MyHD Encoder for SageTV

[salsbst]

Introduction and installation/configuration instructions: http://www.sage-community.org/index....NetworkEncoder

Download at the bottom of this post.

2007-01-18 (v1.0.0005): Fixed a stupid bug in the reading of the config file.

2007-01-16: Added some more debug log entries in startup code.

2006-12-30: Added configuration for path to MyHD EXE and changed default timings to those that have proven to work for me.

2006-11-05: I honestly can't believe it's taken me a year to get this thing out the door. Well, here it is if anyone's still interested. I'll keep my MyHD card in my development machine for about a week in case I need to debug something, then it goes into my production system, at which point support might get a little more difficult.

I'll probably clean up/document/release the source code, at least some of it, at some point.

2005-11-02: This thread is for discussion of an encoder that I am in the process of developing which will hopefully allow for recording unencrypted QAM (digital cable) in SageTV using the MIT MyHD MDP 130.

I wanted to establish this thread so as not to further hijack the thread in which the subject came up.

Please use this thread to discuss. I will be posting updates on progress here.

[briands]

Cool application. Couple of questions...

1) will it work with all MyHD cards? I have a 100 card that I would love to use. I realize this card does not support QAM.

2) It seems from the discussion that this will work as a network encoder. I assume that means that the card can be hosted either in the Sage machine or a seperate machine.

3) If it is hosted in another machine, will the card be available for use by the MyHD application for playback?

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by briands

Cool application. Couple of questions...

1) will it work with all MyHD cards? I have a 100 card that I would love to use. I realize this card does not support QAM.

I believe it will work with any of the cards, as long as the MyHD.exe application behaves the same for every card.

2) It seems from the discussion that this will work as a network encoder. I assume that means that the card can be hosted either in the Sage machine or a seperate machine.

Yes, as long as MyHD can record directly to a network drive, which I believe it can do, although I haven't actually tested that.

3) If it is hosted in another machine, will the card be available for use by the MyHD application for playback?

Doubtful. You can't record one thing while playing back another in the MyHD app, AFAIK. I believe that TPetersen (Peterson?) of the AVS forum is attempting to have that changed, but until it is changed, I believe that anything you are watching when a recording begins would be preempted by the recording, and attempting to watch something after a recording begins would preempt the recording.

And in case its not clear, this will work by controlling the MyHD app (in the same way that the MyIRC thingy does), not by communicating directly with the card.

In the AVS forum thread for the 130, I've asked for a real interface to the cards recording features. But I'm not holding my breath.

And another thing... there's an issue with XP Pro / Win2k Pro vs Win2k server, Win2003 server.

Background...

The MyHD app absolutely refuses to run outside of a user's GUI session. I've tried all of the "run an app as a service" utilities that I could find, and none can overcome its determination to access the GUI. (I'd be thrilled if someone knows a way.)

The reason this is relevant is that many of us (me included) run SageTV as a service. Running SageTV as a service necessitates that either
a) that the MyHD encoder runs as a service; or
b) that the MyHD encoder runs on a different machine into which a user is already logged in (and stays logged in).

The server-flavored Microsoft OSs allow for logging into Windows via a terminal server connection *without* forcing off the console user. This is known as concurrent remote desktop connections. Using this feature, I'm able to log in a "myhd" user to a hidden remote desktop connection and launch MyHD there. This enables the MyHD encoder to be available for SageTV even when no user is logged into the console.

Without purchasing a relatively costly add-on (WinConnect Server) or searching Google for alternatives to enabling concurrent remote desktop connections in Windows XP SP2, this solution of using a disconnected remote desktop session will not work in Windows XP, and there is no hope for making this solution work on a Win2k Pro machine.

So, in these cases, you'd run the MyHD encoder as an app, and it would ensure that MyHD.exe is launched as it is launched.

I'm open to suggestions for alternatives on this.

[briands]

Thanks for the clarification. I just have to decide what machine to install the card into.

Originally Posted by salsbst

------------------Doubtful. You can't record one thing while playing back another in the MyHD app, AFAIK. ------------

I think it has always been able to play a file seperate from what it was recording. There was a change at some point that allowed the file to be played in a seperate application even while it was recording. The later versions of the software even allowed time shifting using the MyHD to play from a file that was still recording.

[salsbst]

In that case, it may work as you hoped. When the overlay is visible, it seems to me that the MyHD immediately begins to play back the channel that the (prerecording) tuning request specifies, therefore I assumed that it would do the same if you are watching a pre-recorded file. Perhaps that was a one of those faulty assumptions.

[ajuhawk]

So how about a progress update? I have a MDP-130 arriving today, so if you need a beta tester, holar.

