ProlinkPlayTV@P7000

[skeltonl]

Despite numerous installs and uninstalls (using Roxio Goback to ensure nothing has been left behind) have not been able to get Sage Version 2 to recognise this TV Tuner card (even though it is based on the Blackbird Connexant design) in the configuration wizard.

After much reading of the Forums I opened the properties file and found that the value for the ignore encoders section had been set to:

mmc/ignore_encoders=Genesis Video Capture,

Genesis is the @P7000 driver. I closed down Sage and attempted to edit the properties file however everytime I restart Sage it writes the value into the file again. I have restarted and tried to edit the file to ensure that Sage was not running with still no success. Even trying to set the value of

mmc/encoders/XXX/never_stop_encoding to force the use of the Genesis driver have been unsuccesful.

I have also used MSCONFIG to edit the startup files to ensure that the supplied software from Prolink is not starting and causing any conflict.

Ideas anyone???

[gplasky]

When you say closed Sage down did you just put it to sleep? That won't work to edit the properties file. You need to completely exit Sage. It can't be running in the system tray.

Gerry

[skeltonl]

Thanks Gerry but having read some of the earlier posts (this is a very active support forum by the way) I was aware of the fact that Sage had to be totally closed.

I even shut down my system and restarted and edited the Sage properties file before starting Sage to ensure it wasnt running. I also checked that there was no running Sage procesess's using Sysinternals process explorer.

[Ian Norman]

It may be simpler for you to rename "Genesis" to "Conexant" in all the entries in the INF files and then reinstall using the modified INF's.
Sage will recognise "Conexant" as being valid.
I don't know what application is provided with the P7000 but I guess it's an Intervideo or Cyberlink product. They should work with "Conexant" unless Prolink have had the app designed so it only recognises "Genesis"
Give it a go. If you need a hand to modify the INF's, send them to me.

Ian Norman - ILN Multimedia www.iln.com.au

[skeltonl]

Thanks for that tip Norman.

I seem to be having some success wih a different hard drive with a vanilla XP Pro install and using some Blackbird Connexant inf files I found on the Black and Gold / GDI website.

They were actually the creator of the software package for Prolink and the files I found were for there version but required a tedious manual install process as the installer wouldnt work properly.

I will report back further on my progress to the forum. Meanwhile anyone who wants to use Sage with this card feel free to PM me for any assistance I can offer you.

LOL I suppose with only 13 days left on my evaluation I better get cracking to see if it suits my needs.

[Narflex]

Can you send the .inf files for the driver install to betatest@freytechnologies.com so I can add support for them? I thought they were using the Conexant names in their drivers. This is fixed with a registry update I'll provide once I have the .inf files.

Thanks.

[Narflex]

And you can probably figure it out yourself if you look here
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\AdditionalCaptureSetups

but still send me the inf files please.

[skeltonl]

Ah well it looks like I will have to wait for an update to Sage as the Connexant inf files I found on the Black and Gold / GDI website allow the card to be identified but there must be something else required as Sage crashes as I try and change channels

[Ian Norman]

I don't think the problem is Sage. SageTV and SageTV Recorder work perfectly with Blackbird cards.
Does it work well on Svideo, composite inputs
Is it just when you change channels or are there other problems as well.
I have seen lockups when changing channels but that's usually a configuration problem.
In the device manager are there 6 conexant devices listed in the sound, video,game controller section.

Ian Norman - ILN Multimedia - www.iln.com.au

[skeltonl]

Yes I do agree with you Norman that the problem isnt Sage as such (except that they have to build in support for the Play@7000 into the list of cards supported by the software as Provideo have decided to "customise" their inf files).

I think my problem is caused by using generic Connexant files instead of the ones supplied by Prolink (Pixelview).

Though I get the full range of Connexant devices in the hardware listing I just think that there is something missing because of the manual install rather actually having the "full" software package from Provideo installed.

For your interest I have sent you the same zip file I provided to Narflex with the Prolink (Pixelview) inf files.

I guess I am starting to wish that I had waited for the PV258LF to be available from your site LOL.

On an other note as a Australian like yourself I would be interested in any information you may have on configuring Sage for use here in Australia.

[Ian Norman]

I have sent you a few files for you to try.
If you don't receive them let me know. I have had a few strange problems with sending email lately.
For other Australian users of Sage there is only 2 things that you have to change in the sage properties file to make things work properly.
1) Add your country code
mmc/country_code=61
2) Add some PAL encoding profiles.
Once you reboot everything works well.
If your using a Blackbird Card wind the sharpness control up to full and that's it. I can't fault Sage running on a Blackbird card it's the best capture card I have seen. And I don't say that because I sell them. If it didn't work perfectly I would not sell them at all.

Ian Norman - ILN Multimedia - www.iln.com.au

[lombruan]

Hi Ian

You mentioned in your last post on this thread that skeltonl should add some PAL encoding profiles to make Sage work properly. My apologies if this is a stupid question, but how do you do that?

