Get QAM Content with your existing QAM capture cards!

[bhyman1]

This looks like a slick product.

I'd be interested in the firewire option as well.

[Stealth1971]

Would anybody with a Fusion 5 RT Lite be willing to allow ssh access to their EVO PC over the internet to evaluate if we just need to make a config change for support? We could order the 5Lite for testing, but it this would be much quicker right now.

Thanks in advance!

[wheelrandolph]

Hi,
With some help from this forum I got this working Great! Watched a movie last night on HDNet Movie channel (Sharon Stone ). Just wondering--there are 2 channels I receive on my qam hdtv that I do not get on EVO. Any thoughts--do I need an amplifier on my cable line?

Thanks, Randy

[DArthur]

I've got a spare you can borrow - just PM me your address... (can't ship until Monday tho)

Darryl

[wazkaren]

I interested to try this out. I have a PC with Windows already installed. Can I boot from the EVO cd and leave my Windows installation unaffected? When I'm done can I then remove the CD and reboot Windows normally?

Thanks,
Greg

[Kirby]

Shouldnt be an issue, but if you are concerned, just pull the power or data cable from your hard drive before booting the EVO cd.

[wazkaren]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Shouldnt be an issue, but if you are concerned, just pull the power or data cable from your hard drive before booting the EVO cd.

That's a good thought. I always seem to miss the obvious.

[mikejaner]

I applied for a trial of this software last week, and haven't heard anything. Is there any way I can download this software?

[Stealth1971]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I applied for a trial of this software last week, and haven't heard anything. Is there any way I can download this software?

When you sign up for the website there will be a downloads menu item on the left side. Download the components from the links on the download page.



The download menu item and its page should be available for register/signed in users.

Hope that helps - let me know if you still have issues.

I guess it can be easy to over look. I will try to make it easier to find!

[steingra]

Hello
This all sounds interesting...but sorry I have a dumb question. Can someone give me a high level of *what* the QAM channels are on my cable tv system? And how do I know if I even have any?

I subscribe to mediacom cable tv, and have a digital gateway stb, and a new hdtv stb as of this weekend (so I can get my local channels in high def as well as their HDPak) because its too frigging cold right now for me to be on the roof messing around with an antenna to get local OTA channels. And I definately want the superbowl in high def as well as other sporting events.

Anyway, I have lots of extra pc's laying around, and always like to see new developments for sagetv. I am very willing to try this new product out, but I need to understand a little more in detail, what the purpose of this all is QAM stuff is.

I dont mind purchasing a QAM capable card...a cheap-o one for starters would be nice. But where to get it ebay?

Told you... dumb question.

PS
I tried out the NASLite+ product, and really liked that. Have one up and running using a bootable USB drive.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by steingra

Hello
This all sounds interesting...but sorry I have a dumb question. Can someone give me a high level of *what* the QAM channels are on my cable tv system? And how do I know if I even have any?

I subscribe to mediacom cable tv, and have a digital gateway stb, and a new hdtv stb as of this weekend (so I can get my local channels in high def as well as their HDPak) because its too frigging cold right now for me to be on the roof messing around with an antenna to get local OTA channels. And I definately want the superbowl in high def as well as other sporting events.

Nobody, except a neighbor of yours on your cable system can tell you exactly what QAM channels you can receive. QAM channels are digital channels that the CC is sending to unscrambled, in the clear, so that you can receive them with a QAM tuner. Usually, you will get your broadcast locals and some other digital channels. Usually lower tier, and not any premium channels.

If you have a HDTV with a QAM tuner you could hook up a coax to it and do a channel scan. That would tell you what QAM channels you'll get. You could check out this thread, http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&highlight=qam , or this AVS forum, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45 , and see if your local CC is listed.

[mikejaner]

When you sign up for the website there will be a downloads menu item on the left side. Download the components from the links on the download page.

Sorry about the ID10T error. I didn't notice the links changed after I signed up. After I closed the page and waited for a confirmation email etc... I didn't think to go back in and log into the page.

[Stealth1971]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I didn't notice the links changed after I signed up. After I closed the page and waited for a confirmation email etc...

Thanks for pointing this out - We need to make this clearer during sign-up. Maybe we should send the download links in an email after registration.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by Stealth1971

Would anybody with a Fusion 5 RT Lite be willing to allow ssh access to their EVO PC over the internet to evaluate if we just need to make a config change for support? We could order the 5Lite for testing, but it this would be much quicker right now.

