HD100 HD stream playback issues

[Surtr]

Hey everyone -

I'm having an issue with HD playback on my new HD100. As I'm playing back some recordings (or even live TV), the playback will oftentimes freeze up; Skip forward/backward do nothing; I'll have to hit stop, then reopen the recording to get it to play. It seems to happen at the exact same spot in each recording as I can go back in to the very same spot and have it freeze up again. These recordings play back just fine on a PC based client. This doesn't seem to be the same as the lockups referenced in other threads as the extender is still responsive to commands and doesn't require a restart.

I'm running the latest sageTV 6.4.7 on jdk 1.6.0_04 and the latest beta HD100 firmware. I was having this problem on the latest released sageTV and firmware and upgraded to the beta to try to resolve. I'm running the default stv with the comskip playback plugin; I've tried reverting to the raw default stv without any plugins but experienced the same behavior.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

-Justin

[Surtr]

Hrm, looks like a mod moved this to the Beta Test Software forum; I had this problem with the public released software -- I tried the beta software as a potential resolution but experienced the same behavior...

[paulbeers]

I had never really noticed this issue until the last two days. We rarely watch "live" tv, but the last two days my wife has been watching pseuo-live (letting Sage start recording for awhile and then "catching" up over time). Unfortunately we are getting constant lock ups after we hit forward. Sometimes it just locks up and we have to hit stop and then select the recording again and other times it locks up and kicks us out to the recordings menu. Then the latter happens it kicks us all the way to the end of the buffer (in otherwords what it is happening "live"). This is really beginning to make my wife and I irrate and is dropping the WAF factor quickly.

EDIT: Probably should mention this is OTA via HDHomerun.

[reggie14]

Yep, I've noticed this ever since I first received my HD100 almost 8 months ago. It doesn't happen terribly often. But, I have a horrible time playing back DVDs on the thing. I know anytime I fast-forward there's a 50% chance it'll get stuck.

I use an HVR-1600 and get HD channels over QAM.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Yep, I've noticed this ever since I first received my HD100 almost 8 months ago. It doesn't happen terribly often. But, I have a horrible time playing back DVDs on the thing. I know anytime I fast-forward there's a 50% chance it'll get stuck.

I use an HVR-1600 and get HD channels over QAM.

I have no problems with DVD's and until the last couple of days, I had really no problems with fast forwarding or rewinding (very very rarely I suppose). DVD's have been rock solid and still are.

[dadof4]

Happens to me once in a while also. It usually happens when I skip to the end of the show. Changing the channel or hitting stop then going back to the original channel clears it up. Creates a problem with WAF.

[Surtr]

Has anyone else opened a ticket with Sage on this, or will I be the first?

Mods, can this be moved back to the SageTV Media Extender forum as it is not specific to the beta?

[jreichen]

I started having this same problem a couple of weeks ago. Videos are unwatchable so I'm stuck watching TV with the Comcast DVR

Before that I rarely had playback problems with the HDExtender. I don't remember whether it started before or after I installed the beta. I also noticed Placeshifter on my Linux SageTV server is performing slowly. It appears the mplayer process is maxing out the CPU. Oddly enough, Placeshifter on my Linux laptop appears to be running well over 802.11g.

I'm running 6.4.6 with the latest beta firmware.

[dadams]

Anyone ever solve this problem. Mine only freezes on the programs recorded via the HDHR's. It never does this on an analog file. Almost always happens on a FF. The picture freezes, the audio goes on for a bit, then I have to stop and start the program again. Of course, if it is a show that is still recording then it will skip to the end when I restart it(very frustrating). That problem has existed for quite some time on all OTA recordings.

I forgot to mention...I'm running the latest software and firmware. This probably needs to be moved to a different part of the forum.

[BlueH2O]

I have this problem also.. Playback of HD streams freezes sometimes. In particular I have noticed it will do it if I am watching a recorded HD show, pause it for a few minutes, then when I play it again it freezes about 20 or 30 seconds later. I have the latest released software on server and extender, I am NOT using any beta versions.

[Surtr]

I updated to the latest released SageTV 6.4.8.184 and the latest Java: 1.6.0_07. I'm still experiencing this problem. Interestingly enough, when I first start watching an HD program I can skip forward and back without problems. It's only after I've been watching for several minutes that things start to go south. Could this be a heating issue?

I opened a ticket with sage support this morning.

