Pauses in HD-PVR recordings.

[blade]

I have a problem with my HD-PVR, but have no idea where to start troubleshooting. Everything seems to be working perfectly except the recordings have glitches in them where a few seconds of the show is missing. I get no capture error messages and there are no breaks in the time line. The captures appear fine, but all of the shows have spots where either the video pauses for a second and then resumes a few seconds later or they just appear to jump ahead a few seconds.

The best description I can give is that it's like pressing pause on a camcorder for a second or two while filming an event. When you play the recording back there is nothing wrong with the actual file it's just missing those few seconds of the event.

I'm not certain if it's an issue with the beta or not because I purchased my HD-PVR after I started using v7. This thread made me think that maybe others were experiencing the same problem, but no one really seemed to nail down the problem. Just curious if anyone else is having the same problem and if so have they found a fix.

[SteveD]

Have you tried playing the videos back in total media extreme, to verify the glitches in the files. It may be a playback issue and not a recording issue.

[rdefino]

I get the something. Never been able to figure out what it is. But it's definitely in the recording though. It's like a 1-2sec hang, but audio still plays.

[AlphaCrew]

Check out this thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50616

[Diego Garcia]

I had a LOT of those kinds of glitches with my HDPVR, as well as many other problems. As far as I can tell, the problems had nothing to do with the Sage v7 beta. In fact, v7 reduced the frequency of the problems, but they were still at an unacceptable level.

On my system those glitches are the result of the HDPVR briefly shutting down and then restarting. You can see that happen by watching the HDPVR's "blue glow" disappear and then re-appear several seconds later while it's recording something.

I was able to resolve my issues by doing two things. First, I bought a separate USB card for my Sage server, and hooked the HDPVR up to that. HDPVRs are apparently sensitive to USB throughput, bandwidth or device contention issues, and giving them their own "channel" can help. These kinds of cards cost around $20 in Frys.

Unfortunately, that didn't completely eliminate my HDPVR problems, including those glitches you're talking about. What solved them, for me, was to replace the motherboard and processor that Sage was running on with an Intel i3-based motherboard (I opted for a Gigabyte P55-USB3 rev 2). Ever since I rebuilt the system from the ground up the HDPVR has been rock solid. And it's been that way for more than seven days now, literally an eternity based on my prior experience .

Replacing the mobo and processor is a pretty significant step. But it's worth keeping in mind if all else fails. Besides, I like not ripping out my hair, and my family likes me not being extremely angry at computers, so the $400 the mobo/processor/memory replacement cost me was well worth it .

[blade]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Check out this thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50616

Thanks! I haven't found the cause of the problem, but I think maybe I have a place to start looking. While Sage was recording with the HD-PVR, I ran the DPC Latency Checker that QueOnda suggested. It was showing my latency as very low and that my system was capable of real-time streaming audio and video. Then the latency briefly jumped from around 24 to over 19,000 and gave a message that the system was not capable of real-time streaming.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by blade

Thanks! I haven't found the cause of the problem, but I think maybe I have a place to start looking. While Sage was recording with the HD-PVR, I ran the DPC Latency Checker that QueOnda suggested. It was showing my latency as very low and that my system was capable of real-time streaming audio and video. Then the latency briefly jumped from around 24 to over 19,000 and gave a message that the system was not capable of real-time streaming.

Bingo!

I would be very interested in your results of the test in the above thread.