Problems Recording on AZBox Elite

[Babadem]

I have been trying to record from a (TELAIRITY ENCODED) 12096V 4340SR at AMC 21 on 125.0°W without Success. When I hit record it begins recording, but after about 10mins or so the screen goes blank and the receiver doesn't respond to the remote button being pressed. Meanwhile, you can see the disc icon on the receiver spinning which indicates that it is recording. The only way to stop the recording is always to reboot the box. My question is this. Has anyone successfully recorded from this channel before or is this one of the high bit rate channels that AZBox Elite can't record? BTW, I use a 1TB WD USB drive (My Book Essential).

 

[B.J.]

I have been trying to record from a (TELAIRITY ENCODED) 12096V 4340SR at AMC 21 on 125.0°W without Success. When I hit record it begins recording, but after about 10mins or so the screen goes blank and the receiver doesn't respond to the remote button being pressed. Meanwhile, you can see the disc icon on the receiver spinning which indicates that it is recording. The only way to stop the recording is always to reboot the box. My question is this. Has anyone successfully recorded from this channel before or is this one of the high bit rate channels that AZBox Elite can't record? BTW, I use a 1TB WD USB drive (My Book Essential).

That certainly isn't a high bitrate signal.

I experienced almost exactly the same symptoms that you did a couple weeks ago, but I can't remember what I concluded. I think I posted about it somewhere. I generally don't use my Azbox for recording, since I generally only watch medium to high bitrate HD stuff, but someone asked a question about recording, so I tried recording something, and the Azbox froze up in mid recording. Tried it 2 or 3 times with same result, but finally did something an I *THINK* I got it working, but I'm not sure. I may have switched recording devices... I think I was trying both a thumb drive and a ~ 80 GB hard drive.

I can't remember what it was that I was recording, but I know it wasn't the Telarity Encoded thing, because that's pretty poor quality video, generally not worth recording.

Anyway, I doubt that the problem has anything to do with that signal, unless the Azbox is getting confused due to errors or something.

I'll search back in this, and other forums to see if I can find a post where I described what I observed, because I can't believe that I would have a problem like that, and leave it unsolved or not discuss it on a forum.

EDIT: I searched, and found post # 2139418 . Apparently I observed the problem when using a suspect thumb drive, but the problem cleared up when using the 80 GB hard drive. I've never tried a 1 TB hard drive on the Azbox. It seems like most of the people that have posted about problems seem to be using the 1TB drives. I'd consider using a smaller drive.

 

[Babadem]

That certainly isn't a high bitrate signal.

I experienced almost exactly the same symptoms that you did a couple weeks ago, but I can't remember what I concluded. I think I posted about it somewhere. I generally don't use my Azbox for recording, since I generally only watch medium to high bitrate HD stuff, but someone asked a question about recording, so I tried recording something, and the Azbox froze up in mid recording. Tried it 2 or 3 times with same result, but finally did something an I *THINK* I got it working, but I'm not sure. I may have switched recording devices... I think I was trying both a thumb drive and a ~ 80 GB hard drive.

I can't remember what it was that I was recording, but I know it wasn't the Telarity Encoded thing, because that's pretty poor quality video, generally not worth recording.

Anyway, I doubt that the problem has anything to do with that signal, unless the Azbox is getting confused due to errors or something.

I'll search back in this, and other forums to see if I can find a post where I described what I observed, because I can't believe that I would have a problem like that, and leave it unsolved or not discuss it on a forum.

EDIT: I searched, and found post # 2139418 . Apparently I observed the problem when using a suspect thumb drive, but the problem cleared up when using the 80 GB hard drive. I've never tried a 1 TB hard drive on the Azbox. It seems like most of the people that have posted about problems seem to be using the 1TB drives. I'd consider using a smaller drive.

So@ the highlighted:
I went and bought a 16g "PNY" thumb drive and formatted it with AZBox Elite, but the result was the same as before.:rant: This time I went to record Aljazeera English on Galaxy 19 @ 97.0°W, and the recording would freeze, and the TV screen would go black, or the recording disc sign on the STB will be spinning, picture showing on TV, but remote will be unresponsive when you want to stop recording. To stop the recording, you have to manually shut off the box from the main switch behind the AZBox, and the recorded program if any will be lost. I use HDMI cable to connect from AZbox to my TV. Do you think that could be an issue? I hope I don't have a bad Box! For anyone recording program successfully with an external USB drive attached to the AZBox, can you tell me what firmware version that you’re using?

 

[Mr Tony]

Try and turn off the time shifting. I know that if time shift is on and you try and record a high bitrate feed it totally bogs down the azbox. Seen that on My Network TV HD

I havet tried to record that channel ever. I usually find it on another feed

 

[Babadem]

Try and turn off the time shifting. I know that if time shift is on and you try and record a high bitrate feed it totally bogs down the azbox. Seen that on My Network TV HD

I havet tried to record that channel ever. I usually find it on another feed

Time shift is off, but no joy!

 

[ebo]

I have the same problem with my Elite using a 4 gig thumb drive. I've formatted the drive with the Azbox, and FAT32. I believe only once or twice it worked ok.
When you look at the contents of the drive, it will have idx file and a small recording file. On the other hand, I've got the same hard drive setup as yours and it works ok.

