Serial Channel Changing Issues

[mike1961]

(Told to repost in this thread - originally from the beta thread)

I have 5 serial com ports in my file server (1 built in and an add on card with 4 ports). It seems that every couple days or so, SageService no longer changes the channel on one of the tuner cards via the com port. It's like it just no longer works. I can then simply stop SageService and start it up again (without restarting the computer) and then everything works fine.

So far this has always happened with either of the two tuners on my NVidia Dual Tuner card and not on the third tuner which is my AverMedia tuner card. That could be due to the fact that I have encoder merit set to prefer the NVidia card.

I'm stumped as to what is causing this. This problem seems to have started with V6.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

Anyone have any ideas? It's doing this every couple of days.

Mike

[mike1961]

I had a thought - is there any chance that I need to change my version of Java on either the workstation or server or both to fix this problem (as well as PlaybackException errors on my workstations)? Or is it just part of the bugs in V6? I can't continue to live with this problem of Sage being totally unreliable to record shows unless I restart SageService it every other day.

Thanks,
Mike

[Narflex]

Are you doing serial control of DirecTV receivers? There was a firmware fix released recently by them to correct a problem where they'd stop responding to serial channel change requests.

You should submit a bug report with your log files if that isn't the problem.

[IncredibleHat]

The problem may be the DirecTVSerialControl.dll. A few others of us are looking into this 'every few days link-death' problem. Some are trying older versions of the DLL and so far have been having success, but it is still too early to tell if that is a viable solution.

If you don't have DirecTV boxes, then well... ignore this.

[mike1961]

Originally Posted by Narflex

Are you doing serial control of DirecTV receivers? There was a firmware fix released recently by them to correct a problem where they'd stop responding to serial channel change requests.

You should submit a bug report with your log files if that isn't the problem.

That is exactly what is happening. Every couple days it just stops tuning one of thetuners. I'm confused - IncredibleHat is saying to use an older version and I think you are saying there is a fix (newer version). Please advise as to what I should do and where I can get a fix/patch. Also, is the patch for the file server, each workstation or both?

Thanks,
Mike

[IncredibleHat]

I think the fix Narflex mentions is a 'firmware' update to the directv receivers sent down through the satellite system. I have yet to receive this supposed firmware update, so I cannot comment further on that.

[mike1961]

IncredibleHat - yes, I do have the DirecTV D10-100 STB. You indicated that an older version of the DirecTVSerialControl.dll may resolve this issue. If so, where can I get an older version and how can I see what version I currently have? Also, do I install this on the server or both the server and the workstations? I really want to resolve this problem as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's certainly a real "downer" when you set up to record certain programs and the channel doesn't change. I never had this issue in V5.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

Please help - this problem is happening almost everyday. Please see my prior post above as I'm not sure how to get the old version of the dll if that will fix the problem. This is terrible.

Thanks,
Mike

[crowland]

There are a couple in the following thread. I do not know which one people are using, though. I have found 4 searching through this forum:

11/08/2004
10/10/2005
05/01/2006
05/08/2006

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...VSerialControl

[IncredibleHat]

This is the one I am NOW using, and also naln is using (and testing) and was mentioned by a few others as a good working dll:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...serial+control
(the one Hector first posted in the thread)

We have been discussing this at length in this topic as well:

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...t=21595&page=3

[mike1961]

Wow - I just put the older DirectvSerialControl and it immediately fixed the problem where when I originally watch TV I can see a second or two of the channel the STB is on before it switches to the channel I want. Now, I don't see that anymore so that is nice. I'm hoping I now again have the channel changing reliability that I had with V5.

As far as I'm concerned this is a HUGE bug with the D10-100 STB's if the old version of the serial control works and the new one does not.

Thanks and I'll keep you posted on this.
Mike

[naln]

Yep- the older dll works like a charm ....
don't know the need to change it in the first place with this "new" one

Well- any of you seeing any CPU usage increase - I now have CPU usage spikes in two-three day cycles.....things are working well...then suddenly Sage server shows almost 70% plus CPU usage....video stuttering on the client....finally 95%+ CPU on sage server.....restart sage ....and things go back to normal....

I don't watch videos on the server.
Use Sage 6.0.19
No Sagetv service
Only watch on MVP client.
XP2100, 512mb RAM system...

Let me know if any of you have any suggestions....posted here since I was seeing this almost about the time I switched to the older dll about a week back (which is about 2-3days after I upgraded to the current sage from the earlier beta versions)....just wanted to make sure this is not the dll.....I think its SageV6......