Is there a difference in HD-PVR reliability in unRAID vs Windows?

[wayner]

I have no been running unRAID for several months and I still have my old server running on Win7.

This may very well be circumstantial but in my experience the HD-PVRs are more reliable under Windows than under unRAID. On unRAID if I don't restart the SageTV docker after a few days then my HD-PVR(s) [note - I have two HD-PVRs on my unRAID system] will start failing and/or disappearing from Sage. I will get something like this:

Failed to load the video capture device Hauppauge HD PVR 00A6A5E7. Please check to make sure the device is properly connected and the proper drivers are installed. You may need to restart the device or reboot your machine to correct the problem.

This sounds very similar to the reliability issues that some people have been having with the HD-PVR since they were released about a decade ago but I never had those problems under Windows. Generally after restarting the docker things are good.

Anyone else out there have any comment on whether they believe that HD-PVRs are more, less or just as stable under unRAID vs. Windows.

[SWKerr]

I had not used the HD-PVR in years but since the Colossus is not supported in Linux I decided to give it a try in unRAID. I was able to get it working but did have stability problems in the SageTV Docker. Since I have not used it in Windows in a long time it is hard to say if Windows would be better.

I decided to setup a Windows VM in unRAID using the Colossus instead and that has been working perfectly over the last week although I am doing a nightly reboot of the VM.

I really prefer the Colossus over the HD-PVR because of the HDMI support. I did not put much effort into troubleshooting the HD-PVR with unRAID.

[stuckless]

I have 2 HDPVRs. I've been running then in Linux for many, many years. I had HDPVR issues that turned out to be related to the powersupply, but after moving to power from the PC, I've had no issues.

I've been running SageTV in unRAID with 2 HDPVRs for as long as I've created the SageTV docker image. I've never has an issue. I typically go 2-3 months without restarting the unRAID server or the container,and typically the restart is just to upgrade unRAID or SageTV.

I can't say if it's more stable than windows, since I've never run windows, but, I can't imagine from my scenario, that windows would be more stable, given that I've have no issues, and the issues I did have would have happened in windows as well.

[glenner]

Originally Posted by wayner

Anyone else out there have any comment on whether they believe that HD-PVRs are more, less or just as stable under unRAID vs. Windows.

An HDHR is an HDPVR? I have 2 HDHRs. One is the old dual tuner, setup on my old WinXP Sage v6 setup. This setup is very stable, and frankly I would probably just leave it as is were it not for the EPG end of service issue. Usually I might restart it every 3 months... But mostly because XP just needed a restart, or for some other non Sage reason.

I've just setup a new unraid setup with an HDHR Extend. I'll have both configs up and running for a while and so I'll respond to the poll in a month or two...

My SageTV on unraid did crash last night as I was watching a show, which was unsettling... The HD300 extender just went black. Windows placeshifter could no longer see the unraid docker app. I restarted the Sage docker app and it's back online. I quickly looked at the log sagetv_0.txt... Not sure what the issue is... but it could be related to comskip as I had just set that up this weekend and it was running. Not sure how to check logs that well or what to look at after an unraid sage crash. But yes, I'm hoping unraid SageTV will be as stable for me as it is on WinXP....

I'm sure it will be.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by stuckless

...but after moving to power from the PC, I've had no issues.

So are you powering the HD-PVRs directly from the PC somehow?
If so how?

[wayner]

Originally Posted by glenner

An HDHR is an HDPVR? I have 2 HDHRs.

By HD-PVR I mean the Hauppauge HD-PVR which has component inputs allowing you to capture the 1080i or 720p output of a cable or satellite box.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

So are you powering the HD-PVRs directly from the PC somehow?
If so how?

Many folks are doing this and there is a thread on it here. What you do is to connect into a molex connector coming from your PC's power supply. Find the 5V and ground. Wire those into a 2.1mm barrel connector which you can buy on Amazon, etc or cut one off of an old HD-PVR power supply that no longer works.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I've been running SageTV in unRAID with 2 HDPVRs for as long as I've created the SageTV docker image. I've never has an issue. I typically go 2-3 months without restarting the unRAID server or the container,and typically the restart is just to upgrade unRAID or SageTV.

Thanks Sean. It is possible that I am having power supply issues again - I am not sure if the HD-PVRs connected up to my unRAID server are using power from wall warts or from my home made PC power supply connector. Or maybe the HD-PVR(s) are just going wonky on their own. The one that I have still running on a Windows box seems to be more reliable so maybe I should swap it with one of the ones on my unRAID box.

I am now forced to restart the SageTV docker on a weekly basis as I started running the CA Backup plugin that requires stopping the docker when doing backups. It runs from 0300-0350 every Monday morning on my system.
What are you doing for backups of your SageTV docker and/or rest of the unRAID system?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thanks Sean. It is possible that I am having power supply issues again - I am not sure if the HD-PVRs connected up to my unRAID server are using power from wall warts or from my home made PC power supply connector. Or maybe the HD-PVR(s) are just going wonky on their own. The one that I have still running on a Windows box seems to be more reliable so maybe I should swap it with one of the ones on my unRAID box.

I am now forced to restart the SageTV docker on a weekly basis as I started running the CA Backup plugin that requires stopping the docker when doing backups. It runs from 0300-0350 every Monday morning on my system.
What are you doing for backups of your SageTV docker and/or rest of the unRAID system?

