Previous Channel Command Causes GUI Lockup

[glynor]

Hello all! I'm a relatively new SageTV user, and I've been working on setting it up over the past two weeks (give or take). I'm having one problem that's pretty irritating though (especially to my wife). Using the "Previous Channel" command consistently locks up SageTV completely. I am forced to End Task on SageTV (which is consuming 100% CPU). As you'll see below, I am using a Serial cable to control my RCA DirecTV box, but the channel changing otherwise seems to be working pretty well. With the latest release, I have had it lock up on me once when I was changing channels normally, but after rebooting I haven't had that happen again. However, using the Previous Channel command locks it up almost 100% of the time (I did have it work once or twice, but as soon as I hit it again to switch back again it locked up).

Here are my system details (just let me know if I'm missing anything relevant, as I said I'm new at this):

Hardware:
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard
Athlon XP-M 2500+ (clocked at ~2.1GHz -- stable in Prime95 and Memtest)
2x512MB (1GB) Crucial DDR400 RAM (clocked at ~180MHz)
ATI AIW X800XT AGP Video
Sapphire Theatrix ATI 550 Pro Encoder card
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 Soundcard
S-Video Input used w/ RCA DirecTV Receiver (Serial control)
Recording Drive: WD3200JB (360GB EIDE) - separate partition w/ 64K block

Software:
SageTV 4.0 (though same problem existed with last few 3.0 betas I tried)
Video Decoder: Cyberlink (ATI)
Audo Decoder: Default

(My sage install isn't very custom, as I am just getting started. I have not added any "custom" STV's or anything like that.)

I also really doubt that it is related, but I am also having the problem in this thread.

[glynor]

I experimented with it quite a bit tonight, but wasn't able to completely fix it, and I'm really quite frustrated right now. I have been able to get it to work some of the time, but it is still crashing. I have also been having it crash when just changing channels normally.

I'm currently running in Overlay Mode, with all other Audio/Video settings set to "Default", which seemed to help compared to VMR9 (which crashed just about every time I used the Prev. Channel command), but I can still get it to completely lock up by simply changing the channels 6-7 times. I'm not even doing it in quick succession, but I am giving it plenty of time to finish changing the channel the previous time. I can't figure out any rhyme or reason it crashes sometimes and not others.

Things I have tried:

1. Reverted back to JRE 1.4.2_10.
2. Wide variety of settings under Audio/Video (probably not every possible combination, but a bunch of them).
3. Disabled System Restore on the Recording drive.
4. Deleted and re-added my source.
5. Running with/without Service Mode enabled.
6. Disabling Symantec AV (Corporate v9)

I don't really know how the logging works, as this appears to be from a few days ago, but I am seeing this in the "sagetvclient_0.txt" file:

Tue 11/8 0:06:48.221 Error with c/s comm:java.lang.NullPointerException
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.221 NetworkManager CommunicationFailure : 127.0.0.1/127.0.0.1:42024 type=3
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.221 NetworkManager CommunicationFailure : 127.0.0.1/127.0.0.1:42024 type=3
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.222 NetworkManager CommunicationFailure : 127.0.0.1/127.0.0.1:42024 type=1
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.222 NetworkManager CommunicationFailure : 127.0.0.1/127.0.0.1:42024 type=1
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.225 AWTThread Hang Detected - hang time = 1500
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.786 Killed RootPanel
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.803 Disposed Window
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.803 Killed UIManager.
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.803 Killed Wizard.
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.804 Cleaning up c/s connection
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.816 Bye-bye.
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.817 SageTV SHUTDOWN is activating!
Tue 11/8 0:06:48.975 AWTThread Hang Detected - hang time = 2250

I really hope I can get this straightened out. Not being able to switch channels reliably is really a dealbreaker with SageTV.

[Opus4]

You could contact SageTV tech support to see if they have suggestions on tracking down what is going on. (That log is from a beta; the v4 release does not output a debug log file.)

When you contact them, you should probably include the SystemInfo.txt file that is created when you use the Info command on the System Information screen. -- see p. 188 in the v4 PDF manual that is in your SageTV directory.

- Andy

[glynor]

Thanks. I think I'll do that. Just after I posted last night, I completely un/reinstalled SageTV (including deleting the Frey folder and rebooting inbetween).

I learned something new, actually. I had thought all along that the v3 betas worked well with the 550 card on their own. But in reinstalling I did have to use the DLL you posted in this thread. I'm basically seeing the same problems listed in this thread (which makes sense since I'm using that file).

Is there any way now to get SageTV to work out-of-the-box with v4 and a 550pro card? I assumed when I installed the v3 beta that it had replaced the DLL and fixed the problems. Now, it is obvious that it had not. Any word on this solution?

EDIT: I did just see this posting recently that suggests a change to the properties file. I'll try that and see. I hope I don't have to go to BeyondTV.

