HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[KryptoNyte]

No h.264 here, only mpeg2 on the cablecard tuner (Time Warner).

I don't know ffmpeg well enough, but it's possible that it will need to be tweaked a bit for incoming h.264 mpeg4.

[KryptoNyte]

You could temporarily try the dump method to see if that does in fact clear the problem with the h.264 files, or create new ones.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

You could temporarily try the dump method to see if that does in fact clear the problem with the h.264 files, or create new ones.

That is one of the reasons I prefer PrimNetEncoder you can always download and use the latest FFMPEG.

[KryptoNyte]

Right. And as soon as it's ready for the Ceton devices, I'll jump on it!

[Gustovier]

Ok,so after more experimenting. It looks like my h264 channels are working in sage (pc client and hd300)with sage dct. The issue is that they aren't working using the silicon dust hd homerun view (both windows and android) apps. I must have made the assumption they weren't working with sage as well. So I think all is well here. Sorry for the false alarm.


Now on to my next problem of guide data not updating I think this is somewhat due to my upgrade from win7 to win10. Ill put this in a separate thread if need be.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Right. And as soon as it's ready for the Ceton devices, I'll jump on it!

Well the thread does say HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime

All kidding aside I do not see why SageDCT cannot handle H264 with ffmpeg.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Gustovier

Ok,so after more experimenting. It looks like my h264 channels are working in sage (pc client and hd300)with sage dct. The issue is that they aren't working using the silicon dust hd homerun view (both windows and android) apps. I must have made the assumption they weren't working with sage as well. So I think all is well here. Sorry for the false alarm.


Now on to my next problem of guide data not updating I think this is somewhat due to my upgrade from win7 to win10. Ill put this in a separate thread if need be.

In order for the HDHomerunView to work properly in W10 you either have to Install Lav filters or VLC 32 bit. W10 does not have real decoders. I recommend the Lav Filters as you can use Quicksync or DXVA2 hardware decoding.

[FriscoJohn]

Anyone successful using SageDCT 2.7.4/SageTV with Windows 10? When I upgraded from Win7 to Win10 it rendered SageDCT unusable.

SageTV works great by itself on Win10 and plays previously recorded videos like a champ. However, even after upgrading from 2.7.2 to 2.7.4, trying to tune a cable channel using SageTV-SageDCT produces a frozen picture and ongoing sound. Moreover, the program freezes and won't respond to keyboard or mouse commands. I can't even break out with control-alt-delete to get the Task Manager or Alt-F4 to cancel the application. The only was to recover is to hold the power button in until the computer shuts off.

HDHR-View works fine and the tuners respond correctly the "test" command in the ConfigureSageDCT control panel. Firewall is on. I'm using the "Dump" method which was what worked under Win7.

Anyone have any suggestions before I bail on Win10 and retreat to Win7?

[JustFred]

This may be a long shot, but have you tried the ffmpeg option instead of dump? If you're on Comcast, you'll likely want to use ffmpeg anyway.

[FriscoJohn]

Good suggestion but that doesn't work either

[jgsouthard]

In recent weeks I have come to the solid but unfortunate conclusion that SageDCT is no longer usable with Comcast, at least in our area (northern Colorado).

See my signature for current setup (Windows 10, 2 HDHomeRun Prime tuners).

Here's what I'm seeing:

FFMPEG Capture: Constant pixelation and skips, comes and goes in severity but bad to the point of unwatchable during prime time. All shows record reliably, just with bad (really bad) quality.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false (saves directly-written .ts file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=TRUE (saves through SageTV as .mpg file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts. <-- This is the key change from in the past. These used to be playable in SageTV/HD300, but they no longer work.

The problem is that I can't get PrimeNetEncoder 2.0.0 to work reliably either, although I've spent the last couple of days trying. Tentatively it appears that PNE 2.0.0 may work OK with only ONE HDHomeRun Prime in Windows 10, but for some reason it stops working if you add a second HDHomeRun Prime (lots of No Signal lost recordings where the tuner never starts but SageTV "records" a 0-length .ts file).

After a loyal 12+ year run with SageTV, I believe our partnership is coming to an end. Unless something happens quickly with OpenDCT and SageTV v9, I'm going to be talking to Comcast about X1.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by jgsouthard

In recent weeks I have come to the solid but unfortunate conclusion that SageDCT is no longer usable with Comcast, at least in our area (northern Colorado).

See my signature for current setup (Windows 10, 2 HDHomeRun Prime tuners).

Here's what I'm seeing:

FFMPEG Capture: Constant pixelation and skips, comes and goes in severity but bad to the point of unwatchable during prime time. All shows record reliably, just with bad (really bad) quality.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false (saves directly-written .ts file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=TRUE (saves through SageTV as .mpg file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts. <-- This is the key change from in the past. These used to be playable in SageTV/HD300, but they no longer work.

