HD200 skips chunks of recordings that play fine on PC

[michaeldjcox]

Anybody experienced HD200 missing skipping like 5-10 seconds of recordings?

At first I thought it was poor TV reception but then I noticed the recordings play back fine on the PC.

Both my HD200s do this.

Recordings where taken with a terratec cinergy 2400DT and are played back from some external USB drives with 64K blocks.

I notice that it only seems to be certain UK Freeview channels that suffer: Dave ja Vu and channel 4. It also only seems to be certain shows. Surely not!

WAF on a low again.

Michael

[hockeyfan]

I have seen this as well. But I have a satellite and conditions have been stormy off and on so I just figured that the skips were due to reception. I'm gonna have to test the file a PC as you did to see if the skipping is due to the HD200 or in fact a winter storm. It really never occurred to me that it could have been the HD200.

[hockeyfan]

I've since verified that this is due to my satellite reception during storms. When I watch the same recording in sagetvclient I see the same issue as when watching HD200.

[michaeldjcox]

My issue is definitely not related to signal reception.

Interestingly it always skips forward exactly 30 seconds into the recording.

There is no evidence of any problem with the recording when played back through SageTV client on a PC.

I love the HD200s compared to the MVPs but I got to be honest - thats two strikes now - first none of my home videos playback, now tv recordings will not playback.

SageTV support seems to respond quickly though and apparently there is a fix for the first issue available in next firmware beta.

I have submitted this latter issue to SageTV support today.

Michael

[samsocal]

sounds like you might have it set to auto skip commercials and not display the location bar when skips take place

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by samsocal

sounds like you might have it set to auto skip commercials and not display the location bar when skips take place

I did play with comskip in the past but not for the recordings in question.

Michael

[michaeldjcox]

Its an issue with the broadcaster. Fix to HD200 firmware will appear in next beta release to handle the problem.

Michael

[snowyb79]

Hi Michael,

I was just wondering if your problem got resolved as I'm having the same issue. I've installed the latest beta firmware and the problem is still there. It definitely occurs on Channel 4 but only seems to be certain shows...

Best regards,

Andy.

[michaeldjcox]

Yeah its still a problem.

SageTV claimed they have fixed it but cannot tell me when the fix will be released.

One of my HD200s sits on the shelf now and the MVP is back connected to the TV.

It has no problem playing those shows or video taken by my casio exlim camera which also won't play on HD200s.

Michael

[bits]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Yeah its still a problem.

SageTV claimed they have fixed it but cannot tell me when the fix will be released.

One of my HD200s sits on the shelf now and the MVP is back connected to the TV.

It has no problem playing those shows or video taken by my casio exlim camera which also won't play on HD200s.

Michael

Unless the exlim video format is mpeg then technically your MVP is not playing your video; the video is being transcoded on your pc first. The HD200 is natively decoding the video which is a big difference. IMHO transcoding should be avoided due to the strong potential for video degradation and the load placed on your PC(for the newer more powerful PCs this is not really much of an issue). At the very least it is not an apples to apples comparison when saying the MVP plays something that the HD200 does not. I used to run a MVP and there is no way I would ever run an MVP if I had an HD200 I could use instead. But maybe that is because I mostly play HD stuff and avoid transcoding like the plague.

What format and what are the video specs for your exlim? A lot of the digital cameras that shoot HD video seem to use some pretty odd ball codecs, resolutions, bitrates and frame rates. My Panasonic Lumix shoots AVCHD 1280x720 at 60fps and 14.5Mbs which the HD200 has no problem playing but it also records .mov (mjpeg) at 35.7Mbs and that does not play smoothly. However, I expected that because of the very high bitrate. The HD200 plays almost anything but I am sure I did not see anywhere in the specs where it said it can play everything.

I have had many network media players over the last 7 years (that includes an MVP) and by far the HD200 is the best of the bunch. It plays more file types without issues than any of the ones I have owned.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by bits

Unless the exlim video format is mpeg then technically your MVP is not playing your video; the video is being transcoded on your pc first. The HD200 is natively decoding the video which is a big difference. IMHO transcoding should be avoided due to the strong potential for video degradation and the load placed on your PC(for the newer more powerful PCs this is not really much of an issue). At the very least it is not an apples to apples comparison when saying the MVP plays something that the HD200 does not. I used to run a MVP and there is no way I would ever run an MVP if I had an HD200 I could use instead. But maybe that is because I mostly play HD stuff and avoid transcoding like the plague.

