PrimeNetEncoder - HDHomeRun Prime Network Encoder

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

With 1.2.2, nothing major, just strange.



Why is (0) not shown as Prime Tuner like (1) and (2)?

Because the name is different in your primenetencoder properties file you can name them what you want. You can name them Crapshoot 1 , Crapshoot 2 , Crapshoot 3.

[CptKirk]

Thanks, that's simple enough.

[CptKirk]

Hmm, getting no signal when I try to tune a channel with 1.2.2. There must just be something simple that I'm not catching.

Everything was working ok with 1.0.1.

Went through the install guide:
- updated firewall profiles with the new settings.
- got ffmpeg in place, using v2.8 now
- got my correct HDHR device ID
- updated the PrimeNetEncoder.properties file (corrected tuner 0)
- updated sage properties to set network encoders and discovery to true
- removed the HDHR tuners from within SageTV. Shutdown SageTV. Then edited the sage properties file to remove all references to HDHR tuners.
- no problems encountered when adding the tuner
- but after getting the tuner added, can not get anything on the channels.

The channels tune and play using the HDHomeRun Setup app.

I've attached the files I'm using.

[CptKirk]

On another note just noticed something. The install guide mentions the following for the firewall:

a. Machine running PrimeNetEncoder
i. Outbound
1. TCP/7000-7002 (Network Encoder)
ii. Inbound
1. UDP/5000,5010,5020 (HDHomeRun)
2. UDP/8271(SageTV Discovery)

The PrimeNetEncoder.properties template file is using 5000, 5001 and 5002.

Do the 5 thousand values need to match up?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

On another note just noticed something. The install guide mentions the following for the firewall:



The PrimeNetEncoder.properties template file is using 5000, 5001 and 5002.

Do the 5 thousand values need to match up?

Those 5000 and 7000 ports can be anything as long as they are free. As long as tuners are not using the same numbers.

Did you see this post. Also read the post after it you can just delete the primnetencoders.properties and run the jar once it will create a blank properties file. One thing I do is first try it with the firewall off to make sure it is a firewall issue it will save you a lot of headaches.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=306

[CptKirk]

nyplayer, thanks for the reply.

Still beating my head against the wall

Haven't been able to figure out yet why I'm getting no signal.

I had seen your post and made that correction.

I tried the ports I was using with 1.0.1, no luck, still no signal.

Deleted the PrimeNetEncoder.properties file, ran the .jar and let it create one. Edited that appropriately, no luck, still no signal.

I completely disabled/turned off the windows firewall, no luck, still no signal.

Would you be willing to attach your PrimeNetEncoder.properties file and your PrimeNetEncoder-tuner0.txt file (after you have tuned to a live TV channel)?

Maybe I can figure out something by comparing them to mine.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

nyplayer, thanks for the reply.

Still beating my head against the wall

Haven't been able to figure out yet why I'm getting no signal.

I had seen your post and made that correction.

I tried the ports I was using with 1.0.1, no luck, still no signal.

Deleted the PrimeNetEncoder.properties file, ran the .jar and let it create one. Edited that appropriately, no luck, still no signal.

I completely disabled/turned off the windows firewall, no luck, still no signal.

Would you be willing to attach your PrimeNetEncoder.properties file and your PrimeNetEncoder-tuner0.txt file (after you have tuned to a live TV channel)?

Maybe I can figure out something by comparing them to mine.

Here it is. I have 7 tuners because I also use the PrimeNetEncoder with my OTA connects you can ignore the last 4.

Also notice how it handles tuner locks my favorite piece of code jvl711 put in .. no more missed recordings because tuners are being used by other apps.

[CptKirk]

Working now (with firewall disabled).

I had your comment about tuner 0 misunderstood I guess.

Template file:

tuner0.port=7000
tuner0.transcoder.port=5000
tuner1.port=5001
tuner1.transcoder.port=7001
tuner2.port=5002
tuner2.transcoder.port=7002

Changed it to match yours:

tuner0.port=5000
tuner0.transcoder.port=7000
tuner1.port=5001
tuner1.transcoder.port=7001
tuner2.port=5002
tuner2.transcoder.port=7002

As soon as I turn on the firewall though, I'm back to no signal. Just have to figure out the correct inbound and outbound rules based on the install guide now.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

Working now (with firewall disabled).