The problem is that I can't get PrimeNetEncoder 2.0.0 to work reliably either, although I've spent the last couple of days trying. Tentatively it appears that PNE 2.0.0 may work OK with only ONE HDHomeRun Prime in Windows 10, but for some reason it stops working if you add a second HDHomeRun Prime (lots of No Signal lost recordings where the tuner never starts but SageTV "records" a 0-length .ts file).

After a loyal 12+ year run with SageTV, I believe our partnership is coming to an end. Unless something happens quickly with OpenDCT and SageTV v9, I'm going to be talking to Comcast about X1.

Have you tried OpenDCT yet? What were the results?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jgsouthard

In recent weeks I have come to the solid but unfortunate conclusion that SageDCT is no longer usable with Comcast, at least in our area (northern Colorado).

See my signature for current setup (Windows 10, 2 HDHomeRun Prime tuners).

Here's what I'm seeing:

FFMPEG Capture: Constant pixelation and skips, comes and goes in severity but bad to the point of unwatchable during prime time. All shows record reliably, just with bad (really bad) quality.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false (saves directly-written .ts file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=TRUE (saves through SageTV as .mpg file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts. <-- This is the key change from in the past. These used to be playable in SageTV/HD300, but they no longer work.

The problem is that I can't get PrimeNetEncoder 2.0.0 to work reliably either, although I've spent the last couple of days trying. Tentatively it appears that PNE 2.0.0 may work OK with only ONE HDHomeRun Prime in Windows 10, but for some reason it stops working if you add a second HDHomeRun Prime (lots of No Signal lost recordings where the tuner never starts but SageTV "records" a 0-length .ts file).

After a loyal 12+ year run with SageTV, I believe our partnership is coming to an end. Unless something happens quickly with OpenDCT and SageTV v9, I'm going to be talking to Comcast about X1.

What Sage really needs is updates to support new tuners ... until we get some hardware experts that can add native support for new tuners we will be chasing our tails. It took me a while to setup OpenDct etc.. just to support my primes and I had so many tweaks etc.. that it would be almost impossible for new users to setup.

Cosmetic changes are ok but in order to attract new users that Tuner support has to be updated.


jgsouthard .. I have found that the HDHomerunDVR is improving and it can run on a NAS. windows, Linux and apple oses. I have it running Side by side with SageTV and I have been moving more of my favorites to the HDhomerun DVR.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by jgsouthard

Unless something happens quickly with OpenDCT and SageTV v9, I'm going to be talking to Comcast about X1.

Fwiw, I'm using the latest stable version of OpenDCT with v9 on Comcast using the Prime and have had zero problems. Seriously, at the risk of jinxing myself, it's been flawless.

[jgsouthard]

Thanks for the good words on OpenDCT. I knew it was being worked on, but I've been waiting for it to stabilize to the point that using it would improve reliability over SageDCT and PNE. It looks like it might be close, and I'm starting to read through the forum to see what it may take to get it going.

But my immediate focus over the last couple of days has been on getting a workable solution with PNE, since I'm more familiar with it and needed to get something working quickly. Right now (since last night) I'm running PNE 2.0.0 with only one of my HDHomeRun Primes, since I will not work reliably with both of them. It did OK with a few recordings in the last few hours, but past experience is that I need to give it at least 2-3 days before I draw any conclusions.

That gives me a few days to investigate where to go from here, with options being:

1. Find a way to get PNE 2.0.0 to work with 6 tuners in Windows 10.
2. Install OpenDCT and move to it, which I will only attempt if I can quickly get it to reliable recording with 6 tuners.
3. Move away from SageTV to another solution.
4. Move to SageTV v9 and/or Linux, but only as a last resort and only if I have high confidence that it will resolve issues with the current platform.

I contributed to the HDHomeRunDVR Kickstarter campaign and have access to the code, but I haven't attempted to use it yet. I might give it a look if I can run it in parallel with SageTV.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by jgsouthard

In recent weeks I have come to the solid but unfortunate conclusion that SageDCT is no longer usable with Comcast, at least in our area (northern Colorado).

See my signature for current setup (Windows 10, 2 HDHomeRun Prime tuners).

Here's what I'm seeing:

FFMPEG Capture: Constant pixelation and skips, comes and goes in severity but bad to the point of unwatchable during prime time. All shows record reliably, just with bad (really bad) quality.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false (saves directly-written .ts file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts.

DUMP Capture with sage.properties encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=TRUE (saves through SageTV as .mpg file): On some shows on some channels (rapidly increasing number), the recorded file will be unwatchable in SageTV or in HD300 Media Extenders, although it will play in VLC player (not a practical workaround). The shows that are watchable have great quality with no artifacts. <-- This is the key change from in the past. These used to be playable in SageTV/HD300, but they no longer work.

