Freezing at the end of shows

[reverse]

Ive looked at some other threads regarding this and haven't really seen a solution, so I know I'm not the only one with the problem. I know Sage creates a new file at the beginning of every show. My problem is at the end of shows, I get a pause that is anywhere from 3 to 12 seconds. Typically, its often towards the 12 second range. I reformatted/reinstalled/etc and formatted my media drive @ 64k thinking this would help solve the problem. Initially, I only had a one second pause but soon after we are back to the same ballgame. (Plenty of vid space avail)

Some background on hardware:
Shuttle MN31N
AMD XP 1700+
512mb
Samsung 120gb 8mb (checked UDMA setting)
(2) PVR-250
XP Pro

All w. latest drivers.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[reverse]

[salsbst]

Have any antivirus software running? If so, disable it for the folder(s) that sage uses for recordings.

[bmadgett]

I'm having a very similar problem - sometimes at the end of a show playback, it will run very very very sloooooowly (like, 30s response times to keypresses on the menus) for about a minute, and then the PC spontaneously reboots. This sometimes causes corruption of the Sage files.

I do have a virus scanner (Norton) but have already disabled it for the Sage recordings directories.

Anything else that might cause this sort of problem? I use a PVR350 with hardware-only decoding (ie no software decoding).

Quite a pressing problem as I've lost recordings when Sage "recovers" from the crash & tries to rebuild its corrupt files! (will the seeker/use_errant pref prevent loss of recording files in this instance? not set that yet)

Cheers

Barnaby

[16valve]

I'm having the exact same problem as bmadgett. My system runs fine if I dont let a show play all the way to the end. Once at the end of a show, the system process hits 99%, a system dump is created, and the machine reboots. Very frustrating. I've got my 350 cooled, and I've tried different video cards, but no change.

AMD Athlon 1400
Gigabyte GA-7ZMMH (Via km133a)
PVR-350, hardware encoding only, tv out
512mb
Onboard sound/video
XpPro sp1
All latest drivers.

[jphhughes]

16valve

The only contribution I can make is to tell you that I had to recently reinstall xp and start from scratch. After the reinstall of the 350 Drivers I was gettting the same problem as you state. I had not had this problem before. So I reinstalled the drivers making sure to use the HCWclear program. After the reinstall the problems went away. I think the hauppague driver installtion is very finicky and does not always install properly. One of the symptoms of a bad install was when the systems rebooted I would get the new hardware wizard and device manager would show that one of the Hauggauge driver was not installed. THis was actually a false indication as I found out by simply rebooting the system it would go away. However the next time it crashed the same thing would happen. After a good driver installation things have beeen fine.

[reverse]

Thanks for the replies. There is no AV on this system, and a fresh install of XP and drivers.

[zz5]

The PVR-350 is causing the problems you are having. Search the forums for more information.

[16valve]

I was able to solve my similar problem.
I found a solution following instructions on this thread:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...?threadid=6734

Also I've had success with installing the latest drivers from
ftp://ftp.shspvr.com/download/wintv-pvr_250-350/

[ehensen]

I had/have very similar problems at the end of shows recorded by SageTV AND by .mpg files imported in the media library. The fix provided by 16valve solved the first problem.

However, at the end of an .mpg file which I converted myself from .avi with TMPGENC the systems becomes very slow, it does not hang, CPU usage stays almost 100% - in my case no system crash.

Now, although it is extremely slow to do this, you can set SageTV to sleep and awake it again and then the problem is gone. Looking at the CPU usage with the Task manager I saw that once SageTV enters sleep mode the CPU usage drops to very low values. Reviving it and you can work again.

According to zz5 this is a pvr-350 problem; I searched the forums but could not find the final solution to this problem - anyone got an idea????

[bmadgett]

I appear to have fixed my crash-at-end-of-file problem by uninstalling (HWCLEAR) and reinstalling the Hauppauge drivers & codecs. Hasn't crashed for a few days now, fingers crossed.

I have no idea why they hadn't installed right in the first place (I did exactly the same thing both times)...

Barnaby

[zz5]

ehensen, for most people there isn't really a solution to the problem. The only way to avoid this problem is stop playback for the end of the recording. Some motherboards do not have this problem. Most people have problems with the 350.

[ehensen]

thanks zz5 - now I understand your earlier comment.

But bmadgett - what Hauppauge drivers/codecs did you install, maybe I can improve my system a little bit. By the way, did you encounter lockups at the end of shows recorded by Sage AND .mpg file in the media library.......

[bmadgett]

I just installed the latest drivers & codecs from the Hauppauge website, not any beta ones from SHS or anything. I didn't install WinTV etc - just the drivers, codecs & the IR program. I followed the instructions on the Hauppauge page exactly.

I used to encounter lockups at the end of shows recorded by Sage, but I don't know about imported mpgs I'm afraid - hadn't tried any of those. Sorry!

Good luck

Barnaby

[zz5]

ehensen, different drivers produce different results with regard to the end-of-file lockup problem. One set of drivers I used had this problem, while another set didn't. Try out the various drivers. You need to use fairly recent drivers because older ones don't support the user interface display on the 350.

[Humanzee]

I have the same problem with the system process going to 99% at then end of show playback. I have found that putting sage to sleep and then waking it resolves the issue, at least till the end of the next show. I have the power button on my Hauppauge silver remote set to enter sleep mode. (this may be default) The response is slow but at least its only a few seconds before I can get sage to go to sleep and release the system process. Also, I dont have to get off the couch. I have not tried to reload the hauppauge drivers, but I think I will after reading this thread.

[strohmrs]

Originally Posted by salsbst

Have any antivirus software running? If so, disable it for the folder(s) that sage uses for recordings.

Thanks salsbst! I added my recording folder, the Frey Technologies folder and all associated subfolders to Norton's Auto-Protect Exclusion list. So far no more long pauses between live shows and remote control delays including delays switching between different menus and submenus or jumping forward or backwards is now greatly reduced. Sometimes the delays would be long enough between shows that sage would just put itself into the screensaver mode early and then continue recording in the background when the hard drive light would finally go out. Guess Norton just can't keep up with virus scanning the 1-2 GB files as they are closed out. Sage is so much more responsive now! Again, THANK YOU!!!

Rick

[dragon]

Originally Posted by strohmrs

Guess Norton just can't keep up with virus scanning the 1-2 GB files as they are closed out. Sage is so much more responsive now! Again, THANK YOU!!!

Rick

I didn't think of NAV as a possible cause of my hesitation problems (the same 15-20 second pauses at the end of shows). WinXP's Performance Monitor showed that my page swapping was at 100%. I solved all my SageTV hesitations by bumping from 512MB to 1GB RAM.