Am I screwed? MCE & Sage at the same time?

[KenFab]

I just put together a brand new "kick-ass" HTPC (an upgrade) with MCE 2005 as the OS, along with ATI HDTV Wonder and PVR-150 tuner cards.

Both cards are recognized and work well in MCE... I go to Sage, plays all my recorded shows just fine, yet get a black screen when trying to play a live feed.

If I close the MCE tasks the Sage live feed works fine.

I've searched through *many* threads here and found some people that say one can't use Sage and MCE together, yet I found a handful of people that say they do.

Can someone please confirm whether or not anyone's been successful using Sage & MCE with the ATI HDTV Wonder and PVR-150 tuner cards? If it can be done, please let me know how.

BTW, I prefer Sage's PVR over MCE's (that's why I want to use it! , but need MCE's HD PVR capability (that of course Sage currently lacks).

[korben_dallas]

In general, you cannot use two capture services at the same time. So this wouldn't be a conflict between MCE and SageTV specifically.

I know on my machine that I can only run WinDVR, SageTV, or the Plextor GoCap app one at a time.

[stanger89]

Unless you can get MCE to ignore the 150 Sage will be unable to use it.

[KenFab]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Unless you can get MCE to ignore the 150 Sage will be unable to use it.

Actually, that's what I'd like to do if it can be done... do you know how to get MCE to ignore the 150? I've tried and so far have been unsuccessful.

[stanger89]

No idea.

[pcuoco]

From what I understand, MCE needs to see a regular PVR card in order to see the HD card, so even if you could ignore the PVR card it might screw up the HD Wonder.

It seems in the UNE thread that they're close to a BDA version of the network encoder. When that happens you could disable the MyTV section of MCE and then use Sage.

Until then I think you're stuck with MCE's PVR.

[KenFab]

Dang. Well, thanks for the replies guys. I'd really like to continue to use Sage.

OK, if I'm forced to use MCE and drop Sage for the time being, I've got another question...

I live in Ventura, CA, and set up the MCE tuner for the local SD Adelphia Cable (no digital, no STB). The problem is, when I go to set up HD, all of the Los Angeles OTA HD stations are picked up with excellent signal strength, but for whatever reason, our local PBS station, KCET only shows up in the guide as their SD programming, and not HD! I've tried to manually sync the KCET data to their HD feed, but it's simply not in the list!

To get around the problem, I've entered a local LA comcast cable company in my SD tuner, and sure enough on the HD side, KCET now has the option of using their HD feed in the prgramming guide! Great, now HD works, but obviously now my SD guide is borked since LA Comcast channels do not match Ventura Adelphia Cable.

Does anyone know of a solution here? If I go and switch back my SD tuner to Adelphia, the KCET-HD guide disappears.

Sorry for being so long-winded, but I'm really frustrated right now.

[pcuoco]

I don't think MCE allows you to have two line-ups. Another reason I use Sage.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. As this isn't an MCE forum I don't know that you'll find the answer for that question here. You should probably try:

www.thegreenbutton.com

or

www.htpcnews.com

[KenFab]

I just received this reply over on the AVS forums...
----------------------------------------------------
"It's a software issue, either with Sage or Hauppauge.

MCE leaves several services running so the recording service can run as needed. With the Fusion card, their existing application would not start when the MCE services were running. But they updated their driver shortly after MCE was released, and now as long as the tuner is not being actively used by MCE you can run the Fusion software.

I don't know if this more friendly way to use the card happens at the application level (Sage) or the driver level (Hauppauge)."
----------------------------------------------------

Sage crew, can you please comment on this?? I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to use my Sage and Sage Client (and want to buy more clients) along with MCE and its HD-PVR capabilities!!!

Please tell me this issue can be fixed!

[salsbst]

There almost certainly is a way to hide the card from MCE.

If MCE is really (technically) using a Windows Service (nee NT Service) to lock up the card, then you could try setting that service to "Disabled" in the Services adminsitrative tool. If it is doing it with a solitary EXE, then you could try renaming it or removing your own privileges to read the file.

But if they are doing it via a monolithic MCE EXE file then it may get trickier. If this is the case, then you may be able to run MCE and Sage under two separate user accounts, and deny Read access to the user who runs MCE to the registry keys that identify the card.

[KenFab]

Yes, MCE is locking the card by using a service... there are four processes (ehmsas, ehRecvr, ehSched, & ehtray) that MCE uses that I've disabled via the task manager, and immediately after doing so Sage Live TV works perfectly.

The problem of course is that by diasabling those services, MCE no longer works.

On another note, does Frey ever monitor (and respond) to these threads, or am I wasting my time waiting for an official response?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by KenFab

On another note, does Frey ever monitor (and respond) to these threads, or am I wasting my time waiting for an official response?

This is a user to user forum. While some things may happen to be seen, tech support doesn't monitor every post. (See the last line of my sig.)

- Andy

[KenFab]

Ahh OK, thanks for the reply, Andy. I'll submit an official request then.

BTW, do you have any ideas or suggestions for my problem?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by KenFab

BTW, do you have any ideas or suggestions for my problem?

Nope, or I would have already said something... I usually skip the conversations where my answers are uninformed guesses.

- Andy

[gplasky]

As far as stopiing the services which lock up the tuners you can run this batch file before starting Sage:

net stop ehRecvr
net stop ehSched
exit

Now Sage will operate normally.

The ehtray is an .exe that is used by the remote. As long as you don't press the Green Button on your remote or any of the special buttons (Guide, Live TV, etc.) on the remote you will be OK. If you do press them you'll just start up MCE. Once you quit (not sleep) Sage, pressing the Green Button on the remote should also start the services. (As long as you haven't disabled them.) Try that and see if that works better for you.

Gerry

[KenFab]

Gerry, are you saying that stopping those two services doesn't affect MCE in any way?

[gplasky]

No. Once those services are stopped then if you have any recordings set in MCE they will NOT record because those services are not running. Not will the EPG update in MCE. But if after stopping those services and you start up MCE by pressing the Green Button or choosing it from the Start menu, those services startup automatically. So if you do any recording in MCE with this scenario you will need to go into MCE after shutting down the services and using Sage. (Or create a batch file to start the services again using "net start".)

Gerry

[salsbst]

It might be easier to run those services under a user account that does not have access to the specific card that you want them to ignore... that way you don't have to constantly switch things around. A little more tricky to set up, but easier to work with. Also, if you need those services to be doing ATI-based recording, then you probably don't want to disable them altogether.

Just my 4 cents (since I'm repeating myself now).

[KenFab]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate them, but I may have been unclear about what I want to do…

1) Record HD using the ATI HDTV Wonder under MCE
2) Record SD using the PVR-150 under SageTV
3) Run them both *concurrently* as PVRs, 24/7

I want to use them as PVRs… i.e. they need to work uninterrupted 24/7 once set up, and most importantly, not conflict with one another.

I’ve already indicated in an earlier reply that I know how to disable the four MCE services that are conflicting with Sage, and I’m also familiar with user accounts/rights, and creating scripts and so forth, but none of that solves the fundamental problem of not being able to use MCE and Sage **concurrently**.

I hope that now my intentions are clearer. =)

[salsbst]

That is why I'm suggesting that you (use regedt32 and the services control panel) to run the MCE services that Gerry identified under a user account that cannot see your PVR-150 card.