SageTV Freezing - Timer keeps going

[mike1961]

Hello - I'm having a problem on all my SageTVClients except one where when watching sometimes is "sputters" for a few seconds and lately the problem is getting worse where it's like the video just stops but the timer on the Sage bar keeps going as if it is still processing.

Does anyone know what could be causing this problem?

Thanks,
Mike

[MrD]

No but I see the same behavior

[mike1961]

It either freezes the video or sputters it every 5 minutes.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Mike

[AWS]

I had the same issue a few weeks back. I ended up talking to Sage tech support. My setup was as follows:

PC1 Win XP SP3 with Sage 6.5 as the server
PC2 Win XP SP3 with Sage client 6.5 - primary storage.

My "media server" machine, PC1, was reaching out to PC2 where the bulk of the media files were stored at. I was accessing all my media via UNC paths. Long and short of it was to move the media files back to PC1 and share out the drive as a drive letter, not UNC (same drive letter for all networked attached devices). For some reason my PC1 was having a difficult time with heavy network activity.

So if you have media being shared out via UNC paths, change them to a mapped drive (and if the media is external to your media/sage server, try to make it local). Worked for me.

Hope it helps. If you need me to send you my e-mails to/from tech support let me know. I eventually got to tier II.

AWS

[mike1961]

Everything is stored on my file server but I have it as a UNC because there were issues a while back when I I tried to use a mapped drive. I suppose I could try it again but as I recall there were issues. It could be that at the time I did not map those drive letters on the server (I only mapped them on the workstations to the server). This problem has been driving me nuts but I'll give it a shot.

Yes - I would like to see the Emails from tech if you could either post as an attachment or private message me that would be great.

Thanks,
Mike

[AWS]

PM sent. You'll have to read the PM from the bottom up; cut-n-paste from one e-mail in my Sent items.

I moved the HDDs from PC2 into PC1 then shared the entire array on PC1 as M$ (system default share plus some permissions changed). So on PC1 it's M:\ and then mapped on PC2 as the same M:\

Hope this fixes your issue.

AWS

[mike1961]

Thank you - I'll read over it and let you know what I find. This problem has been going on for a long time and getting worse.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

Okay - I'm trying to map the drives and I remember the problem in the past now. It was if the workstation was not mapped to the root then when mapping the drives SageService still sees the "parent folders" that the client might not have access to (since the clients might be mapped a folder or two down from the root). I'm not sure if this is a problem or not but perhaps there are solutions.

I'll keep you all advised of any problems and let you know if this fixes the problem.

Thanks,
Mike

[AWS]

I know what you mean. That's why I shared out the root of the drives - in my case I called it M:\. So on the PC that is hosting/sharing the drive(s), when you right click on it within Windows and select Sharing, then you click the radio button Share this folder, it will be called M$ (or whatever drive letter you already have it called). Then on the other PCs/network attached devices you map M: to \\servername\m$ and it gets mapped as M:\.

AWS

[mike1961]

Looks like that did not fix the problem. The problem continues.

Mike

[mike1961]

I am still having the problem and I noticed something very interesting:

If I'm watching a video on my computer and I click on the timer bar somewhere else in the video like 15 minutes or 30 minutes from where I'm currently watching then it seems to stutter or hesitate for a few seconds and then "catches up." This is exactly what happens when I'm just watching the video but when watching videos it only happens every 5 or 10 minutes so it's as if it almost "falls behind" and tries to catch up.

What can I do to fix this nasty problem? I'm now convinced the problem is something on the file server because it happens on all the workstations. I've purchased new hard drives and completely defragged the drives so I know bad hard drives and/or fragmentation is not an issue. I have set the new drives to the recommended 64K clusters just as before and the problem continues.

Please help.

Thanks,
Mike

[AWS]

What is your server OS?

What Windows services do you run?

What non-Windows services/programs do you run? Assuming you're running an anti-virus app, do you exclude the Sage program directory as well as any import/recording directories?

Have you tried watching the files in a program other than Sage - VLC, Media Player Classic, etc.? If so, does the file "play catch up" in the other media player, too?

AWS

[mike1961]

1. What is your server OS?

XP Pro - nothing has changed for years and it always worked before.

2. What Windows services do you run?

Not much - just Sage. There are 99% resources free when I look at the task manager.

3. What non-Windows services/programs do you run? Assuming you're running an anti-virus app, do you exclude the Sage program directory as well as any import/recording directories?

No antivirus at all - only Zonealarm firewall.

3. Have you tried watching the files in a program other than Sage - VLC, Media Player Classic, etc.? If so, does the file "play catch up" in the other media player, too?

Well this is strange because it's not exhibiting the behavior right now so I can't say for sure. My server can record several shows at the same time and I can watch shows and it still will not have any problems. I'm just not sure yet what in the world is doing this. The only thing I know for certain is there are A LOT more shows that I have on Sage than I have had in the past due to my increased amount of disk space. I don't think it should be a problem but for statistics: I currently have the following:

Total Video Content: 33 days 9 hours
Total Library Content: 76 days 7 hours
Total Free: 549 hours

I'm not sure that that should matter but I thought I would report that is the only thing I can think of that has change since this problem started months ago. The only other thing that has changed is I updated to a more recent version of Sage and Java months ago but I can't recall if that was exactly when this problem started. Once I can see this problem again I'll let you know if it does it in Nero showtime media player (but I would tend to doubt it).

If there's anything else you can think of please let me know.

Thanks,
Mike

[Steve]

May be totally unrelated and it sounds like it is based on the scenario, but I'll just throw it out there. In the weeks before my HD100 died I noticed sort of similar behavior. It usually happened during ff and rew, I would do say a 10 sec skip a few times and the video would freeze but the timer would keep going. The only thing that would fix it would be to stop it and then play again. Since the HD100 was fixed it has been much better, it may have happened once. But there was definitely an improvement and nothing was changed on the server or anything.

[mike1961]

I have Verizon SD boxes so no issues there because the recorded video is fine (because I can rewind and replay and it will work) also it does not do it in the same spots in the video. Also, now as of today, it is not doing it so it seems to be sporadic.

Thanks for any input.

Mike

[gplasky]

I know Zone Alarm was a known issue-especially among HDHomeRun users. So much so that SiliconDust actually recommended removing it. Not just disabling but uninstall it to fix stuttering issues ZoneAlarm created. Just throwing it out there.

Gerry

[AWS]

Just tossing this out there, too... are your clients connected wirelessly or wired? Have you changed anything on your network? If wired connections, are there any loose jacks plugged into your server - maybe the server could be trying to do something "outside" and it can't reach the destination. ???

I like the ZoneAlarm comment above.