Very close with Vista - probably moving to XP

[Skacey]

Hey Team,

Pretty new to Sage but I score fairly high on the geek scale.

I've built my own machine to act as a PVR/Media Server. Rough specs are as follows:

Intel based 2.8g dual processor
2gig RAM
MB onboard video and audio
Dual HVR-1600s
System loaded to a 160gig HD - files on two 1TB SATA HDs
MCE Remote (using blaster only)
Signal is two DirecTV H20s (HD)
Coax from dish to H20s
Video is SVideo from H20 to HVR-1600
Audio is RCA (white/red) to Mic connector on HVR-1600

Currently running Vista home premium as I started out with a Vista MCE box using an XBox 360 as an extender. MCE Blaster was set up to dual tune the H20s. Everything seemed to work ok except for two issues:

Issue one - Recorded sound seemed to be maxing out - louder tones would muddy up into a rumbly/crackled mess - like pushing a speaker to far or plugging an amped line into a line in outlet. The audio signal was recorded that way so playback was the same through all devices.

Issue two - After four months of good performance, MCE decided that I was an errant bootlegging pirate out to steal money from HBO. Although HBO was subscribed and paid for, MCE's DRM software refused to record HBO, then it extended to AMC, and Showtime. This was the dealbreaker for Vista MCE.

Purchased SageTV and two STX-HD100s. Killed all of MCE from the Vista install and successfully transformed the server into a SageTV powerhouse.

Struggled through getting the blasters to work as well - blasting one H20 with the HVR-1600 blaster and the second through the MCE blaster. Had lots of fun getting both of these to work but finally got a stable setup.

I then jumped to SageMC as I am a graphics guy and I can't resist making my own interface (more on this later). While I was at it I decided to jump into the Commercial Skipping arms race. After quite a few struggles I've gotten as far as DIRMON2 and SA running most of the time.

For DIRMON2 - I couldn't get it to run the service until I loaded the service manually and assigned it to run with Administrator rights. It still does not function on a system restart, but will start operating if I run DIRMON Hidden.

Now my new issue - SA will choke and die on some program about once a day (so far my longest uptime has been three days) When it dies, it also kills DIRMON2. Re-running DIRMON Hidden will restart the program and seems to revive the frozen DIRMON service. After a couple of restarts like this i end up with about six processes in the Task Manager all scanning for files and starting SA instances. System speed drags to a crawl until a complete reboot.

I've tried killing off UAC but it seemed to mess up my Sage profile and preferences. Sage started in non MC mode and lost all of my settings. I've also tried running Sage from the Administrator login (ill advised, I know) but also had the same loss of settings.

So - here are the two items I have not been able to fix:

1 - The audio problem never went away - is there a way to control the audio levels in the HVR-1600 or adjust the cabling to prevent the top end clipping?

2 - The DIRMON / SA uptime is not very stable - is there a better configuration for these programs? I've also run Comskip but it does not seem that this will change the issue.

Finally - it seems that my best solution may be to reformat the entire system and load XP. The security is much more manageable and the overhead may help with server performance. If I go to this point, is there a way to backup my settings so I don't lose my channel settings, preferences, and especially blaster tweaks?

Thanks in advance to anyone who has help or advice. I promise to return the favor with some graphics support for those into customization.

-Skacey
-Orlando, FL

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Skacey

For DIRMON2 - I couldn't get it to run the service until I loaded the service manually and assigned it to run with Administrator rights. It still does not function on a system restart, but will start operating if I run DIRMON Hidden.

Did you install/start the service (after configuring it manually)? Dirmon Hidden isn't the/a service, it's just an app you can start manually in lieu of the service.

Now my new issue - SA will choke and die on some program about once a day (so far my longest uptime has been three days) When it dies, it also kills DIRMON2. Re-running DIRMON Hidden will restart the program and seems to revive the frozen DIRMON service. After a couple of restarts like this i end up with about six processes in the Task Manager all scanning for files and starting SA instances. System speed drags to a crawl until a complete reboot.

