Issues with Sage 2.0 ... Any help ?

[Bathel]

Here is my issue:

Running SageTV 2.0 has random lockup when changing channels or messing with menu items. The computer system is not locked, just the output from the PVR-350. The picture freezes and never leaves the TV. The computer side is able to bring up the UI and move around fine … however no video is not displayed or is frozen only the UI is working. If I kill the file and try to watch LiveTV again … there is no picture displayed on the TV or Computer. I can then kill the whole program and restart it sometimes it works after this until I need to change channels or move around in the menu again.

I have not tried viewing recorded TV yet.

I have enabled Hardware only decoding and put the system to sleep and it seems to run all night and recorded several shows. However, I have not tried bouncing channels yet with the Hardware only option.

Also, it seemed more stable when I used a S-video cable from the DirecTV box to the input on the PVR-350 … However I broke a pin on the S-video Cable so I had to revert back to the RCA to S-video adapter. I’ll investigate that more today when I can get a new cable.

My system specs are:

Soyo Dragon Platinum 2 (Pentium 4, intel i875 chipset) Bios 4ba3
Pentium 4 3.0ghz Hyperthreaded 800 Mhz processor
2 x (512MB Corsair XMS Pro 3200) memory
GeForce Ti4600 video card running 56.72 drivers
WinTV PVR-350 running most current driver set from shspvr.com (1.8 I believe)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card running shipping drivers
Linksys PCI Wireless card running shipping drivers
Western Digital 160 GB HDD (partitioned NTFS 30GB / NTFS 130GB)

Clean install of Windows XP Pro on 30 GB partition of new WD Driver
All upgrades of XP completed (SP1, DX9, ect …)
All non-essential services disabled
PVR-350 Input connected to RCA Satellite box via Composite Video/Audio Cable
(Composite to S-Video cable converter supplied with PVR-350 used at PVR-350)
PVR-350 Output Connected to Receiver via Composite Video/Audio Cables
Computer Controls RCA Satellite via low speed DB9 Serial Cable Com-1

Bios set to normal speed no overclocking
Onboard Serial 2 port turned off
Onboard Parallel port turned off
Onboard Network card turned off
Onboard Sound Card turned off
Onboard SATA and Raid Turned off

Sage 2.0 Software Video File set to 2nd partition 130 GB NTFS Driver letter D
Sage 2.0 set to use 110 GB of space on that partition
Sage 2.0 Set to UI and TV out of PVR350
Sage 2.0 Set to us Remote that came with PVR-350
Sage 2.0 Set to Fill and Overscan is adjusted to fit TV
Sage 2.0 Set to Video on Composite 2
Sage 2.0 Set to DirecTV Guide – Atlanta
Sage 2.0 Set to mmc/encoders/xxxx/never_stop_encoding=true (Same issues if set to false)
Sage 2.0 Set to Default Installed Settings everywhere else

Any help or Ideas are welcomed.

[pcuoco]

Sage output with the PVR 350 has known issues with Intel chipsets. It seems some have found success finally with the new combination drivers for combining PVR-250's with 350's in the same box.

Check out these threads for more info:
Success Stories
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=5592

Driver Thread
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=5879

[Bathel]

Thanks ... I'll look over both those threads.

[Bathel]

Ok ... tried new drivers from the above linked thread.

The software seems to be working fine now. No issues related to the software in the last 18 hours. I have not used the remote yet ... so I'll try that out tonight and see if that is giving me any issues.

Thanks for the help.

[pcuoco]

Great! I'm glad it worked for you. Good luck with the remote.