Some recordings from HDhomerun Prime are killing my system

[autoboy]

I get a lot of random recordings from my prime that end up killing my extenders or clients when I try to watch them. I have to do a power cycle on the extender to fix the issue or restart the client. These recordings also end up killing the server because they take up a lot of disk resources as SageTV tries to create a thumbnail but fails over and over again. The recordings look like full recordings. They are a normal size, sagetv recognizes the format as 1080i or 720p and sees the audio format, but the payback freezes whatever tries to play them. If you happen to catch one of these recordings while it is recording, it won't kill the system but it shows up as no signal. If I run across one of these recordings I have to reboot the system and delete the recording.

It happens for one out of 30 recordings or so lately and the problem seems to be happening more often than it did.

I'm wondering if these recordings are being marked copy once or something and so I'm unable to play them. Any one else figure this out? I'm thinking about abandoning my whole system if I can't fix this issue because my family can't use it.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by autoboy

I get a lot of random recordings from my prime that end up killing my extenders or clients when I try to watch them. I have to do a power cycle on the extender to fix the issue or restart the client. These recordings also end up killing the server because they take up a lot of disk resources as SageTV tries to create a thumbnail but fails over and over again. The recordings look like full recordings. They are a normal size, sagetv recognizes the format as 1080i or 720p and sees the audio format, but the payback freezes whatever tries to play them. If you happen to catch one of these recordings while it is recording, it won't kill the system but it shows up as no signal. If I run across one of these recordings I have to reboot the system and delete the recording.

It happens for one out of 30 recordings or so lately and the problem seems to be happening more often than it did.

I'm wondering if these recordings are being marked copy once or something and so I'm unable to play them. Any one else figure this out? I'm thinking about abandoning my whole system if I can't fix this issue because my family can't use it.

You are not alone I have the same problem.... and it is just not the Prime in my case it is some OTA recordings also. I disabled creation of thumbnails because of this... video_thumbnail_generation=false... For now since I am using MCEBuddy to run Comskip I am also doing a remux at the same time... and that has cured my problems. I tried different settings in SAGEDCT including ffmpeg but ffmpeg introduced too many artifacts into my recordings. So I went the remux way and am quite satisfied.

[texneus]

Remuxing would be my guess too. You could either download a trial of video redo or I think MKVtoolnix will work too as a free solution, although I think you'll end up with an mkv file. You might peruse the tools secition on videohelp.com to see if there is a better choice if this is the issue.

[autoboy]

So I'm not really understanding what the underlying issue is. Are these being marked with copy protection? And is that why remuxing works? I don't run comskip and have a pretty basic setup to keep everything simple.

Creation of thumbnails is how I determine which programs to avoid starting. If there is no thumbnail, I go in and delete the file.

I recently installed the latest SageDCT but it didn't change anything so I might have installed it wrongly as I didn't really do a full uninstall and then reinstall. I just installed over the old one.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by autoboy

So I'm not really understanding what the underlying issue is. Are these being marked with copy protection? And is that why remuxing works? I don't run comskip and have a pretty basic setup to keep everything simple.

Creation of thumbnails is how I determine which programs to avoid starting. If there is no thumbnail, I go in and delete the file.

I recently installed the latest SageDCT but it didn't change anything so I might have installed it wrongly as I didn't really do a full uninstall and then reinstall. I just installed over the old one.

No it is that SageDemuxer is just plain old. also the SAGETVTRANSCODER that generates thumbnails is an old version of ffmpeg ... also the mediaplayer in Sage is old. Also Sagetv does not support Cable Card so you need to Install Sagedct. In other words Sage is reaching end of life... by remuxing my files I am using the newer ffmpeg... and keeping Sage alive in my household.

[autoboy]

Okay, so I think you're describing my problem. I tried watching an affected show on windows media player and it worked just fine, but it killed my extender. I tried messing around a bit with MCEbuddy but it took a very long time to remux the show and used a lot of harddrive cycles on my main drive SSD which will shorten the life of it. I record a lot of shows with intelligent recording so this would mean the thing runs at 100% duty cycle for all three tuners.

At this point I'm getting pretty frustrated that something that used to work doesn't work reliably anymore even though I never changed anything. It is becoming a problem with the kids and wife who have to reboot the TV every few days and they tend to just switch to netflix if that happens.

I'm thinking of abandoning SageTV and jumping over to a Tivo. Yes it is expensive but at this point I just need something that works and I don't have days to lose troubleshooting this anymore now that I have 2 year old twins.

