Major Issues need help please

[mdmint]

I'd highly suggest you concentrate on a stable stock system before playing with custom STVs. BTW, my Sage Server runs in Service Mode v2.1.10 rock solid. My Server is not used for any kind of playback, all done on Clients. This way playing with various playback options and different STVs doesn't effect the core SageTV functionality. Mess up a Client session playing around, no biggy forcing it closed if necessary, the other Clients will most often keep going happy as a clam.

[Crazedz]

Sorry Opus but i noticed this when i upgraded late and had heard others had problems with service mode. I thought this is what everyone was talking about so i didn't report it at the time i was still working on remodeling a part of the house so i didn't visit the boards as often and thats why i upgraded late.

But youre right i should have posted a bug report but i didn't because i thought this was the issue people were talking about with service mode and didn't wanna waste freys time with a repeat report. I know i shouldn't have let that stop me from posting it but stupidly i did.

And sorry i guess i didn't quite understand the new way the properties files worked as well as i thought.

Yes Nielm i did look at the video it's the tsunamisurvivalstories clip at the bottom of the page on his server. I downloaded it watched it and have seen it before on my own system when running in service mode. Stanger hit it right on the head it's like a stuck frame or something with garbled audio. I had it happen several times before i found out what was causeing it so i have seen video files that looked exactly like that.


Yes i have seen thoughs other reports and i thought this is what they were refering to but maybe that was something else altogether i don't know but this is what i have seen on my setup.

Nerys their are some other programs out their that you could try if you need to run sage as a service or want to at least till freys get this issue resolved. I can't recall them offhand so i don't know where to get hold of one but their out their.

[nerys]

what do you mean by "other programs" ??

since I stopped running it as a service it has gotten unstable ??? I must have annoyed it somehow. is there a way to backup my favorites so I do not have to do them all over again (the interface is very cumbersome took hours to get all of them set up not looking forward to doing it again)

I ask cause I want to delete sage and reinstall it but this time do nto pick service mode right from the get go

now it records one show and then I get a black screen. if its in full screen its "frozen" but I think its still recording (thepartial files are relatively complete)

right now its doing it again

I get nothing but black but it "is" recording "something"

at 2000 it started to record NCIS with a 0byte file till 2001 then it made a -1 file and now seems to be progressing normally. I off course can not tell for another 19 minutes when it will be finished recording and I can then access the file to see if its recording anything (I put it in "sleep" mode)

MCE 500's are going for nesr full retail on ebay so I think I am going to take a shot and order an mce 500 and sagr from sagetv.com if it fails I can always make nearly all my money back on ebay.

when I do this can I force sage to NEVER display video from 2 of the tuners ? ie ONLY display the third tuner which I will set to dvd long play and never schedule a recording on ie JUST use it for live tv so the "UI" stays stable ??

I am assuming this has something to do with mpeg1 that is causing this ? I really am not sure and have no really practical way to test this. I have 3 tuner cards in 3 machines but only this one machine has one that is compatible with sage (one is Wonder ve the other is Hauppaug wintv pvr pci from years and years ago my original tuner card (still works :-) hehehe)

I do not know it its the tuner card the format recording sage or my system

any suggestions on tracking down or testing any of the other three ie Tuner Card, sage, or my system ?

interesting just noticed with the screen "black" ie no video stream the GUI has stabilized ? no flickering or missing parts ??

I really thing I need to delete and reinstall to see what happensn just got to back up the favorites.

intriguing I switched back to the stock UI and the live window is updating again

oddly it started playing the current recording from the beginning ? something I though was not possible with mpeg1 (clicking somewhere on the time line moves there but no playback ie as if its paused but timer still going but there IS content so it was in fact recording all this time (thats a good thing :-) hehehe)

I am going to schedule a crap load of stuff to record tonight and put it in sleep mode and see how stable it is. then tommorrow morning I will schedule a bunch more stuff and leave it running on the desktop but with no video window displayed.

Finished searching the manual was unable to find mention of backing up the favorites although that might not be needed now I would still like to know how to do this just in case :-)

also is there a way to put sage tv in my startup folder in such a way that is auto starts "asleep" ?

ok it finished recording ncis and it came out fine but it did the same thing for house created a zero byte file that did not update it was showing a stream

I closed it and reopened it still would not record bytes it got freeze on me and crashes (poof closed itself) I reopened it and now it started to record house.

This file is growing in size so it should be recording I think I need to make sure never to "see" it when its recording to make it work right (annoying) so I turns off video menu's etc.. since I can never know if its recording someing in mpeg1 or just recording live tv.= which is mpeg2 and theoretically ok to mess with but last night all this was stable until the stuttering thing started Grrrrr :-)

Might still reinstall and see what happens will wait to morning to see what it records etc..

suggestions? is there anything I can supply you guys to further assist me ? are there any kind of log files or error files or anything like that ?

