Problems with HDHomerun

[m1abrams]

First background info:
Been using an HDHR for over a year now only issue in the past was a bad PSU which was replaced. The HDHR has been my most reliable tuner.
Server is a dedicate machine that just run sageservice it is not a client, I use HD200 for client.
Today I installed an HD-PVR and that install went smoothly and within minutes was watching HD recording on it. However just before the install I noticed SageTV had an error message that basically said that one of the HDHR tuners early that day (prior to the HD-PVR install) had to be reset for lack of data while trying to record. I did not think anything of it.

So after playing with the HD-PVR for a bit I started watching a previously recorded show and noticed I had 2 shows scheduled to be record right at 8pm on the HDHR tuners. Well right at 8pm the sageservice crashed. I restarted it and tried to get it to record those shows however within seconds of that it would crash. Anytime I tried to watch anything on the HDHR tuners it would crash. Note the HD-PVR tuner was fine.

So I decided to remove the HDHR tuners from sagetv, rebooted the entire server including power cycle the HDHR. I then did a rescan of the HDHR and in sage added them back according to the latest instructions. Sageservice is no longer crashing however now when I go to the channels using the HDHR I get a blank screen, and within the channel lineup preview I get a strong signal 90%+ but the preview window just says loading preview.

I am running the latest drivers and firmware for the HDHR.

Why does it have to go belly up just when the season starts up!

Just to add - from within the hdhomerun setup using its builtin QuickTV I can view the channels just fine.

[jasonl]

Hello,

Did you remove the scn/frq files in the SageTV directory after you removed the HDHomeRun tuners? After removing them, open HDHomeRun Setup and click Apply to regenerate the scn files, then reopen SageTV and go through the add/channel scan process.

Jason
Silicondust Support

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by jasonl

Hello,

Did you remove the scn/frq files in the SageTV directory after you removed the HDHomeRun tuners? After removing them, open HDHomeRun Setup and click Apply to regenerate the scn files, then reopen SageTV and go through the add/channel scan process.

Jason
Silicondust Support

No i did not remove the scn/frq files I assumed that was done by the tools but after reading other thread that could be the issue. When I get home I will attempt that.

[m1abrams]

Ok I deleted the scn and frq files with sagetv closed (service too).

Readded the tuners following the directions.

After doing the sagetv channel scan I go to preview the channels, FOX HD tunes in fine, however ABC, CBS, NBC all try to tune I get 90% signal strength but no image. And after sometime trying to tune those channels sagetv service CRASHES.

Ok so I think will the HDHomerun tune those channels, it DOES with no issue.

What happened to SageTV, this is extremely frustrating because I am missing many of my shows due to this.

Please help!

[m1abrams]

Ok so this is the response from HDHR support:

SageTV isn't setting the program when it tunes. Usually this is fixed after removing the scn/frq files, but since you already did that, the next step is a full uninstall and reinstall of SageTV. Uninstall via Control Panel, then delete all SageTV-related files in Program Files. After that, install the latest version of SageTV and go through setup again.

Since I have deleted scn and frq files and readded the HDHR multiple times now it seems my only solution is to reinstall. This seems like a pretty major bug of SageTV to not be able to handle this situation a little more gracefully. Note that this problem did not occur due to any change in the system on my part, since it started happening BEFORE I installed the HDPVR.

Anyhow, has anyone else gone through this issue before? Do you know if I can keep my wiz.bin really do not want to start fresh with that. I may try to do this before prime time this evening. So that would give me from time i get home from work until 8pm, or 2 hours. Think I can get a running reinstall of SageTV within 2 hours?

[Clift]

You should be able to just back up your entire sagetv directory and "restore" from there. 2 hours should be plenty. The other thing though, did you exit SageTV after adding the HDHomerun tuners? I have had it in the past where I needed to exit SageTv and restart before it would correctly initialize the HDHR. Good Luck

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by Clift

You should be able to just back up your entire sagetv directory and "restore" from there. 2 hours should be plenty. The other thing though, did you exit SageTV after adding the HDHomerun tuners? I have had it in the past where I needed to exit SageTv and restart before it would correctly initialize the HDHR. Good Luck

I agree. Also, the current directions that Sage gives makes it clear that you need to start/stop SageTV at least once BEFORE installing the HDHR in Sage. I can't explain why, but clearly there is some timing issue here. In other words, Sage must need to read some files first before installing the HDHRs.

