HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by tfiskaa

Can HDHR prime be used on winXP including cable card activation? I currently use XP and would like to avoid an install of win 7 if possible. Any thoughts on this is appreciated.

Many posts in this same thread have discussed how to use this in XP.

So that would be a "yes".

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Jkimmell

Got a Prime last week and activated the cable card with Comcast. I can view stations in WMC 7 but I am unable to view any stations but locals with Quickview or VLC. Does this mean that I won't be able to view anything but locals in Sage?

If you want to use this with SageTV 7 you will also need to install SageDCT. You'll be able to record all the copy freely channels. No VOD or Premium channels (HBO, etc.).

Gerry

[Jkimmell]

Originally Posted by gplasky

If you want to use this with SageTV 7 you will also need to install SageDCT. You'll be able to record all the copy freely channels. No VOD or Premium channels (HBO, etc.).

Gerry

Thanks for the reply... I understand that I need to install SageDCT to get it working in Sage. If the stations are marked copy freely shouldn't I be able to view them in VLC or QuickTV? It's looking like all my stations except the locals and a few other worthless ones are flaged copy protected.

[gplasky]

No. It will work with Windows Media Center or with SageDCT and SageTV 7. Not with standard media players.

Gerry

[mogrinz]

Followed all the directions and got the Prime working under my XP setup with Cablevision.

I'm in Connecticut, and as a few others have mentioned (from NY), Cablevision is blocking everything except the locals (which I already could get with my HDHR). Grrrrr...

I am not hoping for much, but I do know a senior guy over there, and will hopefully be at a conference w/ him next week. I plan on talking with him about this; maybe I will find the right people in their org to bother.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by mistergq

Received my Prime from the Newegg Blackfriday deal.

Obtained a cable card from Verizon FIOS store. They said it was activated, but still needed additional information to finish activation.

These are my install instructions for Verizon FIOS:

1) Install or make sure the HD Homerun Software is up to date.
2) Scan to find Prime in the HD Homerun Setup software
3) Click on Prime turner hyperlink in the HD Homerun Setup software to bring up the local web page of HD Homerun Prime
4) Goto Verizon FIOS Website, entered activation code.
5) Enter ID codes for Prime. You will probably need to wait about 30 minutes for the card to be activated. You can keep refreshing the web browser of HD Prime waiting for it to say Prime is activated.
6) Make sure you're running SageTV 7.1.9
7) Install SageDCT
8) Shut down the SageTV Service
9) Run the SageDCT config tool, scan for devices and generate the encoder properties when all tuners are found
5) copy the results from the txt file into the sage.properties file
6) Start SageTV Service
7) Configure the capture sources to use the right lineup - you do not need to do a channel scan
8) Shut SageTV down
9) Restart Windows
10) When everything reboots, it should work.

The reason I added in the restart is because SageTV would not be able to tune until I did a full restart of the computer. I did try a restart of SageTV before I did a restart of Windows. I am not sure why.

Also, my HD Homerun that is set up with QAM for FIOS required to be deleted, reboot windows, and then reset up. I am not sure what happened there. maybe it was a fluke, but it did happen. The HD Homerun that uses OTA was fine.

I have not found a FIOS channel that I do not have (except VOD which we knew). I even have all the premium channels including HBO, Showtime, etc.

I, too, got the HDHR Prime from the same NewEgg sale. Went to Fios store today to get my cable card and followed your instructions. Worked like a charm. Thanks, much.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by Ron

I, too, got the HDHR Prime from the same NewEgg sale. Went to Fios store today to get my cable card and followed your instructions. Worked like a charm. Thanks, much.

Glad they worked!

[vhurst]

Originally Posted by Jkimmell

Got a Prime last week and activated the cable card with Comcast. I can view stations in WMC 7 but I am unable to view any stations but locals with Quickview or VLC. Does this mean that I won't be able to view anything but locals in Sage?

I've found the same issue. I can get a wide range of channels using WMC in Win7. I've also found that while my desktop runs SLI video cards, and have my 3 monitors set to span the displays as if I were a single 5760x1080 monitor, WMC fails the HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) test, and again the HDHR3 Prime won't tune but a handfull for channels. Just like in Sage. Kinda destroys the usefillness of this tuner for me. Could have got another HD-PVR.

