HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[jbuszkie]

It would be nice if the first post was edited to bookmark these instructions!

[jbuszkie]

I've finally found some time to poke around and look into my random halts and stops..

This has been going on for quite a while. It's seldom enough that it wasn't a high priority. But it's just annoying!

I've looked in the log and it seems like the file size doesn't change.

2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: OK
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 3439272
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : GetSize has not changed: 3439272 - 9/25/2012 1:00:04 AM
2012/09/25 01:00:04.93 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 3439272
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : GetSize has not changed: 3439272 - 9/25/2012 1:00:04 AM
2012/09/25 01:00:04.94 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 3439272
2012/09/25 01:00:04.95 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:05.47 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:05.47 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49
2012/09/25 01:00:05.47 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:05.47 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:00:09.39 : GetSize has not changed: 3439272 - 9/25/2012 1:00:04 AM
2012/09/25 01:00:09.39 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 3439272
2012/09/25 01:00:09.39 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:09.39 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:00:09.39 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49

And then it just starts again...

And then stops again and tries to restart again from what I gather...

2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : GetSize has not changed: 622279812 - 9/25/2012 1:05:57 AM
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : WARN GetSize has not changed: 622279812 - 9/25/2012 1:05:57 AM
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 622279812
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : 6975 Bytes Received: 6
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ProcessMessage 6975: NOOP
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: OK
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : After Accept: 6977
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : 6977 Bytes Received: 6
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ProcessMessage 6977: NOOP
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : SageDCTTuner 6977 Send: OK
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : Before Accept: 6977
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : After Accept: 6976
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : 6976 Bytes Received: 6
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ProcessMessage 6976: NOOP
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : SageDCTTuner 6976 Send: OK
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : Before Accept: 6976
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-0.ts
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : GetSize has not changed: 622279812 - 9/25/2012 1:05:57 AM
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : WARN GetSize has not changed: 622279812 - 9/25/2012 1:05:57 AM
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 622279812
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : 6975 Bytes Received: 6
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ProcessMessage 6975: STOP
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : Stop active recording: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : UPnP stop: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0
2012/09/25 01:06:57.35 : ExecuteAction - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:AVTransport Action: Stop Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:57.38 : Done ExecuteAction: Stop
2012/09/25 01:06:57.38 : ExecuteAction - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:ConnectionManager Action: ConnectionComplete Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:57.59 : Done ExecuteAction: ConnectionComplete
2012/09/25 01:06:57.59 : RTSP TEARDOWN - HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0
2012/09/25 01:06:57.59 : RTSP Send: TEARDOWN rtsp://192.168.2.92:554/tuner0/current RTSP/1.0
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: OK
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : 6975 Bytes Received: 101
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : ProcessMessage 6975: START Prime 0 13115570-0 Digital TV Tuner|806|2697099235136|E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-1.ts|Great
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : StartRecording - 6975: Request - Channel: 806 File: E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-1.ts
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : No active recordings in Stop - 6975
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : StartRecording 6975 - WFXT HD
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : 6975 Channel: 806 FilePath: E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-1.ts
2012/09/25 01:06:57.60 : ExecuteAction - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:ConnectionManager Action: PrepareForConnection Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:57.82 : Done ExecuteAction: PrepareForConnection
2012/09/25 01:06:57.82 : ConnectionID: 31981 AVInstanceID: 31981
2012/09/25 01:06:57.82 : ExecuteAction - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:AVTransport Action: Play Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:57.85 : Done ExecuteAction: Play
2012/09/25 01:06:57.85 : ExecuteAction - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:opencable-com:serviceId:urn:schemas-opencable-com:service:CAS Action: SetChannel Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:58.06 : Done ExecuteAction: SetChannel
2012/09/25 01:06:58.06 : ExecuteAction - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:AVTransport Action: GetMediaInfo Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:58.09 : Done ExecuteAction: GetMediaInfo
2012/09/25 01:06:58.09 : RTSP Send: DESCRIBE rtsp://192.168.2.92:554/tuner0/current RTSP/1.0
2012/09/25 01:06:58.09 : DESCRIBE: RTSP/1.0 200 OK