[salsbst]

I believe I'm about 90% of the way to an alpha draft, and I started 14 days ago, give or take. A lot of my time was spent coming up with the RDP solution.

I'm hoping to have something to release for beta testers some time next week.

[salsbst]

Oh, by the way, I just saw another person complaining in yet another thread about having to install .Net in order to run some software... so, FYI, you'll need .Net Framework 1.1 on the machine where you'll run the network encoder service in order to run this.

Note that this machine need not be the same machine that you run SageTV on.

In theory, you can also run it on a different machine than the one that has the MyHD, but that would involve an ipchains-like port forwarding technique, since MyHD binds to 127.0.0.1:[some port I can't remember right now] to hook up to its "remote controller".

[sterno3]

Originally Posted by salsbst

This thread is for discussion of an encoder that I am in the process of developing which will hopefully allow for recording unencrypted QAM (digital cable) in SageTV using the MIT MyHD MDP 130.

I wanted to establish this thread so as not to further hijack the thread in which the subject came up.

Please use this thread to discuss. I will be posting updates on progress here.

Can you elaborate a bit more on what your vision is for how this will work? I do not own Sage, but I do have a MDP-130 which I use for OTA (primarily) and QAM as well. Depending on what this can/will do, I would be VERY interested in buying Sage. I am familar with the problem space of pretty & feature rich UI's like MCE & TiVo, so the explanation doesn't have to be too basic.

Some of the questions I have:

1. Will you be able to schedule recordings (including season pass etc) through a nicer UI than TitanTV?
2. How will playback work? Will it utilze the MDP, or will you have to have a software player & video card out?
3. The recordings will still be done through the MDP, but will timeshifting etc still work?
4. How will live watching work?
5. how about playlists, etc

Just some of the things that pop into my head.

[salsbst]

If all goes according to plan, you will have all of the features of SageTV available to you, just like with any of the officially and more conventially supported cards, and the OTA HDTV support for the Fusion, A180, etc.... with a couple (fairly minor, I think) exceptions.

Therefore, most of your questions are really about SageTV, and not my encoder, thus way beyond the scope of this thread.

That said, I

1. Will you be able to schedule recordings (including season pass etc) through a nicer UI than TitanTV?

Yes.

2. How will playback work? Will it utilze the MDP, or will you have to have a software player & video card out?

Software/video card.

3. The recordings will still be done through the MDP, but will timeshifting etc still work?

I hope and expect so.

4. How will live watching work?

It will be on a second or two of delay, just like with other cards in SageTV.

5. how about playlists, etc

I'm not sure what you mean.

SageTV is a very powerful PVR. If you look into its features (it has a manual that you can download and a trial version), you'll find that out.

There are a couple of minor features that won't be supported for the MyHD.

a) SageTV can display a truly live "preview" window as you flip through the EPG. The MyHD encoder will only "sort of" support this -- it will loop over a snapshot of recently aired video as you land on each channel. It's hard to explain, but I don't think anyone should go jumping off of a roof due to this partial support for this feature.

b) same goes for the live preview during channel setup. With the limited number of channels available to HDTV, I don't see a slightly awkward channel setup process as overly problematic.

Just a tip: if this support for MyHD is the only reason you'd consider SageTV, don't buy it yet. Download the trial once I post a beta and give it a whirl. I don't work for SageTV, so I can't promise you that you'll be happy with my solution.

[Ken C]

Wow, SageTV w/Studio and now this !! The possibility of using the MyHD 130 card within Sage is mind boggling. I can hardly wait !

Ken C

[sterno3]

Thanks for the reply,

Originally Posted by salsbst

...clipped...
Just a tip: if this support for MyHD is the only reason you'd consider SageTV, don't buy it yet. Download the trial once I post a beta and give it a whirl. I don't work for SageTV, so I can't promise you that you'll be happy with my solution.

Of course of course never buy until you try. in fact, I was going to ask when you would suggest installing the trial, and it sound like you suggested after the beta is posted...sounds good, and I guess I can wait.

Another thing I was going to ask, and since you don't work for sage. Given what you are doing, would it be able to take what you have done and apply it at a free/open source application like media portal or the like? If I am picturing this correctly, you have created code that can send events to the MyIRC hooks. The thing that would need to change is the triggering that is done by sage to work with the other application's open api. Am I crazy? or just cheap?

[parkimar]

It's hard to explain, but I don't think anyone should go jumping off of a roof due to this partial support for this feature.

Cheers

Mark

[MixTracks]

Quite intersting....

I would be interested in testing for you if needed.

I have a MyHD-120 card, and use it with OTA HD only.

Let me know, sounds exciting, and possibly, same me some $$. I was getting ready to buy a A180, mabye I should hold off?

