HD Extender locks up on occasion?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent

Since I've not seen this lockup being described could someone tell me what it does when it locks up? Is it during playback and the playback just stops or is it the entire menu locks up with a frozen screen?

Could I stress test mine by just playing video constantly until I see a lockup?

Originally Posted by carlgar

If you hit it, you should know it. It requires that you restart the extender to regain control. I have only seen it while playing videos.

You could stress test it by having it play live TV for 24/7. If you do not encounter it within 7 days, then I would say you have a bug free system. I don't run 24 hours but 6.5 days is my record for not seeing the issue.

For the good of the community (I know that's laying it on thick...) I'm running my test with my HD-100 Extender. I'm on 27 hours and counting of playing CBS HD non-stop without any user intervention. Off and on during this time I've been using the SD Extender (Hauppauge MVP), a client PC and the server PC for video, music and movie playback. I'm going to continue running this test for 7 days and nights straight to see how it goes. After that, I'll start playing around with the remote on the HD-Extender (without stopping video) to see if that does anything.

Any other suggestions on how to stress-test are welcome. The server PC is on XP Home using service mode.

[DigitalMan]

I occasionally get the same lockup after pressing FF. It happened the other day when my wife went to watch CSI and tried to FF through the beginning. The remote activity light doesn't respond, and waiting doesn't help. I never have to touch the server to fix it, just hit the power switch on the extender and it comes right back up. I'm still running 6.3.5 on the server.

It doesn't happen often, and its not like I don't use skip features much, actually I use them a LOT. If it were easier to repro I'd run a sniffer to see what goes on at the time.

I don't recall having this issue before the 2/4 firmware.

[mistergq]

When mine locks up, I need to restart Sage (not the OS, just the SageTV). That frees everything up.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by mistergq

When mine locks up, I need to restart Sage (not the OS, just the SageTV). That frees everything up.

That sounds like a different issue. You should turn on logging and notify support. If sage itself locks up then the log should be useful to support.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by DigitalMan

It doesn't happen often, and its not like I don't use skip features much, actually I use them a LOT. If it were easier to repro I'd run a sniffer to see what goes on at the time.

For months I thought it was a network issue. But after getting several wireshark captures. The network issues are a result of the lockups not the cause. The lockup caused the server not to receive an expected ACK. Therefore, the server attempted to resend to packet. Still no ACK from the brain dead extender. Then the server attempted to ARP the extender and again no response. This is why the log showed a VISTA tcp stack issue.

[mikejaner]

Chalk me up as seeing these issues too. Latest firmware, current version, vista etc...... I do have the log from a session where the video started going in slow motion and skipping frames till I fast forwarded, but I am not sure if it will give them any help on the lockup issue.

Carlgar, did you send the info about the missing ACK packet to the Sage guys? It sounds to me like this could very well be the cause of all of these issues.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Carlgar, did you send the info about the missing ACK packet to the Sage guys? It sounds to me like this could very well be the cause of all of these issues.

Yes support is aware of everything. I was able to point them to this thread to convice them it was not a hardware issue. My recent test have been at the request of support.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by carlgar

Yes support is aware of everything. I was able to point them to this thread to convice them it was not a hardware issue. My recent test have been at the request of support.

Cool, this is driving my pregnant wife insane, therefore, me too
Hopefully, they have a fix soon.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by Brent

Any other suggestions on how to stress-test are welcome. The server PC is on XP Home using service mode.

You might want to change channels occasionally to mix up the formats. The recordings I watch are 480i, 720p and 1080i.

I am using a HDMI connection to my HDTV. How are you connected?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by carlgar

You might want to change channels occasionally to mix up the formats. The recordings I watch are 480i, 720p and 1080i.

Will do.

I am using a HDMI connection to my HDTV. How are you connected?

I'm connected using HDMI connected to an LCD HDTV as well.

[jm987]

I've got 2 extenders that I'm often running at the same time and when I do have the issue (has happened on both extenders) it's only one of them that freezes up. The only way I have been able to reset them is using the power switch.

I'm running XP SP2 on the server, Java 1.6 Update 5, Sage 6.3.10 RC. They are all running the most current firmware (can't remember what it is now but just tried doing an update a couple of days ago and nothing available)

1st extender is plugged in via HDMI and SPDIF, the other is via component cables and RCA cables for audio.

