I like my STV but I have a few questions.

[Jackal]

1. I paid $80 for this. Am I suppose to receive a CD or was that just for an email with the access code?

2. Video files (.vob, .mpeg, etc) don't play correctly. They don't play completely through the time line. That time marker moves way to fast and gets across before the movie is over. The movie then stops and it's a nightmare to get it to play from that point correctly.

3. Music files (.mp3) seem to cut off in the last 10 seconds or so of the songs. Very few song play through until the end. But they play just fine in other media players.

4. I have some STVi plug-in issues but I'll go to their specific furoms to find out about them. (Netflix, Movie Times)

5. Suddenly, I'm having trouble receiving HDTV signals. But that might have anything to do with STV it self.

Can anyone help? Offer suggestions? Tips?

I'm at work right now but I can get the specific setting once I get home this evening.

Thanks.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Jackal

1. I paid $80 for this. Am I suppose to receive a CD or was that just for an email with the access code?

If you bought the SageTV software here, it states: "Available as Electronic Download only." The SageTV software is usually delivered via download.

2. Video files (.vob, .mpeg, etc) don't play correctly. They don't play completely through the time line. That time marker moves way to fast and gets across before the movie is over. The movie then stops and it's a nightmare to get it to play from that point correctly.

3. Music files (.mp3) seem to cut off in the last 10 seconds or so of the songs. Very few song play through until the end. But they play just fine in other media players.

Someone might have a suggestion if you say how you are playing them back -- MVP as Media Extender, Placeshifter, SageTV, what? If in SageTV, you may want to try a different decoder.

- Andy

[Jesse]

Hi,

1. Email w/access code.

2. I had this problem way back when. Nothing seemed to help so I un-installed/re-installed sage. Problem cured.

3. Sorry, I dont use sage for music.

4. Right on. Specific discussion threads are the best place to start.

5. HDTV can be tricky. I am assuming you are talking about OTA. What tuner card are you using? Does it have a signal strength utility? We need to determine whether it is a problem with the card or a signal strengh issue.

What are your hardware specs? Which version of Java are you on? Which decoders. What else does this machine do besides sage?

EDIT: Looks like Andy snuck in ahead of me.

Jesse

[blade]

Originally Posted by Jackal

2. Video files (.vob, .mpeg, etc) don't play correctly. They don't play completely through the time line. That time marker moves way to fast and gets across before the movie is over. The movie then stops and it's a nightmare to get it to play from that point correctly.

If it were just mpeg2 captures I'd say it sounds like the Hauppauge driver bug that causes corruption in the timelines. Since it's also .vob files though I have no clue.

[Jackal]

No disc? *sniff...sniff* Ok.

Here are my system specs:

Media Front End: SageTV Media Center Version 5.0
Case: Antec MSK2400 w/PSU: SU380 PSU 380 Watt
Mobo: MSI K8NGM2-FID
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200
HDD: 2 x Samsung 250GB SATA 2.0
Optical: Samsung 16X DVD+/-RW Super Multi Drive with 5X DVD-RAM
Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR 400 (PC 3200)
HD Tuner: VBox Cat's Eye DTA 150
SD Tuner: TBD
Keyboard/Mouse: XGene 2.4GHz Wireless Keyboard with 800dpi Optical Trackball
WiFi: Netgear WG111 v.2
HDTV Antenna: Zenith ZHDTV1 Silver Sensor HDTV Indoor UHF Antenna

I'm running just the plan old SageTV. The PC is only used for HTPC purposes (ripping music and movies). I have Media Monkey, Sonic Stage and Music Match on it to handle music processing and labelling. Sonic and Music Match will be removed. Power DVD is also installed. For system cleaners I have AVG Free, Spybot and Ad-Aware SE.

Codecs: NVidia Pure, AC3 Filter, FDD Show (I think it's still in there). Also, Realtek HD Audio drivers are in there for the mobo onboard sound.

I'm doing OTA for the HiDef. No analog card has been decided on yet. I'll have to check on Java versions when I get home.

I've installed several STVi's:
Web Radio - Works fine
Weather - Works fine
Netflix - Locks up/crashes my system
Movie Time - Can't find local theaters, but otherwise works fine

I'll check all of this again once I get home this evening.

[joematt]

2. Video files (.vob, .mpeg, etc) don't play correctly. They don't play completely through the time line. That time marker moves way to fast and gets across before the movie is over. The movie then stops and it's a nightmare to get it to play from that point correctly.

This looks like Sage is refreshing the import folders on uncompleted files. If you are ripping or transcodeing directly to your import folders (best not to do this) then you should turn off automatic refreshing of your import libraries and refresh manually. This will also happen to videos when moving them into the folders. To fix this on existing bad videos just move them out of the folder, do a refresh (this removes the entry from the wiz.bin) move the videos back and then do another refresh.

[Jackal]

Thanks. I'll try removing the files and refreshing. I also changed back some of my settings. I forgot that I changed some of the decoders to "Cyberlink" when they used to be NVidia. I was still using the demo at the time.

[Jackal]

That didn't seem to work. How do you turn off the "auto refreshing"? I'll try moving the files again.

[joematt]

Originally Posted by Jackal

That didn't seem to work. How do you turn off the "auto refreshing"? I'll try moving the files again.

Did you do the refresh after you moved the videos from the import directory?

After stopping Sagetv (including the service if you use it) In the Sage.properties and/or SageClient.properties file change:

seeker/periodically_scan_library=true
to
seeker/periodically_scan_library=false

I run this way all the time.

[Jackal]

Yes, I moved the files and closed Sage, reopened it and then freshed again. Checked to see if all the files were gone and then I closed Sage and put the files back. After refreshing Sage to get them back the music files still cut off in the last 10-15 seconds and jump to the next track. But I' starting to think it's not with every song, just most of them. I'll try again and test out a movie this evening. I'll also try modding that setting too.

Thanks for the help.

Oh! I just found out how to add cover art to the video files! Amazing what you can find out when you read the instructions!

[blade]

I wouldn't worry too much about the music. The 5.1 beta is supposed to come out this week and has improvements to the music section. As long as the videos are working properly I'd just wait on the new beta to see if it fixes the music problem before wasting too much time troubleshooting.

[joematt]

This was a possible fix for your video problems not your music problems. I tried Sage's music system and gave up on it long ago.

I do hope the 5.1 beta will at least fix some of the many usability problems in music as blade suggests.

[FidgetyRat]

I have eagerly been awaiting 5.1 since.. well. probably 3.0...

The jukebox was probably the worst thing ever designed in sage. Plus AAC support finally!



One suggestion I have that many people would probably cringe about is not to use any virus or spyware "protection". If you are only using your HTPC for sage and ripping, then the chances of you getting anything are practically none, especially if behind a firewall. You waste tons of resources scanning for these things that 98% of the time even the scanners can't seem to figure out how to remove.

A clean system is a happy system. (So long as you don't abuse it)

[Jackal]

This was a possible fix for your video problems not your music problems.

Ok. I'll be checking on that this evening.

And so the music system has always had problems, huh? Then I'll leave it be since it appears to be a wide spread anomaly. I need to read over a few more things in the instructions concerning soe of the custom settings, too. I'm going to head over to the STVi forums now to check on the plugins now. Cya later.