[Eckwell]

I have 6.4.6 Beta and I am experiencing this problem also... The stream is OTA from HDHR, and it was a recoridn gof SuperNanny of ABC. Thing is, that show is broadcast aas SD over HD and I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Combined with messing the the Comskip and Closed Caption timings the WAF was in the proverbial "toilet".

[sic0048]

I don't experience any freezing when skipping forward or reverse, but sometimes I get a black screen and no sound - although the progress meter is still moving forward. A quick 10 sec advance or rewind makes everything work - ie sound and video play OK. It doesn't happen all the time either.

Not sure if this is similar to the problem being discribed here or not.

[Surtr]

Originally Posted by sic0048

I don't experience any freezing when skipping forward or reverse, but sometimes I get a black screen and no sound - although the progress meter is still moving forward. A quick 10 sec advance or rewind makes everything work - ie sound and video play OK. It doesn't happen all the time either.

Not sure if this is similar to the problem being discribed here or not.

Definitely doesn't sound like the same issue. With the issue I'm having, pause, skip forward/back doesn't fix it. Playback remains hung, but timeline continues forward until I stop and resume.

A bit of news, last weekend I had a friend come over with his HD100 to see if it would hang up on my network. It didn't, but since then mine hasn't hung up either. I'm thinking what might have done it was unplugging it, letting it sit for a while then plugging it back in...

[dmiraclejr]

Surtr,

My HD100 has the exact same problem. I have been living with it for a long time now because it does not happen enough to throw it out the window... just enough to be annoying and give the wife something to gripe about. I guess I should open my own ticket.

By the way, there is an old, long thread about this problem but I don't think a resolution was ever found. I wonder if the problem affects different batches of HD100s (mine is from the first day they went on sale last year). Don't know but sure would like to see this bug squashed!!

[Surtr]

To address the batch comment, I got mine about 2 months ago so I'm guessing it's got to be from a different batch.

[Surtr]

Well, I think this issue has cleared up for me. I just played about 4 hours of an HD recording of the olympics that would constantly give me problems in the past. Not a single lockup. Also tried skipping forward and back a bunch, but playback was flawless.

The only thing I did was to unplug the HD100 and plug in another for a couple of hours, then plug mine back in. The only thing I can think is that maybe when I upgraded the SageTV server I didn't hard power cycle my extender...

Good luck everyone, If I have any insights I'll definitely let you all know.

-Justin

[KarylFStein]

I used to have problems like this as well, but after upgrading the CPU on my server from an E4300 to a Q6600, things have been good. I don't have a HDHR, but a couple 1800 cards. The problems were just on HD streams and occasionally ripped DVDs.

[derringer]

I had this problem this weekend. I was switching back and forth between football games, and from time to time, it would occur when switching back via 'prev. channel.'

To fix it, I had to switch to another channel and then back.

I wonder if anyone ever isolated this issue or found out what was causing it? What would we have to do, via debug, to show what was occuring? I will volunteer to trap for the bug in a controlled environment if I could get some direction on how to do so?

[nema100]

This will sound strage to remark in a SageTV forum, but the same issues happen with all together different system.

I am a Windows Media Center user that uses a Linksys DMA 2100 extender to play video on my TV, and I have noticed freezing after 5 or 10 minutes when watching CBS or NBCshows via ATSC.

Both those networks broadcast in 1080i.

Whereas ABC and FOX, I have absolutely no freeze ups ever. Both those networks broadcast in 720p.

When watching the 1080i content, the more one skips ahead or back during playback of a show, the more prevalent the freezing becomes.

I have a Intel Quad Core Q6600 with 4Gig of ram, and the among the 4 processors, they never go over 15%. So it is not a processing issue.

Playing the content locally from the computer, the shows never freeze up. However, pushing the content over the gigabit network interface to the extender (which also has a gigabit nic) is where things appear to break down.

So, it is definitely a network bandwith problem with 1080i shows. If there was such a thing as a live 1080p broadcast, it definitely would not even start playing.

The bottleneck in the whole connection is either the CAT5e cable running upstairs from the router to the extender (cable should replaced with CAT6 cable and connectors to reduce noise and collision), or the gigabit Linksys router.

But after a year of putting up with these issues, I can guarantee the freezing is due to either one or two issues:

1) Network congestion / noise (due to cabling, connectors, or router).
2) Or, the actual Linksys extender hardware really is NOT up to smoothly playing back 1080i resolution content. It will work for a while, but in about 5-10 minutes, will start falling behind.