The problem is that I can't get PrimeNetEncoder 2.0.0 to work reliably either, although I've spent the last couple of days trying. Tentatively it appears that PNE 2.0.0 may work OK with only ONE HDHomeRun Prime in Windows 10, but for some reason it stops working if you add a second HDHomeRun Prime (lots of No Signal lost recordings where the tuner never starts but SageTV "records" a 0-length .ts file).

After a loyal 12+ year run with SageTV, I believe our partnership is coming to an end. Unless something happens quickly with OpenDCT and SageTV v9, I'm going to be talking to Comcast about X1.

I feel your pain, I too am a Comcast user and encounter the recordings unplayable in SageTV all too often with no rhyme, nor reason. A recording on a channel will be unplayable (multiple tuners on different machines recorded at the same time/channel) yet a later airing of the same episode on the same channel using the same tuner(s) will be fine. BTW, I use SageDCT and the DUMP method. On one machine I have only been able to get FFMPEG to work until I reboot the machine and then it no longer works, and on the other machine (WHS v1) I've never been able to get FFMPEG to work at all (admittedly I stopped trying a long time ago on WHS).

I have found that about 90% of the time if I do a Convert to MPEG4HDTV-High Quality MKV within SageTV it will result in a very watchable conversion. Sometimes you'll get the "chipmunk" voices during commercials (who watches them anyway?) but they are playable, comskip still works, etc.
For those that won't play even after that conversion I have found that sometimes if you convert the original recording using the highest quality PSP conversion it may make it playable.
You can usually tell if it is going to at least have a chance to work if you go and look at the conversion status while it is converting. If it is moving along then it might work. Sometimes it will fail immediately, so then try the PSP route. If it is just flying through the conversion then you'll most likely end up with no video and only the audio portion of the recording.

[jgsouthard]

Originally Posted by jgsouthard

Thanks for the good words on OpenDCT. I knew it was being worked on, but I've been waiting for it to stabilize to the point that using it would improve reliability over SageDCT and PNE. It looks like it might be close, and I'm starting to read through the forum to see what it may take to get it going.

But my immediate focus over the last couple of days has been on getting a workable solution with PNE, since I'm more familiar with it and needed to get something working quickly. Right now (since last night) I'm running PNE 2.0.0 with only one of my HDHomeRun Primes, since I will not work reliably with both of them. It did OK with a few recordings in the last few hours, but past experience is that I need to give it at least 2-3 days before I draw any conclusions.

That gives me a few days to investigate where to go from here, with options being:

1. Find a way to get PNE 2.0.0 to work with 6 tuners in Windows 10.
2. Install OpenDCT and move to it, which I will only attempt if I can quickly get it to reliable recording with 6 tuners.
3. Move away from SageTV to another solution.
4. Move to SageTV v9 and/or Linux, but only as a last resort and only if I have high confidence that it will resolve issues with the current platform.

I contributed to the HDHomeRunDVR Kickstarter campaign and have access to the code, but I haven't attempted to use it yet. I might give it a look if I can run it in parallel with SageTV.

I've now been using OpenDCT for a couple of weeks, and it is working very reliably for me with 6 tuners in two HDHomeRun Primes.

[brandypuff]

I never had any luck getting SageDCT working with my HDHomerun Prime tuners even after paying $5.00 for it. My solution was to record using the Remote Potato web interface to schedule Windows Media Center and then convert resulting the WTV files to TS files that SageTV could view. Not elegant but it's been working. What i miss is the integration with SageTV and the program description when using the SageTV TV Menu. I have to browse the directory and play the program from there.

Will OpenDCT work with SageTV Version 6? I may give it a try if so. The reason i am still using V6 is the interface for V7 looks like crap on my old 4x3 TV and the fonts are so small it's unusable.

Oh, and I should note that the reason I am using Windows Media Center to record shows is that some of the channels are encrypted even though I only have basic cable and WMC is the only app that will capture them and also support the Prime.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by brandypuff

Will OpenDCT work with SageTV Version 6? I may give it a try if so. The reason i am still using V6 is the interface for V7 looks like crap on my old 4x3 TV and the fonts are so small it's unusable.

You should be able to use the old STV (I think it's SageTV3.stv or something) in SageTV 7.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by brandypuff

Will OpenDCT work with SageTV Version 6? I may give it a try if so. The reason i am still using V6 is the interface for V7 looks like crap on my old 4x3 TV and the fonts are so small it's unusable.

It has not been tested on SageTV 6 and I really can't recommend using it with that version. OpenDCT identifies itself as a 3.0 encoder and I don't know if 6 will play with it nicely. As suggested, you can use SageTV 7 and use the old STV.