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

[Opus4]

All Favorites settings are stored in wiz.bin, so you would have to save that file. There is a FAQ entry regarding what files to save when reinstalling.

One thing to try before reinstalling is to simply run the service control app & disbale servide mode. Then, delete sage.properties & its backup (after saving backup copies), and reconfigure it all.

The reason you had to reconfigure your UI options when you stopped using the service is because of what was said earlier: the UI options were saved in sageclient.properties while the service was in use.

You could always ask tech support about the recording problems and/or file a bug report (I don't remember which version you said you installed). Does the problem occur if you never watch anything? You mention wacthing the MPEG1 files while they are recording, yet Frey mentions that is not supported... perhaps that is causing problems or Frey just hasn't updated the info to say it can be done now.

- Andy

[nerys]

well at first it was the only way I could see if it was working :-) also I want to view live tv sometimes yet it it "starts" a recording it will goto mpeg1 and maybe cause a problem ? (is there a way to make it go back to main menu when it starts a pre arranged recording ?) no matter that is a minor issue

minor cause I found how to turn off the video stream when not in live tv mode :-) so far no crashes and so far it has recorded 3 programs successfully.

will know more in the morning. if it is reaonable ok by friday I am just going to go ahead and place the order and keep my fingers crossed :-)

I already killed service mode as it clearly was causing lots of problems (the stuttering thing has NOT happened again since I disabled service mode)

Pitty since service mode is really a nice option to have.

and since scheduling and recording are done in the same program if it crashes there is no hope of an auto restart. hopefully it won't crash :-)

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

[Crazedz]

What i meant by other programs are programs that can run programs or apps in service mode. One i recall was called fire deamon which is a trialware program so you'd have to try it if it works you can buy it. It or some other program like it maynot cause the same problems that sageservice does but i can't say that for sure.

Im not sure about other programs like this but if theirs a free one that doesn't have any problems running sage then that would be the best route to go.

I belive fire deamon had a freeware version that's more limited i did a search and it's avalible here.

Firedeamon .9c

you can find the latest full pro version here but it's a trialware program and costs $29 to buy.

Firedeamon pro


I don't know what other programs will run programs in service mode so thats about all i can offer on that.

[nerys]

ahhh now I understand you mean s program that will run the normal sage executable as a aservice bypassing sages built in service mode issue - now it makes sense thanks !!

Ok recorded a bunch of stuff they all recorded ok (ie no stuttering) but none of them recorded on time except 2

all the rest are "short" ie it started "late" the problem seems to be the same

I get a show###-0 that iz zero bytes and it takes several minutes (1-6) for sage to fix whatever is wrong and THEN it makes a show###-1 and records the rest fine (no sage always deletes these 0byte -0's I just see them while its recording when its done it deletes them leaving just the -1

problem is this always results in me missing the beginning of a program and I can not "pad" if they are one after the other :-(

once I get multi tuners I can cludge a fix by padding everything by 5 minutes in the hoped that when it glitched it will not be more than 5 minutes and I will get the whole thing. but this only works when I do not have too many shows one after the other

example if I have to record 3 shows at once on 3 tuners and then 1 or 2 shows in the next time slot 2 of those programs will not be padded because it is alredy using all 3 tuners for the previous hour :-(

so I would prefer a "fix" any suggestions ?

It just started to record $40 a day and appears to have started properly on time

the few times I caught it doing this the screen was "black" until it did whatever it did to make a -1 file and it was fine. I did not stay in tv mode long since I think thats bad for it recording mepg1 (they really need to fix this I hope they can)

I can see this in the recordings

almost every recordin that ends in a -0 is properly recorded all of the -1 are missing the beggining few minutes

usually around 5 minutes missing sometimes 3 minutes or so.

what can I do to diagnose this to resolve this ?

FYI since I disable service mode no more crashes stuttering or system issues so that was definately the problem !! its VERY stable now. if I can just get it to record my shows without dropping the first few minutes

this is a guess but it SEEMS that if there is nothing before or after it records fine except I just watched it finish one and immediately start another with no problem grrrr :-)

what I really need is 6 tuners so I can pad everything (not a solution but a work around) alas I can not afford $600 in cards just now :-(

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

[Crazedz]

Sorry nerys i dont have any idea on this as i never encountered it before. The only thing i can sugjest is to post a bug report and submit your log file to freys on the Bug submision form

That way they can help you with this problem, Sorry i couldn't be of more help to you.

