Any suggestions before I stop using SageTV?

[atyrus28]

Since you are looking at this I would appreciate seeing your feedback.

I am just about at my wits end with SageTV. It seems to enjoy endlessly ticking me off to the point I am simply waiting it out for a better solution and am regretting putting money into Sage. The biggest disappointment being the extenders because they are not anything special without the sage server.

It seems as though Sage itself is corrupting videos and only works well for a week at best before starting to cause problems.

I have manually registered TMT5 .ax file and it shows up for use in Sage and Directshow apps. Don't even need to use the find all codecs.

So far though, ffdshow, CoreAVC, Arcsoft and MPC (with gabest) only work for a short amount of time before no longer working. By short time I am referring to days or weeks not minutes.

It's beyond frustrating really, sometimes make me wonder why I pay for most software anymore as paid versions of things seem to cause more issues than Open Source and free.

* merged *

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by atyrus28

Since you are looking at this I would appreciate seeing your feedback.

I am just about at my wits end with SageTV. It seems to enjoy endlessly ticking me off to the point I am simply waiting it out for a better solution and am regretting putting money into Sage. The biggest disappointment being the extenders because they are not anything special without the sage server.

It seems as though Sage itself is corrupting videos and only works well for a week at best before starting to cause problems.

I have manually registered TMT5 .ax file and it shows up for use in Sage and Directshow apps. Don't even need to use the find all codecs.

So far though, ffdshow, CoreAVC, Arcsoft and MPC (with gabest) only work for a short amount of time before no longer working. By short time I am referring to days or weeks not minutes.

It's beyond frustrating really, sometimes make me wonder why I pay for most software anymore as paid versions of things seem to cause more issues than Open Source and free.

The main thing people tend to forget about sage in client mode is that it will only work as well as the computer it is on. Codec packs are the enemy. For most things you honestly don't need more than ffdshow. It is compatible with just about everything and I've found it to be very stable. MPC-HC works with my vc-1 videos in the mkv container, but the sage splitter is disabled for that. Arcsoft never worked for me. CoreAVC works well, but ffdshow gave me fewer issues. If you have an nvidia graphics card you can't do better than the LAV CUVID decoder. I've been using it for a while and it works great.

[atyrus28]

I am seriously loosing it with sage right now. Ever since I got involved with using it (2009), it has never "just worked". I don't mind a few tweakings here and there, I am a technical person, no biggie. However this has started to become an endless game of cat and mouse that I am quite tired of playing with paid software (open source/free of cost different story).

There are plenty of people on here with a good amount of experience that I hope can lead me in the right direction. If your simple answer is a dev answer of "Works on my machine", please don't bother responding. That answer is not helpful and I don't deal with it from my devs either.

I have now redone my whole Sage setup 3 times in the last 5 months. Each time the problems show up faster and faster. It has to do with playback issues.

So with here is my setup.

Win7 x64
AMD Phenom II X4 840
8gigs of Ram
AMD Radeon 6450
System HD containing sage and other apps
3 internal drives for TV recordings and Movies (5TB total)
External USB 3.0 HD for BD rips (2TB)
SPDIF out to old Logitech Z-680's (if it works don't fix it)

Sage Server is also main TV client
2 HD200 Extenders (Master Bedroom and Son's Bedroom purchased and 1 or 2 months later the HD300 showed up, jerks)
Gigabit network throughout the house

All movie rips are mkv's

I have followed several different threads and sites for getting it all to work (on the main TV as it is the only PC client) I can get it to work but eventually it just slowly stops working.

I have now used the following codecs per the multitude of directions.

ffdshow
TMT
CoreAVC
MPC

All of these start out working fine (after tweaking the heck out of it to do so) and eventually just break down over time. No play back, stuttered playback, corrupted playback and random crashes or bluescreens.

