OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by gordyp

I have been using PrimeNetEncoder, and wanted to give OpenDCT a try, so I disabled my PNE Scheduled task, stopped and disabled the SageTV Service, rebooted my server and tried to install the program (Beta 0.5.7) but I received the following error:

Could not set file security for file 'C:\ProgramData\'. Error: 0. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to modify the security permissions for this file.

And the program reported an error and ended the install. Anyone have any idea as to why this is happening? I looked but couldn't find anything elsewhere in the thread...

Thanks!

Is the account that you're installing from a local administrator? Other than that, I can't think of any other reason why you couldn't install the software.

[FriscoJohn]

I upgraded my two Win7 computers to Win10 (in-place upgrade, not a new install). First computer upgraded with no problems--OpenDCT working fine.

Second one didn't go so well. Initially SageTV/OpenDCT seemed to work. I tuned a live channel and it played OK. Unfortunately when I clicked the "stop" icon to return to Sage from live TV the picture froze and so did the computer. It wouldn't respond to keyboard or mouse input and required a hard shut down. Continued to do this on multiple tries.

The only difference between the successful machine and the failed one was that the first was using OpenDCT 4.49--i.e., the most recent stable version. The second, the one that failed, was running an earlier version of OpenDCT--version 3.??.

OK. I uninstalled OpenDCT 3.?? and installed 4.49. Now the problem is that when I tune a live channel it shows "No signal".

I've attached the logs (the SageTV is excerpted as the original is over a megabyte--let me know if the excerpt isn't enough). I'll appreciate any help you can give. (And thanks again for giving us OpenDCT.)

[Fuzzy]

Honestly, on anything Win7 or later, if your computer is actually freezing up (meaning can't get task manager up to kill a frozen app), I chalk it up to a hardware/driver issue - as that's about the only thing that CAN cause that. Certainly nothing that only touches basic network functionality like OpenDCT.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by FriscoJohn

I upgraded my two Win7 computers to Win10 (in-place upgrade, not a new install). First computer upgraded with no problems--OpenDCT working fine.

Second one didn't go so well. Initially SageTV/OpenDCT seemed to work. I tuned a live channel and it played OK. Unfortunately when I clicked the "stop" icon to return to Sage from live TV the picture froze and so did the computer. It wouldn't respond to keyboard or mouse input and required a hard shut down. Continued to do this on multiple tries.

The only difference between the successful machine and the failed one was that the first was using OpenDCT 4.49--i.e., the most recent stable version. The second, the one that failed, was running an earlier version of OpenDCT--version 3.??.

OK. I uninstalled OpenDCT 3.?? and installed 4.49. Now the problem is that when I tune a live channel it shows "No signal".

I've attached the logs (the SageTV is excerpted as the original is over a megabyte--let me know if the excerpt isn't enough). I'll appreciate any help you can give. (And thanks again for giving us OpenDCT.)

The OpenDCT logs don't reveal much. All I see is that OpenDCT detected your HDHomeRun Prime. After that it's complete silence.

The SageTV log is more interesting. It is telling me that that it detected capture devices from OpenDCT on 127.0.0.1 and at 192.168.1.6. You're using the remote address is that was you actually want to be doing? That would explain not seeing anything in the logs for the 127.0.0.1 copy of OpenDCT. Also being that the recording path is not a UNC and it's on C:\, it might be producing the recording, just not where SageTV is expecting it. I would check the capture devices you added to make sure they have the IP address 127.0.0.1 and not your remote server on the other address.

[FriscoJohn]

Progress...sort of.

I changed the SageTV source to the 127. address and I could tune live TV. So that worked. (I'm wondering why SageTV found DCT-Primes at both a 168. address (which didn't work) and a 127. address (which did) but that's not my concern at the moment.)

Unfortunately upon trying to stop live TV (clicking on the square stop icon) I got the same problem as I had had with the earlier version of OpenDCT under Win10. That is, the picture froze and the computer wouldn't respond to either keyboard of mouse input so I had to kill it by holding in the computer off button.

