SageTV V6.0.12 Beta is Now Available

[thatdude90210]

Originally Posted by banmj

I installed v6.0.12 on my server and a placeshifter client that I am using over the internet, that I have used before. The quality is lousy(pixelization). I used it yesterday with v6.0.11 and the quality was great. I haven't changed any settings.
Has anything been added from 6.0.11 to 6.0.12 that I need to tweek.

I finally tried placeshifter over the internet on this new beta today and found the same thing, the quality is much worst than .11 beta.

[banmj]

Originally Posted by thatdude90210

I finally tried placeshifter over the internet on this new beta today and found the same thing, the quality is much worst than .11 beta.

I tried everything and quality is definately worse with .12. I don't want to go back to .11. I am going to submit a bug report.

[snoopy]

I don't have a "pause" button mapped. Only a "play/Pause" button which does not get me out of text mode. I like alpha much better with the numbers on top. Can you tell me how to get that back?

[rfutscher]

I have been working with support and I think I have finally defined my problems. I have a few guesses why Sage is giving me so many problems.

1) I live at the edge of a program region. If I turn my antenna north I receive Washington D.C. If I point my antenna towards Maryland I receive Baltimore. If I point my antenna towards Richmond I get other channels. By Sage rules I can only get program data from one region. No programming info for half of my stations.

2) Sage bases their program data distribution on the analog coverage charts.

Analog transmission uses a lot of power just for the carrier. That leaves just a percentage of the power for actual video. For digital almost all the power is used by the data. By experiment the lowest signal level for analog was measured and made the 0db reference point. Because in digital transmission more power goes towards data you can receive a good signal at -20db.

I can not receive channel 2. It is very hard to make a high gain antenna at the low VHF frequencies. I have no trouble receiving 2.x on UHF channel 52 using a high gain UHF antenna. Because I can’t get channel 2 I don’t get the program guide Data for 2.x.

3) Sage uses static channel mapping.

When channel 7 added another program stream Sage did not find the channel until I did a channel scan. The problem is that one station adds and deletes program streams twice a day. At night they have channels 22.1 (a SD simulcast of their analog channel) and 22.2 (their HD channel). During the day they have a lot of educational programming and have four SD channels. The simulcast 22.1 is still present along with 22.3, 22.4, and 22.5. It appears that they transmit program guide data for all five channels 24 hours a day. Sage can not handle this dynamic situation.

4) Several channels appear twice in my program guide. Channel 7.3 is new and does not have a channel ID number (Zap2it). Channel 14.1 is a simulcast of analog 14 and does not have a separate channel ID number. It appears that if there isn’t a channel ID number Sage does not know that the same channel is being picked up by me two tuners and lists the channel twice.

5) Sage needs better error checking when scanning for channels.
When Sage does a channel scan it lists several channels that just are not there. I think that several nearby digital stations are overloading my tuner. This creates false images splattered across the band. Sage is finding these intermod products and it thinks that they are real stations.

[lobosrul]

I finally got around to trying out the beta yesterday, I did a clean install (unistalled V5 and deleted the directory). I'm mostly happy with the improvements, and I'll drop the $30 for it soon.

I have 3 unrelated responses/questions:

1. OnAir HDTV GT - Does it have a hardware encoder (for analog TV), and does it support simultaneous recording of analog and digital? If so, you probably have a sale.

2. Mp4 playback in Sage - I saw this mentioned earlier, I also cannot FF or rewind; I tested with Nero/AVC encoded files. Divx encoded files work fine.

3. I had "issues" getting the digital OTA channel lineup to appear correct. Someone mentioned they had problems also. Its tough to explain exactly what went on, but the channel search gave me a bunch of duplicate channels, and some mis-labeled -w rong guide on the wrong channel etc. I eventualy managed to sort thru them all. Just an inconvenience really.

[rpertusio]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

1. OnAir HDTV GT - Does it have a hardware encoder (for analog TV), and does it support simultaneous recording of analog and digital? If so, you probably have a sale.

lobosrul,
The OnAir GT uses software encoding. (We have a 'Creator' model with hardware encoding, but is not yet compatible with SageTV.) It does not support simultaneous recording of analog & digital.

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by rpertusio

lobosrul,
The OnAir GT uses software encoding. (We have a 'Creator' model with hardware encoding, but is not yet compatible with SageTV.) It does not support simultaneous recording of analog & digital.

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America

Ohh man, software encoding? That doesn't really scale well for multiple tuners. The beauty with the Hauppage cards is that they only take about 2-3%CPU per tuner. I guess you could use the OnAir card only for HD. That just records the stream right so it is all in hardware?

