Using MediaMVP While Recording Causes BSOD

[jillsy]

I have SageTV 6.3 and a Hauppauge MediaMVP (wired). I was just going to watch a show via the MVP and Sage happened to be recording at the time. My MVP stopped responding so I went to check on the SageTV PC. It was just recovering from a crash. The show Sage was recording is a favorite and I happened to be trying to watch a previously recorded episode of that same favorite. It happened twice in a row so I know it wasn't a fluke. I was able to go to the list of Sage Recordings, choose the favorite, choose Browse Recordings, and select the episode. When I clicked Watch Now, the MVP stopped responding.

Has this happened to anyone else? I used the MVP yesterday without a problem, but Sage wasn't recording at the time. Sage is recording so I have to wait until 2:00 PM here to see if my MVP will work when Sage isn't recording. The PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium and I know it installed a security update last night. I really can't recall if I've tried to use the MVP before while Sage was recording. If anyone else has had this happen, please let me know. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my MVP will work normally once Sage is done recording. Then it's more of an annoyance rather than a real problem.

UPDATE: After Sage finished recording, I restarted the PC and tried MVP again. It again caused a crash. So I figured I was going to have to go to a restore point (suspecting the Vista security update), but first I uninstalled the LaCie updater I installed last night when I was hooking up a LaCie d2 Quadra drive. The drive isn't hooked up at the moment as it seems pretty slow and I was trying it on a XP machine. Anyway, uninstalling the LaCie updater software and restarting seemed to do the trick. I have not yet tried to watch the MVP while Sage records, though.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by jillsy

I have SageTV 6.3 and a Hauppauge MediaMVP (wired). I was just going to watch a show via the MVP and Sage happened to be recording at the time. My MVP stopped responding so I went to check on the SageTV PC. It was just recovering from a crash. The show Sage was recording is a favorite and I happened to be trying to watch a previously recorded episode of that same favorite. It happened twice in a row so I know it wasn't a fluke. I was able to go to the list of Sage Recordings, choose the favorite, choose Browse Recordings, and select the episode. When I clicked Watch Now, the MVP stopped responding.

Has this happened to anyone else? I used the MVP yesterday without a problem, but Sage wasn't recording at the time. Sage is recording so I have to wait until 2:00 PM here to see if my MVP will work when Sage isn't recording. The PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium and I know it installed a security update last night. I really can't recall if I've tried to use the MVP before while Sage was recording. If anyone else has had this happen, please let me know. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my MVP will work normally once Sage is done recording. Then it's more of an annoyance rather than a real problem.

UPDATE: After Sage finished recording, I restarted the PC and tried MVP again. It again caused a crash. So I figured I was going to have to go to a restore point (suspecting the Vista security update), but first I uninstalled the LaCie updater I installed last night when I was hooking up a LaCie d2 Quadra drive. The drive isn't hooked up at the moment as it seems pretty slow and I was trying it on a XP machine. Anyway, uninstalling the LaCie updater software and restarting seemed to do the trick. I have not yet tried to watch the MVP while Sage records, though.

I use no HD.
I have an MVP (std def) that works fine while recording 2 shows and watching one on the MVP and one on a PC using a sage client. Poor disk performance wouldn't, I think, cause a BSOD rather than dropped frames (stuttering) in the video recording or playback. The BSOD might arise if your PC hardware errors with very heavy PCI/USB traffic, or some such, irrespective of Sage. I've seen this on some off-brand/cheapie motherboards I've had in the past (I use only ASUS since then).

The video storage should be in a separate partition, formatted with 64KB clusters to greatly reduce the I/O's per second.

I no longer have but used to do recordings to USB drives with 64KB partitions, but this was always marginal.

My config:
AMD3800 based ASUS M2M motherboard; 1GB
Win XP Pro SP2, auto-update off.
Two 500GB disks in RAID1 (motherboard hardware). SATA II
C: partition with 4KB clusters
V: partition with 64KB clusters for Sage
GigE
WiFi 11g link to Buffalo WiFi bridge that connects by Ethernet to the MVP
Sage 6.2 in server mode.

This computer is not used for web surving/email. There are several other programs on that computer (home automation, my web server, etc).

[jillsy]

Thanks for your reply, stevech. I don't know what the connection was, but it seemed to be that LaCie software that caused the problem. I knew my MVP had worked fine the day before, so I backtracked through the last changes I knew had been made since then and the last change is apparently what had done it.

This system was my old PC and is now only used as a DVR and server for my MVP; I rarely even open a browser with it and also keep auto updates off. It has an Intel D955XBK mobo, a P4 EE 3.73 GHz CPU, a Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 3870 graphics card, 4 GB of RAM, and 3 500-GB Sata II HDs. I don't recall what allocation unit was used in formatting the HDs, but I haven't had any recording problems even when recording in the highest qualities. I have a Hauppauge HVR-1800 (connected via S-Video to my digital STB) and a Hauppauge PVR-500 (hooked to coax). I don't dabble in HD yet either, but do intend to add a HD STB and maybe a Hauppauge HDPVR at some point. The system connects to my 10/100 wired/Wireless G network via a Linksys Wireless N USB adapter and the MVP is connected to a 10/100 switch on my network.

I never have video problems with the MVP. This is the first problem I've encountered and it appears to be solved now. If I do start recording HD programming and notice any stuttering when viewing over the MVP, I will likely first try running an ethernet cable to the Sage system so it can connect at the 100 Mbps rate instead of the 54 Mbps max it gets now. I went with the USB adapter because I didn't feel like running a long ethernet cable across the ceiling in my basement rec room, but I would do it if necessary. Either that, or I'll upgrade my wireless access point to Wireless N, which is in my future plans anyway.

[davephan]

Do you have an image of your C drive, so you can try recovering the C drive to a point in time before the Blue Screen of Death started?

Dave

[stevech]

Originally Posted by jillsy

I will likely first try running an ethernet cable to the Sage system so it can connect at the 100 Mbps rate instead of the 54 Mbps max it gets now. I went with the USB adapter because I didn't feel like running a long ethernet cable across the ceiling in my basement rec room, but I would do it if necessary. Either that, or I'll upgrade my wireless access point to Wireless N, which is in my future plans anyway.

WiFi, 802.11g is 54Mbps on the air but the IP layer speed is about 22Mbps in the absence of ANY interference from neighbors' WiFi on or within +/- 3 of the channel you've chosen (either of the non-overlapping channel numbers: 1, 6 or 11). WiFi 802.11n is no faster unless it runs in the bonded channel pair mode (uses 2/3 of the entire WiFi band) and that mode is normally disabled due to the existence of non-11n networks, as a matter of protocol/prudence. (bandwidth hogging).

Standard Def MPEG2 from Sage seems to use 6-7Mbps.