Novelty of Recording TV is Long Gone...Now Fix It

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Major_A

Unfortuately for me nVidia hasn't updated the nForce3 drivers since last year and those are the ones I have.

Try these... I have had great service from them...

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/meis...x-vt66487.html

:-)

-Jason

[naln]

Have you tried changing the decoders for video playback? Sounds like sage freezes up trying to playback a file- so I would start looking there. Also, is the system stable if sage just keeps recording and nothing is watched on the server - or if wmp or someother media player is used to watch those files?

-naln.

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by Jason

Try these... I have had great service from them...

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/meis...x-vt66487.html

:-)

-Jason

Thanks, I'll give them a shot.

Originally Posted by naln

Have you tried changing the decoders for video playback? Sounds like sage freezes up trying to playback a file- so I would start looking there. Also, is the system stable if sage just keeps recording and nothing is watched on the server - or if wmp or someother media player is used to watch those files?

-naln.

I have changed them in the past. There was no success. Right now I'm using nVidia Post Processing Decoder. If SageTV sits there idle or sleeping it has never shut down on me that way. I don't know about WMP as the PC is used exclusively for my HTPC.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by Major_A

Right now I'm using nVidia Post Processing Decoder.

With your video card you should probably be using the nvidia video decoder and not the post processor one. That may be why you needed to overclock. Your video card I believe will do that same thing in hardware that the post processor does in software with your CPU.

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

With your video card you should probably be using the nvidia video decoder and not the post processor one. That may be why you needed to overclock. Your video card I believe will do that same thing in hardware that the post processor does in software with your CPU.

Thanks I'll give it a shot.

[naln]

If you experience crashes only when trying to playback a file within sagetv- then it seems decoder related to me.
I have experienced some stuttering, freezing up etc while trying to use some decoders- but only within sage. Watching the same media via another media player should tell you more about your problem.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by Major_A

Hardlocks was a bad choice of words. I have never had a hardlock of Windows, not my HTPC. Basically I will select a video to view and SageTV will lock up. From there I either need to reboot the computer or open up the Task Manager and close SageTV and reopen it. While I agree the PSU is questionable it has so far been rock solid. I have let Everest run in the background for days at a time to monitor temperatures and voltages. Everything was well within specs and I have not noticed a problem, yet.

As far as loading my card differently than a benchmark I can agree again. But the thing is I am just decoding SDTV through a satellite dish, not HDTV. According to PureVideo it is regularly 3Mbps. The card is good, the only reason it made into my HTPC is because I updated to a PCIe board in my main rig and couldn't use the card. I had similar crashes and SageTV lockups when I was using a Geforce FX 5600 before the 6800nu.

I have run my RAM through 24+ hour memtest86 runs to make sure it was not the culprit in the first place. I have had bad RAM issues in the past and I generally know what to look for and rectify them ASAP. I have had bad RAM that will play nice with everything except surfing the Internet, that was a pain in the butt to find the problem.

My vote is on PCI bus contention coupled with the low budget mainboard. Try moving around the pvr card and the sound card. Try to put the PVR in a PCI slot that does not share a *physical* IRQ line with any other slot.

However, with the mainboard you have this may not be possible.

-MrD

[naln]

Will IRQ assignments and other PCI slot conflicts not cause issues with the recording itself rather than playback?

I would assume that since the recording works perfectly fine- the IRQ assignments may not be involved- and if at all- they should cause problems with watching "Live TV" or while recording - not after that IMHO. I am no means an expert on this- just throwing out ideas based on my experience that may help!

-naln

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by naln

Will IRQ assignments and other PCI slot conflicts not cause issues with the recording itself rather than playback?

I would assume that since the recording works perfectly fine- the IRQ assignments may not be involved- and if at all- they should cause problems with watching "Live TV" or while recording - not after that IMHO. I am no means an expert on this- just throwing out ideas based on my experience that may help!

-naln

I switched the decoder to nVidia Decoder and updated JAVA and haven't had a crash yet. I did have SageTV "think" for about 5 minutes last night but it eventually fixed itself.

I haven't heard about IRQ issues since Win 98/ME. If I recall correctly those were mostly on VIA chipsets.

[naln]

Originally Posted by Major_A

I haven't heard about IRQ issues since Win 98/ME. If I recall correctly those were mostly on VIA chipsets.

I have had to remove an Xcard from my server due to conflicts with a SATA raid controller in WinXP Pro. Both worked very well without the other installed . May not have been IRQ- but manual IRQ setting, swapping PCI slots etc did not do the trick- frustration ran high- and I just went back to using TVout from a Matrox G450 instead.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by Major_A

I switched the decoder to nVidia Decoder and updated JAVA and haven't had a crash yet. I did have SageTV "think" for about 5 minutes last night but it eventually fixed itself.

I haven't heard about IRQ issues since Win 98/ME. If I recall correctly those were mostly on VIA chipsets.

