FF/RW jumping to "random" locations in recording

[jkoutrouba]

I've had this problem several times throughout my Sage experience since switching to HD tuners. I run two A180 tuner cards, and for the most part they work well. Occasionally, however, I will record a program and the FF/RW functions will jump around to random spots in the recording. Most recently was last night. I tried to FF through some commcials in The West Wing, and the system began jumping to random spots in the recording. For example, I would press the FF button, which is set to move forward 30 seconds, and the system might go BACKWARDS several minutes, or forwards more than 30 seconds. When trying to RW back to the spot I was looking for, the system would again randomly select a spot to move to. I later began to notice that the progress bar was not moving as the video played.

So here is my question: how does the system know how far to move when I try to FF or RW? Is there some sort of index embedded in the file? I am trying to figure out why some recordings would have this problem while others play with no problems.

I am running 4.1.3.67.

[jptaz]

I would suggest that you try the 4.1.12 Beta. I have it running 3 USB HD Tuners really well. If the problem still exists contact support.

I believe this specific issue has been addressed several beta releases back.

John

[abel]

I have this on some recordings too (actually quite a lot). I haven't found the solution yet, but I think I know what's happening. The symptoms are either that the playback time indicator runs way too fast (even though the playback itself goes at normal speed) or stays at 0 completely. The show seems to play fine if I don't try to rewind of FF.

If I try to play one of the .mpg files where the time indicator goes too fast with Windows Media Player, it shows a total duration that is much shorter than the actual show for the shows where the indicator goes too fast) it also plays those shows too fast (as if the framerate is set too high). For the shows that are stuck at zero if won't even open those (or takes forever). In all those cases, when I quit WMPlayer I have to terminate it with Task Manager.

I use VideoRedo's QuickFix function to remux these files and that solves it. It always reports a few Frame Errors or Frame Sequence errors or Dropped Audio Resync frames when it fixes those mpg streams. Most of those seem to be on Audio.

I think something in Sage or the PVR-150 drivers is messing up the file data rate in a header or so. I'm at the latest (prerelease) Hauppauge drivers and the latest release (non-beta) version of Sage.

It also seems to occur in batches, so maybe back-to-back shows are affected once it gets in this state and it recovers at the next recording gap when it stops the recorder for a while.

Check your recorded .mpg files with WMPlayer, or just quickfix them with VideoRedo and see if your problem disappears for that recording.

Abel

[joe123]

Originally Posted by abel

I have this on some recordings too (actually quite a lot). I haven't found the solution yet, but I think I know what's happening. The symptoms are either that the playback time indicator runs way too fast (even though the playback itself goes at normal speed) or stays at 0 completely. The show seems to play fine if I don't try to rewind of FF.

I have been having this same problem ever since I went to .10 and now .12 beta release.

My problem is IDENTICAL to what is reported here. I posted this problem a while back and did not find any real answers. I was told to use WinTV beta drives, but those cause other problems.

The only thing I did before this started happening (other than beta releases). what that I Defragged my drives and at one time, I rebooted while it was still running. So I am not sure if this caused some movies to go out of sync.

Anyone else having this issue, did you Defrag your disks and if so, did you abruptly stopped the degrag in progress?

[abel]

No, did not defrag my drive. I'm haven't run any of the beta versions (I only recently setup the PVR). My recording drive is a RAID-5 drive array on another computer on the network.

I am using the latest WINTV Beta drivers, but that made no difference.

Strangely enough it almost seems time-of-day related. I usually get a whole bunch of corrupted recordings, followed by a whole bunch that are ok. I'm just glad that I have a way to fix the corrupted ones, but it's very annoying.

Abel

[joe123]

Originally Posted by abel

Strangely enough it almost seems time-of-day related. I usually get a whole bunch of corrupted recordings, followed by a whole bunch that are ok. I'm just glad that I have a way to fix the corrupted ones, but it's very annoying.

Abel

You and I may be having the same problem because mine also comes and goes. Some days, everything is fine and dandy, other days, I get several movies all having this problem.

I have noticed that the problem is worse with long movies - that is, movies longer than 1/2 hour in time.

[jkoutrouba]

Mine is also not consistent. One major difference between me and you, however, is that I am capturing .ts streams, and not encoding an .mpg from an analog card. I don't know if it's relevant or not.

