At my wit's end! Firewire from sa8300HD to PC???

[codemonkeydave]

Sorry to post a new thread but I'm new and in information overload with all the available threads, yet nothing seems to work.

All I would like to do right now is be able to view live TV (don't care about the quality for now) on my PC via Firewire connection. I've read most (if not all) threads on the firewire techniques and haven't had much success.

I installed the software from Timmmoore. The device drivers are in place and the SA8300HD devices show up in my hardware list as the AV/C Panel and AV/C Tuner. I have tested the connection using the channel.exe command line app contained within the same package. The channel changes accurately.

However, when I try to view the live feed with VLC (yes I selected the correct capture device) I get a fraction of a second of sound that seems to loop over and over and build in volume, but still no video. I have also tried using some of the tuner DLLs to control the cable box channel. None of them seem to be supported in the recent versions of BTV, Sage or anything else I can find out there. Either these DLLs are no longer supported or at least the instructions aren't up to date on how to get them functional for the newer versions. It seems like anything and everything I can find out there that relates to this connection method is AT LEAST a year old.

To reiterate, I'm not interested in recording to my PC (at this time). I would just simply like to use my PC to watch TV and be able to change the channel using a software TV Channel Guide.

If someone could please help out with a more up to date tutorial and/or software I'm sure it would be helpful to many other users than just myself.

Any and ALL help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[fyodor]

I would first see if you can record using capdvhs. That will let you know if it is a recording or playback problem. Also, where are you located? There might be someone here with the same provider that has some insights. Have you tried playing around with different channels to see if you get different results.

[codemonkeydave]

I've got Cox Digital in San Diego. I got the HD box about a year ago, but just started trying to connect via firewire about a week ago.

I've tried playing basic (NBC, ESPN, ABC), digital channels (Discovery Science Channel), premium channels (HBO, Sho, Cinemax), and even some of the music channels with the same results.

I'll try capdvhs and post my results here tonight.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[codemonkeydave]

SO I tried CapDVHS and the Panel device threw an error. The Tuner device seemed to record, but I can't play back the output file. I recorded about a minute (supposedly) but I can't seem to find a player that will play the 28M file.

I don't know if this program records a stream regardless of a black screen or invalid input. To sum, I have the recording file but no clue if it has video from the device or not.

[Update]
I downloaded HDTVtoMPEG2 and tried to convert the output file to something viewable. I get an error saying "Could Not find Channel".

Next I found TSReader Lite and connected it to the tuner device with the fiewire.dll. It showed nothing.

I'm not sure what if this means I'm out of luck or just don't have something configured properly. If I didn't already shave my head, rest assures I'd be pulling my hair out by now.

[evilpenguin]

It all depends on what firmware/version your cable company is running and (I hope it isn't the case for you) I was never able to get mine working and I'm 99% sure it was the box because in my old apartment I had firewire working with a Motorola box.

[bhyman1]

I never had any luck with the firewire out on either a SA8300HD or an SA3250HD. If I got a picture or sound it would stutter and break up repeatedly. I tried on both Windows XP and Vista with all the fixes and things people have suggested. I tried this on three seperate PC's too.

Apparently this is a common problem.

It works fine on my Mac though.

[codemonkeydave]

Honestly right now I would be happy with any picture at all be it broken, choppy, stuttering, or what not. All I want to know is if this is possible. If it's not possible, I want o know that it can't be done and I'll move on to some other fixation.

I've read that some folks had to call and get the firewire activated on some models of cable boxes. I don't think that's the case with mine because I can effectively send channel change commands to the box. The drivers recognize the device and react appropriately when it's disconnected and reconnected. So there is data going back and forth over that firewire cable. I guess this is why I'm so persistent on figuring this out. There is already data going over the line, just not the data I want.

I haven't found anything online that's definitive about it's assertion be it possible or not. If someone could please explain why it is not possible, or give me instruction on how to get some sort of picture out of this I would be most grateful.

[evilpenguin]

In my case I was never able to capture a stream that any tool could understand.

[codemonkeydave]

Interesting. What do you think the difference is between the Mac and the PC that allows the Mac to capture the stream that prevents a PC from doing so? Is it just a driver issue that someone might be able to resolve or is there a more fundemental problem which will never allow this to work on a PC?