I seriously doubt SA kills dirmon, so what's probably happening is you've got a recording that SA doesn't like (are you running the latest SA?) and it hangs, and then you keep restarting multiple copies of dirmon, which starts multiple processes scanning, which bogs down the system. If you were to kill those processes in task manager the system would probably run fine.

I've tried killing off UAC but it seemed to mess up my Sage profile and preferences. Sage started in non MC mode and lost all of my settings. I've also tried running Sage from the Administrator login (ill advised, I know) but also had the same loss of settings.

That's because Vista's UAC "hides" the sage config files, when you disable UAC, Sage looks in the "normal" location (Program files\SageTV\SageTV) but since you did you setup with UAC, your settings are not there. You should just need to move the sage.properties and wiz.bin from your user location to the default location after disabling UAC.

1 - The audio problem never went away - is there a way to control the audio levels in the HVR-1600 or adjust the cabling to prevent the top end clipping?

Are you recording analog or digital? If digital, there's nothing you can do and there shouldn't be anything wrong with the recordings, you should look at the playback settings.

[Skacey]

For DIRMON - it is installed as a service and starts running (Task Manager confirms that it is running and correctly identifies the owner as Administrator) - BUT, it does not start running SA. opening DIRMON GUI shows a list of shows under Qued jobs but no activitity under Active jobs.

When I start DIRMON Hidden, DIRMON GUI starts processing the shows and correctly identifies the shows under Active Jobs as they are processed. If I go into the Task Manager and kill the DIRMON Hidden (I can see which one it is as it has the local user name instead of Administrator) DIRMON keeps working which is why I'm assuming that running DIRMON Hidden is "kickstarting" the service.

When SA hangs on a file, I get a dialog box indicating the error. When I click on the button, SA stops running. DIRMON does not start a new instance of SA. Going into Task Manager shows one instance of DIRMON running. Starting DIRMON Hidden will cause it to start processing again as well as starting the dormant instances of DIRMON. (So now I get more than one instance of SA starting, often on the same program)

If I kill all of the instances of DIRMON in the Task Manager, performance does not return to normal. It is still sluggish until a restart.

I am running the latest version of SA available at the end of May. I hadn't check to see if there was another version available. Checking the SA forums, it appears that this program is not being supported as there are several unanswered questions in that forum that have been idle for quite a while.

As to the Audio question, I don't think I could be recording digital as the signal coming in is through a non-digital connection (RCA to Mic plug) Also, the problem existed in both Vista MCE and Sage so I don't think it is playback related.

Would saving the sage.properties and wiz.bin allow me to successfully migrate the installation from one OS to another? I'm thinking that if these two are the only key files, I need to back these up elsewhere on my network.

-Skacey
-Orlando, FL

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Skacey

For DIRMON - it is installed as a service and starts running (Task Manager confirms that it is running and correctly identifies the owner as Administrator) - BUT, it does not start running SA. opening DIRMON GUI shows a list of shows under Qued jobs but no activitity under Active jobs.

Sounds like the service is unable to start SA.

When I start DIRMON Hidden, DIRMON GUI starts processing the shows and correctly identifies the shows under Active Jobs as they are processed. If I go into the Task Manager and kill the DIRMON Hidden (I can see which one it is as it has the local user name instead of Administrator) DIRMON keeps working which is why I'm assuming that running DIRMON Hidden is "kickstarting" the service.

No, dirmon hidden is running instead of dirmon.

When SA hangs on a file, I get a dialog box indicating the error. When I click on the button, SA stops running. DIRMON does not start a new instance of SA.

Sounds like dirmon thinks SA is still running.

Going into Task Manager shows one instance of DIRMON running.

Is there an SA process running?

Starting DIRMON Hidden will cause it to start processing again as well as starting the dormant instances of DIRMON. (So now I get more than one instance of SA starting, often on the same program)

If I kill all of the instances of DIRMON in the Task Manager, performance does not return to normal. It is still sluggish until a restart.

