HD-PVR Nightmare

[vividweb]

I have had 2 HD-PVR's running great for the last year or longer. I would get the odd hiccup and have to reboot one of them now and then. Over the weekend I added a third HD-PVR and have not been able to record anything since. The two that were working previously, cannot record anything. I have upgraded to the 1.5.7.0 drivers (used HCWClear.exe first) but that has not changed anything. Even if I go into TME, I get a capture fail error. The STB's have not changed and none of the cabling has moved (on the two original HD-PVR's).

Not sure what to do next.

[macsupergeek]

probably too much for the USB bus, drop in a USB 2.0 pci card and run at least 1 or 2 on that, but not all 3.

[vividweb]

Thought about that and pulled out the third HD-PVR, but still had the same problem. I had all three recording at the same time for about 1/2 hour and it was all good. But since then nothing has worked. Very frustrating.

I will try pulling the third one out again. If I just unplug and do a reboot is that enough, or do I need to remove that device from windows before the reboot? How can you identify in windows which HD-PVR is which physical box.

[mikejaner]

What drivers were you using before? 1.5.3 drivers seem to be the most stable.
Did you power each hdpvr off for a few seconds and then back on, before trying to record with all three?

[vividweb]

The drivers I was using before were really old, 1.0.something. It was working, so didn't bother upgrading. I tried a couple things last night.

I was doing the update remotely and wasn't able to power off the HD-PVR's, which seems like where some of my issue comes from. I rebooted them and was able to get some data out of them, but shortly had one freeze. But I need to try again and reinstall drivers and reboot all at once.

I also switched from SPDIF to RCA and that has allowed them to keep working this morning. So I now have all three that are recording without a lockup for 12 hours (hasn't been a whole lot of shows though.)

So now I need to figure out how to get SPDIF back, but hopefully I can let things settle and make sure I can do it when I have free time and not have wife and kids mad that there is no TV.

[SteveD]

I had a similar issue when I moved from 1 HD PVR to 2 of the devices. I fixed it by replacing the sage.properties , and reconfiguring from scratch. Have to get rid of back up also. This is my cure when sage does weird unexplainable things. Solves my problem most of the time and it is easy to do. I do run it headless.

[vividweb]

I think I'm going to try that as well. I have been using Sage for a long time and had a lot of plugins in the old versions, so my .properties file may be suspect.

Is anyone successfully using the 1.5.7. drivers with SPDIF and multiple HD-PVR's?

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by vividweb

I think I'm going to try that as well. I have been using Sage for a long time and had a lot of plugins in the old versions, so my .properties file may be suspect.

Is anyone successfully using the 1.5.7. drivers with SPDIF and multiple HD-PVR's?

I am.

[SteveD]

I am using the 2 X HD PVR, drivers 1.5.7.0 and 1 beta below the most current for V7. I am also using SPDIF. My problem was the properties file. I did the HCWclear , down graded drivers, in the end it was a corrupt sage.properties. Don't forget to get rid of the backup properties file. You can also copy section like you drive declarations and copy them into the file so you don't have to repeat that step.



Not to get off subject. What remote application and configuration are you using to remote your server. I have some security concerns that I have to address with my remote access, looking for a better solution

[vividweb]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Not to get off subject. What remote application and configuration are you using to remote your server. I have some security concerns that I have to address with my remote access, looking for a better solution

I use VNC for my remote admin tasks. Not really worried about security, other than just basic password protection (maybe I should be though). I also use the VNC app on my iPhone.

[vividweb]

Well after two good days of recording, my HD-PVRs have failed again. I had a failure last night on one of the HD-PVR's, was able to record again with it after power on/off.

I had my failure when all three HD-PVR's tried to startup at once, I wonder if there is an issue with the USB-UIRT trying to fire ir signals to three different boxes at one time?

[gplasky]

Your USB-UIRT operates seperate from the HD-PVRs and shouldn't affect them or visa-versa. You should be able to tell if the USB-UIRT is functioning by obeserving if all of your STBs changed to the correct channel.

Gerry

[vividweb]

I know it functions separately, but if there are three recordings that all start at 7pm it has to send the ir signal for the three satellite boxes all at 7pm.

Too many variables that keep creeping in to this.

[gplasky]

Correct. But you have the USB-UIRT set up for 3 seperate zones, correct? It should blast them out almost simultaneously.

Gerry

[vividweb]

No all in one zone. My stb's (Bell) have a programmable remote code so they all have unique remote codes.

I don't think this is the cause of my problem, but it seems that there is more problem when all three start simultaneously, but that just may be data coming through the USB channel as well.

I wonder if a new server would help. Are there any boards that have multiple USB channels? The newer boards have USB2 and USB3. I don't have any PCI/PCIe slots to add USB board to. I have been thinking about upgarding my server to an i5 to handle transcoding from Playon and to give the option to use the HD onboard graphics.

[SteveD]

As a test, how about shifting the time for recordings by 1 minute between the 3 recordings to see if the system fails. After all the recordings start, you can check the bandwidth used by each hd pvr in device manager.

[vividweb]

Originally Posted by SteveD

As a test, how about shifting the time for recordings by 1 minute between the 3 recordings to see if the system fails. After all the recordings start, you can check the bandwidth used by each hd pvr in device manager.

I never knew you could check the bandwidth being used by the HD-PVR. I'll have to take a look at that and see how its spread out.

I know when two recordings start it has never been a problem. I don't think a third would break it. I know I can record all three at the same time.

Time to try a new properties file and see if that helps me along with clearing the drivers. If I run HCWClear.exe, reboot and reinstall the drivers, when do I reboot the HD-PVR to update the firmware.

[SteveD]

It is an indirect method, you will look at your usb controllers under the advanced tab. I am making the assumption that HD PVR are the only usb devices other than the keyboard and mouse. I am reading 21% and 23% on two of my usb channels right now with two recordings going.


I downgraded my drivers this morning by just reinstalling the 1.5.3 version on top of the 1.5.7 (guesses on versions you get the drift). Was having audio/video sync issues trying to troubleshoot.

[davephan]

Have you tried running each HD-PVR on separate USB PCI cards? One of the HD-PVR recommendations on a previous post was to use a dedicated USB PCI card for the HD-PVR. I only have one HD-PVR connected to the dedicated USB PCI card. The dedicated USB PCI card seemed to improve the HD-PVR reliability in my situation. Maybe if you had three USB PCI cards, you could connect each of the 3 HD-PVR units to separate USB PCI cards. This USB PCI card is only about $10 per card.

Here is the USB PCI card I purchased:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104216

Dave

[vividweb]

Well I did the properties file rebuild and have two great days of flawless recording. (I've jinxed it now though). Took a little bit of work and still haven't got all the plugins back working, but the result has been perfect recordings.

Now just need to work on getting SPDIF back.