STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[Naylia]

you no longer need the meistb.zip from DFA, the firewire.zip from timmmorre has everything

[gtd885a]

Originally Posted by cohnhead

Hmm,

nVidia video and audio decoders worked fine for me first time. As a mater of fact they were the only decoders that gave me smooth playback. Might not be a bad idea to do the rebuild.

What happens when you play the files recorded by sage in WMP 10?

Good Luck!

Ok, so it turns out I am mistaken. I'm not getting 5.1 out of anything, even though my receiver thinks it's 5.1 sometimes it's still just stereo. I "upgraded" my HTPC recently with a Compaq deal that I got in on that is an A64 (socket 754) 3400+ and some no-name motherboard. The motherboard doesn't have spdif out, so I added a Turtle Beach Riviera card with optical out (cheapest way to get digital out ~$15). Apparently, it only outputs 44.1 and 48 kHz PCM, and my receiver only recognizes 88.2/96 (and up).

So... I'm thinking about returning the sound card and either getting a new motherboard with integrated digital outs, or getting a better sound card. Any opinions (I know, I should really post this somewhere else)? I am considering the motherboard upgrade because this motherboard apparently has a bug with sleep/hibernating (i.e. it keeps doing it and won't wake up without manually putting the computer to sleep and waking it back up). I was thinking about one of the nForce3 boards (need socket 754, AGP, firewire, and spdif). Since it's just passing the digital signal through, does it really matter what quality the onboard sound is? Would I get better sound out of a better sound card?

This discussion really doesn't belong in the firewire support section, since apparently it's not a Sage problem, so if it needs to be moved that's fine.

[Naylia]

just snag a chaintech av-710, they're like 30 bucks and you can do bit-perfect audio for your music collection if you want too, they're a great buy and should support everything

but i don't really understand how your reciever can't recognize 44.1, every cd in the world is 44.1 khz

[gtd885a]

That card looks like the ticket, thanks.

Yeah, I obviously don't know enough about audio, the tech support guy at Turtle Beach was probably just shooting me a line. My receiver is the Panasonic sa-xr25, nothing too fancy but it's digital and I like the sound. It auto-recognizes everything, which is why I'm skeptical about this TB card. I think the card might really be outputting 2 channel over spdif. It's weird, to set the card to spdif, you have to either choose 2-speakers or headphones. The receiver always plays the output as 2 channel, no matter what.

[davey_fl]

Hey guys here's my experience so far... So I've got it up and running with FW channel changing and sound. Channel changing seems to be reliable as it has't missed one yet in probably 30-40 changes. However, often when it changes channels sage doesn't show the video right away, or at all in some cases. It may sit for up to a minute before video playback starts, or I may have to select one of the other tuners (PVR500s) to get video playing, and then go back to the HDTV channel - sort of priming it if you will. When it does play video if I try to watch it in close to realtime the gui lag is bad, but if I watch it, even 10-20 seconds behind realtime, playback is fine. PQ is amazing and I'm happy it's 'working'. Also, I'm having issues with my non-HDTV tuners attempting to tune the HDTV channels. There must be an easy fix for this. I have 3 PVR500s, each gets the same Channel EPG info (Shaw Cable Digital West). When I add the SGR I select the same lineup so I can add in channels 300-310 for HDTV. But when I add them into this channel lineup, it adds them to all the other channel lineups. I have a rough workaround in that I have set encoder_merit for SGR higher so it will use that tuner first, but there must be a better way.

Questions:

1) My HTPC is an AMD 2400+ with 512MB RAM on Nvidia Nforce2 mobo (Shuttle MN31n). I'm wondering if the long delay in loading an HDTV channel (or not loading it at all) could be related to a lack of CPU? I've checked CPU usage and it runs around 40% when watching HDTV.

2) Same theory about the GUI lag, could it be lack of CPU?

3) Any suggestions for fixing the channel lineup?

