Playback Freezes

[jgourd]

Imported and natively recorded shows all freeze. Typically, when it freezes, in 20 seconds it unfreezes and runs superfast to allow the video to catch up to the audio. This has been happening to some degree ever since I went to version 7. I am on the current production release of the server.

[carlgar]

I see this on occasion but not very often. How often do you see these freezes? My impression so far is that it is a recording issue.When I see it I try to skip back and see if the problem repeats, it usuall does and that if why I think the recording was stored that way. I would expect it to be related to the HDHR and/or network traffic. I have not spent a lot of time trying to determine the cause because I do not see the issue that often. Is your network 1 Gbps or 100 Mbps?

[vividweb]

I see this on my HD300, on recordings and MKV's. Have only seen it since upgrading my server. have not had time to diagnosis the problem. I believe it is limited to only my HD300, will have the same files on my HD200 to compare.

[jgourd]

The beauty is that if I skip back, I can play through it. It happens a few times a night.

[Prestermatt]

Originally Posted by jgourd

The beauty is that if I skip back, I can play through it. It happens a few times a night.

Same thing happens to me all the time on my 200. Sage just hangs for a few seconds, then I rewind and watch what I missed. It's a relatively minor issue, but still irritating.

[jgourd]

Originally Posted by Prestermatt

Same thing happens to me all the time on my 200. Sage just hangs for a few seconds, then I rewind and watch what I missed. It's a relatively minor issue, but still irritating.

Both my TVs are on 200s.

[robogeek]

I've seen Java garbage collection cause this kind of seemingly random freeze in playback on extenders. If you use Phoenix Fanart, the Diamond UI, or have lots of other plugins installed, you may be maxing out the SageTV Java memory usage which will cause the garbage collection routines to kick in and free up some memory. If you haven't manually changed the Java Heap Size registry setting for SageTV, try increasing that value and see if the freezes go away or become less frequent. Do a search in the forums for Java Heap Size and you should find the info you need to find and change that Windows registry setting.

[jgourd]

You probably right. This got a lot worse after I installed the Batch Metadata plugin.

[davenlr]

I use the 100 extender, and it happens about twice a night. I have no plugins, just stock UI, with Malone enabled, as far as I know.

Ill search on the Java thing. BTW, is it safe to upgrade Java. I know at one time, it could trash Sage, so I havent upgraded Java for a long time.

[Spectrum]

It's safe to update Java. Just make sure you close Sage and stop the service (if you are using service mode) before applying the Java updates.

[davenlr]

OK, I upped the Java Heap Size to 756, and installed Phoenix and I am still having the same problem. About once every show I play back, it freezes and then fast forwards until it catches up.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Using a 3GHZ server, win7 32 bit, with 3 GB ram. Other than Sage, only thing running is PlayOn.

[bela41]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but did anyone solve this? I have this happen on my HD200s a few times per day. My Java heap is 1GB so that shouldn't be the problem.

Any other ideas?

[davenlr]

Nope, still does it to me, even upgraded to win7 64 bit, and made sure no other apps were running on the server.

[lewispm]

It happens to me about once every other night as well.

Win7 64bit - 8gb - 1024 Java heap size - Diamond UI (just switched back to stock v7 for another issue)

[jgourd]

It seems to happen more often with imported MKV files and also on my HD200 rather than the HD300.

[hometheaterfan]

I have also had a problem with this since I upgrade my system from Windows XP to Win 7 x64 in mid August. I now happens at a rate of at least 1 time per hour of TV watched.

[firenice]

I experienced these symptoms with certain recordings and determined it was timing information in the files that was the cause. I could pass these files through VideoRedo QSF and eleviate the problem.

This one channel I record from (CW in Houston area) exhibits these symptoms. Along with freezing every few minutes, these shows would also run at a speed that would cause the show to end 2+ minutes before the actual end of the program. I would have to back up and restart the show to see the last 2+ minutes.

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by firenice

I experienced these symptoms with certain recordings and determined it was timing information in the files that was the cause. I could pass these files through VideoRedo QSF and eleviate the problem.

This one channel I record from (CW in Houston area) exhibits these symptoms. Along with freezing every few minutes, these shows would also run at a speed that would cause the show to end 2+ minutes before the actual end of the program. I would have to back up and restart the show to see the last 2+ minutes.

Thanks for the info, every bit helps for us to troubleshoot....however....for many people who have this issue, it is not repeatable, i.e. backing up and playing the section again works fine, so it is not likely the file that is the problem in those cases.

[hometheaterfan]

That's right, my problem is not repeatable. It happens on playback ones, but cannot be observed again when playing back that section.

That being said, I have noticed recently that I have had some videos with messed up time codes since I moved from Windows XP to Windows 7, so I maybe if the time codes are messed up, sometimes SageTV can recover from the problem, and sometimes it cannot.

The thing is, that the pauses happen even on videos that I recorded on SageTV back when I was using Windows XP, so I don't understand how with the same videos, I could not have a problem at all with Windows XP, but now have the problems on Windows 7 if it's a timecode issue.

Originally Posted by kmp14

Thanks for the info, every bit helps for us to troubleshoot....however....for many people who have this issue, it is not repeatable, i.e. backing up and playing the section again works fine, so it is not likely the file that is the problem in those cases.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by hometheaterfan

That's right, my problem is not repeatable. It happens on playback ones, but cannot be observed again when playing back that section.

That being said, I have noticed recently that I have had some videos with messed up time codes since I moved from Windows XP to Windows 7, so I maybe if the time codes are messed up, sometimes SageTV can recover from the problem, and sometimes it cannot.

The thing is, that the pauses happen even on videos that I recorded on SageTV back when I was using Windows XP, so I don't understand how with the same videos, I could not have a problem at all with Windows XP, but now have the problems on Windows 7 if it's a timecode issue.

Because it could be a decoder issue, network driver (if it is a client or extender) video card driver. When you switch to a new os, you usually switch driver versions. Sometimes that is not a good thing.