1 MVP out of 4 works on V6.1 (Sage Please Sort this Out)

[daz19]

I now have 4 MVP - out of these i can only get one working and that was a problem with Sage V6.0 because as soon as I upgraded to 6.1 it worked

The last 3 MVP's I bought this week and they all have various problems

MVP wired V1.0 - Will not boot ( gets stuck on 3 bars at startup Screen)

MVP wired V2.05 - Will boot in to sagetv but has the wrong resolution and no picture and the mac-address.properties file only has a few lines of code when I opening it with notepad

MVP wireless V2.05 - Will bootup but will not boot in to sagetv at all.

OK the first one looks like a hardware failure, the second and 3rd look like SageTV problems

I can not believe that between Hauppauage and Sage they can not make client that just works.

Any ideas - I am going mad...........

[bcjenkins]

A couple of questions:

1) Have you filed a ticket with SageTV Support? This is a user to user forum and while Sage will correspond here, it is not a guarantee of support.

2) Have you enabled DEBUG logging yet on the server?

3) Would you mind posting some info on the server?

System specs?
Java version?
Sage running in service mode?

Thanks!

B

[daz19]

A couple of questions:

1) Have you filed a ticket with SageTV Support? This is a user to user forum and while Sage will correspond here, it is not a guarantee of support.

No - Not yet I want to make sure i have exhausted all troubleshooting avenues before I log a ticket

2) Have you enabled DEBUG logging yet on the server?

No - Not yet just about to Debug

3) Would you mind posting some info on the server?

System specs?

Server - E6600 Dual Core, 1GB Ram, 1 x Nova T 500, 1 x Avermedia Hybrid, 80GB system drive, 320GB Video drive

Network - Seperate Data and SageTV Networks - Sage Network connected via Linksys WRV200 connecting 100mb to server and clients MVP clients connecting via Homeplug 85MB

Java version?

1.42_11

Sage running in service mode?

Sorry - what is service mode?


Sorry guys just letting of some steam - SageTV is a great product way better than MCE or Beyond TV - They just need to get this MVP client stuff sorted out.

The problems just seem to be so random - just you think you have nailed the problem something else comes and bites you on the arse !

I am going to continue trouble shooting - this product is to good to give up on

Thanks for listening

[tmiranda]

I'd first look at the network configuration. Do you have two subnets? That will cause problems with the MVP for sure. I remember others solving this problem by changing one of the parameters in the sage.properties file but I do not recall the exact fix. Try searching for "subnet" and "MVP". I'd do it for you but the kids want to go into the pool.... (How's that for an excuse?)

[wvpolekat]

I am also very suspect of the network.

You will need a DHCP/BOOTP server on the network with the MVP.

Try this just for a test, get everybody on one network, and see what happens. I would bet that your problem goes away.

Here is how my network is setup to seperate video and data:

Regular home network: 10.0.0.0/24
Downstairs video network: 10.254.254.0/24
Upstairs video network: 10.253.253.0/24

My sage box has an interface on each of these networks. And DHCP/BOOTP are available on each of them as well.

The key to this working is that the sage box has an interface on each network so the MVPs dont have to worry about routing and can find it by just broadcasting.

My setup is probably WAY overcomplex, but it allows for a vanilla sage installation with nothing special, and keeps the MVP traffic seperate from my normal network stuffs.

In case anyone was ever curious, an MVP uses about 7% of a 100mb network watching a TV/Movie, it will push to 25-30% when fast forwarding. At boot time it will very briefly spike to near 100% (I assume while downloading the software). This is why I put each MVP on it's own network, to make 100% sure they could get all the bandwidth they need at any time.

My nickel is on the network causing your problems.

[daz19]

Try this just for a test, get everybody on one network, and see what happens. I would bet that your problem goes away.


The reason i went for seperate networks was purely for QOS - It just took someone downloading something to effect the video quality - So I put the video on 192.168.49.0 /24 and data on 192.168.59.0 /24 each subnet has it's own router which should keep data and video seperate.


My network is very complicated - I run VOIP, Ncomputing Thin clients, Homeplugs and now Sage TV - all are delay sensitive - I have now purchased layer 3 gigabit switch which has built in quality of service which can be allocated bandwidth and priorties traffic per port as well as vlans which you can logically seperate networks if needed.

I have also purchase 2 x 200mb homeplugs which can stream HD - I was using the 85MB versions which started to sutter on anything beyond Good Quality

Hopefully these network upgrades should do the trick.

On the MVP front - I have managed to get one MVP working fully with SageTV - One MVP is dead and One will boot up with SageTV but has a black screen and no video but has audio - any ideas ?

Thanks

Darren

[wvpolekat]

The reason i went for seperate networks was purely for QOS - It just took someone downloading something to effect the video quality - So I put the video on 192.168.49.0 /24 and data on 192.168.59.0 /24 each subnet has it's own router which should keep data and video seperate.

I completely understand what you are trying to do here, I did very much the same thing. But, I also suspect that is the root of your problem.

Which network(s) does your sage server live on?

A quick and dirty test would be swap the working MVP with a non working MVP. If it starts working, you know the network is your problem.

Did you configure a bootp/dhcp relay on your layer 3 switch? Or how are you doing DHCP on each subnet?

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by daz19

A couple of questions:

1) Have you filed a ticket with SageTV Support? This is a user to user forum and while Sage will correspond here, it is not a guarantee of support.

No - Not yet I want to make sure i have exhausted all troubleshooting avenues before I log a ticket

2) Have you enabled DEBUG logging yet on the server?

No - Not yet just about to Debug

If I can't fix a SageTV problem within the hour, I file a support email. The first thing I would do is to enable debug logging to get info on where the problem might be.

Originally Posted by daz19

Sorry guys just letting of some steam - SageTV is a great product way better than MCE or Beyond TV - They just need to get this MVP client stuff sorted out.

The problems just seem to be so random - just you think you have nailed the problem something else comes and bites you on the arse !

I am going to continue trouble shooting - this product is to good to give up on
Thanks for listening

It's understandable that you want to let off some steam. I had similar issues with the MVP and version 5. If it helps you, I think that with version 6 and 6.1 they have got the MVP stuff worked out. I don't think it would be accurate to say that there are widespread problems.

Let me say that, given what you are trying to achieve, with a routed multi segment network which is not your run of the mill home network, you are bound to experience architecture related issues. I agree with the above comments about ensuring that the MVPs can connect to a DHCP server. MVPs use broadcasts to get going and as such they are probably not getting a response from your dhcp server. With your layer 3 switch, if you are setting up vlans you need to get the setup spot on.

SageTV support may be able to help there.

[mdnttoker]

Actually, I had some MVP problems with 6.0.x (would load ~75% of the time), but since upgrading to 6.1.8 (and now 6.1.9), I can't get the MVP to load across my Netgear powerline routers at all.

I've already filed a support request. But thought I'd post my log and network cap here to see if anyone else can see a problem. (rename the .zip file to .pcap)

Like the poster above, I have seperate interfaces on the computer for video/mvp and for internet usage. The MVP NIC goes from the puter to a netgear HDX101, to another HDX101, to the MVP.

I get about 40mbps across these things, and its consistent, so they've been great.

Once I get the initial SageTV dongle to load, TCP works across these things flawlessly.

Don't know why the initial load is such a problem...

Thanks,
Dan