Stuttering at the end of a program

[elyl]

Whenever one program finishes in LiveTV (on the hour, or every half hour, as soon as the EPG changes) the video stutters. It will freeze for a second, then continue as normal. If I rewind over the stutter and play it again, it doesn't show the stutter.

I'm using 6.4 and SageMC. It does this with Sage's own codecs and the Cyberlink ones as well. I've tried changing the "Always Tune Channel" option to enabled/off, I've tried telling Sage not to delete live recordings, I've changed the seeker/fast_mux_switch=false, but I still get the same problem.

Any ideas?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by elyl

Whenever one program finishes in LiveTV (on the hour, or every half hour, as soon as the EPG changes) the video stutters. It will freeze for a second, then continue as normal. If I rewind over the stutter and play it again, it doesn't show the stutter.

I'm using 6.4 and SageMC. It does this with Sage's own codecs and the Cyberlink ones as well. I've tried changing the "Always Tune Channel" option to enabled/off, I've tried telling Sage not to delete live recordings, I've changed the seeker/fast_mux_switch=false, but I still get the same problem.

Any ideas?

This is not really an issue. Sage records each show in live tv as its own file. The second delay that you are seeing is when Sage closes one file and opens a new file. As you have stated, this happens when the EPG states one show has ended. I believe there are lots of threads on this and is mentioned in the manual.

[elyl]

I'm pretty sure my system should be able to handle opening one file and closing another without stutter. I've only seen mention of the stutter on this forum a couple of times, and no solution has been offered. I can also see no mention of it in the troubleshooting section of the manual. This also doesn't explain why, if I rewind over the stutter, and replay it, it plays fine - surely if I was rewinding, I'd be closing the current file, opening the previous file, playing it, then it'd close that file and start playing the next one - that would cause an even bigger stutter!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by elyl

I'm pretty sure my system should be able to handle opening one file and closing another without stutter. I've only seen mention of the stutter on this forum a couple of times, and no solution has been offered. I can also see no mention of it in the troubleshooting section of the manual. This also doesn't explain why, if I rewind over the stutter, and replay it, it plays fine - surely if I was rewinding, I'd be closing the current file, opening the previous file, playing it, then it'd close that file and start playing the next one - that would cause an even bigger stutter!

Not if your drives do any sort of caching-as most modern drives do.

Gerry

[elyl]

So are you saying every Sage user gets the stutter between programs, every single program? I thought I'd have seen more references to it if that was the case.

[garyellis]

I've asked this before, but we never got to a resolution...so, trying again.

Every 30 minutes, I get about a 3 second "freeze"..then everything just continues on..

So, some process is starting or stopping or something very 30 minutes.. I tried using "debug" in Sage and really did not see anything changing at the 30minute marks...

Is there something I can use with my system that might show what is happening every 30 minutes? sort of like a debug for my hardware/software system?

Thanks,

Gary Ellis

* merged *

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by garyellis

I've asked this before, but we never got to a resolution...so, trying again.

Every 30 minutes, I get about a 3 second "freeze"..then everything just continues on..

So, some process is starting or stopping or something very 30 minutes.. I tried using "debug" in Sage and really did not see anything changing at the 30minute marks...

Is there something I can use with my system that might show what is happening every 30 minutes? sort of like a debug for my hardware/software system?

Thanks,

Gary Ellis

Is this at the end of a show according to the EPG?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by elyl

So are you saying every Sage user gets the stutter between programs, every single program? I thought I'd have seen more references to it if that was the case.

Yes.

[garyellis]

Possibly..I probably need to be more diligent in writing down when it happens...

Funny : As I was writing this, my wife is watching a 1/2 hour live show that finished at 7:30 and then a new one started. About 30 seconds into the new show, at exactly 7:30 on the clock, the new show froze for about 3 seconds and then continued on.

So., it definately does it on live TV that ends and starts on the 1/2 hour.


Thanks for any help,

Gary Ellis


HMMM...seems like somebody else has started a thread on this problem also...

[killervette]

is this on an extender?

[killervette]

yep...kinda sucks. hoping a later version can address this issue somehow.

[Tiki]

When you are watching "Live TV" with Sage, it automatically saves whatever you are watching to a file. Sage creates a new file for each show. So, every time you change the channel OR every time you reach the end of a show (based on what is listed in the program guide), it will close out the file that it was using to record the first show and create a new file for the second show. During that transition you will see a slight pause or stutter that could last a few seconds. That is normal operation.

If every show really started and ended within the timeslot listed in the program guide, this stutter would probably happen during a commercial break and you wouldn't notice it. Since many stations tend to be off by a minute or two in reality, this stutter will probably happen right at the beginning or ending of a show.

If this is what you are experiencing, it shouldn't really be EVERY half hour unless every show you watch is a 30 minute show, but it may seem that way.

[MrD]

Buffering would solve this issue, but it would mean that what you watch is off by a few seconds from "live".

Obviously the stutter should not be there.

Maybe fade out / fade in would mask the stutter psychologically.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Tiki

When you are watching "Live TV" with Sage, it automatically saves whatever you are watching to a file. Sage creates a new file for each show. So, every time you change the channel OR every time you reach the end of a show (based on what is listed in the program guide), it will close out the file that it was using to record the first show and create a new file for the second show. During that transition you will see a slight pause or stutter that could last a few seconds. That is normal operation.

If every show really started and ended within the timeslot listed in the program guide, this stutter would probably happen during a commercial break and you wouldn't notice it. Since many stations tend to be off by a minute or two in reality, this stutter will probably happen right at the beginning or ending of a show.

If this is what you are experiencing, it shouldn't really be EVERY half hour unless every show you watch is a 30 minute show, but it may seem that way.

Yep. This is why I asked if it happened at the end of shows. This is normal for Sage as stated.

[OneThomas]

Folks - just thought I would pass along, that I had this happening as well - although I realized it as a file open/close thing, so it didn't bother me too much (and it was according to the time slot of the show - not every 30 minutes). Funny thing is - when i read on the forums somewhere the recommendation to turn real-time virus protection off on the recording/video drives - it stopped! Guess the overhead between whatever Norton was doing at the time of file close/open, coupled with the actual file operation - was a little too CPU/Drive/Memory intensive. Stopping the real time scanning must have "taken off the edge"...

[OneThomas]

You know what - I take that back. I was seeing it on Favorites when shows overlapped - and it was worse on HD recordings. (I always configure a 2 minutes before/after buffer.) But, turning off real-time virus scanning DID make live TV program transitions smoother (there is only at most about a 1 second "hang" on live TV now)...

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by OneThomas

You know what - I take that back. I was seeing it on Favorites when shows overlapped - and it was worse on HD recordings. (I always configure a 2 minutes before/after buffer.) But, turning off real-time virus scanning DID make live TV program transitions smoother (there is only at most about a 1 second "hang" on live TV now)...

I was going to say, I have never used a virus program on my Sage server, but I still see the hang, but for me it is only about a second. The only time it bugs me is during sporting events that run long. Always seems to happen at just the wrong time!

[cortechs]

Hello,

I'm wandering if there are any news/fix about this issue ?

Regards,

Cortechs.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by cortechs

Hello,

I'm wandering if there are any news/fix about this issue ?

Regards,

Cortechs.

The only "fix" would be for Sage to revamp how it handles live tv (this is the way it has always handled live tv). At this point, I haven't heard of any changes. Your best bet would be to file a request and to watch the beta forum to see if they release a beta that states something about changing live tv caching. A 1 second blip does not bother me, especially considering how little live tv I truly watch.