Are you happy with Sage dependability?

[GTwannabe]

SageTV server - extremely reliable for me. Service only gets restarted when I upgrade or install Windows Updates.

SageTV client - pretty reliable. Does sometimes lock up/hang/stop responding to the remote and need a Ctrl-Alt-Del -> End Task

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by srothwell

How are you connecting the box to your TV set if the main CPU is in the basement? I'm going DVI from the PC to the TV and I'd sure like to get the server out of the TV room. Only problen is where I want to put it is like 60 feet away and I don't think I can get away with that length.

Also, you said you had 2 USB cable boxes. Are you getting video over USB out of a cable box? If so, how?

Thanks

Stacy

I use a sage client running on a seperate pc upsatirs in the viewing room. it connects via DVI to a projector. I even changed the fan on the video card over to a near silent one and it is great. I hav ethe client set to go into standy after 20 minutes of inactivity. Pressing power on remote brings it out of standby and loads the sage client.

The sage client a communicates with the sage server over standard cat6 cable on an ethernet network The server has all the tuners and is on 24/7 doing all the recording and storage.

The tuners that use USB are the hauppauge USB tuners. This is for standard def cable only to feed some non-hd tvs upstairs with MVPs hooked up

[flashbacck]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

SageTV server - extremely reliable for me. Service only gets restarted when I upgrade or install Windows Updates.

SageTV client - pretty reliable. Does sometimes lock up/hang/stop responding to the remote and need a Ctrl-Alt-Del -> End Task

Since we're tlakingabout Sage dependability, I'd love to know what the longest instance uptime people are able to achieve.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by flashbacck

Since we're tlakingabout Sage dependability, I'd love to know what the longest instance uptime people are able to achieve.

Months. About every quarter I install Windows updates.

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by jds23

Is this only when Sage is in sleep mode? Are you able to press your power button to load an instance of the Sage client? I have been wanting to be able to do this, but am not sure how. I think this may be where some people use Girder to accomplish this, but I hope there is another alternative. I know nothing about Girder, and even tried it once and got no where.

If you are familiar with MCE 2005, all you do is hit the "Green button" and that will load MCE, I would like to do the same thing, but with Sage, if possible. Thanks for any help with tis.

1. Set PC bios to use S3 standby
2. Use registry entry to allow USB device (in my case, this is the MCe remote I use to control Sage) to bring PC out of standby
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usb]
"USBBIOSHACKS"=dword:00000000
"USBBIOSx"=dword:00000000

2.5 In device manager, select appropriate devices (MCE remote is listed as an HID device) and configure the "allow this device to wake PC from standby" option
3. Configure PC to standby after x minutes using power control panel applet
4. Configure Sage to standby after X-y minutes

Once PC goes into standby, use power button on remote to bring it out. The only bug I am runing into, is occasional the remote seems to not function after coming out of standby. A quick plug/unplug of USB cable does the trick.
I have seen others with this issue, so just wating around until I find a fix


BTW, I have not been able to configure the Green button to launch sage. This is not really an issue for me, as I only use this clinet to run SAGE, so it is always loaded. Sorry

p.s Here is a great thread with lots of detail

http://www.xpmce.com/forum/viewtopic...with_meta=true

[blade]

Originally Posted by flashbacck

Since we're tlakingabout Sage dependability, I'd love to know what the longest instance uptime people are able to achieve.

No clue, but I do know that I've been using Sage for 1.5 years now and the only time my server has ever gone down was due to power outtages, upgrades, or tinkering with something. It has never crashed nor has Sage ever failed to record a scheduled show. I think the longest I went without messing with something was about 6 months.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by blade

No clue, but I do know that I've been using Sage for 1.5 years now and the only time my server has ever gone down was due to power outtages, upgrades, or tinkering with something. It has never crashed nor has Sage ever failed to record a scheduled show. I think the longest I went without messing with something was about 6 months.

same version of Sage all this time? What version(s)?

[blade]

Originally Posted by stevech

same version of Sage all this time? What version(s)?

I don't recall the exact versions. I started with 2.xx and moved to 4.xx once they got FSE pretty much ironed out and am now on 5.01

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by flashbacck

Since we're tlakingabout Sage dependability, I'd love to know what the longest instance uptime people are able to achieve.

My server has been running for months. I take that back, we had a power outage a couple of weeks ago and that crashed my server (I need to get it on a UPS). Otherwise, my server runs solidly. My clients are not quite as stable, but still very stable. The MVP's lock up very very rarely but can be rebooted in a very short time, and my full client is solid for SDTV, but will lock up every so often on HDTV.

I keep thinking about other options such as MCE 2005 or going back to Tivo, but Tivo's file sharing is horrible and it is now freakin expensive and MCE only allows you to use Xbox 360's for HDTV clients or those very lame/expensive MCE SDTV clients.

