HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[doncote0]

Recently, I have been having weird problems. When the prime is working, everything is great. Throw in a occasional reboot and the prime would stop working. It has been a little frustrating especially since QuickTV can still tune the channels. I cannot change the merit until this solution is rock solid-which it hasn't been, yet (for me). Spent two hours troubleshooting last night during which I could get at most 1 prime tuner to work correctly. I have tried resetting the prime multiple times, running new scans, re-generating the setup from SageDCT (overwriting the old sage info), resetting, restarting (reboot), removing and reinstalling the primes as sources, stopping, starting and reconfiguring the windows firewall. Limited joy.

Hopefully this will help. Bold items are possible issues that I have been seeing.

Release 20111025
Fix problem where copy-protection could be incorrectly applied to some channels when not required.
Fix problem causing unit to stop responding after a several hundred channel changes.
Fix rare queue stall error communicating with card.
Fix rare trap error.
Rejoin SSDP multicast group when Ethernet link is lost and re-established.
Fix problem causing unit to stop responding after Tuning Adapter was removed/inserted/reset several hundred times.
Stop flashing link LED when connected directly to a PC and communication has been established.
Improvements to diagnostic support.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Recently, I have been having weird problems. When the prime is working, everything is great. Throw in a occasional reboot and the prime would stop working. It has been a little frustrating especially since QuickTV can still tune the channels. I cannot change the merit until this solution is rock solid-which it hasn't been, yet (for me). Spent two hours troubleshooting last night during which I could get at most 1 prime tuner to work correctly. I have tried resetting the prime multiple times, running new scans, re-generating the setup from SageDCT (overwriting the old sage info), resetting, restarting (reboot), removing and reinstalling the primes as sources, stopping, starting and reconfiguring the windows firewall. Limited joy.

Hopefully this will help. Bold items are possible issues that I have been seeing.

Release 20111025

I still seem to get "Halt" or "Capture Device Failure" system messages at least once a day, even on this latest release. What I guess I don't understand is, why don't I ever get this kind of problem when accessing the Prime through SiliconDust tools like HDHomeRun Config? What do they do differently than the DCT interface; are they addressing the Prime at a lower level?

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by phelme

I still seem to get "Halt" or "Capture Device Failure" system messages at least once a day, even on this latest release. What I guess I don't understand is, why don't I ever get this kind of problem when accessing the Prime through SiliconDust tools like HDHomeRun Config? What do they do differently than the DCT interface; are they addressing the Prime at a lower level?

In most cases this a networking or resource issue.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by babgvant

In most cases this a networking or resource issue.

Just not sure I buy that or I'd be seeing failures for my HD-PVR Network Encoders too and that never happens. It could be the firewall handling of RTP which is unique to SageDCT. I've been trying out Comodo as an alternative to the built-in one on XP, but so far it appears to have the same failure rate.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by phelme

Just not sure I buy that or I'd be seeing failures for my HD-PVR Network Encoders too and that never happens.

1) AVC uses a fraction of the bandwidth required for MPEG2
2) It's not really apples-to-apples except for the network encoder part
3) The potential exists that the root cause of your issues are different from other people. Ultimately it's up to you to do whatever you want. Just relaying the output from many support requests with similar symptoms.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by babgvant

1) AVC uses a fraction of the bandwidth required for MPEG2

Accepted. Though I had an original HDHR since they came out and that ran fine.

Originally Posted by babgvant

2) It's not really apples-to-apples except for the network encoder part
3) The potential exists that the root cause of your issues are different from other people. Ultimately it's up to you to do whatever you want. Just relaying the output from many support requests with similar symptoms.

Cool. There's just something screwy going on, that's all I'm getting at.

I'll start running with verbose messaging and post logs next time I get a failure if it will help. Thanks!

[phelme]

I think my problem is with the Prime as there are others posting with issues in the SD forums (using WM7), where multiple tuners going at once sometimes ends up with one or more of them not sending the program stream.

I caught my own today when HDHomeRun Config happened to be up, you could see the channel change correctly on all three tuners, but 2 out of the 3 never started to send the stream. Not until SageTV noticed after a minute that things were wonky and asked SageDCT to try again. SageDCT had been noticing what was going on as well via GetSize, but I've turned "Auto Reset" off and let SageTV itself handle it from up top. Now I see what Andy means by Reset masking the behavior.

It could be that the Prime is somehow missing or flubbing the command to begin the stream when it's trying to handle multiple tuners starting at once. I have the log Andy if you're interested.

I think this has become worse since the September (SiliconDust firmware) releases.

[doncote0]

I shut everything down. Downloaded new Silicondust 20111025 app package and quicktv package (didn't know if it was included).

1. Ran 20111025 updates
2. Opened HDHR Config and scanned for all three CC's
3. Adjusted and applied channel list in HDHR Config. Started service
4. Opened SageDCT and scanned.
5. Created new assignments and saved (static, verbose, reset). Started service.
6. Started SageTV and configured one HDHR Prime with no problem
7. Restarted and configured other two. Problem on test.
8. Restarted and ran batch file to shutdown and restart Sage in case system start timing issue was causing problems.