Typically when I've seen power supply issues, they have manifested as "Halt detected in recording", because they power supply would drop power during a recording. Your issue could be that, or, it might be a bad USB connection. When you lose it again, log into unRAID and run "dmesg" and see if there are any USB errors showing up.

[wayner]

I tend to get that error too - here is a list of some of the System Messages from last week:

15)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Recording Missed Due to Capture Device Failure
(x1)
Wed, Jul 5
10:09:00 AM
  16)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x4)
Wed, Jul 5
10:04:29 AM
  17)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x1)
Wed, Jul 5
10:03:14 AM
  18)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x1)
Sat, Jul 1
8:34:25 PM
  19)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x1)
Sat, Jul 1
7:54:55 PM
  20)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Recording Missed Due to Capture Device Failure
(x1)
Sat, Jul 1
3:56:23 AM
  21)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x13)
Sat, Jul 1
3:37:44 AM
  22)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Failure Loading Video Capture Device
(x23)
Sat, Jul 1
3:36:14 AM
  23)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x1)
Sat, Jul 1
3:36:14 AM
  24)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Capture Device Failure while Starting Recording
(x1)
Sat, Jul 1
3:35:00 AM
  25)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x2)
Thu, Jun 29
10:01:51 PM
  26)	Error - Alert Level 3	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x1)
Thu, Jun 29
9:54:14 PM
  27)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording
(x1)
Thu, Jun 29
9:52:57 PM
  28)	Warning - Alert Level 2	
Halt Detected in Recording

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

I tend to get that error too - here is a list of some of the System Messages from last week:

Based on that... I'd almost guarantee it's a power supply issue. You said you don't know if you are using PC power not... how can that be... I think it would be obvious

[wayner]

Because I am at work and I don't remember how those ones are connected. I will check on a bit when I get home.

[MacDaddy]

I'm using a Prime now, but for the longest time I used 3 HD-PVRs with Uverse. The early days were on a Win7 platform. I went through a frustrating period early where the HD-PVRs were flakey. After some tweaking on the software drivers with help from the forum and placing the wall warts on a UPS it was rock solid. I changed over to the unRaid docker around March. The biggest bump was finding an IR tuning solution. I used the stock unRaid docker and just plugged the HD-PVRs directly. They were rock solid from the beginning until I converted to Prime (approx 90 days). I'm thinking the UPS for the wall warts was the biggest determinate for reliability.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

Because I am at work and I don't remember how those ones are connected. I will check on a bit when I get home.

Oh... that makes sense... It never ocurred to me

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Based on that... I'd almost guarantee it's a power supply issue. You said you don't know if you are using PC power not... how can that be... I think it would be obvious

One of the two was connected to a PC power supply, the other to a wart. So I have switched them both to the PC power supply.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by wayner

Many folks are doing this and there is a thread on it here. What you do is to connect into a molex connector coming from your PC's power supply. Find the 5V and ground. Wire those into a 2.1mm barrel connector which you can buy on Amazon, etc or cut one off of an old HD-PVR power supply that no longer works.

Well this seems like a great solution that I wish I had seen when I was still using the HD-PVRs. I had everything required and put one together last night. Running a full day of test recordings to test it out.

[JustFred]

Not exactly on-point, but I've been running 2 HDPVRs on Win7 for over a year. Found that the key to reliability was to restart the SageTv service nightly. All other attempts (new drivers, new power supplies, improved cooling) offered no improvement.

The stock power supplies are notoriously short lived, so I continue to use some beefier 5V, 5A supplies that I bought elsewhere.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by JustFred

Not exactly on-point, but I've been running 2 HDPVRs on Win7 for over a year. Found that the key to reliability was to restart the SageTv service nightly. All other attempts (new drivers, new power supplies, improved cooling) offered no improvement.

I have run HD-PVRs under Windows for close to a decade and I never had reliability issues with my HD-PVRs. I would rarely restart the SageTV service - I would only do it when I had to reboot or my Sage crashed due to the JVM running out of memory.

[wayner]

I continue to have reliability issues with my HD-PVRs on unRAID but I am still not sure if this is hardware issues completely unrelated from unRAID or whether the HD-PVR is more flakey under unRAID.

I am now using a PC power supply to power both of the HD-PVRs on my unRAID server. For the last week one of my HD-PVRs isn't recognized by SageTV - it only sees one HD-PVR. On the one "good" HD-PVR yesterday while doing a long recording I had several instances of brief capture failures during a five hour recording.

Meanwhile I have another HD-PVR on my old Windows 7 SageTV server and it seems to keep ticking along without issues. Maybe I will try swapping it with one of the ones on the unRAID server.

[dstanley]

Originally Posted by wayner

I continue to have reliability issues with my HD-PVRs on unRAID

I had one HD-PVR that I had to 'retire' out of my system and replace with another one due to it's unreliability and failed recordings.

As I was moving my server from one home to a new home I discovered (much to my surprise) that it was the OPTICAL cable that was causing the failures - go figure - I replaced the optical cable (which appeared to be fine) with another and BOTH boxes worked perfectly fine.

I put this questionable cable on a completely different HD-PVR and it failed just like the others.

So I went through all my cables and now have 4 HD-PVRS that have been working without error since that time (a few weeks).

So before you give up - check that audio cable - I think the HD-PVR driver checks that audio signal before it even fires up the recording.

I never would have believed that my struggles over the last serval months with the HD-PVRs were audio - when all along I had suspected power!

Dwight