Playback Pauses/Hangs then FF catchup

[graywolf]

Not positive of the issue but think it might be network related.

SageTV V6.6
HD200 & HD300

Starting to have occassions where the playback just hangs for 1-5 seconds and then when it starts again it looks like it FF to new spot. If I go back, it plays fine until the next pause.

Trying to figure out how to troubleshoot & resolve this issue.

Playback file is on a storage server, not the Sage Server.

It has just recently began past couple days. Sometimes great response, sometimes this pause/FF.

WAF is taking a beating

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by graywolf

Starting to have occassions where the playback just hangs for 1-5 seconds and then when it starts again it looks like it FF to new spot. If I go back, it plays fine until the next pause.

Yes. I have the same issue. Except that my pauses are much longer... sometimes a minute or more.

v7 w/HD300
Windows Vista w/ 1TB External Drive for media storage.

In addition, during this pause, the HD300 becomes inaccessible (at least, with the Remote Control) but the Server has complete access to SageTV and all the functions. Also, the computer's Resources show no stress during the pause.

My first thought was "Network Problem" but I have found no Network issues; for instance, with Windows Task Manager. I have concluded that the problem is in the HD300 itself -- probably firmware related.

[wrems]

I've been seeing this from time-to-time too.

v7 on HD200
Win7 with local hard drive

It just started happening in the past month or so...

[graywolf]

Have you done any troubleshooting?
What have you looked at to try and resolve it?
Have you turned on any type of logging? If so, what?

I have tried by updating the /etc/hosts file on the hd200 & hd300 putting in the info for the SageTV server and the Storage server

192.168.1.150 StorageServer
192.168.1.140 SageTV

That has speed up the menu responses most of the time, but hasn't addressed the pauses at times.

[wrems]

No, I haven't gotten as far as to track it down. Posting here is about the first step...

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by wrems

No, I haven't gotten as far as to track it down. Posting here is about the first step...

+1

(Wouldn't know where to start really.)

[wrems]

My problem seems infrequent; maybe once per evening of TV. I wouldn't say it's not everyday either... Which really makes for a interesting issue to root out. I did recently reformat and reinstall windows/Sage on my server. With a minor hope that my problems would mysteriously go away.

[Brent]

Not sure but it sounds like either a network or hard drive issue.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by Brent

Not sure but it sounds like either a network or hard drive issue.

I mentioned above that the Server has all the SageTV Functions available during this "Pause." That includes accessing the files on the hard drive -- doesn't that rule out a HD problem?

I am unsure how to investigate a Network problem occuring between the Server and the HD300 when all other Network Attached devices are acting normally -- particularly a problem that involves the data being "dammed-up" and then released as, I suppose, a single packet. Another handicap is that one only has a very short window to work in -- seconds or at most ~minute.

Any suggestions would be welcome... and acted upon.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

I mentioned above that the Server has all the SageTV Functions available during this "Pause." That includes accessing the files on the hard drive -- doesn't that rule out a HD problem?

No. If your recording drive is separate from your OS drive it could be a read/write access issue on the recording drive.

Check the logs for the exact moment where the pause is happening. Might not hurt to submit a trouble ticket with SageTV on this.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by Brent

No. If your recording drive is separate from your OS drive it could be a read/write access issue on the recording drive.

Check the logs for the exact moment where the pause is happening. Might not hurt to submit a trouble ticket with SageTV on this.

I am failing in my attempt to describe this. I am speaking of the same drive used (in the above description) by both the HD300 and the Server -- and it is not the HD where the OS is located.

Which Logs are you referring to specifically?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

I am failing in my attempt to describe this. I am speaking of the same drive used (in the above description) by both the HD300 and the Server -- and it is not the HD where the OS is located.

I understand. And I think it could be something to do with your recording hard drive. Not sure, but don't rule it out as an issue yet.
As I said could be something else as well. These things can be tough to troubleshoot.

Which Logs are you referring to specifically?

How to Turn on and use logs to troubleshoot

You can submit a support request here

[graywolf]

Guess I'll need to turn on the SageTV Server and Extender Debugging Logs.

Checked the Storage Server and had no errors or dropped packets that I saw from it.

ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:30:48:b0:a7:33
inet addr:192.168.1.150 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1987244594 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1820859173 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2807047514 (2.6 GiB) TX bytes:4120010826 (3.8 GiB)
Interrupt:25 Base address:0x8000

[fventura]

I had a similar problem a few days ago. My issue turned out to be a faulty or failing hard drive. I run Win2003 server and errors where evident in the Windows event viewer.

I was running audio file conversions from my laptop, reading from a music drive on the server. Media Monkey reported it couldn't access the drive anymore.

On the server I could access the drive just fine, it wasn't until I tried to do a bulk conversion process from my laptop that the drive would produce errors.

The music drive is completely separate from the sage drive but perhaps the same IDE channel. I cleared the event viewer after replacing the drive to see if errors returned so I don't have the exact error to share with you.

The issue with Sage has not reoccurred since replacing the drive either.
(3-4 year old 500g Maxtor Sata II drive)

[kamp]

I've been having the same issue as well. I currently have the media stored on a 1TB external hard drive that's attached to my Linux box while the server is running on Windows. I've been planning on switching that drive to the Windows machine to see if that clears up the problem (and lessens the 60-70% network utilization that I've been seeing on the Windows machine).

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by fventura

I had a similar problem a few days ago. My issue turned out to be a faulty or failing hard drive.

I, originally, had the SageTV recordings spread onto two 500GB shared (but not with SageTV Server) drives. I had the problem. I have since transfered all the recordings to a (brand new) 1.5 TB drive. I still have the same behavior.

I am leaning more to a System "Resource" solution. Although, I have a Dual Core (2.40 ghz/2.39 ghz) Windows Vista machine with 4 GB memory installed. It rates a 5.5 on the Memory Windows Experience Index. The "problem" occurs even when SageTV is the only (non-system) program running.

[graywolf]

I've check the drives, no errors reported.

Might have had too much going on the unRAID server. Made some modifications to some other apps I have running there to "pause" during the "prime" tv watching hours and things have seemed to have settled down.

[Savage1701]

I can reproduce that issue three ways on my system:

1. Disk Defragmentation & Indexing. Best to make sure both are disabled.

2. RAID migration and/or verification, especially if the RAID card can have its resources biased towards those vs. I/O & R/W requests.

3. Not using a static IP for my clients and my HD200. I then put their MACs (either the NIC's on the PC's or the MAC of the HD200) into my router, along with the reserved IP address.

I've had the Defrag and Indexing issue happen when XP decided to just start doing it on its own, ususally after a Windows Update. I can control the RAID issue from my RAID's GUI or CLI. I had the IP address issue occur on my HD200 when I updated the firmware and got an IP address via DHCP that was used by another system that hardly ever was turned on, but when it was, it caused issues. I had to go back in and give it an unused static IP address that matched up with my router's reserved IP address table.

[dlandrum]

Originally Posted by wrems

No, I haven't gotten as far as to track it down. Posting here is about the first step...

+1

[wayner]

I saw this issue in the past and rebuilt my server. I was never 100% sure but I think the problem was caused by issues on my System drive - this server was running WHS and recording to drives in the WHS storage pool although the drivers were not duplicated.