[glynor]

Just to report my findings for posterity, before I report all this to Tech Support as Opus suggested, I did test the "seeker/fast_mux_switch=false" setting as described in the previous thread. It seems (in a brief test) that this helps with changing channels via the Program Guide, but I am still able to lock it up every time by quickly changing channels using the up/down buttons, and by using the "Previous Channel" command (even when waiting minutes between "switches" between channels).

I strongly suspect this is an ATI 550 pro related problem. It is quite unfortunate that SageTV lists these cards as supported (without any disclaimer about partial support) as that would have impacted my purchase decision.

For now, I am torn. SageTV certainly has the superior feature-set. It does seem to be more difficult to configure "out of the box", but that's not a huge deal for a user like me. I definitely like where it is headed with the Studio application, the release cycle seems good, and the support forum seems at least to have a heartbeat.

However, I don't want to get a Hauppage card. I bought the 550 already and I bought it after comparing the quality myself side-by-side and deciding that the ATI-based card had better "fast-motion" quality and better color saturation. (I realize that the differences weren't extreme, and that it's all personal opinion, but I felt they were there -- and plus, my Sapphire card was cheaper than a "worse" quality Hauppage card.) However, the postings to this forum from far earlier this year, coupled with v4's recent release with no improvements to speak of in this regard point out that the developers are obviously committed to supporting the Hauppage products and that the ATI solutions are a low priority. Even if support does "get there", will I ever see feature parity?

Not to mention that I do feel a bit misled, and by no small amount of money. Again, I am torn and not sure what to do tonight. BTV supports my card, remote, and AIW card (kind of) out of the box. It supports a "semi" FF and RW. It supports my ATI Remote out of the box. And it's cheaper (by a little, if I don't want the Media Library -- and I don't as I use JRiver MC). It does crash a lot (but so does SageTV for me), and it's a resource hog, and it's slower than heck, and it's missing a bunch of obvious features.... Agh!

[glynor]

Any word on if this situation has improved with any of the recent 4.1.x versions? I've been using BTV, but would REALLY rather use SageTV if it would work right!!

Anyone?

[cmaffia]

Sounds like the same bug we have notified Sage Support about.
They are still working on a resolution.

Read the following thread
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ight=watch+bug

Your debug text file has the same errors at me on that last line

Originally Posted by glynor

I experimented with it quite a bit tonight, but wasn't able to completely fix it, and I'm really quite frustrated right now. I have been able to get it to work some of the time, but it is still crashing. I have also been having it crash when just changing channels normally.

I'm currently running in Overlay Mode, with all other Audio/Video settings set to "Default", which seemed to help compared to VMR9 (which crashed just about every time I used the Prev. Channel command), but I can still get it to completely lock up by simply changing the channels 6-7 times. I'm not even doing it in quick succession, but I am giving it plenty of time to finish changing the channel the previous time. I can't figure out any rhyme or reason it crashes sometimes and not others.

Things I have tried:

1. Reverted back to JRE 1.4.2_10.
2. Wide variety of settings under Audio/Video (probably not every possible combination, but a bunch of them).
3. Disabled System Restore on the Recording drive.
4. Deleted and re-added my source.
5. Running with/without Service Mode enabled.
6. Disabling Symantec AV (Corporate v9)

I don't really know how the logging works, as this appears to be from a few days ago, but I am seeing this in the "sagetvclient_0.txt" file:



I really hope I can get this straightened out. Not being able to switch channels reliably is really a dealbreaker with SageTV.

[glynor]

Though it sounds like the problems could be somewhat related, my problem is more specific to my ATI Theater 550 Pro hardware, and is/was a known problem as well.

The plugin that is used to support the 550 Pro doesn't handle channel changing correctly. In order to prevent Sage from crashing when you change channels (by using the Prev Channel command, the channel up/down buttons, or the guide) you must first stop playback by hitting "Stop".

[DwarF]

I am about to build a HTPC system, and was going to use the 550 Saphire too. Have you gotten a satisfactory solution to your channel changing issue?

I didn't want to go Hauppage either for the same reasons you listed in your inital post.

[Narflex]

Try setting seeker/fast_mux_switch=false in the Sage.properties file

[glynor]

Originally Posted by DwarF

I am about to build a HTPC system, and was going to use the 550 Saphire too. Have you gotten a satisfactory solution to your channel changing issue?

I didn't want to go Hauppage either for the same reasons you listed in your inital post.

No I haven't (well, not with Sage TV). I am currently using BeyondTV 4, which has been working very well (and has been surprisingly stable) but is less feature-full than SageTV. I would still love to be able to switch back to using SageTV (which I've paid for) but the problem is a deal-breaker for me.

Originally Posted by Narflex

Try setting seeker/fast_mux_switch=false in the Sage.properties file

Thanks. I have tried this with no effect. As I mentioned, this is a problem that was reported quite a while ago (when the 550's first came out) and investigated at that time. This thread shows when SageTV first became able to support the 550 and the comments about channel changing problems. No real progress seems to have been made since then.

[glynor]

Just figured I'd check in. Any improvements to the "support" of ATI 550 Pro cards? I'd still like to be able to use SageTV, but I'm still not going to buy a Hauppage card.