HDHomeRun playback problem - freeze in same spot

[timg11]

When I play MPEG2 programs recorded off the air using the HDhomerun, I see freezes in the video every 30 to 60 seconds (seemingly randomly). The freeze lasts for about 1 second. The audio is not affected.
I can skip back in SageTV and play the same section again, and the freeze repeatably occurs at exactly the same spot.

I thought there was a problem with the recording process or the HDHomeRun.

However, when I play the file in VLC or Windows Media Player, the video does not show any problem when playing at that same spot.

So this seems to be something with SageTV's playback, but the fact that it occurs at the same spot is puzzling. What should I look for to solve this problem?

[Spectrum]

The first step I would take is changing the mpeg2 decoder being used and see if that has an effect. Sage uses its own decoder by default, but if you have Win7 installed you can use the MS decoder without installing anything. If it is not on a Win7 machine you could try ffdshow.

Also is the source OTA or QAM? If OTA, how is the signal strength?

[razrsharpe]

it is probably signal problems with the hdhr. VLC employs error correction to smooth out the glitches, so you wont see them. Sage does not perform error correction. If you play back the file in mplayer you should be able to repeat the glitches (it does not employ error correction).

Another thread with the same problem

[timg11]

I verified the HDHR signals is good. The HDHR config shows signal strength of 95%, and signal quality and Symbol Quality are 100%. I have a fairly large antenna in the attic, and live in a suburban area, so the signal is strong and free of multipath.

I have tried the two MPEG2 decoders (MSFT and Sage). Sage seems to give fairly smooth playback, except for the freezes. The MSFT decoder seems to have more continuous stuttering- there seem to be several very short freezes per second.

I have also tried changing the Video Renderer. It seems that EVR is best for playing MPEG2 files, but VMR9 is best for playing H.264. Too bad there is only one global setting, regardless of the file type.

@razrsharpe, I did play the files in the standard Windows Media Player 11 that comes with Windows 7, and there was no visible problem. Is that the "mplayer" you refer to, or another 3rd party program?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by timg11

I verified the HDHR signals is good. The HDHR config shows signal strength of 95%, and signal quality and Symbol Quality are 100%. I have a fairly large antenna in the attic, and live in a suburban area, so the signal is strong and free of multipath.

did you watch those meters for an extended period? My levels are usually very similar to yours but occasionally the quality dips... and that is when i see the hiccup in the playback

@razrsharpe, I did play the files in the standard Windows Media Player 11 that comes with Windows 7, and there was no visible problem. Is that the "mplayer" you refer to, or another 3rd party program?

i mean a different third party player that doesn't employ error concealment. Here It is only a backend player by default. Here is a thread on doom9 that looks like it is a complete installer.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=138725

[granto]

I'm a newbie with SageTV but I was also having problems with the hiccups during playback.

My original setup was 3 HDHR tuners into a switch upstairs that connected to another switch in the basement and then into a router. My WHS that runs SageTV was connected directly into the router as well.

I moved my WHS upstairs and connected it to the same switch that the HDHR's are connected to and all my hiccups disappeared. I made no other changes than to relocate my server.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by granto

My original setup was 3 HDHR tuners into a switch upstairs that connected to another switch in the basement and then into a router. My WHS that runs SageTV was connected directly into the router as well.

I moved my WHS upstairs and connected it to the same switch that the HDHR's are connected to and all my hiccups disappeared. I made no other changes than to relocate my server.

It sounds like the key here is that you are connected to a different switch. So, either there was something flaky with your other Ethernet switch, your router, or the Ethernet cabling.

There have been a lot of reports of people having problems either with recording (from an HDHR) or playback (through an extender) due to various difficult to track network problems. I say "difficult to track" because in most cases, the network seems to work most of the time for most things, but people see these sorts of glitches. Replacing an Ethernet switch with a different brand/model seems to be the most common fix.

[gizmo3141]

I've had this problem before, and it turned out that my processor was being saturated by encoding jobs running in the background....How is your processor load?

Using the Microsoft decoder can decrease the load significantly, so can using EVR.

My processor would be running at 98% and occasionally touch 100%, when it did, the video would jump.

Also, some movies are shown at 24fps on ATSC, believe it or not. If you use a 60hz panel to view them, you may see a jump every 3 or 4 seconds. A cheapo 600hz plasma is a nice solution for this....lol...