Firewire channel change and WHS - does it work?

[wayner]

Can anyone confirm that they have firewire channel changing on SageTV on WHS using the TimMoore firewire drivers - firestb.msi?

I have used these drivers before without problems on a Vista HP using Sage and XP MCE using MCE.

That leads me to wonder whether these drivers are compatible with WHS?

The only thing different from my current config is that I am trying to use a SA4250HD cable box rather than a SA3250HD. Later I will try to put in a SA3250HD and see if that solves the problem.

The drivers install but then in Device Manager it says that they are not working properly as it says (for Tuner AV/C decive)"Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)"

I only really care about the channel change - I don't care about using firewire for capture as I will be using an HD-PVR and the 5C encryption stops me from using the firewire for anything other than channel changes. Worst case scenario is that I can use my USB-UIRT for these boxes but I was hoping to use firewire and save my USB-UIRT for other devices.

[dstanley]

I am successfully using the firewire channel changing on my WHS with two SA3250HD boxes uasing Timm Moore's firestb.
I had a setup on a Vista machine but recently separated it to a custom built WHS box feeding 2 SageTV Clients and 1 SageTV HDTheatre.
Seems to me that there is an 'altered' firewire driver for the 4250 - someone other than Timm Moore added it to the devices list.
Check out this site: http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/
If I can be any help just let me know.

[wayner]

Thanks dstanley - I tried the latest drivers from the exdeus site - the drivers seemed to install properly but I still couldn't control the channel change. It gave me a message that said something like "unsupported device" and even when I tried the force option (-f) it didn't work.

I think swapped a 3250 into the Sage machine and it worked immediately so perhaps there is a compatibility issue with the SA4250HD firewire from Rogers cable or perhaps my uninstall didn't work correctly from the original Tim Moore drivers.

dstanley - two questions
1. Do you just use the device number for channel change (i.e channel 2 123) and if so does your PC ever get your two boxes mixed up? Or does it consistently always map box 1 to devices 1&2 and box 2 to devices 3&4. I see that there is an option to use the unique device id for the box with the channel application but why bother if I don't need it?

2. Do you daisy chain your boxes? This appears to work in my setup - the advantage being that you only use up one firewire port on your PC.

[psklenar]

Will this let me control two STB's (obviously using two firewire ports/cables)?

Thanks,
pat----

[DOS64K]

Originally Posted by psklenar

Will this let me control two STB's (obviously using two firewire ports/cables)?

Thanks,
pat----

Yes. The instructions for multiple STBs is included in timmmoore's plugin. If your STB supports it you can even daisy-chain your firewire.

[psklenar]

Originally Posted by DOS64K

Yes. The instructions for multiple STBs is included in timmmoore's plugin. If your STB supports it you can even daisy-chain your firewire.

Excellent! <evil cackle>

Thanks!
pat----

[smdl]

Wayner (or anyone else who might know), I'm hoping you might be able to help me with how you managed to work around the "Unsupported Device" issue on the 4250HD? I did my original install using the timmmoore firestb.msi, but substituted the updated drivers referenced in Andy's post on page 75 of the main firewire thread. The 4250HD was immediately recognized, and when I tested it through channelw, it worked perfectly. I was able to get many clean channel changes on the 4250HD with no failure whatsoever. I was ecstatic!

Having completed that part of the install, I then proceeded to work on the sage.properties, registry adjustments, EXEMultiTuner, etc., setup following the instructions from MeInMaui. I think that I got that all right, and everything looked ready to go, so I tried testing channel changes through Sage, with no result. Naturally, I assumed that I had set something up incorrectly on the second, more complicated part of the install, and spent a considerable amount of time going back through Andy and MeInMauis instructions, but everything looked right. So, I finally went back into channelw to test, and found the same error that you describe relating to an Unsupported Device. Channel /v works fine, and I can still see the device, but it won't accept channel change inputs.

I have since uninstalled and reinstalled the devices, making sure that I use the newer drivers that support the 4250HD, but continue to experience the same problem. I have also tried all of the -a* commands without success (-a6 worked initially, and -a4 might have, as well).

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Shaun

ps: I am only trying to change channels via firewire, not record video (that goes through the HD-PVR).

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by smdl

Wayner (or anyone else who might know), I'm hoping you might be able to help me with how you managed to work around the "Unsupported Device" issue on the 4250HD?

I don't have that same stb, but I also had an initial problem with the "Unsupported Device" message. I resolved it by using the "-f" switch.

So my registry import looks like this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\EXEMultiTunerPlugin]
"command"="c:\\program files\\firestb\\channelw.exe -f %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%"

[smdl]

Sorry for the late reply -- lots going on this week. Thanks for the suggestions jm9843. They got me on the right track.

To get it working, I had to reinstall timmmoore's application (don't know why), and make a couple of changes to the registry setting (as you did). MeInMaui's downloadable instructions indicate that the registry setting should look as follows:

Value Name: command
Value Data: c:\getHD\channelw.exe %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%

In my case, I ended up with this:

Value Name: command
Value Data: c:\getHD\channelw.exe -f -a4 -n %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%

The -n switch relates to using the specific UniqueID of my stb, so that part is more a matter of preference, but both the -f (force) and -a4 switches were required before Sage would change channels for me.

I only have one stb using this, at the moment, but I don't see any issues with adding more. Once the basic setup is done, it's actually pretty straightforward. My other (rental) HD stb is a Pace 551, which doesn't have firewire support, and neither does my SA3200 SD stb. I'm watching for sales on the SD4250HD, and will plan to standardize on those going forward.



Thanks again for your help.
Shaun

[wayner]

Be careful with the -f switch! When I tried this with my 4250HDs it caused the OS to crash hard with a BSOD.

Shaun - If you do go to two boxes I would definitely recommend using the -n switch as I could only get my first box, device 2, to work without it. Your results may be better but I have found that the 3250HDs work better than the 4250HDs - given the boxes you mention I assume that you are with Rogers as well?

[smdl]

Hi, wayner.

The -f switch seems to be okay so far as I have been operating this way for several days with no issues at all (fingers crossed). I think I read in another thread that forcing a UniqueID that wasn't present did definitely cause a BSOD, so I wonder if that was part of the problem?

Good advice on the -n switch. I already have this in place as I wanted to be sure that the devices wouldn't get confused on a reboot.

Yes, I am on Rogers. It seems that 3250s aren't available anymore, but the 4250 seems to okay, at the moment. Not a single failure of any kind since I got it running (knocks on wood).



Thanks,
Shaun