SageTV V4.1.5 Beta Is Available

[Narflex]

Here's the latest beta release from us to address some current issues and introduce some new things. Let us know if there's any issues by reporting bugs to http://www.sagetv.com/bugs.html

The beta updates can always be accessed from http://www.sagetv.com/beta.html

The main thing is fixes for MVP networking/connectivity/loading issues.
There's also experimental transcoding support for the MVP in there (set the property enable_transcode_streaming=true to try it out)


UPDATE: There's also beta support for DVB-T in this build...more information at http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=15580


This version can be used under the trial or by registered users.

SageTV: http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V4_1_5Setup.exe

SageTVClient: http://download.sage.tv/SageTVClient_V4_1_5Setup.exe

Release Notes:

SageTV V4.1.5 Beta Release Notes 1/16/2005

Core Updates
1. Change Digital tuner max channels to 250 for scanning channels in Eroupe.
2. Fixed bug where the last channel wasn't set when doing a scan channel
3. Added support for the new filter GUID from Elecard
4. Fixed network encoder broadcast discovery versioning issues
5. Added property logging_flush_each_entry which defaults to true. If set to false then SageTV will not flush the log file after every entry is written. This is useful when doing log analysis on performance critical behaviors.
6. Disabled fast file switching if the file was recorded from a digital TV source.
7. Disabled using the native calculation for MPEG2 TS file durations since it can hang. There's a property for it now.
8. Added property wizard/disable_maintenance (which defaults to false). If set to true then the DB will not cleanup any objects. This is useful when moving the DB between systems and the location of files have changed in the filesystem.
9. Disabled fast file switching on playback by default
10. Fixed fade rate so that it matches the fade duration
11. Fix: device discovery found duplicated capture device during setup capture device. merge different category devices to filter out same hardware lcoation device.
12. Fix: handle PRIVATE_STREAM_2 0xBF PES stream packets (most PES are PRIVATE_STREAM_1 0xBD packets)
13. Fix: dual digital tuner (mutil-tuner) on one board sharing the same bus problem.
14. Fix DVB ATSC scanning channels bugs.
15. Octupled the number of vertices we use in the 3D system because people had created STVs that were running out of vertices.
16. Fixed issue where DirecTV Serial Control couldn't handle multiple receivers with different command styles
17. Added support for the AVerMedia UltraTV 1500MCE PCI card

Media Extender Updates
1. New MVP experimental transcoding support! To turn it on set the property in the Sage.properties file: enable_transcode_streaming=true
2. Fixed configuration issues where remote clients were using more resources then they needed to be
3. Fixed bug where the whole UI area would get updated on any UI update for a MiniClient if video was being shown.
4. Update default miniclient size to 32k for video streaming
5. Added property which specifies the streaming mode for transcoding: miniclient/transcode_mode
6. Update interface detection and broadcast range for bootp
7. Updated so that when it finds the network interface to use it makes sure it's not the loopback interface
8. Use network interfaces to find server address

[edbmdave]

let's see.

What words to use?

So many things to say, must not waste too much forum space....


transcoding support - Media Extender..... --- YOU GUYS ROCK!!

Seems to work well enough, I see some artifacts within the first seconds of a playback, but once it gets going it dies down. Tried both Divx 5.x and 6.x both work. I am ordering another extender tonight!

The only big issues I saw was that I could not change the aspect: It only seemed to work in fill mode for me. I would rather it respect source... And After I finished playing a movie on the Media Extendeder, the CPU utilization on the server (which jumped to about 85-90% during the transcoding) did not drop back to normal (5-9%) Please make this so it will work on a dual core system, or does it already do that?... splitting transcoding threads on each available cpu.. I could go and get several MVPs and be done, except for clients that need DVD playback.



Thanks. (what's next? FM Radio? XM Radio?)

[Alfiegerner]

I can't comment on the quality of the transcoding as my system's not really up to spec (2200+ 512), but I did notice a problem on my PAL system. The video looks like its being transcoded to NTSC 720x480 leaving a black bar at the bottom of the screen.

There's a definite improvement in the speed of my mvp's UI - really pleased with that

/me's off to think about how i'm going to be able upgrade my pc ...

[edbmdave]

can we get a list of options we can use?

[evilpenguin]

What's fast file switching?

[Wheemer]

I just updated my server and the version being reported in system info and when I connect a client is still 4.1.4, is this normal?

[edbmdave]

I am assuming that the transcoding is doing this, the server CPU is pegged, and playback on the other clients is now stuttering. I am disabled the transcode_streaming, and see if it goes back to normal.

update: with the transcode_streaming disable client playback is normal. I submitted a bug report.

