BM1000-HDMI (HDMI Encoder) Review

[SHS]

Originally Posted by reggie14

One moderately big problem I ran into is that the sound coming from my Motorola QIP 7100 2 FiOS STB is quite low. I made sure that the volume was maxed on the STB, but it's still low. There's an audio gain option on the encoder, but using it results in serious clipping issues. Did you run into anything like this?

Out of curiosity, are you using native output on your STB now, or do you have it fixed at 1080i/720p? I tried using native output, without your special tuning script, but audio was regularly cutting out after channel changes.

If I use your script, does that just go into the opendct.properties as the tuning executable?

Just wonder what HDMI IPTV encoder did end up up getting ?.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by SHS

Just wonder what HDMI IPTV encoder did end up up getting ?.

I got the U8 8501H-HDMI-E referenced above. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing as the BM3000.

Another thing I noticed is that this encoder doesn't have color/saturation settings. The defaults are pretty good, but the colors seem to be a little washed out.

[reggie14]

I did more testing- I think I was wrong about the HDMI encoder somehow recording the audio at a lower volume than the HD-PVR. I tried some other TVs in my house and the audio level seemed fine. So, I guess it's somehow related to my AVR.

Edit: I feel silly now. It wasn't my AVR. It turns out that either I, or one of my many current house guests, turned down the volume on the HD300. Since its connected to an AVR and I'm bitstreaming audio, the volume control on the HD300 usually doesn't do anything. Except when I'm playing back PCM audio. So, I never noticed.

That took me way too long to figure out.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by reggie14

If I use your script, does that just go into the opendct.properties as the tuning executable?

Yes.

Originally Posted by reggie14

I got the U8 8501H-HDMI-E referenced above. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing as the BM3000.

Another thing I noticed is that this encoder doesn't have color/saturation settings. The defaults are pretty good, but the colors seem to be a little washed out.

The BM3000 has those settings under Encoder > Advanced. You could ask the vendor if they have a newer firmware that supports it.

[reggie14]

Will do. Thanks!

With the exception of the tuning delay, I have it up and running now. It seems to be working pretty well. Like you said up front, I think the quality is a bit better than what I was seeing with my HD-PVR. I had a big problem with ghosting with my HD-PVR recordings (maybe it was my component cables- I never tried swapping them out).

I'm using it with a Motorola 7100-2 Verizon FIOS STB. Right now it is locked to 1080i output, but I've played around with native output. I'd have to use your tuning script, though, since things get pretty screwed up during channel changes.

Looking at the script, I suspect I would have to modify it. The get_status page on my encoder doesn't seem to match what the script is looking for. I uploaded a copy of what I see.

There's one odd thing, though. I bought this thinking it could do 1080p60 output. But, far as I can tell, it won't output 1080p60 if the incoming signal is 1080i. It was happy to scale up 720p60 to 1080p60, though.

Also, according to the webGUI, it's receiving a 1080i30 signal. I'm really wondering if that is accurate. Is my STB really outputting 1080i30 rather than 1080i60? And if so, is it doing that because the encoder is reporting that it can't accept 1080i60?

[Zogg]

I also bought the U8 8501H-HDMI-E and it looks identical and has the same firmware as my BM3000. However, they only have a contrast setting, no brightness, hue, etc.

[peternm22]

Originally Posted by Zogg

I also bought the U8 8501H-HDMI-E and it looks identical and has the same firmware as my BM3000. However, they only have a contrast setting, no brightness, hue, etc.

I have two BM3000 devices and they only have a contrast setting. No brightness, color, tint, hue, or anything like that.

I asked the seller on Aliexpress and they said it was a different chip than the BM1000 (which does support other picture settings).

It sounds like your device has the same limitations.

[reggie14]

Thanks.

What are you guys using as inputs? Do you see 1080i@30 or 1080i@60 in the webGUI?

I'm curious about channel changing too. Are you using the powershell script or basic USB-UIRT from Sage?

[peternm22]

I have it set to record 1920x1080 at 30 fps. I don't have an option in the BM3000 to record interlaced as far as I can tell.

I *think* I have my satellite receivers set to output 1080p, so they essentially do the de-interlacing before the signal gets to the BM3000.

I don't recall setting the BM3000 to 60 fps making any difference (I think it still recording 30fps, because that was the signal is was receiving).

I could be remembering some of this incorrectly though, since it has been a while since I set them up. And I tried a LOT of different settings to try and get the best picture possible out of the BM3000.

Even with all of the tweaking I did, I can say I'm not entirely pleased with the quality of the encoding. The colours are washed out, and I think I lose a little bit of resolution.

In the show The Expanse, they put up location names on the screen in a font with very slender lines. Watching the show with the BM3000 makes a lot of these titles difficult to read. Watching the source directly makes them completely legible.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by peternm22

I have it set to record 1920x1080 at 30 fps. I don't have an option in the BM3000 to record interlaced as far as I can tell.

I *think* I have my satellite receivers set to output 1080p, so they essentially do the de-interlacing before the signal gets to the BM3000.

I don't recall setting the BM3000 to 60 fps making any difference (I think it still recording 30fps, because that was the signal is was receiving).

I wouldn't want to record in 1080i. What I'm trying to say is that the source from my Verizon STB should be coming in as 1080i@60 fps. Instead, the 8501H-HDMI-E is reporting it as 1080i@30.

Shouldn't your satellite receivers be outputting 1080p@60?

I can't figure out if the STB really is outputting 1080i@30, or if there's just a bug in the webGUI. I do know the resulting encoded videos are at 1080p@30.