2012/09/25 01:06:58.09 : RTSP Send: SETUP rtsp://192.168.2.92:554/tuner0/current RTSP/1.0
2012/09/25 01:06:58.09 : GetServiceVariable - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:opencable-com:serviceId:urn:schemas-opencable-com:service:Mux Variable: ProgramNumber Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:58.31 : Done GetServiceVariable: ProgramNumber
2012/09/25 01:06:58.31 : GetServiceVariable - Device: HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13115570-0 Service: urn:opencable-com:serviceId:urn:schemas-opencable-com:service:Mux Variable: PIDList Refresh: False
2012/09/25 01:06:58.52 : Done GetServiceVariable: PIDList
2012/09/25 01:06:58.52 : ProgramNumber: 1 PIDList: 0000,0030,0DE0,0DE1,0DE2
2012/09/25 01:06:58.52 : Exec VLC: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe -vvv rtp://192.168.2.25:5012 --sout file/ts:"E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-1.ts" -I dummy
2012/09/25 01:06:58.53 : RTSP Send: PLAY rtsp://192.168.2.92:554/tuner0/current RTSP/1.0
2012/09/25 01:06:58.53 : PLAY: RTSP/1.0 200 OK

2012/09/25 01:07:00.54 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: OK
2012/09/25 01:07:00.54 : Before Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:07:12.34 : After Accept: 6975
2012/09/25 01:07:12.34 : 6975 Bytes Received: 49
2012/09/25 01:07:12.34 : ProcessMessage 6975: GET_FILE_SIZE E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-1.ts
2012/09/25 01:07:12.34 : GET_FILE_SIZE for  E:\TV\Fox25Newsat10-16153925-1.ts
2012/09/25 01:07:12.34 : SageDCTTuner 6975 Send: 22948972

So I'm wondering how to get to the bottom of this.
Why does this randomly work and sometimes not! Sometimes it recovers and sometimes it doesn't!


I'm running 2.5 of SageDCT and the latest (non beta) SD firmware.

What else can I look into? If I was running out of buffer space due to some networks issues, what would that look like in the log?

Thanks,

Jim

[jlmdxtv]

1) What operating system are you running?

2) Is your SageTV server running Comskip or something else intensive when these drops occur?

3) Have you run the Prime's setup to see the signal strength on those stations that are having problems?

4) Do the problems occur at a particular time of day, or at times when the outdoor temperature is changing a lot?

john

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by jlmdxtv

1) What operating system are you running?

Win7 32bit

2) Is your SageTV server running Comskip or something else intensive when these drops occur?

Don't think so.. This was 1AM. The last recording was probably the 11-12 news. Comskip for that show should have been done.

3) Have you run the Prime's setup to see the signal strength on those stations that are having problems?

There are no particular stations that the problem is on. And I believe I checked a while ago and my signal strengths were fine.

4) Do the problems occur at a particular time of day, or at times when the outdoor temperature is changing a lot?
john

Completely random (I can't see any pattern). There *may* be a higher instance when we are watching something on an extender. But I can't confirm that. This last one was 1AM with no one up watching anything...
Sometimes I'll get this a couple times a day and then I won't see it for a week or so!

[jlmdxtv]

When I first setup my Prime I was running XP Pro. I was never able to make it 100% reliable. But I was able to make it work most of the time by getting the signal strengths in order. Some were 100%, some were around 90% and below.

I did this by replacing my coax splitter with a decent one with just the right number of ports as I had connections for; I've tried terminators on the unused ports originally, but that made things worse. I also tightened up all my outdoor connectors, and removed a long-run cable to a lone tv picking up QAM stations. My channels now are all over 95%.

I've also put the Prime on its own network card in the SageTV server box, but in the long run, it wasn't necessary so I removed it.

After switching to Win 7 (64-bit), I don't think I've had a halt in hundreds of recordings. I'm running on a first gen I3 with 8GB ram.

john

[jbuszkie]

I just tuned FOX..

I'm getting

76% signal strength
93% Signal Quality
100% symbol quality.


I assume the symbol quality is the most important??
Next would be signal strength?

Oh.. and this did fail to record! I got my Halt message!


EDIT: It failed on prime0 but was picked up on prime2 just fine?

EDIT2: Rebooted and now just fine on Prime0

[nyplayer]

I had to replace the COAX connector that came with the Prime.... I found it to not be that good and also very easy for the connector to separate from the cable. This was causing halts and also degraded the signal on anything connected om the same splitter.

