Does recording even work??

Since I'm very new to MOL3 (btw I just left my new Z11 to do some recordings today while I'm away and I'll let you know what happened) I can only talk from my MOL2 experience (but I find a lot of differences between those two and not i favor of MOL3).

So, on MOL2 I know that a recording would work if the box (Z10ProMax was in my case) is left on standby on the specific channel you wanted to record. A second, consecutive, even though not overlapping with the first one, record would only succeed if the second recorded channel was on a different line or from a different provider. For example I have a unique m3u line combining 2 providers (via IPTVBoss) and the recording was working for the second channel (even if the same as for the first recording) if the recording was set up to be made from the second provider otherwise it would stop after less than one minute or so. To be clearer: the only way to record two consecutive programs was: 1st recording = channel 1 on provider 1 (with the box left in standby mode on channel 1 of provider 1) and then the second recording would work if set on channel 2 on provider 2. Otherwise not (at least in my experience with Z10/MOL2).
The two recordings I set today for Z11 were set up as I explained above and I'll se the results when I get home (I only got the Z11 a couple of days ago so it's the first time I try to record something on it). I'll let you know about the results.

OK, so in short, only the first recording (channel 1 from source 1) completed. Not a sign/notification of an error or something similar for the second one (channel 2 from source 2). I’ll try again tonight.

On the other hand I remarked that after programming the recordings even though I exited MOL3 from the menu, in the Settings -> Apps -> MOL3 the “Force stop” command does not have any effect (the option is still active after clicking it). Is this the normal behaviour?

Well, as an update, today not even the only recording that I set did work… I came home an hour and a half after the recording should have ended and I found the box active (white light bright and shiny) and when opening the tv there was a countdown (that kept repeating when it got to 0) message asking to confirm the shutdown of the box (never saw that message before on MOL2, btw the starting and ending hours of the recording mentioned in the message were correct). Pressed “cancel” and went to Recordings menu where the recording was present but with 0.00 duration and, of course, failed to play.

That was “day two” of my recording experiences in the three days since I got the device. The result: 2-1 for the errors team :))

If it keeps it this way (no single epg, recordings errors, whatever I’ll find next etc.) I don’t give it more than ten days till returning it. I find quite unprofessional to sell a product advertised as premium with so many shortcomings after more than a year since it was launched.

Trouble here too. The box saves my settings just fine butI always get a message saying a recording experienced an error. I did a factory reset and was able to record one program and then back to nothing. I'm not going to do a factory reset for each program I want to record.

Any ideas?

I too have been having some recording problems that are similar to what has been reported in this thread. Here is what I am seeing.

- scheduled recordings always manage to start but sometimes stop at random times

- I see a 'recording started' message in the notifications and on the screen

- when a recording successfully ends I see a 'recording ended' message in the notifications and on the screen if I happen to be watching

- when a recording ends at a random and incomplete time there is no 'recording ended' message in the notifications and no message pops up on the screen. The red dot in the top right of the screen does disappear though.

- once a recording goes bad, subsequent recordings will often but not always also fail

- here's the kicker.... pulling the storage device from my Z11 and plugging it into my laptop will show disk errors! A 'scan and fix errors' cleans up the drive.

- once scanned and fixed, subsequent recordings start to behave again.... at least for a while. Failures eventually happen again.

- yes, the storage was formatted with Rufus as NTFS.

- failures were reappearing within a few days while I used a USB stick for storage. When I switched to an SSD I get at least a week between failures.

- the whole exercise appears as if the storage is getting some form of corruption during use

- I had no unexpected power interruptions to the Z11 that may have contributed.

The next time it happens I will note the errors that the 'scan and fix' reports.

And one more thing.... I have seen timeshifting (pause live TV) stop working properly also. A scan and fix again fixes it for a while.

Hope this helps shed some light.

Z11 Pro

all updates applied

subscribed for three concurrent connections from provider

500GB USB attached SSD plugged into either USB slot. Doesn't seem to matter which one.

This may help.

You need to try a "better" recording device. In many cases, if the USB device is USB2, and/or not from a well respected manufacturer, the device may throw errors while recording. I too ran into this issue a couple of years ago.

I solved my problems by mounting my QNAP NAS device as the recording storage for the Z11 and I have never had a failed recording since. Speed does matter when you're recording a real-time thread.

Cheers!

Quote from morden2004

This may help.

You need to try a "better" recording device. In many cases, if the USB device is USB2, and/or not from a well respected manufacturer, the device may throw errors while recording. I too ran into this issue a couple of years ago.

I solved my problems by mounting my QNAP NAS device as the recording storage for the Z11 and I have never had a failed recording since. Speed does matter when you're recording a real-time thread.

Cheers!

Hi Morden,i completely agree with you,as since i replaced my USB stick (many errors when checking for it in Rufus after intensive use) by a 1TB hdd,almost no more failed recordings.

1TB hdd or ssd are quite cheap (30-60 euro) and are far superior to USB stick

I just caught my Z11 in the act! We had a recording running and about 15 minutes in, the box did a spontaneous full reboot. When MOL3 came back up the recording did not start back up.

Tracking number is 1779CAF

This is the same Z11 that does a spontaneous reboot each night at 8PM exactly.

Well, I solved my MOL3 recording problems by (drum beats)... installing another app. I wouldn't even call it a competitor app since I used it before my first Z10 ProMax arrived. 4 (four) consecutive recordings on four different channels without any problem at all (it didn't even wake the box to make them) using the exact same m3u MOL3 obstinately refuses to work with (MOL2 did).

