, went through manual setup, timeshift worked fine.

Restored settings backup, timeshift was broken.

Reset to factory defaults, timeshift worked fine.

Manually set up all my settings (as best I could remember), timeshift still seems to be working fine.

Pat wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 28, 2020 18:45
As before, when I zap back to the previous even the current position on the event seek bar does not jump back, it is positioned off the screen beyond the end of the event/seek bar.

Here's some pics of the seekbar I grabbed just a little while ago, can you take some screenshots to show what you believe is wrong. Are you saying the "green" current pointer isn't shown on the time line?

: Seekbar.png (12.7 KiB) Viewed 3132 times

I've no idea if this is a skin issue, but which one are you using?

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 21:02

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 28, 2020 20:07
And if you do the same again as below is it okay?

I haven't tried that yet. But the firmware update said that it was a breaking change and I couldn't restore a backup, so I didn't bother trying this time. It was a fresh setup after the update.

The last time I did the factory reset and clean setup (last year), the timeshift was working for a couple of weeks but then the issue came back even though I changed nothing further in the setup.

I'll take some photos of the seek bar and get the skin details.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 22:24

Pat wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 28, 2020 21:02
I haven't tried that yet. But the firmware update said that it was a breaking change and I couldn't restore a backup,

That statement was wrong, you can restore from a 17.5-series backup.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Thu Jul 30, 2020 20:54

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 28, 2020 20:07
Here's some pics of the seekbar I grabbed just a little while ago, can you take some screenshots to show what you believe is wrong. Are you saying the "green" current pointer isn't shown on the time line?

I've no idea if this is a skin issue, but which one are you using?

The issue seems to be intermittent. The last two nights it seemed to be working fine, but tonight it is broken again.

When I skip back to the previous event(s) the screen is black, it doesn't play.

As you can see, the green indicator that shows where playback is supposed to be is not visible at first. The time value on the left of the progress bar (72:33) is greater than the right side (6:58). I.e. playback is beyond the end of the event. It is as though the playback is still at current live TV time.

I press and hold left and the time value counts down (about 1 minute per second, so I'm holding it for a while). Eventually the green indicator shows up, but it is way beyond the end of the progress bar.

I hold left for longer until the green indicator is in range, then I can press ok and playback will resume.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:28

Pat wrote: ↑
Thu Jul 30, 2020 20:54
The issue seems to be intermittent. The last two nights it seemed to be working fine, but tonight it is broken again.

That current position shown in the timeshift progress bar for Jeopardy! looks wrong to me; I think it's saying the current position is 65m:36s behind the real time/end of event of 59m:58s.
You've stated it's intermittent - perhaps you're occasionally receiving bum EIT Now/Next sequences from the broadcaster in your region.

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