STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by timmmoore

This causes problems on playback - fast playback of audio and video. The only time I have seen people have this problem is with these STBs, using SPDIF. Changing SPDIF to use pro logic II has always fixed this problem, in every case I have seen it.

ooo....i had been wondering how to fix that. I don't have HDTV yet so don't watch the HD channels, but currently the way i have it set up either HD sound plays slow or SD sound plays fast (depending on decoder setting). So I've just been ignoring it until I get an HDTV. Great to know that might be all I need to do to fix it.


Timmoore,

Back to my issue with the AV/C Panel, I think I know another place I can pull the PnPID from so I'll give that a shot tonight.

And is SP2 required for this to work?

[jlzhisname]

Hi DFA, Spaceghost and the rest of the crew. Thanks for the wealth of info. I have spent the last 2 days sorting through this huge thread. You guys have done an amazing job of getting us this far! (Enough @$$ kissing yet?)

My first problem is I have tried a few different FW drivers for my 3250HD including:
MCE 2005 STB Controller package
Hacked mstapeo.sys drivers

I was wondering which are the correct/best ones to use for SageTV. I have gotten the DVHS to record with both with no problems. One thing that I notice no matter which one I use I still have (2) "unknown devices" in device manager along with the "A/V Tuner" and "A/V Panel". Any clue what they are? Has anyone seen this before with this unit?


My Second problem is I do not recieve sound in Sage when watching live tv. I get video but no sound. I have followed all the tutorials to the letter in regards to SageTV. Like I stated above I can record in DVHS and also with the Firewire.gfa. I also created a TStoPS.GRF which also works perfect (sound and video). I have also double checked the sage.properties file to make sure all the mmc-lines are there.

- when watching live TV with no sound for some reason it is recording to the Video directory (I dont know why) and when I play back the recorded file it has Video and Audio!!


I would appreciate any help/advice you can offer. Thanks again!

jL

[timmmoore]

Originally Posted by Naylia

ooo....i had been wondering how to fix that. I don't have HDTV yet so don't watch the HD channels, but currently the way i have it set up either HD sound plays slow or SD sound plays fast (depending on decoder setting). So I've just been ignoring it until I get an HDTV. Great to know that might be all I need to do to fix it.


Timmoore,

Back to my issue with the AV/C Panel, I think I know another place I can pull the PnPID from so I'll give that a shot tonight.

And is SP2 required for this to work?

I assume you mean mstapeo.sys and SP2? Depends where you got it from. The file thats floating around I think will only work on SP2. If you look at the end of the readme for the firewire package on www.thegreeenbuttom.com you will see some instructions for creating mstapeo.sys on sp1, this has worked for at least 1 person.

[Naylia]

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!! I hope it works for me too. SP2 gives me nothing but network issues for some reason.

[Shredder5655]

Hey all,

I followed Space Ghosts guide and I still can't view TV over Sage, even though it recognizes everything it's supposed to.. Do these screenshots show what I did wrong? If so, how can I fix it?

Thanks

[Naylia]

timmmoore,

Attached is my version of mstape.sys...slightly renamed...from Windows SP1, i only found two of the three sections you said have to be patched and I was wondering if there was any chance that you could take a quick glance at it. Seems to be slightly different version and I can't track down the version you mention in the AVS thread. Thanks so much for all your help!

[timmmoore]

Originally Posted by Naylia

timmmoore,

Attached is my version of mstape.sys...slightly renamed...from Windows SP1, i only found two of the three sections you said have to be patched and I was wondering if there was any chance that you could take a quick glance at it. Seems to be slightly different version and I can't track down the version you mention in the AVS thread. Thanks so much for all your help!

That version is identical to the version I have for sp2, sounds like you have a sp1 qfe that is the same as sp2. Try the patched sp2 version looks like it should work.

[dougrob]

Naylia,

If you can't get the SP2 file to work, please send me a private message with your email and I will send you the patched SP1 file.

--dougrob

[dougrob]

Thanks to everyone here for making recording via firewire a reality for the rest of us...

I am able to record many channels via firwire into Sage 2.2.4, but I'm having trouble with a few of them. Sage reports that it can't render the audio portion of the file for those channels. It seems that the MPEG2 demux isn't able to render the output of the NVidia Info parser. I believe this because when I stripped out one block at a time in the graph, the only one that would output into the dump file was the NVidia Info Parser. It seems the MPEG2 demux is failing. I've tried a "sony TS splitter" instead of the NVidia Parser and MPEG2 demux. I've tried a different demux, but no dice.

Any suggestions? Or, should I upgrade to 3.x and call it a day?

