missing parts of files

[waffle]

I'm using beta 13, and have found that most of the programs that I record are unwatchable, because they're missing big chunks. Looking at the files in the Video directory, I found that shows are
being broken up into several files (TheApprentice-12345-0.mpg, TheApprentice-12345-1.mpg, etc.) Some of the clips are as short as one second long, and there are usually gaps between the clips - that is, the first 20 minutes of the program in clip 0, then a gap, then one second of video in clip 1, then a gap.

I recently installed a new hard drive and ATA 100 controller - both of which are supposed to be faster than the old ones. I'm not sure if this is related, but thought I should mention it.

Has anyone else seen this behavior? Any fixes?

-Kevin

[mikejaner]

This happens in two cases I know of.

1: You change channels during Live TV, and switch back.

2: You shut down and restart SageTV, due to a crash, or whatever.

Hope this helps.

MikeJaner

[waffle]

This is happening even when I haven't touched the computer during the recording. The program hasn't crashed.

[mikejaner]

Are you running on FAT32 by any chance?

I would think, this would break up the shows at the 2/4GB barrier(depending on programming).

MikeJaner

[waffle]

Originally posted by mikejaner
Are you running on FAT32 by any chance?

No: NTFS on WinXP.

[mikejaner]

Man..... I wish I could help out more than that, but you have me stumped.

mikejaner

[malore]

That's weird. I would run a hard drive benchmarking program to make sure there isn't any performance problems with your new hard drive. I don't know if it records or not when there isn't a signal, so you might watch a show as it is recording to make sure the station/cable/etc. isn't cutting out.

[waffle]

Good suggestions. I'll try those things and report back. Thanks.

Originally posted by malore
That's weird. I would run a hard drive benchmarking program to make sure there isn't any performance problems with your new hard drive. I don't know if it records or not when there isn't a signal, so you might watch a show as it is recording to make sure the station/cable/etc. isn't cutting out.

[waffle]

Problem solved - for some reason, the newly installed disk controller (Promise Ultra 100 TX2) wasn't playing nice. Going back to the on-motherboard ATA/66 driver solved it. Thanks for the help.

[Opus4]

How large is the new drive? Does the new controller need a bios and/or driver update? (If they were boxed together, I suppose that shouldn't be an issue...)

Also, if the drive is over 137GB you may want to double check the mb support for that size. XP even has an update or two to fully support larger drives. Atapi.sys for one -- an older version can appear to work & then you suddenly lose the entire partition.

- Andy

[waffle]

The new drive is 250 GB. The new controller has the latest drivers, atlhough I didn't check for a BIOS update. (Yes, they were boxed together.) I've installed all the relevant patches for large drive support. Anyway, if the PC is happy with the onboard controller, I'm happy.

I just received a PVR-250 revision 15, which I swapped for a revision 15. Aas promised by everyone in this forum, it appears to play nice with the PVR-350. I will be recoding the next few hours of TV on two channels at once. So far so good.

[Opus4]

OK, just thought I would mention a couple things in case that would help.

I know you just said that you installed all the relevant patches... I hope that includes the atapi.sys file I mentioned... I missed that one at first & can say from personal experience that it is important.

- Andy

[waffle]

Darn it! The problem is still occurring - although not as often - with the other hard drive controller. The cable signal is strong and consistent, hard drive throughput is good, I just can't fathom why this is happening.

[mikejaner]

Maybe, we would have to ask Jeff about this, Sage is designed to write to memory if the hard disk is not availible, therefore creating a new file? Just a theory.
Anyways, sounds like a disk problem. The next test in my book would be to remove the hard drive and test with another one, even smaller perhaps.

mikejaner

[Opus4]

I was going to suggest the HD diagnostic utilities, if you haven't done so already, but I'm not sure if that would result in those separate files that you mention. Testing with another drive (as I see mikejaner just mentioned) could help rule out the drive -- and yes, one smaller than 137GB would be good. As an alternative to trying a smaller drive, if one isn't available, create a small partition on the 250GB drive right at its beginning. It wouldn't rule out hardware problems, but it would rule out large partition issues.

One real question is: what could cause SageTV to start writing to a new file? I would contact SageTV support, especially if you can rule out the drive. I have one show that _always_ has 1 main file plus several small ones & I have no idea why it does that -- but everything else works, so I've never looked into it.

- Andy

[Opus4]

One more thing:

Originally posted by waffle
The cable signal is strong and consistent

How does it look when you watch live TV in SageTV? Do you get broken files then, or does the entire show stay in one file? Was this working properly on your old drive and in v1.4?

Also -- I forgot that this is the beta version, so perhaps the bug form would be a better option than a tech support request for asking about this.

- Andy

[waffle]

I looked at the log file, trying to find the source of the problem. Every time it starts a new file for a program, the following line appears in the log:

SEEKER HAS DETECTED A HALT IN THE ENCODER...TRYING TO RESET IT

Does anyone know what this means or how to prevent it? I have two capture cards, and the "encoder halt" is happening with both.

-Kevin