Firewire Set Top Box channel tuning, circa June 2011

[stevech]

Goal: Get a simple and complete how-to on Firewire Channel Changing. IMO what's there now in the forum is assorted anecdotes.

Copied this from a thread elsewhere in the forum:

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevech View Post
I wish I could find a cookbook on how to try firewire to my STB. I don't know if TimeWarner has disabled that along with eSATA. I've spent a lot of time scanning this forum looking for a how-to on firewire for channel changing. All I've found is Sage v2,3 era old, and/or anecdotal. I know there's no universal approach but all I've found is rambling. My box is a Samsung non-DVR.
I need a solution now; some say USB-UIRT can be reliable. I have to bail out Sage for HD if I can't solve this promptly.

Mistergq said

I used this guide to set up my firewire.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=157

However, I don't use ExeMultiTuner anymore, I now use FWChannelPRoxy
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=303

Basically, you need to get the firewire setup for the STB, and then when you start the instruction for ExeMultiTurner, then you follow the instructions for FWChannelProxy.

Hope that helps.

[stevech]

take pity: I don't know what I don't know:

In the first referenced thread, last edited Jan 2009, (Sage 7 exist then?) opens with

FWChannelProxy is a SageTV channel tuning pluggin that wraps calls to timmoore's channel.dll for changing channels on the STB via firewire.

This assumes I know about timmoore's channel.dll ... where to get it, what it does, how to install it for Sage 7, etc. Alas, I don't.

Then that thread points to http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/ for a driver. That doesn't mention my STB model: Samsung SMT-H3262 newer of course since the posting is ca. 2009. Should I assume it will work?

FWChannelProxy
was apparently made available as download in 2009. No issues today, in June of 2011, with Sage 7? Impact if Win 7 device drivers are to be used (I'm still on XP for now).

I hope this thread helps me get firewire tuning going. If so, I can explain the process in one cogent document.

[mayamaniac]

I've done the firewire installation twice already, once when I had win2003, and the once again when I switched to Win7 32bit. Both times, I followed Opus4's instruction from this post (#1486), and both times it worked.

To be honest, when I installed it the second time, I had already forgotten how to do it, completely. But I had that instructional post bookmarked and just followed it again, and it worked. And it's been almost a year now, and I already forgotten how to do it again, even though I've done it twice now. But I'm sure I can do it again if I have to.

So just give it a try and post if you get stuck, people here will help you out. Don't forget to post what brand and model of your STB too.

[wbarber69]

Follow the above post use fwchannelproxy instead of exemultituner. firestbvistarc-1 are the drivers i'm using you have to change your firewire drivers over to the legacy ones, dont worry they are already in win7 they just have to be changed manually. Just follow the instructions in the post. If it helps Im using hdpvr drivers 1.5.6.1 and the very latest drivers for my hvr-2250 and hvr-1600. oh and you dont have to do any fancy command line crap to open the firestb installer as win7 is an mce os.

[stevech]

How can I estimate if the firewire port on my cableBox is enabled for tuning?
That post which is linked above is circa 2008. It points to even older stuff.
Is there or can there be an updated step-by-step for June 2011, for fwchannelproxy as said below, and for XP, as I've not yet gone to Win7 on the Save server.
Do I use the drivers that came with the firewire PCI board I bought?

my STB model: Samsung SMT-H3262. Working with USB-UIRT, though not totally reliable, and channel changes take 10-15 seconds, some of which are hard coded time delays in Sage's IR config. And more delay for disk buffering; I wish Sage would do Watch Live TV without disk buffering - and the delay to do so. Switch to disk buffering only if the user hits pause. That's what the cable DVR does.


I'm re-reading this to understand this explanation that's like a pit stop at an Indy race:

Follow the above post use fwchannelproxy instead of exemultituner. firestbvistarc-1 are the drivers i'm using you have to change your firewire drivers over to the legacy ones, dont worry they are already in win7 they just have to be changed manually. Just follow the instructions in the post. If it helps Im using hdpvr drivers 1.5.6.1 and the very latest drivers for my hvr-2250 and hvr-1600. oh and you dont have to do any fancy command line crap to open the firestb installer as win7 is an mce os.

[UgaData]

This may help with some of the confusion or not

The instructions for installing firewire drivers have not change for sometime now. There isn't anything new (well almost, remember we're dealing with computers and something is always changing.)

One thing note to about firewire drivers:
there are the OS drivers that allow firewire/1394 to be recognized and used by the OS/system. Then there are the firewire capture drivers that allow a STB to be recognized and allow video capture and channel changing to happen. This distinction was not an issue until Win7 came along.

Under Win7 it is necessary to revert the OS firewire/1394 drivers back to the legacy drivers (which are included in the Win7 install).

