My HD PVR: Lockup with sage.playback.exception

[phlucas]

Hello Everybody,

I mentioned on this forum the problems I had with my previous HD-PVR. It died after three days of use...

So I received my replacement unit yesterday. Ok, so far it works better than the first, one, but it lock-up about every 1hour. So I cannot access the TV (it is black), and after a while I have got the following message:

'There were a playback error. Details Sage.playback.Exception.'

So I have to unplug the HD-PVR, and start my computer again to make this thing working...

The unit I have is a E1, and I am using the 1.053 drivers.

Is anybody here having similar problems? May be if I install the new drivers,(1.054 beta), it will help?

Thank you very much in advance,

PHilippe

[Fluffdaddy]

Is it............... Error -4,0x8007001f ?

[phlucas]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

Is it............... Error -4,0x8007001f ?

I do not know. I will check next time I get this error...

[skepticon]

phlucas,

I have 2 Rev.C2 units and 2 Rev.E1 units. With the E1 units, I get constant lockups that sound exactly as you describe. With the Rev.C2 units I get reliable recording. My E1 units are currently sitting the corner of my living room unused until something comes along to resolve this problem.

[Xiphoid]

I'm also having this problem....I have RMA'd my C1 unit for an E1 unit and I'm still having these f-ing problems. I'm sooooo frustrated. Are there any solutions at all, or did I buy a $250 paperweight?

[71_Cuda]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

I'm also having this problem....I have RMA'd my C1 unit for an E1 unit and I'm still having these f-ing problems. I'm sooooo frustrated. Are there any solutions at all, or did I buy a $250 paperweight?

I, too, have been frustrated with trying to get a D2 to work. It looks like I might finally have it licked - although I don't want to have a premature celebration. If you search the threads, you'll find good suggestions on things people have tried to make theirs work. I plan to summarize these in a thread - from my lessons learned - as soon as I can (and when I'm confident mine is working correctly).

In the end, it probably depends on when yours locks up. Is it when you're changing channels, navigating menus, while you're away not using it, etc? For me it would lock up when I was changing channels and navigating menus. I had tried updating drivers, having the HD-PVR on its own USB bus, modifying the change channel delay in sage.properties, setting the satellite receiver to fixed resolution output, etc. Nothing seemed to help. What has seemed to work for me is blocking the IR Receiver port on the HD-PVR itself. (Thanks to a suggestion from Rico66). I used to have frequent (several per day) lock ups while trying to configure and set up the system. Since I covered the HD-PVR's IR sensor two days ago, I haven't had a single lock up. Fingers crossed it continues.

Hope this helps.

[Xiphoid]

It has happened when I was away and not watching (which seems to confound the "playback exception" error...it wasn't playing anything back!??!? It has also happened when I was trying to change channels.

Just to be clear, you physically covered the IR sensor? So how exactly do you use your remote to change the channels on your tuner?

[sleonard]

Despite the wording of the error it is not a playback error. It is a recording error and happens when the HD-PVR stops responding to Sage.

Why the HD-PVR stops responding is anybody's guess. It could be the HW, it could be Sage, it might be some arcane USB incompatibility. There are a number of us here that have had this issue and have been able to make workarounds by using a different PC or scheduling the server and HD-PVR's to power off at night but no one has solved it yet. In fact, I am in the middle of setting up a brand new server in the hopes that my 3 HD-PVR's will start working reliably on the new system.

I wish I could say that someone at Hauppauge and/or Sage was actively working on finding out the root issue but I don't think that is the case (although Opus once asked me if I was interested in installing some sort of special debug files to help track down the issue but it would have required me to drop down to a single HD-PVR/tuner and I needed all three)

S

[71_Cuda]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

It has happened when I was away and not watching (which seems to confound the "playback exception" error...it wasn't playing anything back!??!? It has also happened when I was trying to change channels.

Just to be clear, you physically covered the IR sensor? So how exactly do you use your remote to change the channels on your tuner?

I'm setting up SageTV to replace an old XP MCE HTPC. I'm still using my MCE remote and receiver for getting the signals into the computer. They just worked right off the bat, so I never gave it much thought. I don't use any of the blasters (MCE or HD-PVR) - I tune a DirecTV box through a serial connection. I guess I didn't realize anyone was using the HD-PVR IR sensor with their remotes.

[Striker:WG]

I had a couple of the playback.exception errors tonight on my HDPVR. I RMA'd my E1 and received a D2 and I'm still getting the same crap.

Very interested to hear about the idea of covering the IR sensor. I'm going to try that now and hopefully that helps.

