Intermittent issue after watching recorded show...

[rotaryracer]

I've had Sage running for almost a month now and have only had to restart the app once or twice - that's phenomenal uptime compared to what I was seeing with competitve programs!

I have had an issue pop up just a few times and it happened again last night. After I finish watching a show and Sage autocloses and returns to the Sage Recordings menu, I lose the mouse and Sage (1.4.10) 'seems' to freeze up. I say seems, because I can pull up Task Manager and it shows it's responding, but then Task Manager stops working as well (even though another instance of TM shows both running).

FYI, when using Sage, I'm seeing memory usage of about 371MB (of 1GB) and CPU utilization of 12%-ish.

After about 30-45 seconds, if I open another instance of Task Manager, I can finally get TM to respond (and see the mouse again) and end task Sage. When I bring it back to life, everything works fine again.

Any thoughts? Here's my system spec:

AMD 2500+
ABIT NF7
1GB PC2700 RAM
128MB ATI 9200SE to TV via DVI-out (Catalyst 3.7 drivers)
(2) 160GB Maxtor ATA133
PVR-250 -15 with 2nd to newest rev of SHSPVR drivers
DVD-ROM and CD-R/W
WinXP SP1 and all updates
Onboard nForce Sound (non-Soundstorm) with 3.13 drivers
Sonic Cinemaster 1.5 decoder pack
Sage 1.4.10
jaLCDs 3.1 (to control VFD display)
Powerstrip 3.45 Trial

Thanks!

Jason

[rotaryracer]

Bummer...this happened to me again twice last night. One thing I think I might be doing is when I get close to the end of playing a recorded program, I hit the FFWD key to go to the end and have Sage close it, rather than just hitting home. I'm going to try NOT doing that and see if my actions have any effect on it.

By the way, I have the most recent version of Sun Java as well.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Jason

[salsbst]

Well since you're not getting any responses.... I'll just say that I don't have any thoughts... other than, "have you tried switching from overlay to VMR or vice versa?

Also, the Catalyst 4.2 driver is getting good reviews...

[mlbdude]

This does sound like a possible decoder issue. Do you have the Hauppauge Intervideo one installed? It would be good to make sure it hangs with that one as well.

[rotaryracer]

Thanks guys!

I'm planning on installing Cat 4.2 when I reformat my machine and install dual tuners. I've been hanging with Cat 3.7 for now because the way I understood Powerstrip, I would probably have to reconfigure PS and the service menu on my XBR if I swap versions of Catalyst. Anyone swapped out Cat drivers and NOT had to monkey with PS settings?

I didn't seem to have this problem with NVDVD, but unfortunately NVDVD has it's own set of issues (crashing during repeated clicks on the 10-sec FFWD key). I don't have the Intervideo decoders installed, either - I was never real pleased with the PQ.

Regarding overlay/VMR, I haven't tried switching back and forth on that. My opinion is that overlay has better PQ than VMR on my Radeon, but I will see if that has any impact on this playback issue.

And, it could just be the loose nut behind the keyboard banging on FFWD at the end of the show. That would probably be the easiest to fix - I can train myself (I think)....

Thanks for the input/responses....any other thoughts are appreciated!

[rotaryracer]

Update - still have this issue.

I watched a taped 'Junkyard Wars' last night and at the end of the program, when it drops back to the recorded shows menu, it locks. Task Manager again shows it running (and I can see the mouse now, as compared to when I was running overlay), but it takes me 'end tasking' a few times to kill Sage and then restart it.

New updates to my system spec above - I installed Cat 4.2 and switched to VMR rather than overlay. I've also reinstalled Sonic a bunch of times (trying to get my aspect ratio fixed). I have not tried reinstalling Sage 1.4.10.

Could Sage be marking the file for delete or something and I'm just not patient enough? I waited a couple of minutes to see if it would fix itself with no luck.

I'm trying to hold off on a full system flush till Sage 2.0 is released, so if anyone else has other ideas to keep this one running, I'd appreciate it!

Jason

[stanger89]

Which audio renderer are you using?

[rotaryracer]

I'm using the Direct Sound: nForce Audio renderer with the Sonic audio decoder.

This is all through my onboard 'non-Soundstorm' nForce audio. I did also try changing from nForce drivers to Realtek drivers (I believe the onboard sound is an ALC650), but didn't have a lot of luck - bad sound quality and the control panel didn't have all the options I needed.

