WMC Live TV Tuner

[boukmandutty]

I think I will give one of those a try. Does it push out dobly 5.1 audio after splitting the hdmi signal?

My next problem is one of reliability. At one point I was messing around with two 360 slims. The problem I was having when running both devices was that channel changing on one would be rock solid and on the other it would be touch and go. This was the case especially when I set the system to wake up and record.

Both 360s were linked as extenders to a nuc running windows media center. They would be woken up via usb uirt each time the sage server woke up and shut down when it went to sleep. They were each set to boot directly into media center and go to live tv. That part of the operation ran smoothly but there was always one of them where the channel changing would sometimes not take place. I double checked everything with the attention to detail of an obsessive compulsive but could not figure it out. My plan before losing the second xbox was to try to see if I had some sort of network problem

Do you happen to be running any two identical devices? If so how well is the setup running?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

I think I will give one of those a try. Does it push out dobly 5.1 audio after splitting the hdmi signal?

My next problem is one of reliability. At one point I was messing around with two 360 slims. The problem I was having when running both devices was that channel changing on one would be rock solid and on the other it would be touch and go. This was the case especially when I set the system to wake up and record.

Both 360s were linked as extenders to a nuc running windows media center. They would be woken up via usb uirt each time the sage server woke up and shut down when it went to sleep. They were each set to boot directly into media center and go to live tv. That part of the operation ran smoothly but there was always one of them where the channel changing would sometimes not take place. I double checked everything with the attention to detail of an obsessive compulsive but could not figure it out. My plan before losing the second xbox was to try to see if I had some sort of network problem

Do you happen to be running any two identical devices? If so how well is the setup running?

If you are waking the 360's you might have a lot of problems. The least understood part of this tuning approach is that each extender RDP connection is actually running it's own webserver. That means that when the 360 is sleeping, there isn't a webserver to talk with. To do this without issues, you would need write a script to ensure they are woken up, then wait until the webserver is accessible, then tune the channel. Also since the webserver isn't actually hosted on the 360, it's possible you could send it commands that can't be executed because the 360 isn't responding at the moment or it re-established the connection now making the command you just sent the webserver not do anything because that also restarted the webserver.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

Do you happen to be running any two identical devices? If so how well is the setup running?

I'm running one DMA2100 and one DMA2200 (via HDPVR1212). I'd recommend the 2200 if you are using the HDPVR1212, as it will connect directly (Component HD + SPDIF). There is a freeze up problem with the Linksys DMA's that required me to isolate them to their own subnet (actually their own network via a cheap 8 port switch).

I am having an issue with some occasional jumpiness in recordings, maybe 2 or three in an hour where it appears to pause for about 3 seconds, then continues without issue - still working on this one as I've had some strangeness with Hauppauge drivers recently as well as flaky USB ports on this machine.

It is pretty good, but not quite as near perfectly reliable as the HDPVR + Set top box + USB-UIRT ... yet.

I will ask if you've upgraded to the latest WMC Live Tuner software, as it has significant improvements in tuning reliability for me. I will admit, the 360 is my device of choice, but they get really warm, and and use a lot of power. When I was using the 360's, I did not have them going to sleep like you do.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

I think I will give one of those a try. Does it push out dobly 5.1 audio after splitting the hdmi signal?

Yes, the ViewHD model that I have does push out 5.1 channel audio. I sent an internal Amazon message to "Favoritemall" seller to determine why their product reviews are confused, so we'll see how that pans out. 20 bucks is quite reasonable for that device, but when it comes to Chinese hardware like this, it's a crapshoot.

I also purchased a different model that worked okay for a while, then seems to have died, but the ViewHD is still working fine. If I didn't care about the 5.1 channel audio, I would be using a different solution.

