Sage TV Installation Problems

[amosisreal]

When I try to install SageTV on Windows MCE2005, I have alot of issues.

The first time, i tried to breeze through the install, installing the service, et al, as i plan to have clients access it. I can walk through the setup and everything seems to work fine and quickly until i get to configuring my two Happauge mce150 tuners, then everything goes wonky. I get slow transistions between screens, and it actually hung overnight on the "enter your zip code" - for pulling the EPG for local tv listings.

At this point, either the SageTV.exe or the SageTVService takes up 97-99% processor utilization. (I have tried this several ways frustratingly).

So that bombed, I finally figured out a way to uninstall the service and the app - as they were taking up so much proc that I could not run system restore, could not disable or even stop the sage services. My train of thought was that there was interference from MCE. I finally disable the sage service enough to uninstall it, then compeletely disable mce services and processes for the next install.

things go smoothly, this time i do not install the service, just the application. I get to the same spot - TV Tuner config - and things go sideways again. The machine has been humming for a long time on MCE, so i know the gear works.

Is the proc spike from the "Import Media" step that comes right before it? I have many (150+) gigs of Music, Movies, and Pictures that SAGE is doing something with. Does it actually "import it" into sage by moving it elsewhere, or is that just a pointer to the files?

Right now, i have two tuners installed to the PC, but only one has cable connected - will a lack of streaming cable into the card affect setup? Sage recognizes both tuners in their current state.

Also, DVD question - If I have a DVD player in the Server and a DVD player in the client, can I play DVDs through sage on both devices? Can i stream a DVD from the server to the client from the disc, or do i have to copy it to the HDD on the server first?


Any help would be appreciated.

I know the box works

[ToxMox]

if the cpu is getting stuck at 100% after choosing an import directory it is usually a corrupt file that Sage is getting stuck on.
Having no cable plugged into the card should have no effect.
Playback of DVDs in Sage or the client is local to that machine's DVD drive only. Only way to stream DVDs is to rip them and add them as imported media.

[amosisreal]

okay - is there a log file i can view to determine where it is getting hung up - like an import progress log?

after work, I will try to reinstall without any import to see if it gets hung up on the tuners again.

Does Sage acutally import the files somewhere else, for reference?

Does it just point to the file system specified?

I am trying to think of a scenario where a corrupted file would cause the system to hang on configuration - like what process sage goes through during importing that a corrupt file would cause problems.

Does sage read AAC files? Would that cause a problem? I have all my MP3 and Itunes purchases in the same music folder.

[ToxMox]

you can get logs by closing sage and stopping the service if it is running then edit the sage.properties file and add the line:
debug_logging=TRUE

TRUE must be in caps.

After that you'll see txt files in your Sage directory with a debug log in them.

When going through the import Sage basically scans the files real quick to get duration and other meta data and stores that info in its own database and just points to the files. I don't remember if Sage tries to import AAC files by default. You can check that by searching through the same sage.properties file somewhere under something like audio formats. Just text search for "mp3" and you'll find what I mean. If AAC is in the list it is possible that the DRM on the itunes stuff is causing the prob. But the debug log should also indicate which file it is hanging on.

[amosisreal]

I am also wondering if it is failing on the DVR-MS from Win MCE 2005.