HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[phelme]

with the new Prime 20111011beta1 my SageDCT process is back in the 30%+ CPU range again when more than one tuner is going. The working set is climbing well above 1 GB again.

[DDuckles]

I'm on Time-Warner Cable in Rochester, NY. Just received my Prime, have cablecard in hand, and will likely start the install tonight. Is there any way of knowing in advance whether I need a tuning adapter to get HD? I don't have premium services.

Thanks.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by DDuckles

I'm on Time-Warner Cable in Rochester, NY. Just received my Prime, have cablecard in hand, and will likely start the install tonight. Is there any way of knowing in advance whether I need a tuning adapter to get HD? I don't have premium services.

Thanks.

If this is any help, I am using "CableVision", a child of Time-Warner in Long Island, and they give the TA for free. Of course most of the upper HD stuff for me is CopyOnce ...

I wish they (CableVision) could have told me this in advance, I would not have bothered with the Prime - when CBSHD is CopyOnce, that's just stupid!

-Skybolt

[Boolah]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

when CBSHD is CopyOnce, that's just stupid!

-Skybolt

You might want to check the CCI value on the channel. If CableVision does not set a CCI value and the network has set the RCD flag, the PRIME will see this as a protected channel and block it. However, ClearQAM devices (like the original HDHomeRun) will ignore the RCD flag and let you view it.

I know FiOS does this with some of their ClearQAM channels (PBS, for example). On my setup, I have a lineup with only the ClearQAM channels assigned to my Hauppauge 2250's and another lineup with everything except the ClearQAM channels assigned to my PRIME. See this thread over at SiliconDust for all the details.

[phelme]

Well, think I found the culprit and it is the firewall on XP. According to this KB article, large send offloading of packets is *broken* in the Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service with XP and will slow down performance greatly. Their fix? Turn off the service, but of course that breaks SageDCT since it needs the firewall to function (something I'm still not clear about). I'm going to try turning off LSO on the driver and see if that helps. But otherwise I guess I'm screwed unless maybe substituting a third party firewall can work.

BTW Andy, what are the defaults for your RTP and Write buffer sizes? I've been playing around with them so much I've forgotten what they were to begin with. Maybe I can find a happy medium by tuning the buffers, keeping them small, around 8K each, seems to help.

[phelme]

Good news on the SD front, the new beta they just released fixes the Redistribution Control flag issue that has been preventing many stations from being shown on the Prime (such as ALL my local PBS affiliates).

I guess they finally convinced CableLabs that this was a bug.

[voorhees]

babgvant, thanks so much for SageDCT and the help from you and the other folks here on how to get it setup (notably phelme for pointers on the Windows firewall changes needed). I am using it on WHS and it seems to be working fine. I have only had the Prime going for about 24 hours, but I did try recording from all three tuners at once and it worked great. Again, thanks so much.

[phelme]

I wonder what write and RTP buffer sizes people are running with here. I find I have to run with rather large sizes of write and RTP and even with that, I get "breaking up" of the image when recording to Sage. I'm also getting occasional tuner failure too.

What's interesting is that if I run the SageDCT config app in test mode, running three parallel streams to disk, the SageDCT process runs with a lower CPU rate. About a third at 5-7% compared to 20%. There is defintely some interaction going on when the streams are going to the SageTV service. Maybe a firewall issue?

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Boolah

You might want to check the CCI value on the channel. If CableVision does not set a CCI value and the network has set the RCD flag, the PRIME will see this as a protected channel and block it. However, ClearQAM devices (like the original HDHomeRun) will ignore the RCD flag and let you view it.

I know FiOS does this with some of their ClearQAM channels (PBS, for example). On my setup, I have a lineup with only the ClearQAM channels assigned to my Hauppauge 2250's and another lineup with everything except the ClearQAM channels assigned to my PRIME. See this thread over at SiliconDust for all the details.

That's good info thanks, while CCI Protection = none, CGMS Protection = protected-rcd and CopyOnce, I don't get it.

Very strange and I have spoken with them several times and they don't even know what I am talking about, only that they don't support the Prime. Goto love cable co's.

[zakrzep]

Originally Posted by phelme

I wonder what write and RTP buffer sizes people are running with here. I find I have to run with rather large sizes of write and RTP and even with that, I get "breaking up" of the image when recording to Sage. I'm also getting occasional tuner failure too.

What's interesting is that if I run the SageDCT config app in test mode, running three parallel streams to disk, the SageDCT process runs with a lower CPU rate. About a third at 5-7% compared to 20%. There is defintely some interaction going on when the streams are going to the SageTV service. Maybe a firewall issue?

I am having this same issue. Any ideas?

[phelme]

Originally Posted by zakrzep

I am having this same issue. Any ideas?

After much experimentation I identified that SageDCT needs to have higher priority over other processes, especially when all tuners are going. If this isn't kept to, breakup of the video would occur as SageDCT tried to keep up.

Comskip and compression processes (like Handbrake) need to have lower priority than SageDCT as to not interfere. I get peaks of 30%+ CPU usage of SageDCT with all tuners going on the Prime, but as long as it is higher on the food chain, things are fine. Figuring that out was the key. Now I set my SJQ4 processes to "Below Normal" or "Idle."

I ended up with 100K write and RTP buffers and that seems to help. I no longer see memory creep either.