When you say updated JAVA what do you mean? What version are you running now? Also can you list EXACTLY what your Video/Audio detailed setup is configured as.
Mine is as follows:

VMR9
NVIDIA Video Decoder
Default
Default
Disabled
Default Directsound
NVIDIA Audio Decoder

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

When you say updated JAVA what do you mean? What version are you running now? Also can you list EXACTLY what your Video/Audio detailed setup is configured as.
Mine is as follows:

VMR9
NVIDIA Video Decoder
Default
Default
Disabled
Default Directsound
NVIDIA Audio Decoder

I'm running the JAVA version linked to earlier in this thread, snapshot version.
VMR9
nVidia Video Decoder
Default
Default
Disabled
Envy24 Family Audio (WDM)
nVidia Audio Decoder

[ToxMox]

You may want to change from Envy24 to Default Directsound. I had DVD related issues until I switched to Default Directsound. This may have no impact at all with you though.

[Major_A]

I set it to the Envy24 WDM so Dolby Digital would work correctly. Seemed that the others would only produce Pro Logic.

Good news is I haven't had a crash in 3 days. Bad news is I am about ready to take a sledgehammer to my box. In some type of cruel joke I can no longer get a program guide. This all started early this morning while I was watching a movie, Cry Wolf to be exact. I recorded the movie because I didn't know if I would still be up to watch it. As it turns out my insomniatic brain kept me awake and I watched the movie. I paused the movie a few times to get a snack, use the restroom, etc... At the end of the movie there was a small piece of dialogue I didn't quite hear so I hit the quick rewind button, big mistake. The movie starts completely over and will not let me fast forward. I've had this happen before in the past and usually a restart of SageTV would take care of it. Well this time all Sage wanted to do was keep restarting this recording over and over. The recording seemed to be stuck in some kind of loop. Eventually I put Sage into sleep and watched the recorded MPG on my main machine. So I watched the part I couldn't hear, turns out I heard it correctly the first time, finished the movie and deleted it. Seems my PVR decided to chop into the recording a bit, 30MB to be exact. I have also noticed that this has caused problems with correct playback in the past with Sage. So I am done with this movie and wake Sage to see if there was anything I wanted to record while I was sleeping.

Herein lies the problem:
The program guide had No Data for every channel. I figured no big deal, deleted a channel from my lineup and added it again, no go. I deleted my video source, after reading that "fix" here on the forums, again no go. At this point it was way past my bedtime so I went to sleep. I just tried to repair Sage to see if that would work, nope. I uninstalled Sage and reinstalled to see if that would help, nada. On the positive side, before I did the repair install of Sage when I did that aforementioned fixes the Next EPG Update field would show 0. After the repair install it is showing 24 hours later. I am at the point where I think I need to run a clean install of Sage, i.e. delete everything Sage related.

If I do this can you tell me where to locate my Favorite show listings so I can just plug it back into the fresh install. While my Favorite list isn't very extensive, maybe 20-25 shows, it is setup very specific.

If you know of a better solution I am willing to try it. I have also tried the “Try removing all the properties from the properties file that have the string 'server_update_id' in them (do it while SageTV is not running). That should resolve the issue.” fix without success.

Pics, worth a thousand words, or so I hear:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...2121/Data1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...2121/Data2.jpg

[Polypro]

The one time I had "No Data", I removed my capture cards from Sage, re-booted, and then added them back in. Went through the zip code and cable company setup, and had the guide back. You probably read that thread though Wiz.bin is the main file to back up, but wait for a definitive answer from someone else on exactly where Fav's are kept.

P

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by Polypro

The one time I had "No Data", I removed my capture cards from Sage, re-booted, and then added them back in. Went through the zip code and cable company setup, and had the guide back. You probably read that thread though Wiz.bin is the main file to back up, but wait for a definitive answer from someone else on exactly where Fav's are kept.

P

Well I didn't physically remove the card, I just deleted from within SageTV. From there I had to re-enter the zip and setup my video source again.

[ToxMox]

Perhaps you are having some sort of firewall issue.

I also wonder what would happen if for the heck of it you tried a different zip code/region and completely different lineup just to see if you get listings there.

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Perhaps you are having some sort of firewall issue.

I also wonder what would happen if for the heck of it you tried a different zip code/region and completely different lineup just to see if you get listings there.

Hasn't been a problem like this in the past. I just read through the manual and opened the ZAP port on my router. Still no success. I am currently writing down my favs and am going to nuke SageTV. I will hopefully delete every file assciated with the program, hidden ones included, and any registry entries. If this doesn't work I'll try Snapstream again. If I remember correctly it was very media center limited, even more so than Sage, but I'm running out of patience.

[blade]

The wiz.bin file stores your favorites and viewing history. How long after seeing no data did you wait before making changes to your system? Sometimes after reboots or changes to the lineup it takes awhile before the guide, recording shedule, etc... repopulates.

[Major_A]

Originally Posted by blade

The wiz.bin file stores your favorites and viewing history. How long after seeing no data did you wait before making changes to your system? Sometimes after reboots or changes to the lineup it takes awhile before the guide, recording shedule, etc... repopulates.

Been this way since that movie screwed up on me, 11 hours-ish. Thanks for the wiz.bin info.

*UPDATE*
After a fresh install the guide works again. Here we go again. Oh and thank you very much for the wiz.bin info, made my life a lot easier.