Just got my firs HD300 Extender, I got a lemon?

[pat_smith1969]

Running 7.1.5 on the server. I just recieved my new HD300, it is replacing an old HD100. The 300 is SLOW in the interface (Diamond), which you could argue that it is a third party interface and I should test on the default theme.

The real thing that has me worried is that the HD300 will not play smoothly either HD or even SD television. This should have nohting to do with the interface. If I replace it back to the HD100 it works fine once again. At this point I am just using my 100 and am quite disgusted with the 300.

I have read a bit, my 300 does get a bit hot but not like described in posts here (to hot to touch).

Unless I can come up with something to try, I will need to return it to Sage.

Oh yeah.. forgot to mention that I am runing the latest beta firmware.

[jorton]

Running 7.1.5 on the server. I just recieved my new HD300, it is replacing an old HD100. The 300 is SLOW in the interface (Diamond), which you could argue that it is a third party interface and I should test on the default theme.

The real thing that has me worried is that the HD300 will not play smoothly either HD or even SD television. This should have nohting to do with the interface. If I replace it back to the HD100 it works fine once again. At this point I am just using my 100 and am quite disgusted with the 300.

I have read a bit, my 300 does get a bit hot but not like described in posts here (to hot to touch).

Unless I can come up with something to try, I will need to return it to Sage.

Oh yeah.. forgot to mention that I am runing the latest beta firmware.

What is your java heap set at on your server? It should be at 1024MB with Diamond, not sure this will fix your playback issue though.

I run an HD300 (latest beta firmware and 7.1.5 server) with Diamond and it's quite quick. It also plays everything I throw at it smoothly, HD or SD all file types.

J

[PiX64]

I had this exact same issue until I updated the firmware on hd300 to beta..

Try that and report back.

[jptheripper]

Yes your experience is not typically, i would "re-apply" the beta firmware, maybe it didnt take?

[Tiki]

I have seen several people post with the same symptoms you mentioned. In most cases, the problem turned out to be something with their network (either a bad Ethernet cable, or a bad Ethernet switch).

Most of these people were very surprised because like you, they didn't seem to have problems using an HD100 or HD200 in the same location with the same networking equipment. For some reason, the network problems seemed to be more apparent with the HD300. Interestingly, a few of these people posted that after fixing their network problem, they went back and re-tested their older device (HD100 or whatever) and it seemed faster too.

You may want to try some troubleshooting with your network (plug into a different port on your switch, replace the switch, replace the cable, etc.). If the cable is in a wall and not easy to replace, you might try temporarily locating your HD300 and TV close to your network switch and using a short patch cable...

If you contact Sage support, I think they have some tools that can help diagnose network connections problems.

[tmiranda]

Basic instructions to test the bandwidth (taken from another post):

You will need to run the following commands on the HD300 through telnet
(login is root, no password) :

cd /tmp
wget http://download.sagetv.com/firmware/iperf8654
chmod +x iperf8654
./iperf8654 -l32k -s


Then on your server download jperf2 from http://xjperf.googlecode.com/files/jperf-2.0.2.zip

Extract it and run the .bat file (assumes you have java installed)

In the server ip enter the ip address of the HD300, click the
box next to buffer length then set the size to 32 and the unit to kbytes, click the box next to tcp no delay. After that you can run the test and it should be similar to what happens when playing files.

This will give you the bandwidth between your server and the HD300.

[derelicte1]

are there any debug screens you can turn on on the hd300 that show the ethernet stats?

lately I've had to power cycle my two hd300s because they occasionally get really slow and won't play tv/vides/dvds/etc.

pulling the plug fixes this for a few days.

also, one of the extenders complained that it had run out of memory, but according to the info screen, only about half of the heap was used. I tried increasing it to 512, but it still shows 389 (or 289, I forget) even after rebooting the server.

how do you change the heap size?

[jptheripper]

remember, if you are running in service mode, you must stop the service prior to making the heap change.

[derelicte1]

remember, if you are running in service mode, you must stop the service prior to making the heap change.

I stopped the service. that didn't help. rebooting didn't either.

[jptheripper]

when you go to setup-system information, what are your 3 heap numbers?

[phelme]

And how is the speed without Diamond or any other UI mod installed?

[paulbeers]

One of my biggest pet peeves, is someone who posts a thread like this, everyone comes with suggestions, and then they don't return to answer any of the questions or to give an update. 5 days later and no further posts by the OP.

Seriously......

[pat_smith1969]

I have two jobs and must find time where ever possible to troubleshoot.

[pat_smith1969]

I changed the java heap size to 1024 and loaded the java heap monitor bar.. it seems to be ok acording to that little bar.

Following Sage tech support's directions I attempted to load the HD300 in stand alone mode and watch a movie directly from my unraid server... eliminating the sagetv server all together.

I loaded a SD movie and watched it for 5 minutes. The video was good, but after 5 minutes the HD300 shutoff and the power button turned from blue to read (or maybe orange.. I am color blind). It would not work again until I pulled the plug and re-plugged it in. From that point on whenever it tries to start up, it loads the stand alone UI, then locks up and goes to red again.

It could be an issue with the fact I loaded the list of my movies which is extensive, or an issue with it trying to read my movie location and having network corruptions. But I think that might be a streatch.

[pat_smith1969]

as a side note.... Prior to doing the above, I followed the suggestion above and re-applied the firmware. I had been on the beta firmware, I applied the latest non-beta firmware but that locked the whole thing up in mid flash... so I had to restore to factory defaults, I then flashed the latest non-beta firmware, this time it worked fine but I got no difference in performance. I then re-flashed the beta firmware and agian got no difference in network performance.

Re-flashing was a good idea though, thanks.

I was going to do the bandwidth test posted above... if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity. I decided to follow tech support's directions.. which resulted in an unuseable device.

Tomorrow night I will try to reset to factory and see if it keeps locking up.

[derelicte1]

when you go to setup-system information, what are your 3 heap numbers?

when I went to check this weekend, I noticed that the new heap size was being used. it was something like 112/389/519 or something like that.

weird.

[pat_smith1969]

Mine are
416/478/1065

[derelicte1]

how does sage determine the initial java heap size?

the reason I ask is I set up a test box this weekend with 7.1.7 and the java heap was xxx/yyy/409 or something like that.

the point being the limit (409) was higher than on my main sage setup (389 before changing registry). did something change in the newer betas?

[carlgar]

I just got my HD300 and I believe I am seeing the same issue. I believe the issue may be related to the new wireless adaptor. When I first tried the HD300 with the new adaptor it was horrible. I then went back to my old adaptor and saw a major improvement. I still see issues but not as bad but unacceptable. If you have this problem are you using a Sage branded wireless adaptor? If so, do you have an older one you can try?

My HD300 is intended to replace an HD200. The firmware has been updated to the latest beta. But this problem is not acceptable. I am sure it is not a network issue but plan to test it wired.

[pat_smith1969]

I am using only wired connections throughout the house on all extenders. I have never once gotten good enough results from wireless, though I admit is has been maybe 6 years since i have tried and the new wireless protocols are MUCH better.

[carlgar]

I am using only wired connections throughout the house on all extenders. I have never once gotten good enough results from wireless, though I admit is has been maybe 6 years since i have tried and the new wireless protocols are MUCH better.

I guess you have a different problem then I am seeing. My problem is limited to use of the wireless adaptor. When I use a wired network I don't see any problem. The problem I am seeing is studdering when viewing a video. I forgot that you are using a different interface.