My HDPVR Is Slowly Killing Me

[SDeGonge]

After trying numerous things to fix my HD-PVR issues I finally come to the realization that this device just sucks and will always be a problem. Wouldn't be so bad if it was just me using the Sage system but my wife and kids also use it and they wouldn't know the first thing to do when is loses communications. In addition, I'll be travelling on business in a few weeks and am dreading the daily calls from the wife telling me that the tuner has died again.

Having said that I'm now going to focus on doing things to pre-empt/fix an HD-PVR lockup before Sage needs to use it.

Haven't thought too much about it yet but wanted to get some suggestions about how to handle this. Here are some thoughts…

1. I'd want to detect a problem with the HDPVR before Sage actually has to use it. Is there any way to "talk" to the HDPVR. Can it be "pinged"?

2. Detect a problem after the fact (when Sage has a failure and posts the status message) I'd need to monitor the status for the HDPVR failure message and handle it then.

3. Need to cycle power to the HDPVR. Is there a shutdown/startup signal that can be sent to the HDPVR via USB? Can a "smart" power strip be used to do this?

4. Post a new status message indicating the restart of the HDPVR.

5. What about the SageTV service? Most of the time my issues are solved by cycling power to the HDPVR so I don't think I need to do anything here.

Any other pro-active things I could do to get a reliable HDPVR (cycle power to it once a day…or even hourly if that would help). Of course I would need to make sure that it's not in use before doing that.

I've never done any Sage programming so writing plug-ins will be new to me and take some time so if anyone wants to take this on would surely be a hero in the Sage community.

Also, I'm curious….Is there anybody out there that DOES NOT have issues with the HDPVR? My Sage system (V7) is totally stable with the exception of the HDPVR. Of course there are minor functionality issues but nothing out of the ordinary for a beta release.

[eric3a]

Do a search on SageAlert. I describe my setup there that detects SageTV errors and resets HDPVR as needed.

Eric

[Spectrum]

I was out of town for an extended period recently and just got a cheap digital timer from home depot and had it set to power off @ 0502 and come back on at 0503. I had a windows shut down the sagetv service at 0500 and start it back up at 0505 every day. Worked pretty well; I missed a few recordings when the IR blaster didn't change the channel. Best part was it only cost about $15 and 10 minutes of fiddling to set it up.

Eric's sage alert solution is a lot better, but I don't have any IP power strips and I'm not dropping $80 on one just for the HDPVR. I'd be more inclined to rig up a relay to an Arduino uController and control the on/off state through serial, but I haven't done that yet either

[rrhorer]

Originally Posted by SDeGonge

After trying numerous things to fix my HD-PVR issues ...
Having said that I'm now going to focus on doing things to pre-empt/fix an HD-PVR lockup before Sage needs to use it.

Having had issues early-on with my HD PVR, I can feel your pain; but, after resolving my issue (USB), it's been rock solid ever since (knock on wood). I hate to see anyone have to resort to a off/on reset work-around if it is not necessary. Since you didn't say what numerous things you tried, I'll offer several ideas that could help. This in priority order:
1. Remove the top and replace with black plastic mesh (cheap at an craft supply store) held in place with velcro.
2. Do not share a USB header with other devices (this may actually be 1st priority). Try a powered USB hub if available.
3. Put a piece of black electrical tape over the HD PVR's ir receiver to prevent it from "getting confused" with ir commands from your remote and other devices; and do not attempt to use the HD PVR for changing channels. I even had problems using another USB device (both MCE and USB UIRT) for changing channels, but have had no problems after switching to firewire.
4. If you are using the 5.1 audio output, try using analog instead.
5. Make sure to run HCWClear before re-installing drivers.
6. If you have tried these things and they have failed, by all means, setup the off/on reset procedure.
7. Good luck.

[SDeGonge]

Originally Posted by rrhorer

Having had issues early-on with my HD PVR, I can feel your pain; but, after resolving my issue (USB), it's been rock solid ever since (knock on wood). I hate to see anyone have to resort to a off/on reset work-around if it is not necessary. Since you didn't say what numerous things you tried, I'll offer several ideas that could help. This in priority order:

1. Remove the top and replace with black plastic mesh (cheap at an craft supply store) held in place with velcro.
Didn't do this but It's worth a try. I might as well mount a fan to it also.

2. Do not share a USB header with other devices (this may actually be 1st priority). Try a powered USB hub if available.
Did try a usb card but that didn't help.

