Watched part of show losing its place?

[fasttech]

Hi all,
What are the rules regarding if I watch a show in the SageRecordings, and I exit out of it and come back to it later. Sometimes it seems to remember where I was in the middle of watching it, and other times it forgets and I have to start at the beginning again.
If I moved it to the TV Library, will it always remember the place I was when I left it?

[dkardatzke]

It should always go back to where you left off (at least within a few seconds or so). Can you pinpoint when it's going back to the beginning? Do you do something different to exit the show?

[fasttech]

I just always hit the Home button to go back to the main screen. Should I be doing something different? There isn't a stop button is there?
It definitely would lose its place on normal SageRecordings sometimes. I'll see if I can pinpoint what steps can reproduce it consistently.

Kenny

[fasttech]

Okay it is definitely losing its place. Is it not supposed to remember the locations on shows in the Library even after exiting SageTV and opening it back up? Here is what I did:

Started watching a show at the beginning from my TV Library. I watched about 30 minutes of it then hit the home key to return to the main screen. I then went back into the TV Library to continue watching: No problems it remembered.
Next I hit the home key again to return it to the main screen. I then hit Alt - F4 to close SageTV. Then I opened it back up and went to the TV Library and started to play the same show again. It started it back from the beginning of the show instead of where I last was.
Is this what is supposed to happen?

Thanks,
Kenny

[Narflex]

Does this only happen with stuff in your TV library, or with other things too?

[fasttech]

It happens with both shows in the Library and shows not in the Library. It seems to happen afer SageTv is shutdown and restarted.

[edmc]

One instance where SageTV will "forget" where I stopped viewing is if I stopped in the pre-pad. So, if I set a Manual Recording to record starting 3 minutes before a show begins (because it has a tendency to start early) and then go view the recording, I can duplicate this problem. When I start viewing, it's right at the scheduled start time (i.e. past the 3 min. pad). If I then stop viewing and re-start, it will be right where I left off. BUT, if I rewind to before the scheduled program start and then stop viewing, when I re-start, it will begin again at the scheduled program start time.

[fasttech]

Okay I found another instance where it forgets where it was in the file. I have 2 programs in my TV Library. I went to one program and started watching it and Fast Forwarded to 4 minutes into it. Then I hit the home button to go back to the main screen. I selected another program in the TV Library and started watching it for a few minutes. Then I hit Home again to go to the main screen. I selected the original show and it had already forgotten where it was and started at the beginning instead of 4 minutes into it.
This is really bugging me. I have to go dig out my mouse so I can drag the bar to 45 minutes into a show so I can get it back to where I was watching it. Can this problem be fixed?

Thanks for the hard work,
Kenny

[Narflex]

Kenny, This could be a hard disk caching problem on your machine. This problem seems to be unique to you.

Ed, what you're describing is the desired behavior. SageTV isn't forgetting anything, it's just the way it bounds the watch around the start/end times of the show.

[fasttech]

What do you mean a disk caching problem? What can be done about that? So you can't duplicate this problem? It happens everytime now and makes it unusable now for my wife as we are used to Tivo where you can start watching a show and then resume it later the next day if you want.

Both of the directories used for storage are NTFS. SageTV supports that right? I just don't see how a disk caching problem has to do with not saving the bookmark for a file. Do you guys not just save a bookmark for each partially watched file in a configuration file somewhere?

Sorry if it seems I'm ticked off. It is just a pain in the butt to get out the mouse to click on the timebar to fast forward 45 minutes into a show we have already mostly watched.

This software is still the best thing out there for a PVR solution for a computer! I just wish it could still do things like the Tivo

[justme]

To fasttech:
After reading your posts I decided to try out your scenario to see if I could duplicate it. Nornmally my computer and SageTV run 24/7. I also have SageTv using a dir on an NTFS system(WinXP Pro SP1).

The bad news is I could not duplicate your situation. SageTV always remembered where I was. Sorry I can't provide any insight.

To Narflex:
Don't you think there should be an option to enable logs files even on an official release? I know it should be off by default and only turned on to troubleshoot, but don't you think it would help track down some of the problems a few people are having?

[fasttech]

Hey justme,
Thanks for trying. I feel like an idiot complaining about this problem when nobody else seems to see it! I have a couple of files that do this behavior every time. I have tried some today that seem to be fine though. I don't know what in the world is going on. It seems like all it is would be a bookmark for each file saying where it was last in the file. It can't be that difficult.

Thanks,
Kenny

[Markus]

fasttech, don't feel bad. I've had simular issues. Nothing serious, I just ignore it. I guess I don't rely on that function as much as you do.

There are possible scenarios where hard drive caching can be the cause. There are many drives that have firmware issues that cause currupt caches -- although these issues usually show up in other places as well, not just missing placemarkers in a television program. Most modern drives have write caches, and most modern drives also have a means in which to thurn them off.

I believe that Win98 even has a patch to disable the cache -- aparently some faster systems were powering down before the drive cache had a chance to dump to the platters.

Mark

[fasttech]

Hey markus,
Yeah it is a problem for me because my wife and I will sit there and watch a few minutes of a show at lunch while our baby is asleep, but once he is awake it is practically impossible to finish watching it , so we exit it to continue another day.
I just looked at the properties of the drive in Windows and it had Write caching enabled by default. So I disabled it for now. Is this what should be done? I'll try it out.

Thanks,
Kenny

[dkardatzke]

Kenny,

Until we determine what the problem is, why don't you just leave SageTV running in Sleep mode? It seemed that the only time you lose place is when you fully close down SageTV and then restart the app. I'm not trying to avoid the problem, I'm just offering a temporary solution.

I leave my HTPC running 24/7 and Sage running along with it. The program then doesn't have to reload your profile, and reassociate the library files every time you restart.

[fasttech]

Hey Dan,
At first that was when I saw the problem, but like I said in the last few posts, it happens just going to the main screen and then selecting another Recording. I do leave it running all the time now, however in regular mode since my wife will be using it at home while I am at work. Thanks for the workaround.

Kenny