Hp Mediasmart (live tv)freezeing-need help

[cjalphonso]

Setup:
Dell-P4-1.6, Sage server w/1gig network card
HVR-1600

HP Mediasmart home server ex487 (Alpha1)
Added 1TB drive formated at 64k clusters as per this forum.
1-HD Hometheater
netgear 1gig 8 port switch.
SMC router 10/100 (only used for internet everything else thru 1gig switch)

I setup the Dell to be my SageTV server. It runs fine thru the STPHD200 when I use the local C: drive. If I point the save directory to the server (\\Alpha1\Sagetv) it then turns extremely jerky thru both the Dell monitor(sage server) and thru the STPHD200. If I watch a dvd off of Alpha1 it runs fine. Also, I noticed if I ripped a dvd from the Dell to Alpha1 across the network, it would freeze the STPHD200 completely (not sure if that is common or not, network overload?). I'm new to the server thing, but I think I used the correct UNC path as indicated above. I don't have any virus protection running unless the mediasmart comes with some, but I didn't see any when I remote desktopped into it. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

P.S.-The live feed is OTA HD local stations.

[cjalphonso]

If I change the Video Recordings Directory to my hp mediasmart (WHS) the live tv gets super jumpy, it runs smooth on the local c: drive. Shouldn't I be able to do this over my gig network, the manual says I can.
Thanks

[MrVining]

Are you watching the on the same computer doing the recording?

Is your WHS involved in other activity (updating software, rebuilding/confirming RAID, writing documents from another source)?

Do you have access to WHS CPU usage (writing RAID5 & 6 is pretty heavy stuff)?

[cjalphonso]

The server is on the computer I am watching on. The Video Recordings Directory is pointed to the HP mediasmart (WHS) a different computer across my network. I don't believe any heavy duty things are goind on on the server, the drives are equalized and the directory I'm recording to isn't duplicated. Basically it goes from the sagetv server across my network to the WHS machine and back. Again, the manual says it should work, if I have misread this or am expecting too much from my network let me know.
Thanks for any help.

[MrVining]

Well you have to find your bottleneck. With such limited info I still would be looking at your HP mediasmart WHS to see what it's up to if it were me.

[cjalphonso]

I put a much more detailed post in the hardware forums with no luck. I posted here to make sure this should be feasible before I start looking for a bottleneck. So my question is really, should this work? If so, I'll start troubleshooting.
Thanks for the input.

* merged both threads *

[MrVining]

During my SageTV testing / playtime I used my ReadyNAS as a recording directory and had no problems with it (personally I think the ReadyNAS has some pretty low end hardware).

If you are only talking about one stream, 10/100 network is more then enough over head for network recording. Heck for that matter 2-3 streams should have plenty of space.

Long story short yes it's 100% doable to record to a network drive. Then stream it off of the drive for Live TV. As long as the network or drive isn't tied up doing something else anyway.

No chance that the computer is connecting to you're WHS via Wi-Fi or anything even though you plug it into you're copper network if Wi-Fi is active it may be connecting though that?

[cjalphonso]

My network is 1gbps, so if its possible to do it on 10/100 It should be no problem on mine. There has to be something I'm missing on the HP Mediasmart (WHS). Could there be some type of user access problem? I just installed the MSS, I pretty much have it setup with its default values.

I did a test tonight of an hour recording straight from OTA HD thru the sage server to the mediasmart without viewing. I then later went back and viewed the recorded file off of the mediasmart and all I got was one hour of a frozen picture. I could fast forward and rewind, but the image stayed the same.

Ok, just looked at the network utilization while the studdering is happening. It is using less than 1 percent of my network capability and less tha 30 percent of my CPU. I am now convinced something on the mediasmart is not allowing the server to save to it properly. Any Ideas on what that could be?

[MrVining]

Sorry I'm a WHS newb, but if it is a settings issue I would bet it was a permissions one.

[cjalphonso]

Did another test, this time I changed the save directory to a shared drive of another computer on my network. The same exact thing happened. No network activity, no cpu usage, just skip freeze skip freeze.

I'm pretty confident its not a network issue, I'm pretty confident it's not a hardware issue. It has to be a settings issue or a software issue.
For instance, I can rip a dvd across my network while streaming live tv to an hd200, while watching live tv on the sagetv computer without any problem. I should be able to do this.
I've put in an official support request, we'll see how that works. But I'll keep trying things people suggest.

MRvining, when you sent it to your readynas, did you add that as a directory or did you redirect the original recording directory? Currently I'm redirecting the only save path to the network drive, maybe sagetv needs to have one directory locally and then you can add directories to that?
Thanks for all your help.

[MrVining]

Oh no I wouldn't do any redirecting, just give sage the real path to the drive.

[cjalphonso]

I think you misunderstood. Are you Adding the nas directory and keeping the existing sage directory as well or do you have one save directory to you nas?

[MrVining]

I don't use NAS anymore, I was just testing it. When I did the directory on my NAS was the only recording directory.