S-Video Capture not working on Channel Change

[davinman]

I am trying to capture channels from my cable STB. I tried Firewire but it appears that the box is too new (SA 4640HDC) and the only thing that I can get working is the channel changing via firewire. So for the time being I want to just record the output via s-video to my PVR-1600. I have the card setup in Sage (6.6.2.218) and have the channel changing via ext multi tuner plugin through firewire.

Here is the issue:

If I click on the guide and select one of the channels being hosted on the STB then it works but if I want to say change the channel again (either via guide or keying the #) all I get is wavy video. If I hit stop twice then I can go back to the guide, select a new channel and the video is okay again.


-David

Server: AMD Phenom II X4, 4 GB RAM, Vista 32bit, 3TB Raid5 Storage
Video Capture: 1 x HD-HR, 1 x HVR-1600
Clients: 1 X HD-200

[davinman]

Well it looks like delay_to_wait_after_tuning might be the fix. Will monitor for a few days to see if it fails again

[robk]

I have the same Cisco 4640HDC STB and am having a hard time with firewire drivers. The AV/C Tuner Device is found, but the AV/C Panel (I think necessary for channel changing) will not accept any driver I can find. Can you tell me what driver you used and where I can find it? I already changed the driver of the firewire adapter to "legacy" as most people recommend, but the Panel still sits under "other devices" with a yellow question mark. I don't want to capture video, just change channels by fw. Of course, Timmmoore's command line utility won't work - the Panel device doesn't show up after a "channel -v", but the Tuner does.
Thanks!
Rob

[davinman]

robk,

I just used the firewire drivers that are in the "Big" firewire thread however I had to modify the file firestb.inf to include the ID for the STB. I have attached the file with a txt extension but basicly their are four lines that have to be updated. You can search for the model number in the file.

After that I went to device manager and said update driver for the panel device and it changed the name and now channel changing is working.

Another thing to look out for. I plugged my box in and started recording to my capture card things seemed to be okay for the most part but on some shows the audio sounded weird like it was over-driving the card. The STB is defaulted to fixed volume. You will need to change it and then set the volume on the box to a suitable level with the remote of front panel

[robk]

Thanks davinman! The inf worked fine, the Tuner and Panel are now recognized in Device Manager with the proper numbers (4640). Now if I could only figure out the FW channel change I'd be pleased. More reading......
thanks again-
Rob