Why does the HD200 take so long to work after being powered on?

[MCE-Refugee]

Yesterday evening when we came to watch the programme that we had recorded I discovered that the power extension that the HD200 is plugged into had been switched off so I switched it back on while we settled down to watch the TV. After about 8-10 minutes of sitting watching the SageTV splash screen & with my wife getting restless I thought that perhaps it had hung & also remembered that I had noticed that it can be a little quicker to power up if not connected to the network. So I unplugged the Ethernet cable then power cycled the HD200 & sat down & waited another 4 minutes with just the SageTV splash screen visible. Finally there was a hiccough, the screen went black, the box appeared to power cycle again & then the status bar & 'Loading configuration' appeared. I re-plugged the network cable & then connected to my Sage Server & all was OK but at least 15 minutes after we had settled down to watch TV. Never mind the delay causing a poor Wife Acceptance Factor this Husband finds it pretty unacceptable too. So a couple of questions.

Is it normal to take literally 5 minutes between powering on the HD200 & having any sort of menu screen? or more than 10 minutes to have the SageTV Media Extender working when connected to the network?

If it is normal then why? What on earth is happening that it takes so long?

I have a WDTV Live box that just like the HD200 plays all manner of audio & video files including 1080p H.264 MPEG4 & only takes a few seconds to be ready for action. The slowest computer in the house would not take so long to boot up & start SageTV Client from power off.

[Brent]

If you're using the HD200 in extender mode and you already have the HD200 plugged in do this next time:

Hit the "Home" button instead of the power button. This causes the HD200 start up immediately to the SageTV Extender mode and should take a matter of seconds - not minutes.

Even still, it shouldn't take 5 minutes to power on even using the power button.

[PiX64]

I found that having multiple .xml config files in my sagetv directory on the server would sometimes cause startup issues. Almost as if the hd200 is looking for the xml file and getting confused for some reason. I solved this problem by only keep 2 xml files on the server. One for the hd200 clients, and 1 backup. Not sure which UI you use, but i use SageMC with several different stvi's.

I also have noticed when restarting my dedicated Sage Server, starting the service, and then trying to connect to the Server with an HD200 for the FIRST time it takes considerqably longer than the normal 8 - 10 seconds. By considerably longer i mean 30 seconds.

After the initial connection is made, everythign is fine and startup goes back to 8 - 10 seconds.

[MCE-Refugee]

Just to be clear my problem is not with hitting the power button on the remote as that starts the HD200 in a matter of seconds. The problem is if the power supply is unplugged & then plugged back in so that the HD200 is starting from 'cold'. This takes many minutes.

My server is running the standard GUI & has not extras or customisation at all.

Can others confirm this problem or is it unique to my box?

[freedml]

Try this -- turn off 'connect to server automatically' and see if that helps...

[stanger89]

Yeah, that takes a while. A power of cold start is not a quick process.

[Brent]

I've never timed it (time from plugging in to powering up) but that does take longer. But why would you unplug it anyway?

[personalt]

I have been having a similar problem on one or two of my extenders... it hangs on the first splash screen... so far 25 minutes. this is a recent issue for me and does not happen on all the extenders.. I acutally wonder if one of the recent firmware updates did this.

[gplasky]

If all the extenders are at the same firmware you need to strat isolating the issue. The first place I would look is the network and network cable. Verify the IP address each extender gets. Take the problem extender to another room and swap it. Or just take it where you can plug it into a different network cable and seeif the problem still exists. Lastly delete the .properties for that extender in the clients directory and see if that fixes it.

Gerry

[personalt]

that was one of my plans for today. but my quesiton is that it seems to lock up in the first 10 seconds(first splash screen) well before it tries to connect to my local sage server. isnt that first splash screen before it tries to connect?

my plan for today is either to shut down sage or just disconnect extender from network and try and see what happens... maybe I can get some benifit from reflashing to beta firmware.

[stanger89]

That could well be when it's attempting to get an IP.

[MCE-Refugee]

My HD200 has a fixed IP address so that cannot be the reason why it takes so long to start.

There are many reasons why the box could be powered off. A power cut or as in my tale that started this thread it could be accidentally powered off. Some people even like to switch off all electrical gear at night for safety & to save power & be 'Green'.

I still cannot imagine why it takes so long for the device to boot up compared to any similar device (Linux based media player) or indeed any other consumer electronic device.

[stanger89]

I don't know, BD players can give it a run for it's money.