HVR-2250 Problems?

[bigo93bronco]

I have had issues with my 2250 (one card) ever since I installed the final version of sagetv. When I went to the final version, I did a clean install of windows and used the latest drivers. In an attempt to rule out other possiblities, yesterday, I reinstalled sagetv and i'm running it without any modifications of any kind. I don't even have any import directories configured at the moment.

THE PROBLEM:

Playback of ATSC on the 2250 begins to studder, then freezes the system, but the system will usually recover after I hit stop. When it does this, it ruins any other recording that happen to be going on at the same time. All recordings made during this time have a corrupted timeline and skip through the file about a minute per second.

DETAILS

Recording Drive - WD 1 TB (never had problems with) (check disk, defrag say fine)

Tuners - (1) 2250 (dual ATSC), (1) PVR 500 (dual analog cable), (2) PVR 150's (both analog cable)

2250 driver - 7.9.1.28162 (6/11/2010)

Java - 1.6.0.10 (newer versions have given me problems)

With all six tuners recording, my CPU usage is less than 10%

I am considering installing an unreleased 2250 driver I found (110705_22xx_7.9.1.29186.PreRelease) -

I have attatched my log file captured during a freeze, could someone help me understand what's going on, and whether or not the 2250 is indeed my problem?

[DaveS]

I had a similar issue. I believe you'll find that the issue is with the Hauppauge driver you are using. The newest driver has a problem. Check out this link and there should be a link to an older driver that works better.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54226

[bigo93bronco]

Thanks Dave. I just installed an unreleased (newer) driver. If it doesn't work out i'll switch back to the old one as you suggest

[bigo93bronco]

hmmmm i've uninstalled all of my tuners using hcwclear and reinstalled them. Sagetv is currentlly configured to only use the 2 pvr 150's and 1 pvr 500 (2250 disabled in sage) and i'm still getting the freezes after 30sec-one minute.

[trallyus]

Do you have the comskip plugin installed or commercial detector installed? If so, try uninstalling temporary and test the card again.

If that fixes it , then it may be comskip is working on shows while your recording them and slowing down your computer. I used to have the problem all the time when I was testing out my cards.

[bigo93bronco]

No i've got it disabled right now, actually not running any mods whatsoever. I've tried all the 7.1 versions of sage, and even tried going back to 7.0.23 and i'm still having the problem. It doesn't seem to be confined to the 2250 as I originally thought. I tried using a different (known good) drive as my recording drive but still had the problem. Tried different codecs without success. The one thing I have noticed is that browsing through the guide with live tv in the background really speeds up the problem. Right now i'm trying out the system with one tuner physically installed at a time. I've run this same setup for years wihout this issue though.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

No i've got it disabled right now, actually not running any mods whatsoever. I've tried all the 7.1 versions of sage, and even tried going back to 7.0.23 and i'm still having the problem. It doesn't seem to be confined to the 2250 as I originally thought. I tried using a different (known good) drive as my recording drive but still had the problem. Tried different codecs without success. The one thing I have noticed is that browsing through the guide with live tv in the background really speeds up the problem. Right now i'm trying out the system with one tuner physically installed at a time. I've run this same setup for years wihout this issue though.

It doesn't seem to be a playback error just because playback shouldn't have anything to do with a recording being corrupt. The only way I can see that as a possibility is if you used sagetv in non service mode and playback was on the server.

[bigo93bronco]

I'm at a loss right now. Watching tv and browsing the guide at the same time causes the freezing almost immediatly. Just watching without browsing seems to work forever, until.....you try and watch something live from another room.

[gplasky]

Double check your drives and make sure they are in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

Gerry

[bigo93bronco]

Thats a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to drag a monitor in there tommorrow and get into the BIOS. Everything I have done today seems to have made it even worse. Even the recordings are freezing the system up on playback right now.

[trallyus]

Also goto setup/detailed setup/video audio/ and see if hardware acceleration is turned on just in case it got turned off.

