OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by Griff

I have been putting of my upgrade to Sage v9 and OpenDCT (from a stable installation of Sage v7 and SageDCT) because I have a Ceton InfiniTV 4, and have seen that others have had problems using OpenDCT with that tuner. The instructions for installing OpenDCT also note that InfiniTV 4 users must be on the very last beta firmware from Ceton to be able to use this version in the opening post. The Ceton diagnostic tool on my Sage machine states that an InfiniTV Firmware Update 1.2.2.6 [beta] is available, but returns an error that it is unable to download the update when I try to install it. Any suggestions on how I can get this update installed? I reached out to Ceton support, noting that I needed the beta update for my Sage installation, and they responded unhelpfully that they don't support Sage. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Tom

I'm getting ready to run out for the day, but I have

ceton_infinitv_beta_fw_15_1_13_152.IMAGE and
ceton_infinitv_setup_w7_sp1_13_06_03_1088.exe

Files if you need them.

[egeller]

@Griff

The new firmware cannot be installed via the Ceton diagnostic tool. You need to do that manually (it's not THAT scary), via the URL of your tuner, on the System tab. Go to the bottom of the page, and you will see where you can upload the firmware. It takes about 5 minutes or so to do its thing.

If you do not have the file ceton_infinitv_beta_fw_15_1_13_152.IMAGE, you can find it on thegreenbutton.tv web site at this link.

TheGreenButton forum also documents that Ceton is pretty much dead.

I think you can get the infinitv_setup .EXE from the Ceton web site still.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

That depends on what passing an alert means. It's trivial to poll values. There's already a thread that tracks all of the tuners that checks for copy protection flags and if they stop streaming data for any reason. Did you want something to show a message in SageTV or just show a warning in the logs?

In this case, both would probably be "nice" although seeing as the server is headless and the logs don't normally get used(as is the case for most people), an alert on SageTV after a certain point probably wouldn't be a bad idea, as users would notice that one. The question then becomes a question of "tuning" it so it isn't triggering alerts needlessly.

I haven't done any testing on 32-bit Windows. I can say that the JVM is limited to 768MB and for most people get gets nowhere near that.

Good to know, I'm more comfortable with the idea of "playing" with it now that I know that much. But that'll be a project for a few weeks from now. I presume that is in total, not per tuner?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

In this case, both would probably be "nice" although seeing as the server is headless and the logs don't normally get used(as is the case for most people), an alert on SageTV after a certain point probably wouldn't be a bad idea, as users would notice that one. The question then becomes a question of "tuning" it so it isn't triggering alerts needlessly.

The reason that it's difficult has nothing to do with frequency. It has to do with the fact that network encoders do not communicate errors or messages directly to SageTV. The only way you get network encoder "messages" in SageTV is if the network encoder isn't responding or recording what they have been told to record. The route that I would likely take is sagex which I really don't want to do because it would make a helpful feature require stored passwords and it would add more steps to using OpenDCT. Maybe when I implement network encoder protocol v4 I'll add messaging.

Originally Posted by Monedeath

Good to know, I'm more comfortable with the idea of "playing" with it now that I know that much. But that'll be a project for a few weeks from now. I presume that is in total, not per tuner?

That's correct, it's the total.

[Griff]

@AlphaCrew and @Egeller

Originally Posted by egeller

@Griff

The new firmware cannot be installed via the Ceton diagnostic tool. You need to do that manually (it's not THAT scary), via the URL of your tuner, on the System tab. Go to the bottom of the page, and you will see where you can upload the firmware. It takes about 5 minutes or so to do its thing.

If you do not have the file ceton_infinitv_beta_fw_15_1_13_152.IMAGE, you can find it on thegreenbutton.tv web site at this link.

TheGreenButton forum also documents that Ceton is pretty much dead.

I think you can get the infinitv_setup .EXE from the Ceton web site still.

Thanks so much for this information; I didn't find it in any of my searches of the forum. I was able to update the firmware on my Ceton InfinitiTV 4 using the files from the links you provided, and now have no more excuses for delaying my transition to OpenDCT and Sage v9 (in plenty of time to transition to Schedules Direct before we lose the Sage EPG data).

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Griff

@AlphaCrew and @Egeller



Thanks so much for this information; I didn't find it in any of my searches of the forum. I was able to update the firmware on my Ceton InfinitiTV 4 using the files from the links you provided, and now have no more excuses for delaying my transition to OpenDCT and Sage v9 (in plenty of time to transition to Schedules Direct before we lose the Sage EPG data).

I didn't know that firmware worked on the InfiniTV 4 devices. I always thought they were running different firmware. I ran this on my InfiniTV 4 and now I can record CBS again since this firmware ignores CGMS-A protection.

[EnterNoEscape]

• Lowered the minimum read threshold for the FFmpeg consumer.
• Limited re-tuning to only Ceton devices. This is limit is enabled by default.
• Added some additional time when a UNC path is being used before re-tuning will be triggered.
• Fixed some issues with the JSON web interface.
• Added media server support to error messages.
• Fixed out of bounds exception when a broadcast address is not available.
• Fixed rare null pointer exception in Generic Pipe capture device.

As fair warning, the next beta cycle will be exclusively tuned to SageTV v9 since it will start to make less and less sense for anyone to be running v7 due to free guide data being turned off later this year.

[AlphaCrew]

Thanks for the update.