This last install has now only lasted one and a half weeks before deciding it doesn't want to play nice anymore. The shortest ever. This was a completely new install of doze and sage and needed codecs. Once this all works I add the needed plugins (without the plugins available sage is actually kind of useless besides OTA TV, so a huge High 5 to the devs of the plugins. I hope you work on other projects in the future I would even donate to your endeavors).

Things seem great, life is grande, then the sage gremlins come out to play and it's a bad Ed Wood movie I can't wake up from. Add to all of this google has ruined things even further with the buyout and I am no longer a happy camper.

Even worse it now seems as though my mkv files are getting corrupted, and they only seem to get corrupted AFTER the issues crop up in Sage.

for instance the extender will play a movie just fine for while. Once Sage on the PC gets corrupted video now the extender will have problems with the movie. Where ever the video gets corrupted it stops playing on the extender, until you skip ahead 10 seconds.

I will wait for feedback and questions before I ramble on further though there are other weird issues with fanart and stuff too, but are totally secondary to actual playback.

Thanks in advance!

[macsupergeek]

I just want to clarify in terms of some absolutes -- IF you never play the MKV on the main TV through the client software and ONLY play that MKV through the extenders, does the MKV exhibit those issues ever, or is it that only after they are played on the server/main client that the issues arise? I am also wondering what you are using to make the MKV rips? And one last thing -- if they are corrupted do you mean that they won't play back in sage or have you tried something like VLC to see if they playback?

[panteragstk]

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...7&postcount=14 I responded to you in that thread. In addition to what I've said there you should disable the sage splitter. I had nothing but trouble with .mkv's and disabling the splitter and using gabest (mpc-hc) fixed every issue I had.

[Fuzzy]

The randomness of your issues points more towards a hardware problem (Harddrive, memory, etc), than a software/codec issue. I have not had to use anything but ffdshow and win7's codecs in a couple years now, and they work just fine on a lot less hardware than that.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The randomness of your issues points more towards a hardware problem (Harddrive, memory, etc), than a software/codec issue. I have not had to use anything but ffdshow and win7's codecs in a couple years now, and they work just fine on a lot less hardware than that.

Same here with a once exception. I use LAV CUVID for h.264 and vc-1. Everything else is either ms-dtv or ffdshow.

[wrems]

I agree with Fuzzy. The persistence of your problems after multiple wipes and reinstalls sounds more like hardware than software...

[atyrus28]

Normally I would agree about hardware issues and I will not say there is no way that it is hardware.

However, The RAM and CPU are new. It was an Athlon X2 5900 with 4 gigs of RAM. However do to an incompatible mobo for my little brother and the Phenom not working correctly, I bought the CPU and Ram off of him. There is really no reason for the quad core and 8 gigs of RAM. However I was hoping that with a quad core the Bluray HD playback while other things were working made a fall back for the 6450. I also swapped out the sys HD with another one I was not using (would love an SSD but still too high $$ for me).

Also I have run prime95, memtest86 and OCCT test for the CPU and RAM, always pass without issue. The video is brand new to replace an old power hungry 4850 (a client had an insurance claim and let me keep the rest of the system mobo got fried).

For the mkv issues, the video corruption only happens in Sage at first, playing it in outside players, the file plays without issue. The video playback corruption happens with Bluray folder rips and mkv files. I usually use ripbot264, but just recently (one file) I tried out handbrake.

I can not tell you exactly when the files start playing back funny in outside players (both on the mediacenter machine and two other machines in the house). I don't know they are corrupted until my wife tells me the HD200 needed to be skipped forward to play. Once the extender can't play it with out issues, then other machines and outside players also have a problem. (my wife re-watches movies and stuff a lot Fibromyalgia and Lupus can keep her bed ridden and up at night a lot.)

I have not been able to whittle down where/when the corruption occurs.

I can swap out the RAM again but it's just weird how it works fine and then just slowly dies. Bad hardware should also cause other problems which it is not.

I am not using all those codecs at the same time. They are all the different ones I have tried.

