Major Issues need help please

[nerys]

let me guess he made the manual !! well honestly any manual is better than no manual period !

I will take s whack at the web interface.

also I do have to say this. if you look st it from a TIVO side ie as you say people using it as a set top box the interface really is quite amazing !! I can imagine it working VERY well from that angle

but for what I like to do with my television all this great user interface is a hinderance and creates new problems.

I would be soo happy with my existing hauppaugr titan tv interface if I could just get multi tuner and favorites support :-(

beyond tv was a non starter (no mpeg1)

I for now am going to grundge through it and try and get it working. I NEED the full 14 day recording schedule though. this is critical. there is no "second chances" I can not trust new software to its own devices nor do I have the time to baby sit it daily.

you see I work 12 hours night shifts 3 days a week and have NO time for TV (2 jobs) so I let my computer record all my programs through out the week and at the end of the week I transfer all the mpg's to my laptop or to dvd (7 episodes on each dvd sicne they hold just under 7.5 hours of mpeg1) and take it to work with me. so I almost never watch live tv and almost nevet at home :-)

that is also why "date stamping" in the file names is so important to me :-)

I do not even need to see tv. My ideal solution is a GIANT grid of shows I pick what I want set some season passes etc.. and a clean concise chronological list of what is going to be recorded (danged hauppauge scheduler puts them in alphabetical order grrrr:-)

I am hoping I can get sage working tolerably since I REALLY want multituner support so badly :-(

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

the manual IS quite quite extensive part of its problem

original I had no sound. (I later discovered this was due to it being MUTED apparently it migrated the MUTE status from wintv2k or it defaulted to that)

manual did not help with that. ie a manual is only as good as your search criteria (finally can search now)

if you do not search for the right terms (if you are even aware of the right terms) it does not help much :-(

in this case I just have to read it so I am semi familiar with it. enough so that I can do intelligent searches in the future. problem is I am not HOME that much so I have to take it with me. I am looking into a way of moving it onto my zodiac but I do not think that will work well would have to drop the images and find a way of extracting the text in a meaningful format to put it into a PDB file (screen is only 480x320 so It has to be converted)

previous attempts at converting PDF's were only semi successful :-)

also could not locate how to get LIVE tv there was no SECTION on it

I eventually just started reading the beginning getting started stuff and found out about the left arrows on the too but there WAS no left arrow

again accidentally discovered it appeared when I went INTO something like live guide and then used the arrow to go back. now an arrow was there to click to goto live tv mode :-) hehehe

it would make sense for a live tv option to be availble from ANYWHERE ie put it in the right click menu :-)

although I get with a remote interface you would dedicate a button to this on the remote control like TIVO does :-)

I think this program could be amazing. if I can mundge through the newbie headaches and work around the limitations of the interface. I just hope I can make it work !!! :-) I want it sooo bad.

and that believe it or not is why I post so passionately about this. IT REALLY does come across as an AMAZING program and I "desire" to make it work ! :-)

they NEED to release thst studio. if i can not GET what I want maybe I can MAKE what I want :-)

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by nerys

I for now am going to grundge through it and try and get it working. I NEED the full 14 day recording schedule though. this is critical.

Andy posted a link for how to do that here:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...3&postcount=18

[salsbst]

I for now am going to grundge through it and try and get it working. I NEED the full 14 day recording schedule though. this is critical. there is no "second chances" I can not trust new software to its own devices nor do I have the time to baby sit it daily.

It taxes the system a bit to schedule this far in advance. If you don't turn on intelligent recording then you'll probably be fine.

that is also why "date stamping" in the file names is so important to me :-)

Windows date stamps all files. Can't you just use the file's timestamp?

[nerys]

got the update in for 14 day viewing but it stop JUST short of this friday (nw it shows 41 recording the last of which is this friday at 6pm)

suggestions ?

