Hd recordings mostly fine, then garbeled

[Deacon Crusher]

Just really settling in to using Sage for HD recordings that I watch around the house (via an HD extender, a mediamvp or placeshifter.)

First Terminator episode, first 10 minutes very choppy, sound and video stops and starts, breaks up, then settled down and rest of show was fine.

Second Terminator episode, first 45 minutes fine then ended up with the same choppy, stuttering problem.

NFC championship game, first 35 minutes fine, then garbeled mess for at least a while.

Skip and fast forward also seem to behave oddly on these recordings.

Have tested and recordings behave the same no matter where I watch them (including on the server.)

Any idea what's causing this or what I need to do to diagnose?

thanks

[BFisher]

my opinion is that first you need to determine if it was recorded that way or not. Were the "glitches" repeatable - are they the exact same if you rewind and play again?

If so, then I'd suspect your hard disk and/or a tuner issue... did you format with big clusters? are you severely fragmented?

If it only happens on your MVP, I'd suspect that your CPU can't handle transcoding from HD to SD in real-time. Try compressing the files (so it converts to SD at a slower pace) and see if it helps.

Not much help... just a few thoughts.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Just really settling in to using Sage for HD recordings that I watch around the house (via an HD extender, a mediamvp or placeshifter.)

First Terminator episode, first 10 minutes very choppy, sound and video stops and starts, breaks up, then settled down and rest of show was fine.

Second Terminator episode, first 45 minutes fine then ended up with the same choppy, stuttering problem.

NFC championship game, first 35 minutes fine, then garbeled mess for at least a while.

Skip and fast forward also seem to behave oddly on these recordings.

Have tested and recordings behave the same no matter where I watch them (including on the server.)

Any idea what's causing this or what I need to do to diagnose?

thanks

Every once in awhile or two I'll get a bad recording with my HDHR. Start good..loose audio, in and out, pixelation. Sometimes it recovers, sometimes not. And usally the same 2 ro 3 channels. (maybe only two-didn't keep track.) I attribute it to the quality of signal. Just redid some cables and connectors. Ordering a different splitter if that doesn't help. And I tend to run the latest beta which sometimes is a double-edged sword. But so far, so good.

Gerry

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Every once in awhile or two I'll get a bad recording with my HDHR. Start good..loose audio, in and out, pixelation. Sometimes it recovers, sometimes not. And usally the same 2 ro 3 channels. (maybe only two-didn't keep track.) I attribute it to the quality of signal. Just redid some cables and connectors. Ordering a different splitter if that doesn't help. And I tend to run the latest beta which sometimes is a double-edged sword. But so far, so good.

Gerry

I have seen the same thing. I recently spent a lot of time looking at my network. I noticed that the network card was limiting the number of interrupts which I disabled (allowing all interrupts to be seen). I also increase the number of recieve buffers to the max. This seemed to resolve the issue.

The last day or two I have noticed a new issue that looks like poor broadcast quality. It only seems to show up on my HD channels. I have not been able to track it down yet.

[Taddeusz]

I've had the same exact problem with my HDHR. For me it's was a signal quality issue over broadcast. I even get the occasional glitch on QAM. Receiving QAM on cable can be problematic if you have too many devices hooked up in your house. Each new device you connect reduces the signal strength each gets. In this case you can call the cable company to increase the signal strength.

If you're receiving broadcast HD try and adjust your antenna for the best signal quality.

Also, make sure the drivers for your tuner card are up to date.

[Fastrack]

What I would do, is install the HDHomeRUn software on another machine, and if you are watching the eposide or even on the Sage server itself. Open - HDHomeRun Config - and click tuner #0 or #1 and it will show the Signal Quality of the channel which SageTV is currently streaming. You can do this at any time - just do not change the channel otherwise it will change / cancel SageTV from using the tuner.

If your dropping the Symbol Quality (ie. it's not at 100%) that is your problem - this has to be at 100% to receive a stable picture.

The Signal Strength is important but not so much because it could be a VERY strong but NOISEY signal.

When positioning your antenna fine tune - Signal Quality - if you end up dropping on Strength but can get a better Signal Quality this will result in a more stable picture.

[MeInMaui]

I had issues similar to those described with my HDHR a while back. At the time it was connected such that it had to pass through a switch to get to my SageTV server.

I ended up reorganizing everything and connected the HDHR directly to my server on its own nic. This was a few months ago. Since then I haven't had a single problem with it.

Just note that with a direct connection, you will have to run the HDHR Manager software on your server. It provides a DHCP server needed to assign an IP address to the HDHR.

Aloha,
Mike

[Deacon Crusher]

problem is with recording. problems are in the same place at the same time no matter when/where I play it back.

I'm thinking I may have too many splits in my cable (given others feedback.)

I'm in the process of getting rid of some tuners on pcs and moving to placeshifter client so I should be able to cut back on splits and hopefully this will take care of things.

thanks