Holy Frustrations Batman!

[heffneil]

Guys I am at wits end with SageTV and the HD Homerun. I spent about 4 hours yesterday mapping my channels from the program guide to the lineup on the HD Home Run. Well I tested a bunch today and every single one is wrong. NBC doesn't even have a remap number. I can watch it in the lineup from the HD Homerun software but there is no remap.

On top of those problems the video is skipping about every other image. It is very blocky. It fluid image, freeze, fluid then freeze. It's pretty crazy. I can watch the video clearly within the tuner's software which I believe eliminates the tuner and network as an issue. I tried a couple different encoding processes within sage that are included with sage but I don't know enough about this or what to really select. I was frustrated with the extender (hd100) at first but I can't get everything reliably working within the server itself so I don't see how I could blame the extender..yet.

Any help suggestions or ideas would be great. I am really getting to the end of my rope and just not sure why and where I am going wrong.

Thanks,

Neil

[gplasky]

Take it one piece at a time.

HDHR. If your lineup seems wrong (no remap number for NBC) something is definitely wrong with the lineup. Are you using the right zip code for you provider? I've seen where you actually needed to use a neigboring zip because the provider is actually providing to multiple areas. Check it against the Zap2It website to make sure everything is correct one to one. The software that you would use with HDHR (VLC) doen't necessarily rule out a network issue. That tests part of the journey-HDHR to the Sage server. Going to a client also streams that to the Sage client so you could still have a network issue.

SageTV. Do you have any other tuners to use with Sage besides the HDHR? If you did you could do a clean install and always start with the basics and get that tuner and Sage working correctly. (Preferably an analog tuner-easier to setup)

Do the HDHR setup and get all of your stations in the lineup and tuning. You could then install the HDHR software and VLC and another computer on your network (your client if it is a PC) and test the HDHR setup and VLC from there. Once that is working and you have a basic Sage install working tackle getting the tuner into Sage.

Trust me-it shouldn't be this hard. It takes me about 15 minutes to do a fresh HDHR install and that includes the time scanning all the channels from HDHR.


Gerry

[heffneil]

I only have the one tuner right now. I am going to order another one but I just got this all setup about a week ago so I was hoping I could get a better proof of concept from what I already invested.

I am pretty sure it's picking the right line up. I have Verizon Fios so it doesn't really change within the area. Sage sees the right lineup.

How do you do it so fast? To do all of the music channels alone seems to take forever. What is interesting is that in the sage program guide I see channels list just like the remap number for music and they seem like they would be correct.

Thanks,

Neil

[gplasky]

Make sure you DON'T scan for channels in Sage. (Follow the instructions on Silicondust) If you're seeing the remap numbers in Sage you need to go into each one and remap the physical number to just the first number.

(And I don't do the music channels-nothing to see there. I end up with about 14 channels in HDef that I want.)

Gerry

[heffneil]

Yeah I reinstalled the HD homerun and I confirmed everything on the Zap2it website. The remap number for NBC is 51-85-5 I use 51 to remap to and it just doesn't show the right channel in sage. Am I a moron or am I doing something wrong?

Neil

[heffneil]

So I had to put the entire address in the box on the program guide not just the X portion. Can I not read directions or were they not written clearly?

"Enter the "x" part of the "x-y-z" remap number for that channel shown in the HDHomeRun channel editor." <-- Straight from the silicon dust website.

[carlgar]

I think it depends on how you use sage. The single number always works for me. I do not use the channel scan. I suspect that anyone who uses the channel has to use all 3 numbers? Did you use channel scan at any time?

[heffneil]

I *just* used the channel scan because notihng else would work. Then I went and disabled all channels and gave the 3 numbers a shot. From the beginning the one number didn't work properly. Very very confusing. I think this problem is solved. Now on to the next one. Any ideas on the blockiness issue I am seeing with the video? Sound seems fine.

[sic0048]

I have a similar situation. My problem I think is related to the fact that I did do a channel search in Sage. So I have double sets of channels, etc.

