Colossus recording in slow motion

[jphipps]

I just started seeing this problem after switching to HDMI ( Although I didn't have the card very long before switching to HDMI). After about 36 hours, all my recordings start looking like slow motion and the audio is really choppy. If I cycle sage, all works fine for about another 36 hours. Sage also becomes a bit sluggish by that time and I get alot of spinning circles. Almost like some sort of leak...

Tonight I will try switching back to Component and see if I am still having an issue.

Thanks,
Jeff

[KeithAbbott]

I think there are a few of us having a similar issue, I know I am. In my case, the other night it didn't take more than a couple of hours for my video to get choppy. But I've watched it the past couple of nights with no choppiness at all. So I haven't been able to narrow it down to a particular situation yet. I am using component+spdif via DCX3200 with Brighthouse cable. One thing that I found a little strange, when I was having the choppiness problems a few nights back, I looked at the "detailed info" on the show that I was watching/recording, and it showed 480i, even though I have unchecked 480i from being an output option from my cable box. However, just looking at the screen, there was no way that it was being broadcast in 480i, since it was widescreen and the PQ was nice. I'm not sure if that had any correlation to the choppiness or not. Also, I noticed during the choppiness that sometimes it would be choppy during commercials, but when the show resumed after the commercial break it would go back to displaying properly. Puzzling...

p.s. I should also mention that I strictly use HD200s & and HD300 for viewing, so it's not a codec issue. The choppiness can be observed on both the HD200 and the HD300.

[uberpixel]

I'm having the same video stutter. Also noticing an audio delay.

This happens while capturing Comcast via Component/SPDIF from a Motorola DCH3200.

Mine seems to occur only during a long recording. I've noticed it only after a basketball game starts to record. Once the issue pops up, the only way to fix it is with a restart. It even shows up on "Live TV".

-uberpixel

I have a sample file if anyone wants to take a look...

[jphipps]

Did you happen to notice the java memory at the time? I am wondering if it could be a low memory issue in the jvm at the time. I was going to check mine tonight, but my server BSOD this morning, so I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow night to see the issue.. ( it takes about 36 hours for it to start doing it...)

Thanks,
Jeff

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by jphipps

Did you happen to notice the java memory at the time? I am wondering if it could be a low memory issue in the jvm at the time. I was going to check mine tonight, but my server BSOD this morning, so I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow night to see the issue.. ( it takes about 36 hours for it to start doing it...)

Thanks,
Jeff

No, I didn't. I was operating under the default installed values, maybe I'll try to shrink it tonight and see if I can force it to happen. Right now, I'm at 180 used/222 total/389 max.

[SHS]

I just saw this too in one of my recording which was in slow motion try watch a live tv show then server crash and restarter.
Dran at time I didn't check that as well possable java memory leak, But think it more likey would be that the problem is with Colossus drivers becuases that what crash my server.

[KeithAbbott]

I've shrunk it down to 99 used/101 total/101 max. So far no PQ issues, although I've only been running it 45 minutes or so. SHS may be right about it being a driver issue...

[KeithAbbott]

PQ still fine, after watching for a couple of hours.

[jphipps]

Originally Posted by SHS

I just saw this too in one of my recording which was in slow motion try watch a live tv show then server crash and restarter.
Dran at time I didn't check that as well possable java memory leak, But think it more likey would be that the problem is with Colossus drivers becuases that what crash my server.

Probably the same as mine, last night it crashed and rebooted. Is the 2.3b the latest driver?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Rico66]

I think the problem is within Sage. I only have problems with SD recordings (in 480p), HD seems to be fine. But when I playback a recording that stutters within Sage outside of Sage, it plays fine. And no, I haven't changed anything regarding my codec config. CPU usage is low, but there seems to be a memory leak. I used to have a typical memory usage of 300 - 400 MB, but now this rises up to a GB. Yesterday I saw the sage client reaching a Gig just by playing music.

[PLUCKYHD]

Anybody logged it with sage? I am using the drivers that came with it (is there newere?) and I am getting the same thing no bsod since tuesday but had to stop and restart sagetv last night again to fix it. I didn't check me heap usage by I did go open it up in w7tv Abd it was working fine. The fact that cycling sage fixes it makes me thing it is a sage issue as well.

[SWKerr]

I had this issue when I had the Colossus hooked up last weekend. It would actually crash the server (Win7-64). I thought it was a live TV problem since when after the first crash I would just stopped watching and let it finish recording. When I watched it later it played back fine.

