need help: hd-100 stuttering but program plays fine on server computer...

[t4uecker]

hi there -

i recently set up a new pc running windows 7 with an hd-pvr and finally have things working almost fine. i say "almost" because there have been several times where watching through an hd-100 extender causes the program material to stutter/pause. stopping the show or putting the extender into standby and then resuming it didn't seem to make any difference.

i went over to the pc that has the sage server running and tried playing the show on that computer. worked just fine...no stuttering or anything. went back to the hd-100...still stuttering/pausing.

once or twice, restarting the hd-100 seems to have fixed the problem, but another time it didn't.

two other things that might or might not matter: (1) i recently updated the firmware on the hd-100, so it should have the latest version; and (2) i'm not sure but it may be the case that the stuttering happens if the hd-100 is paused for quite a while and goes into screen saver mode (though not sure how/why that should matter).

any thoughts on what may be happening and how to fix it?

thanks,
tu

[t4uecker]

really? no suggestions on this?

[MitchSchaft]

What's the rest of your hardware setup? Do you have the latest sage software and extender firmware? How is it connected to the network?

[appelm]

A friend of mine had a similar problem a while back. We replaced various components until we finally narrowed it down to his relatively new linksys router... He replaced the router (with a d-link) and it fixed the problem.

[sic0048]

Lots of things it could be, which means it might be hard to track down. Network issues would be high on my list too however. Since the playback worked well on the server, clearly it is not a signal reception or recording issue. That's why I lean towards network.

[t4uecker]

Originally Posted by MitchSchaft

What's the rest of your hardware setup? Do you have the latest sage software and extender firmware? How is it connected to the network?

yes, so some additional information would probably help here (also for the person suggesting the network issue):

1. my old computer running sage is still in place and running, with an hvr-1600 tuner card that records ota broadcast hd channels. (the reason for upgrading to the new system was that comcast has now encrypted the cable channels so i'm switching to the hd-pvr to access those again, which necessitated buying a new computer also).

2. i'm leaving that old system active and running while i get the new system stabilized.

3. the old system is connected to a gigabit ethernet switch upstairs, which in turn is connected to another gigabit ethernet switch in the basement, to which the hd100 extenders are connected. i also have a linksys router, which is connected to the switch in the basement, and the only other connection to the router is a laptop computer that my wife uses for work.

4. importantly, when i power on one of the hd100 extenders, if i connect to the old system, they play back just fine...no stuttering...even though the old system also is recording hd shows.

5. i only have the stuttering problem when i connect from an hd100 to the new system.

6. the new system is connected to the network exactly the same way as the old system is -- via an ethernet cable to the upstairs ethernet switch.

7. although i originally thought it might be a networking problem, i don't see why it would happen only when i connect via an hd100 to the new system rather than the old one, when they're both connected in the same way.

8. the only other thing that's changed recently is that i upgraded the firmware on the hd100 units to whatever was the latest one they detected -- i think it's 20090611 1.

is there any reason that it would be problematic to have the sage software running on two separate computers simultaneously? (i assume not, since the hd100 has an option to connect to multiple sage servers).

is it possible that the decoder or renderer (or whatever) that the new system is using might be different from what the old one is using, and that's causing the problem?

is it possible that the new hd100 firmware is an issue?

i also read another post where the output resolution to which the hd100 was set was creating problems and it was solved by setting a custom resolution in the sage.properties file. but again, i'd think if that was a problem, it would affect both the old system and the new system.

hopefully that helps with the troubleshooting...

thanks again!

[toricred]

The new system has at least three differences from the network perspective.

1. The network cable is different so one check would be to try swapping the cables as there might be something wrong with the cable to the new server.

2. There's a different network card in the new system. Are you using the network card on the motherboard and what chipset is it? Specifically is it gigabit and is it connecting at gigabit speeds?

3. The easiest to test is that the port on the switch it is connected to is different. You might try swapping the ports on the switch.

[Fuzzy]

These are also very different files you are looking at here, as well. The old system is HD MPEG2 recordings. the new system with the HD-PVR is HD H.264 recordings. the H.264 stream is far more 'picky' it seems and less likely to muttle through minor network problems. What you can do is copy one of the H.264 recordings form the new machine to the old machine, and try playing it back with the HD-100 from there.