[nerys]

I will try that they suggested trying a beta which I will do this weekend

also I THINK I narrowed it down. it "so far" appears to only happen in CONSECUTIVE showings ie when there is zero time between recordins

last night I tried same and different channels it did not seem to have any effect BUT when I picks 4 programs in a row the 1st was fine the next 3 were all 5 minutes shorts but when I then did 4 SPACED OUT with a half hour between showings they ALL recorded fine !!

this is now good since my important shows are all consecutive especially friday night (6-7 programs right in a row)

I am goung to try 4 consecutive recordings tonight with a 1minute gap and see if that helps (by padding -1 minute if it will let me)

is there a way to add a universal paddin in seconds ? say all recordings no matter when or what they are stop 10 or 15 seconds early so it has time to do what it does between showings and properly start the next recording but also be short enough a gap not to cause me to miss much if anything (MANY programs not only is one minute toomuch but its at the worst spot the beginning :-) 5 minutes just kills it :-)

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

[nielm]

Whilst downloading HP drivers, I noticed this:

Chirpy audio, bad audio sync when playing back your MPEG videos?
Do you have a VIA based motherboard?

These problems are due to the MPEG file being corrupt before data packets are written to the hard disk. You might need to download the VIA latency patch: http://download.viahardware.com/vlatency_v019.zip

VIA 4-in-1 driver update will often fix compatibility problems with the WinTV.
This driver is suitable for all VIA chipsets using Windows 95, 98, 98SE, NT, 2000, XP
This driver will install the VIA: - IDE Busmaster (2.1.41 or higher) - VIA AGP 3.55 - IRQ Routing Driver (1.3a or higher) - VIA Registry (ACPI). Also included is the VIA DMA Tool which facilitates the adjustment of DMA settings. The 4-in-1 Driver will automatically detect which versions of drivers you are currently using as well as determine the necessity to upgrade.

I don't recall whether you are using a VIA chipset or not, but the symptoms sound familiar...

[Opus4]

I just got reminded of this thread that may be relevant: recordings start delayed by ~5 minutes?

- Andy

[nerys]

No via all intel via was a problem for hauppauge as well so I ditched that early

alwo when it does record its flawless. VERY good quality recording

better than the hauppauge recordings even

ahhh that thread describes to a T what I am experiencing !!!

I am going to find this mystery setting now and fix it good :-)

will let you all know what happens but they describe it so perfectly I am sure this is it !

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

[nerys]

ok i changed true to false and reset the next 5 programs that are right in a row to remove the -1 minute buffer. will see what happens :-)

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

[nerys]

so far so good 2 shows no missing minutes !! I think that did it !!! Yippee !!

my pay should clear in the morning when it does I am getting myself the mce500 bundle

also there is one show paticularly $40 a day they use nearly 100% of the 30 minute time slot so if you cut off 30 seconds on either end you miss a LOT

the first 30 seconds they tell you WHERE they are and the last 30 seconds you get the synopsis of the episode both important parts of this show

if I set this show to PAD a few minutes in either direction is this program smart enough to use MORE tuners to get them ? example usually they are on 2 episodes in a row

so 0200 and 0230 clearly if I pad they conflict so sage can do one of 2 things

remove the padding from the end of episode 1 and beginning of episode 2 and record using one tuner OR leave the padding intact and use seperate tuners.

Which will sage do ?

Thanks
Chris Taylor
http://www.zodiadreview.com/

[nerys]

just wanted to update you guys its confirmed the true to false fix works. 10 programs right in a row and not one blip !! perfection :-) now if I could just get the date in the file name :-) hehehe

Thanks Opus for finding that and pointing it out to me (never danwed on me to put in 5 minute as a search criteria since mine were different lengths sometimes it never hit me as a search option :-)

another question. how much of Sage is outside of that sage folder ? most windows programs have crap all over the place. is anything that is NOT in the sage folder critical ? ie could something out of that folder effect the opeartion of sage so if I back up that folder as a just in case something goes wrong are there other files I also need to back up ?

I want start playing without risking reliability :-)

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


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

[kny3twalker]

Let me default VIEWING live to mpeg2 but ALWAYS default recordings of ANY kind (favorites and manual) use my specified recording quality (for me vcd)

vcd is really low quality and low resolution
you ask for higher resolution for the guide but do not care about the resolution of your captures does not make since to me

Higher Resolutions I have my Sage at 800x600 for now and would love some OSD expecially the Live Guide to take advantage of this to give me MORE hours and channels to browse on one screen

if you meant just adding more time slots and channels per page
this has nothing to do with resolution and can already be done

open up the properties file and you should see it

resolution that sageTV displays at is based on your desktop resolution
except with svideo output which is limited to 480i

[nerys]

negative

there is a difference between good enough and not good enough

VCD is "good enough" for the viewing pleasure

3 hours width 10 channels tall with LARGE fonts for a guide grid is not "good enough"

:-)

VCD is good enough quality and good enough resolution and VERY effecient on space for a file that will only end up being deleted anyway once i watch it.

