decoder bugs

[broderp]

I have random (but almost daily) crashes where my sage box just locks up, with the spinning sage ion or just shuts down back to the desk top.

EVERY TIME I restart sage or restart the PC, and go back to play the video, I get an ERROR message. And EVERY TIME the fix is to go into detailed setup and change the codec from SAGE TV's to SONIC or vice versa. Go back to my video and all is well until the next lock up or shut down.

Like clock work.

help?

[Wirenut]

I have been messing around with the same scenario for about a month.

It'll freeze the video, then go black, [audio keeps rolling] then it's time to kill the process in Task Manager. Restart Sage. Select another decoder, usually SageTV and whammo, it works. The SageTV decoder sucks. So after a little while, I change it to I/V NonCSS or Nvidia, or Sonic, and it works all night. The next morning, I'll turn on the tube to catch the am news... and it'll lock again.

...whereby, I repeat the cycle. Over, and Over again.

It's strange. I've tried ALL the drivers for my ATI9600. OmegaDrivers included, and have just settled on the latest from ATI and the Catalyst package. Tried the basic STV3... to no avail. Tried all the javas to no avail.

And when it works, it's great. Really, it does have fantastic PQ... as long as I use a quality decoder. Truthfully, the only stabil decoder for my system, that always works, is the SageTV one. My eyes just can't deal with it.

My config,

WinXPproSP2, 1Gig SysRAM, 3.4Ghz Prescott dual core P4, ATI9600 AGP, SageTV 5.0.4, Java 1.5.0.6[Needed for Bohica's Home Automation Package], NorthBridge Via PT880 FSB@800MHz, SouthBridge Via VT8237, 120Gig IDE Vid HD on Secondary Slave, 80Gig IDE OS HD on Primary Master, DVD ROM Drive on Secondary Master, SBAudigy soundcard, HALPCI Voiceportal modem.

All the drivers are the latest, including chipset... and the BIOS is the latest from asrock. The video drive is 64kb cluster formatted.

I did up the quality settings from DVD Long Play, to DVD Standard Play. And it ran for two days without locking up.

The thing is.... I love SageTV, but I haven't had any problems with WMP, ChrisTV, BTV, or even GBPVR.

I'm gonna keep trying. I will follow up, if [when] I solve this issue.

Wirenut

[Wirenut]

Okay...

Apparently Hal2000 and SageTV don't play nice together.

SageTV runs fine without Hal2000... so... Tweaking some stuff, I put the two programs on different processors on the dual core set up. VIOLA! or WALA! Both progs work great. Sage works with any decoder I choose! Nice.

Hal2000 is home automation software that is really kewl. I run both on the same machine. Neither program peaks out the CPU. And together they don't peak out the CPU, so I figured I was okay. But apparently they need separate affinity's for processors.

SageTV is now very smooth and playback is jitter free.

I just need to set up separate processor affinity for each piece of software.

I'll post again about my "extended testing." Right now I've put SageTV through it's normal crash scenarios and it's hummin' along wonderfully.

FWIW

Peace,

Wirenut

[broderp]

Your original problem sounds IDENTICLE to mine, including the use of task manager to shut down sageTV etc...

Unfortunately, I don't use any other programs other than SAGE and a few others for the PC, like for driving the LCD display, it's a pretty emty box with little on it. Nothing has changed except I up graded to the newest version of sage, then it started to happen.

Guess I will start with updating my drivers. I also use an ATI card...

[bcjenkins]

If you don't do anything on the box but Sage, make sure your Java is 1.4 not 1.5. If you need 1.5 for something outside of Sage, you can set 1.4 as the default JVM. I was having all sorts of handle leak issues with 1.5 and VRM-9 (confirmed Java bug) going to 1.4 solves it.

B

[Wirenut]

The system works great with separate processors for each major software package, ie: CPU0 for SageTV, and CPU1 for Hal2000. Haven't had a glitch for twenty four hours.

I might try a Dual Core Hotfix from MS and see if that helps the situation.

I really wish I could run Java 1.4, as it works great with that. But the homeautomation interface has me in need of 1.5+.... So, hopefully someday soon Sun will figure out the problems.

Wirenut

[Wirenut]

Yep.

Just installed the MS Dual Core Processor patch for XPproSP2.

....and I can't believe how the cpu load decreased, SageTV runs smoother than ever, and even with Hal2000 running in the background!

Fabulous!

Thanks to one of the many Forums I scan for knowledge.... I forget which one I heard about this first. But if you have a dual core, you might wanna give this a try. And... YMMV. Be sure to back up first.

Peace,

Wirenut

I'd post a link, but I'm too lazy to find it... so just Google MS Dual Core Hotfix.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Wirenut

I really wish I could run Java 1.4, as it works great with that. But the homeautomation interface has me in need of 1.5+.... So, hopefully someday soon Sun will figure out the problems.

You might try 1.5.0_2 (Earlier version of 1.5) I've seen posts that suggest that the handle leak and other 1.5 problems don't exist in that version. Sorry too lazy to find the posts.

BobP.