I had your comment about tuner 0 misunderstood I guess.

Template file:


Changed it to match yours:


As soon as I turn on the firewall though, I'm back to no signal. Just have to figure out the correct inbound and outbound rules based on the install guide now.

Make sure you allow ffmpeg through the firewall. Click on allow app and browse to the primeencoder folder and allow ffmpeg both public and private. Anytime you update FFMPEG you need to redo that firewall setting.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

nyplayer, thanks for the reply.

Still beating my head against the wall

Haven't been able to figure out yet why I'm getting no signal.

I had seen your post and made that correction.

I tried the ports I was using with 1.0.1, no luck, still no signal.

Deleted the PrimeNetEncoder.properties file, ran the .jar and let it create one. Edited that appropriately, no luck, still no signal.

I completely disabled/turned off the windows firewall, no luck, still no signal.

Would you be willing to attach your PrimeNetEncoder.properties file and your PrimeNetEncoder-tuner0.txt file (after you have tuned to a live TV channel)?

Maybe I can figure out something by comparing them to mine.

Looking at the logs it does not look like PrimeNetEncoder is receiving any data from HDHomeRun. Is there any reason that would be the case? Do you have more than one nic card? Is HDHomeRun on the same subnet as your PC?

The one big change is that ffmpeg is no longer handling the udp stream from HDHomeRun, PrimeNetEncoder is.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Looking at the logs it does not look like PrimeNetEncoder is receiving any data from HDHomeRun. Is there any reason that would be the case? Do you have more than one nic card? Is HDHomeRun on the same subnet as your PC?

The one big change is that ffmpeg is no longer handling the udp stream from HDHomeRun, PrimeNetEncoder is.

He got it working with the firewall turned off so it is a firewall problem.

[CptKirk]

Make sure you allow ffmpeg through the firewall. Click on allow app and browse to the primeencoder folder and allow ffmpeg both public and private.

Made that change, still didn't work. But I tracked down what was causing it.

In Firewall - Add a program, I had 3 entries for: Java (TM) Platform SE binary

Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Private - Jre6
Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Public - Jre7
unChecked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Private - Jre7

I had Java6 on the machine for quite a while and recently changed to Java7.

For some reason the Java6 uninstalled (it was a pretty old version) left a Jre6 entry in the firewall settings.

So I deleted the Jre6 entry and check the Jre7 one, like so:

Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Public - Jre7
Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Private - Jre7

Now with the firewall enabled/on channels are getting signal.

But with that strange setting I had in the firewall was working ok with PrimeNetEncoder 1.0.1. Maybe the changes in 1.2.2 are handling Java a little differently?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

Made that change, still didn't work. But I tracked down what was causing it.

In Firewall - Add a program, I had 3 entries for: Java (TM) Platform SE binary

Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Private - Jre6
Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Public - Jre7
unChecked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Private - Jre7

I had Java6 on the machine for quite a while and recently changed to Java7.

For some reason the Java6 uninstalled (it was a pretty old version) left a Jre6 entry in the firewall settings.

So I deleted the Jre6 entry and check the Jre7 one, like so:

Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Public - Jre7
Checked - Java (TM) Platform SE binary - Private - Jre7

Now with the firewall enabled/on channels are getting signal.

But with that strange setting I had in the firewall was working ok with PrimeNetEncoder 1.0.1. Maybe the changes in 1.2.2 are handling Java a little differently?

Great thanks for posting back ... this solution might help others.

[CptKirk]

I hope so. Wouldn't want other spending hours on it.

jvl711,

After I added all the channels to my now new working tuner I started to just go channel to channel making sure that they were all working.

Randomly I would get the No Signal message.

I attached a log. You can see where it was working on some channels and then not on others. I've also seen it when just jumping to a channel from the channel guide.

I'm on Comcast in Houston.

