Timer started early, logs say it didn't

[Photovoltaic]

I had a recording go bad today and it wouldn't bother me all that much except I can't figure out how it happened.

Timer was set to record BBC1 HD from Freesat, 17:59 to 18:51. That's for a ~48 minute Program duration for a 18:00 start, with 1 minute buffer before start time and 3 minutes afterwards (which should be plenty).

The Completed Timers list says it ran exactly when it was supposed to. The Timestamp (last modified) on the recording is 18:51.

I checked the time date settings on the box and it's correct within 2 seconds.



The problem, is that the recorded program has 04:10 minutes of stuff at the start, and I've missed the last 45-60 seconds of the show.

The obvious response might be "BBC was running Late" but I checked with another source that records this stuff and the main program started less than 20 seconds after the 18:00 Program slot start time, so my recording started 03:50 (+/- 10 seconds) Early.


The exact same thing happened on BBC 2 HD, I had a timer run from 17:49 to 18:55 and that also appears to be shifted by a few minutes, about 02:15 in this case.


The recordings are being made to an NFS mount on an external Fileserver which has timestamps I trust that correspond to when the recording was supposed to end - End Time Stamp Minus File Duration equals the correct start time...but they started in reality a few minutes sooner.




I feel like I'm living in sort of weird time warp bubble.


anyone got any ideas what might be happening, or anything I can check?

[ccs]

The programme before 18:00 was the bbc1 local news. On freeview bbc1 hd, nothing is broadcast (except a warning message).

I don't know what freesat broadcasts, but maybe the time isn't being picked up properly?

I'd imagine this would have been spotted a long time ago, mind.

[birdman]

The Completed Timers list says it ran exactly when it was supposed to.

Is that the overview, or the detail (which you get using Info on an individual timer)?

The Timestamp (last modified) on the recording is 18:51.

Which will have been set by your NFS server, not your OV box.

Another thing you can check is how long the actual recording is (play it and have a look at the Infobar).

[ccs]

bbc iplayer has the programme timed at 48:51 from start to end of credits.

[Photovoltaic]

The programme before 18:00 was the bbc1 local news. On freeview bbc1 hd, nothing is broadcast (except a warning message).

I don't know what freesat broadcasts, but maybe the time isn't being picked up properly?

Freesat is the same, when BBC does local news, BBC1HD just has the warning. Standard across all platforms.

My recording has a minute or so of that message, then the national weather report kicks in briefly before bbc trailers and continuity announcer presents the next show (Pointless Celebrities in this case, not that it matters), which should have started no more than 30 seconds after 18:00, but this is 04:30 into my recording, which was set to start at 17:59

Is that the overview, or the detail (which you get using Info on an individual timer)?
Which will have been set by your NFS server, not your OV box.

Time on the NFS server I absolutely trust. It's set by NTP and I manually checked the sync while investigating this and it was correct to with several thousandths of a second.

I tried setting the Satellite box to use NTP time source too, it was previously set to use Transponder as a time source - though I checked the time on it and it was with 2-3 seconds of my other (NTP sync'd) systems, even if not 100% identical it's not enough to explain the ~3 minute discrepancy.

Another thing you can check is how long the actual recording is (play it and have a look at the Infobar).

bbc iplayer has the programme timed at 48:51 from start to end of credits.

So my setting the recording duration for 52 minutes (17:59 to 18:51) only gives me 3 minutes buffer, not the expected 4, but this still should have been enough.



I also checked my other BBC recordings for the same day and ALL of them started earlier then they should have done, but not quite by the same margin, all between 30 and 120 seconds earlier than expected. I'm keeping a closer eye on them today and raised the amount of minutes buffer to add at the end of timers to 5 minutes, from 3. Hopefully that'll cover everything...



I'm still utterly perplexed, though.

[ccs]

Is that the overview, or the detail (which you get using Info on an individual timer)?

Another little gem!

I happen to record (autotimer) local bbc1 news for the weather forecast, and last night's timer, using the info button,

says that the record time was changed on 19th January.

So maybe your timers were all out by 5 minutes??

[birdman]

I happen to record (autotimer) local bbc1 news for the weather forecast,

Perhaps you should install the Yahoo weather plugin?

[Photovoltaic]

Is that the overview, or the detail (which you get using Info on an individual timer)?

Sorry, I didn't clearly answer this before. I checked the completed timer with the Info button and it shows no anomalies, preparing, enough disk space confirmed and filename selected, wait for recording to start at 17:58, then at 17:59 it started, then at 18:51 it stopped.

The only explanations I can think of are

1. BBC Was running behind schedule
or
2. System time on the Xtrend box AND my NFS server were BOTH wrong by the same amount


I've already eliminated both of those as far as I can see, and can't think of a third explanation.

[ccs]

I recorded Casualty last night, and it started 1:28 later than scheduled, if that helps.

[Photovoltaic]

I recorded Casualty last night, and it started 1:28 later than scheduled, if that helps.

Actually yeah, perhaps that confirms they were just running behind schedule, despite previous indications I had that they weren't. Ah well. If that's all it was that's a pretty dull problem. I'll just keep a longer +duration on the end of all my timers, now.

[Samzam]

I have too this kind of problem on VIX 4.1.016 and it was earlier versions too. Time is crowling to forward slightly. NTP won't work at all! I have tried many kind of url:s in there. Only boot on power button works and time is correct after that. This may be a bug?

[ccs]

If you go to time settings you should have a choice between time synchronisation using transponders or via the internet.

[Samzam]

If you go to time settings you should have a choice between time synchronisation using transponders or via the internet.

I have done it but NTP won't update time in any url:s. This time crowling is the problem because timers starts early. Time is crowling even I have NTP on use in time syncronisation settings. Anyway I got right time on power boot.