End of recorded show crashing SageTV w/350

[insomniac]

You should give it one last ditch try. The 350 display is so worth it. Im a snob these days and refuse to go back to a video card tv out. So crappy in comparison....


It could be dual channel related. After I threw my stick back in, it made it dual channel again. So you never know........

I.

Originally Posted by Crashless

Now I'm intrigued.

I've NEVER had a stable 350 system, and bounced around with different issues ranging from the GUI dying, but video working, to EOF BSODs. But all of a sudden, reading insomniac's post, I remember installing a second 512mb some time ago, and they seem to coincide with my current spat of BSODs...

I think I might try yanking that second stick to see if they go away. I've since ditched the 350's output, and gotten used to software decoding so I'm afraid to go back to the beautiful 350 only to have it fail me again. Maybe you're onto something with that latency thing. I wonder also, if it could be dual-channel related, as I also activated dual-channel mode with the second stick.

Hopefully I'll be able to play with this next week.

Edit:

I'm not at home and won't be until Tuesday, but here's a memory testing utility:

http://www.memtest86.com/

Maybe it will shed some light on this. Those who's problems are fixed by messing with memory should run this with both configurations and see if it throws up any errors.

edit2:

rchady

The STV was laurenglenn's STV. I've tried it and it didn't resolve my issue, but that doesn't mean it won't fix yours.

[jbromwich]

Originally Posted by jbromwich

I wanted to know if Frey Technologies was working on a fix for this "EOF bug" so I emailed them to ask. Here is their response:

"We realize this is a big issue for people and we are working with Hauppauge on a fix for this. We are working on improving this and doing what we can. "
[March 6, 2005] - George Oms, Frey Technologies, LLC

Update July 29, 2005:

Since the EOF bug still isn't fixed, I emailed, this time, both Hauppauge *and* Sage to find out their progress. Basically, they both pointed the finger at each other. So I decided to send them each the other's response in order to show them that neither is taking responsibility for the bug. When confronted with this written evidence, Hauppauge basically restated that it's not their problem, and Sage just responded like they're tired of discussing it. Here's the two quotes that I sent both companies, and then their individual responses:

---

From Sage:

"The issue with the PVR-350 out is a driver issue. We are using a feature of the driver that Hauppauge is not actively supporting. They are well aware of it and I believe they are working on it. I use the PVR-350 with the TV-out enabled at home and I would like for it to get fixed as well." - 7/12/2005 6:28 PM

George Oms
SageTV, LLC
support@sagetv.com
http://www.sagetv.com/

---

From Hauppauge:

"SageTV adds overlays to the TV out and that seems to cause a problem. It is a SageTV problem. I do not know how actively sage is working on this or if
they are requesting help from our engineers. I would have to re-direct you to SageTV for an answer on this." - 7/15/2005 9:25 AM

James R. Muller
JamesM@hauppauge.com
Tech Support
Hauppauge Computer Works, Inc.
New York Headquarters

---

And the responses to being sent both quotes:

From Hauppauge:

"I didn’t say I was accusing SageTV of being at fault for the problem. I merely meant that we developed our card, with our drivers to work within our application which is does. What SageTV chooses to do with the drivers interfacing with their application is their responsibility." - 7/28/2005 10:47 AM

James R. Muller
JamesM@hauppauge.com
Tech Support
Hauppauge Computer Works, Inc.
New York Headquarters

---

From Sage:

"I don't know what to tell you anymore. I've told you what the developers have told me." - 7/29/2005 9:40 PM


---


So you can judge for yourself, but I'm not holding my breath for this bug to ever get fixed.

Julian.

[1972]

Great job Jullian, you have checked this out!

I asked in the v3 Beta release thread if someone could tell me if the EOF problem was fixed in it... by reading your reply I can say it is not (!)

I also do not believe that there will be fix for it, since the problem is around for a long time... (damnnnnn....)

:-(

[jphhughes]

I read here in another post that someone had tried GB-PVr with the 350 and it did not have the EOF problem. If this is indeed correct then I would think that Sage is the one that needs to resolve this bug. But I don't expect that to happen. Perhaps they should just go buy the solution form GB-PVR.

[rchady]

Correct, I am the one who tried GB-PVR after many failed attempts with SageTV and found that it works flawlessly with the PVR-350 TV-OUT. The odd part is it (GV-PVR) also displays an overlay with no problem.

This is why I started this thread, because the only response I kept receiving was that it was a 'Hauppauge driver problem'. The fact that GB-PVR uses the exact same driver and does not have this issue indicates to me that it is in fact a SageTV problem. What is very disheartening is that Frey Technologies has known about this issue for a _very_ long time now and still has not posted anything useful about it.

Robert

[Steve2112]

I never had the problem until I installed a newer version of Sage and the 350 drivers. My symptoms are Sage goes into "Slow Motion" at the end of only *SOME* shows, it does not lock up, but the mouse clicks take 15 seconds to register, and the interface is extremely slow. However, if I am patient, and click on any recording, and play it, I am then able to close that file, and everything is fast again. It is weird for sure, and a pain because the whole process takes about 2 minutes if I wait for the slowness to go away. I never get a BSOD or total lockup with this bug, however for some reason the system has a hardware freeze up at XX:59 on the clock. No mouse, no keyboard, totally locked up, requiring a hard reset.

