Media Extenders Stopped Working

[Diego Garcia]

I didn't realize how much I value the Media Extender capability until today, when both of mine stopped working.

Late yesterday my SageTV system crashed. I haven't figured out why yet. But after rebooting it everything seemed to be fine. I can use Sage directly off that system.

However, both of my Media Extenders lock up while loading the application. They also had to rescan the network to look for the rebooted SageTV system, but that's hardly surprising.

I've tried restarting the Media Extender server, and the SageTV server. No joy. I've cycled the power on both extenders. No joy.

What do I do next? Where can I look for diagnostic information that could help me solve the problem?

[Opus4]

Check the "clients" subdirectory in your SageTV install directory & see if the <mac address>.properties files are very large and/or corrupted with gibberish characters. If so, either revert of an older saved copy or just delete the current ones & try again. If the .autobackup copy is OK, you can rename it.

- Andy

[Diego Garcia]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Check the "clients" subdirectory in your SageTV install directory & see if the <mac address>.properties files are very large and/or corrupted with gibberish characters. If so, either revert of an older saved copy or just delete the current ones & try again. If the .autobackup copy is OK, you can rename it.

Andy,

One is 8KB while the other is 6KB. The .properties files are readable, and do not appear to contain gibberish.

Should I try deleting them anyway?

BTW, does it matter what sequence I bring up the SageTV server and the extenders? For example, does the server have to come up first and be available before the extenders are powered up?

One other observation I forgot to mention earlier is that both extenders now fail to respond to the remote control to power off. To cycle the power I have to disconnect and reconnect the power cord.

[Opus4]

The extender won't be able to find & connect to the SageTV server until it is up & running. I suppose that would be the biggest reason to boot the PC first.

Make sure SageTV is still configured to allow extender connections and that the firewall hasn't gotten reset & is preventing any connections.

You could try deleting the properties files (or just move them & their .autobackup copies so you aren't actually deleting the files).

If the extender is not responding at all, then see the troubleshooting guide in the back of the manual that came with it. Which extender do you have? You could see one of these FAQs:
My STX-HD100 extender is not working at all. What should I do?
My STP-HD200 extender is not working at all. What should I do?

If none of that works, then you should contact SageTV.

- Andy

[Diego Garcia]

Oops, sorry for any confusion, but what I'm having problems with are two Hauppauge MediaMVP units. I was using the term "media extender" generically.

Is there a troubleshooting guide the MediaMVP?

[carlgar]

Are they wired or wireless models? Have you disconnected power from them for any length of time? Can you get a wireshark capture of what happens when you attempt to boot the MVPs?

[Diego Garcia]

Yes, I've tried powering them off for an hour or so. They still freeze at the "loading application" stage.

BTW, these are the older wired models.

Excellent suggestion about wireshark, however. But after I grab something, how do I post it to the forum?

[carlgar]

You should be able to zip it and then attach it, if you need to post it. The issue I see most often is that while the MVP is downloading the MVP.bin file the MVP just stops responding. I have not found a solution to this. I usually retry everytime I see something change on my system that I thing will fix it. I just got my wireless MVP back up yesterday after I saw a driver update for my network card. I seldom use my wired MVP but have not seen this problem with it.

[Diego Garcia]

Okay, so I was out of town for a few days. When I came back I clicked the on button the remote for the MVP without thinking about it...and it worked fine!

On the one I'm relieved to have my satellite SageTV devices working again.

But I don't like surprise endings .

So...any idea what could have caused the MVPs to "fix themselves"? Does Sage download a client to them at intervals (e.g., once a day) while they're connected?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[carlgar]

The MVP extenders only download the mvp.bin file when it loses power. As long as the MVP has power it remembers the downloaded code. The purpose of disconnecting power is to force the MVP to download the mvp.bin file. I don't know what version of Sage you are using but I believe that the recent 6.5.x have broken the download. I have encountered a lot of problems trying to get my MVP working. I no longer power the MVP off because of the problem of getting it back up.

[Diego Garcia]

Interesting. I disconnected the devices from power for a good hour or so before I left, but someone in my family plugged them back in while I was gone.

I'm running 6.4.8. Sounds like I'll be staying away from 6.5.

[src666]

I used to have similar problems with my MVP's all the time. It seems that once they glitched, I had to unplug them for a couple of days before they would work again. Really frustrating, which is why I don't use them for anything important anymore.

The MVP's were a clear case of trying to fix someone else's mediocre product. The HD200's have been a dream in comparison.