Sage will be complete to me once a Media Extender that can handle HDTV. I guess we will see!

[AtariJeff]

My Sage server runs 24/7 and has been solid through all versions. The client, however, is a different story. The 2.xx versions were rock solid. Since doing the upgrades into 5.xx there are little things that annoy me. Things like the crash to the desktop (maybe just a JAVA version?) and that spinning icon of death when I do a basic task like bring up the program guide. IMHO the shiny new features introduced in some more recent versions are bloating the core a bit.

[reboot_this]

Originally Posted by cfcrafting

So I bought sage sometime last year and it worked fine for about 3 months. All of a sudden I started experiencing favorites not recording, choppy playback, etc. It seemed for everything I fixed some other problem would take it's place like a lemon car. I've never once gotten an email back from the supposed technical support people. In my opinion 90% of the topics in this forum are dedicated to fixing some sort of problem with the software. I paid I $70 for software that works 50% of the time and that I have to continually troubleshoot. Do you think a company that intends to sell software should make some sort of gaurantee that it works atleast 95% of the time?

Originally Posted by mlbdude

Probably not. Most likey you have some problem with your system creating this instability. Granted, the developers don't have an exact copy of your PC so there could be soemthing in the app natively incompatible with your PC.

Also, since this is a support forum you are going to see issues being reported. This is not a place to come and hang out and chat with friends.

I can only speak personally, but the 7 or 8 systems I have put together running Sage are all running great. The oldest has been going for a couple of years now.

Originally Posted by cfcrafting

The main issue is it worked flawlessly for months. I haven't changed anything on the pc, I just use it for sage and internet access. I've reached the point of aggrivation with the software that I have stopped troubleshooting it and just hope it records with no error. I've even stopped using it for weeks because it's been such a pain to deal with and I just don't have the time. As far a paying for something and dependability being nil, imagine if you bought a tv but it only turn on 50% of the time. Would you be like 'oh well, guess I'm not watching tv tonight' or take it back for a refund.

At the time of this post there are 6,633 members on this forum... not all of those members own SageTV, I know, but that makes me think there are a ton of members (and not EVERYBODY registers on this forum!) that are happy with SageTV... my reasoning is that this forum would have some serious problems if there were over 6,000 members posting and browsing it all the time.

There are some people that come on the forum because they are having issues, others come to help others or to work with eachother to solve issues, and others are here creating awesome new tricks and treats to use with SageTV... well and then there are those that get really flustered and come post that they don't get it and the program sucks and say they are throwing in the towel because it's not worth it.

SageTV enables us to do lots of cool things surrounding our "multi" media obsessions...... to some, it's a headache, but to the rest of us... it's a passion (that for some of us does take time!)

I have owned sage for over two years, it worked really good once I got things tweaked to where I wanted them on my dedicated sage server. I once went for about 6 or 7 months without a hitch. Sure I had issues just like the next guy... I'd wait for a fix and everything was back to normal. Most of the time if sage was down, it was because of a power outage, I was installing another hard drive/windows update (I do all updates manually), or because I was restarting windows because of windows.

Then all hell broke loose on me, things went south quick. Sage was unstable/crashed all the time, video was jerky, things didn't get recorded, recordings were getting deleted for no reason, recordings would get dumped into the "imported videos" losing all show info. BELIEVE me, it was a mess!!!

I contacted support, they said it was probably a corrupted wiz.bin, I would backup things reinstall and things seemed to work for about 3 hours and hell broke again... over and over. I was mad to say the least. I thought maybe it was heat related, so I went to Frys to get some more fans to rig up. I met this hardware techie guy (customer), and after about an hour conversation, decided to take his advice. I threw the fans down and picked up a 600 W power supply. Went home installed it and haven't had problems with SageTV again (accept for those few crashes caused by my continuous tweaking).

Problem was that I had an AMD 3.0 Ghz, 1 gig of RAM, 5 PVRs, 4 hard drives, and 5 coolings fans being powered by a wimpy 300 watt power supply!!! Who woulda guessed that... I blame myself because I didn't brag about my MASSIVE 300 watt power supply in my signature (otherwise one of the members on this board might've enlightened me earlier)

And this is the best part! After learning that the power supply WAS to blame for all my sage headaches, I had intended on reinstalling windows/sagetv so I could start fresh. But I never got a chance because the new fall season of shows was about to start up, and I got engaged which started the 15 months of planning the wedding with my fiance (whew!). Now I'm married and have a bit more time on my hands... and the only reason I have to reinstall windows/sage is because I am ENTIRELY sick and tired of clicking on the dozens and dozens of missing program icons (including SageTVs icon) which were all lost because of a weak power supply!

