Yet another serial port problem....

[WAF_GONE]

I moved over here from snapstream because of the instability problems with the almost weekly releases of that product. My RCA drd502rb serial port changer worked flawlessly though. I hastily purchased Sage 2 over the weekend and cant get it to switch the channels no matter what I try. I do not have the time to forever sit and tinker with these products, although I do not mind if there is adequate documentation to get me through. In all the serial threads here, all I see is "well, mine works fine" and very little real help. Any ideas why I cant get this to work? My wife (WAF) is so down on these products now that I doubt I could ever get her to try to operate them again.

[kny3twalker]

I had problems with mine too
I had it set up and running for a long time then I disconnected all my cables and put in a new harddrive
plugged everything back in and it would not work
I tried evrything
finally upset and reinstalled windows XP
installed RC3 and with everything already plugged in and still no go
the serial port was reported that it was being control with sage but sage would not change a channel still

Finally reinstall windows again
only plugged in video card
installed network connections next
installed hauppauge drivers
installed sageTV version 1.4.10
turned DDS box off
plugged in serial cable firts to computer then to DDS box
turn DDS box on
ran sage told it to use serial cantrol
try it and it would channels but only every other channel switch
finally reboot and it worked fine
apparently there is something wrong with v2 and setting up a serial connection
I reported this to sage and there reply was to use v1.4.10
you can still download it if you change the url when downloading the trial
but this was my solution hopefully yours will not be so bad
I hope you can get it working easier but you can also follow my steps from HELL!!!!!!
I have a big topic in the beta section that may help

[justme]

WAF_GONE,

I can't offer any firsthand advice as my provider won't enable my box's serial port, however...

You may want to try kny3twalkers's advice about using SegeTV 1.4. If you're in a hurry... You could try just uninstalling Sage. Then moving or renaming the "Frey Technologies" folder to a different dir, this will ensure that no old settings are used for your new re-install. At this point you could* install 1.4 and setup everything. If it works then you can just install SageTV2 over top it and you should be fine. This method isn't quite as time consuming as the full method kny3twalker suggests but could possibly leave some weird registry setting behind. Still I'd try that before doing a complete re-install of windows.

Another method to try is using the dll used by older versions of SageTV and some user devoloped apps for current versions. Go to this page and look under the paragraph called "Tuner Plugin DLLs". You're after the link for the "download the appropriate dll". This will download a zip file contining setup info, 2 sample registry files, and the EXETunerPlugin.dll. The EXETunerPlugin method is still used my many custom control apps built for SageTV, so it should still work fine. Lastly download and setup/test DTVcon. The direct(2nd and 3rd in this paragraph) links I supplied are the same as the ones in the paragraph of the page I linked to.

Also, you did pay for this product. So don't hesitate to use the official Frey support request.

*You could try installing SageTV2 at this point, but if it didn't work you'd need to start over at the very first step again.

Best of luck and don't give up yet.

[kny3twalker]

yeah I would definitely say try everything else before reinstalling windows
I did try plugins
try DTVcon
everything I could think of
but I made sure to keep a copy of 1.4 around in case I need to reinstall
I will not go through that again
also if you get it working do not unplug it even with the computer off
Sage seems to have trouble using it after that
I never did try using a new directory for the installs
But I did try installing 1.4 but it would not work after RC3 was installed after the first reinstall of windows
and it did not work after disconnecting it to put in the new drive
it seems frey should put in a back up in case the cord ever has to be removed
ex. moving
also they should put the script used in 1.4 back in 2.0 for the serial port control
2.0 well at least the RC's and earlier beta were useless
1.4 perfect after reboot
2.0 beta on ward worthless
I do not know what they changed but that sucks for new people and I posted that and emailed them that after my week of HELL!

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...0&pagenumber=1
there's my hell, LOL

[WAF_GONE]

I have reconsidered my strategy and gone back to Snapstream. At least it does change my STB and that is most important to me.

Only in the world of software can issues like this be gotten away with. If I installed an A/C system that did not work or only worked partially, I would be out on the street.

Thank you for the replies.

*edit*

I would not mind so much, if somewhere on this site, I could find 1 word from FREY on this issue, or even a serial howto, other than "we do not gaurantee".

FREY.......never again 1 penny...lol

[justme]

I hope you did contact Frey Support and will continue to work with them on this issue. Since you said you already paid for it, it is worth some of your time talking to support. Even if you are happy going back to SnapStream. I'm the type of customer who lets a company know how I feel, in the hope that things will be different for the next person.

This is not meant as a dig against WAF_Gone: This situation is a good example of why you should always try the trial version of software before you buy. There may be subtle differences in your system that can cause issues. Both BTV and SageTV offer trials, BTW.

Any SageTV user who has issues with serial control should contact Frey support.

Note:Just to be clear, I'm not a Frey employee. I'm just another user. So please don't hold Frey responsible for my advice, knowledge, or lack there of.

[dkardatzke]

Have you contacted our support team for official support? Also note that we don't guarantee that serial port control will work with every receiver. This is why we also offer IR control as an alternative.

[kny3twalker]

I still think something has been changed between 1.4 and the newer v2s
and this could be part of the problem
at least it was for me
I do not think it is fair for everyone that is new to have install v1.4 to get it to work
especially since it is not easily found
hey I will go the extra mile to get it to work cause I love the product and think SS sucks
but I had comments like this before warning frey about this issue
apparently whatever was changed in concern with the serial control has left some without the ability to configure it correctly with v2 unless configuring it first with 1.4