Newbie with garbled Sage screens

[Rupp]

Guys,
I just loaded SageTv on my PC and was logged in via Remote Desktop on my remote server when I loaded it. The Sage screens looked fine as I was going through the getting started questions but I was receiving and error when the software tried to show a preview of my new WinTV-HVR-1600 . So I though it may be because I was using remote desktop and it was preventing SAGE from rendering the overlay. I connected a monitor to my server and restarted the SAGE install and now all of the Media Center screens are garbled and the bubbles do not line up with the options which makes it impossible to move through the setup. Any suggestions as to why the bubbles are not aligning to the options and the text is all garbled?

[CollinR]

Resinstall completely from a local interface, when you install via RDP it gets confused into using the RDP display adapter hook and sets the stuff all wrong.

Remove the Program files/SageTV directory.

Install as normal, do NOT open the client interface if possible.

Go:
Start>Programs>SageTV>SageTV Service Control

Set SageTV to run as a service using a username, you might make a MediaServer user specifically for SageTV and your other automation tasks.

Now launch the client from the desktop icon, go through the configuration.
Make sure you tell it no video on the menus if you plan to use RDP to manage it. The menu system in SageTV is fine over RDP once installed but you cannot playback video through it, or at least I haven't found a combination of decoders and diaplay settings that will.

If you connect via RDP and then login locally you often need to restart the client to get it to display correctly. It's the same basic problem it queries for display information on startup and RDP info is less then desirable.

[Fuzzy]

The other option for you is to try using something besides RDP. Try a VNC software setup for your remote desktopping (http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net).

[wirecreative]

I've had this same issue. I often use RealVNC to manage the Sage system.

I had no idea RDP can mess it up. Can other VNC software also screw with Sage's performance?

Here's a screen shot I posted a few weeks ago:


I've been getting other weird behavior lately, too, after adding a couple of HVR-1800s (I also use SageMC), but it's not been tuner-related, so I didn't consider that as real factor.

(Now I'm getting some weird media database issues, but I'm posting about that in its own thread in a few minutes.)

[CollinR]

Well I doubt it'll really botch the install, the reason to redo is to get it configured as a service the first time so you don't have a bunch of GUI stuff in the server properties. This will reduce confusion as you modifiy, the RDP issues will go away if you restart the client from a local session.

[IVB]

I know for a fact that UltraVNC works just fine with Sage menu screens. I don't try rendering video that way, doubt that would work, but that's not Rupp's issue. I also did the initial install locally as CollinR said.

[wirecreative]

Originally Posted by IVB

I know for a fact that UltraVNC works just fine with Sage menu screens. I don't try rendering video that way, doubt that would work, but that's not Rupp's issue. I also did the initial install locally as CollinR said.

Right. I don't use it watch video through the VNC connection.

But I've seen similar screen issues with the Sage GUI, and wondered if maybe RealVNC was a the catalyst.

Sometimes they're jumbled, as seen above. Sometimes the menu font is very small. Last night for the first time, I got some weird characters in place of some letters in the menus.

Unrelated? If so, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

[Fuzzy]

You can install perfectly fine over ultravnc. The problems with using RDP is that it uses different login parameters than a local user. VNC simply sends the input and video info over the network, so there is no weird user settings. UltraVNC works fine over internet or LAN (better over LAN obviously) You can see the video rendering (slideshow style, of course), but only if using the VMR renderer. If using the Overlay, the video is not visible to UltraVNC's hooks, so you just see black where the video would be. For this reason, I leave my headless server's Sage Install in overlay mode, so I don't have to worry about it sucking up the bandwidth to TRY to send the video, and only have the UI over the network.

[ltitran]

I have been using TeamViewer for a VNC application.
I have had issues with VNC causing the STV to shutdown or lockup so I switched.

TeamViewer was also nice in that I can remote the system via the internet through ANY firewall.