SageTV gets no signal from HDHR Prime via SageDCT

[gprichardson1]

Hi all,

There are so many threads about this topic that I hesitate to post yet another one but I haven't been able to find a solution to my problem. My setup is:

WinXP
SageTV 7
HRHR Prime w/ cablecard
SageDCT

I installed the HDHR software and was able to view all my channels through the HDHR config gui so I know the HDHR and cable card are working properly. I followed all the steps I've seen outlined to install SageDCT. I did:

- Shut down sage service
- Enabled upnp in the firewall settings
- Installed SageDCT
- Did the discovery/scan for the tuners and saved off the Assignments.txt file
- Added sagedct.exe, and the udp ports for the tuners to the firewall exceptions, because SageDCT told me with WinXP I needed to add them by hand. I added:

6980 - Live DMS
6989 - Tuner 0
6982 - Tuner 1
6985 - Tuner 2

- Appended the Assignments.txt to the end of my sage.properties file
- Rebooted
- Added EPG lineups to the three tuners in the Sage gui

In the video source setup I noticed I wasn't able to preview channels. I'd read in various posts where that might not be possible so I didn't think much of it. I went into the Sage program guide and picked a channel I knew worked from when I set up the HDHR (804 - local CBS channel). Sage sits there and eventually tells me "No Signal".

I apparently either missed something or did something wrong. I tried accessing channels with the firewall both off and on. Is there a way I can test that SageDCT is actually working properly and can really access the HDHR properly?

If anyone has any tips or suggestions I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!

-Gary

[Fuzzy]

First step would be to see if SageDCT is actually writing the file... Make a manual recording, and then check the details of that recording. It should show the file location and name. Check to see if the file size is increasing, and if it is even there to begin with. If it is not, it may be an issue with folder permissions. If your recording folder is a UNC path, then the SageDCT service will have to be logged on as an actual user, that has permissions for the folder. By default, the service runs as LocalSystem, which cannot access network locations (even if those locations are local on the system).

[gprichardson1]

Thanks for the reply! I discovered the Test tab in the DCT config gui last night and did some tests to C:\file.ts, which all worked, but after reading your post I tried going to the UNC path that I use for the Sage videos. I did indeed have to change the DCT service to use the user Sage runs as. Once I did that I could write out to the UNC path, and checked the output with VLC. The video looked good.

So now it looks like SageDCT can talk to the HDHR Prime just fine and write out video files to the UNC path. However, after all that Sage still is giving me "No Signal" when I try to tune into a channel. Could the info I put into the sage.properties file be bad somehow? Is there a way to re-generate that info from the SageDCT config without it assigning new UDP port numbers (which I'd then need to redo in the firewall)? As far as cleaning up the sage.properties first, if I remove the video sources from the Sage gui, will that remove all the info I had added from the assignments.txt file that I generated with the DCT config gui?

Does SageTV do any kind of logging? Can I put it into some sort of debug mode to see what it's doing with regards to interfacing with SageDCT? Or does DCT have any kind of logging I can turn on to see if it's getting any requests from SageTV? I feel like I'm so close to getting all this working, yet so far too.

-Gary

[Fuzzy]

I'd focus first on the recording itself, before looking into sage properties and such. The 'No Signal' is misleading, that screen simply means it has no data to playback. That could be for a number of reasons. Did you test playing a actual sage recording file, and not just the 'test tab' output? Once you know the file itself is being recorded to proeprly, THEN you can look at playback issues in sage.

[gprichardson1]

Thanks for the info again. Sage isn't recording any files, which is why I was trying the Test tab in the DCT config. I just tried to record a show on our local CBS station. At the top of the Sage gui there's an "i" (for "info", I assume), which I clicked on and saw the following error:

Error - Halt Detected in Recording

The Device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 131E054-1 on 127.0.0.1:6982 Digital TV Tuner" stopped producing data while recording "Let's Make a Deal" on WBZDT on physical channel 114-1008-804. SageTV will try to reset the device. This may be caused by a channel that is no longer available.

12 Messages. Last Occurence: 10:37 AM Wed 10/30

I look in my video folder (via the UNC path) and there's no video file. So Sage isn't creating any output file for me to look at/analyze. That's why I'm wondering if there's something screwy with my video sources.

Another bit of information that I didn't include in my original message is that I just installed the HDHR Prime yesterday after having used a regular HDHR for a long time. Comcast just encrypted all my channels, thus the need for the Prime with the cable card. I still had the old HDHR tuners configured in Sage when I installed the Prime. I've since removed the old HDHR video sources from Sage but could it be possible there's some residual crap in my properties file that's causing problems? That's why I was thinking maybe I should remove the Prime video sources and redo the install of hte HDHR/DCT video sources, now without the old HDHR information.

-Gary

[Fuzzy]

I won't have my prime to help further until tomorrow - but since you appear to have narrowed it down to that, you might look at getting help from babgavant over in his forum at http://babgvant.com/

[sflamm]

In the video source setup I noticed I wasn't able to preview channels.

To get preview to work with SageDCT 2.7.2 set capture method to 'dump'. Once everything is working change it to 'ffmpeg'.

See this thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...t=sagedct+tips

[jal]

Originally Posted by gprichardson1

Thanks for the info again. Sage isn't recording any files, which is why I was trying the Test tab in the DCT config. I just tried to record a show on our local CBS station. At the top of the Sage gui there's an "i" (for "info", I assume), which I clicked on and saw the following error:

Error - Halt Detected in Recording

The Device input "SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 131E054-1 on 127.0.0.1:6982 Digital TV Tuner" stopped producing data while recording "Let's Make a Deal" on WBZDT on physical channel 114-1008-804. SageTV will try to reset the device. This may be caused by a channel that is no longer available.

