Built new Sage machine, now remote placeshifting is HORRIBLE!

[2002cbr600f4i]

Ok, so last week it did a major overhaul of my Sage setup. Went from an old AthlonXP 2500+ with 512MB RAM running Windows 2000 and Sage 6.1 to a new Ath64 4000+ X2 with 2GB RAM running Vista Ultimate and the latest Sage.

Prior to the upgrade, I could easily placeshift to my laptop across the internet, even could do it when my laptop was connected through my cell phone's 3G wireless connection.

NOW - it's TERRIBLE! Navigating the menus takes place in spits and spurts. When I finally get to trying to watch any sort of content, it takes 60+ seconds to start it, and then I'll only get 1 second of video + sound before it hangs again for another minute, etc.

Across my home LAN to my Hauppauge Media MVP units it's much better, but doesn't feel as fast as it used to.

Is there some settings I need to adjust? Something I need to do to Vista to improve network performance or something? This is just not fun right now.

Any help is appreciated!

[nielm]

It's vista: Microsoft decided to 'improve' TCP...
There are various tweaks to vista (search the forums), and you may have better results if you install vista SP1 RC...

[2002cbr600f4i]

Ugh, can you point me to some of the fixes you're talking about? I can't seem to find anything that helps. I tried adding a couple registry changes that are supposed to increase the number of connections per machine to 75 (up from the default of 2), but that didn't seem to help.

I'm just at a loss. I'm even getting issues with my Hauppauge Media MVPs where they just won't respond to commands from the remote for several seconds at a time. It has to be the sage machine since my router wouldn't be involved in that situation (in fact from the sage machine to the MVP units is all on the same switch, with the router off on another branch...)

I'm just confused and a bit frustrated.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by 2002cbr600f4i

I'm just at a loss. I'm even getting issues with my Hauppauge Media MVPs where they just won't respond to commands from the remote for several seconds at a time. It has to be the sage machine since my router wouldn't be involved in that situation (in fact from the sage machine to the MVP units is all on the same switch, with the router off on another branch...)

I'm just confused and a bit frustrated.

See this http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...62&postcount=1 thread about the MVP issues with Vista. Sp1 RC1 for Vista appears to have fixed these issues. I still see issues with the Vista TCP using the HD extender but rare enough to just be a nusuiance and not a show stopper.

[2002cbr600f4i]

Argh...

Ok, last night I installed SP1 RC1, I did every other tweak that was mentioned on that thread....

Placeshifting to the MVP units seems a lot better than it was (although I do still get the occasional hiccup.) Placeshifting across the internet to my Macbook - UGH. I'll get like 10 seconds of audio + video at a time and then it'll hang for a good 20-30 seconds, and then I'll get another 10 seconds. This happens when navigating the menus as well.

I'm getting pretty frustrated with this! Leave it to MS to screw up something as straightforward as networking! I really don't want to have to go back to XP as I don't have a spare license kicking around, and I have a LOT of data on a RAID5 array on that machine that I'd be concerned with possibly losing by switching OS.

Has there been any sort of fixes applied to newer versions of the placeshifter Mac client since Oct '07 that helps with this?

I'm just at a loss as to what's happening and why the fixes others have used still isn't helping me.

[2002cbr600f4i]

For what it's worth, I'm running:


SageTv (base system) version: 6.3.5.159
Java Versions 1.6.0_04
STV : SageTV3.xml Version 6.3.5.0 December 10.2007

[mkanet]

Is this problem related to the server side or placeshifter client side running Vista?

I have sageTV server on an Intel Quadcore 2.4 CPU running vista

I dont have any issues on XP placeshifter via Internet (work PC).

HOWEVER.... at home via LAN and 1080i video (XP and Vista)... it produces some HORRIBLE and unacceptable problems:

1) No video/audio but you can see the green timeline bar move foward.. like it s buffering... on 1080i video

2) When it does work, I get stuttering video/audio every couple of minutes or so and when it stops stuttering, the audio is out of synch with the video.

3) Sluggish menus.

So.... where's the problem and how do I fix it?

Thanks,
Michael

[2002cbr600f4i]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Is this problem related to the server side or placeshifter client side running Vista?

Server is running on Vista. Used to be on Win2000 and it was MUCH better. Laptop is a Macbook. When the server was running on the old hardware and W2K, the Macbook could watch and control Sage via a 3G Cell connection no problem....

