Firewire record

[colormatters]

I had firewire recording setup and working.
As of 8.9.07 the firewire recording stopped working.
Comcast just changed the UI on the cable box and it seems
like something else has changed with the way video comes out the firewire port. The firewire ports have remained active but when Sage tries to tune a channel it looks all messed up. If I look at the video just through VLC it looks okay. I can only get Discovery HD to work reliably.
Anyone else having a similar issue and way to make it work again.

[Humanzee]

I noticed problems here too, I thought it was other hardware problems. As it happens I only check Discovery HD and it seemed to work when I looked so I thought it was something else. Now when I look some channels work and others say "no signal" when browsed through the guide. Sage still tries to record off these channels but the recordings come out corrupt and cause lock ups with the transcoder, show analyzer, VideoRedo, and sage itself. Im already not happy with comcast, this sucks if there is no fix. Its the only way I know of to get some of these encrypted HD channels.

[gplasky]

Just as a FYI I use the HD Homerun to record on comcast. Discovery HD is Clear QAM. Can you record any of your local HD? Like ABC, NBC? Maybe comcast has applied QAM or something to the ones you were getting over firewire.


Gerry

[colormatters]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

I noticed problems here too, I thought it was other hardware problems. As it happens I only check Discovery HD and it seemed to work when I looked so I thought it was something else. Now when I look some channels work and others say "no signal" when browsed through the guide. Sage still tries to record off these channels but the recordings come out corrupt and cause lock ups with the transcoder, show analyzer, VideoRedo, and sage itself. Im already not happy with comcast, this sucks if there is no fix. Its the only way I know of to get some of these encrypted HD channels.

I am almost certain the problems have something to do with the changes in my Comcast service. I have been trying to figure out a workaround but I have not figured anything that works that well or as reliably as it did before.
I am getting the same results with my system. Sage tries to record and I get lockups.

Originally Posted by gplasky

Just as a FYI I use the HD Homerun to record on comcast. Discovery HD is Clear QAM. Can you record any of your local HD? Like ABC, NBC? Maybe comcast has applied QAM or something to the ones you were getting over firewire.

Gerry

I also have a HDHomerun and am able to get DHD and local HD but there is a lot of stuff that you can only get via firewire that does not come over QAM.

[Humanzee]

its really hit an miss for me, some channels work and some don't and it appears that it is only part of the time. I unplugged the power from the cable box last night so that it would have to reboot. Today's recordings have worked but thats only one channel so far. Ill have to keep watching it to see if I can find a pattern.

[weeber]

All,

I setup my firewire Sage recorder last weekend from Comcast. And I was wondering why I was getting all these problems with recording when I was following the posted directions exactly. Sometimes it would tune OK, other times not.

I found that increasing the tuner delay in Sgraphedit.ini fixed the majority of the problem. I set mine to 3500, which seems incredibly long, but it seems I'm getting reliable tuning.

It might be worth a shot

[Humanzee]

I don't think my problem is related to the delay in the signal to change the channel, I've never had a problem with that. If it were the wrong channel, id just get a half hour of the wrong show, or a screen that says that I don't get that channel.

I get a recording that simply is not playable, period. It cant even be repaired with something like video redo. Though, interestingly enough sometimes, they can be commercial detected. I'm wondering if there is something else that can be done, maybe a change in a filter or something in the graph record. Not my area of expertise.

[weeber]

OK, here's one other thing I noticed. What video decoder are you using? For whatever reason, I discovered that the latest Purevideo decoder would not work for playback of these files in Sage or WMP. However, when I tried an older version I happened to have lying around, it played fine.

Just something else to try if you can.

[zetronboy]

I noticed a few days ago that I stopped getting audio/video for digital cable channels from the Comcast STB. I get HD channels fine, its the QAM channels that do not show up. Used VLC to verify that the box is not putting out anything when tuned to ch 105,106,107,109,110,111 (local HD channels). Update came when this problem did. Called Comcast and they said that they would not support Firewire and I was out of luck. I verified that the QAM channels are not C4 encrypted. They indicated they could not fall back to the older software because they terminated their agreement with Microsoft TV.

[Humanzee]

That would explain why some channels work but others do not. I can't remember how to get VLC to show me the stream from the firewire plug. Else it would be a long process i think to get the working channels figured out vs. the non working ones.

So the work around would be to buy a hauppauge PVR 1600 that can get clear QAM and use the comcast box to get the encrypted ones that might still be on firewire?

