STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Sounds like your cable box is going bad, should just get it swapped out.

I was thinking that ep, took it out of sources and will go swap it out Saturday.

[tierpath]

Originally Posted by tierpath

I am gonna try it tonight.\ after these damn storms!

WOOHOO!!! THAT F@KING WORKED!
I wish there was a way to get it to load balance like the rest, but, I can't complain, that much!!!

[Xiphoid]

So it worked for you, but doesn't solve my problem....argh.

[tierpath]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

So it worked for you, but doesn't solve my problem....argh.

I am using XP, haven't tried win7, i had started with win2008. I might experiment with that again when I have free time, jesus what a mess it was.

I just got a 2nd HD box, and now getting it to work is proving difficult with the 1st tuner working.

[tierpath]

Originally Posted by tierpath

I am using XP, haven't tried win7, i had started with win2008. I might experiment with that again when I have free time, jesus what a mess it was.

I just got a 2nd HD box, and now getting it to work is proving difficult with the 1st tuner working.

Got it working. Have to make sure the forced recording directory is in the recording directory list as well.

Also I tried the SageChanger.exe with the SgraphRecorder and it works great except for the command prompt that opens up.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by FlyingDoc

Hi TVMaster

I am also in OC with Cox. I have a 32xx and 64xx running on firewire (Video and Channel change). This set up was achieved using the info from this thread. I think i did need to use the -f option in the channel program for the 32xx box.

I did have one box from Cox that i couldnt get the firewire to work on (sorry i dont remember if it was a motorola or one of the other models). I just took it back and asked for one with a working firewire.

If you have some specific questions i will try to help but everything you need should be in here somewhere.

do i read this correctly: you have a 64 bit Windows 7 install and you're able to control a set-top box channel change via firewire?

[wayner]

I am guessing that the 64xx box is the model number of the box from Motorola - ie a Motorola 6412.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by FlyingDoc

Hi TVMaster

I am also in OC with Cox. I have a 32xx and 64xx running on firewire (Video and Channel change). This set up was achieved using the info from this thread. I think i did need to use the -f option in the channel program for the 32xx box.

I did have one box from Cox that i couldnt get the firewire to work on (sorry i dont remember if it was a motorola or one of the other models). I just took it back and asked for one with a working firewire.

If you have some specific questions i will try to help but everything you need should be in here somewhere.

Originally Posted by wayner

I am guessing that the 64xx box is the model number of the box from Motorola - ie a Motorola 6412.

ah, brilliant. Didn't know they had a 64xx series. that makes more sense now

[icon123]

I appologize for my ignorance but this concept has Intrigued me and lead me to a few questions...


Is this still a viable option by todays standards for capturing digital/HD video?

Is my cable co. required to provide me a box with a working firewire output?

How would I know what channels my cable co. encrypts? (they are just a local cable co., buckeye cable system, toledo, oh)

My cable co. seems to have a selection of HD cable boxes that has firewire ports. Any certain ones better than others?


My back ground is SageTV v7 using 2250 card tunning in free QAM and analog cable via coax. Not interested in premium/ppv. Want to make the move to all/more HD but really don't want to use the component loop hole. I think I would go with DirectTV whole house system before I had to do that. However, I really like my sage and its interface. Any starters would be appreciated. Thanks,

[evilpenguin]

Yep, this method is still a great way to get HD cable. As far as which box to get, my theory is that the older the better. I figure its less likely to receive updates and the cable companies are have a bunch of them laying around so they're easy to get. You've just got to go to the office in person and help them pick the box you want, they won't understand what you're doing but i've found that they're very helpful.

I've got a Motorola 6200 which must be at least 7 years old and it still works like a champ.

[Xiphoid]

I'm almost reticent to add yet another post to this thread, particularly when I feel that my problem might be a tuning delay issue...but here it goes.

I have set up my firewire recording and everything works like it should:
- channels play in VLC (so 5C isn't an issue)
- can view files recorded with my graph
- firewire channel changing works perfect (always has actually)
- Sage calls sgraphrecorder fine and changes the channel
- I know the files are writing to the directory because I see them growing if I start a recording
- In my Sage properties file, I'm forcing the recording directory for the tuner to be where I put my dump file

Despite all this, Sage just tells me that there's "No Signal". (Even if I see the green recording bar progress telling me it's writing a file.)

I've played around with all sorts of tuning delay settings in sgraphrecorder, and none of them work. As little as 100 and as much as 8000 delay. I've even removed the channel changing lines from sgraphrecorder.ini to see if I can just get Sage to grab the stream and play it...but that hasn't worked either.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm so close!

