HDHomeRun Prime - constant disconnects

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

That I have not done, I'll give that a shot, thanks.

Power supply specs.

https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/...p?f=43&t=19203

https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/...p?f=15&t=19204

[KryptoNyte]

I just swapped power supplies, so we'll see if the other prime starts to act up.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I just swapped power supplies, so we'll see if the other prime starts to act up.

BTW Silicondust are very good in replacing units and power supplies.

[KryptoNyte]

I've already been in troubleshooting on this once over a year ago, and after sending them the logging (which they will not share with the user), they claimed there was no problem with their device, so my experiences thus far with SiliconDust are not good.

The third unit that I purchased was DOA. They did replace that, when they got around to shipping the new unit, which they shipped on the slow boat.

[KryptoNyte]

On a somewhat separate note, did I read somewhere in the network drop thread(s) that SD is ditching DRM for their own software development?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

On a somewhat separate note, did I read somewhere in the network drop thread(s) that SD is ditching DRM for their own software development?

Their software will do DRM soon I hope. Their DVR is my main DVR now. I still have sage users in my household. Sage and HDHR DVR play nice together but I prefer the HDHR DVR.

OOps had wrong link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFiIcXeKdf0&t=150s

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

So based on this conversation, what would be the theory for why one of the Prime devices is quite solid while the other one constantly disconnects, both connected to the same gigabit switch?

I'm too lazy to type a detailed explanation about exactly how GreenNet works (at the analog level). But it's not unheard of for one pair of link partners (e.g. one switch port and one end device) to work fine, while another pair doesn't. Ethernet cable characteristics also figure prominently into the equation.

I've spent enough years working at Cisco (and elsewhere) on Ethernet switching products to have seen a lot of bizzare failure cases.

[KryptoNyte]

I pulled the problem Prime and simply replaced it with a 4-tuner Ceton Pcie device. This problem could really hurt Silicondust if they don't solve it pretty quick here.

[NetworkGuy]

How frequent are your power outages and how long to they last?

We have been lucky in the our outrages are very infrequent and very short duration (less than a minute). But it was enough to screw up the network in the house. I purchased UPS for the Cable Modem, Router, Switches, HDHomeRuns and the Server.

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD Intelligent LCD Series UPS
https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP...s=CP1500AVRLCD

It keeps everything running for almost 15 minutes. An added advantage is that is smooths out all of the power drops and spikes.

[phantomii]

I also utilize a backup power supply (actually a couple of them) to keep my network gear and HDHomeRun devices up in the event of a power failure. In addition I also keep my Sage Server and my Blue Iris Server on another backup power supply. Well worth the investment.

[KryptoNyte]

Their power might go out once a year for a minute or two - I don't believe we've ever experienced a brown-out through the course of my life. I have the unit you linked to here at my house, they have this unit at their house (where the Prime/Ceton combo is in place);

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DBAAJQ6/

Their entire system uses 80 watts or less with all tuners active, including the external devices (no monitor) - estimated run time is about 30 minutes on that unit (probably more like 15). I don't think I'm fighting power issues at this point.

[KryptoNyte]

For anyone else having issues with the Prime's falling off the network, this thread over at SiliconDust is finally starting to show some activity by SD tech support;

https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/...3934&start=135

Additionally, due to some really strange operation after a month or so of fairly smooth operation, I had to pull the Ceton device and go back to the Prime's, with ethernet cables made with only 4-wires used, to force the units back to 100mbit.

As of right now, the Prime's are not falling off the network, but we are seeing some strange 5 to 10 second pauses, a few times during some recordings. It looks like a freeze, and then pixelation, and a rapid skip forward to catch back up. When this happens, the Prime signal levels do not change at all, but there does appear to be some kind of surge in packet transmission.

EnterNoEscape has been doing a lot of work with packet data, I may have to ask him to review yet another log - maybe he'll see something that can be remedied.

Frustrating when a user is on Charter, where all their stations are copy-freely, and we can't get any cablecard tuners to work reliably.

[EnterNoEscape]

For some people the HTTP connections used when available cause the stream to be less reliable. You can disable the use of HTTP (effectively enabling RTP) by changing hdhr.always_tune_legacy=false to hdhr.always_tune_legacy=true in opendct.properties. The logs provide a slightly better picture of what's happening when using RTP instead because we can then tell when packets get dropped because they are sequentially numbered.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

For some people the HTTP connections used when available cause the stream to be less reliable. You can disable the use of HTTP (effectively enabling RTP) by changing hdhr.always_tune_legacy=false to hdhr.always_tune_legacy=true in opendct.properties. The logs provide a slightly better picture of what's happening when using RTP instead because we can then tell when packets get dropped because they are sequentially numbered.

I'll give it a shot, thanks.