[jphhughes]

My EOF problem is severe, the system hangs at the end of a recording and Task manager show the usual 100% CPU utilization. The bad part comes after I gain control of the user interface. The first action completely resets the system. I have recently reported this to Sage TV and they have asked for log files which I have provided. Have heard nothing since.

[1972]

In my case I also don't have a BSOD, but a CPU usage gets 100% and stays on it! I can't interrupt the CPU by anything, so a reset of my PC is the only thing that solves it the problem.

In some "lucky" situations it just reboots the system, so I won't have to do it myself... :-(
and restart SageTV again.

Nowadays when I make a recording I always record some extra time, so I can stop it in time when watching. However for recorded family movies, this EOF problem is a real

p.s.: I found it very strange that this problem still is NOT solved, even when you realize the 350 + SageTV is still sold as a package.

[insomniac]

you should all go try Cayars stv which gives you the ability to disable the delete prompt after the show. Im confident that you will see good results in reducing the EOF bug greatly.

If everyone tries this, it will also help to create some sort of similarity in the issue, so that Sage can quit pointing the finger at Haupauge and possibly address the issue within their stv/core.

[jphhughes]

nsomniac, I have never seen the delete prompt. When a show ends it displays the recorded show menu, of couse at that point its locked because of 100% ulilization after which it does its's restart. FYI using 3.0.7 beta.

[insomniac]

odd..and you are using the default stv, not cayars?

Originally Posted by jphhughes

nsomniac, I have never seen the delete prompt. When a show ends it displays the recorded show menu, of couse at that point its locked because of 100% ulilization after which it does its's restart. FYI using 3.0.7 beta.

[jphhughes]

Yes, using default stv.

[insomniac]

definitely try cayars stv and disable the delete prompt from within his stv. Although I cannot figure out why you do not get a delete prompt in the original stv, you may still have luck with cayars.

Do you by chance have all your recordings set to auto delete from within the favorites menu? Im pretty sure that you do not get the delete prompt if that setting is in effect..

I.

[rchady]

In my experience, sometimes I get the delete confirmation window and quite often I do not. Once the show gets to the end of file, cpu usage jumps to 100%. Sometimes I'll be able to get a couple commands in before the box crashes, quite often it will reset within seconds of hitting the EOF.

Again, the most frustrating thing to me is that Frey Technologies (apparently) is doing nothing about this. If they are doing anything at all, they are doing a horrific job at PR on this as they have not communicated this to their users.

I believe enough people have seen the problem to indicate it is a REAL problem and all information that has been gathered points to something in SageTV as being the culprit...so...?

Robert

[nielm]

Originally Posted by rchady

I believe enough people have seen the problem to indicate it is a REAL problem and all information that has been gathered points to something in SageTV as being the culprit...so...?

The end-of-file lockup on PVR-350 also occurs in other PVR apps that support the use of the '350's hardware decoding/tv-out.

Therefore it is not specifically a SageTV problem.
eg: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.p...ckup#post35456

quote: sub (gb-pvr author)
this device has driver issues which I just cant work around no matter how much I try.

[insomniac]

Hey Nielm,

Would it be a huge undertaking to create a plugin or at least add to one of your other plugins, the option to disable any delete prompts after watching recorded shows? As I realize that this may not be a permanent solution, it does seem to be quite a great workaround by completely aleviating EOF issues for me. I would assume that this would definitely help others if it makes such a drastic difference in my pvr350 setup.

I.

Originally Posted by nielm

The end-of-file lockup on PVR-350 also occurs in other PVR apps that support the use of the '350's hardware decoding/tv-out.

Therefore it is not specifically a SageTV problem.
eg: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.p...ckup#post35456

[rchady]

Interesting. I based my remarks off of my personal experiences so I guess that is a rather limited sampling. Though now I am very curious why changing to GB-PVR resulted in 0 lockups, but SageTV on the same exact setup results in a lockup at the EOF of every single recorded show.

This is the first I"ve heard of anyone using GB-PVR having a similar issue, though the people in that thread were using a certain type system which may have contributed to their issue(s).

I know that GB-PVR does not have this problem on my system or a couple other people's systems based on their forum. I do know that SageTV running on the exact same system has the problem every time... explain that one, I can't.

Originally Posted by nielm

The end-of-file lockup on PVR-350 also occurs in other PVR apps that support the use of the '350's hardware decoding/tv-out.

Therefore it is not specifically a SageTV problem.
eg: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.p...ckup#post35456

[1972]

There is a workaround: Just stop with playing 1 or 2 seconds before the ending.

It has been suggested by many people on this forum and to Frey, but with no response

[Opus4]

previous

responses

... among others. So far, that hasn't solved it.

- Andy

[nielm]

Sub's comments (in the linked GB-PVR thread) imply that he has tried hard to work around it and has given up.:

Originally Posted by sub

When you get a hard lock, it is a problem with the drivers. Many people have had this problem in the past (with both GB-PVR and SageTV). I've spent a lot of time looking into this in the past, but am no longer looking at the issue (and I'm sick of hearing about it).
...
Sorry, but if the problem persists, you'll need to switch to using software decoding.
at the end of the day this device has driver issues which I just cant work around no matter how much I try.

As mentioned elsewhere, I have no time for any new SageTV work at the moment, so I cannot do anything. I have suggested ways of using my existing plugins to do what you want, but the reponses Opus linked imply that they won't help