MVP Feezing-HELP!

[mazakmaster]

I have a problem with my MVP freezing after about 8 minutes. When I am watching a recorded program it will freeze after a few minutes. I e-mailed Hauppauge about it as I thought it might be a hardware problem. They told me that I needed to test it with their software as they did not support SAGE. Ok, so I downloaded the latest MVP software from Hauppauge. Then I played back 2 of the same recordings and NO FREEZING! I am monitoring the CPU and network load on the sever, and both are very low..The CPU is between 0 and 3% and the network about 4%. I just formatted my system last night and only installed Sage and the drivers I needed.I just noticed that the timer continues when the video freezes. The network drops to zero. If I hit stop then play it will restart at the last timer position not where the video froze. Any insight on this would be appreciated as I am trying to get this resolved before i set up 3 more of these MPV's in the house.

Equipment:
Dell 8400 P4 3.2 GHZ 1.5gb ram
XP Pro service pack 2
Sage 5.04
Nvidia DualTV
1 MVP(for now)

[mazakmaster]

Ok, now I have noticed that the video freeze is in a certian spot in the video. It seems to be abot 6 minutes into the file that the video stops. I can rewind back to that spot and it will freeze exactly the same spot again. It will not freeze on the server, on a client using Sage client or playing through windows media player. Only on the MVP! I have tried at least 6 different recording settings. I have also tried using different decoder settins on the server. Anybody have any ideas???

[rtengvad]

I've heard others having this problem.

I suppose you have tried with different video files. What was the result?
Is it a wireless mvp?
What does you log file say?

It could be a network problem or a corrupted file. Even though the original Hauppauge software seems work fine.

rtengvad

[mazakmaster]

I am using the wired version. I bought this about 2 weeks ago from pcalchemy and they told me they had just got them in. So I have a newer model with the latest firmware.If it is a network problem then it must be a SageTV MVP client network problem because the video files play fine everywhere else. They play fine on SageTv clients(4 different computers including a wireless laptop).

[mazakmaster]

ok, so take an old P3-866 with 512 ram, format it and install a clean copy of xp serice pack2. first I install the PVR-150 and test it. No video freeze!? ok, so now I am onto something, I think. Next test remove the pvr-150 and intall my DualTV-no decoders. i am just using the default decoders in sage. fire up the tuners and record a few short programs. Low and behold I get video freeze a few minutes in! Ok, so now I think the problem is with a compatabilty issue between Sage and Nvidia DualTV. any body else seeing this with a similar setup?

[gplasky]

Nope. I have a nVidia DualTV working with a PVR500. Also had it working with 2 of them as well as a PVR150 and PVR250 during testing. Did you following the instructions to cancel out of Hardware Wizard and run the install for DualTV and also install the nVidia decoders? Or did you use the Hardware Wizard and point to the drivers? Does the DualTV look OK in Device Manager?

Gerry

[mazakmaster]

You don't mention that you have a Hauppauge MVP... Do you?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mazakmaster

You don't mention that you have a Hauppauge MVP... Do you?

Sorry-yes. Running a MVP in the bedroom. And 2-client PCs in addition to the Sage server. And I also use the server as a client. Just hoping the next version of the DualTV drivers allows me to have more than one nVidia DualTV tuner in a machine. Keep in mind that no matter what tuner board you use the MVP is just reading the mpg2 file from the server. It's not like it is working with any of the tuners in any fashion. Even if you choose LiveTV it is reading a recording file.

Gerry

[mazakmaster]

What version of sage are you running? Is you MPV an older one? and what drivers did you install with the DualTV- cd-rom or the latest online ?



Thanks.....

[gplasky]

Sage 5.0.4. MPV is an older one rev. is probably around a D3. Drivers for DualTV on the CD or the website are the same.

Gerry

[mazakmaster]

Well, I sent off an e-mail to Sage and 2 days later I get a response about Streaming HI-DEF tv So im pullin this card and sending it back. Actually I dont notice any difference in the quality between the two cards. So Im going to order a pvr-500. I really like the tweak feature on the hauppauge's. Also when I went to pull the card the heat coming off of it was unbelievable, you could fry an egg on it! anyway thanks for the help guys

[tmiranda]

I added a DualTV card to my server and now I am having this problem as well. Sometimes recordings will get blocky and then just freeze up the MVP. I can FF past the "problem areas" and the show plays normally after that. The freeze is 100% reproducable on multiple MVPs.

I did some poking around and see that ONLY recordings made by the DualTV have this problem, the recordings made by my 150 and Roslyn card never have this problem.

Tonight I will see if the problematic recordings play on a Sage client. My guess is that they will....