I'm starting to wonder if the deinterlacer can't handle 1080i@60, so maybe its just dropping frames to get down to 30fps.

[peternm22]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Shouldn't your satellite receivers be outputting 1080p@60?

I don't think so, a 1080i@60 signal is essentially 1080p@30. If it was outputting 1080p@60, it would just be doubling the frames.

[peternm22]

I just checked, and my satellite receivers are set to output 1080i.

The BM3000 reports the input as "1920x1080i@30". Which is an odd way to phrase it.

I manually tried to change the encoded fps to 60 in the BM3000 settings, but it automatically gets reset to 30 when the device is restarted (??).

The BM3000 is definitely doing the deinterlacing itself, because the resulting file is a 1080p file.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Will do. Thanks!

With the exception of the tuning delay, I have it up and running now. It seems to be working pretty well. Like you said up front, I think the quality is a bit better than what I was seeing with my HD-PVR. I had a big problem with ghosting with my HD-PVR recordings (maybe it was my component cables- I never tried swapping them out).

I'm using it with a Motorola 7100-2 Verizon FIOS STB. Right now it is locked to 1080i output, but I've played around with native output. I'd have to use your tuning script, though, since things get pretty screwed up during channel changes.

Looking at the script, I suspect I would have to modify it. The get_status page on my encoder doesn't seem to match what the script is looking for. I uploaded a copy of what I see.

There's one odd thing, though. I bought this thinking it could do 1080p60 output. But, far as I can tell, it won't output 1080p60 if the incoming signal is 1080i. It was happy to scale up 720p60 to 1080p60, though.

Also, according to the webGUI, it's receiving a 1080i30 signal. I'm really wondering if that is accurate. Is my STB really outputting 1080i30 rather than 1080i60? And if so, is it doing that because the encoder is reporting that it can't accept 1080i60?

1080i30 is what I got when I tested on a FiOS STB several months ago. As for the script, it's only if you have the output set to auto instead of a fixed resolution. I made mine fixed in the end because it's just a smoother experience. The transition can be kind of lengthy and the script isn't going to work for all models because some of them don't provide the information needed to make the script work well.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

1080i30 is what I got when I tested on a FiOS STB several months ago. As for the script, it's only if you have the output set to auto instead of a fixed resolution. I made mine fixed in the end because it's just a smoother experience. The transition can be kind of lengthy and the script isn't going to work for all models because some of them don't provide the information needed to make the script work well.

Thanks. Though, now I'm super confused about what to expect from the box. I thought MediaInfo was telling me my other 1080i recordings were 60fps, but upon second look, they all say 30fps.

Looking at MediaInfo's behavior a bit more, I see that if a video is in an mp4 container, it will say 1080i is 60fps. If it is in a ts container, it will say its 30fps.

So, I'm guessing that there's just some variability to how different things will report fps for interlaced material.

Edit: Part of the reason I ask is because I'm wondering whether it would be beneficial to get an old video processor that can upscale 1080i60 to 1080p60, and then route the video from that into the HDMI encoder. It looks like you can get used DVDO iScan processors for about $100 if you wait for a deal.

[baudfather]

Just saw this thread, and can't wait to try this out as I've moved and most of the channels I have in the new city that worked previously with FW capture now are broken due to the provider passing different 5c flags on some channels that don't have them in my last city.

Would this be a suitable capture device? Can't find much detailed info on it. I don't have any 4k channels at the moment but would be nice to have the capability down the road:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/H-26...688284777.html

Edit: just noticed it only decodes the 4k, doesn't output it. Still the price is decent if it'll work.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by baudfather

Just saw this thread, and can't wait to try this out as I've moved and most of the channels I have in the new city that worked previously with FW capture now are broken due to the provider passing different 5c flags on some channels that don't have them in my last city.

Would this be a suitable capture device? Can't find much detailed info on it. I don't have any 4k channels at the moment but would be nice to have the capability down the road:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/H-26...688284777.html

Edit: just noticed it only decodes the 4k, doesn't output it. Still the price is decent if it'll work.

That's described as a decoder, not an encoder, so I don't think it will work for your purposes.

This one claims to record in 4k (for $400).

I don't really see the point, though. You can't use 4k with HD300 extenders. Though, I guess it works with the Shield TV and windows clients, after some tweaks (not sure about live TV, though).

But, I don't think Sage will survive the HD->4K transition, for a variety of reasons.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by reggie14

But, I don't think Sage will survive the HD->4K transition, for a variety of reasons.

Why not? I believe folks already have playback working on SageTV client and Android. Assuming that these devices work for encoding then we are all set. It will mean that I have to get rid of my beloved extenders however. Or we need to get transcoding working properly for local extenders, but I guess that will be CPU intensive.

[will]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

As expected you only get stereo.

Edit: I know this hasn't been an issue in the past, but I'll mention it anyway. Since it's digital going in, it comes out indistinguishable from the source audio quality-wise.

These devices sound great, much better than the HD-PVR 1212, I just wish they make one that could do 5.1.

[wayner]

I wonder why they don't? Is it because that these encoders are not generally meant for encoding TV?

These devices actually seem very similar to the HDMI-ethernet devices that are used to distribute video through your house, often connected to matrix switches.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by wayner

I wonder why they don't? Is it because that these encoders are not generally meant for encoding TV?

These devices actually seem very similar to the HDMI-ethernet devices that are used to distribute video through your house, often connected to matrix switches.

No generally meant for encoding for mobile device steaming.