HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by cvitech

The biggest problem is that you're using PBDA capture, which doesn't work w/ the PRIME.

Currently I have that turned off but I still have the same results...

Secondly, "Replace Path: M:\TV does not exist" means that the service can't find M:.

The computer that SageDCT runs that is a valid path. I have tried it with the UNC name and a mapped drive letter M:\TV. From the computer I can browse to M:\TV or the UNC path.

Mapped drives only exist in the user's session. They are not valid for the service's context.

The idea behind the replace path is that it transforms the local path on the SageTV server to a UNC. So when SageTV asks SageDCT to record on "M:\TV\SomeFile.ts" SageDCT actually records to "\\MYSAGETVSERVER\TV\SomeFile.ts" (this works the other way around if you have SageTV configured to record to a UNC which is actually local and you want to avoid the loopback). The "can I access this path" test for the replace path in the service is there for a reason, if the service can't touch the folder path that's a pretty big problem; no amount of assurance is going to change that.

To make progress I need to see the logs. Saying "I've tried it" doesn't help move towards any tangible resolution. I don't say this to single you out specifically, but more that the only way I can provide anything useful it by knowing what exactly is going on in your environment as it occurs.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

In the context of a television broadcast a transport stream is what is sent over the air on a single channel/frequency or a single cable channel/frequency. That transport stream can include multiple program streams being broadcast simultaneously. In the case of an OTA broadcast that will include their primary "channel" and all of the "sub-channels" that are on the same frequency. For example our local ABC affiliate here in Oklahoma City has their main ABC transmission in 720p and then ThisTV at 480i being broadcast both on the same channel/frequency. The entire broadcast is encapsulated in a transport stream and each sub-channel is a separate program stream. The same is true for cable channels but they usually have different networks being broadcast on the same frequency.

I'm not quite sure I understand this. Does this mean that SageDCT saves a transport stream that includes other TV channels? For instance the GOLF channel is on US Cable channel 12 and the program is listed as 19:254 (254 is the Comcast channel number and I think 19 just means it's 19th on the list). It also says it's on physical channel QAM256:207000000. AMC is also on channel 12 with a program number of 20:218. It's on physical channel QAM256:207000000. Do you mean that if I watch and record a show playing on AMC that the stream also contains the info for the GOLF channel? I can't quite get my head around that.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by babgvant

You are correct. Program in this context means something different.

I can't recommend paying for SA at this point. It's safe to assume that it is dead.

Does Comskip process these multi-program streams? I donated to Comskip a long time ago, so I can get the most recent version of this. Apparently I can also assign both Show Analyzer and Comskip discriminately to different channels, so in theory I could use both: Comskip for multi-program streams and Show Analyzer for single-program streams. But would Comskip work any better on multi-program streams?

A receiver wishing to decode a particular "channel" merely has to decode the payloads of each PID associated with its program. It can discard the contents of all other PIDs. A transport stream with more than one program is referred to as MPTS - Multi Program Transport Stream.

From this I can't figure out whether the transport stream that's recorded and saved contains data on all of the programs listed in the PID or just has empty information for everything except the channel/channels that is/are being recorded. "Payload" isn't really a term that makes sense to me, but in this instance is there an empty payload or no payload for the other channels? If the latter, why wouldn't it be an SPTS *after* it's recorded? Basically Show Analyzer doesn't know how to deal with either multiple program streams or empty ("null"?) program streams? Does Comskip? (I suppose "program stream" isn't really the right terminology to use since it's a transport stream, but what I mean is the program stream (payload?) *within* the transport stream, or some confused notion that approximates.)

Note: I asked about this on the Comskip Support Forum and will post back here if I get a response.
Note2: I noticed that in VideoRedo Ad Detective doesn't have any problem with MPTS, so it *is* possible. It's a pity SageTV can't use the Vrpj files directly.

[babgvant]

The DCT strips out the extra (unwanted) program payloads to reduce file size and load on the devices in the chain, but doesn't rewrite the metadata which define the contents of the TS. So in its raw form (what SageDCT receives and dumps to disk) the TS contains 1 actual program in a TS that potentially defines more than 1.