Sounds like there are probably SQ processes running

I am running the latest version of SA available at the end of May. I hadn't check to see if there was another version available. Checking the SA forums, it appears that this program is not being supported as there are several unanswered questions in that forum that have been idle for quite a while.

0.9.7 is the latest version. I know Jere is still around, he's posted here that he's working on H.264 support.

As far as moving the files, there's an FAQ on what to save/how to move Sage from one computer to another, which would be the same procedure as moving from one OS to another (at least Windows OS).

[Skacey]

Ok, verified I am running SA 0.9.7 and DIRMON2 0.6.4 (latest on the website)

Assuming you are correct on which instance of DIRMON is running I am going to try the following:

1 - Disable the DIRMON2 Service
2 - Restart the machine
3 - Start DIRMON2 Hidden

That should leave me with one running instance of DIRMON2 and the latest versions of all programs.

-Skacey
-Orlando, FL

[mayamaniac]

First, how is switching to SageTV solve your DRM issue? Unless you get an HD-PVR encoder, you still can't record those DRM channels, no? Or are you switching just because you hate Microsoft?

Second, isn't solving the blown out audio problem more important than comskip? I mean i would put aside SA/Dirmon and solve the audio first. One that gets working, then you can mess with comskip.

Third, you might wanna give Comskip Monitor a try instead of Dirmon.

Lastly, I have installed SageTV on Vista 64 + SP1, and it runs well. I don't use comskip because I find the FF/RW skip buttons to be good enough.

[Skacey]

--Commercial Skipping

OK, I remembered to save the error that DirMon2 was getting and it turns out that it is not SA that is crashing:

"DirMon2 has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

The button available is "Close program"

Task manager shows DirMon2 running until I click the button, then, as expected, it closed.

SA was not running and attempting to relaunch DirMon2 Hidden fails with the same dialog box.

--Audio problem
I have been attempting to resolve the audio issue but have yet to find a solution. Since I was at a standstill, I continued to work on the next problem on my list which was commercial skipping.

Actually, during this entire process, I am also working on a completely new theme for SageMC. You might say I have a bit of a focus problem but I look at it as eclectic multi-tasking.

--Why SageTV
The DRM issue is gone after moving to SageTV - Vista MCE is highly reported to be overly sensitive to DRM issues and was incorrectly identifying purchased channels as restricted. I understand that I am not getting true HD quality with the setup that I have, but I did a side by side comparison of Directv's SD and HD boxes and the HD recordings were much clearer.

Additionally, SageTV was much more willing to allow for changes in my system, where MCE would not play programs that were recorded on another machine (I had to swap out computers when I built the Media Server, I lost access to all of the recorded content during the move)

--Comskip Monitor
I will give this another look, when first trying to get Commercial skipping to work, I tried this but could not get it to start. My current configuration was closer as the program does run for about a day before crashing (this last run only lasted for about 7 hours though)

-Skacey
-Orlando, FL

[Skacey]

--Comskip Monitor
Running the setup.bat file completes successfully but the DOS box shows two failed issues:

wrapper | OpenSCManager failed - Access is denied. (0x5)

If I remember correctly, Comskip monitor is attempting to install a service, which is not allowed unless you are an administrator.

Running the setup.bat as Administrator gets another batch of errors

Exception is thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: CSMConfig
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: CSMConfig
at: java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at: java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at: java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at: java.;ang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at: sun.misc.Launder$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at: java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at: java.lang.ClassLoader.LoadClassInternal(Unknown Source)
wrapper | The CSM service is not installed - The specified service does not exist as an installed service. (0x424)
The Comskip Monitor service is starting.
The Comskip Monitor service could not be started.

A system error has occurred.

System error 1067 has occurrec.

The process terminated unexpectedly.

This appeared to be possibly connected to the version of Java I have installed so I double checked the Java web site and upgraded from 6.5 to 6.6 - I got the exact same error message after the upgrade.

Figuring this may be a problem with Comskip Monitor not having enough access, I went to the Services window and changed the properties to Log in as Administrator. I tried to manually start the service and got the following error:

Windows could not start the Comskip Monitor service on Local Computer.

Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.

That was as far as I got the first time which is why I went to DirMon2.

[mayamaniac]

This brings back memory of what happened to me with Comskip Monitor and Vista. I would get the "java is not recognized as an internal or external command..." error. So I opened the setup.bat and changed the path for the java command.

Where it says:

java -classpath "./data/csm.jar;./data/jetty-6.0.1.jar;./data/jetty-util-6.0.1.jar;./data/servlet-api-2.5-6.0.1.jar" CSMConfig

I changed it to:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\java" -classpath "./data/csm.jar;./data/jetty-6.0.1.jar;./data/jetty-util-6.0.1.jar;./data/servlet-api-2.5-6.0.1.jar" CSMConfig

Just make sure the path is correct for your java version, where java.exe resides.

Edit: I just tested it again and it works on Vista 64.

[Skacey]

Ok, I changed the path and CSM is showing up as a running service
Thanks much for the help on that part - let's see how it holds up over the next few days.

Does anyone have any advice on the Audio issue listed above?

[mayamaniac]

About the audio, maybe start by listing what you already tried to resolve it.

[Skacey]

First morning using Comskip Monitor and none of the programs recorded last night were processed. CSM is still showing as running on the services tab of the task manager.

When I right click on the service and select "go to process" it shows wrapper.exe - is this correct?

It seems that this was the same issue I had with DIRMON2 - service is running but nothing happens.

As to the audio issue - the primary thing that I did was to change out the PVR system from MCE to SageTV with no affect to the audio. This eliminates the possibility that it is the file format and playback options. I'm guessing that my next step is to pull the file into Audition to see if the waveform is clipped. That should narrow it down to the audio capture itself.

[Skacey]

Restarted and reinstalled CSM and now it is working (24 hours now)

Here are the properties:

#csm.properties
#Tue Jul 08 06:52:03 EDT 2008
time.between.checks=10
comskip.config=C\:\\Users\\Skacey\\Desktop\\Comskip\\comskip79_76\\comskip.ini
process.file.extensions=.mpg
execute.during.record=yes
slow.hours=19, 18, 17, 12, 11, 10, 16, 15, 14, 13, 21, 20, 23, 22, 8, 9, 6, 7
related.file.extensions=
comskip.parameters=
file.directories=F\:\\recorded tv
exclude.hours=
comskip.location=C\:\\Users\\Skacey\\Desktop\\Comskip\\comskip79_76\\comskip.exe
cleanup.file.extensions=.txt,.log,.edl

The only issue I am having now is that Comskip is not processing shows as they are being recorded (as SA did with my old setup)

Comskip does not create any files until after the program has completed recording. Checking the Task Manager, Comskip did not start processing until 6 minutes after the program stopped recording.

-Skacey
-Orlando, FL

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Skacey

As to the audio issue - the primary thing that I did was to change out the PVR system from MCE to SageTV with no affect to the audio. This eliminates the possibility that it is the file format and playback options. I'm guessing that my next step is to pull the file into Audition to see if the waveform is clipped. That should narrow it down to the audio capture itself.

You can try playing the file on another PC. If that's all you've done, then I suggest getting latest drivers for your tuners and audio hardware.

Originally Posted by Skacey

Restarted and reinstalled CSM and now it is working (24 hours now)

The only issue I am having now is that Comskip is not processing shows as they are being recorded (as SA did with my old setup)

Comskip does not create any files until after the program has completed recording. Checking the Task Manager, Comskip did not start processing until 6 minutes after the program stopped recording.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think you don't have to use comskip.exe with Comskip Monitor. You have the option to use SA if you like. Basically Comskip Monitor is an alternative to DirMon.

[Skacey]

I don't think running SA will solve the problem as it appears that CSM is not processing the file until it has completed recording. Comskip did not start running until 6 minutes after the recording stopped.

For the Audio problem, the only driver would be for the HVR-1600. The PC is only used as a server, all of the files are played on the Extender. Technically, I don't event need an audio card on the server.