HD-PVR lock-up roll call

[MrD]

Rock solid with 2 HD-PVR 1st gen / 2nd gen

On the 1st gen I put heat sinks on the transistors and capture chip and drilled air holes in the top. The power transistors run way way way too hot and need heat sinks on them. I know this due to scorch marks on the silk screen around the transistors.

Supermicro X7DVL-E (ESB2 South bridge)
Linux Fedora 12 Kernel 2.6.32-170
Sage 7

[Polypro]

2 early gen HD-PVRs. IR port covered, latest drivers, DirecTV locked to 720p, 5.1 S/PDIF. Not 1 problem since install (~6 months or so).

P

[Rico66]

Mostly solid. But I do see lock-ups every now and then. One thing that can bring the hd pvr down is non related USB traffic.

Yesterday I connected my Zune to sync, while Sage was recording on the hd pvr. Not only did the hd pvr lock-up, but it also took the Sage service down with it, which I consider much worse. So it seems that Sage is at least partly at fault here as well (in v7). Easiest way out was to reboot the whole machine.

[eric3a]

2 HDPVRs, no lockups in over a year. Using 301 drivers.
IR windows blacked out. On NEC USB cards.
Eric

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by eric3a

2 HDPVRs, no lockups in over a year. Using 301 drivers.
IR windows blacked out. On NEC USB cards.
Eric

wow - I missed all those things in the HD-PVR manual - lol

[davidk21770]

Since I put a piece of black electrical tape over the IR sensor and started using my USBUIRT for that function, I haven't had a single lock-up. I'm using 1.5.7.0.

[shatter]

I am not sure how to answer exactly. I have to power cycle my HD-PVR once a week or it will eventually drop frames throughout a recording every 15-30 seconds or so (not sure what triggers this to begin happening).

I am running Windows XP SP3 with a P4 chip on an ASUS motherboard. I use the built in IR blaster and use EventGhost to restart it once a day as well otherwise it will stop changing channels. I am using the 1.0.5.301 driver for the HD-PVR.

Under these conditions and workarounds, I have not had my HD-PVR lock up or refuse to record a show.

[Xiphoid]

I've had my HD-PVR for about 3 years now, and I have had to regularly power cycle the unit every other day, sometimes as often as once or twice a day.

About 3 weeks ago I installed a Hauppauge 2250 into my machine to add another set of tuners. After installing the 2250, my HD-PVR hasn't locked up once. This seems to be too much of a coincidence given the rate at which have had to power cycle the unit before.

Does this experience mirror anyone else's experience?

[gplasky]

Not mine. But updating the 2250 may have also caused the drivers for the HD-PVR to be updated or changed for you. Or your prior install was furbared and it was missing a component or a component didn't get updated.

Gerry

[thatdude90210]

I started using one of these, USB Net power 8800 to power cycle via remote desktop. They are about $30 on ebay.

I was using a timer before, but somehow I was still seeing lockups. Plus when the timer powers down, it always give Sagetv a system message I had to delete later.

[will]

Originally Posted by thatdude90210

I started using one of these, USB Net power 8800 to power cycle via remote desktop. They are about $30 on ebay.

I have been thinking about buying a device to power cycle my HD-PVRs.

My HD-PVRs are extremely stable and only lockup when the cable company forces a reboot/upgrade on my cable boxes at 4 a.m. So I have to first power off my HD-PVRs then power cycle my cable boxes (15 mins) and finally turn the HD-PVRs back on. Often times I don't catch these force updates until after I get home from work.

I'm looking at purchasing this http://www.ambery.com/reposw.html because it lets me power cycle individual outlets over the network via different protocols (telnet being one of them).

Are there any plugins that can trigger a batch script based on events? If not I am thinking about writing a small application that will check the Sage log file every 10 minutes for a lockup then trigger the power cycle events.

[SDeGonge]

Initially I had lockups but they have all gone away. Currently I'm configured as follows...

Latest SageTV software
Latest HDPVR drivers
IR port on HDPVR covered
Using FireWire for channel changing
Switched from TosLink to stereo only
Tweaked the channel change delay (made longer)
Reboot daily at 4am!!!