Beta Version 1.3.3 Now Available

[dkardatzke]

Beta Version 1.3.3 of both SageTV and SageRecorder are now available. You can access them through the previously provided link on our website. If you need the location again, send us an e-mail at support@freytechnologies.com.

1. NETWORKING SUPPORT IS NOW AVAILABLE (see SageTV Client post)
2. Fixed sync in mux for Creative
3. Added autocategorization based on Agents to the EPG, defaults to off
4. Music files render themselves differently in the EPG now
5. Font size and face are configurable in the properties file now
6. EPG num of rows & cols and column duration is configurable in the properties file now
7. Added the SageTV Client installer

You can view changes made on the Public Release Notes attached to this post. Please remember that this is BETA software and has only been tested in limited environments so please post any feedback immediately to this forum or e-mail us at support@freytechnologies.com. We also recommend backing up your Frey Technologies folder prior to installing this version in case you have to revert back to 1.3.2

Enjoy!

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by dkardatzke
Beta Version 1.3.3 of both SageTV and SageRecorder are now available. You can access them through the previously provided link on our website. If you need the location again, send us an e-mail at support@freytechnologies.com.

1. NETWORKING SUPPORT IS NOW AVAILABLE (see SageTV Client post)
2. Fixed sync in mux for Creative
3. Added autocategorization based on Agents to the EPG, defaults to off
4. Music files render themselves differently in the EPG now
5. Font size and face are configurable in the properties file now
6. EPG num of rows & cols and column duration is configurable in the properties file now
7. Added the SageTV Client installer

Enjoy!
I haven't tried all the new options yet, but setting the EPG row number to 5 makes the channel images large enough to see on a TV set.

Thanks!
Lauren

[shodge]

First of all, congrads on a great addition to SageTv. This is truely wonderful and it appears that I have invested in a great evolving program.

I tried the networking support last night using a laptop as the client. I go it to work [1/4 screen size without dropping frames], but the video was displaied upside down? [rotated 180]. Anyone else see this?

I have the DVCR board and was using wireless networking on the laptop....

-Stan

[mogrinz]

Congrats on the latest release. Sheesh - you sure know how to make a guy feel unproductive. Every time I check, there's a new release.

Tried the server last night; looks like I'll have to invest in 802.11g now :smokin:

I was able to get audio, but no picture. And during playback, TV on my dedicated server came to a standstill (not slow: stopped). I was attempting to watch a hi-quaility recording across my wireless net, so that likely presented a problem.. (buffering considered?)

Also, can I ask what port(s) this is all happening on so I can configure my firewall to forward them correctly?

[JJarmoc]

Also, can I ask what port(s) this is all happening on so I can configure my firewall to forward them correctly?

Be careful about this. Assuming your machines are both on the same side of the firewall, there'd be no need to forward ports. You'd only need to forward ports going to/from the internet. If you forward ports from the internet, it's possible anyone out there could connect to your sagetv server.

That brings up an interesting point.. has there been any testing of what sort of latentcy this stuff will tolerate? It might be cool to be able to run an IPSEC tunnel from the office and watch recordings, or set up additional recordings. Of course, this starts to get into the shaky legal ground that ReplayTV found itself in trouble for.

[Lester Jacobs]

This new release looks great. The error messages I was getting on startup are now gone. I also like that nice touch of being able to choose "XMLTV Lineup" when the EPG plugin is installed.

However, I am still having problems with audio/video sync with my Creative VCR card. Sync is fine on startup, but if I check back on SageTV after a couple of hours or so, then the audio is ahead of the video by a couple of seconds or so.
Here's how I reproduce the sync issue:
1) Start SageTV.
2) Set up a number of consecutive recordings spanning different channels. Set up enough recordings to span at least 2 consecutive hours. Make the first recording 30 mins and the second at least 1 hour and then the others any length you like.
3) You should see a/v sync issues near the end of the second recording.

Can anyone follow the above steps and confirm whether they do or do not see the sync issue. Please follow the above steps before giving feedback.

This is a great program and I dearly want make it my mainstream PVR software but this sync issue is getting in the way.

Regards
Lester

[Sunstar3D]

When I change the epg rows to 5 it doesn't the change the epg row to five. Also when I restart sagetv it seems to change everything back to default.

[Narflex]

shodge, upside video is a common problem with a wide variety of solutions, go to your graphics card manufacturers website and there's probably a support FAQ on it

Lester, I'm working with you on this via email (so everyone else knows :) )

Regarding ports,

SageTV uses port 42024 for the main client/server communications channel. This is actually 3 separate socket connections, all client initiated. SageTV uses port 7818 for media streaming (it'll stream any file type it can playback, MPEG2, MPEG1, MP3, AVI).

You can change these ports in the properties file, just look for the default number.

Regarding latency, we haven't done much testing on lower bandwidth connections, its been mostly ethernet LANs. We do plan to optimize the networking to whatever extent is feasible to overcome these issues. So far there haven't been issues reported (except that 11Mbps wireless probably isn't fast enough, since that's only a theoretical maximum anyways).