I'm going to tweak these values up to 1000 and 5000000, respectively. Hoping that will help.

ffmpeg.delay=500
ffmpeg.probesize=2000000

EDIT: I did the following changes:

ffmpeg.delay=500
ffmpeg.probesize=2000000 (original setting, about 20% of the time getting no signal)

ffmpeg.delay=500
ffmpeg.probesize=5000000 (solid, no problems)

ffmpeg.delay=500
ffmpeg.probesize=4000000 (solid, no problems)

ffmpeg.delay=500
ffmpeg.probesize=3000000 (solid, no problems)

So it looks like this ffmpeg.probesize value may be need to be tweaked (as you mention in your install guide) if there are signal problems. For me 3000000 works.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

I hope so. Wouldn't want other spending hours on it.

jvl711,

After I added all the channels to my now new working tuner I started to just go channel to channel making sure that they were all working.

Randomly I would get the No Signal message.

I attached a log. You can see where it was working on some channels and then not on others. I've also seen it when just jumping to a channel from the channel guide.

I'm on Comcast in Houston.

I'm going to tweak these values up to 1000 and 5000000, respectively. Hoping that will help.

ffmpeg.delay=500
ffmpeg.probesize=2000000

This section below is where the problem started.

09/17/2015 18:48:24 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Stopping Recording: 13182976 0
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Stopping the TunerOutput thread
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Switch channel: none
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - 	Using Lockkey: 1224816701
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - 	Command output: null
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Stopping the encoder process
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - waiting for the process to stop
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Recording stopped
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Start commmand received: START PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 Digital TV Tuner|1955240967|636|2885067409542|\\htpc\tv\42642_636_0917_1848-0.ts|Great
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Switching Channel for Tuner: 13182976 0
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Channel: 636
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - File: 42642_636_0917_1848-0.ts
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - UploadID: 1955240967
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Quality: Great
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Local IP: 192.168.1.152
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Listening Port: 5000
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Stream listening Port: 7000
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Checking to see if the tuner is locked.
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - Switch channel: 636
09/17/2015 18:48:24 - 	Using Lockkey: 1590562913
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - 	Command output: null
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Send stream to UDP port: 7000
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - 	Using Lockkey: 1590562913
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - 	Command output: null
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Passing stream to SageTV unaltered (ffmpeg stream copy)
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Starting TunerOutput thread for stdin to ffmpeg then stdout to SageTV MediaServer
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Tuner output thread constructed for UploadID: 1955240967
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Tuner output thread HDHomeRun(UDP) -> PrimeNetEncoder(SDIN) -> ffmpeg(STDOUT) -> SageTV Media Server(TCP)
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Sleeping to allow ffmpeg to fully launch: 500
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - TunerBridge thread started udpPort: 7000
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 0
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Sending write open command
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Write open sent successfully
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 0
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 130284
09/17/2015 18:48:25 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 543508
09/17/2015 18:48:26 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 902776
09/17/2015 18:48:26 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 1255464
09/17/2015 18:48:26 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 1606836
09/17/2015 18:48:26 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 2017428
09/17/2015 18:48:27 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 2401700
09/17/2015 18:48:27 - Unhandled Exception writing stream to file: The pipe has been ended
09/17/2015 18:48:27 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 2408280
09/17/2015 18:48:27 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 2408280
09/17/2015 18:48:27 - Tuner bridge has transfered: 2408280

The below line specifically.

09/17/2015 18:48:27 - Unhandled Exception writing stream to file: The pipe has been ended

It looks as if ffmpeg might have crashed. Then PrimeNetEncoder did not handle that failure properly. So channel changes on that same tuner were not working properly. Make sure you are using a stable release of ffmpeg, and make sure probesize and analyze duration are reasonable sizes. I think if those settings are too low for ffmpeg to determine the stream it may exit.

FYI... ffmpeg.delay is not required as much any more with the new vesion because ffmpeg is no longer handle any socket communication in this version.

[CptKirk]

Hope I'm not being a pain. Just have some time available and I like digging

As mentioned above tweaking ffmpeg.probesize fixed the problem for me.

Changing gears again...

Once a tuner has been used will it ever go back to an idle state?

Can it? Should it?

