My extender suddenly can't play videos

[freewheeling]

either TV or other video files. I had just recently installed several plugins, including Phoenix Fanart, Metadata Tools & SageTV Web Interface. After rebooting my system I suddenly lost the ability to playback videos on the extender. The HD200 seems to play videos OK in standalone mode, but not connected to the server. The behavior is odd. If I play a video SageTV immediately tries to tune a channel on my STB and the HD-PVR turns on. I then get a screen that says "no signal" and an error message that says: "There was a Playback error in playback. Details: Sage.PlaybackException"

I don't get the same thing when I playback using the desktop version of SageTV, only on the extender (connected to the server). I have turned on error logging, but don't know where to look for the files so I can upload them. There don't seem to be any error log files is the "logs" directory. So where would they be?

BTW, I uninstalled or disabled the plugins but the behavior hasn't changed.

[wrems]

Do a hard reset on the the HD200. Pull the plug from the back of the unit and give a few, then plug it back in and see how it goes.

This happens to me from time to time for no apparent reason, and the resetting process usually fixes it.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by wrems

Do a hard reset on the the HD200. Pull the plug from the back of the unit and give a few, then plug it back in and see how it goes.

This happens to me from time to time for no apparent reason, and the resetting process usually fixes it.

Nope, that doesn't work. I've tried it several times. I'm currently using the latest beta firmware. Should I back up to the previous stable non-beta? Where are the error log files located? That might help, if I could find them.

[freewheeling]

I noticed that there is a "Live PVR Data Client" plugin that I didn't install, but that might have been installed by another plugin. It looks like the server is trying to tune to a "live TV" show, and the server says it's recording something, but that's obviously not what was intended. Could the problem be with this plugin? (It's a beta, apparently.)

[freewheeling]

I mean debug logging. I turned this feature on for both the "local client" and the "server", but there don't seem to be any error logs located in the log directory. Where are they? What are they called? I've done a search of the forum there there don't seem to be any posts that give a clue to that. I'm using the beta SageTV 7 on a Windows 7 64-bit machine, with installation in the default location.

[wrems]

I'd try rolling back to your last known working installation.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by wrems

I'd try rolling back to your last known working installation.

Rolling back? How do you do that? You mean roll back Windows or just roll back SageTV? As it happens I just saved a system image using Acronis yesterday, but it seems a bit much to restore the entire system just to get back SageTV server functionality. Wouldn't it make more sense to look at the debug logs first?

Where the heck are they???? What are they called???? I can't find anything that looks like a debug log.

[freewheeling]

Somewhat counterintuitively the debug logs aren't *.log files, they're either sagetv.txt or sagetvclient.txt. I have four of them, sublabelled 1 and 2. I'd attach them to this post, but I can't find anything in any of them that refers to the error in the error message "sage.PlaybackException" so don't know what good that'd be.

Do I really have to roll by my entire system? Is there really no other way so solve this problem?

[robogeek]

I know at some point in the past I've seen a post somewhere with the same symptoms, but I can't recall what the solution was. Is it possible you have permission problems where SageTV can't access your recording or import directories? If you run SageTV Service and any of your recording directories or import directories are on another machine on your network, then be sure the SageTV Service is set to use a valid user account that has access to those network shares instead of running under the default LocalSystem account.

The error you see on the screen may not be worded the same in the log file. To get a clean and easy to read log file to post here, shutdown SageTV, restart it, go to your extender and replicate the process to get the playback error, then go to your server and make a copy the sagetv_0.txt file, and then attach that file to a post here (or zip it up and attach the .zip if the log file is too big).

[freewheeling]

I got frustrated and decided to back up to the latest stable firmware version. I then started the server and after ignoring a complaint that I didn't have the latest firmware I tried again to play the files. It worked. I'm currently reflashing the latest beta firmware, to see if there's still a problem playing videos with that. If there is, then it's some sort of problem with the beta firmware. If there isn't, then either a parameter got reset that wasn't working, or the firmware had been corrupted somehow.

I should have a fairly clean version of the debug log attached, although it was slightly longer than the allowed 750kb, so I zipped it.

[freewheeling]

I reflashed with the latest firmware (which I'd already been using) and I can now play videos. Maybe the debug log, which was recorded while it wasn't playing the videos, will reveal something for the firmware debuggers?

[robogeek]

Glad the reflash fixed it, but I'm not sure why or how

From the looks of it, you selected a show for playback, which failed with:

VideoFrame had an error loading the file. It must abort the file load.

in the log file. Not able to load the recording, it looks like it tried to switch to live TV. Probably trying to tune the last channel that was watched or recorded from, which initiated a live TV recording. When the extender tried to play the live TV file, it also failed with the same error. Both the selected recording and live TV file were HDPVR .ts files, so the extender appeared to have had trouble loading those .ts files. Not sure if that's a error with the SageTV server not being able to load the file or if it's the extender that can't load it.

