Will the R5000HD 169time.com products work with SageTV 6.1?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by mkanet

This may sound like a dumb question, but does the R5000 require anything to run outside of the sageTV software like HD HomeRun?

Yes, you must run the SageTV-enabled version of the R5000 application. This provides the network encoder interface to which SageTV itself connects. See the Sage-specific setup instructions on the R5000 site for details.

[mkanet]

Thanks for the information. I'm curious just how clunky these network encoders are when changing channels? R5000 website says its pretty slow.. to the point where you might get a no signal message when changing channels. Roughly, how long does it take to switch channels? How often do you get the no-signal message in between changing channels? I'm used to the speed of channel changing on ATSC OTA tuners and channel changing via serial cable.

PS: There looks like the new R5000 beta version tried to fix that problem.... if its even a problem. Has anyone tried the beta version to the R5000 software (ver 2.5)?

[NEOSG]

Just tested using newest beta and I got

7 seconds with brief display of no signal.

This was going from current live R5000 channel to new fresh R5000 channel

[mkanet]

NEOSG, thanks for all your helpful and honest information. So, is 7 seconds a significant improvement to the channel changing speed? If I were to schedule recordings... and play it back at a later time, would there be a long delay (with a black screen/no sound) before the show/movie starts, or does it start right away? Do you see the "no signal" message for already recorded material or just live channel changing?

Originally Posted by NEOSG

Just tested using newest beta and I got

7 seconds with brief display of no signal.

This was going from current live R5000 channel to new fresh R5000 channel

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by mkanet

NEOSG, thanks for all your helpful and honest information. So, is 7 seconds a significant improvement to the channel changing speed? If I were to schedule recordings... and play it back at a later time, would there be a long delay (with a black screen/no sound) before the show/movie starts, or does it start right away? Do you see the "no signal" message for already recorded material or just live channel changing?

Maybe a second or 2 faster but not much.

Watching something that has already started recording, or that was recorded previously, results in no delay in viewing. Also, no "no signal" image in that recording.

Hope that made sense

[mkanet]

Made perfect sense. It looks like I will install the beta. I can certainly live with that since 99% of what I watch is scheduled recordings.

Originally Posted by NEOSG

Maybe a second or 2 faster but not much.

Watching something that has already started recording, or that was recorded previously, results in no delay in viewing. Also, no "no signal" image in that recording.

Hope that made sense

[NEOSG]

Good deal. Hopefully things will go smoothly for you. A couple of us like the R5000 so much we run a few of them. It is really nice be able to get stable HD recordings of non-OTA channels

[mkanet]

Thanks for all your help NEOSG sand MikeSM, and everyone else. I ended up ordering two OnAir HDTV-GT's to supplement the R5000 and my 2 OTA ATSC tuners. The only reason I went with 2 OnAir HDTV-GT's instead of 1 HomeRun is the weird network encoder incompatibility between the HomeRun and the R5000 that MikeSM reported. Plus, I'll avoid running one extra network encoder app unnecessarily.

I think this is a great thread and will help anyone starting from zero knowledge to get them everything they need for a relatively long term, stable solution for HDTV cable (premium channel) recordings in sageTV.

I visited the cablecard thread on AVS just now and it seems people aren't too happy with the limitations of that solution. I don't blame them.

[popechild]

I'm still talking to reps at TW to see if they can confirm that they'll eventually provision this thing for me, but just came across this note on the Nextcom website and wondered what it means for me (or if it's just an old note):

"Recording of all HD and SD (digital only; cannot capture analog cable channels) material is possible." Does this mean if TW has "basic cable" channels (ie. 2-70 or something) and they're available through an analog tuner that I won't be able to record them? Or are you guys able to record any/every channel you subscribe to?

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by popechild

I'm still talking to reps at TW to see if they can confirm that they'll eventually provision this thing for me, but just came across this note on the Nextcom website and wondered what it means for me (or if it's just an old note):

"Recording of all HD and SD (digital only; cannot capture analog cable channels) material is possible." Does this mean if TW has "basic cable" channels (ie. 2-70 or something) and they're available through an analog tuner that I won't be able to record them? Or are you guys able to record any/every channel you subscribe to?

We have ADS in our market, so we record the digital version of the analog channels that are being transmitted. I would assume TW does it too as most of the MSO's have started this last year...

Thanks,
mike

[popechild]

Thanks. I'll check into that. So I guess that means that it cannot record any that aren't simulcast though? (ie. only analog?)

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by popechild

Thanks. I'll check into that. So I guess that means that it cannot record any that aren't simulcast though? (ie. only analog?)

Correct. Anything the box doesn't decode digitally can not be recorded. Technically, if you did an R5000-HD mod on a DVR box in a market with no ADS, in that case, it would work, since there is an encoder in a box like the MOT 6416 that encodes the analog programming into digital, and the outputs it. So in that configuration an R5000-HD would capture the analog programming.

However, all the MOT DVR boxes shipped to date have 1394 interfaces active, which means NextCom Will not mod them due to DMCA issues. So it's a moot point.

