HDHomeRun (HDHR) Prime + SageDCT

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Whoa... What black screen issue?? I've had a couple shows where it's a black screen and no video but there is sound on my extenders.. Is this what you guys have seen and a change in SAGE DCT fixes it??

Jim

This is exactly what I was experiencing - black screen (no video) but sound on extenders. Are you on Comcast? Yes, using ffmpeg capture in SageDCT 2.7.2 appears to have fixed the problem (going on 13 days and no black screen, knock on wood).

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

This is exactly what I was experiencing - black screen (no video) but sound on extenders. Are you on Comcast? Yes, using ffmpeg capture in SageDCT 2.7.2 appears to have fixed the problem (going on 13 days and no black screen, knock on wood).

Bummer.. I'm already using 2.7.2 with ffmpeg capture....

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Bummer.. I'm already using 2.7.2 with ffmpeg capture....

And you are still getting black screens? Are you on Comcast?

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

And you are still getting black screens? Are you on Comcast?

I've only seen this like twice... maybe three times.
I've been on 2.7.2 for a long time now. Yes it's comcast.

My issue might be something else...

Jim

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

I've only seen this like twice... maybe three times.
I've been on 2.7.2 for a long time now. Yes it's comcast.

My issue might be something else...

Jim

I might be able to help if you can get me a sample file that causes a black screen in SageTV.

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by babgvant

I might be able to help if you can get me a sample file that causes a black screen in SageTV.

I'll try to remember to save the file next time is happens... Like I said.. it was only a couple of times. It may have been just some fluke..

[KryptoNyte]

How does this actually work with Comcast and the likes? I see folks posting that their HDHR classics no longer tune clear QAM on many Comcast channels, so when you bring in the cablecard and SageDCT, somehow the resulting recording on these encrypted channels is an mpeg2 file sitting in your recording directory with no encryption/copy flag? With Time Warner, there is the added problem beyond encryption that they have the copyonce flag up, and Comcast doesn't on all but premiums, but I'm still and little fuzzy on the encryption state of the final recorded file. As a Time Warner customer, I'm interested to see if things will change with the acquisition.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

How does this actually work with Comcast and the likes? I see folks posting that their HDHR classics no longer tune clear QAM on many Comcast channels, so when you bring in the cablecard and SageDCT, somehow the resulting recording on these encrypted channels is an mpeg2 file sitting in your recording directory with no encryption/copy flag? With Time Warner, there is the added problem beyond encryption that they have the copyonce flag up, and Comcast doesn't on all but premiums, but I'm still and little fuzzy on the encryption state of the final recorded file. As a Time Warner customer, I'm interested to see if things will change with the acquisition.

If you can record it with SageDCT you can view move it anywhere. If you cannot record the channel with Sagedct then you need to use WMC which is the only one that does DRM. Also if the channel has DRM you cannot even view it with anything unless you use WMC.

[hufnagel]

Originally Posted by babgvant

I might be able to help if you can get me a sample file that causes a black screen in SageTV.

I'm in a similar boat as some people here...

• Comcast, HDHR3-CC, cablecard
• I'm getting black screen, no sound, and eventually 'no signal' on the screen, but NOT on every channel, and NOT on the same channels all the time (although one definitely has problems more so than other. that would be the WeatherSCAN channel.)
• the file records and plays back in Windows Media Player.
• I cannot play these "bad" files from within SageTV, even post-recording completion.
• I can have SageTV transcode the file and it plays back fine.
• my DCT version is 2.6.0.0
• here's a URL to small sample file... ( < 7MB )
  http://misc.pcsi.ws/browse/bad_streams.ts

Please let me know if the newer version of DCT will correct this.
Thanks!

[MattHelm]

nyplayer, did you ever get ffmpeg working with Windows 8???

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

nyplayer, did you ever get ffmpeg working with Windows 8???