[jbuszkie]

Try taking the channel changing out of the picture (as in have the bat file do nothing.). Manually tune the channel you want and then try a sage recording and see if you get the no signal.
I had random issues with mine that this would happen every so often.. I ended up changing my script do something like a channel up and then down (or something like that) and I haven't had a bad recording since.
You still might have to play with some of the delays.


Jim

[Xiphoid]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Try taking the channel changing out of the picture (as in have the bat file do nothing.). Manually tune the channel you want and then try a sage recording and see if you get the no signal.
I had random issues with mine that this would happen every so often.. I ended up changing my script do something like a channel up and then down (or something like that) and I haven't had a bad recording since.
You still might have to play with some of the delays.


Jim

Tried that...no go. Any other ideas?

[tierpath]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

Tried that...no go. Any other ideas?

Since you helped me in the right direction, how different is your setup from what i described in mine? I will see if I can help. also try the alternate channel changer app.

[Xiphoid]

Well, you are running XP, I have win7. But I doubt that would be the difference. What do you use for a delay in your sgraphrecorder.ini file? What about your sage properties file...do you have any tuning delays in there as well?

[UgaData]

I have been using FireWire to capture video in SageTV for a couple - 3 years or so. The OS is Vista 32 Ultimate (although I did some testing with XP originally). Not sure if it was Version 5 or 6 of Sage but close enough. I have 2 DCH3200s one is connected to an HD-PVR the other is for firewire recording.
I did play with having both recording using firewire (successfully) but that was while I was waiting for the HD-PVR to come in. I also have SGraphRecorder loading as a service with SageTV dependent on the SGraphRecorder service loading first. I am currently running the latest SageTV beta (7.1.7?). All is working most of the time.

I am now trying to do a fresh install of Win7 and SageTV 7 (so far I am trying the latest beta 7.1.7). I am not intending on moving the Wiz.Bin file over unless i have to.

I have re-familiarized myself with the firewire install process and have been attempting to get SageTV to capture video using firewire in Win 7.

I have reverted to the legacy Win7 1394 drivers.
I have installed Timm Moores firewire driver package (I may need to upgrade to the ExDeus drivers....hhmmm)
I can change channels using channel -f 3 ( I have also got FWChannelProxy working for the HD-PVR)
I have installed Graphedit and register all the files it needs, including proppage.dll (all successfully)
I have not installed VLC but I have created a graph and can playback the dump.ts file created by graph in Graphedit.
I have setup SGraphRecorder (again I running it as a service)
I have inserted the mmc/encoder lines into the Sage.properties file

When I attempt to setup firewire capture in Sage under video sources is when the problem starts.
It shows Firewire1 (the name I chose in the properties file) under video sources which I choose, so far so good, but the next step I should see 1394 ( I think this is the tuner source screen - If this were - say maybe a PVR500 it would ask you to choose TV Tuner, S-Video, or composite). What I see instead of 1394 is TV Tuner.

I have tried choosing TV Tuner (it is the only choice after all) and continue with the video source setup however, it doesn't work after all is said and done. It won't change channels and it won't record.

I have redone the steps more than once with the same results.

I will say that when I reconnected the STBs up to the Vista box, I checked in Sage under video sources and it shows as TV Tuner rather then 1394. (oops, I forgot to mention that this project also includes moving to a newer computer as well)

Curious if anyone else has notice this 1394-TV Tuner change?

I am going to unistall SageTV on the Win7 and use an older build ( maybe like the official release version 7 - if that doesn't work I will go older still)

[UgaData]

Gee, not sure whats going on but I just typed up a reply and lost it.

Basically, I got firewire working by going back to SageTV 7.0.23.

[jbuszkie]

Can anyone confirm that the latest beta will work with firewire recording?

I was going to upgrade in the next couple of days.. This last post is disturbing...

[bonoman]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Can anyone confirm that the latest beta will work with firewire recording?

I was going to upgrade in the next couple of days.. This last post is disturbing...

7.1.7 running on 32-bit XP here with firewire just fine...

[UgaData]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Can anyone confirm that the latest beta will work with firewire recording?

I was going to upgrade in the next couple of days.. This last post is disturbing...

I too had upgraded to 7.1.7 and it was running as good as can be expected.

The problem I seem to have is that I was installing a fresh copy (new hardware, new OS, and new SageTV) and had problems adding firewire as a source inside Sage.