Hint: the problem could be as simple as a bad power supply!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by reboot_this

Now I'm married and have a bit more time on my hands...

Now how can THAT be?

Gerry

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by reboot_this

There are some people that come on the forum because they are having issues, others come to help others or to work with eachother to solve issues, and others are here creating awesome new tricks and treats to use with SageTV...

I've been through the same frustrations of getting SageTV to work properly. Read my SageTV review in my signature at the bottom, I wrote it 2 years ago after I finally got SageTV to run smoothly. And to quote myself:

I wish it wouldn't take so much time and effort just to make SageTV run the way it should, but for the people out there who are thinking about doing it, you are warned. But if you have the time and patient, it can be fun although at times you feel like this: But fear not, the forum is filled with helpful tips and people. So with that thought in mind, I would like to say thanks to the many forum members that shared their vast knowledge and hardwork

I hope Jeff/Narflex reads this, because I feel it is important for him to know. Price and features are the reason why you buy SageTV. But THIS User to User Support Forum is the reason why you continue to support SageTV for many years, buying additional licenses, and refering it to friends and family. So although the product is great, people like opus4 and nielm are the reason why I really love SageTV. They represent the product well. And SageTV has been running very well for me over the last 2 years, so I don't really need much help from this forum, but I visit it daily to read the latest post for news and mainly help others or answer questions. Because when I was new here, the people before me really helped me out, including official tech support.

Don't get me wrong, not everything is great in SageTV land, there are many issues that I wish would be improved soon .. *cough* improve music/pictures UI *cough* merged client licensing scheme *cough* *cough*... but I can live with it for now, especially since they gave us placeshifter and MVP Extender..

Hint: the problem could be as simple as a bad power supply!

Well, in your case, its bad because it's under-powered, not defected. This is a good point you bring up since most people running SageTV have multiple harddrives and TV tuners in their PC, so a powerful power supply is needed. A 250-300W might not be able to handle the power load. Its definitely something to inspect for those with crashing problems.

[jptaz]

I agree...I just recently dumped a new 750 Watt power supply in my server and it can now reliably be shutdown and hibernated. Previously when I only had a 500 Watt power supply I would hit shutdown or hibernate and the system would go down, but then reboot itself so I had to force the power off after the hibernate or shutdown many times by holding the power button down. My RAID has been much happier since then too. None too soon as well with the summer cooling season coming only have the server run for 9 hours a day is much more desirable than the 24 it used to. Near 500 watt constant draw really makes the electric meter spin.

John

[codacoda]

Originally Posted by flashbacck

Since we're tlakingabout Sage dependability, I'd love to know what the longest instance uptime people are able to achieve.

I recently changed my entire setup and have had the SageServer up for twoweeks untouched and it appears that it will stay that way for quite a while.

Basically the server sits in my office and feeds three MVPs through-out the house.

All runs perfectly. No issues.

[reboot_this]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Now how can THAT be?

Gerry

well before the wedding, the main things taking up my time were my job, a honey-do list, planning the entire wedding with my (at the time) fiance, and so on... (planning a wedding isn't as easy as it seems! it consumed more time than I thought it could)

but now I only have to worry about work and the honey-do list (which seems to have grown a bit since the wedding , wait a minute... so this is what marriage is like huh? DARNIT! )

all joking aside, I wouldn't have it any other way...

[cmaffia]

Again
Try Sage on another piece of hardware.... your system may be the cause of instability, not Sage
SageTV Betas are already tested by users all over the world. Bug reports are submitted and Sage Developers address these issues with additional beta releases until they release what they feel is a stable release based upon user feedback.
The Core is incredibly stable. However you repeatedly find every opportunity to knock SageTV at every hiccup you encounter and many will assure you the majority of us are very happy with SageTV and its support. Not knocking MCE at all, but not all software is for everyone and that is including SageTV

Originally Posted by darrenkarp

My motivation in trialing STV is to replace MCE 2005 as STV supports MediaMVP as an extender. I am not willing (at this stage) in spending £300.00 on an Xbox 360.

However, I have tried for 3 days now to get STV up and running with my twin tuner cards (150 and 350) and 2 Sky STB's. I finally got everything working earlier and was watching live tv when I decided I wanted to change channels. Everything froze.

STV appears unstable for me despite every attempt in setting it up. I have an excellent spec PC as far as I'm concerned and MCE 2005 runs smoothly.

If STV wants to compete than they need to add some polish to their main app, and I don't mean GUI wise. The core needs to be looked at in detail with as many beta testers as possible from all around the world.

I'm willing to provide any kind of debugging report as necessary but not for long....that Xbox seems more likely as time goes on!

Darren