I moved my SageTV from an old computer to a new WHS computer over the weeked. I kept getting the black screen with "No Signal" on it. I thought I had read the directions well enough, but realized I missed the part about starting Sage once before loading HDHR on.

I removed HDHRs from Sage and stopped Sage. Went through Silicon Dust set up program again just as a safety measure. Restarted Sage and stopped again. Started Sage again and installed the HDHRs on Sage. Stopped Sage just for good measure. Restarted and I've had no problems after that.

[m1abrams]

Well each time I have tried to add the HDHR to Sage I did the following:
1. Remove current HDHR sources within Sage
2. Stop Sage Service
3. Delete scn/frq files within sage directory
4. Scan tuner and channels for HDHR within the HDHR software
5. Start up Sage Service
6. Within Sage using default STV add HDHR source and do the full scan within Sage for each source.

Now I do not think I actually restarted SageTV after step 6. You guys say that maybe needed? I never did that step before.

[sic0048]

I also just remembered that you need to be on a fairly new STV version. So make sure you update the default STV to the latest version. Also, keep in mind that it doesn't update to the latest version at once. Instead you load the next version in line everytime you check and install an update. So I had to check about 6-8 times before I finally ended up on the latest version (ie no more updated were available).

If you haven't updated the STV in a while, but you updated firmware and other things during this process, I would bet $$$ that this is the actual problem.

[AJ Bertelson]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Well each time I have tried to add the HDHR to Sage I did the following:
1. Remove current HDHR sources within Sage
2. Stop Sage Service
3. Delete scn/frq files within sage directory
4. Scan tuner and channels for HDHR within the HDHR software
5. Start up Sage Service
6. Within Sage using default STV add HDHR source and do the full scan within Sage for each source.

Now I do not think I actually restarted SageTV after step 6. You guys say that maybe needed? I never did that step before.

did you try uninstalling sagetv and then delete the scn/frq files and then reinstall sagetv?

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by AJ Bertelson

did you try uninstalling sagetv and then delete the scn/frq files and then reinstall sagetv?

Nope I have not done the reinstall of sagetv yet.

As for the latest STV, I have not updated the STV did not realise that was updated separately from SageTV for the default STV. I will try that first before attempting a full reinstall.

[AJ Bertelson]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Nope I have not done the reinstall of sagetv yet.

As for the latest STV, I have not updated the STV did not realise that was updated separately from SageTV for the default STV. I will try that first before attempting a full reinstall.

Give it a try, I noticed that I couldn't get h264 working for the life of me with my clients. I uninstalled re-installed based on a suggestion that I saw some where and it worked.

I lost my sagemc front end but my HDPVR worked so its worth a try because you need to get your recorder back up and running.

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by AJ Bertelson

Give it a try, I noticed that I couldn't get h264 working for the life of me with my clients. I uninstalled re-installed based on a suggestion that I saw some where and it worked.

I lost my sagemc front end but my HDPVR worked so its worth a try because you need to get your recorder back up and running.

Funny part of this whole ordeal is the NEW HDPVR is giving me know issues, used it all weekend long exclusively since my HDHR is not working. Even used it with 5.1AC3 recording and no issues. Was great for the football .

Now to get my HDHR working and I will be set!

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Ok so this is the response from HDHR support:



Since I have deleted scn and frq files and readded the HDHR multiple times now it seems my only solution is to reinstall. This seems like a pretty major bug of SageTV to not be able to handle this situation a little more gracefully. Note that this problem did not occur due to any change in the system on my part, since it started happening BEFORE I installed the HDPVR.

Anyhow, has anyone else gone through this issue before? Do you know if I can keep my wiz.bin really do not want to start fresh with that. I may try to do this before prime time this evening. So that would give me from time i get home from work until 8pm, or 2 hours. Think I can get a running reinstall of SageTV within 2 hours?

I'm planning the exact same thing this evening for similar reasons (but I've got a little less than 2 hours.

