6.5.20 locking HD-PVR often

[ghostlobster]

I know that the occasional lockups on the HD-PVR are a fact of life, however, before putting 6.5.20 in place, I only had to recycle my HD-PVR once per week, if that often.
I applied 6.5.20 this past weekend and have had to recycle my HD-PVR at least once per day. Unfortunately, I can not readily reproduce this issue, so generating logs for a bug submission will be difficult at best. I've noticed that this happens mostly when watching a live show on the HD-PVR, then going to the guide and selecting a different show on another HD-PVR channel to watch.
I'm going to try and reproduce this and get some kid of log, but as it's intermittant, I'm not certain I'll be able to get one.
Has anyone else seen this behavior?
I'm running SageTV for WHS on the server, and a SageTV Client (not an extender, a full client) on a new installation of Vista Premium, Cyberlink h.264 decoders, and AC3 as my audio decoder.
Both,server and client are at 6.5.20.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

I know that the occasional lockups on the HD-PVR are a fact of life, however, before putting 6.5.20 in place, I only had to recycle my HD-PVR once per week, if that often.
I applied 6.5.20 this past weekend and have had to recycle my HD-PVR at least once per day. Unfortunately, I can not readily reproduce this issue, so generating logs for a bug submission will be difficult at best. I've noticed that this happens mostly when watching a live show on the HD-PVR, then going to the guide and selecting a different show on another HD-PVR channel to watch.
I'm going to try and reproduce this and get some kid of log, but as it's intermittant, I'm not certain I'll be able to get one.
Has anyone else seen this behavior?
I'm running SageTV for WHS on the server, and a SageTV Client (not an extender, a full client) on a new installation of Vista Premium, Cyberlink h.264 decoders, and AC3 as my audio decoder.
Both,server and client are at 6.5.20.

No. I've been running 6.5.20 since it came out and have multiple HD-PVR recordings every day. (I have Law and Order up the ying-yang) No lockups whatsover. But I don't do Live TV. I'll take a look at the live tv-guide thing when I get home. (If it's not recording another Law and Order again.)HD-PVR 1.5.6 drivers and SPDIF to a Comcast cable box.

Gerry

[jarredduq]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

I know that the occasional lockups on the HD-PVR are a fact of life, however, before putting 6.5.20 in place, I only had to recycle my HD-PVR once per week, if that often.
I applied 6.5.20 this past weekend and have had to recycle my HD-PVR at least once per day. Unfortunately, I can not readily reproduce this issue, so generating logs for a bug submission will be difficult at best. I've noticed that this happens mostly when watching a live show on the HD-PVR, then going to the guide and selecting a different show on another HD-PVR channel to watch.
I'm going to try and reproduce this and get some kid of log, but as it's intermittant, I'm not certain I'll be able to get one.
Has anyone else seen this behavior?
I'm running SageTV for WHS on the server, and a SageTV Client (not an extender, a full client) on a new installation of Vista Premium, Cyberlink h.264 decoders, and AC3 as my audio decoder.
Both,server and client are at 6.5.20.

Are you using the IR Blaster that came with HD-PVR? If so, that may be your issue. I was having lock-ups almost every day. Since switching to the USB-UIRT over a week ago, I have not had a single lock-up.

Jarred

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by jarredduq

Are you using the IR Blaster that came with HD-PVR? If so, that may be your issue. I was having lock-ups almost every day. Since switching to the USB-UIRT over a week ago, I have not had a single lock-up.

Jarred

I'm using firewire for channel changing...I hate blasters. I entered a bug to Sage and they said that they had not changed anything that would impact that area...so, they're thinking that it's coincidence.
It's as annoying as all get-out though. I guess I'll try and roll back the server to a prior version and see if I still run into the problem, but I'll have to do it at a time when the system is not in use and I'm not working.
It just happened again a few moments ago. The wife was watching something on Fine Living, and then flipped on over to HGTV-HD...and bam...it froze on the blank screen for a few moments, then Capture Error. Personally, I'm OK with THAT particular lockup, but when the same thing happens when flipping from ESPN to The NHL Network, then I get upset!

Oh, and I'm mrunning the HD-PVR drivers 1.5.6 and using the composite audio. I could never get S/PDIF to work properly.

[HelenWeathers]

I'm getting some capture errors as well of late. These are during recordings when useing both HD-PVRs:

HD PVR Capture Device Component+SPDIF had a failure while trying to start the recording of "The Cleaner" on AETVHD on physical channel 265 at Tue 7/14 23:00.
The device input "Hauppauge HD PVR Capture Device Component+SPDIF" stopped producing data while recording "The Cleaner" on AETVHD on physical channel 265. SageTV will try to reset the device.

There are entries in the message log for the #2 HD-PVR as well at the same times etc.

Only way to recover is to power down the HD-PVRs and power them back up a few seconds later (don't have to unplug) and sage will then pick them up and start useing them again.

My problems that generated messages have all been since the .20 beta install BUT I'm having a lot more times where there are two recordings going at the same time on the two HD-PVRs now that the summer season is getting fully under way.

Can't quite blame it on Sage yet, in my case. Got some troubleshooting to do it would seem.

[HelenWeathers]

Does anyone here know what this property does?:

mmc/hdpvr_magic=true

I've just changed mine to false to see if I can tell any difference.