Also you say you were able to capture a stream. I'm curious as to how you got to that point. As stated in my earlier posts I can't get any sort of video that I can view.

It's becoming more and more obvious to me that this isn't going to work the way I hoped, but I would still like to have some peace of mind.

[evilpenguin]

I'm sorry, my post was ambiguous, I was able to save a file, but it was essentially useless. Nothing could recognize it as a valid mpeg stream.

[codemonkeydave]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I'm sorry, my post was ambiguous, I was able to save a file, but it was essentially useless. Nothing could recognize it as a valid mpeg stream.

So here's a fun update from Cox:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Dave,

Thank you for your email regarding our cable service.

The 1394 FireWire ports are active. You can use them to stream video to
your PC, but we do not support this function. You may run into Copyright
protection issues if you try to record the content, or if your hard
drive stores the content before playing it.

We don't provide technical support for streaming video to a PC, so I'm
unable to answer your questions regarding additional methods.

We hope that we have been able to provide you with the information you
requested. If we have not, or if we can be of any additional service to
you, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Brad
SDCCC

Cox Communications - Video/Telephony Tech Support
Online Support Team
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

SO now my question is....

How do I make this stream readable by a media player?

Do I need an updated driver or converter, and who out there is up for the challenge?

[eobiont]

It is very likely that copy protection is turned on on all the channels you subscribe to from your cable company. This certainly fits the description you are giving. When there is copy protection, your computer will record a file that is the same size as if it were recording a viewable file.

There is (essentially) no known way to view this copy protected file that you recorded.

for information on the copy protection applied, search here or in google for CCI 0x02 (those are zeros)

[Diginerd]

I gave up on the whole Firewire thing into Sage some time ago.. It worked well for a while and then everything broke, and nothing I could do would fix it. WAF fell to an alltime low.

You have no idea how much it P**** me off to have to rent an SA8300HD to record the HDTV content that I knew was sitting there waiting to be tapped...

I suspect my case is somewhat special as in the 3 years I've had HD it has never been 5c'd, and now I have access to over 40 Channels of the stuff!

Of course that could change any day so putting even more urgency on things!

So with the divorce in place and no WAF to worry about if I spend 2 months tinkering I recently decided to come back and have another go...

MythTV can do it on a $300 machine, but even the biggest and gnarliest PC I have (8 core Xeon, I do a lot of music production) STILL couldn't capture cleanly from my SA4200HDs using SGR or VLC under Xp or Vista.

My suspicion is that the timmoore drivers have "Issues" that came about with an update to my STB. Not 5c, but something in the firewire stream made it sad.

I have "munkied about" (c) with linux/mythTV and firewire for a few months now and I have a far deeper undertanding of what is going on between the cable box and the computer. There are definately things that can be tweaked to improve reliability and performance, or even just to get it to work. I'm looking for a solution, even if it means having 2 sets of scheduling and no real integration with Sage.

The results were actually pretty good. MythTV certainly lives up to its reputation on all counts. It's very powerful, very configurable and if you are doing anything other than a couple of analog captures feindishly complex and annoying to get working, but when it does it's functionality is great. Certainly not for someone who wants a plug and play solution.

So having got that to work I started at looking how I could improve integration. I then started playing with the experimental firewire support in the Linux version by installing Sage onto a known good Linux build. I'm currently working with MythDora 4.0, which is basically Fedora with a bunch of Multi-Media stuff prebuilt and have not had a huge amount of success yet but certainly made progress. this is definately a promising avenue.

That said, I also was tinkering with the likes of iRecord on a Mac. It drove me nuts that a 6 year old machine could so effortlessly handle multiple streams without sneezing. Finally just this week I think I have found a new best friend in guho, for a "New Memeber" his first posts are mindblowing...

He's ported SGR to the Mac with firewire support. Now that is something to really drool about. It's taken me a couple of days to get into a spot to try it properly, but it is looking like it's the perfect solution. I've got it as far as talking to Sage server on the local Mac, and I'm currently in the process of getting it to talk to a remote Windows based server. If this realy works I think my goal is accomplished.

I'll still work on the Linux firewire thing as that would be an excellent addition to Sage, but if this works I'm thinking I can have my cake and eat it.....