Strange new issue - hardware or software?

[pjpjpjpj]

So I don't know if this is hardware or software, but I'm putting it here for now.

In the past two weeks - with no changes to my server whatsoever - I have been getting occasional error messages about tuners failing. It only happens when a show begins recording - I get a failure and a red "i" alert, saying that the tuner failed, with the stock message about "this may be because a channel no longer exists" or whatever. It then retries, connects, and records the show with no issues.

When I try to tune a show live, manually (click into it from the guide), it now does the same thing - pulls up a black screen, "No signal" appears, and then when I hit stop I get a popup error message about a tuner failure (some "exception" message - I can post it here if needed). However, without fail, if I try to tune the channel again, it works without a hitch.

The weird part is that the error does not always occur on programmed/favorite recordings. For example, I record my local morning news at 5 am - and some mornings it gives me that error, some mornings it doesn't.

While I figure this has something to do with the HDHRs that are my (only) tuner devices - first thought was "power supply?" - once the show begins recording, there are no issues at all. So really, other than the hassle of having to click into a show twice when manually tuning, and the brief worry you always get when seeing the red "i" warning alert after you've had a Favorite record, it's not causing any real problem.

I have to wonder if there's some time setting - a delay or something - when trying to tune a channel, that somehow got out-of-whack, where it's trying to tune a channel and "giving up" too quickly? Or else some delay in "waking up" the HDHR if it's not been recording recently? (I don't even know if they sleep anyway).

Note that I have all of the "sleep", "hibernate", power-saving options completely turned to "never" on my server, so it shouldn't be any sort of "wake-up" thing. And I suppose that idea is also negated by the fact that it still gives the error when I am using Sage and try to tune in live....

Anyone have any suggestions?

[nyplayer]

Before you say it's your tuners check to see if the problems is happening on both HD Homeruns the odds of them failing at the same time are slim.... to none.

Then I would look to my router... I was having Intermittent problems too and when I built my own router (pFsense) following the suggestion of a member here... I got rid of all my glitches.

read this thread

[SteveD]

I would look for a failing drive. Check program details and see if you are always having the failure on the same drive.

[Polypro]

...or motherboard. I had a P5W-DX (circa 2007) and was getting all sorts of errors all of a sudden. I knew it was the board when I went to reinstall fresh and the board wouldn't see the hard drives. I rebuilt with a new Z68 board (and it saw the drives fine) and haven't had a problem since.

P

[pjpjpjpj]

Thanks for the tips, guys. Curious though - wouldn't either of those potential issues cause there to be glitches DURING the recordings? Or not necessarily?

I think I can eliminate nyplayer's suggestion about tuners, as it occurs on all tuners (or at least both of my two HDHRs - have not specifically checked the two tuners within each one).

[SteveD]

The drives could be slow on spinup. I have 8 drives in my sagetv server, It is usually a harddrive problen when I get a no signal.

[tmiranda]

It could be a hardware issue with the HDHR or a signal strength issue. Sometimes when I get strange errors with the HDHR doing a hard reset (pull the power cable) solves it.

Enable debug logging and attach a zipped logfile. Maybe that will show something more conclusive.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

It could be a hardware issue with the HDHR or a signal strength issue. Sometimes when I get strange errors with the HDHR doing a hard reset (pull the power cable) solves it.

Enable debug logging and attach a zipped logfile. Maybe that will show something more conclusive.

Shouldn't be a signal strength issue because I get almost all my channels with plenty of strength and clarity (as above, once they start recording, they are pretty much flawless).... but it would be easy enough to "hard reboot" the HDHRs. I can certainly do that. Truth is, I am probably due for a full server reboot as well, even though I stop and restart Sage Service every so often.

[BobbyDing]

I use 3x HDHR only. I used to get an intermittent tuner failure much like you describe. It turned out to be a flaky connection at the F connector on one of the tuner inputs (a tuner with high merit). Try re seating all your f connectors at the tuners and splitters. Also check that the connections are clean. A little oxidation can ruin you're whole day. If it continues to happen, take note what tuner it is that's failing and try disabling that tuner for a while.

Bobby

[jbrandon]

I went through this a few weeks ago myself. All of a sudden SageTV started reporting errors in recordings. At first it was just QAM signals then everywhere. Finally narrowed it down to a single card (2250) and replaced it, it was bad, one side of the 2250 would no nothing. Worked okay for a few days then started with the errors again.

What I finally found was one channel (happened to be FOX) was no longer supplying 1080 signal. Deleted that channel but still was seeing errors.
Finally what I ended up doing was rescan and remapped every digital source. Because I could not see anything "wrong" in the setup I just blamed the crappy TWC service.

Since that rescan everything is working well, no errors or missed recording. I have three 2250 cards installed. One of the biggest problems was finding which card was causing the errors because if I move the card to another slot it would sometimes work. I had two new card so I was fairly sure they were working correctly, configured one, installed the second and configured and finally the third. Long drawn out process...