[TR3 Driver]

I bought one of the Primes when they were on sale last week after reading everything available here and on Silicondust's forums. Installed everything on my WHS server, and except for a brief episode with the cablecard (Comcast had entered it into their system incorrectly as another set-top box or something), got everything working flawlessly. I cannot believe how easy it was, and how great everything works together. Super fast channel changes!

Even after the Google buy-out, thanks to the many developers and others who offer assistance here, my Sage system is still getting better and better! You guys are truly a blessing to those of us who always seem to need a little help and/or encouragement.

Another plus with my Prime is that the Comcast rep told me that there was no charge for my cablecard. Couple this with the return of my HD set-top box and not only will I gain two additional tuners but I will reduce my cable bill by $10 each month. Sweet! Thanks to everyone again.

[jkohn]

I too ordered an HD Prime from Amazon on black friday. Got the cable card and set everything up yesterday. Once I realized I needed to manually create firewall rules for the tuner ports, everything worked just fine. Comcast was even competent about correctly activating the card in one (somewhat long) phone call.

Thanks to Andy for all the work put into SageDCT.

[flavius]

Originally Posted by flavius

I put a Windows 7 VM together with a separate Sage (Trial) server. ...Currently I'm testing three parallel HD recordings while attempting to watch those from my extenders...HDHomerun 11-25, SageDCT 2.18 and Comcast.

In SageDCT Config, under discovery, I see now the list of the tuners three times. Is that benign? I'm also seeing some scattered Halts.

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by jkohn

I too ordered an HD Prime from Amazon on black friday. Got the cable card and set everything up yesterday. Once I realized I needed to manually create firewall rules for the tuner ports, everything worked just fine. Comcast was even competent about correctly activating the card in one (somewhat long) phone call.

Thanks to Andy for all the work put into SageDCT.

I ordered one of those HDHR Primes from Amazon too, however mine still has not shipped

[aedgington]

Things have been working well, except I've also been bumping into the "race condition".

I just read through this thread, and have upped the RTP delay to 100. We'll see how that goes.

Would adding a NIC or a dual port NIC help at all?

Should I consider moving from XP to W7?

[jarredduq]

Originally Posted by aedgington

Things have been working well, except I've also been bumping into the "race condition".

I just read through this thread, and have upped the RTP delay to 100. We'll see how that goes.

Would adding a NIC or a dual port NIC help at all?

Should I consider moving from XP to W7?

What is the "race condition"? I've seen it mentioned, but not described...

[razrsharpe]

Finally received my black friday purchase of the prime and got it installed, configured, activated, and set up in sage. I set about doing several back to back recordings to see how reliable it was. I'm getting several

The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner" failed to record...

error messages... not all on tuner 2... it seems to be spread out. I also once (i think only once) got

The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner" stopped producing data while recording

during the middle of the recording. Most of my errors seem to be when a tuner finishes a recording and immediately starts a new one. Here is what i did:

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
SSDP and UPNP services installed (found that out the hard way)
Intel PRO/1000 PT NIC (now with latest drivers)
SageTV 7.1.9
SageDCT 2.18
HDHomeRun Prime 3CC with 20111128-1 firmware

1. Friday 12/9 - Finally got the prime activated by comcast... required a truck roll to get the right person on the phone. Installed SageDCT 2.1.8. It wouldn't start, discovered that i needed SSDP and UPNP services. Uninstalled SageDCT, installed SSDP and UPNP services, reinstalled SageDCT. Everything seems good. It discovered the tuners and I generated the prop file entries. Pasted those into sage and everything seemed wonderful. Set up firewall rules for SageDCT.exe and the ports. I left all settings for SageDCT at their defaults.
2. Started several back to back recordings to see how reliable it is.
3. Saturday morning 12/10 - Discover a "failed to record.." error message (starting a back to back recording).
4. Found the post suggesting setting the RTP to 100. Changed the RTP delay (did not regenerate prop entries)
5. Set up several more test recordings. got a couple "failed to record..." and one "stopped producing data..." error messages.
6. Realized my nic drivers were out of date, so i updated the intel nic to the most current drivers.
7. Did several more test recordings. Again got a couple "failed to record..." error messages.