I installed the new beta version last night. I'll see if anything changes, but I doubt it because this has been going on for quite some time, and I did not see anything in the change log that looked like it was designed to address this issue.

[Robsters]

I'm experiencing the same problem with only 2 programs lately (in the last 2-3 months).

They were recorded using the release version 4 on A180's. Smallville on WB and Las Vegas on NBC very consistently do not FF or RW correctly.

I can tell they won't play correctly from the time they start. The time bar stays at zero until I hit FF. After that it stays at 0:30 until I hit FF again. It's like playing roulette on where I will end up in the program.

I upgraded to a Sage Beta release and still experience the same problems trying to play my prerecorded episodes. However I haven't tried recording the two shows with the new version and trying to play them. I'll post here if they clear up this Friday.

The beta version seems to be very stable compared to the release version I had been using.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Robsters

I upgraded to a Sage Beta release and still experience the same problems trying to play my prerecorded episodes. However I haven't tried recording the two shows with the new version and trying to play them. I'll post here if they clear up this Friday.

If I remember correctly, any fix for this will not affect the files that are already recorded, so the real test will be the newly recorded shows using the latest beta.

- Andy

[joe123]

Originally Posted by Opus4

If I remember correctly, any fix for this will not affect the files that are already recorded, so the real test will be the newly recorded shows using the latest beta.

- Andy

When I contacted SageTV support about this, they pointed the finger at WinTV drivers being the problem.

Has SageTV discoverd what is causing this and is it being caused by SageTV software?

[Opus4]

If you check the original post & the one I replied to, they are referring to HD recordings ... and it may not have anything to do with what I recall.

- Andy

[abel]

Originally Posted by joe123

You and I may be having the same problem because mine also comes and goes. Some days, everything is fine and dandy, other days, I get several movies all having this problem.

I have noticed that the problem is worse with long movies - that is, movies longer than 1/2 hour in time.

Most of mine are actually with 30 minute and 1 hour shows. I haven't recorded any movies. the Sage recording directory has reached the limit I set in Sage, but there is still at least another 200 Gig free on that drive, so that won't be the problem.

I will be gone for a week, so no chance to try anything for a while, but it will be recording stuff.

Abel

[Polypro]

I saw this on Hockey games starting with 4.1.8 Beta. I submitted a complete recording (~8 Gigs) to the Beta Team. I havn't seen it in 4.1.12 and have watched 5 or 6 games so far. I think .12 will solve this problem for you...but it *is* in beta status. YMMV.

P

[sabre]

I too see this quite often with hockey games, and find it most often happens when the show is still recording and i start to watch b4 while it is still recording (time shifting). I am on .12 beta and still see it. Have also seen it on TV shows, but do not often watch them until they are done recording.

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by sabre

I too see this quite often with hockey games, and find it most often happens when the show is still recording and i start to watch b4 while it is still recording (time shifting). I am on .12 beta and still see it. Have also seen it on TV shows, but do not often watch them until they are done recording.

I've had the problem both on shows that I was timeshifting (the AFC Championship game, for example -- almost got lynched for that one) and had recorded completely before watching.

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by Robsters

I can tell they won't play correctly from the time they start. The time bar stays at zero until I hit FF. After that it stays at 0:30 until I hit FF again. It's like playing roulette on where I will end up in the program.

Yes, yes, and yes. This describes my problem. Can the tech support guys do anything with the actual media file? I didn't delete it in case.

[Polypro]

Interesting...I'll try to watch while it's still recording. Thanks for the heads up.

P

Edit: Have you uploaded the files to the Sage FTP? Send 'em to the Beta Team.

[joe123]

Thank goodness this is now happening to more and more people. I was swimming upstream trying to explain that this was happening to me a long time ago.

[jkoutrouba]

My update to the latest beta did not help. I was not able to FF/RW in a recent episode of "Dora the Explorer" which is only 1/2 hour long. Fortunately I have others in the library -- I'm not sure which is worse, the Evil Eye from the wife or spasmic sobbing, tears, and "It's OK, Daddy, I understand it doesn't always work" from my 2 year old.

[joe123]

Well, I upgraded to .13 beta as well. My recordings are now worse than before. Actually, it's different.

Now, some shows will say that I reached the end of the movie when I am no where near the end. Hitting play "resumes" the movie and FF/REW get's things way out of sync - more so than before.

So the behavior of the problem has changed, but it's not any better.