Channel change failing on DTV

[ben_gb]

Hi,

I have found in the latest couple of versions of SageTV that it sometimes seems to get stuck on a channel, so when you change to a different channel (either through the guide or manually typing in a new number) the DTV box doesn't actually change the channel. The odd thing is that Sage itself appears to think that it has changed channel (the OSD details change to the new channel and program title).

This has caused Sage to end up with quite a few incorrect recordings...it gets the time and title correct, but when you view it, the wrong channel has been recorded because the channel failed to change on the satbox.

I'm using Sage with a Sony A55 DTV satbox with the serial link.

I believe I've only seen this since I stopped using the DTVcon and Exetunerplugin stuff, so I guess there might something not quite right with the serial tuning stuff in Sage. Once the channel change starts failing, it seems to stick like that, though I did once get it to work again by flicking around lots of different channel numbers and even adding and removing a favorite, but I couldn't be sure which if any of these things actually got it working again.

I've sent several logs to support, but I wondered if anyone else has seen anything like this?

Regards,
Ben

[dkardatzke]

Have you tried the most recent beta version? I know we made more enhancements to the serial control with RC1.

[ben_gb]

Hi Dan,

Yes...I've kept up to date with all the betas as they've come out. Currently on RC2.

[dkardatzke]

Jeff will be taking a look at the log files then if you've already sent them.

[Narflex]

My suspicion is he's got a bad cable. Problem also seems to have gone away now.

[ben_gb]

Hi,

An update on this.

The channel change problem happened a couple more times, so I switched back to using the DTVCon and Exextunerplugin, and haven't seen it happen again in the last 24 hours.

I'm not sure it's the cable, as the failure when it occurs seems to be too consistent. For example, I could change to every alternate channel in the line up, without any problems, but the "middle" channels always failed.

EG, assumming the channels were numbered 500,501,502,503,504,505,506 and I was watching 500 OK, then pressing chan+ would show the channel change on the OSD, but no change on the actual program being shown. Then chan+ again, would correctly change both the OSD and the Satbox to 502. Pressing chan+ again would fail (except for the OSD) to change to 503, but chan+ again would succeed to 504 and so on.

The channels which failed and succeeded using chan+ or chan- also failed or succeeded when I typed in the channel numbers directly.

Anyway, for the moment it's working with Exetunerplugin.

Regards,
Ben

[mcevers]

I've had the same problem consistently using serial control of a Sony DTV receiver. It isn't quite the same model, but certainly similar in that it is a Sony. Even the new RC2 version exhibits this behavior.

I haven't taken the time to send log files, and I know I should, but the system isn't currently at my home with this Sony receiver, it is at another location with a receiver that can't use the serial cable.

I know it isn't the serial cable causing the problem, as the cable is brand new, works fine with other equipment, and also works fine controlling this same DTV Sony Receiver with Snapstream.

[Narflex]

If you want to try it out again, let me know, and I'll give you a detailed debug version for this. I'll give you one that prints out all the information related to the DTV Serial connection so we can pinpont what this is finally.

[mcevers]

Hi Jeffrey:

I'll be installing a new stereo in my entertainment center sometime tomorrow, so the HTPC will be back at my home. Some time afterwards, I should be able to hook up the serial cable and play with this in the evening or the following morning. Please email me the debug version of the DLL at your convenience, with info on usage, and I'll get you the info ASAP.

Thanks! You guys really do have incredible support....and a following of some sharp folks. These forums are heads and shoulders above those of your competition. The quality of your product has to be a big reason for this.

[Narflex]

I just sent you the debugging DLL. Let's see what you find.

[mcevers]

Jeffrey,

I tried using this DLL you sent me with both the latest build, 1.4.10, and the previous 1.4.9 RC2 build. Neither one of them ever popped up any DOS box to show me what was going on with the channel changes using the serial connection. Don't know if there is something wrong with the DLL or something I did wrong.

In any event, the problem described in this thread is one I have always had, and it has never changed in behavior, even with the newest two builds.

To describe it more accurately, my experience with channel changing in a nutshell is that the Sony DTV box only changes every other channel requested. If I press "up" or "down", no matter how slowly or quickly, SageTV updates its own guide to SHOW the channel number of what should be the accurate channel, but the Sony DTV box only changes it every other time.

I have played with this enough to feel convinced it is something wrong with the commands being sent by SageTV to the Sony box, or at least something slightly different with all or at least some of the Sony DTV receivers that makes SageTV have difficulty.

Again, I can still use Snapstream to change the channels on the box without issue, via serial cable. I even went so far as to see if I could make Snapstreams implementation of the serial support break in the same way, but I can't. If I hit channel up three times, very quickly, then press channel down once or even twice, very quickly, both the Snapstream guide and the Sony DTV box end up on the correct channel.

I do realize, however, that serial control of set top boxes is not something you guys can necessarily spend a lot of time on, as there are few of them that support serial anyway. It would make me just as happy to know that a lot of work was put into ensuring the IR Blaster support worked well, was user friendly to setup, and won't generate support calls from customers who can't figure it out.

I can still work on helping you debug this if you would like. Things are a little calmer in my life right now, so it shouldn't take so long in the future to get back with you. I'm sorry I couldn't get you this info before you went gold with 1.4.10 if it would have made a difference.

[gplasky]

Here's a thought. I noticed on some remote controls and working with girder that 2 different codes are sent. I also noticed the same thing when I was working with SageTV, USB-UIRT and a Phillips MCE Remote. In learning commands I would press the button once and get one code, press it again and get a different one and press it one more time and get the first code again. In Girder I actually had to assign both key presses to a single event to get it to work. Since it is working every other time for you it may needs both key presses assigned to get it to work consistently. Just a thought.


Gerry

[Narflex]

mcevers,

Go into regedit and set as a DWORD:
HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\consolewin=1

That'll enable that DOS window and give you the debug info. Hopefully that'll have some indicators in it. Thanks again for your help.

[mcevers]

I added the regkey and it enabled the DOS box for the current gold build.

With this logging function enabled, it seems to worsen the behavior. Timing is what I suspect. The channel only actually changes on the set top box about 1 out of 4 attempts.

I pressed channel up several times, slowly, quickly, etc., and was able to get the channel to actually change on the tuner two times.

See the attached text file, channel_change.txt for the log results.

[Narflex]

Can you give me a list of when you pressed the channel change and which ones worked? It's hard to tell what was going on exactly without that information. Thanks for the help.

[mcevers]

Please see attachment. I copied the results into a text file and placed comments before each dump of code so you'd know what I had done before getting those results.

[Narflex]

I'll look into this and post my findings soon.

[Narflex]

I figured it out with your debug file, thanks. I'll make a patch for it soon.

Thanks again for your help.

[mikeconte]

OK, I posted this issues in the non beta forum (since that is what i have) and now see it here. I also have a sony DTV and serial link and the same problem. I assume the fix will be in release version at some point?

Thanks
Mike

[Narflex]

Its in 2.0, which just went into private beta today. A public version should be available within a few weeks.