[KryptoNyte]

Update - I ended up grabbing one of these 100mbit switches while the users over in the SD forums are trying to help SD dial in a proper firmware;

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034CL3MA/

I plugged this directly into my gigabit switch (behind a gigabit router), and then plugged both Prime's into the 100mbit switch. It's been running for almost 24 hours, and neither of the Prime tuners has dropped from the network. It also appears to have cleaned up the intermittent freezing, but will need to run a bit longer to know for sure. I did go in about 30 minutes ago and made the RTP switch that ENE suggested a couple posts up.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Update - I ended up grabbing one of these 100mbit switches while the users over in the SD forums are trying to help SD dial in a proper firmware;

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034CL3MA/

I plugged this directly into my gigabit switch (behind a gigabit router), and then plugged both Prime's into the 100mbit switch. It's been running for almost 24 hours, and neither of the Prime tuners has dropped from the network. It also appears to have cleaned up the intermittent freezing, but will need to run a bit longer to know for sure. I did go in about 30 minutes ago and made the RTP switch that ENE suggested a couple posts up.

Can you answer a question about the Primes: these use the same cable cards my Tivo would, correct? If that's the case, and I subscribe to Premium channels which have copy-once flags (i.e. you can't transfer HBO shows between Tivo's), are Premiums even available with the Primes, and if so, do they maintain the same flags that the Tivo's would be restricted by?

[KryptoNyte]

Yes, the Primes use the same cablecard that's likely in your Tivo. Copy flags are set by the cable service, so the Primes will maintain the same flags as your Tivo. Windows Media Center, with Xbox 360 extenders for example, is pretty much the only way to get nearly all the channels to which you subscribe, including premiums, however, I don't believe any cablecard service can negotiate the on-demand channels.

If you have Windows Media Center (WMC) on your system, you could allocate some tuners to your copy-freely stations, immediately available to SageTV, and then allocate another tuner or two to WMC for your premiums, and start reading through this thread;

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63212

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Yes, the Primes use the same cablecard that's likely in your Tivo. Copy flags are set by the cable service, so the Primes will maintain the same flags as your Tivo. Windows Media Center, with Xbox 360 extenders for example, is pretty much the only way to get nearly all the channels to which you subscribe, including premiums, however, I don't believe any cablecard service can negotiate the on-demand channels.

If you have Windows Media Center (WMC) on your system, you could allocate some tuners to your copy-freely stations, immediately available to SageTV, and then allocate another tuner or two to WMC for your premiums, and start reading through this thread;

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63212

Okay, thanks. At the moment, I rent a Cisco set top box from my Cable co., Cox, and that's how I record to SageTV. Only one tuner for $8.50 month, but all the Premiums are available at the Cisco's component outputs, which feeds a Hauppauge HD PVR. With one HDHomeRun Prime and a cable card ($1.95 month), how many tuners would be available to Sage. But I get the impression the Premiums, or any copy-flagged channels, would NOT be available to SageTV?

[KryptoNyte]

So, you're already part of the way there if you are using an HDPVR to get premiums into Sage. You could ditch the STB, get a Prime (1 Prime + 1 cablecard + 1 tuning adapter = 3 tuners). Allocate (2) of the Prime tuners directly to SageTV using a lineup that only has your copy-freely channels, then allocate the remaining (1) Prime tuner to Windows Media Center.

An example then is to hook up an Xbox 360 to your home network beside your HDPVR, preferably the Xbox 360 slim 4GB (not the "E" model), and it then becomes it's own STB - so you send your 8.50/month STB back to the cable company and rent a cablecard for the Prime. The 360 then acts as an extender that SageTV controls, changing the channel via WMC and such, with the HDPVR recording the video coming out of the 360, right back into Sage. A copied SageTV lineup for just the HDPVR would then just have the premium channels (or all the channels for that matter, and set it up as lowest priority).

It's not entirely pretty, and the Xbox's use some energy, but it does work.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

So, you're already part of the way there if you are using an HDPVR to get premiums into Sage. You could ditch the STB, get a Prime (1 Prime + 1 cablecard + 1 tuning adapter = 3 tuners). Allocate (2) of the Prime tuners directly to SageTV using a lineup that only has your copy-freely channels, then allocate the remaining (1) Prime tuner to Windows Media Center.

An example then is to hook up an Xbox 360 to your home network beside your HDPVR, preferably the Xbox 360 slim 4GB (not the "E" model), and it then becomes it's own STB - so you send your 8.50/month STB back to the cable company and rent a cablecard for the Prime. The 360 then acts as an extender that SageTV controls, changing the channel via WMC and such, with the HDPVR recording the video coming out of the 360, right back into Sage. A copied SageTV lineup for just the HDPVR would then just have the premium channels (or all the channels for that matter, and set it up as lowest priority).

It's not entirely pretty, and the Xbox's use some energy, but it does work.

Ok, I don't use WMC at all. Nor do I have an X-Box (sad, but true). Do either or these factor into the ability for Sage to be able to grab copy-flagged channels like HBO from the Prime's outputs / HD PVR's inputs?