Odd problem with HD-PVR recent recordings

[rerooks]

In the last couple of days, I have been unable to play my recordings on either my HD-100 (old firmware) or my HD-200 (latest beta firmware). The problem seems to happen with recordings from either of my two HD-PVRs.

What is odd is that the recordings should be:
H.264 720p, AC3/448Kbps@48kHz 5.1

All of my previous recordings are. The new recordings list them as:

MPEG2-Video/7.6 Mbps 4:3 480i@29.97 fps MP2/384Kbps@48kHz Stereo

I think this is why the HD-100 and HD-200 cannot play them.

I can play them on my computer (the Sage WHS machine) just fine, in both SageTV and in VLC media player. (of course, it play smoothly in VLC, and is choppy in SageTV on my computer)

Has anyone seen this before? Any suggestions? I don't want to be experimenting all night. I don't know why it just happened. It was running fine with no software or firmware changes over the last several days.

[rerooks]

Just to give more information, I am using the latest SageTV beta. I also have Verizon FIOS. When I play from the Arcsoft TME, it shows it as being 1280x720 in Dolby Digitial (AC3) 5.1 channels.

Originally Posted by rerooks

In the last couple of days, I have been unable to play my recordings on either my HD-100 (old firmware) or my HD-200 (latest beta firmware). The problem seems to happen with recordings from either of my two HD-PVRs.

What is odd is that the recordings should be:
H.264 720p, AC3/448Kbps@48kHz 5.1

All of my previous recordings are. The new recordings list them as:

MPEG2-Video/7.6 Mbps 4:3 480i@29.97 fps MP2/384Kbps@48kHz Stereo

I think this is why the HD-100 and HD-200 cannot play them.

I can play them on my computer (the Sage WHS machine) just fine, in both SageTV and in VLC media player. (of course, it play smoothly in VLC, and is choppy in SageTV on my computer)

Has anyone seen this before? Any suggestions? I don't want to be experimenting all night. I don't know why it just happened. It was running fine with no software or firmware changes over the last several days.

[stanger89]

The latest Sage version isn't a beta, so if you're running a SageTV beta, it's not the latest version.

That said, if you open the file with something other than Sage, are they detected right? Sage might want to see a chunk of one if it's detecting the format wrong.

[rerooks]

Okay, I stand corrected. I guess I should have posted this in the regular software forum. I don't see how I can move it now.

I can open the file with the sage client on my server machine, but not on the HD extenders. Do you know what sets the recording format that Sage identifies on "View Recording Detail"?

Originally Posted by stanger89

The latest Sage version isn't a beta, so if you're running a SageTV beta, it's not the latest version.

That said, if you open the file with something other than Sage, are they detected right? Sage might want to see a chunk of one if it's detecting the format wrong.

[Opus4]

This was left here because you said you are using beta HD200 firmware.

Originally Posted by rerooks

What is odd is that the recordings should be:
H.264 720p, AC3/448Kbps@48kHz 5.1

All of my previous recordings are. The new recordings list them as:

MPEG2-Video/7.6 Mbps 4:3 480i@29.97 fps MP2/384Kbps@48kHz Stereo

Is that exactly what the detailed info screen says about the recordings? Do you have any other tuners? If so, are you sure the details screen said the recording is from an HD-PVR? The recording format should be H.264... unless the format mis-detection is the entire problem.

- Andy

[rerooks]

Yes, I am using the HD-200 beta firmware (released on the 18th)

I think that the mis-detection is the problem. For instance, at 9 pm, we recorded the Closer, the detail text is

Encoded by: Hauppauge HD PVR Capture Device #2 Great-H.264
Files:[\\windows-server\sage4\TheCloser-DoubleBlind-5648433-0.ts]
Format: MPEG2-TS[MPEG2-Video/7.6Mbps 4:3 480i@29.97fps, MP2/384Kpbs@48kHZ Stereo]

Not only does it get the video format wrong, it gets the audio format wrong as well. It should be AC3 5.1.

What part of Sage determines the filetype? Do the extenders rely on it?

