new info on what causes "seeker halt" error and pvr-350 lockups

[maximumpig]

deadbolt had this problem
i had this problem
i don't know if anyone else had this problem
deadbolt apparently solved it by buying new equipment


there wasn't a lot of feedback on it except from Jon Rhees, bless his soul, maker of the UIRT

[jrhees]

Yeah, interestingly Deadbolt also had a 440BX system...

Still trying to round one up to try my PVR-250 in.

-Jon

[maximumpig]

the mystery to me is why the encoder would get halted mainly on 5 minute marks--maybe 5 minutes (or however many milliseconds) is the least common multiple of 2 different clock speeds relating to the UIRT and the hauppauge card so they only conflict at 5 minute intervals.


??

where are you looking for a 440BX?

[Crowdx42]

Another possible reason for 5 min marks may be that Sage itself looks for show ends every 5 mins? I know I get a hiccup watching live tv after the end of one show when Sage breaks the file to start recording the next show. It could be related to this, if dma is disabled on the hard drive does it still cause the same problem?
Patrick

[maximumpig]

i had DMA enabled.

also, i would think sage knows when the show is supposed to end from the program guide, no?

but your guess is as good as mine. if this were an easy problem, we would have heard from Frey by now. . . .

[Crowdx42]

Might be worth trying with DMA disabled, I have seen machines fail to boot with DMA enabled, might be worth a look?
Patrick

[maximumpig]

i would think that disk xfer speed might be too slow for sage w/o dma

well, it's certainly cheap and easy to try.

will let you know

[Crowdx42]

Not too sure,,I think it would be fine for recording single shows, multiple shows might be a problem.
Patrick

[Deadbolt]

After weeks of headaches and frustration I bought a Via based motherboard with onboard video (which I don't use)/audio/lan, an Athlon XP 2500 and half a gig of RAM....with the motherboard being free after rebate it came to $175 after tax and shipping. I had the rest of everything I needed....

...I'm not in bliss. I should have done it earlier. Absolutly no problems! Not to mention the perf. increase from the PII-400 to the Athlon XP 2500.

[ezeitler]

Deadbolt - What model mobo did you buy?

I just got a 'free' Soyo S7VME and am awaiting the arrival of the CPU (Duron 1.8GHz) to put it all together.

[Deadbolt]

That is the same one I got! It rocks...solid pvr-350 support, on board everything including video. I wish it had one more PCI slot for an IDE card (extra hard drive support) and the ability to autostart if power is returned after an outage but hey...can't beat free!

[Crowdx42]

Why a Duron? Full Athlons are so cheap right now, much better cpu.
Patrick

[maximumpig]

aw man don't second-guess zeitler's purchase post-purchase! that's a bummer
that's like telling someone they shouldn't have spend the extra $$ for a pvr-350 instead of a 250

oh, wait. . .

[Crowdx42]

LOL... well I have 3 PVR 250s and my next purchase may actually be a PVR 350 so that I can put a client box at the tv and all the main recording would be done over the network on a server box, freeing up one of the faster machines for other work.
Patrick

[ezeitler]

Originally posted by Crowdx42
Why a Duron? Full Athlons are so cheap right now, much better cpu.
Patrick

Good question. I looked at the XP 2500 (1.8GHz) for $70 but got the Duron 1.8GHz for $44 because this will be a dedicated mATX box in the living room. The Duron is less heat, smaller power supply and less fan noise. The bump from 266FSB to 333FSB meant more expensive memory also.

I will have one PVR 350 in the box with a Matrox G450 ($19) for surfing using the TV. The Duron 1.8GHz is excessive since I am currently running V2.15 and the PVR350 with no problems on a 900MHz VIA C3. This is the only x86 box in the house, the other 4 boxes are G3 Mac's running OS 10. The VIA C3 is able to supply live TV while also serving video over the 100BT enet to the Mac's so I didn't see the need for excess cpu power.

[Crowdx42]

A 1.8 ghz Thorobred would have been the same price and a MUCH better cpu, but as you said it would not be really needed in that setup unless you decided to do encoding on that box while it was not recording.
Patrick

[ezeitler]

Originally posted by Crowdx42
A 1.8 ghz Thorobred would have been the same price and a MUCH better cpu, but as you said it would not be really needed in that setup unless you decided to do encoding on that box while it was not recording.
Patrick

I don't understand the encoding comment. Since I have a PVR350, encoding & decoding are in hardware.

Where could I get that CPU for $44? Pricegrabber didn't show anything near that price.

[Crowdx42]

Ok was $5 off, actual cost is $50. As far as encoding, I was talking about re-encoding to divx to save disk space.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...codevalue=4159

Patrick

[ezeitler]

Originally posted by Crowdx42
Ok was $5 off, actual cost is $50. As far as encoding, I was talking about re-encoding to divx to save disk space.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...codevalue=4159

Patrick

Thanks for the link.

I was comparing equal clock speeds so I didn't look at that cpu. I wanted the max cpu clock for the $$ since the cpu will mostly be moving data around the network.

I have found that my 400MHz G3 Mac is much faster for divx transcoding and ripping than either the 900MHz C3 or a 700MHz Pent3 that I borrowed.

I copy the files to the Mac and transcode them there. The burner is also on the Mac. I am only putting a CD drive in the PVR box for OS install and then removing it to reduce heat.

[Crowdx42]

The 1800 thorobred is a clocked down cpu, it is same cpu that gets sold as 2400, I have several of these cpus running at 2ghz, they are running cooler than my 2500+ barton.
Patrick