And also if ADS isn't there yet, it will be there soon.

BTW, the easy way to check is to tune your digital box to an analog channel, and then go into diagnostics and see what the frequency and mode (analog vs digital) the STB is reporting for the tuned channel. If it's ADS the frequency will not be the standard analog frequency, and the mode will display as digital.

Another even easier but less reliable way to tell is if the box is indicating Dolby Digital output for that channel. That would not be possible on a pure analog feed. Not all channels that are simulcast do DD, but more programs than you think do, and the audio format is reported by the guide when you first tune the station (and also on the front panel of my DCP501).

Thanks,
Mike

[thomaszoo]

The DCP501's have a full amplifier built into them. Is this thing on whenever you are recording? If so, can you easily have the unit power on and off as necessary so you aren't sucking watts all the time?

Wayne

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

The DCP501's have a full amplifier built into them. Is this thing on whenever you are recording? If so, can you easily have the unit power on and off as necessary so you aren't sucking watts all the time?

Wayne

Actually, if you don't plug in speakers the reciever detects an open load and shuts down the amps as a safety function. I may experiment with unhooking the power supply from the amps, but power consumption isn't that bad.

I would say that if you are serious enough getting pristine digital HD video to run SageTV and the R5000-HD, a few extra watts should not stand in your way. If you feel guilty, install a solar PV system like I did. It's nice seeing all your servers and clients humming and still paying close to 0 for your electric bill. :-)

thanks,
Mike

[popechild]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

The DCP501's have a full amplifier built into them. Is this thing on whenever you are recording? If so, can you easily have the unit power on and off as necessary so you aren't sucking watts all the time?

Wayne

Hmm... that brings up an interesting question. Suppose you use the DCP501 as your receiver as well, and run another components through it (ie. xbox). If you wanted to play xbox, so you switched to that input (from whatever the "cable" input is called), would the r5000 mod still send the cable signal to Sage? Or do you have to have the receiver always on and the input always switched to "cable" in order for the r5000 to grab video to send?

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by popechild

Hmm... that brings up an interesting question. Suppose you use the DCP501 as your receiver as well, and run another components through it (ie. xbox). If you wanted to play xbox, so you switched to that input (from whatever the "cable" input is called), would the r5000 mod still send the cable signal to Sage? Or do you have to have the receiver always on and the input always switched to "cable" in order for the r5000 to grab video to send?

I've not tried this, but it should work. The video is tapped off right off the decoder before any switching.

Thanks,
mike

[Vinylvision]

mkanet: What did SageTV say in response to your question about Sage H.264 MP4 support? I want to go the E******* satellite route with Sage and the R5000-HD

Originally Posted by mkanet

I just got an email back from R5000 support. They said they already can provide mpeg4 H.264 to sageTV. It's up to SageTV software to support this with directshow decoders such as PowerDVD's hardware accelerated H.264 decoder. I emailed SageTV support asking if this is possible or not.

I dont think I'm going to go down the Mpeg2 route since support it might not last too long.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by Vinylvision

mkanet: What did SageTV say in response to your question about Sage H.264 MP4 support? I want to go the E******* satellite route with Sage and the R5000-HD

Sage supports H.264 now, at least the H.264 files I create on my Mac for playback. Sage does not yet support H.264 streams from the r5000hd.

[mkanet]

QUESTION:
Subject: R5000 Mpeg4 (H.264) support in SageTV via directshow filter
(PowerDVD)

Is it possible to do the follow:

R5000 Mpeg4 (H.264) support in SageTV via directshow filter (PowerDVD H.264
decoder)


ANSWER:
Michael,

We do this now for V6.1
-----------------------------------------

Originally Posted by Vinylvision

mkanet: What did SageTV say in response to your question about Sage H.264 MP4 support? I want to go the E******* satellite route with Sage and the R5000-HD

[popechild]

Just got confirmation from TW that they're willing to provision the box, so I'm about to pull the trigger on a DCP501!

A few other final questions to soothe my concerns over the cost:

1) What about blocking channels/parental controls? With the dual-tuner dvr we've had before, there were controls to block certain programs by channel/rating/etc. I assume the DCP501 has similar capabilities when used alone. But what about with the r5000? I could see either the r5000 "bypassing" all this and thus not allowing any parental controls, or I could see Sage trying to tune a blocked channel and the r5000 just passing a black signal. Anyone know which is the case? If no one's tried it w/ a parental control set, does anyone mind trying it out?

2) For cable box menu type actions, like PPV, is there a way to do this through Sage, or do you have to directly control the box to do this? (I'm sure this is the same way control of any STB would work, not just the r5000 mod, I've just never used Sage for anything but OTA until now.

3) Is it reasonable to assume there's an aftermarket resale value for a DCP501 w/ the r5000 mod? There's a chance I'll be moving in a year or so to a non-Motorola cable company area and would hate to just have to eat the entire $600 investment. But I've not seen a used r5000 for sale on ebay or anything, so I just wondered if there's something that would keep it from being re-used by someone else in aftermarket...

Thanks!!