HD Extender problem solved

[Ken C]

Checked SageTV to make sure the Super Bowl was scheduled to record, check.
Told everyone we would start to watch about 45 minutes into the game. All is working as it should until about 8:20 to go in the third quarter and the extender freezes. Restart the extender and start watching. With 51 seconds left in the 4th quarter, guess what, the extender freezes again. Needless to say this caused some excitement.

Unacceptable !

Anyone who is waiting to purchase, wait for rev 2.

[rdefino]

Mine, did the same thing. I was pissed! Who else has this happened too.

[Mitch G]

Are you saying you both experienced freezes at the same time during the game?
If so, I find that pretty interesting that what appears to be related to the network feed affected the unit.
I'm curious what do you guys use for your source and tuners?


Mitch

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Ken C

Checked SageTV to make sure the Super Bowl was scheduled to record, check.
Told everyone we would start to watch about 45 minutes into the game. .

What!!!!

And you actually got real football fans to agree to this?

[toricred]

I don't think this is universal. Mine worked perfectly.

[vinny]

I watched it over DirectTV. When I first started watching it I tuned to Fox's local HD channel. Either DirectTV or Fox had some issues because it stuttered quite a bit. At some point, I think at halftime because I tuned to a different channel, when I tuned back to the local channel, there was just a DirectTV screen telling me to tune to channel 701. So maybe it was the feed that caused the problems, but I'm just throwing this out there. I don't really know.

[rdefino]

I was recording it on a divco fusion usb tuner. OTA for the source.

[Ken C]

The problem is not with the tuners or sources. And I'm happy for those of you where all worked fine.

Sage recorded the game with no problem.

The problem is with the extender locking up. Lockups also occasionally occur when watching 'live TV' and one program ends and another begins. I can live with that.

Unless there is a fix for the freeze problem, I'll be forced to return to the previous setup, feeding the TV from the HTPC. And the thought of having to deal with video cards/drivers just makes me cringe.

I'll submit a bug report.

[_Demo_]

Which firmware version are you using?

_Demo_

[carlgar]

Are you using Vista? I still see lockups caused by the Vista TCP stack issue.

[Ken C]

Firmware Update: 20080128 0

XP pro,

[autoboy]

Always have a backup solution. I had my TVs ATSC tuner in backup if my system froze, but I didn't have any problems at all with the recording, or with the HD extender. Everything worked out great except the final score. Never touch the system during the super bowl. No pausing or timeshifting. You are looking for trouble.

[BFisher]

Ya know... I hate threads with titles like this. To me, it sounds like you are trying to trash a great product. Your post is acceptable... but your title is horrible.

I watched the Super Bowl, time delayed (about 5 minutes) in HD. Not a single hiccup. Picture was awesome. We rewound it several times, jumped back, etc. No issues.

Although, maybe you are right... maybe Sage should have held up the release of this box a little longer just to make absolute sure it's "Ready for Primetime". I think that would have made everyone much happier... because a couple people had issues, the rest of us should have to wait longer for the product to be released.

I'm sorry - too many whiners here in this forum. Productive criticism is fine. Data and details about issues are fine. Threads that try to call attention to a potential problem that a very small number of users experienced and making it sound like the problem is bigger than it really is... whining.

I swear... Sage development staff deserve a medal. The get complaints from both sides... people complaining "when is it going to be available? We want it now" to people complaining "Its NOT ready... why did you release it without more testing"

Sorry for venting... your post just set me off. No harm meant

[Ken C]

If there are issues, should we not talk about them ?

Again, glad others had no problems. But, I did, and the problem needs to be fixed. Maybe it's something with my setup, but I doubt it.

And, when and if the problem is corrected, I'll let everyone know.

It's always interesting to me the number of posts from people who do not have a problem. Unknown how that helps solve anything.

Sage and Sage users need to know of areas of concern, where else if not here ?

[BFisher]

No issue with the post itself... issue with the title.

What about "problems watching HD on extender", or "Superbowl issues, help needed", or "HD causes freeze on my extender", or "HD freezes, anyone else?"

"HD Extender NOT ready for PrimeTime" sounds like you are a competitor trying to create bad press for the unit (and hoping Google search will find it). Or that Sage has really screwed you because you purchased a 1st version of the unit and they won't be fixing it for you. Or that hundreds of users have had problems with the unit so it's not ready for primetime. Or you have lots of problems with it and Sage shouldn't be selling it... when in actuality, many users are thrilled with their box and are happy Sage released it when they did, and your issue is a somewhat isolated instance.

Again, no issue with the goal of your post. I think it's good to work at finding out what caused problems. My issue with the title. (and I'm just 1 person... and in a bad mood today I guess )

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by BFisher

My issue with the title. (and I'm just 1 person... and in a bad mood today I guess )

Sorry the title bothers you. But, it does en capsule the problem, for me at least.

And, talk about a bad mood, shoulda been here last night after the second freeze/lockup !! I really wanted to post then but decided to try and calm down after sleeping on it.

[Rob]

No issues with your thread title here. What is more prime time than the Super Bowl and it is hard to trust the extender with it (mine does freeze from time to time).

I'd say the extender is very close to being ready for prime time and I'm very glad I got one. I'll also buy more when they are available, but sage continues to work on it because there are some issues with it. It is not completely the plug and play, issue free device they want it to be (not yet, but I'm betting it will be very soon ).

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

What!!!!

And you actually got real football fans to agree to this?

Why not? I watched the game delayed. Caught up to live just about halftime, paused playback and started watching again about an hour later. Caught up to live again WAY too early, paused again and came back later.

The way you watch football is to set one of your FF's to +30 seconds. He's down <FF> HIKE!, he's down <FF> HIKE! On change of possession it's probably going to be a 3-5 minute skip past the commercials then back to the <FF> trick.
It's the only way I can watch any sports on FOX. Otherwise I keep kicking the TV trying to kill Joe Buck. That guy is HORRIBLE!

My only problem came right near the end of the game when NY was marching downfield. I was still a couple minutes behind live and suddenly my phone rang. It was a co-worker, who's a Giants fan, calling so I knew it was about the game.
I had to hit pause and run screaming "LAALLLLALLLALLALALALLALALALALA" from the room so I couldn't hear him on the answering machine. Then I came back and watched the end of the game before listening to his call.

[linkster99]

well, I figure I might as well chime in on this one. I admit, I was very nervous. I had ~15 people come over to watch the game, and since I had some freezes earlier in the week, I didn't have much faith in the extender. But since I have updated to the latest RC (6.3.8) and the latest extender code, I haven't had any problems...And the extender performed flawlessly during the superbowl. My only problem, which is just a characteristic of Sage really, is that at 9:30, there was a slight stutter as the official superbowl timeslot ended and the next program began. Not a big deal, and luckily nobody noticed.

I did have my cablebox set up and ready in case there was a crash and I needed a quick switch to the regular video. Luckly I didn't need it.

[flavius]

I had some of that when running the latest Sage server together with an old extender firmware version.