R5000 dishnetworks sports playback issue

[Fluffdaddy]

Come to think of it I seen this problem also, but never enough to report it to either Nextcomwireless or Sagetv. My bad

[curtvm]

I suspect Nextcomm would give a reply something like- 'we just copy the stream, you will have to check your playback software/device'. Which may be true, but somewhere in the process some timing information is being altered/corrupted/or something. It would nice to know where in the process the problem is occurring.

I just had a 30min show recorded from TBS (h264,1080i) in which the problem shows up. I am keeping it so I can try various things. I tried to convert it to another format using Sage, but it fails. I have my own batch files to do conversions with ffmpeg, like for vcd or dvd. I converted to vcd, which worked ok.

I have tried using ffmpeg to just 'rewrite' the recording, but it fails right away (I need to read ffmpeg documentation again, as I think I'm doing something wrong). Ideally, we could have a 'conversion' on the Sage menu that simply takes in the stream, and rewrites it with its own fixed up 'time codes'.

I haven't tried it yet, but there is also the TSCutter utility from Nextcomm. Maybe that would fix these files up.

I think VLC could also clean these files up. I will try the convert/stream option, and change it to a mpeg-ps leaving audio/video unchanged (I believe these are ts files even though they are named mpg).

[peternm22]

I'd recommend people contact Sage if you're having this problem, hopefully it will push it up their priority list if enough people contact support.

[Fuzzy]

I did watch Monday night football last night, and had zero timeline issues the entire time - but then, I'm not sure I've had a timeline issue for quite a while. This is with 3 ViP-211's (though the 3rd is virtually NEVER used) connected to an NEC PCIe USB card.

[K O]

I also had no issues with the MNF game, and have never had a 'sports' issue with Dish. I even run Comskip on all recordings while they record in 'live' mode, and never have any issues.

[curtvm]

I had another MNFootball problem, about 5 minutes in (its not really a 'sports' problem, but since in my case that is what I mostly record so it always seems to be a sporting event).

I haven't found a good way to fix these recordings, and will probably just give up. VLC comes closest to fixing these (without re-encoding video/audio), but I still end up with different problems like audio dropping out even though the video is mostly correct. ffmpeg doesn't seem to like these files at all, although I can get it to convert to vcd (but I'm really not interested in re-encoding).

Since these are h264 streams, most mpeg 'fixers' won't work. I'm not going to spend all my time trying to fix/convert these, so will probably go back to being happy that most things work ok most of the time- bad recording, delete it and move on.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by peternm22

I'd recommend people contact Sage if you're having this problem, hopefully it will push it up their priority list if enough people contact support.

I'm hoping everyone with issues is doing this. Sage expressed interest in getting examples from me. I'm going to send them when I get a chance (not sure how to send a 40 gig file though)

[benjatelcom]

Greetings all,

Just finished reading up on your R5000 issues.

I am running an R5000 on a VIP211, and have a few files that I would like to examine for timecode issues.

Should note that SageTV client, and HD300 here can't play them properly. Only seen in H.264 video based transport streams.

I am also recording in "compressed" mode. I suppose this means it is stripping all of the non-content program streams from the transport stream (transponder frequency?), which yields a file that is the sum of the audio and video stream, instead of a flat 19 or 23mbps rate.

The broken timecode seems to intermittent to easily eliminate by switching back to uncompressed TS recording. What are your stream settings?

[Rob]

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been out of town over the holidays and I have been rebuilding my server to move from Windows XP/Sage6 to Windows 7/Sage 7. Support suggested Sage7.

In the past, timeline issues have occurred with compressed settings and they have occurred with uncompress settings.

I am just now getting everyting settled in on Sage7 with current firmware for all my extenders (HD100, 200 and 300). I have also gotten an HD-PVR and have struggled getting it set up. What a PITA it has been to set up.

The issue has not resurfaced, but there have only been a handful of recordings made since bringing it all back online.

[Rob]

So after a couple of weeks on Sage7, I have not seen this issue. I'm hopeful it is a thing of the past, but since it was always sporadic, I am not yet conviced.

Is anyone on Sage7 seeing the timeline issues?

[benjatelcom]

The timecode problem is back and affecting many of my R5000 recordings off Dishnetwork.

First of all, I need to understand the problem. What tools can I use to analyze my transport streams to see whats wrong with them?

I don't really use SageTV software for playback any more... I use two HD-300 boxes. Both of them do the same thing when they hit a bad recording:

They start playing the video back very fast with broken or no audio. Can sometimes pause but usually the box is unresponsive to seeker commands. Box still responds to any other commands including stop.

I really need to get this fixed... WAF dropping like a stone now.

[Rob]

I still see the issue with Sage7. Was hoping it was gone but it isn't.

I'd suggest you contact support. The more the hear about it the more likely they will work it. In another thread Demo (one of the sage people) asked for clarification on this issue and Petermn22 and I gave him all the symptoms and Petermn22 has sent in examples of the issue for Sage to debug. Since then, the 7.1 beta and HD300 beta firmware has been released. I have no idea if they attempted to address is, but I keep hoping.

[guppyman]

Just stumbled across this thread. I recently experienced the same problem on a Dish Network R5000 broadcast of a basketball game on CBS Sports.

I really like the HD units - I got tired of constantly mucking around with the HTPC setup - up to now they just work. My "old" HTPC is just a sage server now - I use the HD200 for our kitchen/dining TV and use the new HD300 on our big screen in the family room. WAF approval factor has been off the charts until this happened.

Anyway, while we were watching the sound dropped out and it went FF on me. Happened about 30 minutes into the broadcast. I use SageTV client on my office PC and it was working fine. Switched my big screen TV back to the HTPC and that worked fine as well. The issue only surfaced with the extenders. I deleted the broadcast otherwise I probably could have provided a sample.