[rfutscher]

I am having problems with Power Shell. I have never used Power Shell before but I was able to tune channel 6 on my STB using it from a command prompt. I evoked it from several different directories so I don't believe it is a path problem. I can't get it working in OpenDCT. What am I doing wrong.


sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ‘http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6'

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

I am having problems with Power Shell. I have never used Power Shell before but I was able to tune channel 6 on my STB using it from a command prompt. I evoked it from several different directories so I don't believe it is a path problem. I can't get it working in OpenDCT. What am I doing wrong.


sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ‘http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6'

You should see the results of running the command in the logs (under C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\logs). Sometimes that command doesn't like running under the system context, so if you provide the OpenDCT service with a username and password, it will then work ok. The other possibility is that PowerShell.exe isn't in the PATH variable in which case the easiest solution is to provide the full path which appears to be the same one in all versions of Windows since Vista:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

If you completely give up, you can also download a version of wget for Windows to get the same effect; it's just not built into the OS.

[boukmandutty]

I have updated to the latest version. I suspect that I am in need a fresh install of sagetv given all the experimentation I have been doing.
The 360 has been the best device for me as well. I like the way it recovers waits for the connection with windows media center. The ceton echo seems to do this quite as well too. The problem with the echo has been that with the hdpvr 1212 I am stuck at 720p@60fps. The 1212 cant take the 1080p@60fps that the echo pushes out as its other option.

If I could get the xboxes to wake up and behave I would stick with them. So far nothing works in terms of getting them to tune consistently upon wake from sleep, not even waking them up like 10 minutes before a recording. It always a hit and miss with one of them. My plan is to do a fresh install, update my network with a proper switch (I currently only use a 8 port plastic case linksys) and see how that affects the efficiency of the entire process.

[rfutscher]

I just did some more testing

I open the openDCT.properties file and edit it to put this into the 'sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=' property.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ‘http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6'

This will tune my STB when run from a command prompt.

I double check that openDCT service is stopped in task manager. I save the properties file. I start opendct and then stop it. This is what I find when I open the opendct.properties file.

sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=C\:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri \u0091http\://192.168.0.100\:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr\=44AAF5B930DB"&"major\=6'


This is the error message I get:
12:29:28.533 [SageTVRequestHandler-59irectv] ERROR GenericHttpCaptureDevice - Unable to run tuning executable 'C:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ?http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6' 4' => java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0PowerShell.exe": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)

Originally Posted by rfutscher

I am having problems with Power Shell. I have never used Power Shell before but I was able to tune channel 6 on my STB using it from a command prompt. I evoked it from several different directories so I don't believe it is a path problem. I can't get it working in OpenDCT. What am I doing wrong.


sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ‘http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6'

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

I just did some more testing

I open the openDCT.properties file and edit it to put this into the 'sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=' property.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ‘http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6'

This will tune my STB when run from a command prompt.

I double check that openDCT service is stopped in task manager. I save the properties file. I start opendct and then stop it. This is what I find when I open the opendct.properties file.

sagetv.device.-959809139.tuning_executable=C\:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri \u0091http\://192.168.0.100\:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr\=44AAF5B930DB"&"major\=6'


This is the error message I get:
12:29:28.533 [SageTVRequestHandler-59irectv] ERROR GenericHttpCaptureDevice - Unable to run tuning executable 'C:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ?http://192.168.0.100:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr=44AAF5B930DB"&"major=6' 4' => java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0PowerShell.exe": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)

Sorry about that, you need to escape the backslashes (\\):
C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe

That should work ok.

[rfutscher]

I still can't get it to work. What about:

' coming out as \u0091
: coming out as \:
= coming out as \=


\u0091http\://192.168.0.100\:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr\=44AAF5B930DB"&"major\=6'

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Sorry about that, you need to escape the backslashes (\\):
C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe

That should work ok.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

I still can't get it to work. What about:

' coming out as \u0091
: coming out as \:
= coming out as \=


\u0091http\://192.168.0.100\:8080/tv/tune?clientAddr\=44AAF5B930DB"&"major\=6'

: is being escaped, = is being escaped, \u0091 is unicode and probably not the character you actually wanted. Make sure you are using an editor that doesn't try to do anything for you (like Notepad). I can see you have a single quote (') at the end, but the unicode at the start which makes me think you're using an editor that's trying to make your text look nice. The only character that you need to escape is backslashes (\), but there are other characters that the properties will escape for you when the file is saved by OpenDCT because they do have other meanings within the program.

