MyTheatre DVB Network Encoder Plugin

[technazz]

Well I got it to work last night. I just had to ensure Sage was set up as a server and I could record off MT and my PVR 250 at the same time.

I have your same setup, but more capture cards and one extra DVB card. Been through that issue quite a few times..

I just have to add the rest of my dish lineup to my MT favourites. Ive been adding them in One at a time and changing the Channel number in the Channel properties in MT to match my SageTV DISH EPG channel number. Is this the way you are setting up your Channels in MT?

Technazz

[pasha]

Got it working with Dish, however it died after few hours... any idea what should I be looking for?

[technazz]

Got it working with Dish, however it died after few hours... any idea what should I be looking for?

Did it 'die' while you were on the same channel or switching channels?

I had the same thing happed to me but It was tuning to a channel that was not in MT "SageTV" Favorites. Once I added the channel it worked.

technazz

[pasha]

died on the same channel... left it overnight and in the morning it was dead.

[peterjb]

The information provided thus far won't assist in any diagnosis of the possible cause of the problem. Can you pls provide the Indy & Plugin logfile that replicates the scenario? ( pls ensure that turn on the various trace options )

Thanks

Peter

[vuego]

Originally Posted by peterjb

Vuego,

I haven't seen this problem before. Are the mpegs that were captured by the plugin when this occurred playable via WinDVD outside of SageTV?

Cheers

Peter

I found the source of this problem. It has to do with changing between channels with different resolutions. I have two channels, one in 544x576 and one 352x576.
I installed ffdshow and enabled OSD. If I start on channel #1 it says input size 544x576 but if I change to channel #2 it keeps the same input size! The picture becomes divided in two so pixels 353 to 544 is a repeat of pixel 1 to 191. Change back from here and Sage will crash.
If I start on channel #2 i get input size 352x576 and the same when changing to channel #1 which will have half of it's picture hidden.
I have to choose Close File and then change to another channel for it to stay stable.

Maybe this is a bug in Sage? Has anyone got an idea how to fix this?

[peterjb]

I'm assuming that MT renders the channels correctly within it's own native UI using the same video codec? If so - I'd report it as a bug to SageTV.

Cheers

Peter

[peterjb]

Just a short note to let you know that SageTV 3.0.14 now shows a 'No Signal' message when there is a problem encountered with tuning via the Network Encoder.

Unfortunately, It still does not show the actual cause of the problem ( still scheduled for V3.1 ) but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Cheers

Peter

[Motofreak75]

Originally Posted by technazz

I just have to add the rest of my dish lineup to my MT favourites. Ive been adding them in One at a time and changing the Channel number in the Channel properties in MT to match my SageTV DISH EPG channel number. Is this the way you are setting up your Channels in MT?

Technazz

If you have Access or StarOffice software from Sun, then open up the channel tables and click on SID row (make sure you right click and sort ascending A-Z) and copy entire row, then paste into the ChNum row and your done, everything will match the dish EPG from Zapit in Sage.

Now I just have to figure out how improve my switching time. sometimes it takes 6 seconds and most of the time it takes 10-14 seconds.

Good work so far peterjb.

[insomniac]

never replied, but just wanted to confirm that I do get the 'no signal' indicator for about 2-5 seconds before channel change.

I.

Originally Posted by peterjb

Just a short note to let you know that SageTV 3.0.14 now shows a 'No Signal' message when there is a problem encountered with tuning via the Network Encoder.

Unfortunately, It still does not show the actual cause of the problem ( still scheduled for V3.1 ) but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Cheers

Peter

[rydberg]

I have a strange problem with the plugin.
Sometimes changing channel will fail, the problem is random and occur on about 1/5 of my channel changes.
I can't se any pattern and it works perfect inside MyTheatre.
I am using SageTV 4 and MyTheatre 3.27.

Below is and example from my card1.log file, the first channel change worked but the second failed.

