Time for a check-in - who (if anyone) has reasonable channel changing with HD-PVR?

[Chriscic]

My Sage WHS server and HD100 extender (and just added a HD200 today) have consistently done a good job with recording and playback. Manually changing channels, or anything even approaching channel surfing, is still a minor disaster.

Most of the time something goes very wrong; the video turns to a slide-show with audio fine, or it plays for a few seconds, stops, plays for a few seconds, stops, on and and on, or the video is stuck on stuttery with no sound, etc. Often once the stream is going for 10 seconds or so I can hit the back button and things are fine, or the stop button and reselect the channel, but sometimes even this won't work at all and no matter what I do I can't get the channel watchable.

Occasionally the stream will just resolve itself after 10-15 second but mostly it won't start playing properly without some kind of intervention on my part. And note that I'm not even counting the popping that sometimes occurs at channel change as a problem; as long as the video and audio eventually get going and in sync on their own I'm happy.

Since nearly all of my recordings work well, it's clear that 1) the HD-PVR is capable of recording just fine and 2) Sage is capable of playing back said recordings just fine. Why Sage has so many problems picking up the stream after a channel change seems odd and something that common-sense wise should be easy to fix.

Before I drop a user support request, I thought I'd see if I'm alone or others still having issues. I'm running the 6.5.3 beta on my server, and the client is either (both similar issues) my HD100 or HD200, latest firmware.

[TakeFlight]

So far I'm having zero problems changing channels manually and watching TV using the HD-PVR with Sage with both a Sage client and a HD200 extender. I've had the HD-PVR for a week or so now and have tried this multiple times (with many channels changes) and it's been flawless. It's about 6 seconds from clicking Watch Now to when the new channel is tuned. I'm using the IR blaster.

[dadof4]

No problems here either with two HDPVRs. Also about 6 second to change channels with a USB-UIRT. I would submit a ticket.

One thing I will do if I'm jocking between two channels (actually it can be done with more than two) is set one to record. Then the channel change is fast as Sage goes to the recording channel without sending out a command to the UIRT. I just delete the recording later.

[Clift]

Firewire channel change with no problem. We don't "surf" the typical way anymore. We just go to the guide and pick which program we want to watch and go to that. But even with the typical surfing i have no issues with channel change reliability or stuttery picture for Live TV.

[simonen]

My channel changing use to take about 10 - 15 seconds, but then I set the delay setting in properties file to 3000ms and now I can change the channel in about 3 - 5 seconds. I think if the delay is too short, the extender would fumble around until everything was in sync (technical lingo). Just my personal observation using the HD100 for playback.

[appelm]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

the video turns to a slide-show with audio fine, or it plays for a few seconds, stops, plays for a few seconds, stops, on and and on, or the video is stuck on stuttery with no sound, etc. Often once the stream is going for 10 seconds or so I can hit the back button and things are fine,

Well I do have problems similar to the above. For me, usually I have no audio though for 5 seconds or so and then it comes in. Screen will be jerky for that period too. Usually it corrects itself but sometimes I have to skip back for it to catch up. I don't get the popping sound though I did at one point. I am using a USB-UIRT to change the channels. I was using the built-in IR blaster at first and found it was a lot worse. I decided to try USB-UIRT since I had an open port on it (it supports 3 blasters) and it worked much more smoothly (I think that's when the popping sound went away), but still not perfect.

[Chriscic]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. It's clear that some are not having the problem and some are. I am going to try running the Sage server from a different PC and see if that has any impact. Last time I tried this it didn't help at all, but that was a couple of revision ago of both Sage and the HD-PVR drivers.

Those who aren't having issues, 1) are you using optical inputs or analog inputs for sound, 2) what version of the HD-PVR driver and Sage are you using, ad 3) are you using an HD extender or a client PC (for those who didn't mention this).

I'll put a ticket in after I try the 2nd server PC again.

If this could be fixed man I would be so happy (and my wife would stop being disappointed with my large investment in whole-house, PC-based TV).

Note that I seriously doubt this has anything to do via IR blaster or firewire or USB-UIRT channel changing, since the issue is not the changing itself but Sage properly picking up and playing the stream after the channel change.

Cheers,
-Chris

[Beefcake550]

Here's my post from another thread but it seems to match the problem of the OP

Mines a little different.

