STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[DFA]

Just in case you might have missed this, Sage and Sage Service (if being used) must be completely closed, not just sleeping, for any modifications to sage.properties file to become permanent.

Other than that, make sure all entries for the network encoder were properly and completely cut and pasted to sage.properties.

DFA

[J1979]

I began to follow spaceghost's guide, but when I try to view liveTV in graphedit, the window that should be displaying my firewire STB's output is just black.
I'm using a SA3250HD.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I may be missing?

Thanks in advance.

[EJDeHaemer]

Thanks for the reply DFA.

Last night I made a backup of my .properties and wiz.bin files, removed Sage, deleted the SageTV directory and reinstalled Sage.
I then copied my wiz.bin file back to the install directory and started sage. This created the sage.properties file.
I then went in and edited the sage.properties file to include the mmc/encoders/ entries, but the SGR tuner does not show up in the setup wizard.
I also disabled the windows firewall to make sure this wasn't the problem.

Is there any debug information I can get from either sage or SGR to see where the problem lies?

I am using the driver from timmmoore's install package, but I am able to build a graph and record from the FW port, so I dont think that is the problem.

[EJDeHaemer]

Originally Posted by J1979

I began to follow spaceghost's guide, but when I try to view liveTV in graphedit, the window that should be displaying my firewire STB's output is just black.
I'm using a SA3250HD.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I may be missing?

Thanks in advance.

Do you get sound, and a black screen?
I have problems like that using the TV out on my G400 card, but it works fine with from the VGA port.

Try using the graph while Sage is closed, I sometimes see problems where the video wont render in Media Player while sage is running.

[eobiont]

I installed 3.0.7 over the top of a working 3.0.5 and it broke audio in both live and prerecorded HDTV recorded with this UNE method. Since 3.0.7 is supposed to do TS streams, I edited my graph to just dump the TS straight to disk. So, mu graph has just two boxes - one for the source and one to dump to a null file. I had to rename the null file from null.mpg to null.ts. Sage couldn't figure out what to do with the file when it was called null.mpg. As soon as I swithced it to null.ts the live files started playing back perfectly.

The only problem I am having now is that Sage is completely flustered by my chnging channels. When I change the channel from one HDTV channel to another, the video gets really choppy and the audio changes to high pitched pops and squeeks. While the playback is screwed up, I can reload the media playback thing inside of sage and the problem goes away. I think that sage is trying to playback the file too fast. I will edit the delay in SGraph and see if that helps.

[dvsing]

I am having the *EXACT* same problem. HDTV PS streams created using the classic UNE method no longer play audio in SageTV (however they *do* play in Windows Media Player using the same codecs.. NVIDIA in this case).

I also found that when I dumped direct TS stream to disk that Sage SOMETIMES works (I'm using an mpg extension in the filter graph, but I really dont think this matters...) but often cant read the TS file that was dumpped or there are other problems.

I have written in and reported this "HDTV PS files do not playback sound in Sage" bug however I have received no response on it.

Personally, I like doing the PS conversion because then other postprocessing programs like ShowAnalyzer can process the files and mark commercials, etc.

-Dan

[eobiont]

Personally, I like doing the PS conversion because then other postprocessing programs like ShowAnalyzer can process the files and mark commercials, etc.

Dude, that's a very good point and I hadn't thought of it. I've struggled though to get the PS files to play back audio and was not able to. I am also not able to watch any prerecorded HDTV ps files that I had recorded with earlier versions of Sage. It is as if Sage detects that the MPEG is HD and so it ignores any settings you may have set for decoders and uses an internal one. When I playback a PS file in Sage 3.0.5 FFDSHAOW audio launches and takes care of the audio portion. After going to Sage 3.0.7 FFDShow audio doesn't activate during HD playback - it still does for SD playback. It wouldn't matter if Sage's built in system could handle the audio - but it doesn't.

Anyway, I think I've given up too much moving from 2.2.8 to 3 and have gained very little. I might switch back to watching the beta process from the sidelines. Hopefully this gets ironed out before the fall season starts.

I only can receive 4 HD channels that aren't 5Ced. Three of them play back fine in Sage 3.0.7 and one has audio that leads the video by ~.5 seconds - way more than a little lip sync problem. If I watch the video/audio direct from the STB there is no delay, so I know it is coming from a problem in the codec.

[lovingHDTV]

Does anyone have this working for a STB for OTA reception? I'm wondering if the Samsung SIR-T165 with firewire work?

I'm looking to pick up an OTA tuner and dumping my cableco altogether. It would be nice if it could be yet another tuner for Sage

thanks,

[eobiont]

capture would almost certainly work in the same way, but I think tuning is going to be trouble unless you are pretty good with something like girder.
As to whether one can survive on network television alone, well I leave that up to others to find out.