Any suggestions before I jump ship?

[nyplayer]

SageTV just plain and simple cannot handle the different streams being broadcast. I cannot even watch the Golf Channel and some others live.... and they are copy freely. I can watch them on any other PVR Software. NEXTPVR WMC .. mediaportal.


You could try the SAGeDCT donator version with FFMPEG if you haven't yet... that could fix some of the Prime problems but will not fix them if you have other tuners.

[autoboy]

I have the donator version but it didn't change anything. It may have been how I installed it but nothing really changed.

[nyplayer]

The problem is that no matter what you do Sage uses StrmDeMux.ax. Which is from 2011. I have tried unregistering it but then it will not render any files. So we have to live with it because there will no longer be updates.

[autoboy]

Thanks for your help. I guess I'm getting a Tivo. Today is a sad day...

[mike1961]

I don't know if this helps but I just upgraded my Sage server and had a hell of a time getting the Prime to work (due to a bad sage properties file). But, once I got it to work I decided to use it as a digital tuner (instead of cablecard) for several reasons. First, I think Time Warner Cable marks too many channels that you can't copy freely anyways. So, I wanted to set it up the same as my prior HD Home Run which worked flawlessly since the day I got it over a year ago. I never had one bad recording with that. The prime gives me one extra tuner and I can do it all with only one coax cable in rather than two coax in with the prior home run.

But, the thing is for me, I also have two cable boxes and 99% of the time when there are more than two shows recording at the same time at least one will be on the basic channels anyways and I have two HD encoders for my two cable boxes so I can record up to five shows at once and again in almost all cases when there are more than two shows recording at least one will be on basic cable so if that applies to you then you could always try and set it up as a digital tuner instead of cablecard. I never had a problem with my prior HDHomeRUn and I'm hoping the same is true with the updated Prime. The only time I had a problem with the tuner was when Time Warner changed their frequency or something and I had rescan - otherwise it has worked like a champ for me.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by mike1961

I don't know if this helps but I just upgraded my Sage server and had a hell of a time getting the Prime to work (due to a bad sage properties file). But, once I got it to work I decided to use it as a digital tuner (instead of cablecard) for several reasons. First, I think Time Warner Cable marks too many channels that you can't copy freely anyways. So, I wanted to set it up the same as my prior HD Home Run which worked flawlessly since the day I got it over a year ago. I never had one bad recording with that. The prime gives me one extra tuner and I can do it all with only one coax cable in rather than two coax in with the prior home run.

But, the thing is for me, I also have two cable boxes and 99% of the time when there are more than two shows recording at the same time at least one will be on the basic channels anyways and I have two HD encoders for my two cable boxes so I can record up to five shows at once and again in almost all cases when there are more than two shows recording at least one will be on basic cable so if that applies to you then you could always try and set it up as a digital tuner instead of cablecard. I never had a problem with my prior HDHomeRUn and I'm hoping the same is true with the updated Prime. The only time I had a problem with the tuner was when Time Warner changed their frequency or something and I had rescan - otherwise it has worked like a champ for me.

In my area there is no longer QAM channels available but I can get all My Subscribed channels using a cablecard but cannot get a few premium movie channels. For those I use WMC ... I have a mini PC hooked up to my main viewing room and use WMC instead of a cable box... can switch to SageTVClient seamlessly.

[Reefkeeper]

I have a similar problem with a FIOS cable card and a HD Homerun tuner. I have the latest SAGEDCT version also and use the FFmpeg option. Random occurrences of "Halt detected in recording" and "Recording missed due to capture device failure". Tonight it was programed to record back to back episodes of a show on the same channel. The 8-9 pm episode recorded fine. The 9-10 pm episode crashed with the above messages produced. I know it is not truly a capture device issue because I can tune any of the reportedly "failed" channels with the HDHomeRun Quick TV application and they work fine so it's truly a problem in SageTV or SageDCT, not the cable card or the HD Home Run Tuner.

It seems pretty strange that one episode worked fine and the very next program on the same channel failed.

[FZ1]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

...For now since I am using MCEBuddy to run Comskip I am also doing a remux at the same time... and that has cured my problems.

Hi there,

I'm having the same issue and use DirMon2 to run Comskip. Are you remuxing the original file so after it's done all appears in Sage recordings correctly? Could you go into a bit more detail on how it's setup? This seems like the best workaround so far.