[stanger89]

Is there an option for something like "nForce Audio" or "nForce Audio Renderer", you might want to give that a try.

[rotaryracer]

I had a chance to check Sage tonight. My audio renderer choices are:

Default
NVIDIA nForce Audio
Default DirectSound Device
Default WaveOut Device
DirectSound: NVIDIA nForce Audio

I'll try experimenting with just nForce Audio to see if that helps solve the problem and report back.

Thanks again for the help!

Jason

[Chilli]

Could it be disk fragmentation? I notice you didn't mention NTFS 64k blocks in your specs (it matters!)

[stanger89]

I'd give different renderers a try, specifically "NVIDIA nForce Audio." FWIW I had this problem too quite a while ago, but I don't know how I fixed it, or if it just went away.

[rotaryracer]

I experimented a bit last night using nForce audio as the renderer, playing back recorded shows (skipped ahead to a minute before end) and then letting them play out. No crashes, no locks on the 8-10 times I did it. A couple of them did just stop at the end without returning to the recording menu, but I just hit the guide button and it took me back. Most of the other shows ended and jumped back to the guide automatically with no problem.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get to use Sage a bit more (been working too much - need to catch up on my recorded TV!) and can get a better sense if this solved it. Oddly enough, when I tried to change renderers on my old installation of GotTV, I got huge audio delays. Thankfully, that's not the case here!

Chilli, thanks for the question. I had thought one original goof I had was due to disk frag (and I wasn't on the magical 64K blocks), so I used Disk Administration to convert to NTFS and 64KB blocks. I also have Disk Defrag scheduled to run Tues/Thurs/Sat for C,D, & E respectively (D & E being my Sage data partitions).

Thanks guys - I'll let you know if this did the trick!

Jason

[rotaryracer]

Still seeing this glitch.....

New updates are two -16 tuners, the 22037 PVR-250 drivers, and the newest Sun Java update (-04, I think). I'm running Cat 4.2 drivers at 1280x720. I'm using just 'nForce Audio' rather than 'DirectSound: nForce Audio' as the renderer and am running VMR so that the aspect ratio using Sonic decoders plays nice.

I'm starting to wonder if Sage and/or the Sonic decoders refuse to play nice with my onboard nForce (non-Soundstorm) audio.

Any other thoughts? I know all development work is going into 2.0 right now, but I'm trying to hold off on rebuilding my machine until 2.0 and Studio are both out.

If you good and knowledgeable folks feel my onboard sound is the problem, I may consider getting one of those Chaintech AV-710s, but I'm trying to avoid using up PCI slots in hopes of a HDTV solution with Sage integration soon!

Thanks!

Jason

[chrisc16]

Jason,

Are you still having this same problem? I've been having this happen to me for a few weeks now, and I think it probably started when I switched my video decoder to Sonic. Tonight I will change it back to the default to see if that helps. Have you tried switching your video decoder yet?

FWIW, here are my specs, note that I have a different sound card:
AMD 1800+
Gigabyte GA-7VTXE+
512MB RAM
ATI 9200 VGA to Plasma via VGA-out (Catalyst 3.7)
PVR-250-15
WinXP SP1
SB Live 5.1
Sonic Cinemaster 1.5 decoder pack
Sage 2.0 Final release

-Chris

[rotaryracer]

Chris, I haven't had a chance to turn my TV on too much this week. The one thing I did try was disabling DXVA in the Sonic setup menu. My CPU usage shot up, but the picture quality showed marked improvement for the few minutes I goofed around watching shows.

I haven't tried switching back to 'Default' as my video decoder because I assumed (and potentially incorrectly) that with Sonic as the only installed decoder pack, default would still equal Sonic. If you have multiple decoders loaded, that may be a different story.

I also haven't experimented much with other decoders, as right now my HTPC is a 'production' box. I've been hoping for a quick and easy fix while still using 1.4.10 and my existing hardware config. With luck, disabling DXVA will do it (as I read on this forum it caused glitches and problems with someone else's Sage as well). If not, I will probably try replacing my onboard sound with a Chaintech AV-710 (the poor man's M-Audio Revo 7.1) and maybe upgrade my video card.

My challenge is that the problem is intermittant - I could be running happily for weeks with no problems, then start having lockups on a few shows, then go back to smooth sailing. As the car dealerships like to say..."could not replicate the problem".

I'll keep you posted as I continue to dig into this....

Jason