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| SageTV Software Discussion related to the SageTV application produced by SageTV. Questions, issues, problems, suggestions, etc. relating to the SageTV software application should be posted here. (Check the descriptions of the other forums; all hardware related questions go in the Hardware Support forum, etc. And, post in the customizations forum instead if any customizations are active.) |
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#1
11-17-2003, 11:22 AM
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choppy video
was wondering if anyone else has run into this. my friend and i have been recording with sagetv for about a month now, and really enjoy the overall quality and performance of the product...
however, on my machine (amd 2000+, winfast geforce2 mx, 1 gig memory, several fast HDs), it's only a matter of time before each *NEW* recording stutters... once it happens, the machine must be rebooted before the recordings return to the excellent quality of before... i was of the opinion until last night that using my sony dvd recorder was the cause, as i've seen the stutter start on more than one occasion after burning a dvd... however, the last occurrence happened while i was sleeping, no other programs running... ad-aware and spybot report nothing out of the ordinary, no tasks scheduled, etc... now, this stutter doesn't normally happen until the machine has been running for at least one day... closing down sagetv and restarting it alone doesn't work; reboot is required, so i'm looking at something garbaging the driver or internal settings, something that gets reset with reboot... oh, and i've had to reboot twice in a row just once (first recording out of the box after one reboot was stuttered/choppy)... normally, a reboot is good for at least 24 hours... on the other hand, my friend has set up three boxes for recording (all have more horsepower, faster drives) and not a single one of them has had problems with recording... they are up 24/7, and have been for the better part of the month now... latest drivers known have been installed all the way around, from audio to video to system... ideas? 
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#2
11-17-2003, 11:27 AM
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Do you have separate partitions set up just for video? These should be formatted with 64k block sizes.
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Dan Kardatzke, Co-Founder SageTV, LLC
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#3
11-17-2003, 01:20 PM
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ok, i have zero idea why a 64k block size would have anything to do with this, but i'll go along with it as soon as i can find out what the block size is... (LATER) it took me a while to find: 4k block size (windows on its own wouldn't tell me through device manager or disk properties, so i wandered through a few diagnostic programs)...
both drives are formatted NTFS default, and both are used exclusively for video (both storage and recording)... one is a western digital usb 200 gig, usb 2.0... second is 100 gig western digital attached as master to raid controller as a normal drive (non-raid)... i've also had the same issue when using fat32-formatted drives, using windows defaults (western dig 40-gigs)... and, as i said in previous message, my friend has similar (though not identical) hardware formatted with the same windows defaults, no issue... he's even recording at larger datarates, which would create even larger files (obvious, but...) his biggest diff, perhaps, is he's using XP while i'm using 2k... [even later] sorry if i sounded a bit annoyed... after i saved the above, i realized it could be interpreted in a variety of negative ways... again, sorry... thanx for trying to help 
Last edited by ckp; 11-17-2003 at 01:27 PM.
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#5
11-18-2003, 08:54 AM
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Do you get the same stuttering using the WinTV application?
__________________
Dan Kardatzke, Co-Founder SageTV, LLC
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#6
11-18-2003, 05:25 PM
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i've seen something similar with just wintv2000, but to be honest, until today i've not used it at all in quite some time...
a little experiment lasting about an hour was just completed, and i was unable to make it stutter, even when other programs were hogging the cpu at much higher priorities (editing programs, compilers, virtualdub on "even higher")...
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#7
11-19-2003, 09:49 AM
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curious... sage was on all night, recording late/early programming; nothing else was running until my defragger came online, about 4am... within ten minutes, stutter occurred and with it, multiple files for one recorded program... it's almost as if having something else running divides the attention of the cpu just long enough that either the hardware/software combination can't keep up with the recording, or the system perhaps executes a context switch at the wrong moment...
i've been wondering if that could be the cause, especially with disk-intensive operations (like heavy file copying, defragging, etc)... could it be that sage/hauppauge want the full attention of the hardware to function without hiccup? that an amd 2000+ with a gig of memory isn't enough hardware to run other programs concurrently, or there's a corrupt file/set of files that are tweaked at just the wrong moment?
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#8
11-19-2003, 11:31 AM
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Defrag is definitely going to mess with just about anything you are running even sage which should only use about 5% cpu or less. I have seen defrag alone take the CPU up to 100% on a 2500.