Yeah, that's enough time.

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by ybrew

I'm planning the exact same thing this evening for similar reasons (but I've got a little less than 2 hours.

Yeah, that's enough time.

Well I know for me the deadline gets stressful when the wife is wanting to watch her shows!
FYI - She loves what SageTV does for her, in fact she was the first to tell me to ditch the cablebox DVR. However she is not so forgiving when it does not work

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Well I know for me the deadline gets stressful when the wife is wanting to watch her shows!
FYI - She loves what SageTV does for her, in fact she was the first to tell me to ditch the cablebox DVR. However she is not so forgiving when it does not work

My wife will be at school tonight so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity.

And with EvilPenguin's Playon add-on released this weekend (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44446) it's not a real big deal anyway. Almost everything we watch is available on the web via Hulu within 24 hours. The stuff that's not is available online elsewhere.

(I've gotten good at finding it recently due to problems with tons of recent recordings. I'm REALLY hoping this clears everything up.
But I also have a DirecTV HDPVR that will get used tonight just in case)

[mihooper]

I've got the same problem. I have
1. Removed the Silicondust tuners from Sage
2. Stopped SageTV, stopped the service
3. Deleted the scrn/frq files from the SageTV folder
4. Updated to the lates HDHR firmware.
5. Hit "Apply" in the HDHR setup app.
6. Restarted SageTV
7. Re-added the Silicondust tunres in SageTV
8. Re-scanned the stations in SageTV
9. Try to tune to the HDHR and get a blank screen ("no signal").

This is way too complicated. Surely I'm missing something trivial.

[m1abrams]

This has been a major PITA. So I tried the just update STV aproach and reinstall the tuners for the Nth time, no luck

I tried just reinstall SageTV - No luck

Finally did the full uninstall and delete SageTV folder then reinstall keeping ONLY my wiz.bin file - Luck

HOWEVER - I now have my HDHR working fine and my HDPVR works and my 4th tuner which is a PVR150 records fine.

Now my problem is my ExeMutliTuner Plugin which I have had working fine is acting weird. I use this to control my 2 STB -1 for the HDPVR and one for the PVR150. It seems to work fine controlling the HDPVR but the PVR150 does not work. How the hell can that happen?

The plugin is setup to issue a command to EventGhost, I assign a "stubdevice" to each tuner in my case HDPVR and PVR, so ExeMultiTuner sends the command to EventGhost, for some strange reason it works fine for HDPVR but not for PVR.
This is getting stupid. And I stand by the fact that SageTV has done something to cause the original issues with the HDHR. Others have had the problem - what I suspect is happening is that once SageTV loads the frq info is does not clear and reset it when you update it.

[m1abrams]

Ok so weirdness with the ExeMultiTuner

If I Add the tuner with the ExeMultiTuner it does nothing, I see no messages sent to EvenGhost.
so I delete the device.
shutdown sagetv
start sagetv
go to add the tuner again select S-Video then SageTV does the "Preview" and I notice at this point SageTV tunes the device correctly using the ExeMultiTuner. But then as I finish the process of adding the device it stops using it again Seriously WTF is SageTV doing?

[ybrew]

Reinstalled aage but still having problems
I wasn't sure what the problem was before but tonight iwas able to verify my hdhr tuners aren't working
I thought it was a signal issue so looked at my attic antenna,
tried cable qam and tried a stand alone antenna.
Basically, my HDHR's tuners appear very weak. Using the channel scan, I only get a few channels.
Then I realized I had three other tuners using the same antenna without issues. I've got two set top boxes (those $40 boxes for digitalTV and one bluebird dvico tuner). They pull in about 50 channels while my hdhr gets 7, but the quality is crap on all of them. I've got a decent attic antenna and didn't see any problems with it when I looked at it.
The HDHR used to work perfectly just a month ago.
I'm on the latest firmware and wiped out and did a complete fresh install of sage.
I think I removed the hdhrs earlier but I will do that tomorrow to be sure.
Is it possible both tuners went bad or is there something I can do to fix them?
I'd rather not buy new tuners if I don't have to but I'm still gonna start researching some just in case.