According to the log, you are on SageTV v7.0.10, so you are one beta behind. It's possible the issue is addressed in the current 7.0.11 beta. Since all is working again after reflashing, I guess it's possible the firmware got corrupted some how, though I'd think that isn't very likely. In any case, if happens again, filing an official bug report would probably be a good idea so SageTV Support can try to identify any special circumstances that might lead to that particular failure and fix it so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

[voorhees]

I have had the same exact problem on both of my HD200s. There are a couple of different threads discussing this with various folks having the same problem. One is here.

I tried rebooting, rolling back firmware, reinstalling SageTV, reinstalling OS, but the only thing I got to fix it was posted by joshuad156 in the above thread in post #9 and reposted below.

1) unplug power AND NETWORK to the HD200.
2) plug in power and let it boot to Standalone mode.
3) plug in network cable.
4) browse to your server and connect from the server browser.

I have reported the bug to SageTV but was unable to get them a log since the fix was posted before they got back to me. I am glad to hear yours is fixed, but you may want to submit a bug anyway and send them your log so they can look into it since it is an issue several folks have experienced.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by robogeek

Glad the reflash fixed it, but I'm not sure why or how

From the looks of it, you selected a show for playback, which failed with:

VideoFrame had an error loading the file. It must abort the file load.

in the log file. Not able to load the recording, it looks like it tried to switch to live TV. Probably trying to tune the last channel that was watched or recorded from, which initiated a live TV recording. When the extender tried to play the live TV file, it also failed with the same error. Both the selected recording and live TV file were HDPVR .ts files, so the extender appeared to have had trouble loading those .ts files. Not sure if that's a error with the SageTV server not being able to load the file or if it's the extender that can't load it.

According to the log, you are on SageTV v7.0.10, so you are one beta behind. It's possible the issue is addressed in the current 7.0.11 beta. Since all is working again after reflashing, I guess it's possible the firmware got corrupted some how, though I'd think that isn't very likely. In any case, if happens again, filing an official bug report would probably be a good idea so SageTV Support can try to identify any special circumstances that might lead to that particular failure and fix it so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

What do I need to do to update? Shouldn't I be able to just update to the latest stv file without reinstalling? Or do I have to run the new exe file?

[freewheeling]

I ran the setup exe file and it now says I don't have a valid media extender license after I re-enabled the service. Huh? Do I have to re-enter the extender license, or do I enter my SageTV7 license?

Update: After trying to launch the server connection several times during which the HD200 would shut itself off and then not come back on I finally tried the sequence of unplugging both the network and the power, rebooted to the standalone screen, and then plugged in the network and connected to the server. Seemed to work.

[robogeek]

Cool. I'd say if you can cause these connection and playback problems to happen repeatedly, by repeating a certain chain of events that ultimately results in one of these error conditions, then definitely submit a bug report.

[freewheeling]

Apparently the problem is in the extender so I had to start debug logging on that device. Was able to reproduce the playback exception problem and sent the SageTV bug report yesterday, so hopefully they'll be able to track down the problem. Haven't heard from them yet.

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

Apparently the problem is in the extender so I had to start debug logging on that device. Was able to reproduce the playback exception problem and sent the SageTV bug report yesterday, so hopefully they'll be able to track down the problem. Haven't heard from them yet.

Good to hear your were able to get a log. I agree it is in the extender. I do not have issues with the pre-v7 firmare, but then it does not work well with v7. One of mine started doing it again yesterday for my wife, but by the time I got home the HD200 would not start so I had to do the fix listed above and then the exception did not come back for me to get a log.

[dead_ferrets]

I had the exact same problem described in this thread happen to both of my HD-200s. The only way I could fix it was to rollback back to the latest non-beta firmware to fix the problem.

Clearly there is some kind of problem with the beta firmware.

[voorhees]

I submitted a bug report and have traded e-mails with support a couple of times. I have been unable to get an error log so far of the Playback Exception since my wife reboots the HD200 a couple of times and gets it working again briefly and of course it does not do it when I come home from work. Support has not seen the issue during their testing, but they would like to see logs of the server and HD200 if I can get some. It is happening pretty often (daily) now during the middle of the day and I think I am going to turn logging on and see if I can get it to reproduce the Playback Exception before the logs get too big. I would highly recommend turning in a bug report since it looks like it is attributed to the new firmware and they have not see the problem yet so they can not fix it if we do not get them the data.