MyHD Encoder for SageTV

[Kirby]

You know, I really dont remember. I am going to schedule some recordings tonight to test it more, and that way I will know if it breaks, what failed.

[Ron]

Salsbst:
Everything is humming along just great. I had some unknown hardware conflict with the MyHD encoder and my computer, but I've since moved to another computer and all is working great.

One minor little nuance. I have a QAM channel whose vitual channel has been assigned as 38. This is what the listing looks like in the MyHD channel list.

[INPUT1 No. 5]
Name = WB38
PhyCH = 81
VirCH = 38
MinCh = 1
SubCh = 1
TunerInputType = CABLE
SignalType = ATSC_256QAM
Programnumber = 1
Sourceid = 1

On the channel setup for MyHD under Sage, I've mapped the same channel to 38. However, the program guide is not showing it, even though it's a valid channel. It's the only one of my QAM channels that will not show up.

Any thoughts?

Otherwise, thanks for your fantastic effort in getting MyHD to work with Sage.

[Kirby]

Ron reply to my email, i know your issue here.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by Ron

Salsbst:
Everything is humming along just great. I had some unknown hardware conflict with the MyHD encoder and my computer, but I've since moved to another computer and all is working great.

One minor little nuance. I have a QAM channel whose vitual channel has been assigned as 38. This is what the listing looks like in the MyHD channel list.

[INPUT1 No. 5]
Name = WB38
PhyCH = 81
VirCH = 38
MinCh = 1
SubCh = 1
TunerInputType = CABLE
SignalType = ATSC_256QAM
Programnumber = 1
Sourceid = 1

On the channel setup for MyHD under Sage, I've mapped the same channel to 38. However, the program guide is not showing it, even though it's a valid channel. It's the only one of my QAM channels that will not show up.

Any thoughts?

Otherwise, thanks for your fantastic effort in getting MyHD to work with Sage.

It sounds like Kirby may have the answer... but my best guess would be that Sage may have relocated the channel in the guide. Sometimes it seems to move the channel to the mapped location in the guide, and sometimes it leaves it where it is, and sometimes it might combine two channels as one in the guide, and sometimes it doesn't. I haven't completely figured out the logic, and maybe I'm imagining things... it does seem that Sage v6 changes this area a little bit by differentiating between the channels that are used to sort the guide and the channels that are actually communicated to encoders...

[Ron]

Originally Posted by salsbst

It sounds like Kirby may have the answer... but my best guess would be that Sage may have relocated the channel in the guide. Sometimes it seems to move the channel to the mapped location in the guide, and sometimes it leaves it where it is, and sometimes it might combine two channels as one in the guide, and sometimes it doesn't. I haven't completely figured out the logic, and maybe I'm imagining things... it does seem that Sage v6 changes this area a little bit by differentiating between the channels that are used to sort the guide and the channels that are actually communicated to encoders...

Kirby did, in fact, have the answer. I used a different guide and that did the trick. Thanks Kirby and thanks Salsbst.

[Ron]

Stuart:

Is there any rationale as to why, on one client changing of channels goes very smoothly, whereas on another client, it is quite finnicky as to how the timings are set in the configuration?

Case in point -- my desktop is running a Sage client and seems to effortlessly move from one channel to another on the MyHD card by selecting the channel from the program guide. On my HTPC, which is connected to my plasma display and is really the one I'm most concerned about, I need to fool with the possmessagdelay in order to get it to work. What I mean, is that on that client, when Sage seems to think it's tuned to a selected channel, the MyHD card is still sitting on the previous channel. I'm going through the same thing as Thomaszoo. It seems that what works for one forum member, does not necessarily work for someone else. And in particular, in my case, it varies from computer to computer.

Any hints please?

Thanks,

[salsbst]

I don't have a good answer, unfotunately.

The reason that therre are several different configurable delays is due to the fact that I couldn't get comfortable with MyHD's response times and oddities. If "certain things" are rushed, it can silently ignore commands like "Record"... which is obviously a bad thing.

Honestly, the MyHD card has the best/cleanest QAM recording that I've seen, but it seems like they assigned the task of writing the application software to a driver developer who was completely out of his/her element.

What I mean, is that on that client, when Sage seems to think it's tuned to a selected channel, the MyHD card is still sitting on the previous channel.

Well, Sage has zero knowledge of what channel the MyHD is on. If the MyHD channel change fails, then Sage won't know it.