Success! System has been running solid for three days now with nightly reboots without issue.

STOP SAGE BAT (to edit sage.properties)

taskkill /f /im sagetv.exe
taskkill /f /im sagetvservice.exe
taskkill /f /im sagetvTRANSCODER.exe
net stop SJQTaskClient
net stop "hdhomerun service"
net stop "SageDCT"
dir c:\ /s > nul
exit



RESTART SAGE (bounce.bat)

taskkill /f /im sagetv.exe
taskkill /f /im sagetvservice.exe
taskkill /f /im sagetvTRANSCODER.exe
del C:\SageTV\sjqc_winntsvc\logs\*.* /Q
del C:\SageTV\SageTV\jetty\logs\*.* /Q
del C:\SageTV\SageTV\sjq*.log /Q
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
start "sage" "C:\sagetv\SageTV\SageTV.exe" -startup
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
taskkill /f /im sagetv.exe
net stop "hdhomerun service"
dir c:\ /s > nul
net stop sagedct
net start "hdhomerun service"
net start sagedct
dir c:\ /s > nul
start "sage" "C:\sagetv\SageTV\SageTV.exe" -startup
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
dir c:\ /s > nul
EXIT

"dir c:\ /s > nul" is an old dos trick to delay progress--on my system it is a 8 to 10 second delay (you may have to adjust yours).

The bounce.bat was key for me. I have the system run it, as a scheduled task, every time a restart happens. It kicks off after the PC has connected to the network.

[timconroy]

Does Prime need a cable card to function in SageTV or can it run without one?

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by timconroy

Does Prime need a cable card to function in SageTV or can it run without one?

Yes it can run without one. It will only do the unencryted QAM channels in this mode. It essentially becomes a HDHR without the MCard (cable card).

[timconroy]

Can someone tell me how to fix an error when i use the test module within sageDCT to test the START command...?

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by doncote0

"dir c:\ /s > nul" is an old dos trick to delay progress--on my system it is a 8 to 10 second delay (you may have to adjust yours).

You could just type "timeout /t 10" to delay the batch ten seconds.

[phelme]

I'm still getting 10-20% failures on recordings when they start (seen as "Halts" within SageTV). Always the same behavior on the Prime: a tuner is successfully tuned to the channel, but no stream is started. I filed a ticket with SiliconDust so hopefully they can gather some diagnostic data that will help.

Anyone else seeing this on 20111025 firmware?

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

You could just type "timeout /t 10" to delay the batch ten seconds.

Why don't you give us an example of the syntax of that?

Remember this is DOS not vbscript.

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by phelme

I'm still getting 10-20% failures on recordings when they start (seen as "Halts" within SageTV). Always the same behavior on the Prime: a tuner is successfully tuned to the channel, but no stream is started. I filed a ticket with SiliconDust so hopefully they can gather some diagnostic data that will help.

Anyone else seeing this on 20111025 firmware?

I am not, but recently when I was fooling around with java heap I noticed the HDHR's (including the prime) were directly affected.

Also, what is the signal/channel (stream?) strength in the HDHR config utility for the channel it was trying to tune? If it is too low, you might want to trace the path, replace cables or get a HD bi-directional amp.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by doncote0

I am not, but recently when I was fooling around with java heap I noticed the HDHR's (including the prime) were directly affected.

My heap is in the 850MB range. Haven't bumped up against the ceiling in quite a while.

Also, what is the signal/channel (stream?) strength in the HDHR config utility for the channel it was trying to tune? If it is too low, you might want to trace the path, replace cables or get a HD bi-directional amp.

This particular channel (DiscoveryHD) runs around 97-100%. I already have a bi-amp inline because my run to the street termination is hellishly long.

WMC7 users are moaning a great deal about the latest SD release with recording failures. They seem to be in worse shape than we are.

[Gustovier]

I definately have been seeing a lot more "Halts" in recordings than what I used to have, unfortunately I've been too busy to go into detective mode. I usually just either restart SageDCT (sometimes sagedct will even go into a stopped state), if thats a no go then restart SageTV, and finally if that still doesn't work restart the Prime, and then restart everything else. Usually a restart(or start) of SageDCT or Sage itself fixes the issue.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Why don't you give us an example of the syntax of that?

Remember this is DOS not vbscript.

That is the syntax.
timeout /t 10

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

That is the syntax.
timeout /t 10

Not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file...

Hmmm...

[phelme]

Andy, here is a response from SiliconDust after they looked at my logs for the issue I'm having with "Halts":

Hello,

The logs from 20111031-02:00:13 show that the stream was stopped because the HDHomeRun PRIME received an ICMP rejection from the PC because the port it was attempting to stream to was closed. This would normally indicate that the application told the HDHomeRun to start streaming before the application started listening for the stream.

Silicondust Support

Since this is a repeatable problem, it happened again last night while recording "House", it sounds like it's a subtle issue of timing; where the listening port isn't quite ready to accept the stream. Does that sound plausible from your side?

Addendum: The problem is more frequent when it's first tearing down and stopping a recording that happens on the same tuner. Maybe something is happening out of order.