Upgrading Server?

[PeteCress]

I'm running the Service version of SageTV on a Windows Home Server box.

Asus P5Q-SE2, Intel Core2Duo @2.8ghz w/4 gigs of RAM.

Sometimes my playbacks of recorded TV (e.g. a Fred Astaire flick called Easter Parade) get the stutters and frequent image breakups on an HD200.

OTOH, our resident technophobe happened to record that very movie to VHS and it plays back with none of the above.

From that, I conclude that something is lacking in my WSH box.

Sage is about the only thing running, and concurrent users are almost always 1.

The Asus board mentioned above is short on SATA connections, so I have a SATA card in there.... which is the only non-plain-vanilla thing I can think of.

Is there anything to be gained by moving to a bigger badder mobo?

Or is Sage not that demanding and my problems indicate something wrong with the existing system?

[Peter_h]

I would not point the finger at your sageTV server so quickly. Your hardware looks to be plenty strong for what you are doing. I don't think your server is the problem.

Have you tried any further diagnosis? Is the problem consistently reproducible? Does it happen on the same file every time, same place every time? Have you tried playing the file by itself to see if the problem is still present? What version of SageTV and Extender firmware?

What about your network? Gigabit? Anything else running on the server?

[BobPhoenix]

It appears from your sig that you are running SageTV version 6. If so are you recording or playing back from the POOL drives? Have you changed them to 64K clusters as outlined here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37483

Might want to upgrade to SageTV 7 it is not suppose to need 64K clusters any more.

[barney B.A.]

To rule out a network issue, you could hook one of your clients directly to your server with a crossover cable and try to play the recording. In the past I have had problems with wireless (even N).

[PeteCress]

Is the problem consistently reproducible?
Yes: on two different HD200/TV combinations yet.
But.... see italics below.

Does it happen on the same file every time, same place every time?
Yes - both HD200's

Have you tried playing the file by itself to see if the problem is still present?
Now it's getting interesting.

Tried VLC Media Player on my regular workstation PC reading the file from the server - same as the HD200's were - and it was unwatchable. No question of the particular frames I was testing, the whole thing was stuttering, giving weird screen renditions, and so-forth.

Then I copied the file to a drive on that workstation PC and tried VLC Media Player on it again: same thing, virtually unviewable.

This makes me suspect my base premise: that my resident technophobe isn't putting me on when they say that their VCR version had no problems. Unfortunately said VCR version is no longer available for verification so I'm just taking somebody's word for it.

I think I need to find another test case - but this time with a verifiable control version to compare against. Jay Leno breaks up a lot - especially rapid hand movements - and he's readily available, so I'll try recording him to DVD as well as with Sage.

One thing that I did notice: the .mpg file's size was 10,352,746 KB, which I take tb about 10,110 mb. I ran a speed test (LAN_SpeedTest.exe from cNet) which indicated a read speed of 100 mbps and a write speed of 77.

That would lead me to expect the copy from server to local drive would take less than two minutes: (10,110/100)/60 = 101 seconds.

But it took way more than a half hour.


What version of SageTV and Extender firmware?
SageTV Windows Home Server Version 6.5.9.
HD200s (both): Firmware rev 2009-0903-0

What about your network? Gigabit? Anything else running on the server?
Not gigabit. Cat5e wire. Gigabit switches and router, but I guess something somewhere is pushing it down to 100 mbps.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

It appears from your sig that you are running SageTV version 6. If so are you recording or playing back from the POOL drives? Have you changed them to 64K clusters as outlined here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37483

Might want to upgrade to SageTV 7 it is not suppose to need 64K clusters any more.

Yes, pool drives formated to 64k clusters.

I was unaware that the new version of Sage was available.

But I've got enough problems challenging my limited grey matter; so I'll pass on the beta and even 7.0 production and wait for 7.1 production.

[mr_lore]

Are your WD Greens in your pool EARS or EADS? EARS are the new advanced format drives and on WHS they run terribly slow without setting a jumper: http://homeservershow.com/wd-ears-drives.html

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by mr_lore

Are your WD Greens in your pool EARS or EADS? EARS are the new advanced format drives and on WHS they run terribly slow without setting a jumper: http://homeservershow.com/wd-ears-drives.html

Thankfully, they are all EADS.

[PeteCress]

This is tangental, but I'm seeing references to a Server 2008-based version of WHS.

Looks like it's still in Beta, but I'm guessing it supports EARS.

Anybody seen a projected release date?

[Taddeusz]

You sure you're just not having the occasional signal problem? Seems more likely than any kind of other hardware issues. I get the breakup of my cable signal occasionally myself. What kind of signal strength/quality do you see on your HDHR's? How do you have your HDHR's connected?

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

You sure you're just not having the occasional signal problem? Seems more likely than any kind of other hardware issues. I get the breakup of my cable signal occasionally myself. What kind of signal strength/quality do you see on your HDHR's? How do you have your HDHR's connected?

I'm not sure of anything at this point... -)

I have a cable coming from the rooftop antenna through a crawl space into a 4-way amplified splitter.

Three outputs of the split go to various rooms for direct input to the TVs there.

The fourth output goes to the server closet where it is broken into four by a regular non-amplified splitter: one for each HDHR.

[Taddeusz]

What kind of signal strength do you get if you run the HDHomeRun Config GUI and tune into that or any channel? More importantly what kind of symbol quality do you get? Is it stable or does it jump around? There is also a new driver/firmware version that just came out. Included in it is an updated demodulator firmware.

Since you're doing OTA I'd be more likely to believe you're having signal issues rather than any kind of obtuse system related issues.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

What kind of signal strength do you get if you run the HDHomeRun Config GUI and tune into that or any channel? More importantly what kind of symbol quality do you get? Is it stable or does it jump around? There is also a new driver/firmware version that just came out. Included in it is an updated demodulator firmware.

Since you're doing OTA I'd be more likely to believe you're having signal issues rather than any kind of obtuse system related issues.

The channel of the problem movie looks good - along with three other channels
(12.1, 17.1, 3.1, and 10.1). They are all 98-100% signal strength and 100% Signal and Symbol quality

OTOH, 6.1 (which Jay Leno comes in on - and consistently breaks up) has Signal Strength = 67, and Signal Quality fluctuating between 67 and 72.

I think I'm back to recording stuff on both an old DVD machine I have and Sage to look for differences/commonalities in breakup.