Please help.

--dougrob

[Naylia]

Woohoo!!!! Doug that file worked fabulously, and Timmmoore thans so much for your efforts...yeah no more Girder!

[dougrob]

Bump...Does anyone have an opinion with my issue with Sage 2.2.4? Is 3.x able to handle the TS file natively?

Thanks,

dougrob

[gplasky]

From the release post of 3.0.7:
HDTV fixes:
A. Support for the FusionHDTV5 Gold Plus ATSC and FusionHDTV3 Gold-T ATSC.
B. Support for multiple ATSC cards of the same model (used to crash).
C. Fixed a crash bug with the VBox USB-A 3560 encoder.
D. Properly recognize the VBox USB-A 3560 BDA capture device.
E. Reliably pick the first audio sub-stream for playback instead of picking the substream which offers the earliest codec information.
F. Fixed some AC3 audio glitches.
G. More robust TS stream parsing.
H. Various stability fixes with HDTV capture and playback.

Based on G and support for HDTV I would say the Sage core handles .ts files. I don't have a HDTV tuner....yet.

Gerry

[dougrob]

All,

I thought the most recent ruling from the courts was to strike down the broadcast flag? So, why are any channels encrypted?

--dougrob

[zz5]

The broadcast flag ruling only applies to over the air channels.

[dougrob]

Sorry for my ignorance on this, but is 5C completely legal? Are there any current suits in the courts on this? Or, are we just screwed for good?

--dougrob

[Naylia]

pretty much screwed for good

BF was struck down because the courts ruled that the FCC did not have the right to enfoce standards of any sort on your home equipment, such as compliance with a flag, they can only regulate the broadcast side (thats the real rough version of why at least)

5C is just an encryption standard that cable companies happen to support, and since they own the boxes and offer the option to the providers, we as a consumer don't really get an option other than to not use the cable service. As a cable consumer we really don't have any rights.

The difference really is private entity making decisions about the product it sells you vs. FCC mandating that private entities conform to something (ie...you, Brand X, make a HDTV OTA product, you have to recognize this encryption standard or we, the FCC, will shut you down)

[eobiont]

The cable companies are not regulated in the same way as broadcast television. I believe that if they wanted to, they could output only macrovision encoded video so that you couldn't even video tape cable TV. The choice is to either buy what they offer or not. I chose to cancel my hdtv tier along with all premium channels, and I made sure they knew that it was because of the encryption. If they lifted the encryption, they would be getting an extra $60 a month out of me. I don;t think all of this is due to the contracts they have with content providers. My cable co even encrypts all of the SD digital channels. The only enencrypted channels on my system are the analogs and the HDTV network simulcasts.

[dougrob]

Well guys, I guess I have just been disillusioned by all of this Firewire recording stuff from the cable box. Yeah, it's neat, but for those of us that have jerks for cable companies, what's the point...I mean, I've seen at least 2 or 3 stations start encryption in the last month...So, today my Sage Guide works with channel 602, tomorrow it doesn't. Just a little disappointing...For me, while I was getting this thing setup, ignorance WAS bliss.

Do the satellite companies use the same encryption over firewire?

Besides Cable Card support on the HTPC (when will this happen?), is there a way to bypass this encyption. Why is it that my Sony TV with firewire has no problem displaying the encryted content? Display device vs. Capture Device? Is it the PC chipset that abides by the 5C standard, or is it the cable box detecting the type of device connected and then encrypting the signal?

Sorry for all of the questions, but I am just amazed here.

--dougrob

[Naylia]

Actually it's that the PC doesn't abide by the 5C standard. Your TV does and sends communication info back to the cable box that says it is acknowledgin the standards and restrictions.

My guess is you'd need to license the technology from 5C (whoever created the standard), problem is they won't let you have it since the pc is not a secure platform from their viewpoint. I suspect in the future that the only way to get this content decrytped will be by getting MS Windows Vista, a DRM enabled processor and let yourself be locked down. Then people will work on stripping the DRM I'm sure. Need to convince the cable box to send you the info before you can do that. All in all it is rather depressing.

The way I look at firewire right now is that I can record 71 channels (the analog ones that are then encrypted by the box) and the OTA HD channels that comcast simulcasts without having to buy a sd or hd pvr card. And I suspect that is the best I'll ever get.

[Shredder5655]

*Edit* I finally found the SDK version of GRPH Edit, as specified in the instructions. I registered the .dll file I was supposed to. But now when I open up and try to insert the AC Tuner, I get 'Cannot find file, may already be in use'..

What's the next step I should take?

Thanks!