Parsers/splitters that support the specification can deal with this, but as these kinds of files don't really exist outside of this use case it's not surprising that many don't include actual support.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by babgvant

The DCT strips out the extra (unwanted) program payloads to reduce file size and load on the devices in the chain, but doesn't rewrite the metadata which define the contents of the TS. So in its raw form (what SageDCT receives and dumps to disk) the TS contains 1 actual program in a TS that potentially defines more than 1.

Parsers/splitters that support the specification can deal with this, but as these kinds of files don't really exist outside of this use case it's not surprising that many don't include actual support.

Is this the same situation for the wtv or dvr-ms files that Windows Media Center produces? If so, then it's getting to be not so very exotic.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

Is this the same situation for the wtv or dvr-ms files that Windows Media Center produces? If so, then it's getting to be not so very exotic.

WTV and DVR-MS are different containers (i.e. not TS). When 7MC captures a data from the DCT it uses a method very similar to how PBDA Capture works in SageDCT, but instead of using a MPEG-PS muxer it uses the StreamBufferEngine (SBE) to write the A/V streams to disc. During PBDA Capture the TS is split by an MPEG Demultiplexer which is aware of the nature of the TS packets received from the DCT so it deals with this artifact during capture instead of playback.

[freewheeling]

Playback was a little choppy on a channel that was getting 100% on strength and quality so I tried a channel that was getting 85% on both at it was just like the wireless reception I got earlier. Again, these streams play fine on other software. I did not have the verbose toggle set, but did capture "important." Will try verbose again, if the issue shows up.

[sTVb]

Thanks for SageDCT, Andrew!

Setup was pretty painless.

I did have the same problem someone mentioned earlier: recordings that played fine on the server had pauses/stutters every few seconds on the HD200.

Updated NIC drivers helped a bit, but the biggest thing was pulling a 4 way splitter that was feeding my gen 1 HDHR, my cable modem, and the PRIME. Moved the PRIME to another outlet and now all seems fine. Even live TV works well on HD200 now.

Really glad to be able to pull the Colossus out of the system.

[tmiranda]

I just had a rather long conversation with the head tech of my (small) local cable provider about getting the CCI flag changed to copy freely and now I'm sure I'm stuck. It ends up that my provider gets all of their signals from HITS (Head End In The Sky) which is owned by COMCAST. The tech told me (and I tend to believe him) that they simply do not have the equipment to change the copy flag so what they get from HITS is just passed on.

The tech spoke to several people from HITS and they are convinced I just want to get the flag changed so I can pirate their material Given what I've read about COMCAST in this thread and others I think my case is a lost cause.

The tech did tell me that any channels below 100 are not copy protected so I should be able to use the Prime for that. I suppose this is my consolation prize

[jlmdxtv]

Comcast (outside Philadelphia) has all of the non-premiums open.

I think I have an advantage in that if flags were to change overnight to copy-once, they'd get a fair number of calls. Plus, I could always dawn a sandwich board and picket their headquarters about 5 miles from my house.

john

[freewheeling]

The configure file and the regular log that I sent you are from when I changed from important to verbose after the failure, but they're both at the "important" level. I was going to wait until the trouble showed up and then switch to verbose, but when I did that the trouble seemed to go away. If I leave verbose on all the time then by the time trouble happens the verbose file is too large to even open. Even this "important" file was too big to send on its own so I just kept the period just before it went bad to the end. As far as I can tell something got reset about 8:30 AM on both mornings and after that it was flaky, with pixelation intermittency, etc.. It was recording *Fox and Friends* which is about a 3 hour show. I'm using an ethernet cable directly from the Prime to the router, and the strength and quality of the transmission are both over 90%.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I just had a rather long conversation with the head tech of my (small) local cable provider about getting the CCI flag changed to copy freely and now I'm sure I'm stuck. It ends up that my provider gets all of their signals from HITS (Head End In The Sky) which is owned by COMCAST. The tech told me (and I tend to believe him) that they simply do not have the equipment to change the copy flag so what they get from HITS is just passed on.

The tech spoke to several people from HITS and they are convinced I just want to get the flag changed so I can pirate their material Given what I've read about COMCAST in this thread and others I think my case is a lost cause.