[Kirby]

If not now, maybe in the future, could Sage add the ability to extend the database with custom meta data tags? This way we could assign certain images to imported videos, such as a DVD icon or HD icon where necessary.

[lobosrul]

I've always wanted to be able to tag a whole directory. In SageMC you can tag a DVD, or an individual file. But I dont want to tag every single encoded episode of a TV show for instance, just per show, or per season. Guess thats a SageMC issue really.

[Kirby]

Yeah I asked Dirk if he could add the ability, but like I figured, he confirmed it would be a PIA because he would have to hack the database to do it. This all arose from my request to him to be able to assign a DVD icon and High Def icon to shows, so that when I browse through a large video library that has both High Def and DVD rips, that it would be easy to tell which is which without having to navigate into each video file. My guess is that such a database modification wont occur, but doesnt hurt to ask!

[rpertusio]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

I guess you could use the OnAir card only for HD. That just records the stream right so it is all in hardware?

Deadbolt,
I am unsure if that's how SageTV handles ATSC streams. If it is anything like our OEM (included) program, it simply records the stream directly to the hard drive in a .tp/.trp/.ts format, stripping out subchannels if you choose to do so.

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America

[stanger89]

Anybody else noticing that the client doesn't discover the server anymore? Or maybe I'm doing something lazy/stupid.

[lobosrul]

I think I found a bug:

This ONLY happens while running VMR9/FSE mode. If I try and playback a divx encoded file Sage minimizes. I can then click on the taskbar and playback is fine, except for the fact im obviously not in FSE mode anymore (HDTV is not as smooth as it should be). This does not happen if I try and playback an mp4. Ive also tried playing .divx files just to be sure if this wasnt an issue with avi containers, no difference.

I was running SageMC when I first noticed this, so I switched back to the default STV to be sure this was a Sage issue. Instead of Sage minimizing, it locks up. I can still move the mouse but I couldnt alt-tab out or run the task manager.

I've tried changing video/audio decoders to no effect. Ive switched to Overlay mode for now and everything is ok.

BTW: I was having issues with aspect ratios in Overlay mode in V5, that seems to be fixed.

[heffe2001]

I saw the same Divx behavior last night, going to try playing with it tonight and seeing if I can get a debug log to submit. I've also turned on the feature in the ini file to always use the dshow player (I believe that was it, I'd have to check again to be sure), and thought that might be the problem.

[kricker]

I am getting lock-ups after changing the channel 3 times using the purevideo decoders. This does not happen with the sage decoders. It happens in .11 as well as .12. I have duplicated this on another twin htpc. I have a feeling it is related to my ncrappy dualtv card. Anyone else runnig the dualtv without this issue? A bug report has been filed.

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by rpertusio

Deadbolt,
I am unsure if that's how SageTV handles ATSC streams. If it is anything like our OEM (included) program, it simply records the stream directly to the hard drive in a .tp/.trp/.ts format, stripping out subchannels if you choose to do so.

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America

I understand that this is how it does it for HD...but how about SD? Is the SD encoded via hardware (like the Hauppauge cards) or software?

[blade]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

I understand that this is how it does it for HD...but how about SD? Is the SD encoded via hardware (like the Hauppauge cards) or software?

rpertusio already answered that question in the post you initially responded to:

Question:
1. OnAir HDTV GT - Does it have a hardware encoder (for analog TV)...............

Answer:
The OnAir GT uses software encoding. (We have a 'Creator' model with hardware encoding, but is not yet compatible with SageTV.)

BTW almost every HD capture card uses software encoding for SD. The ATI 650 and AutumnWave's Creator model are the only HD cards I've heard of that use hardware encoding for SD.

[chadman]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Anybody else noticing that the client doesn't discover the server anymore? Or maybe I'm doing something lazy/stupid.

I had the same problem. I think I fixed it when I registered. Not sure if that is what fixed the problem, but after I did I was able to connect my clients.

Chad

[stanger89]

I'm able to connect, but the client doesn't automatically discover the server. Probably have some more investigating to do...

[chadman]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm able to connect, but the client doesn't automatically discover the server. Probably have some more investigating to do...

I have not had that work for some time now. I remember the first time I installed my first client that worked, but I do not think I have had it work since then. I have no idea what I did to break that (security update?, firewall?) I am able to manually enter the IP and it works fine. Then I can set it to auto connect to that IP and that works great since I use static IP’s. Chad