Recordings - sporadic skips and blips/pixelations

[graywolf]

Started getting sporadic few second skips in SageTV recordings or blips/pixelations.

This is happening on 2 different machines.

The files do get moved from the SageTV servers to the File Server (unRaid) via SQJ.

Any tips on how to start diagnosing the issue?
What to look for in the logs?

Anyone have a "guide/tips" on reading the Sage logs?

[BobPhoenix]

You could try turning off flow control in Windows 7 to see if that helps. Assuming your clients or your server with extenders is Windows 7 anyway.

[graywolf]

Sage Servers are XP
Extenders are HD200/HD300

Also, the skips/pixelations are in the recordings. so hit it same spot whether I view from the hd200 or hd300.

Was hoping something in the sage logs might help point if the 1600 cards are going bad? maybe issue with my unRaid? could the files be getting corrupted when moving them from server to unRaid?

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by graywolf

Sage Servers are XP
Extenders are HD200/HD300

Also, the skips/pixelations are in the recordings. so hit it same spot whether I view from the hd200 or hd300.

Was hoping something in the sage logs might help point if the 1600 cards are going bad? maybe issue with my unRaid? could the files be getting corrupted when moving them from server to unRaid?

I don't believe it would corrupt them to move them to unRAID but if you believe it is then don't use SJQ to move them. Use something that will copy and generate a checksum and then verify the copy afterwards has the same checksum. Another thought is to go ahead and SJQ to move them but get an MD5 checksum on the files before they are moved. Then use MD5Deep on unRAID to see if the checksums match. What you are talking about sounds like what I get occasionally - bad signals causing bad/pixelated recordings. I get 95-100% signal strength most of the time but after watching the strength on a live recording I can see it drop to 50% when the pixelation happens.

[SitFlyer]

I've had issues recording certain shows on certain stations OTA. It got to the point that I removed those shows from Favorites and subscribed to Hulu-Plus .
Fox and Hell's Kitchen never came out right for most of the latest season.. Everything else mostly records fine. If it don't turn out okay it's always FOX. Go figure?

[phelme]

What are you source devices?

I'm trying to figure out why my remote SageTV PC (on XP as well), when run as a network encoder, has occasional pixelation problems, but when run as a straight server (writing to the same networked drive) does not. It's driving me crazy.

Sage only writes out so much info to the logs so it's sometimes hard to figure these things out without trial and error and eliminating one thing at a time.

Can you temporarily record to another drive that isn't your RAID box?

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by phelme

What are you source devices?

I'm trying to figure out why my remote SageTV PC (on XP as well), when run as a network encoder, has occasional pixelation problems, but when run as a straight server (writing to the same networked drive) does not. It's driving me crazy.

Sage only writes out so much info to the logs so it's sometimes hard to figure these things out without trial and error and eliminating one thing at a time.

Can you temporarily record to another drive that isn't your RAID box?

I had a similar problem to yours with XP. Is the Ethernet controller on your remote SageTV server an Intel one? If so, is it a proper controller or a PHY? If the latter you could have problems under XP when the controller is pushed in particular when acting as a network encoder. If your motherboard has two NICs chances are that one is a PHY, so your solution is to make sure that SageTV is not using the PHY and that can be easily achieved by changing the NIC priority.

The NIC priority can be changed in the Control Panel > Network Connection > Advanced tab

Eddy

[phelme]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I had a similar problem to yours with XP. Is the Ethernet controller on your remote SageTV server an Intel one? If so, is it a proper controller or a PHY? If the latter you could have problems under XP when the controller is pushed in particular when acting as a network encoder. If your motherboard has two NICs chances are that one is a PHY, so your solution is to make sure that SageTV is not using the PHY and that can be easily achieved by changing the NIC priority.

The NIC priority can be changed in the Control Panel > Network Connection > Advanced tab

Eddy

yeah, it's on board Ethernet, but I think it's a Realtek based NVidia. I think I may have a spare NIC around somewhere I could try. I'm familiar with having to change up NIC's as I I have a "proper" Intel Pro on the main server because it helps with SageDCT.

But what's the difference when running as a network encoder that could cause this, is it because of the increased amount of chatter between the two SageTV servers? Is there really that much more traffic?

(sorry graywolf, not meaning to hijack your thread)

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by phelme

yeah, it's on board Ethernet, but I think it's a Realtek based NVidia. I think I may have a spare NIC around somewhere I could try. I'm familiar with having to change up NIC's as I I have a "proper" Intel Pro on the main server because it helps with SageDCT.

But what's the difference when running as a network encoder that could cause this, is it because of the increased amount of chatter between the two SageTV servers? Is there really that much more traffic?

(sorry graywolf, not meaning to hijack your thread)

I would instantly install a proper Intel Pro NIC and forget the Realtek. It's not a bandwidth issue, but quality which can easily cause underruns in SageTV which in turn produces pixellation.