Improved HD PVR Stability with v7?

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by jorton

Since installing the 1.5.6.2 Drivers on th 11th of June on the 7.0.10 beta I have not had any lockups (but was stable with the 1.5.6.1 drivers from June 3 to 10 on 7.0.10 beta). Over the weekend I recorded about nine 3 hour World Cup games without error so i to say that my stability is probably the best it has been. I have also had Showanalyzer running on live recordings and have not had any issues, in the past this always seemed to give me problems. I have no idea of what changed in the 1.5.6.2 drivers if at all, just gave them a try since I was in the Sagetv Beta mode already.

I keep getting the red error icon and rush to make sure it isn't a HDPVR issue, it's always been the "can't find metadata" metadata error... I wonder if there's a way to change the color of the messages... I only want to see red if a tuner is crapping out.

Did you try live tv viewing with the new driver? That's where I ended up with lock-ups after a couple of channel switches.

BTW, I don't think metada is working for Canadian tv shows/stations, which is why you get these (annoying) error messages. I ended up disabling them via the BMT web ui.

[jorton]

I have been using live TV viewing and haven't had a lockup yet (I let it run for 5 hours on the same channel to test it). I didn't try changing channels on the fly with live tv though. I have a habit of stopping the live show and then going back to the full guide to select the next show on my clients. I guess over the past year or so I have learned that the HDPVR behaves the best for me if I don't push it to do too much too quickly, like switching channels during live TV viewing.

I'll have a look in BMT and see if I can exclude the offending shows.

Thanks

[chrisc983]

Not sure if this is the right location but I think that I read that the HD PVR support was supposed to be better in v7. For HD PVR owners that have switched to v7 have you noticed an improvement? I'm debating on getting one to record the HD content that I don't get OTA. Thanks.

* merged *

[darcilicious]

You want this thread over here
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48950

[darcilicious]

Three "halt detected" messages (but no corresponding lock-ups) since Sunday and a hard lock-up this afternoon while I started up the local client (Vista) and tried to browse other recordings.

Had to do the stop-service/power cycle pvr/restart-service dance...

[QueOnda]

Covering the IR had some effect (maybe). Lockups every other day instead of everyday.

[heffneil]

I got one HD PVR running well with v7 and v6 so I don't see any major improvement. I do have a second one sitting next to it plugged in to the same hub and I can't use the first one when the second one is turned on. I typically turn it off to use the primary one. I was going to mess around with second one but didn't know how I was going to make it work. I still need to play with it and I was hoping that in 7 it would be easier to configure both. I am running windows 2003 server so I think I am a little against the 8 ball here trying to get them to work plus some hardware might not be so supported.

The previous poster who mentioned they had 3 of them running?! with an NEC usb card I am very interested in your configuration. I think more people would like to hear about the card and how you have them plugged in!

Neil

[bsung]

Originally Posted by DeanONH

bsung,

I am trying to get 2 HDPVRs running. 1 HDPVR ran OK on ST6 & better on ST7; hasn't locked up yet (knock on wood). I'm running HD component video & SPDIF audio. Both HDPVRs works fine on the Total Media Suite. The 2nd HDPVR won't work at all with ST6 or ST7. I am using different mainboard USB hubs. This is driving me crazy & the WAF is sinking fast.

What USB card are you using?
Are you running HD component & SPDIF on all HDPVRs?
Do you have any suggestions?

TIA,

Dean

Sorry, for the delayed response, but I'm using Rosewill NEC 4+1 Ports USB 2.0 PCIE Card. I have i7 @ 2.66 Ghz. All three HD PVRs are on that card. I don't have a UPS to condition the power but I think I might do that anyway at some point. Otherwise, I've done pretty much everything people have suggested...

- taped over the ir port (using usbuirt)
- using latest 1.5.6.1 drivers (used hwclear first and then installed the driver with only 1 hd pvr powered on at a time)
- sage v7.0.11
- hd pvr on it's side next to a/c vent (at least for the summer)
- output of fios not locked to anything
- using toslink
- using shortest and thickest usb/toslink cables i had available but didn't buy anything specific

I might be missing something but I'm generally doing everything i could and although I did have one lockup while trying to watch live tv through placeshifter once since v7 came out, fortunately, it's been stable enough for me to consider the problem fixed. I haven't noticed any short errors in the recordings that Sage glosses over without sending me an error message. It just seems to be better for some reason.

I don't have much new to add in terms of suggestions. I think the only things I haven't read before (but could be on this forum somewhere) is to try running the driver clear and install separately for each hdpvr and to put it next to the a/c vent (at least during the summer). Hope that's helpful.

[webitube]

My experience w/1.5.6.2 agrees with yours. I've had lots of problems with 1.5.6.1, but been *very* stable for over a week with 1.5.6.2. (Win7/64-bit, AMD Phenom II 3.0Ghz Black Edition, 4Gb.)