I am guessing at this point that the DualTV is making MPEG files that are somehow confusing the MVP. If I can confirm this I will try to find a way to see who is the culprit, bad encoding from the DualTV or bad decoding from the MVP. Given that the MVP has been around a long time and the DualTV has not, my bet is that the DualTV is messing up.

[tmiranda]

OK, here is what I have verified:

- The "broken" MPEG stops at exactly the same place on both of my MVPs. One of the MVPs is ancient and the other is a brand new wireless unit.

- The same MPEG plays perfectly on both of my SageClients, using the default Sage decoder.

- If I run the MPEG through VideReDo (which is a great program!) the resultant file plays flawlessly on both MVPs. The "broken" MPEG is 368,752 bytes. The "fixed" MPEG is 364,863 bytes.

So, as expected, the DualTV encoder and MVP decoder are not playing nice together. My experience is that VideoReDo produces very compliant MPEGs so I am going to assume that the DualTV is at fault. The fact that I have never had this problem until adding the DualTV seems to support my theory. Tomorrow I will contact NVIDIA tech support.

In the mean time I will change the default recording quality (I use DVD Extra Long Play now) to see if that makes any difference.

For those of you having this same problem, can you post your setup? I am particularly interested to see if this problem only occurs when using a combo of the DualTV and the MVP.

If anybody else has any ideas please let me know. I am not an MPEG expert so I do not know how to analyze the files to see what is actually going on.

Narflex - I do not think this is a Sage problem but was wondering if you had any suggestions or workarounds?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

OK, here is what I have verified:

- The "broken" MPEG stops at exactly the same place on both of my MVPs. One of the MVPs is ancient and the other is a brand new wireless unit.

- The same MPEG plays perfectly on both of my SageClients, using the default Sage decoder.

- If I run the MPEG through VideReDo (which is a great program!) the resultant file plays flawlessly on both MVPs. The "broken" MPEG is 368,752 bytes. The "fixed" MPEG is 364,863 bytes.

So, as expected, the DualTV encoder and MVP decoder are not playing nice together. My experience is that VideoReDo produces very compliant MPEGs so I am going to assume that the DualTV is at fault. The fact that I have never had this problem until adding the DualTV seems to support my theory. Tomorrow I will contact NVIDIA tech support.

I have a nVidia DualTV and a PVR500 and have verified that I can play recordings from both cards on the MVP. Make sure you have set default quality that uses a DVD standard in the description. Mine is DVD Standard play 3.2GB/hr.

Gerry

[tmiranda]

Gerry,

I was using DVD Extra Long Play and just changed it to the next lower "DVD" quality. If that does not help I will use the DVD Standard Play.

I've submitted a support request to nVidia as well. That will probably be an uphill battle since it will be difficult to prove to them that their encoder sometimes makes non-compliant MPEGs. I am going to search around for some type of MPEG compliance checker/analyzer to see if that tells me anything.

Edit: Spoke to Hauppauge tech support and mailed them a disk with MPEGs that freeze the MVP. Submitted bug report with nVidia, they are "researching" the issue. I am impressed with Hauppauge tech support, they have been really responsive.

Edit 2: Hauppauge looked at the MPEGs and said it all looked fine. No freezing on their systems at all. I tried playing them using Hauppauge's software and they do play fine. The problem only occurs when playing on MVP using Sage. I'm not sure where to go from here. muzakmaster - have you found out anything more?

Regards,

Tom

[mazakmaster]

I decided to return the nvidia cards-did not want this to go on for months.. anyway I wont be able to help as I dont use the card anymore...

[tmiranda]

I've got Sage support looking at my log files now. nVidia has also agreed to RMA the card in case I just got a lemon. If I run into all brick walls I will also return the card. My system was 100% stable until this....

[mazakmaster]

BTW: all my problems with the mvp's went away when I pulled the Nvidia out of my setup. using all Hauppauge now......

[Snuffy2]

I believe i'm having the same problem with my DualTV & MVP. All the videos play fine on the Server but the MVP freezes on the DualTV recorded videos.

Typically the freeze is ~4-8min in (but not exclusively). And the freeze is reproduceable, if I stop & restart the video it gets blocky & freezes at the exact same point.

If I FF over that spot the rest of the video generally plays fine.

Also the videos recorded in the PVR150 & through Firewire, so far, don't seem to Freeze.

That seems to be the same issue you are having.

Has anyone found a fix?

Is there anyway with DirMon & videoredo to "clean" the files automatically?

This is really hurting the WAF factor in the bedroom (she wants to reactivate the TiVo in the bedroom now).

Thanx

[tmiranda]

Just download he latest alpha MVP.BIN file. I'm too lazy to track down the thread where it's been posted, just look for the longest one