Now, with the server on Vista and newer, faster hardware, the same mac book gets HORRIBLE placeshifting even through faster internet connections. Nothing on my home LAN or DSL connection has changed, so it's gotta be Vista itself doing it... Just logging in and navigating the menus can be an exercise in frustration.

[mkanet]

This explains why when I tried placeshifter on my brothers very fast Macbook, it just locked up placeshifter and became unresponsive. By brother thinks now SageTV is just garbage... he showed me how hes able to use Slingbox PRO without issues.

Originally Posted by 2002cbr600f4i

Server is running on Vista. Used to be on Win2000 and it was MUCH better. Laptop is a Macbook. When the server was running on the old hardware and W2K, the Macbook could watch and control Sage via a 3G Cell connection no problem....

Now, with the server on Vista and newer, faster hardware, the same mac book gets HORRIBLE placeshifting even through faster internet connections. Nothing on my home LAN or DSL connection has changed, so it's gotta be Vista itself doing it... Just logging in and navigating the menus can be an exercise in frustration.

[scavenge]

Just wondered. I upgraded my sage server (XP not Vista) recently to 6.2 and suddenly my placeshifter clients were acting up terribly. Upgrading the placeshifter client on my MacBook solved my issues.

Now if only I could get P4, 7600GS set-up to actually deal with 1080i content...

[2002cbr600f4i]

Originally Posted by scavenge

Just wondered. I upgraded my sage server (XP not Vista) recently to 6.2 and suddenly my placeshifter clients were acting up terribly. Upgrading the placeshifter client on my MacBook solved my issues.

Now if only I could get P4, 7600GS set-up to actually deal with 1080i content...

Tried that... No dice. I already was running the most up to day version. About the only thing that's not super-up to date on my laptop is my JDK, but that's because of the Java 6 issues with Leopard. They have a Pre-release version of 6 that I'm pulling down now and will try, but I highly down it's the culprit considering I still get some lag issues with my Hauppauge MVP units that don't even use Java...

[Djc208]

Not real familiar with Vista but I'll throw this out there as a random thought.

Have you looked at the security settings in Vista, they are a lot more extensive (read: intrusive) than under XP or 2000 and could be mucking with the network traffic. Same would go for any anti-virus/firewall software that might be trying to watch all the network traffic.

[nebulink]

Originally Posted by 2002cbr600f4i

Server is running on Vista. Used to be on Win2000 and it was MUCH better. Laptop is a Macbook. When the server was running on the old hardware and W2K, the Macbook could watch and control Sage via a 3G Cell connection no problem....

Now, with the server on Vista and newer, faster hardware, the same mac book gets HORRIBLE placeshifting even through faster internet connections. Nothing on my home LAN or DSL connection has changed, so it's gotta be Vista itself doing it... Just logging in and navigating the menus can be an exercise in frustration.

What you need is service pack 2 for Vista. This will solve your problems. Vista had some issues with the TCP Stack and have been resolved with Service Pack 1.

SP1 final has been release via MSDN. I am running this on 3 of my units without issue. SP1 will be deployed at my office today and tomorrow.

[2002cbr600f4i]

Actually, I tried the RC1 for SP1 and it didn't seem to help at all...

The support group at Sage sent me a list of things to try, but I've been swamped the last week and a half and haven't had a chance to see if those would help at all.

Maybe tonight...

[tvmaster2]

I feel your pain - I updated from v.5 Sage and Placeshifter to v.6 for both and had nothing but headaches - slow menus, lost connections, resetting the service, the whole thing. To this date, nothing has really improved.
I fear that Slingshot is on the horrizon for me, as Sage gets worse with every update, not better.
While "more" features may be good for some, I would rather have "working" features.
I updated using XP on both my server and Compaq laptop. I have since upgraded the laptop to a Dell running Vista, and have seen NO change in the Placeshifter service, so all the talk about Vista don't pan out - it's a bad versioin of Placeshifter (or server), period.

good luck

[Taddeusz]

I must say that ever since I got my Mac Mini I've been very unimpressed with the performance of the Mac Placeshifter. I've been waiting for it to get better but it just hasn't. My experience has always been like what you've described.

Supposedly the next version of Mac SageTV software is supposed to be a pretty major change. Especially in the video rendering. When we get to see it is anyone's guess. They keep saying "real soon" but then it never materializes.