The timmoore and ExDeus drivers allow the system (on top of the OS firewire driver) to recognize the STB(s) that are attached to the firewire bus.


I have always installed Timmoore's drivers then upgraded them using ExDeus's drivers.
The Timmoore drivers include the needed channel changing programs (channel and channelw ).
The ExDeus drivers recognize more STBs.

The FWChannelProxy application (using Timmoore's channel program) simplifies the channel changing only setup.

There is more than one way to change channels using firewire. EXEMultiTuner is one and FWChannelProxy is another.
I have not used EXEMultiTuner but I have recently setup FWChannelProxy.

I have noticed that even though firewire can change channels fairly quick, it may still take time for the STB to tune the channel and even longer for SageTV to be able to capture it.

[Kingstud]

I have same cable box as mentioned above: Samsung SMT-H3262

I am using Windows Vista. I previously had firewire channel changing working with a SA-8300HD using channel.exe and FWChannelProxy. It was very reliable.

Using the ExDeus Firestb drivers, I was able to jam the Samsung 3050 tuner drivers in for the 3262 set top box. I can capture video from the Firewire using VLC, so I know the tuner portion of the driver works. The trouble is that the 3050 driver doesn't work for the Panel device. Normally, the panel device should be listed when channel.exe -v or SageChanger is executed. Evidently the 3050 panel driver is not compatible with the 3262 since both channel.exe and SageChanger display no panel info and cause Blue Screens of Death if I try to force command to the tuner devices. If there is a panel driver out there that works with the Samsung 3262, I believe that would solve the problem. I have not yet been able to find one.

[SprDtyF350]

I had firewire working for quite some time and then all the sudden it stopped. From what I can gather my firewire ports are no longer enabled. The STB's are Pace RNG110's, my cable office doesn't have anything else, and I was not in the mood to fight with them about firewire ports being required to work.
I ended up using one of my Microsoft MCE remote control receivers with both the IR blasters hooked up. Using LMRemote Keymap software I can tune both boxes reliably now. I do have the IR "Eye" taped to the front of the STB's with masking tape so they don't interfere with each other. My Sage setup lives in a room by itself in the dark. So far, so good and if it did not work I was planning to go back to DirecTV... Cable companies... Yuck....

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by UgaData

This may help with some of the confusion or not

The instructions for installing firewire drivers have not change for sometime now. There isn't anything new (well almost, remember we're dealing with computers and something is always changing.)

One thing note to about firewire drivers:
there are the OS drivers that allow firewire/1394 to be recognized and used by the OS/system. Then there are the firewire capture drivers that allow a STB to be recognized and allow video capture and channel changing to happen. This distinction was not an issue until Win7 came along.

Under Win7 it is necessary to revert the OS firewire/1394 drivers back to the legacy drivers (which are included in the Win7 install).

The timmoore and ExDeus drivers allow the system (on top of the OS firewire driver) to recognize the STB(s) that are attached to the firewire bus.


I have always installed Timmoore's drivers then upgraded them using ExDeus's drivers.
The Timmoore drivers include the needed channel changing programs (channel and channelw ).
The ExDeus drivers recognize more STBs.

The FWChannelProxy application (using Timmoore's channel program) simplifies the channel changing only setup.

There is more than one way to change channels using firewire. EXEMultiTuner is one and FWChannelProxy is another.
I have not used EXEMultiTuner but I have recently setup FWChannelProxy.

I have noticed that even though firewire can change channels fairly quick, it may still take time for the STB to tune the channel and even longer for SageTV to be able to capture it.

I know this is an old quote, but you seem to have some knowledge regarding FWChannelProxy, which I am attempting to get working with a newer set-top box.
I can change channels via the 'channel -f -a6 2 channel#' prompt, but cannot get Proxy to work with the new box. My older cable set top worked fine with Proxy.
Any thoughts? My device id (2) doesn't seem to have changed.
I looked through Sage.properties but didn't see anything out of line.

[nyplayer]

TVmaster,

Did you follow this guide?
http://babgvant.com/files/folders/sa...ntry11740.aspx

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

TVmaster,

Did you follow this guide?
http://babgvant.com/files/folders/sa...ntry11740.aspx

Yup, to a tee. And as I said, the previous Motorola 3200 was working as device #2, which is what the new, Scientific Atlanta 4742 box comes up as when discovered using channel.exe.
I've gone so far as to remove the HD-PVR that the 3200 was connected to from my Sage tuner-lineup, and then re-enter it again as a new video source.
That didn't work either.
I'm suspicious there's a line of code somewhere that's buggering things up, but I haven't been able to find it - properties looks good, and the 4742 accepts channel change from the command prompt.
I've spent the weekend on it, and now my brain hurts...

