Directv Serial tuning

[Polypro]

I always post this and I'm sure others are sick of it, but it's an easy way to test and may save some time...

On my box, for some reason, I have to Power OFF the DTV boxes, Power OFF the computer, power ON the DTV boxes and let them go thorough startup, data acquisition, etc... (I let them sit for about 5 min), and finally, power ON the PC. If I just hit RESET on the boxes, or RESTART on the PC...I never get channel changing back...don't know why I 'm unique. Patersons, H21-200's & D10, Win 7 32.

Put another way, when my boxes lose power for even a millisecond (which a red button reset does), and the PC is ON...channel changing messes up. I have long since put the DTV boxes on a UPS...but updates to the boxes still causes a RESET and I have to go through the above procedure.

P

[CTay]

Added to the list to try tonight. I wish there was a simple way to se if the dtv box is even recognising the usb to serial. Is there an installer command or something?

Edit - Tried the power off process. No luck. It must be either #1 my cable is not the correct chipset or #2 my receiver is unable to be controlled via serial.

Anyone know of a way I can #1 verify the chipset of the usb to serial or #2 verify that the serial port of the receiver is enabled?

[Skirge01]

I don't recall the process, but a Google search will probably turn it up. I believe I had to force an upgrade (or two) of the software on my DTV receivers before it would work.

[cjbojrab]

Here is my setup:

Win 7 32
Sage TV 7 ... build 7.0.23.246 (latest as of 1/30/2011)
DirecTV H20-100
HD-PVR

I have 2 Prolific PL232 serial cables (one at the computer and one at the DirecTV box) joined by a Female / Female Null Modem adapter.

I downloaded dtvcontrol and it works. It is able to power on and power off the H20 and it is able to change the channel just fine.

However, Sage does not work. It does not change the channel. It just eventually shows the same channel as before.

I have the DirecTV serial tuning turned on and I have the DirecTV Serial Channel Changing Mode set to Fast.

I wonder if I need a different version of the DirecTVSerialControl.dll (perhaps the older version).

Anyone have any suggestions?

By the way, the HD-PVR IR Blaster does work. However, it is very slow when changing the channel and the WAF is low on that.

Thanks,
Chris

[mguebert]

Originally Posted by cjbojrab

Here is my setup:

Win 7 32
Sage TV 7 ... build 7.0.23.246 (latest as of 1/30/2011)
DirecTV H20-100
HD-PVR

I have 2 Prolific PL232 serial cables (one at the computer and one at the DirecTV box) joined by a Female / Female Null Modem adapter.

I downloaded dtvcontrol and it works. It is able to power on and power off the H20 and it is able to change the channel just fine.

However, Sage does not work. It does not change the channel. It just eventually shows the same channel as before.

I have the DirecTV serial tuning turned on and I have the DirecTV Serial Channel Changing Mode set to Fast.

I wonder if I need a different version of the DirecTVSerialControl.dll (perhaps the older version).

Anyone have any suggestions?

By the way, the HD-PVR IR Blaster does work. However, it is very slow when changing the channel and the WAF is low on that.

Thanks,
Chris

I have nearly the exact same setup and mine worked without any fuss. Just make sure you have the correct com ports in the setup for the HDPVR, where you setup the tuner.

[cjbojrab]

Yes, I have the correct COM port selected in the HD-PVR setup. COM3 is the port. I also tried the on-board COM1 port (I have a very small pig tail that attaches to the MB header for COM1). Still didn't work. Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

[sdsean]

OK 1st off, make sure you go into advanced setup in SageTV select "Fast" mode for DTV serial channel change. This is the only way I could get things too work. . .

I too have a siig card, and it works just fine, so I doubt that's your issue.

Also make sure that you have either the paterson device USB-serial adapter or an IOMEGA GU-232 one. There is a PDF from dtv somewhere around here that explicitly states that there are only a handfull of adapters that will work properly. (There are others beside these 2 i listed, but these ones I know work. But there are lots of PL232 cables out there that will not work. . . ).

Forget the dtvcontrol exe, as you don't neeed it, and you defintely don't need a different version of the dll.

Once you have them plugged in, from there you need to hit the reset button on your STB while your PC is on, and the cables are all plugged in. Otherwise it won't work.
Plug in your cables, let the PC go through the whole re-boot proces and everything gets started up. Then shut down SageTV and its service (if needed). Then hit that little red button on your DTV STB, and wait at least 5 minutes (probably 10, just depends).

Then start sageTV up, and it should work just fine. . .

You shouldn't need to do anything in terms of adjusting the baud rate or anything like that. Works fine on WinXP, Vista, and 7 (32 or 64bit).