I was able to play Channel 4 broadcasts and my exlim casio AVI video with just SageTV and a MVP as a media extender but with SageTV and an HD200 as an extender I cannot.

What is or is not happening technically is irrelevant - a feature available to the user is no longer there.

Not being able to watch shows on one of the major public TV channels is a biggie.


Please don't get me wrong here the HD200 is a huge step forward and generally my family are much happier with its performance.

I think what niggles me a bit is that I've been told all my problems have been fixed but the fixes are not released yet and they don't know when (November 2009)

I keep downloading each beta firmware release but the fix never appears.

Michael

[starfire]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

I think what niggles me a bit is that I've been told all my problems have been fixed but the fixes are not released yet and they don't know when (November 2009)

I keep downloading each beta firmware release but the fix never appears.

Michael

Presumably you have asked them again what the delay is and when the fix will be released, what do they say?

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by starfire

Presumably you have asked them again what the delay is and when the fix will be released, what do they say?

I last checked back in April.

I've since decided I ought to wait until I had upgraded to SageTV V7 before pestering them again.

I've also got used to moving everyone to the room where the MVP is to watch that channel

I'll give it another go and report back.

Michael

[snowyb79]

Hi Michael and all,

Thanks for all the replies. I've opened a support request with Sage today regarding this problem just so they're aware that it's affecting more than one person. Hopefully we'll get a fix soon :-)

Cheers,

Andy.

[starfire]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

I last checked back in April.

I've since decided I ought to wait until I had upgraded to SageTV V7 before pestering them again.

I've also got used to moving everyone to the room where the MVP is to watch that channel

I'll give it another go and report back.

Michael

OK, good stuff.

Just a warning but I find my MVP almost unusable with Sage 7, its very very slow even with animations etc turned off.

[bits]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

I was able to play Channel 4 broadcasts and my exlim casio AVI video with just SageTV and a MVP as a media extender but with SageTV and an HD200 as an extender I cannot.

What is or is not happening technically is irrelevant - a feature available to the user is no longer there.

Not being able to watch shows on one of the major public TV channels is a biggie.


Please don't get me wrong here the HD200 is a huge step forward and generally my family are much happier with its performance.

I think what niggles me a bit is that I've been told all my problems have been fixed but the fixes are not released yet and they don't know when (November 2009)

I keep downloading each beta firmware release but the fix never appears.

Michael

I agree that it must be frustrating to be told your problems have been fixed but then not having the fix incorporated in subsequent firmware upgrades.

Just some food for thought and that is since you are transcoding video in order to play it on the MVP have you considered encoding the same video so that you can play it on your HD200? You could use the automatic encoding feature in STV. There is not much difference between transcoding and encoding except that transcoding has to be able to encode the video on the fly, which can be more lossy than encoding. As far as I can remember the MVP can only play mpeg video which means that unless your recorded video and camera video is mpeg it is being encoded on the fly(transcoded).

The trouble you are currently having with Channel 4 maybe your first of this kind but it will not be the last. Broadcasters world wide are constantly changing things and have absolutely no regard on how it may impact recording and subsequent play back. In fact if it screws things it is a bonus. There is no network media player company that can or ever will be able to keep up with the ever changing world of digital media and is especially so for broad cast media. Having said that, my advice is to accept the fact that you may have to resort to alternative less desirable means to getting what you want.

I do hope that Sage does incorporate your fixes in the next firmware release.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by bits

Just some food for thought and that is since you are transcoding video in order to play it on the MVP have you considered encoding the same video so that you can play it on your HD200? You could use the automatic encoding feature in STV. There is not much difference between transcoding and encoding except that transcoding has to be able to encode the video on the fly, which can be more lossy than encoding. As far as I can remember the MVP can only play mpeg video which means that unless your recorded video and camera video is mpeg it is being encoded on the fly(transcoded).

From my point of view they are just files copied from the camera to a media import directory and they play.

I use no plugins to play them and have made no config or media changes to get them to play with SageTV + MVP.

Who is doing the on the fly transcoding of my video files in a SageTV / MVP setup?

You are right I could just transcode to mpeg to get then to play on the HD200. I tried on a batch of sample files and it does work. If the promised fix doesn't materialise I will transcode them when I copy off the camera.

Michael

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Who is doing the on the fly transcoding of my video files in a SageTV / MVP setup?Michael

Your server. It will transcode anything that is NOT MPEG2 to a MVP by transcoding it to MPEG2. MPEG2 is the only format a MVP understands. HD200 can read just about anything and the will NOT transcode to a HD200.

Gerry