[Skirge01]

I've been noticing some lockups on my HD-PVRs as well lately. My D1 has been rock solid up until beta .20 and I've noticed the two of them locking up simultaneously as of late, but the D1 isn't locking up very often. I'm still in the midst of RMAing my other C revision, so I was blaming that unit on all of this.

Hmm... maybe I can try that magic setting. I remember reading about it when Sage first put that in there. It was for a very specific issue, though--if I recall correctly--and I wasn't experiencing that issue.

How'd yours get changed to TRUE? I thought it defaulted to FALSE? Now, I need to verify my setting.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

How'd yours get changed to TRUE? I thought it defaulted to FALSE? Now, I need to verify my setting.

The default is "true" - here's the announcement from 6.5.16:
Windows Updates
1. Added new trick to potentially increase HDPVR device stability on Windows when changing channels. Its controlled by the property 'mmc/hdpvr_magic' and it defaults to true. This is just a theory, we have no proof this helps yet.

I did change mine to "false" today and will leave it there for a few days to see.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

The default is "true" - here's the announcement from 6.5.16:
Windows Updates
1. Added new trick to potentially increase HDPVR device stability on Windows when changing channels. Its controlled by the property 'mmc/hdpvr_magic' and it defaults to true. This is just a theory, we have no proof this helps yet.

I did change mine to "false" today and will leave it there for a few days to see.

Hmmm...very interesting...the guys at Sage support said that they had not added anything to Sage regarding the HD-PVR in this beta....

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

Hmmm...very interesting...the guys at Sage support said that they had not added anything to Sage regarding the HD-PVR in this beta....

I assume they meant they hadn't added anything in 6.5.20. Per the log posted by Helen, that change was implemented in 6.5.16.

[Skirge01]

I checked and, indeed, mine is set to true as well. However, during my investigating, I noticed a pretty major miss on my part. When I picked up my spare HD-PVR and hooked it up, I forgot to cover up the IR receiver!!! Fixed that omission and re-enabled DD on that box to see what happens. I'll be as happy as a pig in slop if all my HD-PVR issues go away now!

[HelenWeathers]

I changed my default to mmc/hdpvr_magic=false yesterday afternoon.

I had 5.5 hrs of recordings scheduled for the two HD-PVRs within a 3 hour block of time last night and everything recorded fine.

One day is not enough to be definitive, but at least the change from true to false didn't cause any problems.

I'll run this way for a few days without changing/updateing anything just to see, but so far so good.

[Motofreak75]

Now was that using SPDIF audio ? because I switch yesterday to false & using 5.1DD and after an hour of recording, it just failed as usual with my D1 (third from RMA )

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by Motofreak75

Now was that using SPDIF audio ? because I switch yesterday to false & using 5.1DD and after an hour of recording, it just failed as usual with my D1 (third from RMA )

Yes it was with DD 5.1 via S/PDIF. But I've never had problems with DD 5.1 since the first driver release that supported it. November last year I believe.

[Motofreak75]

okay which version was that? because I gave up on the hdpvr, since it was released and I decided to give it another go about two weeks ago, but still no luck

edit: I'm using the latest drivers with tons of issues,So I just switch the audio back to component & I will wait and see.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by Motofreak75

okay which version was that? because I gave on the hdpvr, since it was released and I decided to give it another go about two weeks ago, but still no luck

I don't remember the number of the first driver with DD 5.1. But I've updated with every driver release so far and am currently running driver release 1.5.6.0 on the HD-PVRs (see my signature).

[ScubaMedic]

GhostLobster,

I'm having the exact same issues as you.

I have to go to the server and turn off the hdpvr and back on then it's ok.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

I'm using firewire for channel changing...I hate blasters. I entered a bug to Sage and they said that they had not changed anything that would impact that area...so, they're thinking that it's coincidence.
It's as annoying as all get-out though. I guess I'll try and roll back the server to a prior version and see if I still run into the problem, but I'll have to do it at a time when the system is not in use and I'm not working.
It just happened again a few moments ago. The wife was watching something on Fine Living, and then flipped on over to HGTV-HD...and bam...it froze on the blank screen for a few moments, then Capture Error. Personally, I'm OK with THAT particular lockup, but when the same thing happens when flipping from ESPN to The NHL Network, then I get upset!

Oh, and I'm mrunning the HD-PVR drivers 1.5.6 and using the composite audio. I could never get S/PDIF to work properly.

I'm going to ask a couple of potentially stupid questions, but given that I found that I had forgotten about one of these, I'll ask anyway:

Are your IR receivers covered on the HD-PVRs?
Is your STB locked to a single output resolution?

If both of those are done, then you might want to try changing some cables to see if there's a bad one somewhere in the mix.

[Skirge01]

I wanted to point out something I just realized as a result of my forgetting to cover the IR receiver up until yesterday. Since I upgraded to the beta which provides system alerts, I have not received even a single error that the HD-PVR stopped unexpectedly. Thinking about the IR not being covered, this makes perfect sense because--I think--the unit believes it received a command to "do something" which, I suspect, would not be detected by Sage as an error.

Assuming this is accurate, it might be something for people to be on the lookout for.

[ScubaMedic]

I can't speak for ghostlobster but here is my reply.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Are your IR receivers covered on the HD-PVRs?

Yes they are covered even though the entire system is in a different room in a closet. I'm using serial for channel changes.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Is your STB locked to a single output resolution?

No it's not. I have it change resolutions. And I always have since I switched to optical back when the driver first came out.