I went back to the HD-PVRs for the weeks recordings and disabled the Colossus for now. But in testing on Sunday trying to get the HD-PVRs and the Colossus to play well together, I noticed when I used the Colossus my SagetvService cpu would be very very high even with the HD-PVRs off. Has anyone checked the cpu on the server when the skipping starts. I have not had it happen since I noticed the trend. (Since it has been disabled all week)

I am going to enable the colossus again the weekend and see what else I can find out. (DirecTV\HDMI) Usually not much to miss on the weekends if it crashes and burns.

[jphipps]

The recordings that are slow and choppy with choppy sound play the exact same way with other video players also on mine. I do get a slow down in sage when the recordings are choppy and get a lot of spinner circles. I havent' sent sage anything, I will send them a note today...

Thanks,
Jeff

[jphipps]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

I had this issue when I had the Colossus hooked up last weekend. It would actually crash the server (Win7-64). I thought it was a live TV problem since when after the first crash I would just stopped watching and let it finish recording. When I watched it later it played back fine.

I went back to the HD-PVRs for the weeks recordings and disabled the Colossus for now. But in testing on Sunday trying to get the HD-PVRs and the Colossus to play well together, I noticed when I used the Colossus my SagetvService cpu would be very very high even with the HD-PVRs off. Has anyone checked the cpu on the server when the skipping starts. I have not had it happen since I noticed the trend. (Since it has been disabled all week)

I am going to enable the colossus again the weekend and see what else I can find out. (DirecTV\HDMI) Usually not much to miss on the weekends if it crashes and burns.

i actually have the exact same setup as you, Win7 64bit, DirecTV/HDMI I havent' gone back to my HD-PVR yet, but I have a new receiver coming in a week so I can get both up and running...

Thanks,
Jeff

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

I went back to the HD-PVRs for the weeks recordings and disabled the Colossus for now. But in testing on Sunday trying to get the HD-PVRs and the Colossus to play well together, I noticed when I used the Colossus my SagetvService cpu would be very very high even with the HD-PVRs off. Has anyone checked the cpu on the server when the skipping starts. I have not had it happen since I noticed the trend. (Since it has been disabled all week)

Funny you mention about the cpu usage, one time when I was getting choppiness I noticed that the cpu usage was up around 25%, normally it is below 5%. Since this is a test box, I only have one Colossus and no other tuners/encoders connected to it, and don't have any other processing (comskip, etc.) going. If I get the choppiness again, I'll make sure to take a look at cpu usage.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by jphipps

Probably the same as mine, last night it crashed and rebooted. Is the 2.3b the latest driver?

Thanks,
Jeff

Yes it has the latest drivers and it the same as what on shspvr forum

[TechBill]

I having the exact same issue

It would be fine then after 12+ hours it would starting to get slowness and choppy like if the framerate went from 33 to 15fps.

But also other problem would be when I tune to a different channel, normally it would take 15-20 second to tune to a new channel then later it take longer then longer then it would take a good 2-3 minutes before it would tune into another channel and I knew it was going to get the slowness poor framerate video and it time for a reboot.

One time it crashed my server because I could not remotely access it so had to go reboot it phycially.

With my PVR-500, I never had to reboot unless I am updating Windows or Java or a driver.


I have all the logs saved up, like 2 days worth so I will zip it up and send it to Support.


Bill

[Narflex]

I'm quite confident that this is an issue in the Hauppauge drivers and not in the SageTV software. The Colossus card itself is responsible for doing all of the video & audio encoding as well as multiplexing. So if the video is encoded at a bad frame rate, then it's the driver or firmware in the Colossus device that is doing something wrong. CPU/memory usage should have nothing to do with this as all of the above operations are done in hardware on the Colossus device itself inside the VIXS chip, and the operating system state should really have no impact on that.

Please provide Hauppauge with feedback regarding this issue.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by Narflex

I'm quite confident that this is an issue in the Hauppauge drivers and not in the SageTV software. The Colossus card itself is responsible for doing all of the video & audio encoding as well as multiplexing. So if the video is encoded at a bad frame rate, then it's the driver or firmware in the Colossus device that is doing something wrong. CPU/memory usage should have nothing to do with this as all of the above operations are done in hardware on the Colossus device itself inside the VIXS chip, and the operating system state should really have no impact on that.

Please provide Hauppauge with feedback regarding this issue.

I'm not saying that there is no problem on the Hauppauge side, but how does that explain that I can playback a Colossus recording outside of Sage (within MPC-HC using the default filters) without problems, when the same recording stutters within Sage or that closing the Sage client sometimes also helps.

And the memory usage increase that I noticed recently looks concerning to me, though this might be unrelated to the Colossus.

[gplasky]

Probably another thing to keep in mind, like the HD-PVR, you want to run the driver install program from Hauppauge. When you run the installer it will also upgrade any firmware on the card. You don't want to use the hardware wizard and just point to the directory with the updated drivers.

Gerry