Is Sage 4.1 ready for "Prime Time"???

[trini0]

Well its been about a month using Sage, and Im not happy with it so far.
Im unable to get it to a point where I can turn my back to it, and have it do
what its supposed to do.
This weekend is my first time trying to schedule recordings, and Sage is not
working to my expectations.

1. I tried to record a movie on Saturday via the sat box, and for some reason, it doesn't show up under SageTV Recordings. The file is on a local disk, and is
playable via WMP. I cannot explain why this is so.
2. Today (Sunday), I tried to schedule Sci-Fi's "Dark Kingdom" Pts 1 & 2.
Only 7 minutes of Part one was recorded. Part two wasn't recorded.
I cannot explain what happened here.

The computer has been on all evening. I was using it to check email/browse the web every now and then. But those activities shouldn't affect Sage recording
material.
The recording drive has 96GB free, so there is lots of room to play with.

Bottom line. Im not comfortable with SageTV, as I was with BTV.
BTV ran flawlessly for me, but I keep hearing about the almighty Sage, and
decided to give it a try.
Im afraid to attempt any future recordings.

For those using Sage 4.1, are you comfortable with it???
Thanks

[MrApollinax]

I tried SageTV, BeyondTV and GBPVR. Out of all of them SageTV was the only one that installed with no problems. After that I haven't had an issue with SageTV recording shows as i schedule them or manual recordings done through the program guide. It was so easy for me in fact that I bought a second tuner card to get the most out of my system. Also, unlike many here my SageTV box is used as a day-to-day computer as well. So in short, yes I'm comfortable with Sage.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by trini0

This weekend is my first time trying to schedule recordings, and Sage is not working to my expectations.

If you have never scheduled recordings before, how were you using it? Just live TV, no TV, or what?

1. I tried to record a movie on Saturday via the sat box, and for some reason, it doesn't show up under SageTV Recordings. The file is on a local disk, and is
playable via WMP. I cannot explain why this is so.
2. Today (Sunday), I tried to schedule Sci-Fi's "Dark Kingdom" Pts 1 & 2.
Only 7 minutes of Part one was recorded. Part two wasn't recorded.
I cannot explain what happened here.

What steps did you take to schedule your recordings? Did you create a Favorite, use the Record command to create a Manual Recording, or what?

If you weren't using a Fav or Manual Recording & haven't already done so, go through the Quick Start Guide starting on p. 18 in the v4.1 PDF manual that is in your SageTV directory.

And, for #1, use the Options command on the SageTV Recordings menu & check the Display Filter setting. If you recorded it as Live TV, it may not be listed at all, though.

- Andy

[trini0]

The display Filter setting under SageTV Recordings is set to "All".
The movie is not listed there.

I selected each show that I wanted to be recorded.
I didn't try Favorites.
I used the instructions detailed in pg. 22 of the Sage 4.1 manual to setup the recording attempts for the shows/movies described above...

[gplasky]

If your not running the service and just the Sage TV server GUI and you minimized it or put it to sleep you may have run a cross the bug in the latest beta that silently crashes Sage but leaves the icon in the tray until you swipe your cursor across it.

Version 4.1.11 crashing after sleep in system tray

Download the dll and try again.

Gerry

[trini0]

Sorry, I should have posted this before.
Actually, I am using the SageTV service.

When I get back home, I'll try setting up arbitrary shows to record, and
see what happens...

[jptaz]

What Version of SageTV are you running?

I have been pretty pleased with 4.1.11 Beta so far, I was on 4.1.9 Beta prior to that and it was pretty rock solid.

[trini0]

Originally Posted by jptaz

What Version of SageTV are you running?

4.1

[Opus4]

Your sig lines say you are recording HDTV. Try watching live TV to see what happens. Live TV is recorded also, so do the recordings go to completion that way? You may want to consider updating to a beta version, since there have been HDTV improvements.

Check out How to install a new version of SageTV for info on upgrading while retaining the ability to revert to your previous version. The instructions also mention how to turn on debug logging, which you could do in your current version.

