Are these problems common?

[jack_leach]

EDIT: Note that most of the problems listed in this post MAY have been resolved (see additional edit at the end of the post).

I have about three months experience with SageTV at this point and I've been thrashing through a multitude of problems with the most serious issues being related to the HD-PVR. While I've made some progress there, I'm now looking at a BUNCH of recurring "minor" problems that appear to be issues with the SageTV software (and not related to the HD-PVR). All of these issues, which I'll list at the end of this post, have the following in common:

- All programming and TV viewing is done through an HD-200 (I have four).
- I am the only user of SageTV in the household. My wife is the only other person in the house and I know that she doesn't touch it.
- I never "Watch Live TV" or select it.
- I don't use "Intelligent Recording".
- I don't use customizations (like SageMC).
- All of these problems have occurred multiple times at seemingly random intervals with no discernible pattern to their occurence.
- My server has lots of horsepower and memory (see sig line) and almost never goes above 10% utilization.
- My server is stable (nothing notable in the event logs)
- I don't drink or use drugs.

These are the events that I've been seeing:

1. Sage will occasionally start recording continuously and not saving recordings (just as if I had selected “Watch Live TV”), but I NEVER watch live TV (or select it).

2. A new entry will mysteriously appear in my favorites list; something I KNOW that I didn’t select.

3. An entry in the favorites list (one I created) will mysteriously disappear from the list and I KNOW that I didn’t do this.

4. A recorded show will mysteriously disappear from the SageTV Recordings list (and I have TONS of available disk space).

5. During initial playback of a recorded show, the audio will sometimes sound “garbled” (legible but seriously distorted). Sometimes the audio will go good all by itself after a few seconds, but most of the time I have to stop the recording, jump around to some other menu options at random, and eventually select the recording again and “usually” the audio will then be OK. This is obviously a “playback” problem (not a “recording” problem) because the problem is not repeatable, i.e. playing the same video segment will sometimes be garbled and sometimes OK.

6. The “language” setting will mysteriously change from English to some other language. So far I’ve seen Deutsch, Francais and Nederlands. Each time it changes, I have to go in and change the setting back to English.

7. Occasionally a watched show refuses to be deleted. I’ll go through the normal sequence for deletion (using the remote for an HD200) and confirm the deletion and everything appears to function normally, BUT the deleted show remains in the recordings list. I then try to delete the show a day or two later and that usually works (but not always).

8. Frequently I’ll go from the main menu to the SageTV Recordings menu to look for a show that should have recorded recently. On initially opening the menu the show will not appear in the list. I then back out to the main menu and reselect the SageTV Recordings menu and this time the show will appear in the list.

9. Sometimes a show that was programmed as a Favorite does not appear in the Recording Schedule list nor is the program marked for recording in the Program Guide, even though the Favorite is programmed for First Runs and ReRuns and the show has no conflicts and the show is scheduled to air today (well within the Sage three-day window).

So, is it normal to have to tolerate this many recurring problems with SageTV? I see at least two of these problems daily and some days I see many more. I've been lectured before on this forum that my expectations are way too high and that SageTV always requires a lot of tinkering, so I'm just trying to do a reality check here. If I keep tinkering, will I eventually be rewarded with a reasonably reliable system, or should I concede that I have inadvertently found myself in the land of the never ending tweaks?

EDIT: I've added numbers to the problems to help with identifying solutions and also added updates below.

SOLUTIONS AND/OR EXPLANATIONS:
In Post #2 Andy (Opus4) has provided likely explanations for problems 1 and 7.