The tech did tell me that any channels below 100 are not copy protected so I should be able to use the Prime for that. I suppose this is my consolation prize

I have Comcast, and so far everything is copy freely. We don't get any "premium" services like HBO, but that would probably be copy once. How about SageMCTuner? Since that uses the WMC engine it should still record "copy once" material. Better than nothing?

In my experience Sage will only use tuners 1 and 2 for QAM recording so you could set up tuner 0 with the cable card on WMC (using the HDHR Setup program) and then use SageMCTuner. WMC can record copy once material.

[jbuszkie]

Is there a way to change the log file directory? It's writing all the time and I don't want to prematurely wear out my SSD...

Jim

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Is there a way to change the log file directory? It's writing all the time and I don't want to prematurely wear out my SSD...

Jim

No. The level of writing that SageDCT does isn't going to wear out your SSD. If it worries you, logging can be disabled.

[fresnoboy]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I just had a rather long conversation with the head tech of my (small) local cable provider about getting the CCI flag changed to copy freely and now I'm sure I'm stuck. It ends up that my provider gets all of their signals from HITS (Head End In The Sky) which is owned by COMCAST. The tech told me (and I tend to believe him) that they simply do not have the equipment to change the copy flag so what they get from HITS is just passed on.

The tech spoke to several people from HITS and they are convinced I just want to get the flag changed so I can pirate their material Given what I've read about COMCAST in this thread and others I think my case is a lost cause.

The tech did tell me that any channels below 100 are not copy protected so I should be able to use the Prime for that. I suppose this is my consolation prize

This is just not true. Most MSO's get HITS feeds and can reset CCI information at the IRD or later in the distribution chain.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by fresnoboy

This is just not true. Most MSO's get HITS feeds and can reset CCI information at the IRD or later in the distribution chain.

Then the guy I was speaking to is an excellent liar. He flat out told me he'd change it if he could but they simply did not have the equipment to do it.

My cable company is very small, I'd be surprised if there were more than 50,000 subscribers. They serve all the rural areas that Comcast and Brighthouse (the two biggiest in my area) don't want. Their "Home Office" looks like Sanford and Son, literally. It's an old barn that has a few run down offices in the front and the rest is piled with old electronic crap that looks like stuff I used to see at IBM back in the 1980's.

From what I've seen if this company doesn't absolutely need something, they don't have it.

I can't access Google Earth at the moment, but look at the satellite views if you want to see: 23505 State Road 40, Astor, FL 32102-2907

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by babgvant

No. The level of writing that SageDCT does isn't going to wear out your SSD. If it worries you, logging can be disabled.

Ok.. I feel better now.. After doing some research on SSD longevity, I'm nowhere near close to wearing the drive out! According to crystalinfo (or something like that..) I'm still at 100% usable life with only 2.xTB written to the drive.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Then the guy I was speaking to is an excellent liar. He flat out told me he'd change it if he could but they simply did not have the equipment to do it.

My cable company is very small, I'd be surprised if there were more than 50,000 subscribers. They serve all the rural areas that Comcast and Brighthouse (the two biggiest in my area) don't want. Their "Home Office" looks like Sanford and Son, literally. It's an old barn that has a few run down offices in the front and the rest is piled with old electronic crap that looks like stuff I used to see at IBM back in the 1980's.

From what I've seen if this company doesn't absolutely need something, they don't have it.

I can't access Google Earth at the moment, but look at the satellite views if you want to see: 23505 State Road 40, Astor, FL 32102-2907

I'll bet it's ignorance rather than mendacity. He probably doesn't know how to use the equipment they have in order to change it. It's like people who think they need a GUI in order to use some kinds of software.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

I'll bet it's ignorance rather than mendacity. He probably doesn't know how to use the equipment they have in order to change it. It's like people who think they need a GUI in order to use some kinds of software.

Who knows. The only thing almost certain is they won't fix it. Maybe I should ask them what equipment they are using and then start Googling

[KJake]

Just an FYI to those with Realtek networking. ASUS hasn't posted an updated driver for my (onboard) NIC in a very long time and when I went to Realtek's website, the driver they had posted there led me to believe that it was for a different chipset. I downloaded it anyway and my NIC's info is in the INF file, so it installs without warning and works perfectly fine - and is 3 years newer.

Realtek's website:
http://bit.ly/aUWHSu