I live in South Africa and we also use PAL-i and not NTSC. I just bought the Pixelview card (it's the only card available locally that is supported by Sage) and I'd like to try it out properly while my trail version is still working

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

[Ian Norman]

lombruan
Thanks for the PM.
To add a PAL profile to the sage.properties file you need to add 2 lines like the following

seeker/recording_qualities/PAL45VBR=PAL45VBR,384,48000,6000000

mmc/python2_encoding/PAL45VBR=videobitrate=4500000|width=720|height=576|audiobitrate=384|vbr=1|peakvideobitrate=6000000

you can place them anywhere in the sage.properties file and sage will reorganise them with the others.
You can create whatever bit rate you like.
The example above will encode at 4.5mbps VBR with a peak video bit rate of 6mbps. The audio will be encoded at 48Khz at 384kbps.
PAL45VBR is just the name of the profile I used but you can call it whatever you like.
When you add the info the the file, run SageTV, select the profile which can be found in Setup, Detailed Setup, Multimedia, Recording Quality. Then close SageTV and restart SageTV. You can now encode in PAL.
You will need to modify the install INF as I mentioned in a previous post so that SageTV will recognise the P7000.
More information about the structure of the profile can be found at http://www.sage.tv/2_papers/HPquality.txt
Ignore the fact that it refers to the PVR250/350, it applies to the Blackbird cards as well.

If you need any other info. Please ask.

[Aaron]

I have also run into the same issue as prev. posted ie ProlinkPlayTV@P7000 card not be recognised by SageTV (supposed to be supported).

Can I get clarifycation of the fix/workaround-- it is not clear from the thread what actually works

[Ian Norman]

Aaron
Perhaps Skeltonl is the best person to answer your question but you have 2 choices.
1) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\AdditionalCaptureSetups

Rename ProVideo 2388x Video Capture to Genesis Video Capture

Rename ProVideo 2388x MPEG Encoder to Genesis MPEG Encoder,ProVideo 2388x Crossbar to Genesis Crossbar,ProVideo 2388x Tuner to Genesis Tuner and ProVideo 2388x TvAudio to Genesis TvAudio

In theory Sage will then recognise the P7000 as a Genesis Video Capture device

2) Rename all the entries in your driver install files *.inf from Genesis to Conexant and reinstall all those drivers.
You would then have "Conexant" named drivers for the P7000 and Sage will recognise the name Conexant.

[lombruan]

Firstly, Ian, thanks for your reply to my previous post, it was indeed a great help!

Regarding the Prolink card, I got the attached registry fix from Sage Support which worked for me, give it a try. I had to rename the file to .txt since I can't upload a .reg, but rename the file to .reg and double click.

[Ian Norman]

lombruan
Good to hear the info I posted helped.
Thanks for posting that reg info, that should help Aaron out.

Aaron
Ignore my post, use the reg info from lombruan

Thanks again

[Aaron]

Thanks Ian and lombruan for help, unfortunately I still have the issue.

Are the reg string setting supposed to matchup with the description in the control panel, cause mine read eg "PV Centre Cx23416 MPEG Encoder"?

What does you Control Panel read lombruan ?

[lombruan]

Aaron

My card also installed as "PV Center x" but I managed (after great effort) to get it working so don't give up!

I'm at work, but when I get home I'll have a look and try to create a "step-by-step" list of what I did and hopefully it will work for you as well.

L8r

[lombruan]

Aaron, I'm not sure if any of this will be any help to you, but here goes...

First off, I struggled for hours and played with a lot of settings. There may be a lot of worthless info here for you, but I'm going to try and explain what I did. I can't remember everything I did, but I can tell you what I remember and currently see on my system and hopefully it helps.

On the first try Sage would not see my Pixelview card either, even after the regsitry fix from Sage Support. I then went ahead and uninstalled the PV Center software completely and removed the devices from the Device Manager. After a restart and connecting to the internet I had Windows Update install drivers as it saw fit. Windows recognized it as a Conexant card with a Philips tuner and installed various drivers. I then went and copied the descriptions exactly as it appeared in the Device Manager onto a piece of paper and edited the Registry Fix I got from Sage Support with notepad to match and added it to the registry. Sage still did not see the card after this. I'm telling you this since these registry entries are still there and I don't know if it had any effect in getting it to work in the end.

Once again I removed the devices via the device manager and restarted. I then had XP install the drivers from the drivers CD that came with the card without installing the PV Center software. After that I made sure to delete the following line from the Sage Properties file: mmc/ignore_encoders=Genesis Video Capture since it kept putting it back and started Sage with the merry result of seeing "Genesis Video Capture" in the setup wizard!

OK, so this is what it currently looks like on my PC (Windows XP Prof):

In the Device Manager under Sound, video and game controllers it shows the following (The numbers in brackets are the driver version that shows when you double click the device):

PV Center Cx23416 MPEG Encoder (4.48.98.31)
PV Center CX2388x Crossbar (4.48.98.31)
PV Center Cx2388x Digital Audio Capture (4.48.98.31)
PV Center Cx2388x InfraRed Decoder (4.48.98.31)
PV Center Cx2388x Tv/Radio Tuner (4.48.98.31)
PV Center Cx2388x Video Capture (4.48.98.31)

It shows the driver provider as: Gdi

I'm pretty sure these are the drivers/devices that installs from the software cd provided with the card. If you have different drivers/devices, let me know.

After I got Sage working I installed the PC Center software in order to get the remote to work and Sage still works. You can assign keyboard shortcuts (or VB Scripts or standard Windows functions) to all the keys on the remote which will enable you to use it with Sage.

I hope you get it to work for you and don't forget to follow Ian's advice and add some PAL encoding profiles as I think you also use PAL over there and not NTSC like probably 90% of this forum ;-)

Let me know how it turns out for you.