I think one basic thing that might help for tuning the control of MyHD would be a test app to allow for experimentation. I'm going to post the source code for the whole thing at some point (but not likely before 2007), and I'll see about putting a test app together as well.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by salsbst

Well, Sage has zero knowledge of what channel the MyHD is on. If the MyHD channel change fails, then Sage won't know it.

What I have found, is that if Sage thinks it's recording on a channel that it told the MyHD encoder to tune to, and MyHD never started to record, my Sage Client will become non-responsive to any commands, such as stop recording, close, etc. I would then have to end task the client, shut and restart my Sage service, and start all over again.

I had to tweak again last night, and I ran it through a series of channel changes (via the Sage program guide) and it's stable for the moment. These are the timings that are currently working for me.

postMessageDelayMilliseconds="150"
preRecordDelayMilliseconds="1000"
postRecordDelayMilliseconds="500"
postStopDelayMilliseconds="1000"

As an aside, the integration of MyHD into Sage couldn't have come at a better time. The only OTA HD network that I can't receive from my location is CBS, but as a Dish subscriber, I had it covered with CBSHD from NY. But with Dish's court ordered stoppage of DNS, I had just this week lost the CBSHD feed, and the QAM reception of my local CBS station through MyHD filled in that gap.

Stuart, thanks for your hard work in getting MyHD integrated into Sage.

[Ron]

Makes no sense. The above timings worked fine last night. Today, when attempting to do a channel change (through the program guide) MyHD does not respond to the command sent through Sage. Back to the drawing board of playing with timings.

[santa8claws]

Hi,
I'm having trouble with running the encoder and get a message box:
com.stusals.myHD.app.exe - Common Language Runtime Debugging Services
! Application has generated an exception that could not be handled.
Process id = 0x1cac (7340), Thread id = 0x1cb0 (7344).

Obviously the pre-requisite is to install .NET 1.1 so I've done that, but am I missing a needed dll or somehting? I'm running a "clean" install of Win XP Pro SP2 on a P4 2.0Ghz machine.
Can anyone help?
Thanks!
-- S8C

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by santa8claws

Hi,
I'm having trouble with running the encoder and get a message box:
com.stusals.myHD.app.exe - Common Language Runtime Debugging Services
! Application has generated an exception that could not be handled.
Process id = 0x1cac (7340), Thread id = 0x1cb0 (7344).

Obviously the pre-requisite is to install .NET 1.1 so I've done that, but am I missing a needed dll or somehting? I'm running a "clean" install of Win XP Pro SP2 on a P4 2.0Ghz machine.
Can anyone help?
Thanks!
-- S8C

Strange. Such an error message (without a textual description of the error) might suggest that some component of the .Net framework is funked.

Since the log file is started, the .Net framework is at least partially functional, and it could still be a problem in my code. I'll try to give you a new build with more error handling around the startup of the EXE to capture what is triggering the error. I hope I can do it tonight or sometime this weekend.

[santa8claws]

So I looked through the myHD.encoding.dll and saw references to the path C:\Program Files\MyHD\MyHD.exe and realized that I have installed MyHD application to a different directory. How does the encoder know where MyHD.exe is? Can you set the path in the .config file somehow?
Thanks!
-- S8C

[salsbst]

I've posted a new build (in the first post of the thread) that allows for configuration of the MyHD EXE path. This was one my todo list and quite easy.

Let me know how it works. Also, note that I changed the default timings in the app config to those that I found to work consistently for me. If you read through the last couple of pages of this thread, its obvious that different machines need different timings, but the previous defaults worked consistently for nobody, so I hope that its a step in the right direction.

Note: I think one may want to back up the config file before installing. My mind isn't working well right now, but I have this feeling it will get overwritten by the installer otherwise.

[santa8claws]

Thanks for the quick response! ...But it must be something else since I get the same exception, but with a different code:
Application has generated an exception that could not be handled.

Process id = 0x4e8 (1256), Thread id = 0x1f8 (504).

And of course the log looks the same:
2006-12-31 13:50:52,171 [504] INFO com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - SageTV MyHD Encoder Starting

Would it have anything to do with permissions?

Thank you again for helping me with troubleshooting this problem.
-- S8C

[dgschoel]

I am also getting this error.


The process id and thread are different though
Processid=0x3eo (992), Thread id=0x7d8 (2008)

The log is the same and only change to config file was using an IP for my sage server instaed of localhost.


I notice that the previous post is a couple weeks old. Has there been any solution to this yet?

[salsbst]

I updated the first post in this thread with a new version, which contains some more debugging log entries.

After installing, please change this line in the config file:

			<level value="INFO" />

to

			<level value="DEBUG" />

so that we can see all the log entries. Hopefully, we can narrow down the problem that way.