I am primarily watching these on my 10" dvd player or my 4" PVP

on screens that small there really is no viewing pleasure difference between them at all regardless of whether I use mpeg2 or mpeg1

for my personal circumstances mpeg1 is just fine and in fact mandatory (my gadgets all read mpeg1 only for the most part)

this is the only reason I was able to go with sage is that it could do mpeg1

now when I record the superbowl I am using mpeg2 NOT for higher quality just for ease of conversion to dvd-video normally I just toss mpg's onto dvd-r's for me this is fine most other peoples dvd players will not play these however.

what I am NOT used to is being only able to see 3 hours of programming 10 channels high. I am used to see at LEAST 6 hours of programming fully readable and 20+ channels high.

sage does NOT work at the resolution of the desktop (in this case 1880x1400 for the porimary machine 1024x768 for the server) it works in 640x480 with 320x240 as an option.

Sage told me how to add other resolutions but all that does it make things BIGGER

I need everything to STAY the same size and just give me "more" of it. more than 6 time slots more than 10 channels high :-) and a smaller font so it works with this higher count.

cayers let me goto 3hours by 10 channels but no higher.

I do not use sage for watching my content (hence my issues with how it names the files :-)

I watch the content remotely on my own hardware totally outside of sage.

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

[nerys]

"if you meant just adding more time slots and channels per page
this has nothing to do with resolution and can already be done"

sure it does. if I add more slots without increasing resolution OR making each component SMALLER the result is not very usable :-)

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

[Crazedz]

Glad it's all working for you now nerys.

As far as i know the only things sage depends on outside of it's folder are the decoders from other players like cyberlink and nvidia etc and the common folder which resides in the Frey Technologies with the sagetv folder. I have had no problem with backing up the freys technologies folder and copying it back after messing around and getting everything back as it was before.

So backing up that folder and everything in it should insure you can get back to a working state if you need to.

[kny3twalker]

Note: the following discussion was in reply to a request made for Cayars' STV here. - Opus4

I am primarily watching these on my 10" dvd player or my 4" PVP

VCD recording quality may be fine for a 10" or 4" display
but most of here would consider 320x240 capture resolution poor quality
especially when most of us are asking for HDTV capture to be added
which is 1280x720p or 1920x1080i resolution captures

now when I record the superbowl I am using mpeg2 NOT for higher quality just for ease of conversion to dvd-video normally I just toss mpg's onto dvd-r's for me this is fine most other peoples dvd players will not play these however.

that is because first the capture needs to be in DVD format
then the capture will either have to be remultiplex into .VOBs or reencoded and remultiplexed into .VOBs if the mpeg format is not compatible

then you can burn it
other wise you are just backing up the file on a DVD

what I am NOT used to is being only able to see 3 hours of programming 10 channels high. I am used to see at LEAST 6 hours of programming fully readable and 20+ channels high.

I said you can adjust this
just change it in the properties file from 6 to 12 and 10 to 20

sage does NOT work at the resolution of the desktop (in this case 1880x1400 for the porimary machine 1024x768 for the server) it works in 640x480 with 320x240 as an option.

no idea what you are talking about here
SageTV runs at my desktop resolution just fine
currently 720p (using DVI to HDMI)
over svideo it will take the desktop resolution and scale it to 480i

Sage told me how to add other resolutions but all that does it make things BIGGER

I think you are thinking of capture quality
and it can be adjusted, mpeg1 and mpeg2 are different resolutions
mpeg1 is 320x240 (I think) and mpeg2 is 480x480 for SVCD and 720x480 for DVD and program streams

cayers let me goto 3hours by 10 channels but no higher.

will you be able to see it if it is smaller than that

if so make a request to add more lines to the grid
I am sure there is a limit at some point

if I add more slots without increasing resolution

if you make the resolution higher
it will make everything smaller

so you can fit more on the screen, correct?
so you can add more lines in the TV guide grid, right?

well then make your desktop resolution higher then?

SageTV does display simply the desktop resolution

I can definitely tell the difference when running my TV at 480p (720x480) and 720p(1280x720p)

3 hours width 10 channels tall with LARGE fonts for a guide grid is not "good enough"

most guides do not have 10 channels and 3 hours of listing so I am not sure why you are complainning
and what is the big deal with having to page down or to the right anyways???


if you do not believe me about any of things I have said in this reply
just ask in the other topic you started "major issues..."

cause I am not lying to you and I also have had problems with SageTV so am not saying it is perfect either