NFL Network, SageDCT, and HD-300, Weirdness

[kmp14]

Okay, this is a weird one. Watching NFL Network on Comcast via Ceton PCIE, SageDCT, and an HD-200 or HD-300 extender results in black bars across the top and bottom of the screen, almost as if the extender thinks it is not 16:9 content. It does not change the aspect ratio, the black bars simply cover the top and bottom of the content. Even stranger, NFL Network plays fine thru SageTV on the server PC.

This is the only channel that I have ever seen this happen on, and it seems to have started somewhat recently. The Ceton has the latest Drivers and firmware. I am running 1.4 of SageDCT, which is several versions old, but is ROCK STEADY, so I have not upgraded.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[kmp14]

Update: I updated to the latest version of SageDCT, and the problem persists. Weird.

[jkohn]

I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion of this. I'm seeing it too, and as far as I can tell it's just an extender problem. I'm also using SageDCT, but with an HDHRPrime. The video is OK if I play it on my workstation, it's just the extenders that crop/letterbox the picuture, and only for NFL-HD.

Detailed Program Info shows the recordings as being 1080i 16:9, and the aspect ratio controls during playback don't help (they'll just stretch cropped picture).

Unfortunately I'm guessing there won't be any fixes forthcoming for problems like this...

[NEOSG]

Not that this helps just offering feedback. With the Prime hardware this channel is aok

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by jkohn

I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion of this. I'm seeing it too, and as far as I can tell it's just an extender problem. I'm also using SageDCT, but with an HDHRPrime. The video is OK if I play it on my workstation, it's just the extenders that crop/letterbox the picuture, and only for NFL-HD.
Unfortunately I'm guessing there won't be any fixes forthcoming for problems like this...

What area are you in? I am in a south suburb of Chicago. I have a feeling Comcast is doing something with the signal. Not long after NFL Network got weird, I started having recordings that would not play, more and more of them. What is really weird is that they would still get Comskipped ok, but Sage would not play them, neither extender or pc. Pretty much entire channels stopped working. If I went into Media Center, the channel worked. I dont think it is that copy bit stuff, but whatever it was, it got to be toooo muuuch! Too many missed recordings. I finally had enough after hours of troubleshooting, and trying everything (all ceton soft and firmware updated, all settings in SageDCT, reboot, reboot, reboot), I gave up and switched back to Windows Media Center (I still had my Linksys extenders). It has been a painful switch, but I am not missing or getting any bad recordings. I simply did not have a choice, TV too important. I was gonna ride SageTV to the bitter end; unfortunately that end came way sooner than I wanted it to.

[jkohn]

Originally Posted by NEOSG

Not that this helps just offering feedback. With the Prime hardware this channel is aok

That's interesting to hear since I'm using the Prime. What firmware/drivers are you using with the Prime? What about SageDCT version.

[jkohn]

Originally Posted by kmp14

What area are you in? I am in a south suburb of Chicago. I have a feeling Comcast is doing something with the signal. Not long after NFL Network got weird, I started having recordings that would not play, more and more of them. What is really weird is that they would still get Comskipped ok, but Sage would not play them, neither extender or pc. Pretty much entire channels stopped working. If I went into Media Center, the channel worked. I dont think it is that copy bit stuff, but whatever it was, it got to be toooo muuuch! Too many missed recordings. I finally had enough after hours of troubleshooting, and trying everything (all ceton soft and firmware updated, all settings in SageDCT, reboot, reboot, reboot), I gave up and switched back to Windows Media Center (I still had my Linksys extenders). It has been a painful switch, but I am not missing or getting any bad recordings. I simply did not have a choice, TV too important. I was gonna ride SageTV to the bitter end; unfortunately that end came way sooner than I wanted it to.

I'm on Comcast in Houston. I know other users have had problems on Comcast with certain channels, but I haven't seen any of that. All of my recordings and live-tv playback just fine, with the exception of these black bars on NFL-HD.

[Griff]

I have exactly the same problems with Comcast in the NW suburbs of Chicago. More and more of the recordings from the Comcast HD channels through the Ceton card using SageDCT are resulting in files that cannot be played through my extender until I run the file through VideoRedo. It is very irritating. It also means that I cannot watch any live TV on those channels. I was not able to get the VLC work around to work on my system, so I am manually repairing all the effected files in VideoRedo before we can watch them.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Griff

I have exactly the same problems with Comcast in the NW suburbs of Chicago. More and more of the recordings from the Comcast HD channels through the Ceton card using SageDCT are resulting in files that cannot be played through my extender until I run the file through VideoRedo. It is very irritating. It also means that I cannot watch any live TV on those channels. I was not able to get the VLC work around to work on my system, so I am manually repairing all the effected files in VideoRedo before we can watch them.

Have you tried SAGEDCT with VLC? it addresses this issue. See the SAGEDCT thread. The version you need is 2.5.0 of SAGEDCT.