Multiple issues with Sage, after adding SageMC

[yacht_boy]

Hi All-

I seem to be having a lot of issues getting things to work properly in Sage. My first question: Is this normal? Does everyone spend hours and hours and hours twiddling with this stuff in an effort to get it all working together? Is there no way to package all of this stuff into something more plug and play--something like TiVo, but with the features of Sage? I would gladly pay to have a TiVo-like box that ran Sage with SageMC and Comskip configured and a way for me to slap in a HD with my music and movie collection on it.

my HTPC (hooked directly to my SDTV, no client):
emachines T3092 with AMD Athlon 3000+ (2.167 gHz)
Windows MCE with SP2
1.5 gb ram
160 gb C: drive with saved video and OS
300 gb D: drive with one folder for additional saved video and another folder for Sage recordings
Hauppauge PVR 150 with silver 45 button remote
GeForce 5200 AGP Dual Monitor card with S-Video out to TV
Diamond Extreme 7.1 surround with optical out to 5.1 surround sound system
USB UIRT for channel changing
Motorola DCT1700 STB from Comcast
SDTV
Sage 6.3.10
SageMC 6.3.7a
Comskip Monitor 2.7

Anyway, my various issues, which may or may not be related:

1--Installed SageMC and Comskip. Everything seemed to be working fine. Came back from a weekend away and found that Sage is now eating 99% or more of the CPU at all times. I can use the software, but I spend a great deal of time looking at a spinning wheel in the middle of whatever show I'm watching, even when I haven't pushed a mouse button. The wheel is visible at least 50% of the time now--super annoying. Why is Sage using so much of my CPU? Occasionally, this will result in a loss of audio while the wheel is spinning.

1a--with Sage using so much CPU, menus can be excruciatingly slow.

2--While trying to diagnose the CPU usage, I found that I could no longer find the ComSkip options settings under detailed setup--> customization. Comskip is working fine, although when I shut down Sage I noticed that Comskip jumped up to take 100% of the CPU once Sage was closed. But the comskip menu seems to have vanished. Where did it go? How do I get it back?

3--As mentioned in other threads, I am less than satisfied with the video quality I'm getting. Compared to my TiVo, which is still sitting on a shelf just under my TV waiting for me to give up on this Sage nonsense and go back to a simple, easy to use solution, the video quality is downright lousy. I've tried every possible combination of decoders and overlay settings with no luck. Switching S-Video cables hasn't helped. Short of buying new hardware, is there anything else I can try?

4--While writing this, Sage just completely crashed--I'm now looking at the windows desktop on my TV. Comskip is now taking over from Sage in keeping my CPU 100% busy. What's up with this?

5--When I restart Sage, it will pop up full-screen on my monitor. I'll have to find my way through the menus, shrink it, and drag it over to my TV (I'm using the dualview setup, as recommended by others). Is there a way I can keep my LCD monitor as the primary monitor and force Sage to open full-screen on the TV (aka my secondary monitor)?

Any help much appreciated. I'm tantalizingly close, but after so many hours, I really just want to WATCH TV!! Please help!

Thanks,

Jason

[Opus4]

Please use a default configuration and get that working before trying to use any customizations. You've mentioned several issues & it would be hard to narrow things down then you've got several things you've added to the system. Once you have a defualt setup working, then see the customizations forum for topics dealing with the add-ons.

One reason you see a difference in playback quality using your video card vs. Tivo is that Tivo has a hardware decoder built into it, which is designed to output to a TV. The video card has no such decoder and isn't designed specifically for SD TV output. I used an Xcard long ago for this reason (it has a hardware decoder), and the Hauppauge MVP and the SageTV STX-HD100 both use hardware decoders built for TV output.

- Andy

[yacht_boy]

Hi Andy-

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually had it all working fine using default settings, that's why I went ahead and started adding customizations. You can move this thread over to a different forum if you think there's a better spot for it.

I'm really liking the way SageMC and Comskip seem to work, it's just the nagging performance issues that are killing the experience for me. If I could make this stuff stop beating my poor CPU into a pulp, I'd be much happier!

As for the hardware decoder...makes sense, I just wish I'd known that earlier. Sooner or later I'll be ready to make the jump to a nice big 42" LCD HDTV, and when I do that I'll probably want to spring for the STX-HD100, assuming I can get Sage running properly first. Until then, I was hoping not to have to spend any more money on this setup, since I'll just end up upgrading a bunch of it when I go to HD. But I can probably get a bit of cash on ebay for my existing PVR 150 and GeForce cards. Would a PVR 350, which has the built-in hardware decoder output, do the trick for improving video quality? I think I recall that there were some issues with that card--have they been resolved since I last looked 18 months ago? The second tuner would be nice.

When I do go to HD, I really wish I could buy a Sage server prebuilt with Sage MC and comskip preconfigured and tested, where I could just slap in an existing hard drive with my media collection and go. Like TiVo, only running Sage. All this hardware/software twiddling is for the birds!

Thanks-

Jason

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by yacht_boy

I actually had it all working fine using default settings, that's why I went ahead and started adding customizations. You can move this thread over to a different forum if you think there's a better spot for it.

Since you said it was working with a default setup, I moved this to the SageMC forum section.

Would a PVR 350, which has the built-in hardware decoder output, do the trick for improving video quality? I think I recall that there were some issues with that card--have they been resolved since I last looked 18 months ago? The second tuner would be nice.

You could use the 350's tuner, but when using the TV out on that card, the drivers have issues on some systems and I wouldn't recommend using it for output.

- Andy

[yacht_boy]

OK, thanks for the info. I'm not ready to jump into HD just yet, but don't want to buy an MVP and not be able to upgrade. Looks like I'm stuck with this lower-quality setup.

Any other help with CPU issues appreciated!

Jason