I am going to mess with this web server tonight I am hoping I can also get it working on my PDA then I can log in remotely and make changes !! although it uses css and java so it might not be friendly with a palm browser :-)

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

nope no intelligent recording I just want what I want (grr keep getting the s instead of the a today) its gonna be one of those days I just know it ;-) hehehe

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

DOLT I am an indiot !!! it IS showing full schedule 6pm friday was NEXT friday :-)

it looks like it is properly recording what I want. will see if it is true mpeg1 :-)

well gonna let it run and see what happens.

play with the web server later tonight after work

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

HEY !!! got my first mpeg1 appears to be a PROPER mpeg1 and wow it looks better than the mpeg1 hauppauge makes !! nice !! in fact they look very nice ! had to double check to make sure it really was mpeg1

Nice job sage !! more and more I hope this works out its going to be VERY VERY nice if it does !!!!!

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

one more question for now :-)

I have many but a lot of them I believe will be in the manual so I am going to read it first

this one I do not think will be there

can I make LIVE viewing alway be mpeg2 (such as dvd extra long play) BUT when I select something to be recorded always have it default to vcd ?

Right now live viewing always uses whatever the capture card default is

also I assume the answer is no but I have an ATI Wonder VE and sage SEE this card. will it work if I try to set it up as well ? (afraid to try it and crash sage :-) hehe

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

ok sceduled 22gig of stuff to be recorded in the next 48 hours (30 programs or so) going to hammer this porogram and see how stable it is on my platform (Note I have had not one crash yet pretty impressive so far !!!)

One thing I noted that it needs badly. some programs when I try to record them the RECORD option is not present. I assume this is because there is already something recording in that slot

it REALLY needs what tivo has let me record it anyway and it should ask hey this conflict with this cancel the other or do not record this new one AND list what the other program is so I can decide which I want more :-)

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[Crazedz]

Sage does have intellegent conflict resolution like tivo.

In MCEXCON it's under MyTV/Recording SChedules/Conflicting Recordings It lets you know theirs a conflict by the ! icon that appeares in the interface at the top i belive and the tray icon changes to the same ! icon.

You can setup to have a favorite override another favorite or ir recording this time or everytime. So you can do it that way im not sure anymore how to do it in the default stv as it's been so long since i used it but it's their and in every other stv in one location or another depending on where the maker wanted to put it.

As for setting up recordings for one recording quality and live for another this is also doable in the detailed setup. You can setup the default recording quality for live broadcasts to be whatever you want additionally not sure when this was added but you can setup each tuner to a default recording quality. You can then setup your favorite recordings in the favorites manager under recording quality for whatever quality you want them in this case mpeg1. That way sage will record all other recordings in the default quality and your favorites in Mpeg1 or any mix theirin.

I have certain favs set for higher quality recordings than others as they have more fast motion or more detail in the shows than others IE scifi and anime or news and sports. One has more detail than the other or more fast motion so higher recording settings insure they come out looking better.

The more you dig into it the more you'll find sage has alot of what your'e gonna like or love for features. I haven't missed a show in so long and really never watch anything live for the most part anymore. When i leave home for several days i don't worry about my shows as i know they will be waiting for me when i get back it's that good.

As for the ati tuner i belive thats a software tuner and im not sure you have or can get ati's hardware emulation wrapper for it or if you have it already. Im not even sure that the wrapper would work in Sagetv but i haven't heard of anybody yet with a working software card useing sage.

This is one of the reasons Freys has been able to make sage so powerfull and stable they avoided software tuners like the pluage because their not able to reliably handle pvr'ing like hardware tuners can. So i wouldn't count on the ati card to work with sage though if you want to try you could just copy your sagetv folder to a backup location and the try it if the worst happens and it messes up your sage install just copy the backup back over it and you should be fine.

That works for me and others who like to play around with sage and occationally mess up our installs.

[nerys]

I can not find a way to do this. yet. ie I want dvd long play to be the default but I also want vcd to be the default any time I manual or favorite record something :-)

so dvd long play if nothing is scheduled to be recorded vcd if its recording something. I figure I got this interface I might as well use it and if I am going to use it I want to make use of the time shifting (it works VERY well better than tivo since it jumps in stead of fast forward or rewind (I prefer jumping))

also the guide is being annoying. it keeps centering on a half an hour slot the interface is cumbersome as it is more so when I only get half a slot for a 1hr show. is there anyway to either 1 move left and right less than a full screen or 2 make it always line up the grid ON the hours and never the half hours ?

the default recording is annoying but its not that big a deal I just have to remember to change it every time I schedule a recording. hopefully they will evential;y fix the time shifting issue with mpeg1 and it will become irrelevant :-)

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nerys]

ok this is odd sge became apparently really unstable. I could not watch anything it was all STUTTERY and "slow" like it was in stop motion with the audio in stuttery clicky slow motion. I decided to reboot and even the WINDOWS sounds exhibited this !!! ???