I find that it most often happens when a new show starts recording while watching a prerecorded show.

I'll have to look into how to create a debug log because this issue is starting to bug me.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by jm987

I'll have to look into how to create a debug log because this issue is starting to bug me.

While it won't hurt to have a log. I doubt if it will do any good. It appears to be an problem in the firmware on the extender. The log only show what happens between the extender and the server. When the hang occurs it appears to terminate communication between the extender and the server. Support had me run the extender in a special debug mode to get output direct from the extender. I don't believe that provided any useful information.

To enable logging add this line to the sage properties file while sage is shut down:
debug_logging=TRUE

You should also add this line which will show information about specific threads:
thread_debug=TRUE

[DigitalMan]

Originally Posted by carlgar

... It appears to be an problem in the firmware on the extender....

That's what I was trying to point out earlier, although I haven't emailed support on this since I don't have a clear idea how to repro it. I skipped a firmware revision here and there, so I'm not positive whether I had used the one before 2/04.

2/04 is when I first started to see this issue however. Never saw it once before that.

Unfortunately I don't have time nowadays to try to debug it myself. You really need a kernel debugger on the extender to see what's going on.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent

For the good of the community (I know that's laying it on thick...) I'm running my test with my HD-100 Extender. I'm on 27 hours and counting of playing CBS HD non-stop without any user intervention. Off and on during this time I've been using the SD Extender (Hauppauge MVP), a client PC and the server PC for video, music and movie playback. I'm going to continue running this test for 7 days and nights straight to see how it goes. After that, I'll start playing around with the remote on the HD-Extender (without stopping video) to see if that does anything.

Any other suggestions on how to stress-test are welcome. The server PC is on XP Home using service mode.

Well After just over 3 full days my HD extender locked up and just shut down. This was 3 days with non-stop liveTV both HD and SD with some occasional channel switching. It crashed while unattended so I didn't see the event, but I can say it obviously had nothing to do with a person messing with the HD Extenders remote since nobody was near it at the time.

Obviously this isn't an isolated case and there is some issue with either the firmware or something else. To be honest I've never stress-tested any of my other SageTV devices to this extend so I can't be entirely sure I wouldn't see the same result on those, but it does seem that there is something wrong with the HD extenders firmware. I would think it is something that could be corrected with another firmware update though.

[carlgar]

Has anyone who has encountered this problem been running with component output? Support asked me to try component ouput. I told at the time I did not want to until I saw the results of Brents test, which now confirms that it probably is a very widespead problem with the extender. I tried to setup using component but was not sucessful. I suspect it is because I tried to A/V cables instead on component. I do not have component cables and cannot justify a purchase of them. So I would like to see verification from someone that problem does exist using component output.

BTW: Brent, I am sure the problem can be corrected in the firmware. Once support can figure out what the problem is. I think they are just as confused as everyone else at this point.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Brent

Well After just over 3 full days my HD extender locked up and just shut down. This was 3 days with non-stop liveTV both HD and SD with some occasional channel switching. It crashed while unattended so I didn't see the event, but I can say it obviously had nothing to do with a person messing with the HD Extenders remote since nobody was near it at the time.

Obviously this isn't an isolated case and there is some issue with either the firmware or something else. To be honest I've never stress-tested any of my other SageTV devices to this extend so I can't be entirely sure I wouldn't see the same result on those, but it does seem that there is something wrong with the HD extenders firmware. I would think it is something that could be corrected with another firmware update though.

Has anyone had the extender lockup who wasn't running HDMI to the display?

[peternm22]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Has anyone had the extender lockup who wasn't running HDMI to the display?

I have. I'm using component video, and analog L/R for audio.

I'm using Windows XP, and the latest firmware for the HD100. Lockups can occur a couple times a day, or every few days. It doesn't occur as often as it did with the previous firmware, but it still happens.

[mikejaner]

I am using component on both of mine also.

[carlgar]

Does anyone seeing these hangs power off the box overnight?

I am going to start powering off the extender overnight and see I can go 7 days without seeing the issue.

[peternm22]

Originally Posted by carlgar

Does anyone seeing these hangs power off the box overnight?

I use to power off the box every night (the switch on the back), then I switched to putting it into standby every night so that startup time is faster. I haven't seen any difference in the frequency of lock ups.