Help with 2 HD Homeruns

[srothwell]

Help!

I've added a second HDHR to an existing HDHR. I followed the instructions from SiliconDust to connect it.

The HDHR Setup software correctly sees 4 tuners and each one tunes properly. SageTV also installs all 4 tuners as well. All four tuners show up and display video correctly.

However if Sage tries to use 2 HDHRs at the same time (even if it's one tuner on each one), the video breaks up terribly and is unwatchable. If you stop recording on the other HDHR, the first one looks fine. If Sage manages to pick both tuners on the SAME HDHR it's just fine.

Is anyone sucessfully using 2 HDHRs with Sage. Did you have any tricks?

I am quite sure it is not the server being the issue. Myh sage server just crashed and I replaced it with a 8-core Xeon MacPro (running XP with BootCamp) -- long story I had it sitting around after a project finished. So I don't think the server is the issue.

No matter what, the HDHRs use a second NIC (1000Base-T) in the PC so they are not on the main LAN. I have tried putting both HDHRs on the second NIC with a 1000Base-T switch, both in auto-ip and dedicated ip (169.254.x.x) and I even installed a third NIC and had each HDHR on its own NIC with separate ip addresses. Even with the third NIC card, it had the same exact issue.

Could this be a Sage issue trying to access two different HDHR boxes in BDA drivers?

If I have Sage (setup to only look at one of the HDHRs) recording two HDHR shows and I start the HDHR Setup software, set it to the other tuner and view it, there are no problems at all. It's something Sage is doing....

thanks for the help!

Stacy

[Polypro]

Have you tried one in "Direct Connect" and one on the network? That's how I have mine and it works fine. Do you have the latest NIC drivers? Is it a motherboard bandwidth problem? Did you try different cables (Cat5 & RG6)?

P

[jlmdxtv]

I run Sage 6.4.8 and HDHR drivers 10/02/2008 (beta). No problems with two units. Each connected to a 1GB switch connected to a 100MB router for DHCP. Also on the 1GB switch is the 1GB connection my SageTV server. Make sure the SageTV PC connection is actually 1GB - I've seen >200Mbps when recording 4 shows in HD. That's a LOT of bandwidth.

Also check the HDHOMERUN site to make sure your HDHR power supplies are not on their recall list. When they go bad all kinds of crazy stuff happens.

john

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by srothwell

Help!
Is anyone sucessfully using 2 HDHRs with Sage. Did you have any tricks?

I am using 3 HDHRs (only 5 tuners on line) with Sage. The only trick that I know of is the use of *.par files. I don't think it would help with your problem. If you would losing the first 5 minutes of shows it would problably help. The *.par files allow you to increase some wait time that is internal to Sage.

I would question why you are using a class B network number instead of class C. This should not cause a problem but could. I believe the MVP had problems when using a non Class C network.

I also saw problems with the 1 Gig NIC built into my motherboard. I now only use a 1 Gig NIC addon card for my 3 HDHRs and HD extender and see very few issues. I do see an occasional glitch but very hard to determine who is at fault. I usually blame the cable company.