Once again, SageTV locks up w/ no recovery

[korben_dallas]

SageTV has overall been a very stable application for me.

But this is the 2nd time it has locked up during a recording and missed not one but several new first-run shows that have no future re-airing.

I understand if a recording is corrupt it should be deleted. But when SageTV locks up at 4pm, I may not catch it until 9 or 10pm, and the entire evening of shows is lost with no possibility of getting recorded because the network won't replay them any time soon.

So I plea with the SageTV developers or community gurus: please give us an external secondary app/service which can check if SageTV is running correctly and reboot the PC if it isn't.

[ToxMox]

I take it you are running SageTV in service mode correct?

[mscottsimon]

HEAR HEAR!! I have been fighting this for two months. If Sage is at the menu without live tv being recorded, it never locks up. (Well, maybe not "never", but I just left it for five days at the main menu and it's purring like a kitten. It won't run more than 48 hours with continuous live TV.)

There should be a watchdog service or healthcheck script that you could run periodically that will reboot the box if Sage doesn't respond properly.

.scott

[abel]

What Java versions are you running? I had the same problem with Java 1.5 a while back, but it's been stable ever since I switched back to 1.4 (which is included with Sage 5.0.4). Make sure you don't have Java 1.5 or later installed.

Also turn off automatic updates for Java to avoid it showing up by itself.

Abel

[Skybolt]

You guys can get 48hrs of live TV thats remarkable! I can not get even 2 with out it haveing a fit! If it weren;t for the great plugins like SageMC and the WEB interface this product would be usless, IMO. But wait isn't this a PVR app? Damm and at ver 5 to boot. One would think that it would just work at this point, wouldn't one? , But then again I am compairing this to MCE a costly app, hmm. $110 for the OS, $80 for sage and $30 for each client. hmmm.

Alright I know I am bashing alot in this post, but damm, this crap should just work at this stage in the game and it just doesn't, I know for some it seems to, but for most it doesn't. Very disappointing. I know no one is twisting my arm, I already MCE and it's flawless compaired to this, and MCE is not flawless, but it also does not work as a server, service either. Big perk for using sage and the MVP.

Please don'r respond to this post by telling me how great sage is, I am just hoping that the powers to be will read this and do something about it. I am not flamming any of the users here, just the management.

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

So I plea with the SageTV developers or community gurus: please give us an external secondary app/service which can check if SageTV is running correctly and reboot the PC if it isn't.

Hell mostly stable would be nice!

Oh I should mention that the Hauppauge cheese wiz app work flawlessly when sage crashes and says "No Signal" or black screen...

===========
WIN2003 server, P4 2.8, 512mb
nVidia pure video w/ codec.

[blade]

I know people with problems don't want to hear it, but Sage is not that unstable. If you guys are having that many problems something is wrong with your setup. Many people (myself included) run Sage for months at a time without rebooting. My Sage server has never crashed in almost 2 years and my clients on occasion give problems and need to be rebooted, but that is only once every couple of months.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

I know for some it seems to, but for most it doesn't.

??? Where do you get this idea from ?

I would dare to say for most people it DOES work (and not only 'seem to'), and for some it might not, at least not right away, but this to be expected with the myriads of different hardware configurations out there

Dirk

[mlbdude]

Sorry, these issues are pretty much personal problems. Sure, there could be something in Sage that does not work with your particular hardware/software but that can be fixed two ways - work with the Sage dev team to help them identify your issue or modify your setup so it works with tested working configurations.

For me Sage has always been rock solid on about a half dozen computers by now and I have to admit I did not have to work too hard to get it that way. I could just be lucky though.

[acrowe]

I'm with blade and flachbar. I've run my server for months at a time without problems. I haven't had sage "Crash" randomly since I had one of my tuners crap out on me.

Have you tried getting help from the community here? I don't think I've found too many problems that couldn't be fixed through asking. Or if the community can't help have you tried actually working with Sage support? this is a USER only community. While we do have the fine folks at Sage around this is NOT an official support mechanism. If you're having problems submit a support request.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Please don'r respond to this post by telling me how great sage is, I am just hoping that the powers to be will read this and do something about it.

This is a user-to-user forum. The point of posting here is to get opinions from other users, not to get the attention of the powers that be. For the latter, you should file a support request.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by acrowe

I'm with blade and flachbar. I've run my server for months at a time without problems. I haven't had sage "Crash" randomly since I had one of my tuners crap out on me.

Have you tried getting help from the community here? I don't think I've found too many problems that couldn't be fixed through asking. Or if the community can't help have you tried actually working with Sage support? this is a USER only community. While we do have the fine folks at Sage around this is NOT an official support mechanism. If you're having problems submit a support request.

Ok I should have expected these responses... I know this is a U2U forumn as I stated the users here are great as with most U2U forums. My comments are not directed towards anything other then my experience with sage. I also thanked the creators of SageMC and the WEB interface- They make Sage useable. Again I do not mean to offend anyone this/that was/is my opion. IMO this product is bearly out of a beta- but hey thats just me. Again I don't mean to offend anyone.

Yes thing could very well be my system, but when everything else works fine including other PVR app like GB-PVR and other and sage is the only one balking I have to say it's not my setup. I do understand PVR software rather well, I have written my A/V stuff wich works as well. My only interest in sage was to use the MVP's. If I were going to set up PC's in every room I would go with MCE hands down. again sorry to offend.