[dkardatzke]

Originally posted by Sunstar3D
When I change the epg rows to 5 it doesn't the change the epg row to five. Also when I restart sagetv it seems to change everything back to default.

Any changes to the properties file, must be done while SageTV is not running.

[shodge]

Jeff,

I will check into the latest drivers... However, PowerDVD and the Sony Firewire capture do not have similar problems.... I'll also try different codecs as I was using the PowerDVD codec.

I was using a wireless connection - 802.11g [turbo was off]. The laptop is a Celron 900 and the video was choppy when in full screen mode. When I reduced to 1/4 screen it was fine [except from being upsidedown ;-(] Will report back later tonight.

-Stan

[Narflex]

Stan, also try selecting Overlay for the video renderer instead of default. I've found that's about 90% of the choppy video problems on initial configuration.

[mogrinz]

Originally posted by JJarmoc
If you forward ports from the internet, it's possible anyone out there could connect to your sagetv server.


True, but I just can resist trying it out from work ;-)

[mlar]

I've been using the SageTV client on my Duron 900 laptop with a 802.11a/b/g tri-mode card.. It works fine with both 802.11a and 802.11g (althoug 802.11a seems to work slightly better), 802.11b is too slow. No issues with speed or anything. Works much better than when I Windows Mediaplayer and played the files over a file share (then I'd have the occasional hiccup).

Right now, I'm tempted to get one of those tablet PCs... if I could use them as a portable SageTV client, they could actually be useful. Could even bring it to the gym and watch SageTV shows from there. Has anyone tried using the SageTV client on tablet PC yet? I have no idea how powerful these things are, if they can keep up with the video...

[shuban0]

Well considering the slowest two processors available in TabletPC models are the Pentium III-M 800 MHz and the Crusoe TM 5800 1 GHz, they probably both preform as good or better than your Duron 900. So if you aren't having any problems, I don't see there should be any problem using a tablet PC either.

[JJarmoc]

mogrinz -
Unless the Sage server is running on some commonly used port (80, 443, maybe 25, 23..) I doubt it'll be accessible from work anyhow. If it *DOES* use these ports, there's a whole bunch of other problems I could imagine, I'm sure Jeff was smart enough to pick an un-reserved high port. I guess it's not too big a deal to try it though. What I'd prefer to do is set up a PPTP or IPSEC server inside the network, and tunnel to that.
When I get home tonight, I'll try to sniff out what port Sage is using if you don't get a response by then. On 2k/XP 'netstat -a' will show all the ports currently in use on your machine. That can be a starting point for wild guesses, you could try telnetting to each port and entering something to see what sort of message you get..

[Narflex]

SageTV uses ports 42024 and 7818 for the client/server communication and media streaming respectively. They're both configurable in the properties file. No sniffing necessary.

[JJarmoc]

I figured you'd post the info long before I had a chance to figure it out :-)

Thanks!

[mogrinz]

Originally posted by Narflex
SageTV uses ports 42024 and 7818 for the client/server communication and media streaming respectively. They're both configurable in the properties file. No sniffing necessary.

And it did work great from work. Mind you, I couldn't watch anything, but I could show off a little...

[shodge]

Jeff,

I dl'd the new driver and it fixed the problem. Yea! The new driver is just fast enugh for full screen as well. At least with 100MB eithernet. I'll try the 802.11g later again and report.

Additionally, and prehaps more importantly, will we be paying for the SageTV client? My SageTv Serial number did not work....

-Stan

[dkardatzke]

Yes, there will be a separate charge for the SageTV client. It will be much less than the current version of SageTV and we'll release pricing in the next week or so.

[shodge]

Jeff,

I can also confirm the sound sync issue with DVCR. I had SageTV record about 3hrs of Star Trek tonight. Starting in the middel of the second hr, the sync slowly slide from the video. Its barely noteiceable at the start but by the end it very bad [>1sec]. The actual recording shows this. I had to restart SageTV to get the sync back. Changing channels would not fix it. Of course when I replay the recorded video is wrong.

FYI,
-Stan

[Crazedz]

Well im not at this time noticing any sync issue on my DVCR though i haven't tried the exact records that have been posted here so i couldn't say for sure. Also the previous direct show errors are gone but now im getting a Video error stating "There was a problem utilizing the capture card. Be sure it is installed correctly and no other applications are useing it.". But after i click ok everything works fine video audio work and now the remote works without problem. The UI looks much nicer now BTW but i would like to get rid of this error dialog though if i can.

I have enclosed a screen capture of the error as well.

[nox71]

I just downloaded the new 1.3.3 server and client version just to try network feature. I enable server on my SageTV server machine and installed the client on another pc. When i start the client it ask me for the address of the server so i type the address, SageTV client load with no error but when i try to click either TV or Guide nothing happen.

Any idea ??

[robertmcox]

just to chime in....

...works great on 100Mbps Ethernet, but 802.11b wireless is a bit choppy.

Also, the client should only ask for the server address the first time it's run and then remember. To change the server address later, users should have to go to settings.

I did notice that the installer (upgrade from v1.3.2) asked if i wanted to enable the server, but did not save the setting to the sage.properties. I had to edit the sage.properties myself to enable the server.