Added BDA support for the HDHomeRun from Silicon Dust

[camus]

What is BDA support and do I need it?

I have been using a HDHR for OTA HD without issue for a few months now.

Anybody what to explain what BDA is does?

[flavius]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadca...r_Architecture

The Broadcast Driver Architecture (or BDA) is a Microsoft standard for digital video capture on their Windows operating systems. It encompasses the ATSC and DVB standards..

Do you want to run this HDHR Manager software forever?

[camus]

Originally Posted by flavius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadca...r_Architecture



Do you want to run this HDHR Manager software forever?

Thanks.


I haven't had issue with the HDHR Manager, actually thought it worked well.

BDA sounds bad from that wiki description, standard drivers scare me especially considering the source.

I will just stick with what is working for me.

[Razillian]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. For me the network encoding would randomly produce glitchy recordings where I couldn't fastforward or rewind (it would start over), which also meant no comskip. There were also a smattering of recordings that SA couldn't make it through. So I took the plunge on BDA and it has fixed those problems thus far.

[clmolnar]

See the other thread for the issues some of us are having with the BDA drivers. I would love to switch over to them solely for the corrected timeline, but currently they are less stable for me then the networked encoder approach using the HDHomeRun Manager.

Word from SiliconDust is that they are working with SageTV to address the issues that many of us are seeing with the BDA drivers.

Carl

[valnar]

IMO, the time to switch is the release of Sage 6.2.4 and the next release of Silicon Dust's next firmware/software, whenever that is. For now, network encoding is wonderful.

Robert

[dagar]

Would switching to BDA fix the 'everytime I reboot the server I lose my tuners' problem?

[bhyman1]

Originally Posted by flavius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadca...r_Architecture



Do you want to run this HDHR Manager software forever?

Yeah, why not?

It works.

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by bhyman1

Yeah, why not?

It works.

See post above yours.
Anxious to try the BDA drivers, but may wait until final 6.2.4 to do so.

[LehighBri]

Silicondust just released an updated software/firmware for the HDHomeRun. Is anyone interested in trying the latest version with 6.2.4 in BDA mode and seeing if anything was fixed?

http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/downloads

Change log from 20070620 to 20070716:

* Windows: Improvements to HDHomeRun Setup wizard.
* Windows: Optimize BDA video path.
* libhdhomerun: Add lightweight DHCP server code for direct-connect use.
* libhdhomerun: Change license to LGPLv3.
* Firmware: Update to firmware 20070716.

[DFranch]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

Silicondust just released an updated software/firmware for the HDHomeRun. Is anyone interested in trying the latest version with 6.2.4 in BDA mode and seeing if anything was fixed?

I'm still having the same problems. the first channel you select tunes quickly and it is the correct channel. if you try to change channels the number changes, but you are still watching the first channel. if you try to record 2 channels at once it looks like 2 channels are recording, but the HDHR shows that only 1 tuner is active. Only the first recording will have any video the second one will show no signal.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by DFranch

I'm still having the same problems. the first channel you select tunes quickly and it is the correct channel. if you try to change channels the number changes, but you are still watching the first channel. if you try to record 2 channels at once it looks like 2 channels are recording, but the HDHR shows that only 1 tuner is active. Only the first recording will have any video the second one will show no signal.

This sounds like a problem I saw when setting up the BDA Mode. You should look in your sage directory and see if you have any "Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner ... .frq" files. If so delete them and I think that will solve the issue. It is possible that the files may reappear later. That is OK as long as they are all comment lines.

[DFranch]

Originally Posted by carlgar

This sounds like a problem I saw when setting up the BDA Mode. You should look in your sage directory and see if you have any "Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner ... .frq" files. If so delete them and I think that will solve the issue. It is possible that the files may reappear later. That is OK as long as they are all comment lines.

Thanks, I'll give that a try when I get home tonight.

[DFranch]

Carlgar, Thanks for the suggestion, I deleted all of the frq files from the sagetv directory, but it is still acting exactly as I described previously. I did notice if I go into channel setup I can tune each station correctly, but it does not work when using the program guide. This is on a vista machine if that helps. I have not disabled the media center services. Maybe I'll give that a try and see if it behaves any differently.

[carlgar]

If you go into channel setup, you are recreating the problem. That is what puts non-comment information into the *.frq files. To verify proper tuning use watch live TV. I am also using vista, but this is probably not a vista related problem. It is more an issue of Sage and SiliconDust both trying to tune the channel. Only SiliconDust should be tuning the channel.

[DFranch]

I verified that there are still no FRQ files in the sagetv folder, and started sage. I went directly into live tv. The first channel selected starts pretty quickly, it takes a very long time for a channel change to occur, and the number changes, but the channel is always the first channel which was selected. Is there someplace else where the FRQ files could be located? I also restarted sage again, selected to record 2 shows at the same time. the correct 2 shows were recorded. I cancelled the recordings and selected 2 different recordings on 2 different stations. The recordings started, but were from the original 2 stations, not the new stations I selected. It is obviously not changing channels after the first selection for each tuner. Hopefully between Sage and Silicondust they can work out these kinks. I used to use sage, but I've been using media center for about 2 years, but I'd like to switch back to sage as it has many little features which media center cannot compete with (remove padding from back to back favorites). I'd also like to add a second HDHR, which I think can be done with a hack in media center, but no hack is necessary in sage. However media center has one feature in it's favor. It just works 99.9% of the time.

[carlgar]

I think there is only the 1 location for the *.frq files. However, I run with User Account Control turned off, if turned on it could be somewhere else.
Do you know if Sage changed channels properly using the network encoders? I did not realize you had been using MCE, I thought you had been using the network encoders.

[Muchacho]

I have similar problem with channel changing and the BDA drivers. As far as other network encoders working I had used firewire recording in the past. It worked, but I had to stop each stream before changing channels or it would hang. No matter what I do with the HDHR it sticks with the first channel.

Thanks

[ToxMox]

Are you guys running the BDA version who are having problems using QAM or OTA?

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Are you guys running the BDA version who are having problems using QAM or OTA?

QAM for me.