As for tech support - well - they didn't help much withthe MVP connection issues, there response was it's my system. I write networkable software for a living and it's not always the customers fault, because it's wroks for you. Somtimes the customers are actually right, there are problems, unfortunetly Tech support are usally the last ones to find out. The U2U forums usally post first.

-Skybolt

[jominor]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

You guys can get 48hrs of live TV thats remarkable! I can not get even 2 with out it haveing a fit! If it weren;t for the great plugins like SageMC and the WEB interface this product would be usless, IMO. But wait isn't this a PVR app? Damm and at ver 5 to boot. One would think that it would just work at this point, wouldn't one? , But then again I am compairing this to MCE a costly app, hmm. $110 for the OS, $80 for sage and $30 for each client. hmmm.

Alright I know I am bashing alot in this post, but damm, this crap should just work at this stage in the game and it just doesn't, I know for some it seems to, but for most it doesn't. Very disappointing. I know no one is twisting my arm, I already MCE and it's flawless compaired to this, and MCE is not flawless, but it also does not work as a server, service either. Big perk for using sage and the MVP.

Please don'r respond to this post by telling me how great sage is, I am just hoping that the powers to be will read this and do something about it. I am not flamming any of the users here, just the management.



Hell mostly stable would be nice!

Oh I should mention that the Hauppauge cheese wiz app work flawlessly when sage crashes and says "No Signal" or black screen...

===========
WIN2003 server, P4 2.8, 512mb
nVidia pure video w/ codec.

Come on. Wouldn't most people have to be stupid to use something that didn't work? For that matter, since SageMC and the Webserver plugin is built ON SAGE, your entire premise is faulty.

My system runs 24/7 for months until I accumulate enough items in my patch list to warrant a reboot.

I have 3 tuners and nearly a gig of TV storage across 5 USB drives and 4 additional divx movie drives.

Its you or your stuff.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Ok I should have expected these responses... I know this is a U2U forumn as I stated the users here are great as with most U2U forums. My comments are not directed towards anything other then my experience with sage. I also thanked the creators of SageMC and the WEB interface- They make Sage useable. Again I do not mean to offend anyone this/that was/is my opion. IMO this product is bearly out of a beta- but hey thats just me. Again I don't mean to offend anyone.


-Skybolt

Well, that's you. I've been using Sage since 1.4 and it is solid. But it is not for everyone. All things don't work for all people.

[korben_dallas]

You guys are hijacking this topic. This does not have much to do with SageTV being stable. As said in my original post, SageTV has been very stable.

The best applications and even operating systems - yes this includes unix, linux, solaris, os/400, etc - I have witnessed,*first-hand*, lockups in those apps & OS's. A nice fallback feature of some of those apps/OS's is the automatic restart / reboot.

Unfortunately, once again, SageTV locked up and did not recover. Does SageTV even have the facility to recover? If it does, then I have 2 instances where it did not work and caused me lost TV episodes which I likely never get to watch. If SageTV does not have the facility to recover from lockups, then it needs that feature, or better yet, needs a separate "watchdog" service/app whose sole purpose in code life is to monitor SageTV and ensure all its vital components/services are responding.. and offer recovery options if they are not.

At this point, I am considering scripting an automatic OS reboot in the late afternoon.

[ToxMox]

I'll repeat what I said in the first reply to this thread:

I take it you are running SageTV in service mode correct?

[blade]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

You guys are hijacking this topic. This does not have much to do with SageTV being stable. As said in my original post, SageTV has been very stable.

Sorry, my response and I imagine most others were in response to other posts in the thread.

As ToxMox asked, are you running the service? If the service crashes it will automatically relaunch itself. I've always used the service and have never come home to find it froze up.

Most lockups and crashes are caused by the gui. Running the service allows you to sort of seperate the recording from the gui so if it crashes Sage will keep recording.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by blade

If the service crashes it will automatically relaunch itself.

Just to clarify on this statement. When using the Sage Service Control app there is a checkbox to enable service recovery.

[mscottsimon]

My issue may be different or I may have misinterpreted the reason for this thread, but here is what happens to me, and yes I am in service mode: the Sage GUI locks up and puts such a strain on the processor that the service CANNOT complete its job of recording scheduled recordings. I'd be happy to send someone a recording of what happens -- I get about 3 fps, or completely unwatchable recordings. Depending on when I catch it, I may be able to manually restart everything but typically the box is COMPLETELY nonresponsive so a reset is required -- I want to catch it before that happens.

I've been over this with support. I've tried a homebuilt AMD64 3500+ box and a Dell Dimension 3.2GHz box with different Hauppauge tuners. I've tried 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 beta... they don't all crash the same but they all crash. The one-email-response-a-day limit from tech support means days and days of troubleshooting. My last interaction with them went two weeks before I finally just deleted the last response because it just never goes anywhere.

Many people on here mention "server". If you're not running the service and GUI on the same box then your config and experience don't necessarily apply. This (again, if we're on the same page here) deals with a single box. If I don't have the GUI up, or if I leave the GUI at the main menu with "live" TV stopped, it runs for 5 days (or longer, I'd guess, if I'd let it). With live TV running 48 hours is the absolute max

Therefore, I need a watchdog to restart Sage in its entirety.

[blade]

Originally Posted by mscottsimon

With live TV running 48 hours is the absolute max

I'm not dismissing your problem, but why in the world would you leave Sage recording live TV for 48 hrs straight? That is a lot of unecessary wear and tear on your hard drives.

[ToxMox]

mscottsimon,
What are all your Audio/Video decoder settings on that screen in the detailed setup? And I do mean ALL.