Circle of Death when trying to playback video

[dynamix]

I get the circle of death trying to playback videos on my sage.tv client. Videos recorded from my HD-PVR or xvids I downloaded off the net. It seems to happen every few months, and always results in me having to reinstall windows/sage.

I've had this problem in WinXP 32 and Win7rc AMD64.

I've tried deleting sage/java, reinstalling with the latest versions. I've tried increasing the java mem heap size. I've tried reinstalling the video drivers.

The only thing I run on this machine is Sage.tv client. Like I say, I'll be using the machine fine for several months, then suddenly anytime I playback a movie sage locks up with spinning circle. Reinstalling windows always fixes it. This has happened to me about 3 times now.

Any ideas before I reinstall? This time I'm definitely going to create a system restore point.

[SWKerr]

Can you play back the movie in something else?

[mistergq]

What is your computer specs?

[dynamix]

yeah playback seems fine on other client...

The machine in question is... AMD 4850be, Nvidia 8800gt, gigabyte ga-ma74gm-s2 motherboard, 2gigs of ram.

I will also mention this seems to happen around the same time that java starts popping up annoying update messages in the middle of my shows. might just be a coincidence. of course I have since updated java, but my problem persists.

[joe123]

I too am getting the Circle of Death - very slow responses, especially if I change a favorite or a channel lineup.

I have a dual 3GHz Intel running XP 32bit, 2GB memory.

My wiz.bin file is about 28,000KB. I been running SageTV for many years now. Could it be that this file is too big or what may be causing the real slow responses?

[mike1961]

Same here - seems to have happened since I installed a new version of Java a while back but it was so long ago that I'm not sure how to revert or what to do. Problem even exists when playing DVDs on the local client workstation.

Mike

[paulbeers]

You can always install an older version of Java. Sun makes it available via their website. Just uninstall all versions of Java, access the Sun/Java webpage, find the historical downloads and download an older version. I had to do this when 6.12 came out as it completely hosed my Sage Server. Reverting to 6.11 fixed the problem. Not sure what I am running now. I recommend you turn off auto updates on Java always.

[UgaData]

See this sticky for installing Java and it's updates.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40521

Basically, I uninstall SageTV, then uninstall Java, Then reinstall Java (or the updated Java), and reinstall SageTV.

I would also recommend unistalling ALL the old Java versions (if you haven't already)


The SageTV uninstall doesn't delete the SageTV folder under PROGRAM FILES, so all of your Sage settings should be retained. (That said, it doesn't hurt to backup (at least) the various sage property files and the WIZ.BIN file.)

FYI - for my setup the Server and Client are the same machine. I currently don't have any extenders, clients, or placeshifters in use.

[joe123]

I don't know if Java is the issue slowing down my system or not - if that is the cause, I am happy to downgrade Java.

My current Java Version says 1.6.0_17-b04

Is there any way to know what is slowing down my system other than downgrading Java? Also what older version of Java works best with SageTV?

The SageTV Circle of DEATH is really getting bad - I have to wait minutes when I stop a recording just to get SageTV back. The circle of death happens with any any action requiring SageTV to think.

[mike1961]

If I'm also having problems playing a DVD on one of my clients I'm wondering if that also could be a JAVA issue on either the client or server or both?

Thanks,
Mike

[joe123]

On Win XP, how does one get rid of Java all together?

• I removed all Javas with XP add/remove program.
• Install and ran Windows Installer Cleanup to get rid of Java.
• Install and ran JavaRA to clean up any left over Java stuff.

After reboot, I still see Java icon in my Control Panel. No Java is shown in XP add/remove program, but I see the Java icon in Control Panel.

When I goto http://www.java.com, it says I have the latest Java installed.

How the HECK do I get rid of Java altogether to start fresh?