3. Put a piece of black electrical tape over the HD PVR's ir receiver to prevent it from "getting confused" with ir commands from your remote and other devices; and do not attempt to use the HD PVR for changing channels. I even had problems using another USB device (both MCE and USB UIRT) for changing channels, but have had no problems after switching to firewire.
Done-Currently have firewire

4. If you are using the 5.1 audio output, try using analog instead.
Hmmm...I would hate to lose this feature.

5. Make sure to run HCWClear before re-installing drivers.
Done-many times

6. If you have tried these things and they have failed, by all means, setup the off/on reset procedure.
I'll try a few more things but I don't have high hopes.

7. Good luck.
Thanks...I'll need it
...And thanks for the suggestions.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by SDeGonge

4. If you are using the 5.1 audio output, try using analog instead. Hmmm...I would hate to lose this feature.

I was never able to get 5.1 sound to work without lockups with Dish Sat. Stereo is fine for me as long as I can depend on the HD-PVR.

Eric3a's auto recycle scripts work great. A daily power recycle of HD-PVR's also goes a long way towards a trouble free setup.

[SDeGonge]

Originally Posted by jerryt

I was never able to get 5.1 sound to work without lockups with Dish Sat. Stereo is fine for me as long as I can depend on the HD-PVR.

Eric3a's auto recycle scripts work great. A daily power recycle of HD-PVR's also goes a long way towards a trouble free setup.

As much as I hate to do it I'll dump the 5.1 as the 1st step. If I don't see a lock-up for a few days even I'll be happy as a pig in s%&t.

[Chriscic]

The HD-PVR probably took years off my life, but now my two units are working great with no lock-ups in at least the past three months.

What version of the drivers are you using? The latest were a disaster with my Dish setup, but the older ones (1.056 I think) work great. I am using 5.1 sound and have my dish boxes fixed to 720P output.

Good luck.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

The HD-PVR probably took years off my life, but now my two units are working great with no lock-ups in at least the past three months.

What version of the drivers are you using? The latest were a disaster with my Dish setup, but the older ones (1.056 I think) work great. I am using 5.1 sound and have my dish boxes fixed to 720P output.

Good luck.

1.0.5.301

With 5.1 audio, I had lockups, out of sync audio and underwater audio. Stereo is solid.

[SDeGonge]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

The HD-PVR probably took years off my life, but now my two units are working great with no lock-ups in at least the past three months.

What version of the drivers are you using? The latest were a disaster with my Dish setup, but the older ones (1.056 I think) work great. I am using 5.1 sound and have my dish boxes fixed to 720P output.

Good luck.

Was using 1.0.5.301 but started using the latest drivers when I switched to 7. The newer drivers seem to work much better as far as channel changing. The 301 drivers appeared to be slower and I would get a nasty popping sound whenever I changed channels (configured for 5.1 & firewire). Going to keep the current drivers and switch stereo to see if that does anything 1st.

[ThePaladinTech]

I've had no problems since i switched off 5.1 - but i changed some other things too. i would be very curious what your experience is, so please keep us posted with your results!

[SDeGonge]

Originally Posted by enzominator

I've had no problems since i switched off 5.1 - but i changed some other things too. i would be very curious what your experience is, so please keep us posted with your results!

Will do. Just switched off 5.1 so we'll see how it goes for the next few days.

[Savage1701]

SDG:

I have not read all the other replies, so some of this might be repetitive, but here's what I have found:

1. I can only talk to the HD-PVR via the TME Extreme Video Recorder applet (make sure you shut Sage down first). You can get at some settings. You need a line in your properties file to go over 12.5Mb/s but it's easy and it does improve the quality. If you google "Sage TV HD-PVR maximum bitrate python" it should get you to Andy's thread on it.

2. I don't know other than if through Nielm's web server applet.

3. I use ethernet PDU's. You can find them on Ebay on the cheap. Good brands include Digital Loggers, Server Technology, APC, Dual Com, and others. All but the most ancient ones have a modern GUI administrated from a web page for power cycling. I'd make sure my server was powered down first before I power cycled my HD-PVR or you might make your device driver go nuts. I've done that.

4. I'll tell you one other thing - I have an Asus P5Q-E Premium. It has more USB controllers and ports than anything has a right to, and most of them are flake city with the HD-PVR. Get a NEC-chipset based PCI or x1 PCI Express card and run your HD-PVR off of it. It's about $30 bucks and you stand a great chance of radically decreasing your reboots/lockups.