I could have posted a screenshot as proof but I don't want to hurt any of the Formuler guys' feelings (especially the almighty devs). Btw, the devs should understand that they should do FIRST what the clients (the ones that pay) ask and is reasonable and doable and only AFTER that what they think it should be done but might be wrong from the user’s point of view (e.g. removing the ability to record from the single channel epg menu - if and when it works). If I were someone from the decision makers in the company (I myself have a 23 years old company in the IT services which I founded so I quite know what I'm talking about) I would ask the devs to work at least one week here (support) or in the sales dept.. Just to see how important the customer is.

As a conclusion, on one hand I'm very happy that I solved my problem and on the other I'm really sad that I couldn't solve it using MOL3.

Yes recording works as it should but you must understand that in order to record you must have a service with multi connections. Let me explain if you service only has 1 connection you can schedule a recording while not using box but recording will probably fail if your watching another channel. So if you have a 5 device service you can watch 1 channel and record 4 different channels all at the same time. my 3 provider lines all have 3-5 device connections and I never miss a recording ever they are all recorded to my NAS with 24Tb of space also I time shift as well to same NAS. I hope this helps you guys

Is there anything that can be done to fix recordings? I set a progam to record for 3 hours and it stops after 22 mins? I have plenty of space left on my drive. Or is there a way to get MyTVOnline v2 back on? I have a z11pro max.

Hi, initially also had lots of problems with recording,like you state early stop of recording,or even no recording at all,whereas in notifications the recording start and end times were given,but recording came up "empty" or cut short.

In the beginning i used a correctly (NTFS) formatted 64GB USB-stick,but after a while when reformatting the stick and checking for errrors (Rufus) the stick showed to have > 200 errors!

Subsequently,i got a 1TB ext. HDD,and since then recording went smoothly,with the exception of PPV nightly boxing matches,with a recording failure rate of 40-50%.

In short,i do agree that there are recording issues that should be addressed,but going back to mol2 (if at all possible)is not the solution.

I still have too issues with recordings.
1.Recording to NAS makes currupted .ts files.
2.Recording to SSD: it seems to recordning to fast so that the buffer gets empty. If you watch the recoding it it makes small jumps back (repeats) now and then. Its very anoying when recording music.

I too am having a problem recording live tv. Z 11 pro. I've changed usb sticks but continue to see the same problems. When I first turn on the box, I can pause, or rewind live tv from the point I started the channel but after about an hour The pause and the rewind will no longer function. Nothing happens when I push those buttons. As soon as I change the channel everything starts working again for about an hour.

I still having issues with bad recordings, booth on SSD and NAS. I can read and analyse recordings using my Mac computer with ffmpeg or ffprobe. There are tons of errors in the TS-files. For example I got 159 errors in a 35min 2GB recording on the SSD:

% ffmpeg -v error -i Record_1.ts -f null - 2> error.log
% grep -i "error" error.log | wc -l
% 159

When trying to concat the 2 TS-files in this specific recording there are too many error so the ffmpeg quits:
% ffmpeg -i "concat:Record_1.ts|Record_2.ts" -c copy output.ts

I always had trouble with the recordings and changing ISP-provider, streaming provider, update to new firmware did not help. Is this normal, are there any good way of solving these kinds of problems?

Quote from SAM

Please open Support Ticket and provide all data you have collected with detailed description to the devs. Thank you.

I will do that. I leaning towards that problem is more related to what specific channels I recording and/or what time of the day recording was done?? Today at daytime I tried to record two of the main local channels, and run the same ffmpeg-tool with just a few errors (recording to the NAS). I also found that one channel that I often tried record sometimes show "network error" while other channels from the same country seems fine.

Normally, for recording all the local channels, I instead use an Enigma 2 DVB-T settop box. I like that box alot more than Z11 for several reasons (much better EPG, multi channel recording, computer interface, better file format (single file, no 2GB file spilts), recording while watching, watching recording while recording, much more possibilities for custom settings etc.)

Lately,i had 2 failed nightly recordings,where the recordings were prematurely cut off (less than 1 hour recording),and when starting up the box from standby position,instead of starting the latest channel,i was at Homepage (Kicked out of mol3 ?)

In notifications start of recording was mentioned,end was not!

For obvious reasons i did not send logs,because i was asleep

Any suggestions or advice?

I have to let the z11 running when recording. Every recording made in standby mode is cut

I have a clarification question based on this recording topic as I have spotty recording performance with my Z11 Pro Max.

After Setting a MOL3 Recording, how should Formuler Z11 Pro Max status be set for reliable recording ?

1. MOL3 left RUNNING or EXIT from App, OR it DOESN’T MATTER ?
2. Z11 Pro Max left POWERED ON, In STANDBY mode, POWERED OFF, OR All of these WORK OK ?

Thanks SAM. So, if a future recording is set, and I power off the Z11 --> it will restart and initiate recording when start time is reached ?

It’s honestly frustrating reading through all your experiences because I’ve had similar issues when depending on set-top boxes or streaming hardware to do scheduled recordings. Sometimes they glitch out or just randomly stop, often for no logical reason, especially with certain brands or software. My biggest gripe was always the randomness of whether something would actually record, and that made it super unreliable if I wanted to save shows or webinars.

I ended up using screen recording software on my PC instead, which honestly has been way more stable for me. You don’t have to stress about weird device compatibility stuff or failed USB drives, plus, you can record straight from any window or browser tab. This works well, especially if you need a solid backup for important recordings that your box just refuses to handle.