Server & HDHRPrime rebooted, new IPs, Tuners show "Functioning: false"

[psklenar]

Server is WHS v1 SP2 (yes, circa 2008 - haven't posted a lot here because it's simply worked most of all this time).

SageTV v 7.1.9.256

I stupidly didn't have my server nor Prime configured for static IPs. Even though prior power outages didn't cause havoc, this one did and everything came up on new IPs. And SageTV couldn't view the Prime tuners anymore. I started mucking around changing IPs in the sage.properties file and, I'm sure, made things worse.

Current status ....

If I shutdown SageTV service and run Configuration_SageDCT (v2.7.4.0) ... it sees and can command all three tuners in the HDHRPrime (file being recorded grows, etc). I generated a new assignments file and copied it into my sage.properties (overlaying the earlier mmc/encoders block). I made sure the IP ports are open in Windows Firewall.

If I open HDHR QuickTV ... I can see all my channels just fine.

If I start the SageTV server and go into SageTV (either from an extender or on the server console), when I go to add the turners, they all show as "Functioning: false" and I'm never able to preview any channels in Channel Setup. If I save the tuner setup anyhow and try to View Live TV, I get this error: ERROR (-10): No encoders can tune the selected station.

So. This all went south because my IPs got messed up (that's fixed, both have static IPs now) and I made it worse by manually hacking away at the properties file. Now ... even tho SageDCT can see and control the tuners just fine, I can't get SageTV to do so. So where do I look next?

Thank you for any guidance!
p

[waynedunham]

Just adding more info here. I got him set up with SageDCT many months back when his Cable Co stopped using clear QAM and he lost all his channels.

He is using SageDCT 2.74 (or whatever the most current ver is) He has tried using both FFMPEG and Dump as the recording method.

We started with the basics, get the Prime working in the HDHR utils first, then get it working in SageDCT, then work on getting it going in SageTV.

Oh, BTW as an FYI, we also checked mmc/ignore to make sure that the tuners didn't get put in that line of sage.properties.

Pat, something I thought of late last night. Try shutting down SageTV/SageTV Service. Move all your sage.properties files (and the automatic backup of it in the SageTV directory) files outside somewhere that SageTV won't see them. Re-fire SageTV Service making SageTV create a new properties file.
Shut SageTV down again and copy in the assignments.txt info from SageDCT again. Re-fire SageTV and see if they work then. This would eliminate anything else in the properties file that may have been an issue.

If that works then we can work on figuring out what was in properties causing the issue and maybe keep from having to completely rebuild SageTV to get everything back working that is saved in the properties file.

[psklenar]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

... Try shutting down SageTV/SageTV Service. Move all your sage.properties files (and the automatic backup of it in the SageTV directory) files outside somewhere that SageTV won't see them. Re-fire SageTV Service making SageTV create a new properties file.
Shut SageTV down again and copy in the assignments.txt info from SageDCT again. Re-fire SageTV and see if they work then. This would eliminate anything else in the properties file that may have been an issue.

No change.

Clarification for others reading Wayne's post ... COX removed all Clear QAM channels in my area at the end of last year and Wayne helped me get up and running with the HDHR Prime and CableCard. Since then, I've installed no new s/w nor updated any existing s/w.

p

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by psklenar

No change.

Clarification for others reading Wayne's post ... COX removed all Clear QAM channels in my area at the end of last year and Wayne helped me get up and running with the HDHR Prime and CableCard. Since then, I've installed no new s/w nor updated any existing s/w.

p

I was really hoping that would do it. <sigh>

[KryptoNyte]

Maybe a transition to OpenDCT would be a workaround? We have a very active developer over there.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Maybe a transition to OpenDCT would be a workaround? We have a very active developer over there.

That is probably what is next if he can't get it going. It just seems odd that a change in the IP of the box and/or the HDHR Prime killed a working setup and trying to move over the the "new" (now reserved/locked) IP wasn't a simple fix.

One more thing I may try with him is manually changing the SageDCT encoder port (a real PITA BTW). I went through fits trying to get the HDHR Primes working with SageDCT on my WHS (same version he's using) setup and after working with Babgavant (sp?) manually changing the encoder port was the only thing that got me up and running. I don't think it was something he suggested, just something I resorted to based on the error messages I was getting. (don't recall what they were a couple years ago now)

I have been actively watching the OpenDCT thread and want to give it a try, it is just the whole "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." thing in my case. I rely so heavily on SageTV that the thought of going without it even a couple days sends shivers down my spine.