I have to say this HD PVR, when it works properly its awesome. I saw it happen for about a week straight. We had -50c weather and I swear hell froze over because my HD PVR was working. Now its warming up and the issues are back

-Striker-

[Striker:WG]

Well, after about 15 minutes of playing around changing channels and timeshifting playback I had the following results:

2 missed channel changes
2 errors reporting no tuner is available to tune the selected channel
1 system lockup siting watchdog.sys

its still a fancy paperweight, but at least there were no playback exceptions this time

-Striker-

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by sleonard

I wish I could say that someone at Hauppauge and/or Sage was actively working on finding out the root issue but I don't think that is the case (although Opus once asked me if I was interested in installing some sort of special debug files to help track down the issue but it would have required me to drop down to a single HD-PVR/tuner and I needed all three)

S

This 4,0x8007001f playback error is kicking my butt.

When I had just one HD PVR there was zero problems and zero missed recording for months, Once I added a 2nd HD PVR all hell broke out. Don't know what else to try next.
Guess I'll try the covering the IR sensor trick.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

It has happened when I was away and not watching (which seems to confound the "playback exception" error...it wasn't playing anything back!??!? It has also happened when I was trying to change channels.

Just to be clear, you physically covered the IR sensor? So how exactly do you use your remote to change the channels on your tuner?

I put a piece of tape over the sensor, and had 0 lock-ups since then. But this obviously only works, if you have another IR receiver to change channels (I use the MCE receiver for remote control, and IR blasting).

[Chriscic]

I have maybe 1 lockup a day with my D2 (went through a C1 and C2 first, same issues). I think the HD-PVR is c***. I actually have two units (running one at a time), and both have the lockups, although one less often than the other.

Haven't had time to try to cool a unit more and see if that helps or anything. I agree that either Sage or Hauppauge should be looking into this. I am going to try to let TME run recording for a long while. If it locks up there too (probably... this is what happened with my C1 every 2 minutes) its not Sage-related.

My lockups though say something about capture device no longer working, not sage.playback.exception, unless maybe it says both; don't remember.

Does Hauppauge have any support forums? I don't think they do.

[Peter_h]

How hot are your cable boxes and HDPVR's. Where are they in located?

In my testing, 3 things were causing consistent lockups, HD-PVR getting too hot, Haupauge IR blaster malfunctioning, STB getting hot/locking up.

I had my HDPVR sitting on top of my cable box, after about a week, I was getting daily lockups. I did some testing and both were gtting really hot. The cable box seems to vent out of the top and the HDPVR out of the bottom. Together, bad combination.

I moved them apart and both are now staying cool to the touch. No lockups in almost 2 weeks. *knock on wood*

That coupled with moving from the crappy Haupauge IR blaster to firewire channel changing and a brand new STB just to be sure and everything seems to be ok.

[azakinthinos]

I had very similar issues until I upgraded to the 1.0.54 beta drivers. All of my issues went away and it has been fairly reliable. I do occasionally have a problem and that seems to be caused by the STB not tuning properly through firewire (see http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39941 for my resolution on this issue).

I have a long trying to get things stable and I'm pretty close. My only remaining major issue is the occasional audio sync problem.

Aris

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

How hot are your cable boxes and HDPVR's. Where are they in located?

In my testing, 3 things were causing consistent lockups, HD-PVR getting too hot, Haupauge IR blaster malfunctioning, STB getting hot/locking up.

They're side by side (with a gap), not on top of each other.

Things may have gotten worse since I moved the server and therefore HD-PVR to upstairs... the basement may have been slightly cooler.

I'm not too keen on installing the hdpvr_v1054 drivers. They're not even posted on the Hauppage site, and I suspect there's a reason for that.

If I could get the things to stop locking up I'd be mostly happy. My wife who stays at home with the kid (and therefore likes to have the TV on part of the day) is a saint for not getting mad at me yet, esp. since I spent about $1.6k getting the house wired and adding Sage and HD-PVR equipment.

[Fluffdaddy]

I'll tried covering up the IR sensor on both my HD-PVR's and have not had a lock-up in over 72 hours. Before the "duct-tape" fix I was locking-up 3-4 times a day with (4,0x8007001f playback error)..........will wonders ever stop.

Why the heck would covering up the IR sensor stop lock-ups?

I'm Knocking on wood this keeps working for me. I was a week away for sending my irds to get the R5000HD mod

[71_Cuda]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

I'll tried covering up the IR sensor on both my HD-PVR's and have not had a lock-up in over 72 hours. Before the "duct-tape" fix I was locking-up 3-4 times a day with (4,0x8007001f playback error)..........will wonders ever stop.

Why the heck would covering up the IR sensor stop lock-ups?

I'm Knocking on wood this keeps working for me. I was a week away for sending my irds to get the R5000HD mod

It's been six days since I covered my IR sensor (as mentioned in my previous post). Unfortunately, I had one lock-up since. Fortunately, that's a lot better than the several per day I was having before that. That one lock-up happened while I was editing the channel list - and I selected "View" on a channel that I don't subscribe to. While not perfect, I can deal with it if that's the only time I get lock-ups.

[babgvant]

Try forcing your STB to output a fixed resolution (720p for e.g.); that's what finally fixed the lock up issues for me.