I also tried umpteen third party firewalls (OMG, was that a slog!) and in the end am sticking with XP's for now, even with its large send offload bug.

Edit: And of course soon after I post this, I see all isn't settled. I ran some more tests, like watching something in progress that was recording and the SageDCT process started consuming lots more cycles and growing in size again to the 1 GB+ mark. For some reason reading (i.e. viewing) from the same file that is being written to has a highly adverse effect on SageDCT. The trick is not letting SageDCT get stressed when there is already have load on the CPU from other processes, which apparently I haven't licked yet.

[phelme]

You might want to check the CCI value on the channel. If CableVision does not set a CCI value and the network has set the RCD flag, the PRIME will see this as a protected channel and block it. However, ClearQAM devices (like the original HDHomeRun) will ignore the RCD flag and let you view it.

SiliconDust addressed this in the last beta release, they no longer block based solely on the RCD flag, the CCI now takes precedence as it should. So if it's 0, RCD is ignored.

[Skybolt]

This is a little off base but, since I bought the Prime and my Cable co. is mostly CopyOnce, I would like to use the Clear QAM side of the prime.

WMC just sees the "Extra" tunners and notes them as clear qam tunners. Does any one know how to do this with SageDCT?

Thanks,
Skybolt

[themeister]

I need some help with a new install of Prime and SageDCT, please....

I'm stuck on "Functioning: false" on the new tuners. Installed latest beta from Silicondust (20111008beta1). Was able to configure the tuners and view all channels with HDHomeRun QuickTV.

Installed SageDCT and configured. Copied output to sage properties. I see the tuners in the configuration; however, I can't get them to a "functioning" state.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

[mechling-burgh]

This was asked earlier and it was said that SageDCT does not support Clear Qam, it uses a different set of protocols. If you want to use the Prime in a copy once situation you will need to use Windows MCE. If you have Fios in your area you could see if they have the flags turned off. So far all the post here seem to indicate that fios is mostly open.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

This was asked earlier and it was said that SageDCT does not support Clear Qam, it uses a different set of protocols. If you want to use the Prime in a copy once situation you will need to use Windows MCE. If you have Fios in your area you could see if they have the flags turned off. So far all the post here seem to indicate that fios is mostly open.

Yeah, it seems that way. Thanks. No FIOS though. Can't seem to find if the Prime can be setup as a regular HDHR3 (Dual Clear QAM). For that matter can't seem to find how to setup a normal HDHR ...

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by themeister

I need some help with a new install of Prime and SageDCT, please....

I'm stuck on "Functioning: false" on the new tuners. Installed latest beta from Silicondust (20111008beta1). Was able to configure the tuners and view all channels with HDHomeRun QuickTV.

Installed SageDCT and configured. Copied output to sage properties. I see the tuners in the configuration; however, I can't get them to a "functioning" state.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

I'll give it a shot, and guess that maybe the service for SageDCT is not running. For me .20 (SageDCT) does not auto start even with the admin logon. I fI reboot the server I have to manually start the SageDCT service. Other than that it sounds from the little you posted that it should be working.

-Skybolt

[themeister]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

I'll give it a shot, and guess that maybe the service for SageDCT is not running. For me .20 (SageDCT) does not auto start even with the admin logon. I fI reboot the server I have to manually start the SageDCT service. Other than that it sounds from the little you posted that it should be working.

-Skybolt

Thanks......I found the problem earlier in this thread (which is really hard to navigate due to size). It was that I hadn't checked (Auto Reset) in the SageDCT configuration. The second I clicked that and the service restarted, the tuners went to a "Functioning: true" state. After configuring the EPG, it is all working great (so far).

[themeister]

I'd just like to comment that I've been waiting for this solution ever since the Prime was announced in January 2010. I've been suffering with just QAM HDTV with the basic HDHomeRun.....and using an internal tuner in the server to pick up the rest of the content with a non-HD STB. My son has a similar set-up and went with multiple USB H.264 tuners, STBs and conversion boxes. He's had nothing but problems with them.

Here's the comment: IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!

Many thanks to babgvant for SageDCT. I upgraded Sage, installed several plug-ins, installed the prime, cablecard, all new software, new lineups. It went significantly smoother than I expected, thanks to this forum.

Yesterday, was recording 5 simultaneous college football games, all in HD...2 coming from the old HDHR and 3 coming from the prime. I'm in heaven.

Thanks again to babgvant and all of you out there that support these forums. Oh yea, Silicondust as well.

Sage lives!!!!!

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by themeister

I'd just like to comment that I've been waiting for this solution ever since the Prime was announced in January 2010. I've been suffering with just QAM HDTV with the basic HDHomeRun.....and using an internal tuner in the server to pick up the rest of the content with a non-HD STB. My son has a similar set-up and went with multiple USB H.264 tuners, STBs and conversion boxes. He's had nothing but problems with them.

Here's the comment: IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!

Many thanks to babgvant for SageDCT. I upgraded Sage, installed several plug-ins, installed the prime, cablecard, all new software, new lineups. It went significantly smoother than I expected, thanks to this forum.

Yesterday, was recording 5 simultaneous college football games, all in HD...2 coming from the old HDHR and 3 coming from the prime. I'm in heaven.

Thanks again to babgvant and all of you out there that support these forums. Oh yea, Silicondust as well.

Sage lives!!!!!

That's exactly how I felt when I got it up and running.