[KryptoNyte]

Run a full OS system image backup before you get started with the transition. Occasional system images do wonders for the uptime of a SageTV server. I even have a USB boot/flash drive armed and ready, and can have an older image backup restored in under 15 minutes (that's a complete SSD hard drive wipe and image restore). I use Acronis True Image Home, but there are others.

[psklenar]

I shutdown the SageTV service, copied sage.properties to a safe folder and restored my 12/12/15 backup (from when I added the Prime CableCard tuners) to sage.properties. I then did "change all" thru it to change the tuner IP address to where it is now and changed the three IP ports to what they respond to SageDCT "Test" tab with. Restarted the service and ... still "Functioning: false" and "Error (-10)".

I shutdown the service and editted the sage.properties adding 1000 to the three port numbers (including in the Encoder ID numbers) as Wayne says he did to get his working a while back. SageTV now thinks the port numbers are different than they reply with in SageDCT, but Wayne says that was the only way he and babgvant could get it to work on his installation. Restarted the service and ... still "Functioning: false" and "Error (-10)".

Unless anyone can come up with any other ideas ... I guess shutting down SageDCT and installing OpenDCT is the only other recommendation I've heard.

p

[psklenar]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Run a full OS system image backup before you get started with the transition. ... I use Acronis True Image Home, but there are others.

Thanks, but this server is running on 8+ yo HDDs. Not sure it'd be all that ... "quick".

Heck, does Acronis even support WHS v1?

p

[KryptoNyte]

Ah. Sorry. I missed the WHS part.

[psklenar]

significant update. Wayne just sent me an email stating that where I was plugging in the HDHR Prime's IP address into my sage.properties file, his had the server's IP address in it! So, after shutting down the SaveTV service, editting the properties file to use the server's IP vs the Prime's IP ... I now see "Functioning: true" in tuner setup! However when I go to actually tune a channel, I get "no signal".

Any ideas what might be the issue with this change?

Thank you and good night,
p

[Fuzzy]

Functioning: false means that the SageTV Server can't talk to the network encoder (in your case, the SageDCT service). Sage does not ever directly talk to your prime, so the prime changing IP's should have no effect. If SageDCT and SageTVService are running on the same system, you can set the IP address in sage.properties (mmc/encoders/XXXXXXXXX/encoding_host=) to 127.0.0.1, which means localhost, which means it should always be able to find SageDCT, no matter what IP address your server is at.

[psklenar]

I'm confused as to how it worked in the past since I'll swear I had the Prime IP number in there ... but ... putting 127.0.0.1 in ... and all is well in the world again. Danged if I understand why.

I'm planning to replace the 8+ yo HDDs in a couple weeks when I am on vacation. Maybe I'll try OpenDCT then. Altho ... if I can do this without breaking anything, maybe i won't have to worry about it. <fingers crossed>

Thank you *all* for your patience and assistance.
p

[Fuzzy]

I think you'll find opendct with sagetv 9 will give you much more consistent recordings as well, though. Things you might occasionally experience with inconsistent skips and timeline issues and such (the result of local advertising insertion by the cable company) can be fixed on the fly as it's being recorded.

[psklenar]

Thank you Fuzzy. So the remaining question is ... Stay WHS v1, update to WHS 2011 or build a pseudo server with Win7, Win8.1 or Win10?

p

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by psklenar

Thank you Fuzzy. So the remaining question is ... Stay WHS v1, update to WHS 2011 or build a pseudo server with Win7, Win8.1 or Win10?

p

Having just done a full system rebuild myself, I'd go with unRAID, and use the SageTV Docker.

[psklenar]

Thank you Fuzzy. I'm taking three weeks off at the end of the year. Maybe I can read up on unRAID and Docker and feel comfortable trying it then.


For this upcoming week in September, my main goal is to pull everything out the 8+yo WHS DE Pool onto new HDDs and *maybe* replace WHSv1 with WHS 2011 or a new desktop Windows OS that I already understand and am comfortable with.

p