HD-PVR Settting Bitrate - Sage vs. "Snappy"

[Savage1701]

OK, I've searched around here, but I'm not seeing something about maximum bitrates on the HD-PVR & Sage.

My "Snappy" software let me go up to a constant bitrate of 20Mbps. ArdSoft TME showed a max of 13.5, and from what I see here, Sage only allows a maximum of 13.5Mbps.

Do I have this correct? Or does Sage allow higher bitrates? Or is the Hauppauge hardware-limited to 13.5Mbps?

Thanks for any help.

[paulbeers]

First off, please stop calling it "Snappy". Unlike BeyondTV forums, you will not be banned/blocked/deleted from these forums for mentioning other software. It actually makes it easier for those who come from BeyondTV to do searches and find what they are looking for rather than having to look for "snappy". The better the title, the more useful it is down the line.

Okay off soap box.

Now to answer your question, per Hauppauge, the highest bit rate the HD-PVR is capable of is 13.5mbps:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

So why BeyondTV would even have a 20mbps option is beyond me. The device was not designed to do more than 13.5mbps (or 5.9GB/hr).

[Savage1701]

Fair enough; SnapStream, BeyondTV, BTV from now on. I really did get banned from a forum for a product I bought because I mentioned a competitor once. OCZ will also threaten you with the same, so I was only trying to play it safe.

I still don't get how I know what Sage is doing with bitrate settings. I look at my SageTV properties file (with Sage quit, not running) and see people posting stuff like "python" and things like that. Those sorts of strings don't even exist in my properties when opened with notepad.

I found some old stuff going back several years about quality settings but recent posts said they don't apply anymore.

My situation is really simple - my STB cranks out whatever is put into it. I can't lock it to 1080i any way I have tried (Motorola 5100 series). The 4000ms delay has helped enormously. BTV was crashing several times a day. I have had one issue in 3 weeks with Sage. I can live with that no problem.

I'm just looking for some stickies or some utilities that will really show me what I am editing, or how to edit video properties correctly.

I want to make sure my ATSC tuner-type shows are being recorded at their true HD OTA resolutions, and I want to know my HD-PVR is using its max 13.5Mbps rate.

Is there a certain area I can go to for this? I just can't find the right stickies or posts, or they refer to things that don't exist in my properties file (the "python" thing). I really want to move to Sage and be done with BTV but I feel as though this program is something of a mystery.

Thanks for any help. These forums and the people on it are nice. I was not trying to be smart by using euphemisms. I've just paid the price before, and I can't get banned from this one for something dumb like that, if I am going to use this service.

Thanks !!!!

[Savage1701]

I guess the bottom line is like that old parable about fishing. I want to learn where to fish so I can catch my own, rather than keep asking people for handouts for what I am guessing are obvious things. I'd like to save the posts for the obscure stuff that I really can't figure out, and I am frustrated because I could handle almost anything BTV threw at me. It's just not a good program anymore and Sage is obviously more stable and better, especially with the HD-PVR

[Opus4]

See: HD PVR recording quality settings

- Andy

[Savage1701]

Opus - I did see that thread. I found it confusing. What is a "python"? I see no such lines on my Sage file when I go to edit it. Why does a "streamtype" need to be a "1" to show up in the UI?

Again, how to modify/add bitrates is throwing me. This is definitely an edge BTV has. It is far simpler and straightforward.

But I'm not afraid to learn, I just need something that makes sense. I'm not afraid to edit either, but I don't want to do more harm than good.

[Opus4]

You don't see any example lines in your sage.properties file because the default recording qualities are not listed there, as the above-linked topic points out. This post has an example custom rate for the HDPVR. There aren't a lot of fields to change for it.

- Andy

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

First off, please stop calling it "Snappy". Unlike BeyondTV forums, you will not be banned/blocked/deleted from these forums for mentioning other software. It actually makes it easier for those who come from BeyondTV to do searches and find what they are looking for rather than having to look for "snappy". The better the title, the more useful it is down the line.

.

fyi.............as a btv user and hd200 owner, i often mention sage on the btv forum without any issues.

most recently, i have been advocating btv add a recording delay for the hdpvr and explicitly mentioning that sagetv has done it and it reportedly (per sage forum feedback) improves performance................i've been beating that horse since january now....................i actually have very good recording success with btv and the hdpvr and requested the recording delay parameter so that my fast firewire channel changes are not captured (it is a bit annoying to see the channel change on every recording).............since the hdpvr bounces on/off/on at the start of almost every recording, presumably while trying to determine the video resolution and/or audio format, it makes sense to wait until things have settled down before beginning video capture.

cheers

(i even have my sage hd200 in my btv forum sig)

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

First off, please stop calling it "Snappy". Unlike BeyondTV forums, you will not be banned/blocked/deleted from these forums for mentioning other software. It actually makes it easier for those who come from BeyondTV to do searches and find what they are looking for rather than having to look for "snappy". The better the title, the more useful it is down the line.

Okay off soap box.

Now to answer your question, per Hauppauge, the highest bit rate the HD-PVR is capable of is 13.5mbps:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

So why BeyondTV would even have a 20mbps option is beyond me. The device was not designed to do more than 13.5mbps (or 5.9GB/hr).

probably just a lack of range checking or not updating old information (i think the rate used to have a higher upper limit)

which reminds me of a true story...................my VP many years ago was getting a demo of a new computer system that designed cellular systems, laying out where the cellsites should be, how tall the towers were, what types of antennas, transmitter power levels, etc.........................they asked him to sit down and design a small system himself to see how it worked................so he starts by entering 20,000km for tower height and the program crashes, at which point he gets up and leaves saying "you do know about range checking your input values, don't you?"...............i bet those engineers never forgot to do that again!

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by cat6man

fyi.............as a btv user and hd200 owner, i often mention sage on the btv forum without any issues.
)

Then I retrack my statement about being banned from the BeyondTV forums for mentioning Sage (although I thought I remembered in the past about the BeyondTV mods deleting negative posts, but I haven't been over there in years so this may have changed).

[zimmrmn]

Originally Posted by Opus4

You don't see any example lines in your sage.properties file because the default recording qualities are not listed there, as the above-linked topic points out. This post has an example custom rate for the HDPVR. There aren't a lot of fields to change for it.

- Andy

I put that "python" line into my settings file (re opened to confirm saved), ran SageTV, but the new record quality setting never showed up in the UI. After exiting SageTV, I opened up the settings file again and the new line I input was deleted. Any ideas? I want variable bitrate setting. Thanks in advance.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by zimmrmn

I put that "python" line into my settings file (re opened to confirm saved), ran SageTV, but the new record quality setting never showed up in the UI. After exiting SageTV, I opened up the settings file again and the new line I input was deleted. Any ideas?

See this FAQ:

How do I edit the properties file? The settings don't change when I change them.

- Andy

[zimmrmn]

That did the trick!! I had a background service running. Thank you again!