New SageTV Setup Experience

[pvr599]

Well I wasn't expecting my post to cause a debate. I was just listing my experience as I re-build my Sage box.

So anyway, moving on to today. Now that most of the fall shows are over I decided to start the rebuild. I got all the hardware installed including both Colossus cards, Windows 7 installed and able to connect remotely. Good so far.

On to software. My first attempt to get a signal has failed on WinTV. UUUHGGG here we go. I can't seem to figure it out. I installed WinTV 7, selected set-top box as the signal and went through the rest of the setup. I tried to change the channel to NBCHD. NO SIGNAL. Not sure what to do now. I'm pretty sure the connections are correct. Looking at the back of the server, I used the component adapter on the right. I don't think I should be using the pass-through. It's getting late and I'm tired. I'll have to re-look tomorrow.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by pvr599

On to software. My first attempt to get a signal has failed on WinTV. UUUHGGG here we go. I can't seem to figure it out. I installed WinTV 7, selected set-top box as the signal and went through the rest of the setup. I tried to change the channel to NBCHD. NO SIGNAL.

WinTV is not required for the SageTV/Colossus combination. Is there a reason that you are trying to install it?

[pvr599]

I was just going to try to see if I could get a signal before installing Sage. I don't need WinTV, but shouldn't I be getting a signal?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by pvr599

I was just going to try to see if I could get a signal before installing Sage. I don't need WinTV, but shouldn't I be getting a signal?

I wouldn't bother with WinTV, I'd just go directly to installing Sage. I had the Colossus up and running on Sage, and tried to install WinTV for some debugging that I was doing, and gave up on WinTV when all it would show is a black TV screen.

[pvr599]

Ok, so I got rid of Wintv and started installing Sage. When I get to the point of setting up sources, Sage freezes when it's trying to preview the source.

[pvr599]

Ok, Sage is all setup, but still no signal. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. it's probably something simple, but I don;t know.

EDIT: I have one tuner working so far. I just picked the tuner I don't have hooked up yet trying to preview channels. See, dumb. So now here is the setting for my first tuner:
Source: Hauppauge Colossus Capture 1 Component
Functioning: True
Network Encoder: False
Input Type: Component
RF Channel: N/A
EPG Lineup: WOW Detroit Digital - Plymouth
Tuner Control: USB-UIRT Transceiver SA4250HDZ1

Next going to set up the other tuner and see what happens.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Looking at the back of the server, I used the component adapter on the right. I don't think I should be using the pass-through.

The component adapter that you want to use is the one closest to the top of the card. You are correct, you don't want to be using the pass-through.

The other thing that comes to mind is to try the other cable that should have come with the Colossus. It's possible that you got a bad cable.

[pvr599]

Thanks for your help Keith. I have a signal. See above.

So it looks like I'm having the same problem as everyone else. I left HGTVHD on now for about a half hour. It keeps freezing about every 10 seconds. Pretty much unwatchable. I have been reading about settings and java heap that can be adjusted. Will check those postings out. CPU usage has not gone over 25% during the freezing issue.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Thanks for your help Keith. I have a signal. See above.

So it looks like I'm having the same problem as everyone else. I left HGTVHD on now for about a half hour. It keeps freezing about every 10 seconds. Pretty much unwatchable. I have been reading about settings and java heap that can be adjusted. Will check those postings out. CPU usage has not gone over 25% during the freezing issue.

Have you tried different driver versions? Also, was that live TV playback? Lasly, do you have any blu-ray's that are h.264 encoded so you can test playback and make sure it isn't a playback issue unrelated to the colossus?

You're my guinea pig for this so thanks.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by pvr599

So it looks like I'm having the same problem as everyone else. I left HGTVHD on now for about a half hour. It keeps freezing about every 10 seconds. Pretty much unwatchable. I have been reading about settings and java heap that can be adjusted. Will check those postings out. CPU usage has not gone over 25% during the freezing issue.

From your signature, it looks like you have HD100 and HD200 extenders. Have you tried playback on all of those devices, including your server? Just wondering if your playback problem is the same regardless of where you are playing it back...

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

From your signature, it looks like you have HD100 and HD200 extenders. Have you tried playback on all of those devices, including your server? Just wondering if your playback problem is the same regardless of where you are playing it back...

Didn't think of that. Good idea.

[pvr599]

Have you tried different driver versions?

No I haven't. I am using the most current driver found here:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/suppor..._colossus.html
29111

Also, was that live TV playback?

Yes

Lasly, do you have any blu-ray's that are h.264 encoded so you can test playback and make sure it isn't a playback issue unrelated to the colossus?

I went to test this and the extender froze up (HD200). I went to the actual server and I'm staring at a blue screen. I'll try this once I reboot.

You're my guinea pig for this so thanks.

No problem at all. This is kind of why I started this thread. To share my experiences and hope it will help someone else re-build.

Have you tried playback on all of those devices, including your server? Just wondering if your playback problem is the same regardless of where you are playing it back...