I have an HDHR and a HDPVR. Watching recordings from either one works great. It's only live tv from the HDPVR that has problems. THe first channel I watch works great. If I change the channel in any way, everything gets borked. herky-jerky motion or sometimes it's smooth-ish with no sound. Once I changed my HDPVR to use the analog inputs, everything is buttery smooth and good (except for the lack of AC3 5.1 surround)

Please fix the problem soon SageTV! I love this extender except for this problem. I've been waiting since the day the HD100s went out of stock back in August to complete this media project for the new house. I think the WAF will go up now that this setup should just "work". She could care less about surround sound.

-B

[Beefcake550]

Of the people that said it worked perfectly....could you comment on which audio inputs you are using to go into the HD-PVR?

I found that the analog inputs work great for me while using the SPDIF input I have the same problem as OP.

-B

[Beefcake550]

I have logged a trouble ticket with Sage as well. I'd like to add it has nothing to do with changing of channels (I think). I say this because I have a client PC that is able to do everything without a problem and it's attached to the same server.

-B

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Those who aren't having issues, 1) are you using optical inputs or analog inputs for sound, 2) what version of the HD-PVR driver and Sage are you using, ad 3) are you using an HD extender or a client PC (for those who didn't mention this).

1. Analog for now. I was getting the under water sound when trying to use the optical with my FiOS STB. It worked reliably (for the small amount of time I had it hooked up that way) but the sound was really annoying.

2. 1.053 for HD-PVR and 6.5.3 beta (but 6.4.8 worked as well) for Sage

3. Both HD Theater and Sage client PC

[gplasky]

Working.

1. Optical
2. 1.0.5.3 whql. SageTV beta 6.5.3
3. HD-200, HD-100, MVP and PC Clients

Running a WHS server with a USB-UIRT for channel changing a Moto 6200 box on Comcast. HD-PVR, HDHR and 2 x nVidia DualTV tuners for analog. Don't do a lot of channel surfing (the wife still does) but I'll do it sometimes and it will be either the HD-PVR or the HDHR that I use.

Gerry

[Chriscic]

Gerry,
Were you in the "working" or "not working" camp?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Gerry,
Were you in the "working" or "not working" camp?

Edited the post. Working camp.

Gerry

[simonen]

Mine is working great after I changed the channel tuning delay. I recorded 6 hours worth of back to back content last weekend, and not one hiccup or overheating. I am using optical audio input connected to my Time Warner HD box which outputs based on the content, sometimes 1080i, sometimes 720p, but it always works great.

[Chriscic]

Simonen,
I'll give the delay setting a shot. To be clear though, when you watched the back-to-back content were you changing channels around, or just watching recorded stuff?

[simonen]

Well, for this case, I was recording them and picked up watching them about 45 minutes behind to skip past the commercials. But I usually toggle between certain channels all the time when watching live TV because I absolutely hate commercials.

Before I changed the delay, I would get the audio popping and video stutters and it would take about 10+ seconds before things got into sync and played fine with live TV. I tried setting the delay to 5000ms and worked my way down until it started stuttering again. 4000ms was the shortest time I could do, any shorter and it will stutter for me. In my last post, I said it was 3000ms, but it is 4000ms after checking my properties file. I think every tuner has this option, so make sure you are changing the right one.

delay_to_wait_after_tuning=4000

Hope that solves your problem.

[Chriscic]

So I would set that on the server PC right? Assume there's no place to do this on either the HD100 or HD200 directly. Thanks.

[Beefcake550]

That would be correct. Man if I read this right, that's a 4 second delay (minimum) for switching channels? That sucks...maybe it'll be less for me. I couldn't handle a 4 second wait between channel changes right now. It's about 1-2 second for me with analog audio. Oh well, I guess it really isn't that long. I'd probably get used to it if it worked.

Let us know if it worked for you Chriscic....

-B

[Chriscic]

I'm amazed this is working properly for anyone with an HD extender.

I am now on a different server PC with a different HD-PVR, and the behavior when changing channels is still problematic.

I didn't get to try the delay setting tonight. Tomorrow. I put in a problem ticket for now.

Wow, if I could get the channel changing down to 4 seconds that would seem awesome to me, since I'm used to waiting 10-15 seconds and then hitting the skip back button every time before I can watch.