What would cause this ?

all recordings played back like this

on reboot recordings played back fine (all this in windows media NOT in sage)

BUT any recording made fromthe time it started to stutter are toast !!

one is only 9meg so I am uploading it so you guys can see what I mean

how do I prevent this ? it seems IF it does this any recording made from that point forward is hosed till I reboot this means a whole week could in theory get hosed by this ???

i am uploading it now should be finished uploading by 1218 EST

http://www.nerys.com/stuff

download the mpg file TsunamiSurvivalStories-30476-1.mpg

9.06mb

this is what all recordings look like once it starts this doing this thing

it appears to effect the entire system since all playback in windows do this and even the windows sounds do this (click sound shutdown sound etc..)

on reboot sound return to normal and previous recorded mpg's return to normal but mpg made DURING this problem are hosed like the sample above and also no full recorded one I let it finish thinking it was just the live preview (close sage I have it in service mode) but when I restarted after the hour it was still hosed and the file it recorded was only 146meg and 14 minutes long ?

on reboot it SOUNDS like its now in fast forward and stuttery (the hosed recorded files)

Suggestions ? what could cause this ?

I am wondering if it has something to do with recording to mpeg1 and having it OPEN while it recording IE displaying the video on the screen ??

I always make sure never totouch the time shifting buttons nor attempt to change channels. in fact it started the stuttery thing when I was in the guide picking programs from tommorrow to record.

is there a way to NEVER display live tv anywhere unless I am in the live tv or view tv screen ? this way I can interact with the interface without causing video issues ?

Any idea why this happened ? anyone have this happen ? a way to prevent it from happening again.

I also noticed that WHEN it did this the mouse movement was not "smooth" seemed well stuttery so it appears to effect the entire system.

any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[nielm]

Originally Posted by nerys

What would cause this ?

I see the same stuttering/garbled video that you describe, so the problem is in the MPEG stream, so I would guess that means that there might be a problem with the PVR card or drivers, and/or their interaction with Sage. (they cards generate the MEPG-1 stream, Sage merely writes it to disk)

I notice that the file ends with -1 which means that Sage detected a problem when recording and tried to restart the recording writing it to a new file. If you have 2.2 installed, there may be a log file you can look at (sage_#.log)

it appears to effect the entire system since all playback in windows do this ... I also noticed that WHEN it did this the mouse movement was not "smooth" seemed well stuttery so it appears to effect the entire system.

Not for me. The problem is only in this MEPG-1 file. and everything else continues working fine...

Maybe you have some kind of hardware conflict that you have not noticed before?

Do you only get this problem with VCD recordings, or does it also affect MPEG2 recordings.

is there a way to NEVER display live tv anywhere unless I am in the live tv or view tv screen ? this way I can interact with the interface without causing video issues ?

right-click in most menu screens gives a 'video options' menu with which you can turn off video in all screens apart from LiveTV.

Note that not many people here use VCD, so you may be testing parts of the cards/drivers that are not regularly tested.
In addition I believe that the WinTV2000 package uses a different interface than Sage to control the Hauppauge cards...

[nerys]

absolutely its in the stream like I said on reboot the entite system returned to normal EXCEPT whstever was recorded while it did this. I kjniw about the 0-1 I did a close file thing hoping to resolve it when that did not work I rebooted.

remember this went way outside of hauppauge and sage. ALL file thst have sound did this (mp3 other mpg's from sage mpg's NOT from sage) and even the windows "event trigger" sounds such as when you click something and the "shut down event sound"

all the same stuttering and the MOUSE was not "smooth" anymore it has the same kind of stuttering.

so it effected the entire system until I rebooted.

I have not opened sage last night and it made 2 more recordings and these are fine !!

as for mpeg2 its does not appear to have happened for any ryme or reason so I am not sure how I could test it on mpeg2 without recordings days worth of mpeg2 with no idea if its even going to do it again :-)

it may never do that again for all I know I was just hoping it had happened to someone else and there was a fix for it :-)

something is definately different about sage's mpeg1's though they look better than hauppauge's mpeg1's for some reason. does it apply any kind of smoothing or filtering or does it utilize more of the chip than wintv2k does or something ?