[Naylia]

i wouldn't say you need to be pretty good with girder to get it working...i think DFA posted a template girder file on here and all i had to do was 'learn' the number buttons from my remote...spaceghosts guide steps you through it also

[cohnhead]

I "upgraded" to 3.0.7 last night and was able to get HD to play using a graph that goes directly from the stb to dump. Good news is i no longer get any audio render errors and the playback is less "jerky". Bad news is that since I havn't tried fooling with HD lately, it looks like 5C has been enabled on a number of channels that I previously was able to view.

Also, changing from one HD channel to another does not work. The only success was to first change to an analog channel on the PVR 250 and then back to a different HD channel. Is this just a timing thing?

Still not 100% satisfied with IR blaster channel changing, is anyone able to use firewire channel change on an SA3250?

I feel i am closer now to an adaquate HD solution, can anyone help with my few remaining issues?

Marc

[Morgan111]

I sure hope we can get this all working smoothly pretty soon. Football season starts in a couple of weeks!

[aperry]

Originally Posted by cohnhead

5C has been enabled on a number of channels that I previously was able to view.

What are the symptoms of 5C being enabled? Do you get nothing over the firewire, garbage, or something else?

[evilpenguin]

I just got my STB set up over the weekend and it is recording like a dream. Granted Sage won't play any of the recordings, but the files are there and they play fine and look great in VLC/WMP so that's just Sage's problem. I just wanted to thank everyone in this thread for their hard work and problem solving so an idiot like me can walk in months later and get it up and working in a single day, and just in time for the new TV season

[Naylia]

Evilpenguin,
If i were you i'd edit out the second half of your post or you may find yourself 5C'd.

Is anyone using the new nvidia PureVideo Decoders?

[timmmoore]

Originally Posted by cohnhead

I "upgraded" to 3.0.7 last night and was able to get HD to play using a graph that goes directly from the stb to dump. Good news is i no longer get any audio render errors and the playback is less "jerky". Bad news is that since I havn't tried fooling with HD lately, it looks like 5C has been enabled on a number of channels that I previously was able to view.

Also, changing from one HD channel to another does not work. The only success was to first change to an analog channel on the PVR 250 and then back to a different HD channel. Is this just a timing thing?

Still not 100% satisfied with IR blaster channel changing, is anyone able to use firewire channel change on an SA3250?

I feel i am closer now to an adaquate HD solution, can anyone help with my few remaining issues?

Marc

Some people have firewire channel change working and some dont, seems to be dependent on the software on the SA3250. Try channel and see if it works.

[eobiont]

I am having the *EXACT* same problem. HDTV PS streams created using the classic UNE method no longer play audio in SageTV (however they *do* play in Windows Media Player using the same codecs.. NVIDIA in this case).

I also found that when I dumped direct TS stream to disk that Sage SOMETIMES works (I'm using an mpg extension in the filter graph, but I really dont think this matters...) but often cant read the TS file that was dumpped or there are other problems.

There is a discussion about this in the 3.0.7 beta thread as well. I think that the settings in the audio and video setup menus are ignored when Sage is playing HDTV in Sage 3.0.7. This is just a guess based on observation. I have my default set to FFDSHOW audio. It pops up when playing back SD programs, but doesn't when playing back HDTV - it used to pop up for both with 3.0.5 and does again now that I've downgraded back to 3.0.5

[AndersNolberger]

There is a new verison of SGR available from my home page at http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/GraphRecorder.

Added possibility to reload graph on the switch command.

There is also a new file writer filter that might make channel changes go smother.

Anders

[cohnhead]

The Audio and Video settings do effect HDTV playback. I have tried various decoders, (both audio and video) and the difference between playback quality, both picture and smoothness is easily apparent.

System hangs not only when changing from HDTV channel to HDTV channel, but also when one program ends and another begins. Hopefully, the new UNE just posted will solve this problem.

[DFA]

It's the new dump filter that may help the most. The UNE itself does not make or break anything other than some additional flexability with a new feature to unload the graph between channel changes. It's mostly all about codecs, filters and timings. I have no need to unload the graph between channel changes but does not apply to everyone.

I briefly beta tested this version for Anders prior to its release and found the new dump filter to be superior to Sage's, CL's and Moonlight's. I had been using Moonlight's. I do not see the video instability at the start of file playback and have gotten better pans. Hopefully others will also find better results. Channel change is fractionally faster but probably as good as it will get. I have been able to reduce some of my latency timings with the new dump which has also helped.

Two thumbs up!

EDIT: I tested with Sage 2.2.8. Sage 3.0.7 seems to be broke in several ways with playing audio from recorded files and channel changes; very slow. I understand that 3.0.5 was good and better than with Sage codecs used in 2.2.8.


EDIT EDIT: The new dump filter after registering will appear under Direct Show filters by the name of "SBDARecorderDump".
Regards,

DFA