Is it possible for OpenDCT to utilize a WinTV tuner (WinTV-QuadHD) for a video stream?

The reason why I ask is this tuner is not 100% supported in SageTV (only 2 of the 4 turners are seen), and I'm not sure that it will ever be considering what sounds like some big code changes needed to get it working..

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Thanks for the update.

Is it possible for OpenDCT to utilize a WinTV tuner (WinTV-QuadHD) for a video stream?

The reason why I ask is this tuner is not 100% supported in SageTV (only 2 of the 4 turners are seen), and I'm not sure that it will ever be considering what sounds like some big code changes needed to get it working..

It's currently not. I don't have plans to add it either. There was a time when this made sense and was on my radar, but I'm much more interested in someone developing a Windows native network encoder to address this current shortcoming. It will be a lot easier and much more maintainable. I have plans to help SageTV get moving in this direction, but it will definitely not happen overnight. I especially would like to see it containerize plugins for example so that we don't need to worry about conflicts or restarting the JVM for plugin upgrades.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

• Lowered the minimum read threshold for the FFmpeg consumer.
• Limited re-tuning to only Ceton devices. This is limit is enabled by default.
• Added some additional time when a UNC path is being used before re-tuning will be triggered.
• Fixed some issues with the JSON web interface.
• Added media server support to error messages.
• Fixed out of bounds exception when a broadcast address is not available.
• Fixed rare null pointer exception in Generic Pipe capture device.

As fair warning, the next beta cycle will be exclusively tuned to SageTV v9 since it will start to make less and less sense for anyone to be running v7 due to free guide data being turned off later this year.

Do I just run the Windows install or is there anything special you need to do to upgrade from a beta release?

Thanks for all of the new features and GREAT support!

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Do I just run the Windows install or is there anything special you need to do to upgrade from a beta release?

Thanks for all of the new features and GREAT support!

All I did was stop the OpenDCT service, install new version and restart service. Hopefully that was all that was needed.

EDIT: I also used an administrative login for the service, which has to be updated each time there is an upgrade.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Thanks for the update.

Is it possible for OpenDCT to utilize a WinTV tuner (WinTV-QuadHD) for a video stream?

The reason why I ask is this tuner is not 100% supported in SageTV (only 2 of the 4 turners are seen), and I'm not sure that it will ever be considering what sounds like some big code changes needed to get it working..

If you can use a commandline to tune each of the 4 devices, and use ffmpeg to capture from each of the 4 devices, than it may be possible with the new PIPE feature in OpenDCT.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

If you can use a commandline to tune each of the 4 devices, and use ffmpeg to capture from each of the 4 devices, than it may be possible with the new PIPE feature in OpenDCT.

Unfortunately at the moment, a bit above my pay grade..

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

All I did was stop the OpenDCT service, install new version and restart service. Hopefully that was all that was needed.

EDIT: I also used an administrative login for the service, which has to be updated each time there is an upgrade.

I am just using a local system account, why did you need a different administrative login? I know I use one to run SageTV as a service since it is accessing network drives.

[mgpaulus]

On Friday, my OpenDCT just decided to quit communicating with it's HDHR Primes. I don't see anything in the log. Had a successful recording at 10:30 in the morning, ending at 11:03. Then tried to record MacGyver at 15:57 and got a
Unable to lock HDHomeRun because it cannot be reached => java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect

After that, OpenDCT just seemed to be in a tizzy and couldn't connect to anything, until I rebooted SageTV. Then everything was back to normal.

I can provide log if desired.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I am just using a local system account, why did you need a different administrative login? I know I use one to run SageTV as a service since it is accessing network drives.

Generally speaking any resources that require administrative permissions don't tend to work with the local system account. I think I just did it as a carry over from SageDCT, probably not needed I'm guessing?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by mgpaulus

On Friday, my OpenDCT just decided to quit communicating with it's HDHR Primes. I don't see anything in the log. Had a successful recording at 10:30 in the morning, ending at 11:03. Then tried to record MacGyver at 15:57 and got a
Unable to lock HDHomeRun because it cannot be reached => java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect

After that, OpenDCT just seemed to be in a tizzy and couldn't connect to anything, until I rebooted SageTV. Then everything was back to normal.

I can provide log if desired.

Are you saying you restarted the computer? If that's what you did, then the log probably won't be of much help other than what you've already gleaned from it. It sounds like connectivity problems from the server side of things.

[AlphaCrew]

Working off the great foundation laid out by Daweeze, I created a video version of how I completed the conversion but with my Ceton InfiniTV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9LSy6xkCBc

Can we embed videos?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Working off the great foundation laid out by Daweeze, I created a video version of how I completed the conversion but with my Ceton InfiniTV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9LSy6xkCBc

Can we embed videos?

I don't believe we can. It's a nice video; thanks for putting that together. I have a fun fact for you that has saved me a lot of time when setting up tuners. You can just hit cancel and it will move forward anyway when you see The Broadcast Standard is being determined. Please wait... I'm honestly not sure what it's supposed to be doing there.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I don't believe we can. It's a nice video; thanks for putting that together. I have a fun fact for you that has saved me a lot of time when setting up tuners. You can just hit cancel and it will move forward anyway when you see The Broadcast Standard is being determined. Please wait... I'm honestly not sure what it's supposed to be doing there.

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that would not have a negative impact on it. Man that's a lot of 'wasted' time first go round...