I used the OpenDCT with Sage on this machine under Win7 for several months without a single glitch.

Any suggestions as to how to troubleshoot this? SageTV log is attached.

Thanks again.

[FriscoJohn]

Some more data points re my problem getting SageTV working on Win10.

It's not just OpenDCT channels that freeze the computer when live TV is stopped, same thing happens with channels tuned by my Hauppauge 2250 OTA tuner.

Also, it's not just live TV that freezes the machine. When I play an old recording it plays fine but when playback is stopped that also freezes the machine.

It looks like OpenDCT is an innocent bystander and the problem lies in a problematic interaction between SageTV and Win10. (There was no problem with Sage when it was running with the same hardware on the same machine under Win7.)

Would appreciate any suggestions as to trouble shooting. Thanks in advance.

[EnterNoEscape]

Are you using the Windows Client, Android miniclient or one of the hardware extenders?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by FriscoJohn

Some more data points re my problem getting SageTV working on Win10.

It's not just OpenDCT channels that freeze the computer when live TV is stopped, same thing happens with channels tuned by my Hauppauge 2250 OTA tuner.

Also, it's not just live TV that freezes the machine. When I play an old recording it plays fine but when playback is stopped that also freezes the machine.

It looks like OpenDCT is an innocent bystander and the problem lies in a problematic interaction between SageTV and Win10. (There was no problem with Sage when it was running with the same hardware on the same machine under Win7.)

Would appreciate any suggestions as to trouble shooting. Thanks in advance.

I'd suspect video drivers, honestly.

[FriscoJohn]

EnterNoEscape--
I was using SageTV on the computer, viewing the computer's HDMI output. Your comment prompted me to activate the SageTV server on that machine and try viewing it on my HD200 extender. The HD200 played all the videos without a hitch which pretty well isolates the problem to the hardware on the computer (Dell 620, i3 processor, AMD Radeon HD5450 video card).

Fuzzy--
I updated the video card's drivers. No help. The odd thing is that VLC will play all the problematic SageTV video recordings without a hitch, using that same video card. HDHomerun View and WinTV7 both work fine with my HDHR-Prime and my Hauppauge 2250 respectively, again using that same video card. Also, SageTV under Win7 worked fine on the same hardware.

As a last resort I upgraded SageTV to the open source SageTV 9 on the problem computer to see if that would help but there was no change. The only thing that accomplished was that I lost my access to the SageTV EPG, (even though I created an Environment Variable named SAGETVUSERKEY with my Sage serial number as the value as per the FAQ). I keep getting the "Error connecting to the SageTV server" message now when I attempt to re-install my tuners.

I can only conclude there is some weird interaction between that one computer, Win10, and SageTV. I'm thinking about getting a new video card to see if that fixes the problem. As I mentioned, I had no problem doing an in place upgrade to Win10 on my main SageTV server and everything continued to work as before.

Thanks guys for your help. I'm posting my detailed results in case it might be of use to somebody.

[Fuzzy]

VLC doesn't use hardware acceleration, so the fact that it is working, and anything that uses directshow is not sort of backs up the idea that it's a video hardware issue.

[Tiki]

Have you checked your Windows logs for errors? Might point to the specific hardware problem.

You might also try changing the renderer in Sage (EVR, VMR9, etc), or the decoder, hardware acceleration etc.

[FriscoJohn]

Tiki--
I tried all possible combinations of renderers and decoders in SageTV--no help. I disabled all the options on the video card--hardware acceleration, etc.--didn't help. All drivers are up to date.

Finally gave up on Win10 and retreated to Win7. Everything works again in SageTV. Video display is fine, no glitches starting and stopping videos or live TV. Sage EPG server is on line again.

If I get itchy for a new project I'll try putting in a new video card and trying Win10 again but I'm leaving well enough alone for now.

Many thanks to everybody who helped troubleshoot. Is this a great forum or what?

[FriscoJohn]

Oh, and I checked the Windows logs--no application or hardware errors posted at the time of the crashes.