2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - SWITCH
2005-11-13 00:28:26 Channel change request - SageTV Channel No : 3 MyTheatre Channel No. :3 Channel ID :28 Channel Name : TV3
2005-11-13 00:28:26 MyTheatre - MT_CMD_SWITCH_CHAN_BY_CHID Received
2005-11-13 00:28:26 MyTheatre - MT_CMD_SWITCH_CHAN_BY_CHID Received
2005-11-13 00:28:26 Debug - WM_CHANGE_CHANNEL Processed
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:26 MyTheatre - FT_EVT_TRANSPONDER_WILLBE_CHANGED Received
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - NOOP
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - NOOP
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - NOOP
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - NOOP
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:26 MyTheatre - FT_EVT_TRANSPONDER_CHANGED Received
2005-11-13 00:28:26 MyTheatre - FT_EVT_CHANNEL_WILLBE_CHANGED Received
2005-11-13 00:28:26 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:26 MyTheatre - FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED Received
2005-11-13 00:28:26 Debug - Stop Recording...
2005-11-13 00:28:26 Debug - Delete PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
2005-11-13 00:28:27 Debug - Close Recording File
2005-11-13 00:28:27 Debug - WM_STOP_RECORDING Processed
2005-11-13 00:28:27 Debug - Start Recording...
2005-11-13 00:28:27 Debug - Open PS File :\sagevideo\Tillsddenskiljerosst-2005660-0.mpg
2005-11-13 00:28:27 Debug - Add PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
2005-11-13 00:28:27 Debug - WM_START_RECORDING Processed
2005-11-13 00:28:27 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:27 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:27 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:27 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:27 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:28 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:28 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:28 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:28 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE


2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - SWITCH
2005-11-13 00:28:15 Channel change request - SageTV Channel No : 2 MyTheatre Channel No. :2 Channel ID :3 Channel Name : SVT2
2005-11-13 00:28:15 Debug - WM_CHANGE_CHANNEL Processed
2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - NOOP
2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - NOOP
2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:15 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:16 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:16 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:16 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:16 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:16 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:17 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:17 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
2005-11-13 00:28:17 SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE


Thank You,

[Motofreak75]

have you tried the latest version of MT?, I had simlar issues that you have but I just installed v3.33 and it appears (so far) that issue has been resloved. For me atleast.

[insomniac]

your killing me here...cant wait to go home and test now

EDIT:

No change for me w/ 3.33...sigh..

Originally Posted by Motofreak75

have you tried the latest version of MT?, I had simlar issues that you have but I just installed v3.33 and it appears (so far) that issue has been resloved. For me atleast.

[xred]

Originally Posted by peterjb

I've written a Plugin for MyTheatre that supports the SageTV the Network Encoder protocol.

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the plugin, it's a godsend for integrating Mytheatre and Sage. I do have a couple of questions though.

I notice that when setup mode is set on, it only scans channels marked as "V"ideo (type 1). Would it also be possible to get it to scan for Type 2 (R)adio channels as well?

Also have you considered having the plugin provide the EPG data from MyTheatre as well? This would solve the PPV EPG problem too.

Again, thanks for this plugin, its a huge plus for Sage over other HTPC software as far as I am concerned.

[xred]

I've run in to my first problem and was hoping someone can help me get my setup up and running....

I am running MyTheatre w/ plugin on a remote PC. In the Docs it says I have to enter the entire the full UNC path to it, but I am not sure where to enter it! I've tried it in the Sage.Properties, and it doesn't seem to work there at all.

The Sage PC has a physical tuner (Analog) and is set to record to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Recorded TV. The MyTheatre PC is detecting this and trying to record to a LOCAL (to its machine) version of the same folder. I had to create this folder on the MyTheatre PC just to get it going at all.

I think I am pretty close to getting this working as the MyTheatre PC responds to channel changes on the Sage PC, but from what I can see above, the Sage PC just can't access the files and gives a "no signal" message.

Any help on this is appreciated.

TIA

[peterjb]

Firstly - My apologies for my lack of attendance of late - Unfortunately my real job has kept me far too busy of late!

The No Signal from SageTV for 2-5 seconds before playback commences is a good indicator that GET_FILE_SIZE requests are not being made often enough by SageTV to pickup when the playback from the plugin is available. I have managed to manifest similar behaviour myself with my DVB-T rig. In general I'm finding that it takes MT 2-3 seconds to respond to the channel change request and a further 3 seconds to start supplying the data to the plugin. In that timeframe, SageTV has made 31 GET_FILE_SIZE requests to the plugin and the network_encoding_to_playback_delay is set to 1500. What are your logfiles showing?

