diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/models/Preference.php b/airtime_mvc/application/models/Preference.php
index f2eeee8a4..e96d4e888 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/models/Preference.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/models/Preference.php
@@ -38,7 +38,11 @@ class Application_Model_Preference
             $result = Application_Common_Database::prepareAndExecute($sql, $paramMap, 'column');
 
             $paramMap = array();
-            if ($result == 1) {
+            if ($result > 1) {
+                //this case should not happen.
+                throw new Exception("Invalid number of results returned. Should be ".
+                    "0 or 1, but is '$result' instead");
+            } elseif ($result == 1) {
                 // result found
                 if (is_null($id) || !$isUserValue) {
                     // system pref
@@ -80,7 +84,7 @@ class Application_Model_Preference
 
         } catch (Exception $e) {
             header('HTTP/1.0 503 Service Unavailable');
-            Logging::info("Could not connect to database: ".$e->getMessage());
+            Logging::info("Database error: ".$e->getMessage());
             exit;
         }
 
diff --git a/python_apps/pypo/pypofetch.py b/python_apps/pypo/pypofetch.py
index 20212be51..38a72f363 100644
--- a/python_apps/pypo/pypofetch.py
+++ b/python_apps/pypo/pypofetch.py
@@ -432,6 +432,7 @@ class PypoFetch(Thread):
             for key in media:
                 media_item = media[key]
                 if (media_item['type'] == 'file'):
+                    self.sanity_check_media_item(media_item)
                     fileExt = os.path.splitext(media_item['uri'])[1]
                     dst = os.path.join(download_dir, unicode(media_item['id']) + fileExt)
                     media_item['dst'] = dst
@@ -455,6 +456,20 @@ class PypoFetch(Thread):
         try: self.cache_cleanup(media)
         except Exception, e: self.logger.error("%s", e)
 
+    #do basic validation of file parameters. Useful for debugging
+    #purposes
+    def sanity_check_media_item(self, media_item):
+        start = datetime.strptime(media_item['start'], "%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S")
+        end = datetime.strptime(media_item['end'], "%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S")
+
+        length1 = (end - start).total_seconds()
+        length2 = media_item['cue_out'] - media_item['cue_in']
+
+        if abs(length2 - length1) > 1:
+            self.logger.error("end - start length: %s", length1)
+            self.logger.error("cue_out - cue_in length: %s", length2)
+            self.logger.error("Two lengths are not equal!!!")
+
     def is_file_opened(self, path):
         #Capture stderr to avoid polluting py-interpreter.log
         proc = Popen(["lsof", path], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)