Hopw to get rid of hitch when new time slot takes over?

[71_Cuda]

This was recently discussed here. That discussion included a couple of things you could try to reduce the problem - but it can't be eliminated.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by Opus4

There is no live TV buffer; SageTV records each show to its own file.

Do you know if Sage will ever support a circulating buffer for live TV to eliminate this blip? This is one of the biggest downsides of SageTV, but not enough to stop me using it

[PLUCKYHD]

I would say this is the biggest flaw I have found so far (but doesn't stop me either)

I kind of see both ways of it. They want to record each show as a seperate file so if you hit record half way through boom it is recorded, but for those of us who don't care if it records a entire 2 or 3 hour buffer on option would be nice.

ps ben how is the new folder view tv app coming? can't wait to try it.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

I would say this is the biggest flaw I have found so far (but doesn't stop me either)

I kind of see both ways of it. They want to record each show as a seperate file so if you hit record half way through boom it is recorded, but for those of us who don't care if it records a entire 2 or 3 hour buffer on option would be nice.

Proberly the wrong place to discuss this seeing as theirs another thread already but as we're here. Their are plenty of other PVR STB's and software solutions that allow the usage of pause, rewind & record halfway through the show and don't sufffer from the blip so I see no reason why Sage couldn't do the same.

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

ps ben how is the new folder view tv app coming? can't wait to try it.

The TV app is coming on fine, but it'll be awhile before its out due to all the other enhancments that are occuring at the moment. It does however work more or less ok on my system.

[MitchSchaft]

This is one problem I have and can live without, but experience at the switch of every show. I moved over from MCE2005 recently, and this was never an issue. I can say that's one thing I miss about Microsoft's platform. That's about it, though . So far...
I run a quad core Phenom9500 with 3GB of ram on WinXP Pro.

[PLUCKYHD]

I don't see why they can't start the other feed and start buffering and then make the switch like 1 minute into it this would maybe be more seemless?

by the way I started another thread but didn't see this one.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

I don't see why they can't start the other feed and start buffering and then make the switch like 1 minute into it this would maybe be more seemless?

by the way I started another thread but didn't see this one.

Two reasons: 1. You would most likely need to have a second tuner to do this (otherwise Sage would have to try to copy the same feed to two locations). 2. It would still require the shutting down of one file and the start of another. This would create roughly the same hiccup.

The only real way to fix this is to do a circular buffer.....

[zip]

I have multiple tuners (HDHR, and HVR-1600). I can somewhat understand a slight delay when watching a show as it changes files, creates a new one and moves to the next. The biggest problem I have though, is when watching a 1 hr show on one tuner while recording 30 min shows on another, the 1 hr show has the same "hitch" in the middle when the other show is being tuned, and a new file created for the recording that I'm not currently watching. The 1 hr show is still recording to the single file with no change, and I'm having no resource issues on my HTPC (I've recently upgraded the entire system assuming my aging setup was the cause), so why am I seeing the same problem in this situation? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Zip

[49studebaker]

Possible Solution 1:

Use a circular buffer to buffer live tv and write the updated contents of that buffer to a video file every few minutes. When the buffer runs out of space and overwrites the old data no problem since that data has been saved in the video file.

Possible Solution 2:

When a person tunes a channel all the tv shows from that channel is written to one file. Why open and close files between shows? Why not write all the data in one big file and then split it up when the channel changes.

For example:

8:00pm *User tunes to a channel 12 to watch tv show 1
8:00pm *Sage opens a file for current tv channel recording
9:00pm *Tv show 1 ends, Sage marks end of tv show in file and if record button has been pressed, Tv show 2 starts seamless.
9:10pm *User changes to channel 15 and Sage opens a new tv channel recording file. Sage splits previous tv channel recording into separate video files if user decided to save recording, otherwise file is deleted.

There are some disadvantages:
-Hard drive has to be large enough to hold that single video file
-Splitting up that single video file into separate tv show video files will use more system resources.

[Wheemer]

This "blip" is caused not just by the fact that sage needs to create a new file... Look at zips example, there's no new file created in relation to the 1 hr show he is currently watching.

Something needs to be done about this, we can't have people thinking badly about sage.

[heffe2001]

I'm not seeing the pause in the middle of an hour long show when a 30 minute show starts or stops, but I do see the pause on live TV. Doesn't really bother me, as I've been using Sage for a very long time so I'm used to it (so are the rest of the family). I'm using extenders exclusively, no viewing on my server machine at all, so that may be part of it (are any of you seeing the pause during viewing another show using extenders?).

I for one hope they don't go to a circular buffer, unless they can just use a smaller buffer to pad the in-between changes (I don't see how they'd do this on multi-tuner setups, as you'd have to use multiple tuners to do it right).

[tahoetim]

The only thing I see on my WHS server/HD 200 extenders is the channel change across the top of the screen at the end of every show. If I could hide this, I wouldn't know it's happening. I ordered two more hd-200's today.

[sandor]

...i think i have, for the most part, been "lucky" enough to never be able to watch live television, so i had to actually seek out this blip. it is quite abrupt and seems like something that should be addressed.

[49studebaker]

Why not implement something like this:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3330#toc2

Start writing the tv show to buffer 1 and open a file on the hard drive. While data is being written to buffer 2, output the contents of buffer 1 to the previously opened file on the hard drive. When buffer 1 is being overwritten, output and append that data in buffer 2 to the same file on the hard drive. Repeat until end of tv show then close video file and open a new video file.

[SageGk]

Originally Posted by sandor

...i think i have, for the most part, been "lucky" enough to never be able to watch live television, so i had to actually seek out this blip. it is quite abrupt and seems like something that should be addressed.

Tell me about it, whenever I have company they panic and think the cable is going out!

[Comitizer]

I have to agree with this. It's really annoying and it happens any time there is a change in show while recording. Also, anytime a show ends I have a pause of a few seconds while sage switches files. It really annoys me because this is something I didn't have to deal with with 7MC or VMC.

However, Sage let's me record via firewire from my set top box so I'll never switch back.

Is there a roadmap anywhere were we can get an idea as to the features that should be included in the next major Sage release (7 I would expect).