I am currently using MS and ffdshow with the gabest splitter since hali splitter has given others problems and gabest seems to have few complaints I have come across. The sage demux is disabled. I have the issue with both dxva and software modes being used.

One last note, live TV plays just fine and there have been no complaints about OTA recordings having this issue but those are usually watched and deleted.

Any other details you need me to provide let me know.

[panteragstk]

It sounds like you are doing everything right, but it obviously isn't working. Issues like this can be a huge pain to figure out. One piece of advice I can give you would be to install sage server on another computer to see if that one has the same issues. Since it occurs on the extenders too you wouldn't have to worry about configuring proper playback on the "new" server. That would be the best way to see if there is a software issue, or a hardware issue. A hardware issue with the server would likely still be present even with an alternate server running the sage software since you wouldn't actually move the video files from one server to another. If the problem doesn't happen with the alternate server then your current sage server has a software problem.

I know that is kind of confusing so let me break it down.

1. Install sage server on an alternate pc keeping all files and tuners in the current server

2. Share all unc paths with the "new" server so it will be able to function along side the current server so you don't miss any recordings.

3. Point extenders to the "new" server and attempt to recreate the problem.

4. If the problem occurs after the above you have a hardware problem. If not it is likely a software configuration issue (drivers, etc).

Good luck.

[Fuzzy]

So you are saying the files play back fine at one point, and not later? That seems like a harddrive issue to me. It is inconstantly reading the platters, and having to re-read certain sectors multiple times to get a valid crc. Sometime it gets it in enough time to keep the playback buffer full, sometimes it doesn't.

[ranger]

I would also check and make sure the power supply can handle the hardware you are using. An under rated or unstable power supply will cause all kinds of problems.

[Savage1701]

I can't say I get the exact things you do, but have you tried "therapeutic reboots"? I cold-boot Sage Server every other day at the most. I have not had any issues, especially with playback of HD_PVR stuff in months.

Right or wrong, my pet theory is a memory leak somewhere that results in a bunch of different issues cropping up with little relationship to each other except for messing up files.

I know you have tried a lot of things and are frustrated. Have you tried this? And I mean a "cold boot" - full power down of you Sage Server and any HD-PVR or externally powered capture devices you might have?

Just a thought from someone who chased randomness for years and finally gave up. 3 minutes of work every other day = 99.5% of the headaches gone. Will something with Sage mess up once in a blue moon? Yeah. But so did my cable box and so does my satellite.

Might be worth a try.

[[JiF]Mike]

This may not be possible now that extenders are hard to come by, but have you tried just using extenders? I made the switch to running Sage in service mode a few years ago cause I was sick of dealing with all the codecs. Since then I have had basically no issues, things just work. I have had some mkv's flake out on me but I blame the files. Another added benefit was a happy wife when I moved the server into the basement and out of the living room!

[gizmo3141]

Funny how sage seems to require constant tweaking to play files. VLC plays everything all the time with no issues, with the possible exception of not being able to play the 5.1 audio with a file that has been transcoded by sage.

What's needed here is a player that will behave like VLC without the user actually having to pick a different decoder for each file format...the user shouldn't be required to pick a different decoder for DVD, TV, Mpeg2, non-Mpeg2 etc...

Why is SageTV the only player on the planet that makes people do this?

It would be really great if someone re-wrote the player software to use VLC as it's base, and we could be done with all these issues!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by gizmo3141

Funny how sage seems to require constant tweaking to play files. VLC plays everything all the time with no issues, with the possible exception of not being able to play the 5.1 audio with a file that has been transcoded by sage.

What's needed here is a player that will behave like VLC without the user actually having to pick a different decoder for each file format...the user shouldn't be required to pick a different decoder for DVD, TV, Mpeg2, non-Mpeg2 etc...

Why is SageTV the only player on the planet that makes people do this?

It would be really great if someone re-wrote the player software to use VLC as it's base, and we could be done with all these issues!

Set everything to default and you don't have to pick a decoder for every format. Default honors dshow merit.