If you do install v4.1.11, don't forget gplasky's comment above about a known (and fixed) crash problem.

- Andy

[jptaz]

Also there is a known issue with HD Tuners that requires a new PsisDecd.dll to fix which is available from http://download.sage.tv/users/qian/.

I have 3 HD Tuners and 5 Analog Tuners working really well in the latest betas.

John

[jptaz]

Also as an FYI. I was using BTV 4 Demo for a short period while Support worked on the issues with HDTV and one major improvement of SageTV over BTV for HD recording is that SageTV Splits out the program stream that you want to record so it takes less disk space to store HD recordings on SageTV as opposed to BTV. Not a huge issue for me since I have 1.3 TB RAID, but I care since I like keeping HD recordings for a while...for example show on PBS HD was 9GB from SageTV and 12 GB from BTV.

John

[trini0]

Ok. I didn't have time to do any testing tonight.
But I just set Sage to record one of the early morning news shows at 6am.
In addition to this test, the computer is going to be in s3 standby.
So I'll see how this little test goes, and I'll report back when I get up.

I'll attempt upgrading to the latest beta on my next day off.
Thanks all for your pointers, and I hope that I can find a happy medium...

[trini0]

Well, for some reason, it didn't wake the computer to come out of s3 standby.
Im off tomorrow, so I'll try upgrading to the latest beta to see if that may
fix my numerous problems

[JUC]

i would suggest getting your recording issue sorted out before throwing in another issue to the mix such as resuming from standby. I think the standby thing is a 'roll the dice' type of option--for some it words reliable, others-not at all.
JUC

[Opus4]

After setting a recording, make sure it is actually listed on the Recording Schedule menu. And, I asked above: are you able to watch live TV? That is also a recording, just that it is being done while you are watching the show.

Also, I believe you've previously posted about using a limited Windows user account. I don't know much about using SageTV that way, but perhaps that is impacting scheduling, recording, and/or scheduling a wake up event.

- Andy

[trini0]

@ JUC
BTV records fine on this particular box. But I'll see what happens,
when I setup the latest version.
BTV ran great waking the computer when needed.

@ Opus4
I have no problems watching TV via Sage

I'll report back tomorrow with after the update...

[trini0]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Also, I believe you've previously posted about using a limited Windows user account. I don't know much about using SageTV that way, but perhaps that is impacting scheduling, recording, and/or scheduling a wake up event.

Maybe. I'll revert it back to default, and see what she does...

[trini0]

Ok. Here is a brief synopsis of what I did.

1. Revert the computer to an earlier snapshot of the OS,
making it a semi fresh install.
2. Install drivers
3. Installed software (including Sage 4.1.12)

Sage is being run from the admin account (sighs!!)
No hacks were performed on the registry (to get Sage to work via limited accounts).
Im using SageTV.exe to exclusively handle the UI & recording.
I'll rerun the scenarios again using SageTVservice.exe.

Watching TV worked as expected via SD & HD streams.
Good.

I set a program to record. And its working as expected, and recording.
Good.

I set another program to record, and put the computer into S3 standby.
At the appointed time, it woke up, and started recording.
Good.

So far so good.
Later this evening, I'll take another snapshot of the OS, and
I'll try to reapply the registry hacks to get Sage
to operate under a limited account.
If it fails there, then I know whats causing the big mayhem.

[JUC]

glad to see you got things (hopefully sorted out)! For the standby issue--did you just enable standby in windows settings and set the powermangement options in sage and it worked? I ask because i'm trying to get it working at the moment.
JUC

[trini0]

@JUC
I could have sworn, I replied to your question earlier.
Hope it didnt get censored
I didn't do anything special.
But a recommendation. IMHO, I've found that installing XP while the bios is setup for
S3 standby, makes things run as its supposed to, when XP is finally installed.

Well I went ahead, and made my hacks to the registry to make Sage work,
via a limited account.
Unfortunately, things started crapping out again. I decided to not go any further.
So I have a decision to make.
Either just use Sage via an admin account, or go back to BTV.