I replaced them with some I got from Goodwill believe it or not I found many coax cables supplied by my cable company in there initial packing there ... never been opened.

[jlmdxtv]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

I just tuned FOX..

I'm getting

76% signal strength
93% Signal Quality
100% symbol quality.


I assume the symbol quality is the most important??
Next would be signal strength?

Oh.. and this did fail to record! I got my Halt message!


EDIT: It failed on prime0 but was picked up on prime2 just fine?

EDIT2: Rebooted and now just fine on Prime0

Signal Strength is the number I've been working on. But I'm sure they all have some impact.

[cupp]

I have successfully installed my hdhomerun prime. I want to thank babgvant for sagedct and extending the life of my sage system. I just have a couple questions.

1. If my lineup changes I only have to run scan under the discovery tab then select channels and save. I do not need to generate assignments and copy them into the properties file. I didn't think I saw anything in the assignments that identified the channels. Am I correct or totally off base?

2. I'm currently using the onboard nic (realtek) and everything seems to run fine. What is the benefit of adding a dedicated card? I only have 1 pci slot left, is it worth it?

Thanks

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

I just tuned FOX..

I'm getting

76% signal strength
93% Signal Quality
100% symbol quality.

Let's hope I was just on the edge... I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.
I switched my cable modem and the prime. The cable modem was on a 7db leg and the prime was on a 7db leg of a 7 db leg (so nearly 14db attenuation)

Now I'm at
Signal Strength 88% (-6.9 dBmV)
Signal Quality 97% (34.6 dB)
Symbol Quality 100%

The guys at the SD forum seem to think that I was borderline before.

Did I mention that I'm going to keep my finger crossed!

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by cupp

1. If my lineup changes I only have to run scan under the discovery tab then select channels and save. I do not need to generate assignments and copy them into the properties file. I didn't think I saw anything in the assignments that identified the channels. Am I correct or totally off base?

Lineup changes should be transparent. There is no need to reconfigure SageDCT or its interaction w/ SageTV when they occur.

Originally Posted by cupp

2. I'm currently using the onboard nic (realtek) and everything seems to run fine. What is the benefit of adding a dedicated card? I only have 1 pci slot left, is it worth it?

A quality discrete NIC (usually Intel) usually net better throughput and lower CPU utilization. If everything is working great don't worry about it.

[jimz06]

Situation is that I am getting a No Signal message when I tune a channel in SageTV. SageTV box is Win7 x64 and writes to a remote directory on a Windows Home Server. The test in SageDCT works fine writing to a local drive on the SageTV box. Tuners work fine with WMC and QuickTV. And no issues with regular non-Prime HDHR's on SageTV.

I'm guessing it's my credentials setup in SageDCT? However, when I:

1. Type my user logon password in the password field (User field by default shows "HTPC/Jim" which is SageTV box computer name/username)
2. Click Change Credentials
3. Prompt appears to restart service
4. Service goes to Stopped status but never restarts
5. Click Start and Prompt appears that says "Cannot start service on computer"
6. Going directly in Windows Services panel and trying to start the SageDCT service fails due to a "logon failure" (noticed that user is listed as ./Jim in the Services panel)

So what am I failing miserably at here?

[teedublu]

Well, SageDCT 2.5 with VLC is an improvement I believe, but I have on two occasions recorded a program that plays back with a black screen with normal audio (local Sage client player). The file plays normally with VLC or WMP.

I'm using the stock Sage TS splitter (never tried any of the alpha-splitters, it appears those had problems).

Prime has latest beta firmware (as of a couple weeks ago).
I think the firmware solved some performance jitters and cable communications issues -- which I was experiencing but haven't since.

So, should I be using a different TS splitter? (that is available of course)

Is anyone interested in looking at the file (it's already been passed thru SageDCT-VLC). If so, please recommend a free file trimmer so I can provide an initial few second clip.

TW

[jimz06]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

If you can't get the service to start then you'll never get it to work..

Do you have a password for that account? I don't and I never had to muck with change credentials...

Yes, the password I enter is the one associated with my Windows User (Jim) logon. Readme for SageDCT says this is required if it is streaming to a network share.

