HD PVR crashing and HD Theater 200

[tvmaster2]

Just got back from a 2.5 week adventure in India. Crazy. But I digress.

As a test while I was out of the country, I disconnected my HD Theater 200 from the network.

Guess what?

No HD PVR crashes - not one - in 2.5 weeks. All recordings scheduled were made, and I could access placeshifter from India (although data rate sucked)

So, has anyone else discovered this? All the time I've been wanting to blame the HD PVR as a nasty bit of hardware. However, by taking the SageTV HD Theater out of the picture, no more HD PVR crashing.

Is this just co-incidence, or is there a good reason why this happened?

[paulbeers]

I never have HDPVR crashes and I run 2 HD100's, 2 HD200's and 2 HD300's always connected always one (okay one of the HD100's is usually in standby, but the other 5 are always on). Maybe if you are running out of memory or your memory has gone bad? But no, my HD200's cause no problems with my system and I have 2 HDPVR's.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I never have HDPVR crashes and I run 2 HD100's, 2 HD200's and 2 HD300's always connected always one (okay one of the HD100's is usually in standby, but the other 5 are always on). Maybe if you are running out of memory or your memory has gone bad? But no, my HD200's cause no problems with my system and I have 2 HDPVR's.

no HD-PVR crashes? miraculous. Thanks for the info

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I never have HDPVR crashes and I run 2 HD100's, 2 HD200's and 2 HD300's always connected always one (okay one of the HD100's is usually in standby, but the other 5 are always on). Maybe if you are running out of memory or your memory has gone bad? But no, my HD200's cause no problems with my system and I have 2 HDPVR's.

Me too, I've got an HD200 and HD300 and no HD PVR crashes.

[tvmaster2]

can you guys elaborate on what routers / switches you're using? I find it amazing that so many people on this board complain about HD-PVR crashes, but you guys have had none. Maybe the network hardware is the key, or, the motherboard network chips, so that info would be good also
thanks

[ccsmoke]

Hello,

I also been lock-up free for a while but I did discovered a bug a while back which would cause the extender to lock-up the HD-PVR. Running sage mc, I haven't upgraded yet so maybe fixed.

Condition: If watching live tv, then hit guide...this will bring up the guide as well as the smaller video screen..picking a different channel via guide will sometimes lock-up the hd-pvr...never seems to stop recording.

Workaround: Pressing stop, while guide screen is open, will cause the smaller video screen to disappear (stopping the HDPVR)....then tune the channel in with the guide.

3 HD200, Dlink gig router DGL-4100, Linksys 10/100 switch
Server: Gigabyte EP43-UD3L MB, 9550 chip, 6GB Ram, W7 64 bit, 650 corsair power supply, coolmaster 922 case

[paulbeers]

I use a 26 port TrendNet switch (24 100mps and 2 gb) and a second 5 port gb Trendnet Switch connected to one of the 2 gb ports on the 1st mentioned switch. My server is connected directly into the 26 port switch via the other gb port. I know the last time I looked my 26 port Trendnet switch is no longer available (bought it about 3-4 years ago). Both of my servers (recent upgrade) that have used this network setup and both HDPVR's, have had Realtec built int gb ports (I think they are both 8169's). I've also recently upgraded my router, used a Buffalo G router and switched to an Asus recently but that really shouldn't make a difference since other than passing an IP address, none of my network traffic runs thru it (it's connected directly to one of the 100mb ports on the first switch). I am running ddwrt as the firmware on both of my routers.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

can you guys elaborate on what routers / switches you're using?

I've got a Netgear GS608 switch and a Dlink DIR-825 Router/WAP.

I find it amazing that so many people on this board complain about HD-PVR crashes, but you guys have had none. Maybe the network hardware is the key, or, the motherboard network chips, so that info would be good also
thanks

I don't see what the network would have to do with it. It's not a network based tuner, it's a USB tuner.

Only things I've "done" are to not use the built-in IR and I taped over the IR receiver window.

Originally Posted by ccsmoke

Hello,

I also been lock-up free for a while but I did discovered a bug a while back which would cause the extender to lock-up the HD-PVR. Running sage mc, I haven't upgraded yet so maybe fixed.

Condition: If watching live tv, then hit guide...this will bring up the guide as well as the smaller video screen..picking a different channel via guide will sometimes lock-up the hd-pvr...never seems to stop recording.

Sounds like you might not have a long enough tuning delay.

[ccsmoke]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Sounds like you might not have a long enough tuning delay.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it out. The thing that puzzles me is that it doesn't do it in live tv by tuning the channel without going into the guide. Thanks for the suggestion though, I will adjust it.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ccsmoke

The thing that puzzles me is that it doesn't do it in live tv by tuning the channel without going into the guide.

You mean it work different if you pick a different channel from the guide than if you type in a channel number while watching something? Or hitting the Channel up/down buttons? If so that's probably something Sage would like to hear about.

[ccsmoke]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You mean it work different if you pick a different channel from the guide than if you type in a channel number while watching something? Or hitting the Channel up/down buttons? If so that's probably something Sage would like to hear about.

That is correct, selecting a channel in the guide if video is already playing has crashed the HDPVR. However, by hitting channel up/down on the remote without going into the guide will not crash it. I'm still running sagemc 6.6 and not using beta firmware on the extenders.

I will try changing the delay Monday. If it doesn't help, I'll submit a bug report...kinda wanted to try version 7 with beta firmware though first.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by ccsmoke

That is correct, selecting a channel in the guide if video is already playing has crashed the HDPVR. However, by hitting channel up/down on the remote without going into the guide will not crash it. I'm still running sagemc 6.6 and not using beta firmware on the extenders.

I will try changing the delay Monday. If it doesn't help, I'll submit a bug report...kinda wanted to try version 7 with beta firmware though first.

FYI: I just tried this with no issues in V7. Obviously I didn't try it repeatedly, but I certainly didn't have any problems with it crashing my HDPVR. This was on one of my HD200's.

[tvmaster2]

I understand the HD PVR connects via USB, but all the traffic from PVR to HD Theater is via Cat5, no?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

FYI: I just tried this with no issues in V7. Obviously I didn't try it repeatedly, but I certainly didn't have any problems with it crashing my HDPVR. This was on one of my HD200's.

When you're accessing your HD Theater's, what state is your server in - aka do you also watch video via Sage MC on the server, or is it always a dormant machine?