R5000 support?

[drewg]

I've heard that SageTV supports the R5000 mods to record via USB from some satellite receivers. Is this true? Do subtitles work?

Will the R5000 work with SageTV for Linux? There is apparently an open-source r5000 driver/library at http://code.google.com/p/r5000-for-linux/ Judging by the fact that they have to patch MythTV, I'm guessing that the answer is "no".


Thanks,

Drew

[gplasky]

I think the software required for the R5000 is Windows-based.

Gerry

[drewg]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I think the software required for the R5000 is Windows-based.

Gerry

The software I pointed to in the OP is a port of the Windows software & it does work in linux with MythTV. I'm just asking about Sage support. I'm assuming the answer is "no", but...

Drew

[Fuzzy]

the R5000HD SageTV software exposes itself as a SageTV Network Encoder - therefore, it SHOULD work from any flavor of SageTV Server (windows, linux, etc). Whether the R-5000HD software will run on Linux, I'm not sure - but if it does, the sage end should work no problem.

If that R-5000 software you have listed ALSO works as the sage network encoder, then you'd be good to go. If not, the network encoder protocol is extremely simple, so it is something that should be relatively easy to add to the port.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

the R5000HD SageTV software exposes itself as a SageTV Network Encoder - therefore, it SHOULD work from any flavor of SageTV Server (windows, linux, etc) .... the network encoder protocol is extremely simple, so it is something that should be relatively easy to add to the port.

Ah-hah! I hadn't realized that it used the native SageTV network encoder protocol. Yes, I doubt the reverse-engineered linux drivers would support that. Though support might be fairly easy to add... I'll email sagetv support so that I can take a look at the protocol.

Drew

[GKusnick]

Since it runs as a network encoder, you don't actually need to run it on the same machine as Sage. You could set up a separate Windows machine (or virtual machine) running the R5000 software and use that to feed your Linux Sage server.

[stanger89]

FWIW, my testing proved you can't run an R5000 in a VM. At least not ESXi via USB or PCI passthrough.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

FWIW, my testing proved you can't run an R5000 in a VM. At least not ESXi via USB or PCI passthrough.

Stanger - i wonder if the Linux software posted here might work better in a VM. Obviously, it'd still need to have Sage NE added, but it might be an alternative for you.

[stanger89]

From what I gathered, the linux "software" isn't a complete package, it's a patch to MythTV that allows it to directly utilize the R5000. AFIAK, it's not usable standalone, and it didn't seem to be a "standard" (ala ivtv, etc) driver that Sage Linux would recognize.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

From what I gathered, the linux "software" isn't a complete package, it's a patch to MythTV that allows it to directly utilize the R5000. AFIAK, it's not usable standalone, and it didn't seem to be a "standard" (ala ivtv, etc) driver that Sage Linux would recognize.

Not looking for a linux driver - I was just thinking if they've already got teh serial protocols worked out over the USB to the R-5000, it probably wound't be that hard to implement the network encoder bit into it as well, soit WOULD work with sage (no need for any IVTV, etc).

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Not looking for a linux driver - I was just thinking if they've already got teh serial protocols worked out over the USB to the R-5000, it probably wound't be that hard to implement the network encoder bit into it as well, soit WOULD work with sage (no need for any IVTV, etc).

Right .. those were my thoughts as well. They have a set of functions to support MythTV. I'm (naively) thinking that it might not be hard to migrate that code to the sage network encoder protocol.

FWIW, I've also not had good luck with USB virtualization. In my case, I was running a virtualized WinXP with Sage V7 under virtualbox on Ubuntu 10.04, running on an Athlon II X4 635. Recordings made with an HDHR were OK, but recordings made with a USB tuner were horrible. If there is no hope for the R5000, I'd actually prefer an HD-PVR to a virtualized solution.

Drew

[Fuzzy]

I think the HD-PVR has been known to work okay in a virtualized situation (at least on ESXi). It's just the R-5000HD that has problems (mainly, it seems, because it has no buffer on the hardware end, so if the driver/software doens't handle it immediately, it can lose packets pretty easily).

[stanger89]

Right, my HD PVR worked quite well under ESXi, but the R5000, from poorly to not at all.