I have resolved a problem (not listed above) involving "universal remote controls" that MAY account for most of the problems I've been seeing. Two of my HD200's are using universal remote controls that have both IR and RF outputs (and I forgot about the RF capability). A third HD200 is in my home theater where I happen to have a device that functions as an RF receiver and IR blaster and is NOT used for any of my Sage applications. The RF receiver was receiving commands from the two remote controls located elsewhere in the house and then retransmitting those codes via the IR blaster. The HD200 in the home theater was receiving those IR codes and causing the HD200 to perform "weird and mysterious functions". Because "some" but not "all" commands were being relayed to the home theater HD200, it resulted in sequences that were completely different from the commands that were being initiated at the other HD200. I solved the problem by blocking the IR emitter on the RF receiver/IR blaster (there's more to the story but it's not relevant here). I’ve noticed many times over the past two months that whenever I turned on the TV in the home theater that the Sage screen would be at some strange location or menu (not the main menu). This was an obvious indication of a problem but I didn’t “connect the dots” until now. If most of my problems don't recur over the next week or two, then I'll know that the mystery has been solved.

At this point, problem #5 is still occurring and MAY be the only unresolved item on my list, so I'm going to create a new thread for that item.

[Opus4]

Could you post a debug log from the SageTV server?

There are a lot of things you describe that are unusual... Favorites don't normally appear & disappear. Live TV could get started if you are watching a show that is currently recording. If you don't stop it (or if you leave it playing in the menu), background Live TV recording can continue. It is possible that a recording may not get deleted if SageTV is currently trying to create a thumbnail for it.

- Andy

[sleonard]

Umm, does your wife happen to like playing pranks or practical joke on people?

S

[cslatt]

Do you by any chance have the web server installed, but haven't changed the default username and password?

[rooobosmith]

Originally Posted by jack_leach

- I don't drink or use drugs.

I think I've identified your problem. Fix that and all your other problems will go away.

[jack_leach]

Originally Posted by rooobosmith

I think I've identified your problem. Fix that and all your other problems will go away.

Now THAT is some sage advice (pun intended)!

Jack

[reggie14]

I don't use an HD-PVR, so keep that in mind. I haven't experienced most of the problems you've mentioned.

2. A new entry will mysteriously appear in my favorites list; something I KNOW that I didn’t select.

3. An entry in the favorites list (one I created) will mysteriously disappear from the list and I KNOW that I didn’t do this.

Is it possible that you are accidentally hitting the favorites button on the remote?

4. A recorded show will mysteriously disappear from the SageTV Recordings list (and I have TONS of available disk space).

This has happened to me, but only when updating Sage, or going through a reinstallation process. Even then, it has only happened to me a couple times.

7. Occasionally a watched show refuses to be deleted. I’ll go through the normal sequence for deletion (using the remote for an HD200) and confirm the deletion and everything appears to function normally, BUT the deleted show remains in the recordings list. I then try to delete the show a day or two later and that usually works (but not always).

This happens to me all the time. The recording file is still being access by another process. That process could be another extender, it could be your antivirus program, a various other things. In my case, it's usually a sign ShowAnalyzer (a commercial skipping app) crashed while processing the file.

8. Frequently I’ll go from the main menu to the SageTV Recordings menu to look for a show that should have recorded recently. On initially opening the menu the show will not appear in the list. I then back out to the main menu and reselect the SageTV Recordings menu and this time the show will appear in the list.

Yeah, I see that occasionally too. Less frequently than I used to though. I'm not sure what's going on there.

9. Sometimes a show that was programmed as a Favorite does not appear in the Recording Schedule list nor is the program marked for recording in the Program Guide, even though the Favorite is programmed for First Runs and ReRuns and the show has no conflicts and the show is scheduled to air today (well within the Sage three-day window).

Does it record it in those instances? I've had problems similar to that, and I'm pretty sure it's guide data problems. Lately I've only been seeing that on Comedy Central recordings, which seems to have goofy EPG data. It's pretty rare though. Usually it going the other way around- recording things I've already seen, or recording things that are reruns.

[jack_leach]

Reggie14: Thanks for your reply. About the same time you were writing your post I was updating my original post with some significant information (see edits on OP). Thanks!

Jack