[wbarber69]

Sounds to me like you got some seagate/maxtor harddrives. Sorry, I may get bashed for this, but the only HDs that are worth their weight in a htpc are WD and hitachi. Also I'd set up a daily reboot in task scheduler. I have mine set for 2:46am. And I your using an hd-pvr id get a small digital timer to reset it at the same time also. I've dine these things an aside from GUI issues, my sage performs flawlessly.

[atyrus28]

I appreciate the suggestions and many I will try.

So you are saying the files play back fine at one point, and not later? That seems like a harddrive issue to me. It is inconstantly reading the platters, and having to re-read certain sectors multiple times to get a valid crc. Sometime it gets it in enough time to keep the playback buffer full, sometimes it doesn't.

The HD being problematic has already occured to me and I have just recently copied it from the current 2TB drive to another 2TB. It would really suck if the drive has already gone bad but it certainly could be the issue.

Sounds to me like you got some seagate/maxtor harddrives. Sorry, I may get bashed for this, but the only HDs that are worth their weight in a htpc are WD and hitachi. Also I'd set up a daily reboot in task scheduler. I have mine set for 2:46am. And I your using an hd-pvr id get a small digital timer to reset it at the same time also. I've dine these things an aside from GUI issues, my sage performs flawlessly.

I was using a Samsung spinpoint since the 1TB version has been very good for me and the 2TB version also gets good reviews. I am now using a Hitachi 5900 SATA III drive (they were on sale cheap $65 a while back).

I would be happy to use an extender if it could playback my BD rips but alas the HD200 has that wretched limit. I would love an HD300 but can't get one now.

I am actually thinking about using the HD200 for a little bit for now.

I can't say I get the exact things you do, but have you tried "therapeutic reboots"? I cold-boot Sage Server every other day at the most. I have not had any issues, especially with playback of HD_PVR stuff in months.

Yes, though not an a regular schedule like that.

I would also check and make sure the power supply can handle the hardware you are using. An under rated or unstable power supply will cause all kinds of problems.

Fully aware of the PSU, I think my PC Power and Cooling Silent Continuous 610W is more then enough for this system. I could be wrong.

I know that is kind of confusing so let me break it down.

1. Install sage server on an alternate pc keeping all files and tuners in the current server

2. Share all unc paths with the "new" server so it will be able to function along side the current server so you don't miss any recordings.

3. Point extenders to the "new" server and attempt to recreate the problem.

4. If the problem occurs after the above you have a hardware problem. If not it is likely a software configuration issue (drivers, etc).

Can I actually run two instances of the server with the same lickey or were you suggesting it be run in trail mode?

I am using an HD HomeRun for my OTA stuff so that is not an issue.

Is it possible/allowed to run Sage in server mode and still use the same "install/lickey" to run the client on another PC? I didn't think it was, but if it is I don't mind moving the server task to another machine or whatnot.

I'm about this >-< close to just buying a BD player although that would suck to me since I have not had BD playback issues for a while now.

Anywho thanks again for the suggestions. Anymore let me know. One other thing I don't know matters, I am also running playon on the same machine though it has not be a problem for me for a while now. Didn't know if it could cause other problems though.

[panteragstk]

You don't have to worry about a key. Just use the server in trial mode. You have 21 days to figure out the issue.

With all the hard drive changes I'm hoping this is just some sort of software bug. It could be a simple driver issue. You wouldn't believe how many issues a bad NIC driver.

[davephan]

A Windows 7 x 64 build can run for months without a reboot. I have to do the reboots for patching. Try rebuilding again without all the codecs and plugins. Throw different hardware out to isolate the problem. It helps if you have multiple computers to help isolate hardware problems. The system board, memory, hard drive, and power supply could cause problems if one or more is flaky. If you take images during the build, you can gradually build it up with checkpoint images during the build. This will help isolate the problem and give you the ability to roll the server back without a long drawn out scratch rebuild.

Dave