[Wheemer]

I'm trying to do a fresh install of SageClient and it starts up using the .stv and I cannot choose the newer .xml at all...

Is this a bug?

[edbmdave]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

I'm trying to do a fresh install of SageClient and it starts up using the .stv and I cannot choose the newer .xml at all...

Is this a bug?

I performed an upgrade and had no problem. Prior to upgrade I had the Sage_169.xml stv, after upgrade it was on the sagetv3.xml. I had no problem reselecting the sage_169.xml stv.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by edbmdave

I am assuming that the transcoding is doing this, the server CPU is pegged, and playback on the other clients is now stuttering. I am disabled the transcode_streaming, and see if it goes back to normal.

update: with the transcode_streaming disable client playback is normal. I submitted a bug report.

With transcoding enabled, were you actually viewing anything that needed transcoding at the time? If not I wonder if it's transcoding everything sent to the clients...

[edbmdave]

I did start watching a video (divx) that was being transcoded. I stopped watching it, and had returned to the main menu. I did not start watching a normal file.

I will try that in a little bit. See what happens on a standard SageTV recorded file.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

If not I wonder if it's transcoding everything sent to the clients...

I noticed in Task Manager that ffmpeg fires off when it needs a transcode, but on a normal Sage recording, it did not.

ed: I can definitely see that I am going to need to upgrade the power of my server, I guess a sempron 2500+ is not gonna cut it.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I noticed in Task Manager that ffmpeg fires off when it needs a transcode, but on a normal Sage recording, it did not.

ed: I can definitely see that I am going to need to upgrade the power of my server, I guess a sempron 2500+ is not gonna cut it.

If a 2500+ isn't enough, then I may as well not even try with my 1600...

I STILL say they need to make the MVP server part able to be broken off the main server. I'd much rather leave my main server as-is, and set up a 3.4+ machine to run a couple MVP's, especially if they get the transcoding to where a machine that fast could serve up 2 or 3 at once transcoding .

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

If a 2500+ isn't enough, then I may as well not even try with my 1600...

I STILL say they need to make the MVP server part able to be broken off the main server. I'd much rather leave my main server as-is, and set up a 3.4+ machine to run a couple MVP's, especially if they get the transcoding to where a machine that fast could serve up 2 or 3 at once transcoding .

In a quicky torture test, I had my server playing a recording, a client watching live TV, and the MVP watching a transcoded .avi. The client and MVP ran smoothly, with the server stuttering the video, audio was fine. ffmpeg took up all the available cpu cycles, so it was running around 70-80%.

A MVP server that could offload the transcoding onto a separate machine would be sweet. But even if they don't, we still have native MVP support and now even have transcoding

[MrApollinax]

With my system specs below transcoding works great. I'm now seriously considering using my plextor to encode in highest quality divx instead of highest quality DVD.

[MrApollinax]

Looks like i spoke too soon. It seems that after a few minutes I get audio drift and the audio goes out of sync with the video. I'm pretty sure i saw this with the Hauppauge software as well so I may just stay with MEPG1/2 for now.

[SprDtyF350]

Has anyone tried to playback Divx stuff on more than 1 MVP at the same time? Just wondering if the transcoding was like the Hauppauge MVP software where it will do it but only 1 MVP at a time.

[PGPfan]

So are we to assume that the experimental transcoding only supports DIVX?

If so, are there any plans to support transcoding mpeg audio to allow for DVD's to be streamed to the MVP, or will this stay a 'roll your own' feature?

-PGPfan

[ke6guj]

Well, I have played xvids with AC3 audio and it played it fine, so it will transcode the audio.

edit: well, I tossed some .vobs renamed as .mpg at it and just played a black screen with no sound. So, it looks like it'll take a little more work to do DVD's

edit2: the MVP does not show "play DVD" in the menu, so I ripped a DVD and put the folder into an import folder. The rip will play fine in SageClient, but errors out in the MVP saying "there is no MediaPlayer that can playback the selected file".

I read that ffmpeg will transcode vob with AC3 if AC3 support is enabled.

[ke6guj]

Oh, and the .wmv import bug is still there. .wmv files still import under the "internal title" instead of the actual filename like all other video files, and go into the root of the import folder, instead of staying in the proper folder.

multiple .wmv's without internal titles do the ~# thing.

doing the workaround by deleting the WMATagParser.class puts .wmv's back the way I like it. I don't do any .wma's so I don't know how that change may affect others.