12 Messages. Last Occurence: 10:37 AM Wed 10/30

I look in my video folder (via the UNC path) and there's no video file. So Sage isn't creating any output file for me to look at/analyze. That's why I'm wondering if there's something screwy with my video sources.

Another bit of information that I didn't include in my original message is that I just installed the HDHR Prime yesterday after having used a regular HDHR for a long time. Comcast just encrypted all my channels, thus the need for the Prime with the cable card. I still had the old HDHR tuners configured in Sage when I installed the Prime. I've since removed the old HDHR video sources from Sage but could it be possible there's some residual crap in my properties file that's causing problems? That's why I was thinking maybe I should remove the Prime video sources and redo the install of hte HDHR/DCT video sources, now without the old HDHR information.

-Gary

I'm in the same boat. If you solved this, I wish you had left some documentation on this thread. BTW, I'm not using UNC paths. When I try to record I get a no signal, and the video file is always zero bytes in size. The log shows the exact same error message that you posted above.

[gprichardson1]

It's been a while since I had this problem so my recollection is a little foggy, but I believe the problem was that with my previous tuners (the old HDHR) I had to manually remap my networks channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc...). Even though I had removed those tuners from my configuration I think those remappings still remained. Somewhere, I think it might've been in the channel setup for the new tuners, there was an option to un-map all channels. I believe I did that and that's what solved my problem.

I wish I could remember where I found that option to unmap the channels. I don't see it in my video source setups; possible because I don't have any manually mapped channels anymore? Anyway, sorry I didn't post my solution when I first came across it. I hope this information helps.

[jal]

Originally Posted by gprichardson1

It's been a while since I had this problem so my recollection is a little foggy, but I believe the problem was that with my previous tuners (the old HDHR) I had to manually remap my networks channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc...). Even though I had removed those tuners from my configuration I think those remappings still remained. Somewhere, I think it might've been in the channel setup for the new tuners, there was an option to un-map all channels. I believe I did that and that's what solved my problem.

I wish I could remember where I found that option to unmap the channels. I don't see it in my video source setups; possible because I don't have any manually mapped channels anymore? Anyway, sorry I didn't post my solution when I first came across it. I hope this information helps.

Thanks! Yes it does because I've been suspecting the problem is the need to manually map channels (I need to learn how to do this in Sage). The reason for this suspicion is that, in my frustration, I installed NPVR (a Sage-like application) and I had to manually map the channels. One guy suggested that I should have had Comcast somehow 'bind' or 'pair' my cablecard to the HDHR Prime so that the channel mappings would be automatic. (The Silicon Dust software lists all my channels with numbers like '5001 Unknown Channel'). I called Comcast, the first guy said he's never heard of 'binding' a cablecard, he tried to transfer me to another dept, I sat on hold for a while and then they disconnected me.

NPVR is working fine right now so I might just stick with it. It's free other than I opted to pay $25 per year for automatic EPG updates (although I could have found a script to handle this for free).

Maybe I'll search this forum for info about how to manually map channels in Sage.

[jal]

Post #11 on this thread
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36573
suggests that Silicon software is supposed to create a .scn file for Sage listing all the channels it found. But i don't see any .scn file appearing in the Sage dir nor any export-to-file button in Silicon gui.

[jal]

This thread
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49044
suggests that win7 UAC blocks the creation of the .scn files, says to turn off UAC and click the Apply button in Silicon software to create the file. I did so in win8 still no file, even though I ran it as an administrator and had the firewall turned off (just to create the file).

[gprichardson1]

Not sure what directions you followed to set up the HDHR Prime, or if you're using SageDCT to talk between Sage and the HDHR, but I followed these instructions ( did Instructions #1):

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...postcount=1360

I didn't have to remap any channels. All the channels have the same channels numbers as I have on one of my Comcast STB's.

I did have to call Comcast and they paired the cablecard with my HDHR. They asked for some information about my HDHR (see step #5 in the instructions), but Comcast was definitely involved. When I called, the first person I talked to didn't really know what she was doing but once she connected me with a CableCard tech everything went smoothly.

Try Comcast again and be insistent that you want to talk to a CableCard tech. Those people do exist and they do know what needs to be done.

-Gary

[jal]

Originally Posted by gprichardson1

Not sure what directions you followed to set up the HDHR Prime, or if you're using SageDCT to talk between Sage and the HDHR, but I followed these instructions ( did Instructions #1):

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...postcount=1360

I didn't have to remap any channels. All the channels have the same channels numbers as I have on one of my Comcast STB's.

I did have to call Comcast and they paired the cablecard with my HDHR. They asked for some information about my HDHR (see step #5 in the instructions), but Comcast was definitely involved. When I called, the first person I talked to didn't really know what she was doing but once she connected me with a CableCard tech everything went smoothly.

Try Comcast again and be insistent that you want to talk to a CableCard tech. Those people do exist and they do know what needs to be done.

-Gary

Thanks you're right a big part of the problem was incompetent Comcast people. I finally got a good rep on the phone, so I no longer have to map any channels, which is great for NPVR, but I still ended up with 'no signal' in Sage despite a Sage expert helping me on another thread. So for the moment I'm giving up on Sage and migrating to NPVR but it's a big help not having to map channels anymore. Thanks!