How can I get rid of the current channel line up and restart from scratch - rebuild the HDHomerun channel list. I cannot seem to get rid of the old lineups in Sage. I don't want to uninstall everything and restart. Surely there has to be an easier way.

If anyone has some suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Many thanks,

Brian

[carlgar]

Heffneil, what is your CPU useage during playback? It sounds like your computer may be underpowered.

Sic0048, you should be able to just remove the tuner. You should also remove any Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner xxxxxxxx-0-0-ATSC.scn and Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner xxxxxxxx-0-0-ATSC.frq file that was created in the SageTV directory. Then add the tuner back again.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by carlgar

Sic0048, you should be able to just remove the tuner. You should also remove any Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner xxxxxxxx-0-0-ATSC.scn and Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner xxxxxxxx-0-0-ATSC.frq file that was created in the SageTV directory. Then add the tuner back again.

Perfect. Thanks for the help. I figured there was a file(s) I could delete like that, but being such a newbee with Sage, I had no idea which ones or where they would be.

[heffneil]

The CPU usage is minimal when I am playing back. I know it seems weird. Like I said I can watch the video fine when I watch via the viewer that came with the HD homerun. I guess the difference is writing to disk. I am using a raid card (on board) I believe. Maybe there is where my performance is degrading. I really really really do not want to invest in a beefy machine until I get this working on the bench. I know it MUST work since all of you guys are using it but I have bad luck

Thanks!

Neil

[carlgar]

Have you tried playing back one of the problem recordings using WMP or VLC to see if the problem is a playback or recording time issue. If it is recording time you should look at the end of the HDHR trouble shooting guide for how to solve network pack loss. Here is the guide http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun...leshooting.pdf

[heffneil]

Where are the recordings stored in Vista? I looked in the virtual store but I don't see anything? What is the type of file or something?

Also CPU was at about 50% when I was watching video within sage.

Thanks,

Neil

[carlgar]

The recordings in Vista are stored the same way they are in XP. You specify the directories to be used for recordings. You can use the detailed information to see the specific location of a recording.

[teknubic]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Also CPU was at about 50% when I was watching video within sage.

How many cores do you have? Sage is only capable of using one cpu so if you have 2 cores (2 CPUs effectively) and task manager says you're at 50%, sage is using all available to it and CPU may still be your problem.
Blockiness seems signal-related though.

[heffe2001]

Sage supports multi-threadding, so multiple cores should help. Sure seems to on my Sage server box...

Originally Posted by teknubic

How many cores do you have? Sage is only capable of using one cpu so if you have 2 cores (2 CPUs effectively) and task manager says you're at 50%, sage is using all available to it and CPU may still be your problem.
Blockiness seems signal-related though.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by teknubic

Sage is only capable of using one cpu so if you have 2 cores (2 CPUs effectively) and task manager says you're at 50%, sage is using all available to it and CPU may still be your problem.

Where did you get this information? I strongly disagree with it. During statup when Sage is creating the wiz.bin database it probably only uses one core. It take about 5 minutes for Sage to get past that point on my system but then it is very multi-threaded. I also believe that the Windows Task Manager shows the CPU useage correctly for a multcore CPU. I think the Vista preformance monitor has the issue that you describe. I was concerned when I saw 100+% peaks in the Sage usage but then discovered that total CPU useage was 200% for my dual core system.

[heffneil]

Well I have determined it is probably my video card and CPU. I can watch video better on the HD100 than I can locally. If I watch the recording in the VL viewer it is choppy.

Also what a crock that you can't remap more that 68 channels with the HD Home Run. That really stinks! Why the limitation?

Neil

[carlgar]

From a post by Jafa on the silicondust forums:
The QAM programs are remapped into ATSC physical channels for MCE. There are 68 physical channels (2 to 69) in the US as defined by the FCC.

It is unusual to have more than 68 unencrypted channels on US cable (excluding music only channels) so it is usually not an issue.

TotalMedia (to be released next week) has native QAM support and so supports any number of channels.

Nick