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by webitube

My experience w/1.5.6.2 agrees with yours. I've had lots of problems with 1.5.6.1, but been *very* stable for over a week with 1.5.6.2. (Win7/64-bit, AMD Phenom II 3.0Ghz Black Edition, 4Gb.)

Are you running more than one HD-PVR? Also, are you using digital or analog audio. I've had nothing but problems with digital audio. Switching to analog eliminates my lockups. I'm hoping the new drivers help.

[bulaman]

So far Sagev7 has been much better. I still had a few issues, but I am certain they are issues caused by the HD-PVR (channel change issues, drops in video capture).

I have made a few other changes and had no errors yet. I have restarted everything manually once a week (it is windows after all).

- Switched channel changing to USBUIRT
- Installed PCIe NEC based USB card that has only the HD-PVR connected to it.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by bulaman

I have made a few other changes and had no errors yet. I have restarted everything manually once a week (it is windows after all).

Wow, this isn't 1998. Windows XP can run for months without needing a reboot. When I've ignored updates I've had my SageTV server running for months on end without needing to be touched. Granted, that has been quite a while but I don't religiously reboot my SageTV server. No need to. I don't recall my max uptime but it it would be recorded in months rather than days. I don't actually recall the last time I rebooted it.

Needing to religiously reboot your Windows computer is a thing of the past unless you're stuck in the past on Windows 98.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by bulaman

- Switched channel changing to USBUIRT
- Installed PCIe NEC based USB card that has only the HD-PVR connected to it.

I suspect the above is in my near future, though I may try the latter first -- I had a lock up tonight and instead of the stop-sage-svc/power cycle hd-pver/start-sage-svc, I just flat out rebooted the computer. When I started SageTV, the hd-pvr didn't show up as a tuner so I'm guessing a USB problem

[bsung]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

I suspect the above is in my near future, though I may try the latter first -- I had a lock up tonight and instead of the stop-sage-svc/power cycle hd-pver/start-sage-svc, I just flat out rebooted the computer. When I started SageTV, the hd-pvr didn't show up as a tuner so I'm guessing a USB problem

When I reboot my computer, it takes about 15 minutes for the computer to find the hd pvr. Computer should be fast enough, but it almost seems as if it runs a media import refresh and then looks for the tuner instead of the other way around. That's my guess anyway. Try just waiting longer to see if the tuners show up. I also noticed that if sage was in the process of recording something when the computer reboots, the tuners get confused (best way to describe it) and it might think that tuner 1 is recording a show but then when you tune to it, it tries to open it on tuner 2. The recording schedule will show it once on each tuner. I didn't submit it as a bug b/c once that show was over, it was fine. And it only seems to happen when I reboot during a recording which has been pretty rare.

[jorton]

I was using an older 4 Port PCI USB 2.0 card (NEC) but it didn't make things any better than the onboard Intel USB 2.0 for me. It seems that the new USB 3.0 PCIe (NEC) cards I am using now are quite stable and it seems that others are having a lot of luck with the USB 2.0 PCIe cards.

I'm not trying to sell people on using the USB 3.0 PCIe cards, it's just that is what I have been using successfully. I figured for the price difference when I bought them I might as well go for the newer tech in case I need to add some more external storage later ;o)

I have also been using a USB-UIRT on Windows 7 64bit (had to drop the firewire channel changing) and it has been rock solid.

Best of luck with the HDPVR roulette.

[heffneil]

Originally Posted by jorton

Best of luck with the HDPVR roulette.

Isn't it funny just how much of a roulette or another gambling term roll of the dice the HD-PVR is? Look at how many people have such different experiences with these devices. I think it is strange. I mean I guess there are a lot of variables but I just wish it just worked. I am considering adding a third HD-PVR but I still haven't gotten the two to be perfectly stable so I don't want to throw another monkey wrench in the works now...

Neil

[heffneil]

So I went on to test my HD PVR's today and I don't know what is wrong with them?! I watch one show on an HD100 and I set it to record. Well then I go to the guide and change the channel and it seems to change the channel on BOTH of my source boxes! I am using USB-UIRT and I followed the directions to append Z1 and Z2 to all the IR codes and I setup the second source to use a different IR file. I did tell sage to copy the guide information but am I correct in assuming the IR file I originally selected is being used? How can I confirm in some properties file that each source is using an independent file?

Thanks!

[HelenWeathers]

Open both .ir files and make sure that you changed the name on the first line of each .ir file to match the actual name of that .ir file (without the .ir).

Do this with SageTV stopped.

Post both of your .ir files if that doesn't solve it.

[heffneil]

I had two differently named filesmto begin with so I don't know how this applies. I will check the files and report back. Any idea how I confirm each source is using a different ir file?

Thanks

[heffneil]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I had two differently named filesmto begin with so I don't know how this applies. I will check the files and report back. Any idea how I confirm each source is using a different ir file?

Thanks

Just confirmed they both have their own filename without the ir at the top. No confusion there. I was confident I boughtnthe correct splitter from radio shack until this happened. Z1 and z2 are the Stereo plug output correct? The usbuirt box itself is z3 right?

Thanks