Yes it works .... My problem was that I had SageTV creating MPG files instead of TS files... Also make sure you download the correct version 32 bit or 64 bit of SageDCT.

[mtenboer]

I have not gotten ffmpeg capture to work. I am using SageDCT 2.7.0.2 and Sage is creatingTS files. How can I tell if I have the 64 bit version of SageDCT? I am running Win 8.1 Pro.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by mtenboer

I have not gotten ffmpeg capture to work. I am using SageDCT 2.7.0.2 and Sage is creatingTS files. How can I tell if I have the 64 bit version of SageDCT? I am running Win 8.1 Pro.

When you downloaded it the name should have been sagedct-2702x64

also should have installed in.
C:\Program Files\babgvant\SageDCT

Make sure you run the Install as Admin by right clicking.

[mtenboer]

Please advise how to download the 64 bit version - I don't recall seeing a choice. I have the donator version.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by mtenboer

Please advise how to download the 64 bit version - I don't recall seeing a choice. I have the donator version.

There is a choice

http://babgvant.com/files/folders/li...s/default.aspx

[hufnagel]

I've been out of the loop on this new stuff. I can CHOOSE to have sage make MPEG files instead of TS? What's the pros/cons of the choice?

[NetworkGuy]

I recently moved my SageTV server to a new PC. The new PC is much more powerful than the last one and has all new WD Hard drives.

ASROCK, H77M, LGA1155 Motherboard
INTEL, Core™ i5-3330 Quad-Core 3.0 - 3.2GHz
8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz RAM
CRUCIAL, 120GB M500 SSD
3 - WB 1TB Blue 7200RPM SATA 3GB

When I switched, I also upgraded to SageDCT V2.7.0.2 and started recording using ffmpeg.

I have noticed that the new recordings have some pixilation in the recording. I am recording the same amount of shows simultaneously (3 or 4) and I never saw this issue on the old system.

Any suggestions where I should start looking?

Thanks,
John

[themeister]

I went through exactly what you did. Replaced a lot of components trying to understand the pixelation. In my case, RTP packets were being dropped between the HDHR HR Prime and the system. Swapped out the switch, network board (went with everyone's recommendation - Intel), etc....no resolution. Also, changed every possible NIC setting and measured the result....still had the problem. I even directly attached the HDHR Prime to the NIC.

I believe the problem has to do with RTP - Real Time Protocol (which ffmpeg uses). If the system (or any component of the system) is at all busy, it will drop packets, causing pixelation. In my case (and yours), I do not believe it has anything to do with CPU. Monitored it constantly and had plenty left over.

Mr problem got better when I established a one-for-one relationship between capture streams and disk drives. I have only 3 streams being captured. Raid counts as 1 drive. I have a 4-disk Raid-5 array and 2 other disks used just for capture devices (I used to only have one extra). Yet another drive has the OS on it.

Before I added the extra capture disk, I noticed long queue times on the drives and high "busy".

Now, that doesn't happen. While I'm still getting some pixelation on a few recordings, the "big problem" is gone. It's only speculation on my part, but I believe RTP requires that packets be captured within a small window or they get tossed. If the app is busy writing to the drive instead of reading from the adapter, it misses packets.

BTW, as a side note - my cable company COMCAST changed encoding on some channels that REQUIRED me to go to ffmpeg.

Hope this helps.... Spent months on this and quite a few $$$$$.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by themeister

Mr problem got better when I established a one-for-one relationship between capture streams and disk drives.

Interesting. How did you established the one-for-one relationship between capture streams and disk drives?

I have SageTV Recording Path Optimization set to Bandwidth, so the streams should be across multiple drives.

Thanks,
John

[themeister]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Interesting. How did you established the one-for-one relationship between capture streams and disk drives?

I'm not talking about a "hard" link between the tuner and the disk. Bandwidth optimization is what you want. I meant that if you have 3 streams, then you need 3 physically separate capture devices, all of which are in the server, not network-attached.