Atomic Parsley never completes in KMTTG ... sometimes

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Symptom: Atomic Parsley never completes after KMTTG transcodes (MPG to MP4) some programs. It seems almost all of these were recorded over the air and from a station that has good signal sometimes and marginal sometimes. That transmitter is 80 miles away and is about 55 degrees off the antenna axis so I'm surprised I get it at all but I like the Star Trek stuff on H&I network.

More: When this happens only a *-temp.mp4 file is produced and in many cases it is corrupted (badly pixelated, picture halts while sound continues) although the mpg file is more playable. In most cases I would consider the resulting mp4 file un-watchable.

Theory: I think the *-temp,mp4 is too corrupted for Atomic Parsley to process so Parsley just hangs ... forever.

Current procedure: When I see Atomic Parsley is stuck I quick-look at the *-temp.mp4 file. If it looks tolerable I delete -temp from the filename. Otherwise I delete the offending program from the TiVo and hope for a better recording later. These are all reruns anyway.

Question: What does Atomic Parsley actually do? I looked briefly but only saw vague answers. If nothing else, it seems useful as a quality check on the mp4 file.

 

Follow-on:

This "atomic parsley hang" problem continues but my previous theory is wrong. Atomic Parsley hangs with both over-the-air recordings (which may be noisy) and also on cable recordings that are clean.

The common denominator seems to be old shows (i.e., reruns) like Wings and Star Trek sequels, and then, only for a minority of those shows.

If anyone wants to look into this, here are kmttg log entries. First, for a successful atomic run:

Code:

2020_10_13_14:43:11 >> Running AtomicParsley on \\DISKSTATION216\HD Video\NCIS Los Angeles\NCIS Los Angeles - s10e04 - Hit List.mp4 ...
2020_10_13_14:43:11 C:\Users\Scott\Desktop\KMTTG\AtomicParsley\AtomicParsley.exe "\\DISKSTATION216\HD Video\NCIS Los Angeles\NCIS Los Angeles - s10e04 - Hit List.mp4" --overWrite --stik "TV Show" --title "Hit List" --year 2018-10-21T00:00:00Z --description "A cartel hit list includes pictures of the NCIS team, as well as Mosley and her sons names. Also, NCIS Deputy Director Louis Ochoa arrives with Special Prosecutor John Rogers to interview Mosley about the off-the-books mission in Mexico. " --longdesc "A cartel hit list includes pictures of the NCIS team, as well as Mosley and her sons names. Also, NCIS Deputy Director Louis Ochoa arrives with Special Prosecutor John Rogers to interview Mosley about the off-the-books mission in Mexico. " --contentRating TV-14 --hdvideo true --TVShowName "NCIS: Los Angeles" --artist "NCIS: Los Angeles" --albumArtist "NCIS: Los Angeles" --TVEpisode 1004 --TVEpisodeNum 04 --tracknum 1004 --TVSeasonNum 10 --album "NCIS: Los Angeles, Season 10" --TVNetwork WRPXDT -d 1/1
....
2020_10_13_14:43:57 NOTE: AtomicParsley job completed: 0:00:46
2020_10_13_14:43:57 ---DONE--- job=atomic output=\\DISKSTATION216\HD Video\NCIS Los Angeles\NCIS Los Angeles - s10e04 - Hit List.mp4

And here are the log entries for a show that hung:

Code:

2020_10_13_14:22:49 >> Running AtomicParsley on \\DISKSTATION216\HD Video\Wings\Wings - s07e16 - Love at First Flight.mp4 ...
2020_10_13_14:22:49 C:\Users\Scott\Desktop\KMTTG\AtomicParsley\AtomicParsley.exe "\\DISKSTATION216\HD Video\Wings\Wings - s07e16 - Love at First Flight.mp4" --overWrite --stik "TV Show" --title "Love at First Flight" --year 1996-02-13T00:00:00Z --description "On Valentines Day, Cupid shoots Brian and his sole passenger, whos flying in for her wedding; and Roy makes a date with Antonios ex. Melissa: Ally Walker. David: Matthew Porretta. Brian: Steven Weber. Antonio: Tony Shalhoub. " --longdesc "On Valentines Day, Cupid shoots Brian and his sole passenger, whos flying in for her wedding; and Roy makes a date with Antonios ex. Melissa: Ally Walker. David: Matthew Porretta. Brian: Steven Weber. Antonio: Tony Shalhoub. " --contentRating TV-PG --TVShowName Wings --artist Wings --albumArtist Wings --TVEpisode 716 --TVEpisodeNum 16 --tracknum 716 --TVSeasonNum 7 --album "Wings, Season 7" --TVNetwork WNCNDT2 -d 1/1 

At this point, there us still a yyyy-temp-xxx.mp4 file in the destination directory and there are no more log entries until I kill atomic parsley manually:

Code:

2020_10_13_16:39:44 NOTE: Killing 'atomic' job: C:\Users\Scott\Desktop\KMTTG\AtomicParsley\AtomicParsley.exe "\\DISKSTATION216\HD Video\Wings\Wings - s07e16 - Love at First Flight.mp4" --overWrite --stik "TV Show" --title "Love at First Flight" --year 1996-02-13T00:00:00Z --description "On Valentines Day, Cupid shoots Brian and his sole passenger, whos flying in for her wedding; and Roy makes a date with Antonios ex. Melissa: Ally Walker. David: Matthew Porretta. Brian: Steven Weber. Antonio: Tony Shalhoub. " --longdesc "On Valentines Day, Cupid shoots Brian and his sole passenger, whos flying in for her wedding; and Roy makes a date with Antonios ex. Melissa: Ally Walker. David: Matthew Porretta. Brian: Steven Weber. Antonio: Tony Shalhoub. " --contentRating TV-PG --TVShowName Wings --artist Wings --albumArtist Wings --TVEpisode 716 --TVEpisodeNum 16 --tracknum 716 --TVSeasonNum 7 --album "Wings, Season 7" --TVNetwork WNCNDT2 -d 1/1

This is just a minor annoyance but it would be nice if it didn't happen. I have set kmttg to four simultaneous encodes so kmttg stops processing if I reach four hung instances of atomic parsley. So far, I just manually kill the hung processes and rename the temp files. I suspect there is something about the xxx.mp4.txt file that atomic parsley doesn't like.

Maybe I should just disable Atomic Parsley? If so, what would be lost?

Thanks for any insights.