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/

[Crazedz]

Ahh yes iv'e seen this before but You've got to be kidding me noone else has seen this issue? So it hasn't been brought up in bug reports?

Nerys this is an issue with sageservice mode or running sagetv as a service don't do it, At least not with sagetv's service software. And yes it will happen again unless you turn off service mode.

The problem actually lies in that sageservice for some odd reason starts to use all the cpu cycles so that the pc slows to a crawl and this is happening at the time the recording is being made so the recording gets all messed up and garbled like this. If you bring up the taskbar and look under proccesses you'll find that during times like this service (which is windows service) will be pegging 100% and will continue to do so till you shutdown sagetv and turn off service mode. At that time you can restart service mode and sagetv and everything will be fine for a couple days or so but then it starts doing it again.

Anyway the odd thing is that while this is happening system idle proccess will also be showing around 90% cpu use which is actually free time it's useing to help cool the cpu which i have no idea how that can happen but the result is just about every cycle your cpu has is being soaked up leaving very little to do much of anything at all.


So just shutdown sagetv and turn off and dissable service mode and you'll be fine.


Oh and BTW any changes you make to sage via the properties file should be made to the sageclient properties file as service mode uses the main properties file and the sagetv program uses the client version so thats the only one that will be being used without service mode ok.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Crazedz

So it hasn't been brought up in bug reports?

If you've been running into problems with the betas, submit bug reports. You can't assume that someone else will submit the info or that it will be fixed if no one reports it.

Oh and BTW any changes you make to sage via the properties file should be made to the sageclient properties file as service mode uses the main properties file and the sagetv program uses the client version so thats the only one that will be being used without service mode ok.

I'm not sure I'm following that sentence, so to recap: the property file usage is mentioned on pages 15 & 176 (Appendix A) in the v2.1 manual. When using service mode, the core properties are stored in sage.properties & the UI properties are in sageclient.properties. If not using the service, ALL the properties are in sage.properties. SageTVClient always uses sageclient.properties for its UI settings, regardless of how the server is set up.

- Andy

[nielm]

Craed: did you look at the file nerys uploaded? It is like nothing I have ever seen or heard in the nearly 2 years of being on these forums: The frames were completely out of order!

Service mode seems to have varied results: I have never had a problem with it (on my 1000Mhz EPIA), and would recommend it (as I have had UI problems requiring restarts) but other users have reported that using service mode causes stuttering on playback.

[stanger89]

Actually (believe it or not ) I have seen that problem once, well I think I did, it was similar, as if a frame got stuck in the buffer and got encoded in with the video. I already sent a chunk of it to Jeff a couple days ago.

[nerys]

well it happened again today. out of 9 recordings NONE were successful file sizes ranged from 7 to 70 mb (all of them should have been 598mb) and again the entire system was in "stutter" mode mouse windows sounds everything. I disabled service mode mode and will put sage in startup. one thing I like about service mode though was that if it crashed it woulde in theory restart itself. so hopefully it won't crash. same thing with wintv2k it was a VERY nice feature. Scheduler (windows scheduler) was seperate from wintv2k so if wintv2k crashed I would lose that show but it would RESTART again when scheduler commanded it to start recording the next show on my list.

this is a downer but as long as its stable its not a big deal. maybe I will see if there is software that can auto reboot the computer at a certain time so no matter what I would theoretically only lose a days programming.

is there a program that will poll the processes and "see" is sage tv is running and execute it if it finds its not running ?

all this could be mute if it still whacks the system like this :-) will have to set it to record a bunch of stuff and see what happens

now that I disabled servive mode somehing goofy happened to the sage program. the interface "Incomplete" now like the main menu has a thin white border surrounding it the top and right edge are missing

when I move the mouse to PICK other options for example the whole screen FLICKERS for a moment and the white missing borders momentarily appears and then goes away again ?

Gonna reboot again without a service mode this time and see if that clears this up

when I disabled service mode all my changes went away had to repick the cayars interface reset all the font and display options etc.. odd

Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiacreview.com/