5. Get a USB-UIRT if you are having even the slightest issue changing channels. Again, the best $50 you will spend if you are into Sage. It can control 2 seperate blasters and is easy to seperate the blaster signals out via a stereo headphone cable. I get about 1 channel change error per 2-3 months with it, at most. Hauppauge is not set up for IR blaster control with more than one Hauppauge product and they make many variants of each prodct for the OEM/white box market, the MCE market, and the stock PC market. So watch out there as well. It's almost a lock that if you get into a fight with a Hauppauge IR blaster controller, you will lose, even if you are very careful on a clean install on which order you put Hauppauge products into the system, etc.

6. I only use stereo, not SPDIF so I can't speak to that. I also only use Sage as an app, not a service.

Just my thoughts. If I tried one thing first it would be a high-quality USB 2.0 card for the HD-PVR.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

SDG: I'd make sure my server was powered down first before I power cycled my HD-PVR or you might make your device driver go nuts. I've done that.

My system has not had trouble at all with recycling the HD PVR's power with the system running. I just make sure to recycle them one at a time, because they can recycle to a new position. ie HD PVR 1 becomes 2 and HD PVR 2 becomes 1.

[toricred]

You might also want to try the 1.5.6.2 drivers that are out now. There's a thread in the Hardware forum with all the links you'll need.

[SDeGonge]

Originally Posted by SDeGonge

Will do. Just switched off 5.1 so we'll see how it goes for the next few days.

No good with this change. I thought switching to stereo solved my issues because I went TWO whole days without and error but it happened again last night and again today.

[btrcp2000]

Originally Posted by rrhorer

2. Do not share a USB header with other devices (this may actually be 1st priority). Try a powered USB hub if available.

Before I pick up an nec usb card, I want to try this, because d@mmit I paid for a motherboard with 10 usb ports for a reason!!

How do I know for sure that I have my hdpvr on its own header? I assume I could pull this up in device manager, but not sure what I am looking for.

thanks!

[bj_nc]

If you haven't mounted a fan, that is another thing to try before buying the NEC card.

My new HDPVR would crash after a few hours with various combinations of firmware (1.5.301/1.6.1) and audio (SPDIF and analog), and for me adding a Rosewill RC-503 NEC adapter did not help. I couldn't try firewire since my SA 8300HD doesn't have it. What did bring some stability (finally gave error after 5 days) was pointing a 80mm case fan directly at the bottom of the unit, with it on its side.

Now I need to sort out a more permanent fan mount. I'm also planning on getting a network power strip (http://www.digital-loggers.com/lpc.html) and setting up eric3a's scripts (http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=380886) to restart the HDPVR when it fails.

-Brian

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

SDG:

I5. Get a USB-UIRT if you are having even the slightest issue changing channels. Again, the best $50 you will spend if you are into Sage. It can control 2 seperate blasters and is easy to seperate the blaster signals out via a stereo headphone cable. I get about 1 channel change error per 2-3 months with it, at most. Hauppauge is not set up for IR blaster control with more than one Hauppauge product and they make many variants of each prodct for the OEM/white box market, the MCE market, and the stock PC market. So watch out there as well. It's almost a lock that if you get into a fight with a Hauppauge IR blaster controller, you will lose, even if you are very careful on a clean install on which order you put Hauppauge products into the system, etc.

Another advantage to the USB-UIRT is that is you do get a lock-up you can just quickly power-cycle the HD-PVR vs. having to reboot the whole system. At least on my WHS server I would lose the IR blaster every time I power cycled the HD-PVR; not so with the USB-UIRT. It didn't fix the lock-ups, but I was pulling my hair out at least a bit less.

[rrhorer]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

How do I know for sure that I have my hdpvr on its own header? I assume I could pull this up in device manager, but not sure what I am looking for.

thanks!

Typically, a USB header is the group of 9 pins (in a 10-pin layout) on the motherboard to which an internal USB cable can be attached to provide an extra two USB ports. I believe Savage1701 is correct about some motherboard USB controllers and ports being "flake city". If you don't have a separate header on your motherboard or an internal USB cable to make the ports available, try rearranging the HD PVR and other USB connections on the rear panel so that the HD PVR appears more "isolated". You can Google for the limitations of USB. As I recall, there are certain current limitations and sharing limitations as the following quote from my quick Google indicates.

This is also noticed, for example, if a scanner and a printer are on a USB hub together. If the computer is sending a print job and the scanner is used, the printer will have to stop and wait for the scanner before it can resume printing. This is a big weakness compared to FireWire, which can daisy-chain devices (even without hubs) in a string up to 64 peripherals long. The easiest and cheapest solution to this problem is, when necessary, the addition of USB ports by additional PCI or PCMCIA cards.