Here is an excerpt from the sagetv log:

Sun 12/11 2:02:17.784 [FSManager@2e46eb] Error communicating with encoding server:java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "ERROR failed request"
Sun 12/11 2:02:33.299 [Seeker@15ce015] Error communicating with encoding server:java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "ERROR failed request"
Sun 12/11 2:02:48.814 [FSManager@2e46eb] Error communicating with encoding server:java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "ERROR failed request"
Sun 12/11 2:02:48.814 [FSManager@2e46eb] Async encoder halt detector found a halt; kick the Seeker so it can restart the device file=MediaFile[id=6902151 A[6805856,6805764,"Storage Wars",51529@1211.02:01,30] mask=TV host=svr1 encodedBy=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 AETVHD format=MPEG2-TS 0:00:00 0 kbps [] \\svr1\TV\StorageWars-S02E10-LandoftheLoss-6805856-0.ts, Seg0[Sun 12/11 2:01:00.002-Wed 12/31 19:00:00.000]] size=0
Sun 12/11 2:03:04.329 [Seeker@15ce015] Error communicating with encoding server:java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "ERROR failed request"
Sun 12/11 2:03:04.329 [Seeker@15ce015] SEEKER HAS DETECTED A HALT IN THE ENCODER...TRYING TO RESET IT file=\\svr1\TV\StorageWars-S02E10-LandoftheLoss-6805856-0.ts size=0
Sun 12/11 2:03:04.329 [Seeker@15ce015] VF.submitJob(VFJob[InactiveFile r=0.0 t=0 file=null ifn=\\svr1\TV\StorageWars-S02E10-LandoftheLoss-6805856-0.ts])
Sun 12/11 2:03:19.845 [Seeker@15ce015] MediaFile failing verify testFile=\\svr1\TV\StorageWars-S02E10-LandoftheLoss-6805856-0.ts isFile=true len=0 isTV=true isRecording=false

I think the "failed to record..." errors are generally being produced when doing back to back recordings using the same tuner (if that helps). I saw someone suggest unchecking the "static tuners" option so i think ill try that next. Below is the system message history for the latest round of tests, and attached is the latest verbose sagedct log. If you would like the sage debug log i can get you that too. Thanks a bunch andy CC tuners in sage is a dream come true

pri=3;type=1102;time=1323583415237;msg=The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-0 on 127.0.0.1:6972 Digital TV Tuner" failed to record "Storage Wars" on AETVHD on physical channel 837 at Sun 12/11 1:01. The TV source for this input may have become disconnected, powered off, has lost its signal, the channel is no longer available, or the device is failing.;VCaptureDeviceInput=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-0 on 127.0.0.1:6972 Digital TV Tuner;VCaptureDevice=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-0 on 127.0.0.1:6972;VPhysicalChannel=837;VStartTime=1323583260000;VChannelName=AETVHD;VAiringID=6902008;VTitle=Storage Wars;
pri=2;type=1100;time=1323587015359;msg=The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner" stopped producing data while recording "Storage Wars" on AETVHD on physical channel 837. SageTV will try to reset the device. This may be caused by a channel that is no longer available.;VCaptureDeviceInput=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner;VCaptureDevice=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970;VPhysicalChannel=837;VChannelName=AETVHD;VAiringID=6902010;VTitle=Storage Wars;
pri=3;type=1102;time=1323587031720;msg=The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner" failed to record "Storage Wars" on AETVHD on physical channel 837 at Sun 12/11 2:01. The TV source for this input may have become disconnected, powered off, has lost its signal, the channel is no longer available, or the device is failing.;VCaptureDeviceInput=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner;VCaptureDevice=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970;VPhysicalChannel=837;VStartTime=1323586860000;VChannelName=AETVHD;VAiringID=6902010;VTitle=Storage Wars;
pri=2;type=1100;time=1323587171921;msg=The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-0 on 127.0.0.1:6972 Digital TV Tuner" stopped producing data while recording "Storage Wars" on AETVHD on physical channel 837. SageTV will try to reset the device. This may be caused by a channel that is no longer available.;VCaptureDeviceInput=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-0 on 127.0.0.1:6972 Digital TV Tuner;VCaptureDevice=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-0 on 127.0.0.1:6972;VPhysicalChannel=837;VChannelName=AETVHD;VAiringID=6902010;VTitle=Storage Wars;
pri=3;type=1102;time=1323588756340;msg=The device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner" failed to record "How It's Made" on SCIHD on physical channel 866 at Sun 12/11 2:30. The TV source for this input may have become disconnected, powered off, has lost its signal, the channel is no longer available, or the device is failing.;VCaptureDeviceInput=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970 Digital TV Tuner;VCaptureDevice=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1311B284-2 on 127.0.0.1:6970;VPhysicalChannel=866;VStartTime=1323588600000;VChannelName=SCIHD;VAiringID=6902002;VTitle=How It's Made;

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

I saw someone suggest unchecking the "static tuners" option so i think ill try that next.