The higher your record rate the worse it will probably be. I also experieced the same phenomenon you describe when doing a massive copy over the network. It probably has less to do with the CPU and more to do with the ability of the subsystem to write to HD. It would be interesting to see if a Raid setup could keep up with the IO demands. I would try it just for fun...but I broke appart my Raid Since you allready reformated your HD to 64K blocks, you should not try to defrag. You should not need it. Note that XP defrag will tell you you need to, but you really dont. Also...make sure it is the capture that is causing the stuttering not your video card - allthough it really does sound like a capture issue. I assume you have tried lowering the record rate and switching codecs ?
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#9
11-19-2003, 11:39 AM
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Yeah, you would probably not want to defrag while sage is trying to write to that drive. That is probably one of the most HD intensive apps you could run against it. I would suggest doing that manually once and awhile (I do it bi-monthly).
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#10
11-19-2003, 05:42 PM
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just so no one gets the wrong idea, defrag doesn't happen ALL the time, nor are other disk activities the sole cause; predominant, perhaps, but not sole...
as for the stutter, i've noticed that EVERY time it occurs, i'm also the "proud" recipient of numerous pieces of a recording. ie, stutter starts and part 0 stops recording (as an example, the file will be AllyMcBeal-FallingUp-125601-0.mpg)... SOMETIMES, part 1 (same example: AllyMcBeal-FallingUp-125601-1.mpg) doesn't start up before the end of when recording SHOULD stop, but more often than not, i'll see at least 2-3 other pieces before the end (AllyMcBeal-FallingUp-125601-2.mpg and AllyMcBeal-FallingUp-125601-3.mpg ) part 2 and part 3 as well)... is this something people see when they get stuttering video? it's almost as if sage/hauppauge are trying to re-initialize in the middle of a program recording, but failing...
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#12
11-19-2003, 06:07 PM
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what is an "FS"? and disk space and memory are not issues... memory is 1 gig, disk space on the primary encoding drive is currently 80 gig free... all of the used space is taken by files waiting to be edited, about 15 gig worth at present...
if FS = File System: win2k pro, amd 2000+, winfast geforce2 mx (64 meg), 1 gig memory, several reasonably-fast western dig HDs (two 40gs, one 100g, one usb 2.0 200g (which is now being used exclusively for storage)... current recording speed has been 1.8, went to 2.5 for last night, and is now 2.0/hr ... problem has occurred at all three speeds... i'm getting to where i'm going to reinstall the whole machine to see if anything changes. this is something i'd prefer NOT to do, for obvious reasons... i'd rather find that this is a software defect or hardware incompatibility, not a random-a$$ bug that only appears on stealth feet after the chicken has been sacrificied...
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#16
11-19-2003, 09:03 PM
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UDMA 6 at ultra-ata 133 is what i'm guessing... aida isn't more specific, just saying that's what the max is...
someone back there said something about adding/trying different codecs... would someone be interested in walking me through adding/trying? i have a fair number of vidcodecs available, but sage is seeing only the intervideo noncss 'default'... 00 caren
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#17
11-20-2003, 06:02 AM
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It almost sounds like something is conflicting with your PVR-250. Did you try doing a full re-install of the drivers, by that I mean following Hauppauge instructions to the letter - running HWCLEAR etc.?
You could even try removing the card, reinstalling it into another slot an let windows re-discover it. One way you could check your other hardware is by using a benchmark program and comparing your scores, if your HD scores are way bellow similar systems you would know there is a problem. Whenever I build a new system thats the first thing I do - Run a full benchmark that way I have a baseline that I can refrecnce if something seems wrong. Problem is no benchmark I know will test the PVR card. It could just be defective -overheating...etc and shutting down momentarily that stuff does happen. I dont know any way to test it other than try a different one. As far as Codecs go, if you have WINDVD installed Sage should pickup that one, you could download a trial for that - Also Elcard has a trial and PoweDVD, I would start with the WINDVD though, it should install a codec just called "Intervideo"
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#18
11-20-2003, 07:17 AM
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Do you have PowerDVD or WinDVD on the computer? What if you play the MPEG files you recorded directly with that?
I'm trying to figure out a problem myself on my 1Ghz PC. It plays all files fine, and even across a 100Mb network, but SageTV constantly stutters all material. -Robert
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#19
11-20-2003, 07:31 AM
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Disk Operations Note
I was watching recorded material last night and noticed stuttering as well. Every 3-5 seconds I would freeze a couple of frames...
Root cause: From another machine in my network, I was transferring ripped DVD's to a drive in my Sage box (over 10/100 LAN). This disk operation was enough to cause stuttering in the video...
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m2
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