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Yup, to a tee. And as I said, the previous Motorola 3200 was working as device #2, which is what the new, Scientific Atlanta 4742 box comes up as when discovered using channel.exe.
I've gone so far as to remove the HD-PVR that the 3200 was connected to from my Sage tuner-lineup, and then re-enter it again as a new video source.
That didn't work either.
I'm suspicious there's a line of code somewhere that's buggering things up, but I haven't been able to find it - properties looks good, and the 4742 accepts channel change from the command prompt.
I've spent the weekend on it, and now my brain hurts...

Since I have 2 HD-PVR's I used the device ID instead of the device # for my STB's to be assured that I am contacting the correct box. It also protects against something getting added/removed from the system and possibly confusing which device # points to which device.

Also I know that in setting up one of my HD-PVR's I had the ID wrong. Depending on where you look for the device ID, either the channel.exe or the device manager information there is an extra 0 in one of them. Be sure you are setting everything up with the channel.exe ID information.
I pulled my hair out for about an hour setting up one of my STB's due to that. Using channel.exe I could change channels, but they wouldn't change in SageTV. Once I noticed the error in naming the device it worked fine.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Since I have 2 HD-PVR's I used the device ID instead of the device # for my STB's to be assured that I am contacting the correct box. It also protects against something getting added/removed from the system and possibly confusing which device # points to which device.

Also I know that in setting up one of my HD-PVR's I had the ID wrong. Depending on where you look for the device ID, either the channel.exe or the device manager information there is an extra 0 in one of them. Be sure you are setting everything up with the channel.exe ID information.
I pulled my hair out for about an hour setting up one of my STB's due to that. Using channel.exe I could change channels, but they wouldn't change in SageTV. Once I noticed the error in naming the device it worked fine.

Ok, I'll double check that. Thanks. There is a 0 after my second tuner, a Colossus, but it's controlled by Hauppauge IR device.
The FWProxy box just has a "2" listed, before the "Panel Device" is noted in channel.exe

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Ok, I'll double check that. Thanks. There is a 0 after my second tuner, a Colossus, but it's controlled by Hauppauge IR device.
The FWProxy box just has a "2" listed, before the "Panel Device" is noted in channel.exe

UPDATE: Got this fixed by adding to the registry some needed code, since apparently my new receiver uses a different address that's not a default.

[UgaData]

I had some issues getting FWChannelProxy to work at first because I couldn't figure out how to pass additional arguments to FWChannel Proxy like you can with channel and channelw (channel -f -a6 2 channel#).

In my case I just needed to add the -f and what I did was to make a copy of FWChannelProxy#.dll and rename the copy to FWChannelProxy-f 2.dll and that worked.

I realize you have already solved your issue with a reg edit but what may have worked in your case would be to rename a copy of FWChannelProxy to FWChannelProxy-f -a6 2.dll. Appearently, FWChannelProxy parses out any characters between "FWChannelProxy" and ".dll" then uses them as the needed arguments.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by UgaData

I had some issues getting FWChannelProxy to work at first because I couldn't figure out how to pass additional arguments to FWChannel Proxy like you can with channel and channelw (channel -f -a6 2 channel#).

In my case I just needed to add the -f and what I did was to make a copy of FWChannelProxy#.dll and rename the copy to FWChannelProxy-f 2.dll and that worked.

I realize you have already solved your issue with a reg edit but what may have worked in your case would be to rename a copy of FWChannelProxy to FWChannelProxy-f -a6 2.dll. Appearently, FWChannelProxy parses out any characters between "FWChannelProxy" and ".dll" then uses them as the needed arguments.

Thanks, I'll experiment with that as well, as that would have even infinitely easier than hacking the registry. Have you tried this personally?

[UgaData]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Thanks, I'll experiment with that as well, as that would have even infinitely easier than hacking the registry. Have you tried this personally?

Sort of.
The instructions for FWChannelProxy that I remember reading only indicate changing the number at the end of the filename to the number of your panel device ID. creating FWChannelProxy1.dll or FChannelProxy2.dll did not work for me since I needed to add the -f argument to force the STB to accept what I was sending (Channel -f 2 channel#). I reread the instructions, looked around Babgvant's site didn't see any thing new and almost gave up.
On a fluke I tried using FWChannelProxy-f 2.dll substituting the arguments I needed when I used channel.exe for the Device ID portion of the FWChannelProxy filename and it worked.

So, not sure the additional arguments you need will actually work since I didn't need that many just the -f. And I don't have the same STB to test.

FWIW - At one time I was capturing and changing channels using firewire, then just to change channels (FWChannelProxy) for an HD-PVR (mostly to record premium channels). But I have recently dropped several cable services and no longer have any need to record premium channels and have removed the HD-PVR from my system.