I've submitted a bug request to SageTV for further information about how to configure this in the properties file for the various Client/Server configurations – with no response to date. You may also like to submit a request and I might get an answer!

On MT dropping channel changes, this is a problem that I have seen increase with versions of MT V3.27 onwards. I'm currently running MT V3.33.3 at the moment ( and fingers crossed ) that seems to have improved the situation dramatically– Your mileage may vary! Unfortunately, the MT plugin API does not provide any indication of a failure to respond to a channel change request. You only receive a FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED event when it works. It's a very frustrating situation when the channel change request from within MT itself always seem to work – when ones initiated by the plugin don't. I'll raise the issue directly with Saar to seek his input. Another option may be to enhance the plugin to use the MTStart command with the /set option or manipulate the MT Window to send channel requests directly. Although I'm unsure if this would be any more reliable – Your thoughts???

On the radio front – the only reason they are currently excluded was due to my uncertainty on how they would be rendered in SageTV. I'm quite happy to change this behaviour – but I'll need someone to test it. The EPG issue is a bit more problematic in regards to how you feed the information back into SageTV. Not to mention that the EPG for digital tv in Oz is rubbish!!!!

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

you dont need to change anything in MT or MT plugin. You need to make sure that you configure sage itself. Instead of making the recording directory c:\do.... you would make it \\<computername or IP>\<sharename>. The quick solution for you would be to share your present recording directory and use the above path example.

I.

Originally Posted by xred

I've run in to my first problem and was hoping someone can help me get my setup up and running....

I am running MyTheatre w/ plugin on a remote PC. In the Docs it says I have to enter the entire the full UNC path to it, but I am not sure where to enter it! I've tried it in the Sage.Properties, and it doesn't seem to work there at all.

The Sage PC has a physical tuner (Analog) and is set to record to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Recorded TV. The MyTheatre PC is detecting this and trying to record to a LOCAL (to its machine) version of the same folder. I had to create this folder on the MyTheatre PC just to get it going at all.

I think I am pretty close to getting this working as the MyTheatre PC responds to channel changes on the Sage PC, but from what I can see above, the Sage PC just can't access the files and gives a "no signal" message.

Any help on this is appreciated.

TIA

[insomniac]

Originally Posted by peterjb

Firstly - My apologies for my lack of attendance of late - Unfortunately my real job has kept me far too busy of late!

This is my exact same problem! I have yet to find a workaround

Originally Posted by peterjb

What are your logfiles showing?

same.

Originally Posted by peterjb

Another option may be to enhance the plugin to use the MTStart command with the /set option or manipulate the MT Window to send channel requests directly. Although I'm unsure if this would be any more reliable – Your thoughts???

hmmm..im very happy with the channel change performance with my 2 MT instances. I cant remember the last time it missed a change. To me, this would be waisted resources. Have you turned off fast mux yet? This fixed all change issues for me with the old dvbcore, so I have always used it.

Originally Posted by peterjb

On the radio front – the only reason they are currently excluded was due to my uncertainty on how they would be rendered in SageTV. I'm quite happy to change this behaviour – but I'll need someone to test it.

Id be willing to test if your willing to code

Originally Posted by peterjb

The EPG issue is a bit more problematic in regards to how you feed the information back into SageTV

My thoughts on this was to use the existing mdb captured by MT. The export looks very similar to the format that sage needs to import the data into its epg. The scripting would be very easy, my problem is that I cannot figure out any good way to massage the xml data. See this link:

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...9&postcount=30

[peterjb]

Okay, I'll do the work on the Radio side of things shortly - it's a simple change. I'll also investigate the EPG integration for those who have useful EPG data

So I get this right, is the fastmux setting in SageTV Or is it the fast channel change setting in MT/DVBCore? I'm pretty sure got one set to false - but not the other..

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

sage properties file. Set to seeker/fast_mux_switch=false

I.

Originally Posted by peterjb

Okay, I'll do the work on the Radio side of things shortly - it's a simple change. I'll also investigate the EPG integration for those who have useful EPG data

So I get this right, is the fastmux setting in SageTV Or is it the fast channel change setting in MT/DVBCore? I'm pretty sure got one set to false - but not the other..

Cheers

Peter