HD200 and R5000 playback issues

[Bohica]

All,

I need help here. Just purchased two HD200's because I am tired of the codec maintenance on my systems when using r5000hd recorded video. Plugged in the HD200 - upgraded the server to 6.5.4 and upgraded the firmware - and any live TV or recorded TV seems to play in slow motion. Not typical tearing or stuttering - looks like some type of network issue as it pauses for a second - continues - pauses, etc. Timeline looks to be in slow motion. I can play videos from the server that are 1080P mkv with no playback issues at all - same server so I would assume no network bandwidth issues (gigabit wired). So - can someone help that is using the same setup?
Is there an equivalent option for increasing the buffers on the HD200 like the client registry entry?

Wonder if it is the way I record the videos -- compressed option using the r5000hd recorders? Are there options for enhancing the server for playback? Any help would be appreciated!

[Bohica]

As an update - if I browse the fileshare of the server - to the television directory - all files play back fine. This must be an issue with the sage server no??

[Bohica]

More testing. Confirmed that SageTranscoder is not running on the server when I attempt to play the file through the sage media extender... This is frustrating.

[HawgGuy]

Similar, but not exact problems here with r5000 programs. I have submitted a bug report - have you?

[Bohica]

You have got to be kidding. I just tried to play a mkv 1080p video through the extender interface and it plays fine. All my r5000 videos and of course live play for a second, pause for a second, play for a second, etc. Those same files play fine when I browse for them and play the file manually through the hd200 interface over a network share. Can't believe the software has gotten so complex that simply serving files is no longer working. I would think this has to be an easy server fix? I will file a bug report... But I am thinking of returning them, along with my equally unusable mac client licenses which I purchased after they said h264 worked...

[Bohica]

Also - I noticed that is does not matter if the recorded show is SD, HD h264, or HD mpeg2. Any of my recordings act the same way. All play fine when browsed manually - so I cant believe the problem is on the extender.

Submitted bug report.

[jmv]

you probably need to be more specific. I have HD100 and HD200 and both play back R5000 recordings fine. Mine is through Moto boxes on FiosTV.

[Bohica]

Mine are dish 211 systems...

[Bohica]

OK - think I have an answer. First - let me say sage support was great today. Not 15 minutes went by without a response - and they really turned my opinion around - even tho in the end I think I guessed and found the problem myself....

It seems like -after going through the debug logs on the server, then the client, then the server again that when I was streaming through sage server (as opposed to browsing network shares) - there was latency issues of some sort on the network - or so the server thought. I know I have full gigabit wired...

During the troubleshooting of miniclient, I noticed the network buffers setting in the sage properties. I cranked it from 16384 to 65536 and all playback is smooth. I know on all my pc clients, I have to adjust the numbuffers registry setting to get smooth playback of the r5000hd recordings... perhaps this is a similar issue. I have watched several shows now for 30 minutes or so with no problems.

Again - thanks to support for working with me on this.

[gveres]

Can you be more specific about what setting you changed for Sage and the settings you change on your PC?

Thanks
Greg

[HawgGuy]

I would guess that the specific problem deals with r5000 streams from Dish Network. The FIOS & cable streams (probably) are not h.264 with PAFF interlacing.

It may be even more specific that that. Some (most) r5000 streams from my Dish 211 play well - only a few result in playback.exception. ESPNHD in particular: File Format: MPEG2-TS[H.264 720p, AC3/384Kbps@48kHz 5.1]

So maybe it's the 720p PAFF interlaced rather than 1080i streams?

I found that changing the miniclient network buffers setting regrettably does not fix this problem.

N.B. These same streams play perfectly on the HD100 & the server - only the 200 fails.

[Bohica]

I dont watch too much ESPNHD so havent yet seen the playback exception. My problem was simply VERY choppy playback of all content. Specifically - I was getting audio buffer errors in the debug log of the HD200, and it would enter pause mode every second or so. I increased the miniclient/networkbuffers setting I believe in the sage properties file. I think I quadrupuled mine to 65536 - but sage support said that anything over doubling it probably wouldnt help. I since have very smooth playback - with the exception of the first second or so of any program.

Tim

[HawgGuy]

What your describing sound like a network throughput issue. I don't experience this.

ESPNHD is about the only channel I get from DISH that is 720p (the rest of the HD is 1080i). I can recreate the problem by watching ESPNHD live or recording for about 15 minutes or so.

But wait - There's More! (doing Billy Mays impression)

There was a 12/23 beta firmware update that may have changed something. ESPNHD has been playing for the past half hour without a freeze. I can only hope.

[Narflex]

HawgGuy,

That beta firmware should solve your issue. Let us know if you've still got problems (so we can avoid downloading a few GBs of test content on our server from you )

[HawgGuy]

It seems to flat out work fine. Thanks a million. The bug only seemed to affect ESPNHD which is broadcast in 720p on Dish Network. All of the other stations I watch are 1080i and had no problems.

I can now move the HD200 back to the living room for "Prime Time" which is excellent because it plays the .m2TS/DTS files from the Blu-Ray drive Santa slipped in my stocking.