[ajuhawk]

Okay, I know this is slightly off topic, but it is related to the MDP-130... I just got mine today and got it installed. Just messing around with it today I'm somewhat disappointed with the QAM functionality. It picks the channels up, but it stutters like crazy on them unless I tell it to record, then it's fine. I hooked up an antenna to the other input (ANT1) and have absolutely no trouble with playback (though MyHD does like to freeze now and again). Anyway, I was just wondering if my experience is normal or if it's a "feature" of Comcast.

Now back to awaiting this wonderful plugin so we can all use our cards from Sage

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by sterno3

Another thing I was going to ask, and since you don't work for sage. Given what you are doing, would it be able to take what you have done and apply it at a free/open source application like media portal or the like? If I am picturing this correctly, you have created code that can send events to the MyIRC hooks. The thing that would need to change is the triggering that is done by sage to work with the other application's open api. Am I crazy? or just cheap?

There are 4 components to my service.

a) Messaging: responsible for communicating with MyHD. Puts a simple face on the MyIRC API.
b) Control: responsible for controlling a MyHD session. Has two implementations, one for running MyHD as a foreground app, one for running it within the context of an RDP session. Also puts the MyHD communication at a higher level (instead of pressing 1,2,2,[pause],REC, you call "Record(122, filename)").
c) Encoding: implements the SageTV encoder interface
d) App: implements both a GUI application and a Windows Service process for hosting the encoder.

At some point in the release cycle, a UML model will be included in the source.

Bottom line: if those other PVR apps have a decent API, then you can probably use what I've done. But you shouldn't -- SageTV is the best.

Originally Posted by MixTracks

I have a MyHD-120 card, and use it with OTA HD only.

Let me know, sounds exciting, and possibly, same me some $$. I was getting ready to buy a A180, mabye I should hold off?

Personnaly, if I was after OTA only, I'd buy the A180. The only reason I'm doing this is for QAM. That said, my solution should work for OTA. But since the MyHD has that fancy decoder/renderer on it, I'd keep it away from Sage if I didn't need QAM, and buy a very reasonably price A180 for Sage duties.

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

Okay, I know this is slightly off topic, but it is related to the MDP-130...

Yeah, that's fairly off topic. The place for general MyHD questions is here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=493691 . Please don't take offense, but I have a feeling this thread could get a little lengthy and I don't want it to get any more lengthy than it has to with side stories. That said, if you have no problems during recording, then under SageTV you may not have any problems.

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by salsbst

There are 4 components to my service.

a) Messaging: responsible for communicating with MyHD. Puts a simple face on the MyIRC API.
b) Control: responsible for controlling a MyHD session. Has two implementations, one for running MyHD as a foreground app, one for running it within the context of an RDP session. Also puts the MyHD communication at a higher level (instead of pressing 1,2,2,[pause],REC, you call "Record(122, filename)").
c) Encoding: implements the SageTV encoder interface
d) App: implements both a GUI application and a Windows Service process for hosting the encoder.

At some point in the release cycle, a UML model will be included in the source.

Bottom line: if those other PVR apps have a decent API, then you can probably use what I've done. But you shouldn't -- SageTV is the best.

Personnaly, if I was after OTA only, I'd buy the A180. The only reason I'm doing this is for QAM. That said, my solution should work for OTA. But since the MyHD has that fancy decoder/renderer on it, I'd keep it away from Sage if I didn't need QAM, and buy a very reasonably price A180 for Sage duties.
....

Unless someone can get the 130 to output over it's hardware decoder (like the 350) w/ GUI support. This would give the HD crowd a great hardware decode solution.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

Unless someone can get the 130 to output over it's hardware decoder (like the 350) w/ GUI support. This would give the HD crowd a great hardware decode solution.

True, but I think that's going to take some serious help from Macro Image Technology to make it possible. AFAIK, such an API on the MyHD does not exist (or at least is totally undocumented).

[MixTracks]

Thanks for the tip on OTA HD, I was planning on a A180 anyway, I'll just pick one up, and use the MyHD for a third card.

[thatdude90210]

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

Okay, I know this is slightly off topic, but it is related to the MDP-130... I just got mine today and got it installed. Just messing around with it today I'm somewhat disappointed with the QAM functionality. It picks the channels up, but it stutters like crazy on them unless I tell it to record, then it's fine. I hooked up an antenna to the other input (ANT1) and have absolutely no trouble with playback (though MyHD does like to freeze now and again). Anyway, I was just wondering if my experience is normal or if it's a "feature" of Comcast.

Try reducing everything from non-fullscreen mode, like no overlay picture, etc. I saw something like this on INHD & DiscHD before (which Comcast just recently encripted, along with espnHD so I no longer get these). A work around is to have timeshift always on.