Weird HD-200 problems

[ytulpan]

I have a SageTV server, 4 extenders updated to the latest sw revisions and 6 PC clients.

I'm using DVB-S2 tuners and I'm located in Israel. The DVB ts usually contains the video (Mpeg/h.264), 2 audio channels and 2 DVB subtitle channels. The EPG is lifted off the DVB cards and is in Hebrew.

Problem #1. Unicode.

If I set "allow_unicode_characters_in_generated_filenames=true", the recorded files will contain the show name in hebrew and will play OK in software extenders. They won't play in HD-200's. In fact, they "look" like playing, timeline advances, there is no error, but the screen is blank and there is no sound. The funny thing is that when pressing "Options" while watching the blank screen, I see an option for choosing subtitles. It does not matter what I choose with that option, nothing will show on the screen anyway.

If I set "allow_unicode_characters_in_generated_filenames=false", things function alright, but there is no option for the subtitles in "Options". Go figure.

Problem #2. New native recording patch

In this case, we set "allow_unicode_characters_in_generated_filenames=false" so that we can disambiguate the problems.

If I update the server with (any version of) the patch, everything works as it should with software extenders. With the HD-200, recordings (or live TV) show, or don't in a random fashion. Sometimes a channel will show, changing to another and back will not, and have the same symptom as in 1. above (that is no error showing, blank screen, no sound and the option for subtitles in the "Options" menu). I could not find any regularity, except that when a channel plays, it plays indefinitely until there is a channel change; if it doesn't, it's also indefinitely until a channel change.

So basically, I can't use neither unicode, nor update with the native patch. It looks like there is some rudiments of code for the support for DVB subtitles in the HD-200 that is triggered in diverse cases, and when it is triggered, the HD-200 does not work.

Any ideas ?

I will submit this to the tech support as well