On second thought maybe i wont try that... when i disable static tuners the tuners fail in sagetv (ie network encoder not functioning on video input sources screen...) so my guess is if i disable static tuners i need to recreate the property items for the sage.properties file?

[phelme]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

On second thought maybe i wont try that... when i disable static tuners the tuners fail in sagetv (ie network encoder not functioning on video input sources screen...) so my guess is if i disable static tuners i need to recreate the property items for the sage.properties file?

yes that's correct. static tuners retains the port ID's when ever you reconfigure. you should keep that enabled.

I wouldn't randomly mess with the RTP setting, it's for fine tuning the potential "race condition" that could spring up on back-to-back recordings that use the same tuner. As one of the users here who alerted SiliconDust and Andy about this occurrence, I've never had to change from the default once Andy changed the sequence of closing and opening the stream to the Prime.

I still get halts occasionally too; that started up again on the latest firmware. Lately it happens mysteriously on the first recording of prime time. With the latest beta though (20111128 I think) the Prime resets the tuner and now the CableCard pretty quickly. Though the recording that initially failed does switch to one of the other two tuners to do its thing.

How are your general signal levels on your channels, found via HD_homerun_Config_GUI?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by phelme

yes that's correct. static tuners retains the port ID's when ever you reconfigure. you should keep that enabled.

yup makes sense, I left it enabled after it didn't just work and then when i thought about it some more it makes sense that it should be enabled.

I wouldn't randomly mess with the RTP setting, it's for fine tuning the potential "race condition" that could spring up on back-to-back recordings that use the same tuner. As one of the users here who alerted SiliconDust and Andy about this occurrence, I've never had to change from the default once Andy changed the sequence of closing and opening the stream to the Prime.

The RTP setting was 0 by default.... I seem to remember reading (maybe in the working ceton thread) that the only reason to change the RTP setting was if you had the prime... and i think up a page or 2 in this thread andy recommended to someone to try setting it to 100 to combat the race condition...

I still get halts occasionally too; that started up again on the latest firmware. Lately it happens mysteriously on the first recording of prime time. With the latest beta though (20111128 I think) the Prime resets the tuner and now the CableCard pretty quickly. Though the recording that initially failed does switch to one of the other two tuners to do its thing.

The first recording starts fine... its usually the one of the back to back recordings using the same tuner that begin to fail... I am using 20111128 firmware...

How are your general signal levels on your channels, found via HD_homerun_Config_GUI?

I'm in the midst of rewiring the mess of wires that was my server rack so I will report levels after its all back together... I remember that the OOB lock on the prime reports signal levels of around 85-88% and 100% signal quality..

To be fair to the Prime, for the reliability testing I have been performing 3 simultaneous back to back recordings for several hours in a row to test it. In real life the prime will get used much less often because i have 2x dual hdhr's for OTA and 1x hdpvr for the movie/premium channels...

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by phelme

How are your general signal levels on your channels, found via HD_homerun_Config_GUI?

Using QuickTV to view most of the HD channels. On tuner 0 signal levels are 86-91% (usually 89-91%). Signal quality is almost always 100% and never below 97%. Symbol quality is always 100%. At least those are the levels this morning, will check tonight during prime time to see if the levels are different.

I ran more reliability testing last nite with back to back recordings on all 3 tuners. I think i can reliably say that when it fails it is trying to reuse the same tuner on a back to back recording. It doesnt always fail though sometimes it reuses the tuner just fine.

[Jkimmell]

Originally Posted by Jkimmell

Thanks for the reply... I understand that I need to install SageDCT to get it working in Sage. If the stations are marked copy freely shouldn't I be able to view them in VLC or QuickTV? It's looking like all my stations except the locals and a few other worthless ones are flaged copy protected.

As an update... Comcast finally got my cable card setup properly. I am now able to view all stations but premiums via VLC, QuickTV and Sage.