Switching from BeyondTV, some problems with setup

[coppertubing]

Greetings all,

I'm fed up with trying to make my new HDPVR work with BTV, so I downloaded the Sage trial and ran into some setup issues which I need to get straightened out before I purchase. First of all, I'm very impressed with the product. Setup was SO much easier and I really like the interface. I added the HDPVR as a new source and was viewing the video in no time.

Issue number 1 - when I tried to record, nothing happened. The bling light did not come on, but the record light in Sage came on and a recording was listed. However, when I tried to play it back, it disappeared from the list and the error message said 'Recording doesn't exist' or something like that. The HDPVR records well in TME.

Issue number 2 - when I tried to add new video sources for my HDHomerun tuners, as soon as I selected Digital Antenna option, Sage crashed. No errors - it just goes away. Same on both tuners. Is the trial limited to only one source?

Issue number 3 - I set up the HDPVR to use my USB-IRT, went through the code setup, selected my cable box (FIOS DCT6416). But when I try to change channels, nothing happens. It may require some tweaking of the delays and such, and I may eventually go the firewire route, but this worked well in BTV, so I expected it to work in Sage.

I did read the manual and searched, but found nothing specific to help with this. I'll keep trying, but if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Sorry for the long first post.

edit: Mods, please move to the right section if this is not it.

[Brent]

Do you have any tuners working so that you can watch live TV?

[coppertubing]

Originally Posted by Brent

Do you have any tuners working so that you can watch live TV?

Yes I can watch live TV on the HDPVR, but I can't record. Sage crashes when I try to add another source for the HDHomerun.

I am going to try to remove the HDPVR and add just the HDHR.

[mayamaniac]

I have an HDHR, HD-PVR rev. C2, and FiOS also, with a QIP7100 STB, and everything is working perfectly. Provide us some info about your setup, or do what most people do and add it to your signature. List things like hardware specs, SageTV version, Java Version, TV sources, etc.

SageTV trial is fully functional, it is not a demo, there's no limitation besides the 14 days as far as I know.

As for channel changing, I recommend firewire method.

[coppertubing]

I was hoping this was just me doing something stupid during the install/setup, but after another couple hours messing with it, it appears that it may be a hardware issue. So here's my setup:

Gigabyte 780g with AMD Phenom X4 9850, 2g DDR2 running Vista Home Premium, ATI Catalyst 9.2, HDHomerun with latest firmware, Hauppage HD-PVR rev D2 with 1.053 driver,USB-UIRT.

TV Sources: Verizon FIOS with DCT6416, IMG 1.6.2; HDHomerun using OTA
Sage TV version 6.5 (the latest trial download version), Java runtime 1.4.2

The only thing that stands out as different from the system requirements list is that the 780g has onboard IGP ATI3200, and not "PCI/AGP bus graphics card with overlay".

I removed the HD-PVR as a source and tried to add just one of the HDHR tuners. As soon as I select it and then the Digital Tuner option (I think that's what it's called, the only one) on the next page, the program brings up the little working circle icon for 2 seconds and then crashes. No error messages, nothing freezes, SageTV just disappears from the running processes list in TaskManager. Same result with the other tuner. The HDHR is configured properly and I can tune channels and view its video stream using VLC.

With the HD-PVR selected as a source, I can view live TV but cannot record. It can record using the TME software.

I really want to get this to work, so any help is appreciated.

[Clift]

It looks like you need to update your Java runtime to version 6. I would suggest 1.6.11 as I saw a thread on here a couple of days ago warning against java 6 update 12 (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40110).

See if that does it for you. If not, here is what I would suggest you:

• Uninstall all capture cards
• Close SageTV and SageTV Service (if you're running in Service Mode)
• Open the properties file (usually C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\sage.properties) in Notepad
• Add the following line: debug_logging=TRUE (make sure TRUE is in all CAPS)
• Start SageTV
• Add the HDHR tuner and repeat the crash
• Start SageTv again, now add the HD PVR and go to record a show to repeat the crash
• Copy the following files: sagetv0.txt and sagetv1.txt (these are the log files)
• Go back to the properties file and set remove the line: debug_logging=TRUE
• Submit a bug report to SageTV (http://www.sagetv.com/request.html)

The support guys are very good and will probably ask you for your log. Hopefully there is something in the log that explains your behavior.

Also, in the meantime (after saving your log files) you should uninstall SageTV, reboot, and download the latest beta (http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_5_11Setup.exe) and see if that helps.

Good Luck!

[coppertubing]

Clift,

Thanks for your suggestions. All of the different flavors and versions of Java have me confused. Do I need the full Java or just the runtime environment? The Sage requirement is for anything 1.4 or above of the RTE. I will download the full latest Java and see what happens.

Then I'll capture some logs and open a ticket if necessary.
Thanks again.

[coppertubing]

Just an update and FYI: I was able to trace most of my problems to an issue with DRM on Vista following a cpu upgrade. In addition to the above problems, I kept getting the error message:

"Digital Cable device registration has stopped working"

After a search, I found the solution to be clearing out the C:\Program Data\microsoft\Windows\DRM folder and rebooting.

Woohoo - Sage stopped crashing, it recognized my HDHomerun tuners, and the HD-PVR started recording. Unfortunately, these were the problems that I was getting in BeyondTV that led me to try Sage, and now BeyondTV is working again. So anyway, I'll probably be sticking with it. I really liked Sage however and it has certain advantages.

So I'll leave you with this word of advice - be careful after any hardware change that may upset Vista DRM. Thanks to all for help during my brief stay.

[Rico66]

I think you were actually lucky that you got these DRM issues resolved easily. I tried this as well, when I updated mobo (also Gigabyte 780g) + processor a couple of months ago, and ended up doing a clean install, because the listed solutions somehow didn't work. I didn't had Sage at that time, so that wasn't a big issue at that time, but now I would think twice about a clean install (because as great as Sage is, the setup including all the bells and whistles is a pain in the ...)

This combination of hdpvr and mobo works flawlessly within Sage for me.

[Clift]

Well, the setup is easy enough if you just backup your entire SageTV Directory.