[weeber]

Originally Posted by zetronboy

I noticed a few days ago that I stopped getting audio/video for digital cable channels from the Comcast STB. I get HD channels fine, its the QAM channels that do not show up. Used VLC to verify that the box is not putting out anything when tuned to ch 105,106,107,109,110,111 (local HD channels). Update came when this problem did. Called Comcast and they said that they would not support Firewire and I was out of luck. I verified that the QAM channels are not C4 encrypted. They indicated they could not fall back to the older software because they terminated their agreement with Microsoft TV.

Jeez, this doesn't sound good at all. Do STBs only update when the power is cycled? So far I'm still getting all my channels.

[Humanzee]

interesting, all the channels that should be clear QAM don't work, but the others do. Besides ABC. It still works. So im going to go and see if I can find an open pci slot for a pvr 1600. Else, I need to see if that antenna on my roof will pull in the network HD channels here with my Fusion 5 card.

[weeber]

That's awfully strange that the QAM channels don't work. I'll have to keep an eye on my system to make sure the same thing doesn't happen.

Out of curiosity, what STB are you using and what area are you in? I have a Motorola 6200 (non-DVR) and in Atlanta, GA.

[Humanzee]

I think I have the 6200 also, Comcast in Renton WA. (Seattle Suburb)

[zetronboy]

Using Motorola DCT6200 (non DVR) with Comcast cable in the Seattle area.

I can still receive HD material such as Discovery.

I get blank video and no audio when I change the the QAM channels. Not all of my local HD channels are in HD, some are QAM and they seem to be the ones not working.

Humanzee, You can stream video from the DVR by opening VLC and choosing File->Open Capture Device, then refresh the list of devices, then pick Motorola Tuner, then click ok and it should play assuming you have an MPEG2 codec.

The 1600 was on sale for $59 so that seems like a good idea.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Searc...&go.x=0&go.y=0

[Humanzee]

Yeah same symptoms here, I ended up using VLC to figure out which channels were still working, Thankfully those HD channels up there like like DHD, TNT, MOJO etc are still working. I still get KOMO, KIRO, and KCPQ, but KING, KONG, KCTS, and some others stopped working.

I bought a 1600 from Fry's for $80 on Monday night, because they were still open and I was still ticked off at Comcast. After a bit of a learning curve and an expensive cable amplifier (my cable is split 6 times), it seems to be working well with QAM. Now I finally have that never ending live feed of the space needle. Whoo hoo

Of course it was midnight before I got it going last night and I didn't get all the channel mapping done. All the stations were showing infomercials so I couldn't tell what network I was watching. I found a QAM lineup list online somewhere but didn't trust it because it was old. At least I got NBC-HD and KCTSDT1 and KCTSDT5 mapped for now.

Zetronboy, Do you have any quality problems over firewire? I seem to have some issues with jumpy or pixelated recordings from the firewire source. I don't know if its my setup, or the cable signal, or the set top box. I have to wait a few days to see if the amplifier I bought will help with that.

I also went up on the roof to inspect the antenna I have up there to see if I could put my Fusion5 USB to use with OTA ATSC. It took a beating in the wind storm last winter and is mangled and twisted. I might try to patch that back together which would give me 3 devices which could tune some HD channels.

[zetronboy]

Humanzee, My picture is great, HD looks fantastic and analog looks as grainy as I would expect. I tested many MPEG decoders before settling on NVIDIA. Some of the others would drop pixels when it could not keep up but NVIDIA drops whole frames. My AMD 3000+ keeps up well when there are no com skips running and I don't notice dropped frames unless comskip is taking CPU cycles. So I think you may have different results with the NVIDIA decoder if your not already using it. I am using the VGA output from the PC to drive the 720 sony tv and have a resolution of 1162 x 864 and it fills up 95% of the screen with a great picture.

Great news on the HD tuner, Im going to do the same.

[Humanzee]

I've been using the nvidia driver, I thnk it must be the signal strength or something. Sometimes its works well, and others it doesn't. Im also haveing a different problem with video card drivers in vista, but the same jumpy video would happen on the server which is xp

[Nate]

I also have the same HD firewire problems since Comcast changed something. It makes me sad.

[weeber]

Nate,

What area are you in? I was really hoping this was confined to the Seattle area. I hope Comcast isn't spreading this "upgrade" to other areas after I just got my firewire record setup perfect. So far, everything in Atlanta is working fine over firewire from Comcast.