HDHR-Prime+SageDCT Suddenly Broken

[reggie14]

So, this is going to be a bit vague, because I don't know how to go about troubleshooting this problem.

I've been using an HDHR-Prime with SageDCT v2.6.0 (with Verizon FiOS) for quite a while now without any problems. Suddenly, starting about an hour ago, recording/playback starting hanging on many channels. If I try to view one of those channels, I just get a blank screen and SageTV (be it in the client running on the server, or on an extender) becomes very slow/unresponsive. While a recording file gets created, it stays at 0 bytes.

The same channels work fine using the HDHR View app. And, oddly, a handful of channels still work in Sage. e.g., TNT doesn't work, but TBS does.

I was worried about DRM. So, I went into the HDHR-Prime web config and re-detected channels. Those channels do not get marked with DRM.

Any idea what's going on? I'm reluctant to move to OpenDCT, partly because SageDCT has served me well (until this point), and because I've heard tuning is much slower in OpenDCT.

Edit: I should note that I've tried the standard things- namely power-cycling the HDHR Prime and my Sage server. I'm not sure what else to try.

[jnickels]

When this happens to my setup, it usually means that VLC has crashed. Starting the VLC UI reveals an error dialog that requires me to click the 'OK' button. That usually clears it up for me.

Hope this helps...good luck!

[reggie14]

Well, it wasn't VLC. I don't use VLC with SageDCT- I don't even have VLC installed on my server.

But, for whatever reason, everything is working fine right now. Hopefully this doesn't happen again.

[Rob]

I have been having the same type troubles for a few weeks. However, it seems that the same channels that sageDTC (and now openDCT, since I installed it a couple nights ago) have trouble tuning, the native HDHomerun View app also has trouble tuning.

I am in Dallas, so I was beginning to blame it on the transition from Verizon to Frontier. Now that I've read your post, I am back in to wondering what the root cause is. It does seem very suspicious that the issues stated happening about the same time as the transition to Frontier.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Rob

I have been having the same type troubles for a few weeks. However, it seems that the same channels that sageDTC (and now openDCT, since I installed it a couple nights ago) have trouble tuning, the native HDHomerun View app also has trouble tuning.

I am in Dallas, so I was beginning to blame it on the transition from Verizon to Frontier. Now that I've read your post, I am back in to wondering what the root cause is. It does seem very suspicious that the issues stated happening about the same time as the transition to Frontier.

The next beta of OpenDCT will actually show you in video form when the channel is coming in Copy One or Copy Never which might be what you're experiencing.

[reggie14]

Well, the two weird things about my case were that: 1) it wasn't all channels, and 2) the HDHR View app continued to work fine.

Also, it happened right around midnight. I don't know exactly what time, but it must have been between 11:30PM-12:15AM. Given the timing, and the sudden nature of it, I was worried it was DRM. The HDHR webGUI does show a DRM flag. That wasn't shown in this case, but I know there are a couple different ways to mark a program with DRM. So, that seems possible.

As a side note, FiOS did start DRMing stations owned by FOX- e.g., FX, NatGeo, Fox Sports, etc.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

The next beta of OpenDCT will actually show you in video form when the channel is coming in Copy One or Copy Never which might be what you're experiencing.

That's a great feature.

I really should move to OpenDCT, but I've been worried about tuning delays. I can't tell from the main OpenDCT thread what to expect regarding tuning speed. I see some things saying 10-15 seconds, and other people saying 2 seconds. What do you think should be expected?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by reggie14

That's a great feature.

I really should move to OpenDCT, but I've been worried about tuning delays. I can't tell from the main OpenDCT thread what to expect regarding tuning speed. I see some things saying 10-15 seconds, and other people saying 2 seconds. What do you think should be expected?

There was a problem whereby when a program could not be provided (which really only happened on the HDHomeRun Extend when using transcoding) to help FFmpeg narrow it's focus on what's needed, it would scan up to around 15 seconds before returning it's best guess which really stopped improving after less than 5 seconds. 0.5.3 has completely addressed and fixed this.

The other 10-15 seconds you'll hear about has to do with tuning in Music Choice channels. This is unavoidable due to how those channels are constructed. FFmpeg needs to see a certain number of video frames before it will positively say the video is there. In 0.5+ you can actually configured the properties to use the raw consumer for those channels if you so choose and then they will come in just as fast as anything else.

The really short times are what you can expect the norm to be. It's not often that I can count to 5 before a normal channel tunes in on my own setup; Music Choice of course being an exception.

[Rob]

I'm not seeing any troubles with opendct. It seems to tune the same channels that the HDhomerun View app tunes and in plenty of time to record them as they are scheduled.

I hope it is not a DMR issue. That would be bad, bad, bad.... The HDhomerun app shows the channels that have DMR. ESPNHD and NFLHD do not show the DMR flag, but they will no longer tune via the HDhomerun app.

Unfortunately, the one FIOS box I have is in the den where our new puppy got a hold of the cables and has obliterated all of them (I know, who believes the excuse that "my dog ate my homework"). I need to move that box back to my theater room where I can check channels vs. what I can tune via hdhomerun/cabelcard/opendct/sage....). Just have not gotten to it yet.

[Rob]

Oh and no doubt all the fox channels have been unavailable for a while now.