The freezing is happening for sure on the HD200. I haven't tried on the server. I'll try that too when I reboot here in one second.

EDIT: just to add to this. don't forget, this is a brand new i3 Win7 64 setup. Absolutely nothing installed but the essentials.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pvr599

No I haven't. I am using the most current driver found here:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/suppor..._colossus.html
29111


Yes


I went to test this and the extender froze up (HD200). I went to the actual server and I'm staring at a blue screen. I'll try this once I reboot.


No problem at all. This is kind of why I started this thread. To share my experiences and hope it will help someone else re-build.


The freezing is happening for sure on the HD200. I haven't tried on the server. I'll try that too when I reboot here in one second.

EDIT: just to add to this. don't forget, this is a brand new i3 Win7 64 setup. Absolutely nothing installed but the essentials.

So it is the hd200 that the freezing is happening? For some reason this has been coming up lately with different types of recordings. The common fix has been network drivers. Get the latest ones and see if that helps. Also test playback on the server, if it happens there then it won't be a NIC driver issue.

[pvr599]

I know this is not going to help your observation, but here is what I tried.

:10 min tests

On server: service not started, no channel changing = no freezing
On server: service not started, 10 channel changes = no freezing
On server: service not started, watched 10 min of movie in H.264 = no freezing

reboot to be fair

On server: service started, no channel changing = no freezing
On server: service started, 10 channel changes = no freezing
On server: service started, watched 10 min of movie in H.264 = no freezing

reboot

On HD200 no channel changing = no freezing
On HD200 10 channel changes = no freezing
On HD200 watched 10 min of movie in H.264 = no freezing
On HD200 watched 10 min of movie in H.264 and recorded live TV= no freezing

Maybe it was just a glitch. I will keep testing to see where and when it happened earlier today, but no problems right now.

I only have one Colossus installed in Sage at the moment. I'm going to try it like this for a few days

and see how things turn out. After that, I'll add the second Colossus.

[pvr599]

I got my first error.
There was a Capture Error in Playback
ERROR (-4,0x8007001f): There was a problem using the capture device. Please be sure you have the latest drivers installed for your capture device and that they are installed correctly.

What I was doing was going through the channel setup and adding and deleting channels. I previewed one and that's when I got the error. May not be a big deal. Could be just a preview problem.

EDIT: Reboot did the trick

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by pvr599

EDIT: Reboot did the trick

You might want to install the "Restart Sage from Setup Menu" plugin. After you've installed it, you can stop and re-start the SageTV service from within the Sage gui, right from the extender. You'll still have to restart the extender, since the connection is broken to the server. But I find it to be a lot faster than rebooting the entire server.

[pvr599]

That's super cool. I'll for sure check it out!! Thanks

[pvr599]

UPDATE:
Well, I setup recordings all night. I'm just checking it now and every recording recorded. No blue screen's. YES!!!!!!

I was expecting this to be MUCH harder. I'm not calling it 100% success yet though. Still have to add the 2nd Colossus.

[pvr599]

I am trying to figure out which to do first.

Should I:
1) add the 2nd Colossus and get it working
2) setup comskip on just the one Colossus
3) Try HDMI (while the picture is good, I know it could be better)
4) Try optical audio (would love to have full HD audio)


hmmmm ???

[pvr599]

So I decided to install the 2nd Colossus and the HDHR. All are working perfect, except that I think I have a flaky STB. I can only get 480p on it. Something to do on Monday.

Before I torn down my old server, I made screen shots of how the HDHR was setup before and all the channel numbers. Glad I did, saved me some time.

Installing the HDHR was pretty easy. I installed the software from here:
http://www.silicondust.com/support/hdhomerun/downloads/

I started the install and let it scan for channels. What I didn't expect was to end up with about 30 new channels of my basic cable. COOL, but since I am now getting most of those channels in HD, I didn't enable them.

Then I went into Sage and added tuner 1 of the HDHR.
1 - Digital TV Tuner
2- Use Tuner on Capture Card to tune Cable TV
3 - Now this step I wasn't sure exactly. I selected Use US Guide Data then WOW Detroit Cable Ready TV instead of WOW Detroit Digital Cable. I think it was because on the next screen it asks if I want to use the same lineup as my other source. I really didn't, I don't think. I didn't want to use the same lineup as my Colossus'.
4 - Basic Service
5 - I scanned for channels. Now mostly the channels it picked up were the channels I selected in the HDHR setup. There were a few extra's added and again, since I had them in HD on the Colossus, I disabled them here.
6 - Went back in and added the second tuner. I still selected Cable Ready TV, but this time I selected Use the same channel lineup.
7 - I didn't re-scan the channels and it seems I have the exact same channels as tuner 1 YAY

Now I'm not sure if this is going to cause problems yet, but I didn't remap any channels in Sage. It seems to be working ok. I started 3 recordings on all my local channels and they all recorded, so it seems the HDHR is active.

So far so good!! Will keep posting as things go along.

Oh, I did install the Jetty Web server. I'm trying to get that working. It's not connecting for some reason. Working on that now.