Mac and the HD-PVR

[soccerdad]

SageTV 6.5 brings beta support for Hauppauge HD-PVR on the Mac, has anybody tried it?

I am specifically interested in:

Installation: Is there software or a driver from Hauppauge that has to be installed? There is discussions of the HD-PVR needing to be updated to work correctly, especially for AC3 sound, can this be done on a mac? Are all the options for the HD-PVR set in SageTV?

Channel Changing: Does the included IR blaster work with the Mac? Firewire change for cable boxes? Any other working options?

[GregT]

I don't think I can answer all your questions. I'll answer what I can.

HD-PVR update: I updated mine on a PC. I do not believe the update can be done from a Mac. The updater is an exe file. I updated mine with my Windows install on Parallels. I have not checked in the last several months to see if there is a more recent update. I got my HD-PVR, and there was one update from Hauppage at the time, and I applied that.

Channel changing: I'm working through this. I can control my DirecTV box from my Mac with the directv.pl script from the command line. I'm under the impression that Sage should be able to do the same thing, but it's not working for me. I am working with support on this. It seems like sage is addressing a device name different from what the device actually is, even though my usb-serial adapter is recognized by Sage. I have a usb-serial adapter on both ends, with a null modem cable in the middle. As I said, it works manually from the command line with the downloaded direct.pl perl script, and support is helping me figure out why it's not working with Sage. I know nothing about firewire control. My DirecTV box is USB.

All the options I've needed to set for it to work, have been set through the SageTV interface. I know there are more settings available by editing the test settings file, but I have not done that yet.

Playback on the Mac was not working correctly until the recent 6.5.11 beta release. Any release prior to that will have viedo/audio/sync issues of some sort. I have had 6.5.11 installed for a few days now, and those issues seem to be gone, but it's still a fresh install. So far, no problems on Mac playback.

Prior to 6.5.11, I was able to use a Mac as the server, and playback with a Windows client on another machine. That combination played well. It was only playback on the Mac that was messed up. I don't think they focused on Mac playback until after they put out the 6.5.9 release.

IR Blaster: To my knowledge, there is zero support for the supplied IR Blaster that comes with the HD-PVR, when used on a Mac. It worked great when I tested on a PC, but there appears to be no support for that on the Mac. I've gotten a variety of reasons from sources other than Sage. None of them quite make sense to me, but, for me, as soon as I get USB control working, I don't care about any other channel changing method.

I have my DirecTV box hard set to output 720p. That has been working quite well. I had heard that there were issues with 1080i, and I have not done any real testing with that yet. My current setup prevents me from using a wired connection between computers. I am 100% wireless. I have my Quality set to 'Fair', and that has been streaming well over wireless N.

Summary: I use both Mac and PCs every day, but all my personal computers are Mac. No solution is good for me, unless it's a decent Mac solution. While Sage itself works great on a Mac, support and use of the HD-PVR on the Mac has not been usable until the recent 6.5.11 release. Now I am able to use it, and am hopeful we'll get my channel changing issue worked out soon. I was disappointed that once I tried the original 6.4.8 demo, it had long expired before the software got to a useable stage. To continue testing, I had to fork out for a full license. Fortunately, they eventually came through with a working solution, but they should have a better means of evaluation, when new releases come out. My experience with Sage has been good overall. My experience with some competitive products has been very poor, in particular when it comes to HD-PVR. The next step for me, after I get moved to a new house, will be a second HD-PVR, so that both the DirecTV boxes I have can be hooked up, and Sage will become my TV platform.

Hope that helps.

[bcjenkins]

HDPVR for the Mac - http://www.steventoth.net/blog/

B

[GregT]

Nice hijack.

Anyway, HDPVRCapture won't launch for me. Additionally, there's no indication of what the price is (unless I give away my HD-PVR serial number, apparently), and it would not appear to be a Media Center solution. Looks like it's just a capture and replay later solution, not a live channel browser/viewer.

I had a similar issue with EyeTV, which would not let me pull up live TV from another computer besides where the capture device is hooked up.

I wish him luck, and I like to see consumer options, but it's not a solution for what I need. I need more than just record and watch it later functionality.

SageTV has provided the functionality I'm looking for. MythTV also provides that functionality, but I haven't been able to get a working Mac install with the HD-PVR yet.

[bcjenkins]

hmm.. Not meant to be a hijack. It is meant to be a source of a driver for the Mac. You stated the IR didn't work on the Mac.

Feature 9:

Supports 700+ STB vendors and over 1000 different remote handsets via the IR Blaster.

http://www.steventoth.net/blog/hdpvr-capture/features/

I have better things to do than hijack threads.

[soccerdad]

I am now a proud owner of a HD-PVR and can report the following:

(I first ran the Hauppauge update on a Windows machine)

When plugged into the Mac, the HD-PVR was recognized by SageTV without installing anything new. I just clicked a few options and had it working perfectly after a few seconds. All good, except for channel changing. The only option Sage gave was DirecTV serial change, can't use that with my cable boxes.

I then e-mailed support and asked how to change channels. The reply stated that there currently is no support (other than DirecTV serial), but it is on the development to-do list. If that means the integrated blaster or something else, I do not know.

As a temporary solution, I am running the HD-PVR on a windows machine that acts as a network encoder to the Mac server. Works 100% without problems, the only thing I don't like is the extra power draw of another computer. Firewire channel change works in windows so I think I'll keep it as-is until I can get the same from the Mac. If you don't have an extra PC and a windows Sage license though, it is an expensive option.

My unit is a rev D2 without fan, absolutely no hardware problems. Perfect recordings with AC3 sound completely in sync with the video. I cannot tell the difference between raw firewire captures and HD-PVR captures. I am really impressed with the unit. Playback with the HD100 extender is troublefree.

[griley]

Any change in the support for the IR-blaster/channel changing on the HD-PVR? I read the release notes for the betas since 6.5, but it looks to me that its still not available.

Are there any other options (Firewire)? I have an SA4250HD STB.

Thanks!

[psm1005]

So is there any word on when/if this will be added?

[ehlfg]

If IR channel changing is currently not possible on the Mac, is it possible to do channel changing over Firewire (for a Motorola cable set-top box)?

My setup currently has an SageTV server on an old Windows XP box recording from a R5000-HD. We have an HD100 and Placeshifter clients (mostly on Macs).

I recently purchased an HD-PVR that I would like to put in my living room and record from a Motorola set-top box (cable). The Mac Mini sounds like a nice hardware choice to run SageTV, but it looks like SageTV can't use the IR Blaster to change channels. HDPVRCapture does appear to support channel changing using IR Blaster, but it would be nice to integrate into my current SageTV setup.

Is it possible to have the Mac SageTV use Firewire for channel changing in conjunction with the HD-PVR? I'm not interested in Firewire capture.

[jgourd]

When I try and watch HD=PVR shows with the Mac Placeshifter it doesn't work. Is there a codec or something I need to install on the Mac?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by jgourd

When I try and watch HD=PVR shows with the Mac Placeshifter it doesn't work. Is there a codec or something I need to install on the Mac?

A little more help here on this one please... How does it "not work"? Is it just giving you a black screen? Is it studdering? What resolution are you trying to play back? 720P or 1080i?

EDIT: Also is this playback via your local LAN or over the internet?

[jgourd]

Ah yes a better description would be more helpful. The video freezes and stutters. Gigabit LAN