[cjbojrab]

I have reset the H20 many times with the red button while the PC was on and I have restarted Sage as well. Also, DirecTV Serial Control is set to FAST in Advanced setting.

Again, the dtvcontrol.exe works for both power on/off and channel changing. I was using it just to prove that these cables do work, not that I need it. In fact, if I have Sage running with the serial control setup and I try to use dtvcontrol, it says the port (COM3) is already in use. So I know that Sage at least has the port open.

Are you saying that even though the PL232 / null modem is working fine with dtvcontrol that I may have to get the Paterson device to get it to work with Sage? Seems to me that if dtvcontrol works, the hardware is fine and its a software problem.

Thanks

[cjbojrab]

Originally Posted by sdsean

Once you have them plugged in, from there you need to hit the reset button on your STB while your PC is on, and the cables are all plugged in. Otherwise it won't work.
Plug in your cables, let the PC go through the whole re-boot process and everything gets started up. Then shut down SageTV and its service (if needed). Then hit that little red button on your DTV STB, and wait at least 5 minutes (probably 10, just depends).

FYI ... I have rebooted the PC and the DTV box, but not to this extent, so I will give this sequence a try tonight to see if it helps.

[Beefcake550]

I'll also throw this out if you can't get it working. Try the thread about channel changing via http.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...9&postcount=28

Use the method in post #28. It works great for me. I switched from the serial interface to this and couldn't be happier.

[sdsean]

Are you saying that even though the PL232 / null modem is working fine with dtvcontrol that I may have to get the Paterson device to get it to work with Sage? Seems to me that if dtvcontrol works, the hardware is fine and its a software problem.

Well I'm not saying that for sure. . .I just wanted to call out the DTVs hardware docs call out specific brand names of USB-Serial Adapters that work. We all know the Paterson one works (and you can program it which is great), and I know in that doc the IOMEGA cables are supported. There are like 4 other brands. All of them are PL232, but there are lots of others. . .I could never get the belking USB/Serial adapater too work at all eventhough its PL232.

[Beefcake550]

If dtvcontrol works, sage should work as well. dtvcontrol validates the hardware, so there is definitely an issue with Windows/Sage. Dont bother with the paterson device if you've gotten this far.

[war10ck]

I'm with beefcake, throw away serial, firewire and ir for channel changnig. I started using the ethernet port, all my boxes were connected that way anyway. It literally took about 5 minutes. The channel changes quicker (I'm using an HDPRV) and i no longer see the directv banner for a split second when i change channels. It has never missed a channel change.

[cjbojrab]

I'd love to use the HTTP channel changing method, but unfortunately my directv box (H20) does not have an ethernet port.

[cjbojrab]

Well, I got it working. I had to add the registry entry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirecTVSerialFastChannelChanges as a DWord 1. This was not added automatically by configuring it in the Advanced Setup. Do other's that have this working have the registry entry? Was it added automatically? Also, the channel changing is still not as fast as I would like. Is there a way to speed it up? I think a lot of the time spent is turning off/on the HD-PVR (at least the blue light turns off and then on).

Thanks,
Chris

[mguebert]

Originally Posted by cjbojrab

Well, I got it working. I had to add the registry entry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirecTVSerialFastChannelChanges as a DWord 1. This was not added automatically by configuring it in the Advanced Setup. Do other's that have this working have the registry entry? Was it added automatically? Also, the channel changing is still not as fast as I would like. Is there a way to speed it up? I think a lot of the time spent is turning off/on the HD-PVR (at least the blue light turns off and then on).

Thanks,
Chris

My guess is your on a 64bit OS which puts the registry keys in a different place. I would have thought Sage 7 smart enough to handle that, but then again?

[cjbojrab]

No. I'm on 32 bit Windows 7. So Sage should have added the registry entry when I set the Advanced setting on the UI?

[mguebert]

Originally Posted by cjbojrab

No. I'm on 32 bit Windows 7. So Sage should have added the registry entry when I set the Advanced setting on the UI?

It may not if UAC is on.

[sdsean]

Yeah that's why. . .stupid UAC. Highly recommend turning that off on your HTPC.
As long as that machine isn't surfing the web a ton, and you have some really rudimentary virus software, UAC is probably pretty useless anyway. . .

[sdsean]

Oh, and for "faster" channel changes, one thing you can do is set the guide banner timeout on the STB to the minimum value (2 seconds). You can allow splay around with the "delay_to_wait" setting (search the forums) for the HD-PVR in the SageTV properties file. The default is 4000 (4 seconds) which can be a bit high depending on your machine. I have mine at 2500. . . the thing is too low a number will affect your stability with your HD-PVR, so be warned.

The channel change will always be pretty slow though, simply b/c its using the HD-PVR, but tweak that number a bit and that should help.