It looks like once a tuner has been used it stays in a connected state.

I was checking with the Status command you mentioned in the install guide.

Starting PrimeNetEncoder
PrimeNetEncover Version: 1.2.2
Author: jvl711

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - IDLE
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - IDLE
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - IDLE

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - RECORDING/LOCKED
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - IDLE
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - IDLE

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - CONNECTED
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - IDLE
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - IDLE

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - CONNECTED
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - IDLE
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - IDLE

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - CONNECTED
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - CONNECTED
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - IDLE

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - CONNECTED
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - CONNECTED
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - CONNECTED

PrimeNetEncoder>status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - CONNECTED
(1) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 (13182976-1) - CONNECTED
(2) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 2 (13182976-2) - CONNECTED

PrimeNetEncoder>status 0
PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - CONNECTED
Tuner locked: False

PrimeNetEncoder>

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

Hope I'm not being a pain. Just have some time available and I like digging

As mentioned above tweaking ffmpeg.probesize fixed the problem for me.

Changing gears again...

Once a tuner has been used will it ever go back to an idle state?

Can it? Should it?

It looks like once a tuner has been used it stays in a connected state.

I was checking with the Status command you mentioned in the install guide.

Good question.

Sage connects to PrimeNetEncoder, so connected tells you when sage has an active connection. So it should only be idle when Sage is not running.

[CptKirk]

PrimeNetEncoder and Java crashes:

Just watching TV and the normal scheduled shows are recording.

Noticed that the PrimeNetEncoder windows started throwing errors, also in SageTV.

Starting PrimeNetEncoder
PrimeNetEncover Version: 1.2.2
Author: jvl711

PrimeNetEncoder>java.lang.NullPointerException
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.isTunerLocked(Tuner.java:624)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.startRecording(Tuner.java:289)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.run(Tuner.java:212)
java.lang.NullPointerException
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.isTunerLocked(Tuner.java:624)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.startRecording(Tuner.java:289)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.run(Tuner.java:212)
java.lang.NullPointerException
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.isTunerLocked(Tuner.java:624)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.startRecording(Tuner.java:289)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.run(Tuner.java:212)
java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: recv failed
at java.net.SocketInputStream.socketRead0(Native Method)
at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(Unknown Source)
at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(Unknown Source)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamDecoder.readBytes(Unknown Source)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamDecoder.implRead(Unknown Source)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamDecoder.read(Unknown Source)
at java.io.InputStreamReader.read(Unknown Source)
at java.io.BufferedReader.fill(Unknown Source)
at java.io.BufferedReader.readLine(Unknown Source)
at java.io.BufferedReader.readLine(Unknown Source)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.run(Tuner.java:250)
java.lang.NullPointerException
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.isTunerLocked(Tuner.java:624)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.startRecording(Tuner.java:289)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.run(Tuner.java:212)
status
(0) PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 0 (13182976-0) - Exception in thread "main" java
.lang.NullPointerException
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.isTunerLocked(Tuner.java:624)
at jvl.primenetencoder.PrimeNetEncoder.PrintStatus(PrimeNetEncoder.java:
304)
at jvl.primenetencoder.PrimeNetEncoder.main(PrimeNetEncoder.java:200)
java.lang.NullPointerException
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.isTunerLocked(Tuner.java:624)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.startRecording(Tuner.java:289)
at jvl.primenetencoder.Tuner.run(Tuner.java:212)

Coincided with the errors in the tuner log file:

09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Start commmand received: START PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 Digital TV Tuner|126924438|678|2885090406566|\\htpc\tv\HowItsMade-S20E03-17805521-0.ts|Great
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Switching Channel for Tuner: 13182976 1
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Channel: 678
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - File: HowItsMade-S20E03-17805521-0.ts
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - UploadID: 126924438
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Quality: Great
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Local IP: 192.168.1.152
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Listening Port: 5001
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Stream listening Port: 7001
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - Checking to see if the tuner is locked.
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - ERROR STARTING RECORDING!!!
09/17/2015 22:00:03 - null
09/17/2015 22:01:06 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:01:06 - Stopping Recording: 13182976 1
09/17/2015 22:01:06 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:01:06 - Stopping the TunerOutput thread
09/17/2015 22:01:06 - Switch channel: none
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Command output: null
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Stopping the encoder process
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - waiting for the process to stop
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Recording stopped
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Start commmand received: START PrimeNetEncoder Prime Tuner 1 Digital TV Tuner|1264319393|678|2885090539744|\\htpc\tv\HowItsMade-S20E03-17805521-1.ts|Great
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Switching Channel for Tuner: 13182976 1
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Channel: 678
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - File: HowItsMade-S20E03-17805521-1.ts
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - UploadID: 1264319393
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Quality: Great
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Local IP: 192.168.1.152
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Listening Port: 5001
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Stream listening Port: 7001
09/17/2015 22:01:09 - Checking to see if the tuner is locked.
09/17/2015 22:01:10 - ERROR STARTING RECORDING!!!
09/17/2015 22:01:10 - null
09/17/2015 22:02:20 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:02:20 - Stopping Recording: 13182976 1
09/17/2015 22:02:20 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/17/2015 22:02:20 - Stopping the TunerOutput thread
09/17/2015 22:02:20 - Switch channel: none
09/17/2015 22:02:24 - Command output: ERROR: resource locked by 192.168.1.152
09/17/2015 22:02:31 - Stopping the encoder process
09/17/2015 22:02:31 - waiting for the process to stop

Anything I can do to help in further debug?

[camTexas]

I'm a current SageDCT user but am looking at possible reasons or advantages to this integration with my 2 Prime units. I'm currently on Win8.1 and have been fairly stable (Fios CC by the way). The whole reason I'm asking is in the last two weeks I had a 1TB harddrive get corrupt that all my troubleshooting so far points to SageDCT not handling tuning to a channel stream correctly (to be fair wife kept trying to tune to the same channel in rapid succession and that channel was not marked Copy once... ended up corrupting the MBR and the MBR-backup and I was unable to repair). Honestly been using SageDCT without issue for at least a couple of years now but the aforementioned HD crash and the repeated annoying MS Windows 10 upgrade pop-ups on my server has me asking questions.

My questions are:

1) Advantages for PrimeNetEncoder vs. the SageDCT in general, and

2) With all I've heard about WMC not being on Win10 friendly, and SageDCT relying on WMC during it's initial setup.. Is PrimeNetEncoder more Windows 10 friendly if I was to take advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade on my server?

Thanks for the patience. Tried searching for an answer but didn't get a clear hit.

- Chad

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by camTexas

I'm a current SageDCT user but am looking at possible reasons or advantages to this integration with my 2 Prime units. I'm currently on Win8.1 and have been fairly stable (Fios CC by the way). The whole reason I'm asking is in the last two weeks I had a 1TB harddrive get corrupt that all my troubleshooting so far points to SageDCT not handling tuning to a channel stream correctly (to be fair wife kept trying to tune to the same channel in rapid succession and that channel was not marked Copy once... ended up corrupting the MBR and the MBR-backup and I was unable to repair). Honestly been using SageDCT without issue for at least a couple of years now but the aforementioned HD crash and the repeated annoying MS Windows 10 upgrade pop-ups on my server has me asking questions.

My questions are:

1) Advantages for PrimeNetEncoder vs. the SageDCT in general, and

2) With all I've heard about WMC not being on Win10 friendly, and SageDCT relying on WMC during it's initial setup.. Is PrimeNetEncoder more Windows 10 friendly if I was to take advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade on my server?

Thanks for the patience. Tried searching for an answer but didn't get a clear hit.

- Chad

1 .Both are good products what ever works best for you ... you must decide.
2. SageDCT does not rely on WMC I do not know where you got this info from.... maybe many years ago it did.


I do not see how SageDCT can mess up your MBR you probably have a Hard Drive problem. Check your drives for errors.

I prefer the latest release of the PrimNetEncoder ... Locks Tuners will not miss a recording because tuner is being used by another Application.... Easy to upgrade FFMPEG ... Uses Sage network discovery no need to cut and paste sage properties entries.