The remote doesn't seem to respond to much but the power key. I've telnet'ed in
and box is running.

Ebo

 

[Babadem]

I have the same problem with my Elite using a 4 gig thumb drive. I've formatted the drive with the Azbox, and FAT32. I believe only once or twice it worked ok.
When you look at the contents of the drive, it will have idx file and a small recording file. On the other hand, I've got the same hard drive setup as yours and it works ok.

The remote doesn't seem to respond to much but the power key. I've telnet'ed in
and box is running.

Ebo

Thanks, Ebo for you response. If I get you correctly did you say that you use a "1TB WD USB drive (My Book Essential)" and it works well for you? Another thing, when I plug in the WD 1 TB USB drive into my PC, I don get the option to format the drive, but i get the format option with the 16GB PNY thumb drive. I can only format the WD 1TB drive with the AZBox or use special CD software tool (i can't think of the name) to format it. What Firmware version are you using?

 

[ebo]

Thanks, Ebo for you response. If I get you correctly did you say that you use a "1TB WD USB drive (My Book Essential)" and it works well for you? Another thing, when I plug in the WD 1 TB USB drive into my PC, I don get the option to format the drive, but i get the format option with the 16GB PNY thumb drive. I can only format the WD 1TB drive with the AZBox or use special CD software tool (i can't think of the name) to format it. What Firmware version are you using?

Yep, that's the drive. I formatted it with the Azbox, didn't bother with a pc.
I'll get the firmware version tonight.

Ebo

 

[Babadem]

Yep, that's the drive. I formatted it with the Azbox, didn't bother with a pc.
I'll get the firmware version tonight.

Ebo

Thanks again. Maybe, its time for me to call WD tech support and get an RMA# to return it.

 

[ebo]

Firmware version is 0.9.4487

Ebo

 

[Babadem]

Firmware version is 0.9.4487

Ebo

Thanks for the update. I will give it try later!

 

[Cletus2k]

Just stumbled across this thread, but I am 99.9% sure that the reason the PBS "TELARITY ENCODED" transponder won't record for you is the AZBox is expecting an Access Unit Delimiter NAL unit in the H264 data. I have been troubleshooting this mux for a while now and they are missing from the h264 stream. This stream won't play on my playstation 3 unless I remux it with ffmpeg copying the video stream which inserts Access Unit Delimiter NAL units..

I.E. The mux isn't following the specs on carrying h264 video over an MPEG2 Transport Stream.. (See the 2004 Amendment to ISO-13818-1).. So its not your hard drive, box, etc.. My hunch is the azbox firmware sitting there likely stuck in a loop that should take a fraction of a second waiting for the point to start writing data and it never gets there..

 

[Cletus2k]

OK I've verified that this the problem with this stream is the missing Access Unit Delimiter NAL units. I injected a NAL Access Unit Delimiter (00 00 00 01 09 10) before the Supplemental Enhancement Information NAL unit on that stream, shifted the PES header back 6 bytes and low and behold TELARITY ENCODED plays perfectly find with my PS3. Luckily it was easy as the packets have tons of stuffing at the beginning to work with.

This is what one TS packet on that stream looked like before:

47 40 20 32 6b 02 01 1a    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
00 00 01 e0 00 00 85 80    05 2d d9 db ad 05 00 00    
01 06 04 29 b5 00 31 47    41 39 34 03 ca ff fc 1f    
a1 fa 00 00 fa 00 00 fa    00 00 fa 00 00 fa 00 00    
fa 00 00 fa 00 00 fa 00    00 fa 00 00 ff 80 00 00    
00 01 41 9a 51 68 92 20    47 ba 07 4a

This is how I modified it.

47 40 20 32 65 02 01 1a    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff    ff ff 00 00 01 e0 00 00    
85 80 05 2d d9 db ad 05    00 00 00 01 09 10 00 00    
01 06 04 29 b5 00 31 47    41 39 34 03 ca ff fc 1f    
a1 fa 00 00 fa 00 00 fa    00 00 fa 00 00 fa 00 00    
fa 00 00 fa 00 00 fa 00    00 fa 00 00 ff 80 00 00    
00 01 41 9a 51 68 92 20    47 ba 07 4a

You can see the stuffing bytes is decremented (byte 4) by 6, and the PES header is shifted back 6 bytes, then the AUD is injected and the rest of the packet is left unchanged.

I have not encountered any other h.264 streams though that exhibit this encoding/muxing error.. This may not be the reason why the Azbox won't record this stream, but I have strong suspicions this is what is causing it.

 

[jsattv]

Babadem, I have successfully recorded off 125.0W with my AZbox Premium Plus and a 1 TB WD EADS Internal SATA HD, - can't remember if it was the Telairity Encoded Channel, but it was a PBS Nature Show with Excellent Colour quality about an older guy in the South Pacific where there were large reptile dragons and flying mamals. The only Channels I've had trouble recording ie. freeze ups are ABC HD Net on 99.0W on C Band, but I think Radar identified a Bit Rate problem with that Sat.