HDTV Network Encoder v0.9.0 07-08-05 - HD Support for Sage!

[Stealth1971]

Originally Posted by jblust

Would it be possible to add a config file option to only accept connections from localhost, or from a defined IP address that's listed in the config file?

Good idea - I was thinking that also.

So to summarize some of the feature requests:

- network client security
- signal meter
- run at Windows startup (no UI)
(and of course more stability)

[flashbacck]

Stealth,

Are you still getting the audio rendering error? I remember you thought having Sage do the TS parsing would fix that. Has it?

[Stealth1971]

flashbaack -

I have been using Sigma's DumpPS filter for my needs. So I havent seen it anymore. (its still not finding my ABC channels right though).

Sage Demux parsing the TS stream seemed to fixe it too (that I remember - sometimes Sage would grab the wrong audio PS though -i.e. I would hear things in Spanish )

Stealth

[jkoutrouba]

Has anyone had problems with Sage locking up if the channel you are trying to tune is unavailable? PBS has been off the air more than on around here lately, and if I try to watch that channel when it's down Sage will lock up with a black screen (like it's just waiting for the image to pop up) and not allow me to close the file, change channels, access menus, etc. HDNE doesn't seem to care if the channel is there or not. Am I just being too impatient? I have been killing Sage through the task manager because I have no other way to get it working. That is not a good option for me when this gets hooked up to the projector and the wife tries to watch TV through it.


-JK

[Stealth1971]

As far as the lockups - I am seeing those also when there no signal (no data being written) All of the other Sage data streams (analog hardware tuners, firewire, DVB) are pretty much garuanteed data. OTA HD has the opportunity for LOTS of missing data when there is a weak or no signal.

I am trying to find a solution...

[jblust]

What's the secret to getting skip-free recordings and playback? I find that some channels work better than others, and I also find that things work out better when I record ahead of time and watch later (timeshifting live tv seems to be too much). I have a feeling that the secret is the right set of filters (decoder is important, but I think the splitter is even more important). Is anyone experiencing reliable skip-free playback?

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by jblust

What's the secret to getting skip-free recordings and playback? I find that some channels work better than others, and I also find that things work out better when I record ahead of time and watch later (timeshifting live tv seems to be too much). I have a feeling that the secret is the right set of filters (decoder is important, but I think the splitter is even more important). Is anyone experiencing reliable skip-free playback?

I had to switch to overlay mode to get smooth playback. I'm using a Radeon 9600 with the NVidia decoder for video and Cyberlink for audio (still working on getting audio out to my receiver, until then it's 2.0 analog sound). And it has to be on the primary monitor -- it will not play back well on the secondary.

-JK

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by Stealth1971

As far as the lockups - OTA HD has the opportunity for LOTS of missing data when there is a weak or no signal.

I am trying to find a solution...

Maybe that's where that new signal strength meter could help -- refuse to tune a station with no signal or something like that.


-JK

[Stealth1971]

Originally Posted by jkoutrouba

Maybe that's where that new signal strength meter could help -- refuse to tune a station with no signal or something like that.

Thanx - that had crossed my mind too.

The solution that I have mostly working right is -- when the the target MPG file hasnt grown in 4 seconds HDNE copies a local existing MPG video data to the target MPG video file so that Sage has something to read... i.e. I created a small MPG video file that has text that reads "Getting data, please wait..." then if I do get video data at some point it will switch to the real video stream.

Seems to work for the "no data at all" scenario, but starting "again" when video is eventually received after not data has been difficult to test.

Stealth

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by Stealth1971

Seems to work for the "no data at all" scenario, but starting "again" when video is eventually received after not data has been difficult to test.

That's still a huge improvement over having to kill Sage through the task manager.


-JK

[Stealth1971]

Originally Posted by jkoutrouba

That's still a huge improvement over having to kill Sage through the task manager.

My girlfriend wasn't liking the "TaskManager" solution either She justs says "its broke again"... and then asks for Tivo - Thats incentive right there to figure it out!

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by Stealth1971

She justs says "its broke again"... and then asks for Tivo

And I thought I had it rough! At least I'm only trying to implement systems that already exist... You have to deal with expectations for a product that no one has even seen before. Tweaking is nothing compared to inventing.

On this topic, though, it occurs to me that the nature of the problem works in your favor. There are basically two scenarios you have to deal with. The first is when there is no signal at all. You copy the message over and at least you can cancel and go back to the program guide. For the second scenario, where the signal disappears and reappears, you can test the same way -- look at the file size -- and if it comes back but you don't start playing right away, no big deal. It's recorded, and you just start playing where you left off. To me the hard part sounds like building in the overhead of having this loop constantly running to check the file size. What are the other possibilities for detecting data being written to the file?


-JK

[Stealth1971]

JK -

Your suggestion is actually how it is implemented right now - but I have a few bugs I am trying to figure out. It seems to stop recording anything eventually.... However, Sage does not lock up anymore!

