Recording issues... possibly comcast

[farscapesg1]

OK, before I completely blame them.. here is the scenario.

Recently, I've started to notice prime-time shows on the regular broadcast channels are not recording properly. I can usually tell which ones messed up by looking at the comskip timeline becuase there are not any commercial breaks flagged. When trying to watch the show it has massive stuttering issues, sound drops in and out, and pixellation problems.

Trying to watch the same recording via Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic has the same issues, including skipping parts of the show that is can't recognize.

Thinking maybe it is related to one of my tuners (HDHomerun Prime and an old v1 HDHomerun), I've tried limiting channels to certain tuners and get the same sporatic issues independent of the tuner. A perfect test is Arrow (one the CW) which has yet to record properly once all season. Recording shows not on other channels (say SyfyHD, HistoryHD, etc.) never has the stuttering issues, nor does non-primetime TV on the locals (CW, CBS, ABC) during the middle of the day. I try to record mostly HD channels, but the few non-HD recordings I have never seem to run into the issue (recorded with the same tuners) even for Primetime shows like Castle, Vampire Diaries, ect.

Before jumping to it being Comcast's fault, has anyone seen or heard of this? Any ideas what steps I can take to further troubleshoot? No hardware changes have occured since the Summer Olympics, which was the last time I know that primetime HD channels were all recording 100%.

I'm going to test it again to make sure I'm not crazy by recording multiple HD channels tonight (middle of the night) and also set up manual recordings of the HD shows tomorrow night during Primetime. Any additional advice to test or where to start looking would be appreciated as the WAF factor is going down the tube fast.

[jbrandon]

I cannot offer any suggestions about your problem.

But, I also have issues with KCWE. Any program recorded has pixilation/gray overcast throughout the recording in what I perceive as regular intervals. I've never timed them but they do seem to be regularly timed about 3 minutes apart, they last about 15-20 seconds. The recording is NOT unwatchable but annoying.

I have three 2250 cards and it happens on anyone of the 6 available digital tuners only on KCWE. No other stations exhibits this problem. I've most often blame TWC...

[MattHelm]

They may have move the "main" feed, and the old one is weak. Comcast did this at my dad's. I have HDHRs, and found the new channel, moved everything, and all is fine now.

[farscapesg1]

OK, probably not a SageTV or Comcast issue...

Digging into it more, turns out SageDCT was chewing up 2.5GB of RAM on the system. Looking further, that is reported to be a problem when it has problems writing to the storage so I started checking my recording directory. The iSCSI location I've been recording to is only getting about 40 MB/s reads and >1 MB/sec writes So it looks like I've got bigger issues. For now I've pointed the recording options to another location, but the thought of transferring almost 1TB of old recordings at 40 MB/s or less is not exactly thrilling

[MattHelm]

At least you found it. Hate it when you can't find the problem!!!

[BigMac]

Just upgraded my setup from v6 to v7 and started trying to catch up on months of shows. I noticed really slow response on MPEG-2 recordings (2 HDHomeRun Tuners recording clear QAM from Comcast and 1 HD-PVR for recording from the STB). Some MPEG-2s pause while forwarding thru commercials. I thought it was a network issue and spent a number of days reconfiguring and testing until I took a couple of MPEGs converted them to H.264 and that sped up response. I then took another MPEG and cleaned it up with VideoRedo and it worked. That's when I decided to check the quality of the signal coming into Sage. My signal strength was %90, signal quality %60 and symbol quality flashed from %100 to ZERO very 10-20 seconds.

I've lived in my houes for 12 years and every 3-4 years I have major problems with Comcast and it's always been a signal strength and quality issue. When we first moved in we had a terrible analog signal. The comcast tech said we need to re-wire the house (the house is 15 years old). He proceeded to cut and re-wire from the wall to the TV set and went and cut the ends off all the wires in the rest of the house. I was pissed and TV reception was still poor. I told him to check the strength to the house but he said he couldn't because he didn't have any equipment to do that. Eventually they upped the strength.

Since then the TVs I have all have signal strength meter displays so when I complained 4 yrs ago and showed the first tech that came (they never bring the right equipment the first time) he said he couldn't trust the TV's strength meter. He said he still needed to re-cable all the TVs to see if that fixed the problem before they would dispatch another tech with equipment to verify signal strength. The last time around a tech wanted to see every TV connection and freaked when he saw my Sage setup. Said it was illegal and said he would have to disconnect it. Told him it wasn't illegal and asked him to leave. The tech said he needed to close my panel box before leaving but instead cut my cable wire before driving off. Eventually had a tech show up with equipment that confirmed low signal strength and quality.

I think they gradually turn down power until lots of people complain. I'm getting ready for another round with Comcast but may need some therapy afterwards.

Update: Comcast showed up (the second time) with signal testing equipment and verified that the signal into the house was a touch low and did something at their junction box down the street to "boost" the signal. I only showed them the main TV and DVR in the family room (not the sage setup). They tested the signal at the TV and DVR and they were satisfied. After they left I tested my Sage setup and signal quaility was up a tad but still not what I need and expect. I ordered the new HDHR3 and it came Friday and I plugged it in today and checked its signal and it was slightly better than the older HDHR. I then decided to unplug everthing (cable and splitters from my older analog setup) and started over. Over time my old setup had grown (because of the 6 analog tuners) to something that was a lot more tolerant of poor analog signals. This time I only need one bi-directional booster and one six way splitter of which I'm using 1 for the DVR, 1 for the HDHR3 and 2 for the single older HDHR. Signal quality (before the reqwire) was %58-%64 for the HDHR and the newer HDHR3 had %64-%70. With the rewire my numbers were much better. The HDHR was %82-%84 and the newer HDHR3 had a signal quality of %90-%94. The new HDHR3 has a better noise to signal ratio and I'm glad I bought it. I'll check my household allowance in a month or two and upgrade my other HDHR to the newer HDHR3.