[rfutscher]

So how do I pass = and : to PowerShell so that it can pass it on to the STB?

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

: is being escaped, = is being escaped, \u0091 is unicode and probably not the character you actually wanted. Make sure you are using an editor that doesn't try to do anything for you (like Notepad). I can see you have a single quote (') at the end, but the unicode at the start which makes me think you're using an editor that's trying to make your text look nice. The only character that you need to escape is backslashes (\), but there are other characters that the properties will escape for you when the file is saved by OpenDCT because they do have other meanings within the program.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

So how do I pass = and : to PowerShell so that it can pass it on to the STB?

They are being passed like that, it's just in the configuration file they look like that. \: is translated into : and \= is translated into =. Escaping characters is a way to use a character that would otherwise be special as literally itself and not the special meaning it would have otherwise.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

So how do I pass = and : to PowerShell so that it can pass it on to the STB?

I'm going to alleviate you and others of this PowerShell reliance problem with the next release. I'll add support to just provide the URL as the executable and OpenDCT will know to just open the URL for you. Had I thought about this a little more, I probably would have added this feature right out of the gate.

[boukmandutty]

Kryptonyte,

I wanted to check if the hdmi to component converter you recommended would take a 1080p signal and convert it to 1080i so that the hdpvr 1212 could process it. Do you mind running an experiment of the sort on my behalf if time allows?

[KryptoNyte]

This is the exact unit that I have;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlg1LkSx1y8
(notice the inputs at 3:48)
I am not able to find this exact ViewHD device at this time.

It looks like the HDFuryPro knock-off is the same device.

Although I've never specifically tested 1080p, I have a hunch that it will take any HD signal via HDMI and put it out the other end. I could try a test for you, but I don't know that I have any 1080p sources that are convenient - and for 20 bucks, I'd probably just grab one. I'm currently inputting 1080i and then recording 1080i on the HDPVR.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I have an older ViewHD unit that is very similar to this, and it works fine with the Linksys DMA2100.

https://www.amazon.com/LOFTEK-HDfury...+RGB+Component

There is something wrong with the reviews, many of them appear to be for a different device.

Just a quick follow-up on this; the seller indicated that they had a secondary device selling under the same web page ID, and when that 2nd unit went out of stock, they pulled it, which would explain the review confusion. Usually you can filter the reviews by device - and it kind of works in this case.

[boukmandutty]

I ordered one that gets here today. Wanted to test if it would downscale the 1080p that comes out of the ceton echo into something the hdpvr can read.

Got my hands on a used hdpvr2 gaming for $27 on ebay the other night . It handles the 1080p from the echo perfectly and the picture is just amazing. However I am a bit unsettled about not having 5.1 and so I immediately retired it to the pile of other stuff I have in the garage.

UPDATE: No joy. It couldnt downscale from 1080p to 1080i. Also, it appears that when 5.1 is enabled on the ceton echo it has to run through some sort of hardware decoder first. Seems I need to get off the high horse and learn to cope without 5.1.

[KryptoNyte]

You could grab an Xbox360 4gb slim (not the "E" model) used, or a used Linksys DMA2200 which would be the lower power option. The DMA's do have a lockup issue that can take a little work to resolve. I still haven't resolved my DMA lockups even after isolating them to their own network entirely.

If you do get an Xbox 360 slim, there is a single cable solution that you can get that will deliver component HD and optical 5.1 to the HDPVR. If you get the "E" model, it doesn't have that cable option.

[boukmandutty]

I actually have two of those (360 slim) working perfectly after some adjustments to how long before recordings allow usb uirt to wake them. They have been working just like normal stbs for the past couple of days . Things have been quite steady.

The echo was an experiment to see if I could find something as reliable as the xbox that used less power. But there seems to be no way to capture 5.1 audio from it.