(The girlfriend is a little happier now, but are they ever truely happy???)

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by Stealth1971

(The girlfriend is a little happier now, but are they ever truely happy???)

My biggest fear is that I will get all of this up and running, including the projector and the super cool remote and all that, and my wife will say, "Yeah, it's OK. But why doesn't it ... ?" I think the only reason she is tolerating all of this is because I get excited about it.


-JK

[pengdahl]

I've had some success and some problems with getting this all to work.

I can report that the Fusion 5 Gold card does in fact work with HDNE and Sage.

I've got my system working now with the following setup:
Sage 2.2.8
HDNE 0.9.0
DumpPS 1.2
Fusion Drivers 3.0 official release

The problems that I've had relate mostly to the decoder. I get weird aspect ratios and stuttering with certain decoders. The NVidia decoders work, but they don't scale. I get a black border all the way around the picture. The DScaler decoders don't seem to like the stream - they stutter. I've had success with the Intervideo decoders, but I don't like them much because they have bad deinterlacing. I'm still experimenting with this, but this experience has prompted me to have a big item on my wishlist:

I wish Sage would let you change the playback decoder based on the content!

Files encoded with my PVR250 play back best for me through the DScaler decoder and ffdshow. Files encoded with the fusion card don't play at all with this arrangement.

Still - I finally have hdtv directly in Sage!

[iceman]

Here's my question:

I live in the Dallas area and many of the OTA digital stations have 1 or more minor stations. Can the servicelocator.xml be coded to properly pickup all of the minor stations that might be tied to a physical station?

I'm running a Avermedia A180 with HDNE V1.9.0 and the Sigma DumpPS V1.2. I currently have all of my OTA stations working fine but I am only able to view the 1st minor channel number such as 8.1. which is ABC in the Dallas area. 8.2 is the weather channel associated with it and I cannot configure the servicelocator.xml to handle more than one minor channel for either recording or viewing purposes.

One other thing I should mention is that I am using the Cyberlink decoder and it works fine. The other one I tried was the NVIDIA DVD decoder and the recording and viewing were terrible.

So can someone tell me if this is currently a limitation of HDNE where mutliple minor stations related to one physical cannot be coded in the servicelocator.xml ?

[Ceger]

Do you need to do this to get an HD card such as the A180 to work with SageTV if you are using 3.0.7?

Ceger

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by jkoutrouba

I just got my A180 card installed and I set everything up with HDNE. When I try to watch something, I get a Sage error "sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-3,0x80040207): There was a problem accessing the file system for playback."

I'm getting the same error in Sage. The follow-up posts suggest installing DumpPS. I did that, copied the CLSID from the registry into the .xml file, and no joy.

Here is a clip of the HDNE window:
Finished loading BDA network driver.
Loading BDA ATSC tuner request.
Tune request for physical channel:52, major channel: -1, minor channel: -1
Finished BDA ATSC tuner request.
Loading BDA NETWORK tuner and capture device.
Finished loading BDA NETWORK tuner and capture device.
Loading Tee Filter
Loading Demux
Finished loading Demux
Connecting Demux to Tee
Connected demux to Tee
Loading TIF
Loading Dump Filter
Requesting DumpCLSID:
{808304FC-5B88-4C2C-857F-24864BAFE971}
Before File Sink
Native code - target file: c:\MediaStorage\Temp001.mpg
Couldn't SetFileName!!!
After File Sink
Graph Created
2005-09-08T21:41:30 HDNE Capture Plugin created and initialized
2005-09-08T21:41:30 HDNE Server: Listening on port - 6980

And this is the CLSID copied right out of the registry:
{808304FC-5B88-4C2C-857F-24864BAFE971}

I also noticed that the HDNE window doesn't generate any messages when Sage attempts to view a file recorded through HDNE, either in realtime or recorded previously. Perhaps I need to fix something in the Sage properties file to direct Sage to DumpPS???

I'm also running win2k so maybe DumpPS isn't compatible?

The HDNE recorded files play fine on my computer desktop, just not through Sage.

Thanks.

Paul

[Mike Young]

Everything seems to be set up, but I get the following error when I try to tune to a HD station on the server :
Error -10 no encoders can tune to the selected station.

(on the client it just doesnt do anything)

I tried loading the A180 software and it tunes in HD channels with no problems.
Unloaded the software and re-installed drivers, and network encoder, still same problem.

mike/

[Stealth1971]

I know I kind of abandoned this for awhile(I was ticked that there was no HD support heads up for version 3.x). However, now that 3.0 is released in beta, I have tested their HD support with my HD Wonder and havent had any success. Its also being saved as a transport file (.TS) not a standard PS file (.MPG). So I am going to switch back to HDNE for now.

Is there any interest in releasing updates for this?