Thanks!

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by FZ1

Hi there,

I'm having the same issue and use DirMon2 to run Comskip. Are you remuxing the original file so after it's done all appears in Sage recordings correctly? Could you go into a bit more detail on how it's setup? This seems like the best workaround so far.


Thanks!

Yes I am remuxing with mcebuddy and running comskip (MCEBUDDY runs comskip against the remuxed file) and keeping it in sagetv. I do other stuff like renaming etc.... but that is not necessary.

Have you had experience with MCEBUDDY?

[FZ1]

I haven't used MCEBUDDY, but it looks like DirMon2 with additional functions.

If I understand correctly I'd need to give up live commercial detection to use your fix. Is that right?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by FZ1

I haven't used MCEBUDDY, but it looks like DirMon2 with additional functions.

If I understand correctly I'd need to give up live commercial detection to use your fix. Is that right?

You have to choose whether you want live comskip or a fixed recording. If it is only certain Channels then you can remux only those.

or

You can run comskip live and then remux in that case mcebuddy will see the edl and not rerun comskip.

[nyplayer]

I have created a batchfile that will remux the Sage Recordings. It will replace the original file with the remuxed one with the correct timestamps and original name. I have attached the files needed (the batchfile along with touch.exe). except ffmpeg.

If the file is in use it will just exit and do nothing.


You will need to get ffmpeg and place in the folder where the RemuxSage.bat and touch.exe are located. You can just drag and drop on RemuxSage.bat or schedule it as you like.

If you would like to create a trigger for Dirmon2 remove the "rem" from the line above the final exit... then have Dirmon2 notrun RemuxSage.bat if that remuxed ext exists.

rem echo "remuxed">"%~d1%~p1%~n1.remuxed"

CD /d "%~dp0"
move "%~f1" "%~d1%~p1"
set checkuse=%ERRORLEVEL%
if %checkuse% NEQ 0 exit 1
if not exist "c:\temp" md "c:\temp"
if not exist "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode" md "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode"
if exist "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1" DEL /Q /F "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1"  
if /I "%~x1" EQU ".ts" start /B /I /W /belownormal ffmpeg -i "%~f1" -acodec copy -map 0:a -vcodec copy -f mpegts -map 0:v -sn "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1"
if /I "%~x1" EQU ".mpg" start /B /I /W /belownormal ffmpeg -i "%~f1" -acodec copy -map 0:a -vcodec copy -f vob -map 0:v -sn "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1"
if /I "%~x1" EQU ".mp4" start /B /I /W /belownormal ffmpeg -i %~f1" -acodec copy -map 0:a -vcodec copy -f mp4 -map 0:v -sn "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1"
set ffmpegerror=%ERRORLEVEL%
if %ffmpegerror% NEQ 0 DEL /Q /F "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1"
if %ffmpegerror% NEQ 0 EXIT 1
touch.exe -r "%~f1" "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1"
if exist "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1" DEL /Q /F "%~f1"
if not exist "%~f1" move /Y "%~d1%~p1tmpEncode\%~n1.remuxed%~x1" "%~f1"
rem echo "remuxed">"%~d1%~p1%~n1.remuxed"
exit

[jmv]

Looks like quite a few are having the same aging pains I am with SageTV...could you walk through how I could test the remux process on a single file manually and see if that allows the recording to work again in SageTV? Do we know how to evaluate the file to figure out what exactly changed...my issues usually affect certain channels and certain shows (one show will be fine from that channel, but others will have all episodes exhibit the freeze/playback issue) in all cases the comskip works and generates the correct breaks, so it seems the files themselves are at least playable by the comskip SW. Also my PC can playback fine using VLC.

mv

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jmv

Looks like quite a few are having the same aging pains I am with SageTV...could you walk through how I could test the remux process on a single file manually and see if that allows the recording to work again in SageTV? Do we know how to evaluate the file to figure out what exactly changed...my issues usually affect certain channels and certain shows (one show will be fine from that channel, but others will have all episodes exhibit the freeze/playback issue) in all cases the comskip works and generates the correct breaks, so it seems the files themselves are at least playable by the comskip SW. Also my PC can playback fine using VLC.

mv

Just download extract and drag the file over to the bat. Make sure to get FFMPEG.

Unfortunately SageTV has not kept up with the changes in the TV streams so it chokes on certain files it is really getting to be a pain.