[dgschoel]

Here is the log file using your new version at DEBUG level.

Same on screen error attempting to run the program


2007-01-17 17:52:45,312 [3988] INFO com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - SageTV MyHD Encoder Starting
2007-01-17 17:52:45,484 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Creating MyApplicationContext
2007-01-17 17:52:46,000 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Creating MyHDEncoder
2007-01-17 17:52:46,000 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance] - Enter
2007-01-17 17:52:51,812 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance] - Exit

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by dgschoel

Here is the log file using your new version at DEBUG level.

Same on screen error attempting to run the program

2007-01-17 17:52:45,312 [3988] INFO  com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - SageTV MyHD Encoder Starting
2007-01-17 17:52:45,484 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Creating MyApplicationContext
2007-01-17 17:52:46,000 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Creating MyHDEncoder
2007-01-17 17:52:46,000 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance] - Enter
2007-01-17 17:52:51,812 [3988] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance] - Exit

Ok, nothing jumps out at me there! I think I'll have to add more debugging log entries after the MyHDENcoder GetInstance call...

One question: did you quit the encoder manually, or did it shut itself down when the error was reported?

[dgschoel]

The encoder never started. It gave the error message and the option to exit or debug. The tray icon appears. Once I dismiss the error message and move the mouse over the tray icon it disappears.

[salsbst]

Ok, I fixed a stupid bug in the configuration reading section. Sorry about it, it was really lame.

In any case, here's what I get from the encoder when I launch it and then quit it now:

2007-01-18 18:42:57,450 [1888] INFO  com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - SageTV MyHD Encoder Starting
2007-01-18 18:42:57,482 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Creating MyApplicationContext
2007-01-18 18:42:57,560 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Creating MyHDEncoder
2007-01-18 18:42:57,560 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance] - Enter
2007-01-18 18:42:57,950 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout] - Enter
2007-01-18 18:42:57,950 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize] - Locking Messenger
2007-01-18 18:42:57,950 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize LaunchMyHD] - Enter
2007-01-18 18:42:57,966 [1888] INFO  com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize LaunchMyHD] - MyHD process started.
2007-01-18 18:42:57,966 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize LaunchMyHD] - Exit
2007-01-18 18:42:57,966 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize] - Waiting on Messenger
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [3644] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Messenger [AcceptConnection set_Socket] - Raising OnMyHDConnected event.
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [3644] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [AcceptConnection set_Socket OnMyHDConnected] - Locking Messenger
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [3644] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [AcceptConnection set_Socket OnMyHDConnected] - Pulsing Messenger
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [3644] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [AcceptConnection set_Socket OnMyHDConnected] - Messenger Pulsed
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize] - Messenger lock released
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [1888] INFO  com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout Initialize] - Communications with MyHD established.
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance InitializeCallout] - Exit
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main GetInstance] - Exit
2007-01-18 18:42:59,934 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - Running application context
2007-01-18 18:42:59,950 [4048] INFO  com.stusals.sagetv.encoding.Encoder[Listen] - Began listening for SageTV encoder requests.
2007-01-18 18:43:06,901 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main StopRecording] - Enter
2007-01-18 18:43:06,901 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.MyHDEncoder [Main StopRecording] - Exit
2007-01-18 18:43:06,901 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main QuitMyHD] - Enter
2007-01-18 18:43:06,901 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Messenger [Main QuitMyHD SendMessage] - POWER
2007-01-18 18:43:06,901 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Messenger [Main QuitMyHD SendMessage] - Pausing for 100 milliseconds.
2007-01-18 18:43:06,901 [4048] INFO  com.stusals.sagetv.encoding.Encoder[Listen] - Stopped listening for SageTV encoder requests.
2007-01-18 18:43:06,917 [2460] DEBUG com.stusals.sagetv.encoding.Encoder [(null)] - ObjectDisposedException thrown while connecting processor -- this is expected when shutting down the encoder.
2007-01-18 18:43:07,011 [1888] INFO  com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main QuitMyHD] - MyHD sent "Power Off" command.
2007-01-18 18:43:07,011 [1888] DEBUG com.stusals.myHD.encoding.Controller [Main QuitMyHD] - Exit
2007-01-18 18:43:07,011 [1888] INFO  com.stusals.myHD.app.SageTVMyHDApp [Main] - SageTV MyHD Encoder Stopping

One should hope to get something like this. I've uploaded another version to the first post in the thread. Let me know how it goes!