R5000 and WHS

[Slipshod]

Ok, everything transferred over successfully. Got the whole things running now with both R5000s, and have SageMC back. I also updated the sig with the new server information. More observations:

1. FF and RW are much more responsive on the new hardware, but I still lose the audio occiasionally. Posted on the extender forum about that.
2. Remote Desktop doesn't work the same in WHS - it's probably more like W2003 server. If you are logged-on at the server, and you RDP from another PC as the same user you don't get the same desktop/apps. It lets you have multiple users logged on at the same time with different desktops instead of letting you take-over the one that's already running. This is pretty annoying.
3. The WHS version defaults to all import and recording directories being \\localhost\<dir>, which seems like that could be bad if you have a Sage client and need to access the same directory. I changed them all to "\\server\<dir>".
4. Live-TV still starts with a really rough stutter/pause for a few seconds. I thought that was related to underpowered hardware, but I guess not. Now I'm wondering if Sage needs to wait a couple of seconds longer before starting playback.

Last point for now... Having your recording directory on the drive-extender partition (like it is configured by default) is a *REALLY* bad idea. That drive uses 4K clusters and you'll cause yourself all kinds of grief if you try to change it.

Overall it's working pretty well, but I have to say the WHS version (especially with R5000s) is more for the experienced Sage user than the novice. There's a lot of gotchas you need to look out for. Having said that I'll also say I really, really, like that Sage has a WHS version. It makes perfect sense, and if they can creatively solve the "severe fragmentation while recording from multiple tuners" issue it will work well for most normal users.

Cheers,
Slipshod

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Slipshod

2. Remote Desktop doesn't work the same in WHS - it's probably more like W2003 server. If you are logged-on at the server, and you RDP from another PC as the same user you don't get the same desktop/apps. It lets you have multiple users logged on at the same time with different desktops instead of letting you take-over the one that's already running. This is pretty annoying.

Try to use '%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe -console' in the shortcut, this should always connect you to the same session.

Dirk

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Try to use '%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe -console' in the shortcut, this should always connect you to the same session.

Dirk

Awesome! I'll try that when I get home. Much nicer for trying to manage the R5000 app.

[jvalj]

Originally Posted by Slipshod

2. R5000HD drivers are a pain in the ass with WHS. Something in them goes berserk when the application isn't up yet, and makes WHS disable the driver because it think it's doing some kind of attack. Had to disable the "Execute Disable Bit" in the BIOS to get it stabalized. Bummer about that, especially since I wanted this accessible from the internet. I think I'll have to talk to Nextcom about it.

Thanks for your hard work and reporting of this issue. I was wondering if you ever got a response from Nextcom on this issue. I want to run SageTV and R5000HD off of WHS. I want to access WHS on the Internet using homeserver.com as well as Placeshifter. Is that not possible in conjunction with the R5000HD?

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by jvalj

Thanks for your hard work and reporting of this issue. I was wondering if you ever got a response from Nextcom on this issue. I want to run SageTV and R5000HD off of WHS. I want to access WHS on the Internet using homeserver.com as well as Placeshifter. Is that not possible in conjunction with the R5000HD?

I probably would have gotten a response if I had asked them... Never got around to it.

It's definitely still possible to connect to the internet, I'm just a bit more paranoid about security than most. Having to disable the execute-only bit support means you are slightly more vulnerable to malicious software. It's not a big thing, and most people probably wouldn't care about it.

Place shifter works fine, I did test it out. HD is *rough* to playback on it though, if you can even get it working in the first place.

BTW, since 6.4.8 came out, most of my playback gripes are gone:

1. Audio doesn't drop out after skipping anymore.
2. The delay after skipping is greatly reduced (audio comes on immediately, video takes a second)
3. It still skips after starting live TV, but I'm pretty sure that is fixed with the new properties setting introduced in 6.4. Just haven't tried it yet.

The Olympics and the DNC last week showed me another issue I need to report bugs on... LONG files seem to generate playback issues. I've had a few files which would skip back 1 hour if you skipped forward at one point, and some others which would get "funky" out of sync towards the end.

Cheers,
Slipshod

[jvalj]

Thanks for the update.

I asked Nextcom about the driver issue myself and here was their response:

"We have never done any test with WHS and don't really intend to support it officially. If there is an issue with the driver I don't expect anything can be done from our side about this. The USB driver is a generic driver that does nothing more than provide an interface for accessing and transferring data from the Cypress chip used used in the R5000 hardware.

Sounds like some more of the misplaced paranoia of the type built into Vista. Maybe try looking for technical bulletins from MS regarding this issue and seeing if there's some setting that can be disabled/modified so that the driver isn't crippled. The USB device re-enumerates (gives the chip a different VID/PID once the firmware loads) when the DVR is launched for the first time or the USB cable was unplugged. This is normal, allowable behavior but I'm guessing its at this point that WHS freaks out?"

[btrcp2000]

I havge tried many different forms of the console switch (-console /console \console etc.), but nothing gets me to the exact same whs session rdp. It up quickly but is always missing tray apps I know are running like r5000.

Currently using this from a win7 machine:

%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe -console

what am I doing wrong?

[gplasky]

Anytime you use RDP it starts a new session. You need to use something like VNC and have vnc running as the same user session as your R5000.

Gerry

[btrcp2000]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Try to use '%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe -console' in the shortcut, this should always connect you to the same session.

Dirk

I thought that's what this was about? What does Dirk's suggestion do then?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

I thought that's what this was about? What does Dirk's suggestion do then?

If you recall from our post on Session 0 Isolation, users can no longer connect to Session 0 on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 by design. If you use version 6.1 of the Remote Desktop Client included , in order to connect to the console session for Windows Server 2003, you should use the /admin switch instead. RDC 6.1 is included with the following operating systems:

* Windows Server 2008
* Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta and RC
* Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Beta and RC

Try the /admin switch for WHS (Windows 2003 server.)

Gerry