[jmv]

Folks,

I've been ignoring this issue but WAF dictates I ask...my SageTV server (Windows 2012 R2 based) playback freezes at the program change. Sometimes it can recover by exiting out and restarting the current live program, other times I have to back door into the server and hard restart it from an Admin account.

I haven't noticed freezing on recorded content, it always occurs on Cable card prime based live recordings.

I tried switching the "Always tune channel" advanced parameter from a Yes to No but the behavior didn't change. I am using an older rev of OpenDCT (I think 0.4.49 but could be 0.5.4).

Does anyone else observe this behavior or is there a fix?

mv

[ranger]

If the freezing is just when the program changes try the following. It should work.
Edit SageTV.properties
Change below line from true to false
seeker/fast_mux_switch=false

[jgsouthard]

Originally Posted by jmv

Folks,

I've been ignoring this issue but WAF dictates I ask...my SageTV server (Windows 2012 R2 based) playback freezes at the program change. Sometimes it can recover by exiting out and restarting the current live program, other times I have to back door into the server and hard restart it from an Admin account.

I haven't noticed freezing on recorded content, it always occurs on Cable card prime based live recordings.

I tried switching the "Always tune channel" advanced parameter from a Yes to No but the behavior didn't change. I am using an older rev of OpenDCT (I think 0.4.49 but could be 0.5.4).

Does anyone else observe this behavior or is there a fix?

mv

I don't normally use Live TV, so I wasn't sure if I'd have an issue or not. Normally if I'm watching a show "live" I go into the Program Guide, select the show, and select "Watch Now." I'm not sure why, but somewhere in past years that seems to work more reliably for me than Live TV.

But I just tried Live TV and let continue to play across a program change boundary, and it worked OK. (See my signature for my setup.)

Hopefully ranger's fix will work for you, but in my case I still have seeker/fast_mux_switch=true, and I don't seem to see the issue.

[EnterNoEscape]

There appears to be a problem with at least the open source Windows Client when the show is paused while watching live TV, then resumed and transitioning into the next recording with fast remux enabled (enables the smooth transitions between shows). The problem is more likely to happen on MPEG2-TS content, but I have seen it happen on MPEG2-PS too. The miniclient's do not have this issue nor does the placeshifter. This is not limited to OpenDCT. Some people reported this issue with the natively supported capture devices too. The source of the problem will be hard to find because I believe it's somewhere in the native code.

[UgaData]

Originally Posted by jmv

Folks,

I've been ignoring this issue but WAF dictates I ask...my SageTV server (Windows 2012 R2 based) playback freezes at the program change. Sometimes it can recover by exiting out and restarting the current live program, other times I have to back door into the server and hard restart it from an Admin account.

I haven't noticed freezing on recorded content, it always occurs on Cable card prime based live recordings.

I tried switching the "Always tune channel" advanced parameter from a Yes to No but the behavior didn't change. I am using an older rev of OpenDCT (I think 0.4.49 but could be 0.5.4).

Does anyone else observe this behavior or is there a fix?

mv

I was having a similar issue. I watch live TV for a short time each morning (morning news). It started after I updated OpenDCT and was fixed by updating it again. I having been running beta versions, not sure which version the issue showed up on, nor the version I am on now. If I remember, I will check when I get home and post back (at least for the version I am on now).

It has been a couple weeks now, but I seem to remember, all I had to do was hit the jump back once and all would then proceed as normal.

[jmv]

seeker/fast_mux_switch=false seems to have worked after a robust testing methodology consisting of one program change monitor! Will continue to follow up...since this appears unrealted to OpenDCT probably should move on from this topic and back to things that are directly related to OpenDCT.

[videolog]

I have been using Sage DCT for a very long time and have been trying to switch to Open DCT for a couple of weeks. It seems every time I switch I start getting halts. I have tried the stable as well as the beta and both get the same results. I like OpenDCT because on placeshifter it gets all the channels I should get. On SageDCT a number of channels no longer work with placeshifter. I am sure I must be doing something wrong somewhere.
I am attaching the logs I think you need. Any help would be greatly appreciated.