[bigo93bronco]

HA is on, but I don't think that setting effects the extenders does it? I did more testing late last night and have discovered two more useful bits of information on this problem:

I normally only use the server in service mode but......if I run it in program mode I get playback exceptions trying to playback any kind of media files (including live tv). I wasn't too concerned about this at first since the extenders were able to render the files, but shouldn't the server in "program mode" be able to render the same things as the extenders?

I watched tv the one client we have (rarely used) and I never had any issues with it. Coupled with data above, it doesn't seem likely that this is an issue wth the recording drive, tuners, or network. (Everything on my network connects to a single 24 port switch and i've allready tried different ports and cables.)

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

I normally only use the server in service mode but......if I run it in program mode I get playback exceptions trying to playback any kind of media files (including live tv). I wasn't too concerned about this at first since the extenders were able to render the files, but shouldn't the server in "program mode" be able to render the same things as the extenders?

No. When an extender plays back a recording all of the decoding and rendering is done on the extender. When you are using a PC (either SageClient or server in "program mode" all of the work is done on the PC. This is why so many of us like extenders, no messing around with splitters, filters, decoders and renderers.

Your issue is most likely caused by the software you are using to display the video on the PC, not from your capture cards.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

No. When an extender plays back a recording all of the decoding and rendering is done on the extender. When you are using a PC (either SageClient or server in "program mode" all of the work is done on the PC. This is why so many of us like extenders, no messing around with splitters, filters, decoders and renderers.

Your issue is most likely caused by the software you are using to display the video on the PC, not from your capture cards.

I would agree with you except for the fact that when he watches a recording and playback has issues he is saying it messes up in progress recordings. That's what's got me stumped.

[bigo93bronco]

Yeah its when i'm watching live tv on the extenders. It will freeze up and FF to try and catch up, or sometimes just stay stuck. Usually when both extenders are going it just stays stuck. Most of the time any automatic recordings made during this time get corrupted timelines. I did manage to playback a recording that had a corrupted timeline using MPC though, and it was fine. I am able to playback videos on the server now, I forgot I had the audio disable in BIOS. The only hard drive settings my BIOS offers is SATA mode IDE (default) and ACHI (what i'm using). I don't have any PIO or DMA settings to adjust. I have SMART monitoring enabled. I appreciate everyone's help, because I've just about run out of ideas.

[panteragstk]

It's either a driver issue or a bad card (or something else in your server is going out). That is a really strange issue.

[bigo93bronco]

Thats what I thought at first, but it works great on the client computer. I've allready tried a different recording drive, different drivers, different sage versions, removing all but one tuner, etc.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I would agree with you except for the fact that when he watches a recording and playback has issues he is saying it messes up in progress recordings. That's what's got me stumped.

I misread that part. Back to the drawing board.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

Thats what I thought at first, but it works great on the client computer. I've allready tried a different recording drive, different drivers, different sage versions, removing all but one tuner, etc.

So playback works in the client and has no effect on recordings? Something is wrong with the server install then. You may want to start from scratch.

[bigo93bronco]

I'm basically allready started from scratch. The install of windows is only a couple of months old, and I haven't installed anything but sagetv and it's related components. I have completly removed and reinstalled all drivers and sagetv. I'm using the final version of sagetv (7.1.9.xxx). I have the system running a little more smoothly today. I seem to be able to watch tv indefinatly, so long as I don't browse through menus at the same time. Bringing up the "options menu" during live playback, browsing through the start menu, and guide all cause the freeze very quickly. Most of the time I can still navigate the menus, but the video in the background remains frozen. If I try to select something else before the video "catches back up" it will freeze the thing up for quite a while. I'm really starting to suspect that this is an issue with sagetv's UI system. Here's the drivers i'm using for the tuners right now:

(2) PVR 150's, (1) PVR 500 - 2.0.48.25037 (2/6/2007)

(1) HVR 2250 - 7.9.1.29186 (7/5/2011)