Thanks in advance!

Do you still need this? I am willing to build a test box if you need.. I have the RT Lite and an extra PC.. currently neither are in use.

Thanks!

[Stealth1971]

Originally Posted by Stuntman

Do you still need this? I am willing to build a test box if you need.. I have the RT Lite and an extra PC.. currently neither are in use.

Thanks!

DArthur has sent one our way. We hope to get a build for it ASAP.

However, thanks for the offer!

[Stealth1971]

For those of you that are still not sure how this works:

QAM in short -

QAM is the digital broadcast layer for most cable providers just as Ethernet is the agreed upon protocol for most corporate/home networks now. So, using QAM the cable providers send down their MPEG2 Transport streams to their STBs to be decoded for viewing. However, the cable providers often encrypted most of their streams as to lock their content from non-paying eyes, but often they do still provide the major network channels (FOX, NBC, CBS, etc) as ITC (in the clear) or unencrypted.

Many of the current off-the-shelf OTA tuner cards are capable of decoding QAM also, but in Microsoft’s great wisdom, MS decided NOT to include QAM tuning in their driver specification. (I suspect as to play nice with the MPAA and the networks – suck-ups!). So no QAM for Windows.

Where does EVO fit in?

The EVO-SOFT package actually includes two pieces:

1) The EVO-SOFT device component (the custom ISO linux CD that boots your QAM card enabled PC) This is how to get access to QAM devices outside of Windows.
2) The EVO Console that manages the EVO-SOFT devices, stores scanned channels, preview scanned channels, and connect the devices to Sage via the SageTV’s network encoder plugin spec. This piece goes on your SageTV PC/Server.

Putting it together:

So each EVO-SOFT device pulls the MPEG2 stream (digital content) from the QAM layer of the cable provider and then pushes its over your home network to the SageTV PC or Server that is running the EVO Console (or windows service) - the SageTV enabler. Then it goes to your hard drive via SageTV. Then there is the sound of angels and rainbows shooting out of your PC (ok, I made that part up)


Notes:

Each EVO-SOFT device announces itself on the network so there is no configuration on the device. The only configuration is done on the EVO Console.

Each scanned/found frequency & stream # combination on the EVO device is mapped to a real channel in SageTV.

Each EVO device becomes a network encoder(a network version of a capture card) for SageTV. Once you have setup everything, SageTV can view the ITC HD streams from your cable company.

Sounds easy right? Well not so much we built our own MPEG2 transport stream parser to make sure you get the streams properly - reading through the MPEG2 specification document is - hmmm - ehhh - tedious.

Hope this helps! - I think evo4tv.com should have a wiki about this stuff....

[sagepower]

I've completed all the steps up to the channel remaping. The scanned channels show up and what I did is right clic on the channel I want to view and drag it onto the window with the EVO logo but noth ing happens. I don't seem to be able to view the channels in order to determine what channel I'm viewing. I must be doing something wrong? I don't seem to find any other info on this subject. Some help would be appreceated.

[Stealth1971]

sagepower -

How many channels did your scan find? The scan will turn up channels that are encrypted and some that are not even in use by your cable provider yet. These will NOT playback anything.

Did you mean that you left clicked and drag-and-dropped? I will check it if makes a difference.

If the scan did turn up quite a few channels, you might have to go through each one or find a existing channel map for your area (I believe there is a thread that has them listed here somewhere)

One more thing, you need a MPEG2 playback decoder filter such as NVidia's or Cyberlink's installed for the playback. The EVO console uses its own DirectShow filter for reading files, but uses the installed playback decoder.

Hope this helps - if not post back here or email me at Tim(dot)Smith(at_)Venturality(_dot)com

[sagepower]

Thanks for the help.

My scan came up wih 147 channels. Some of my problem comes from the fact I didn't have a MPEG2 playback decoder installed for the playback. My sage server is never used for video playback. I installed the EVO software on one of my clients and again did the scan. Came up with same channels but only able to view one channel which appears to be a TWC info channel. Could the entire channel lineup be encrypted? I'm in the Milwaukee area.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by Stealth1971

DArthur has sent one our way. We hope to get a build for it ASAP.

However, thanks for the offer!

Anything to help..

Any chance we'll see a build before SuperBowl Sunday?