Regarding the issue with the stream from Comcast, I've never had a problem playing the stream from Comcast in Sage with firewire capture or HDHR's.

[d2globalinc]

I know FOX (Channel 702 here in Mountain View, CA) on Comcast - is now using the "Copy Once" flag during their prime time shows, which makes it so SageDCT/SageTV can't record it, and just record nothing, but don't really error out. This just started recently, as a few months ago I recorded the same shows. There is a post over in the HDHR Forums about this deal with fox..

- D2G

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by jimz06

Situation is that I am getting a No Signal message when I tune a channel in SageTV. SageTV box is Win7 x64 and writes to a remote directory on a Windows Home Server. The test in SageDCT works fine writing to a local drive on the SageTV box. Tuners work fine with WMC and QuickTV. And no issues with regular non-Prime HDHR's on SageTV.

I'm guessing it's my credentials setup in SageDCT? However, when I:

1. Type my user logon password in the password field (User field by default shows "HTPC/Jim" which is SageTV box computer name/username)
2. Click Change Credentials
3. Prompt appears to restart service
4. Service goes to Stopped status but never restarts
5. Click Start and Prompt appears that says "Cannot start service on computer"
6. Going directly in Windows Services panel and trying to start the SageDCT service fails due to a "logon failure" (noticed that user is listed as ./Jim in the Services panel)

So what am I failing miserably at here?

I see you have Comcast. You might be having the Comcast stream problem. The stream delivered by Comcast on some channels (it seems random, and it goes on and off) cannot be read by Sage's demuxer. Andy fixed this by providing the VLC option in the latest version of DCT. Have you tried that?

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by jimz06

Situation is that I am getting a No Signal message when I tune a channel in SageTV. SageTV box is Win7 x64 and writes to a remote directory on a Windows Home Server. The test in SageDCT works fine writing to a local drive on the SageTV box. Tuners work fine with WMC and QuickTV. And no issues with regular non-Prime HDHR's on SageTV.

I'm guessing it's my credentials setup in SageDCT? However, when I:

1. Type my user logon password in the password field (User field by default shows "HTPC/Jim" which is SageTV box computer name/username)
2. Click Change Credentials
3. Prompt appears to restart service
4. Service goes to Stopped status but never restarts
5. Click Start and Prompt appears that says "Cannot start service on computer"
6. Going directly in Windows Services panel and trying to start the SageDCT service fails due to a "logon failure" (noticed that user is listed as ./Jim in the Services panel)

So what am I failing miserably at here?

If you can't get the service to start then you'll never get it to work..

Do you have a password for that account? I don't and I never had to muck with change credentials...

[jimz06]

Success! I went into the Windows Services panel, brought up the Properties panel for SageDCT, cleared out what was in the password field (bullets - so not sure what was actually there) and re-entered the correct user password. Apparently whatever was in that field was not my user password. SageDCT service starts and SageTV now receives the signal from the Prime and saves to my WHS.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

I've finally found some time to poke around and look into my random halts and stops..

This has been going on for quite a while. It's seldom enough that it wasn't a high priority. But it's just annoying!

This seems to happen to me occasionally when a Prime tuner is coming off a show and then immediately has to record another (as opposed to recording it on an alternate tuner on the same Prime). In fact this happened last night when it was recording a food show on a PBS station and then tried to record the premier of "Last Resort" on ABC right after. It just didn't cut it. In the past, the logs show that the Prime simply doesn't respond in this situation to setting up the recording. I haven't looked at lat night's specific incident.

It's unfortunate that we can't tell the SageTV server to always record on an alternate tuner as opposed to one that was just in use.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by phelme

It's unfortunate that we can't tell the SageTV server to always record on an alternate tuner as opposed to one that was just in use.

Did you have padding on the sheduled recording? If not add some and when they are on different channels SageTV will use a different tuner. If they are on the same channel you can turn off the setting to drop the padding on things that record on the same chanel. Then you will get a different tuner even on scheduled recordings on the same chanel. For me that mean I had to have twice the tuners. Because I can't rely on getting the whole show unless I do put padding on each. And since I like to archive 75% of what I watch for later I don't want to have to search for the missing bit of show on another recording. I.E. I always turn off the "drop padding on back to back recordings" setting or whatever it's real name is.