The previous recordings from my HD-PVR work great. New recordings don't. Recordings from my HD-Homeruns work great. This is something that is new. About the only "new" think I have done is added another hard drive to my machine.

Originally Posted by Opus4

This was left here because you said you are using beta HD200 firmware.

Is that exactly what the detailed info screen says about the recordings? Do you have any other tuners? If so, are you sure the details screen said the recording is from an HD-PVR? The recording format should be H.264... unless the format mis-detection is the entire problem.

- Andy

[rerooks]

I just played the file with VLC, and it shows in Codec Details

Stream 0
Codec: h264
Language:
Type: Video

Stream 1
Codec: a52
Language:
Type: Audio

[Opus4]

You said there were no software or hardware changes recently? No new SageTV files? (TSSplitter.ax perhaps?) Hauppauge driver update? Automatic Windows update?

I suggest that you contact SageTV. If you've updated anything for SageTV, let them know what was changed.

- Andy

[Narflex]

Submit a bug report please so we can get logs from you. Http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

Thanks

[rerooks]

Okay, I did that last night. I appreciate how responsive Sage is to these problems. You don't get that from a large company.

Originally Posted by Narflex

Submit a bug report please so we can get logs from you. Http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

Thanks

[redondo_se]

I've been having problems with format detection on some R5000-HD SD recordings. If you have debug logging enabled on your server (or client/server if you don't have a separate server) look for entries like this in the log:

"ERROR parsing video format info ..."

Here's the text of the bug I submitted to Sage:

Format detection is failing sometimes for streams from my R500-HD modified Dish Vip 211. I mostly only notice it for SD streams because I use FFDSHOW to decode SD mpeg-2 and Arcsoft to decode HD mpeg-2. However, I have at least once noticed that it incorrectly identified an HD stream from my HDHomerun because it would not allow me to play a show while it was recording, something about that format not supporting time shifting.

I have had this problem with multiple 6.5 beta versions and the latest 6.5.9 release.

I have uploaded a zip file with several items to illustrate the problem. The file can be found here:

http://cid-bc845d43f8b3e65f.skydrive...7C_problem.zip

The recording was started at February 21, 2009 16:23:55 and was named UltimateRecipeShowdown-HometownFavorites-3976654-0.mpg.

It contains 4 files:

NoAspectInfo.png - This shows the detailed info screen showing that the video dimensions were not determined for the file.

remuxer.log - The R5000-HD demux log shows that it correctly identified the resolution of the file as 544 x 480.

sagetv_0.txt - The sage server log showing that it could not properly identify the stream "ERROR parsing video format info"

UltimateRecipeShowdown-HometownFavorites-3976654-0.mpg - The actual video file.

I don't think I ever had this problem with 6.4.8 or 6.3.5. This only happens maybe 30% of the time when I tune to SD channels. Could this be a timing issue?

[rerooks]

I submitted a bug report to SageTV. Evidently, the files WERE being recorded in H264 format, but somehow, the database (wiz.bin?) was telling Sage that files recorded from the HD-PVR were in another format, so the HD-100 and HD-200 couldn't play them.

I tried to switch back to a previous configuration of Sage (same version, I didn't un-install it, but shut shut it down and renamed directories), but that didn't work. Then, version 6.5.11 came out and I decided to upgrade the new beta.

I un-installed SageTV, and renamed my old directory to Sage_old, and then installed 6.5.11 from scratch. I then copied over the relevant files:

Tuner files for QAM
sage.properties
wiz.bin
channel logos subdirectory
remote codes subdirectory

After that, the recording process worked great.

I wonder if the SageTV service got messed up somehow, because it didn't seem to have anything to do with the configuration files. Nor did it have anything to do with the HD-PVR drivers. Is the service program stored in the SageTV subdirectory?

Anyway, any recordings I had made in the previous week couldn't be played, since they had the wrong format listed. The folks at Sage had a fix for this:

Try this. Close SageTV and the service and open up your Sage.properties file
in the SageTV folder. Look for this line

force_full_content_reindex=false

Change it from false to true and restart Sage and let it reindex your
imported media. It might take a while so give it some time before you shut
Sage off.

And voila, I have have access to all of my old files!