4) Finally, a few of my HDTV channels are off wrt aspect ratio. For now I've modified the 16x9 ratio in sage and switch to it for these channels as the image was 'squished' with black bars down the side. I have attempted to change the output settings of the 6200/2005 but that doesn't seem to do anything. Is there another way around this or am I stuck switching aspect ratios for certain channels?

I'm sure I'll have more questions, thanks!

David

[Naylia]

Are you using V3? Many of us have channel changing issues with V3 and firewire channels. For me some channels work flawlessly and some require that I do a "double stop" inbetween changes or i just get a black screen. It still records though, it seems like it's a problem on the playback side.

[davey_fl]

Originally Posted by Naylia

Are you using V3? Many of us have channel changing issues with V3 and firewire channels. For me some channels work flawlessly and some require that I do a "double stop" inbetween changes or i just get a black screen. It still records though, it seems like it's a problem on the playback side.

I am using V3.011. the more I use it I see that if I am trying to watch the channel Live, then once I'm through the 1minute or so before it tunes the channel, it seems to come in. However, if I mark something to record and leave it alone, it changes channels fine, but I just have the black screen. Example is I marked Rome to record last night, and this morning there's 1 hour of black screen So this is a common problem? Also, is the delay in tuning the channel, once select, and having to wait a minute or so a common issue?

Thx

[gtd885a]

Originally Posted by davey_fl

Questions:

1) My HTPC is an AMD 2400+ with 512MB RAM on Nvidia Nforce2 mobo (Shuttle MN31n). I'm wondering if the long delay in loading an HDTV channel (or not loading it at all) could be related to a lack of CPU? I've checked CPU usage and it runs around 40% when watching HDTV.

2) Same theory about the GUI lag, could it be lack of CPU?

Obviously you're on the low side of acceptable cpu, but I don't know if that's your problem. When I upgraded from a Barton 2500 to A64 3400, I didn't really see any improvement. I would play around with your tuning delays in SGR and Sage first.

Originally Posted by davey_fl

3) Any suggestions for fixing the channel lineup?

4) Finally, a few of my HDTV channels are off wrt aspect ratio. For now I've modified the 16x9 ratio in sage and switch to it for these channels as the image was 'squished' with black bars down the side. I have attempted to change the output settings of the 6200/2005 but that doesn't seem to do anything. Is there another way around this or am I stuck switching aspect ratios for certain channels?

What video/audio settings do you have in Sage? When I use Cyberlink video, I get incorrect aspect ratio if I leave it on Default, but if I switch to Overlay or VMR9, the aspect ratio is picked up correctly. Using Intervideo, the aspect ratio was always correct but the PQ was not as good. I just got nVidia to work (video - audio still doesn't work) and it gives me correct aspect ratio, but the video is a bit choppy. So for now, I use Cyberlink on overlay (vmr9 is slightly choppy for me).

Originally Posted by davey_fl

I am using V3.011. the more I use it I see that if I am trying to watch the channel Live, then once I'm through the 1minute or so before it tunes the channel, it seems to come in. However, if I mark something to record and leave it alone, it changes channels fine, but I just have the black screen. Example is I marked Rome to record last night, and this morning there's 1 hour of black screen So this is a common problem? Also, is the delay in tuning the channel, once select, and having to wait a minute or so a common issue?

Mine always changes in about 5 seconds, but as of ver 3.0.11 I have to hit stop before changing a channel or I get black screen. What are your delays in SGR and Sage set to?

[davey_fl]

Originally Posted by gtd885a

What video/audio settings do you have in Sage?
What are your delays in SGR and Sage set to?

thanks for the response. right now I'm using InterVideo for Video and Default for Audio (nothing else worked for audio). My timings are 3500 and 4500 in the sage.properties file. When I select a channel it does the channel change on the STB immediately (lightning fast) but then either takes forever to display video or just stays black. My Video card is a 9600 Pro.


David

[cmaffia]

I noticed that when you upgrade from 2.2.8 to any version of 3.x.x, it would delete all of my original .ir files and replace them with defaults that don't work...So in saying that... every time I attempt to try a new version of 3.beta, I just make sure I overwrite my original files after the installation is completed. I needent point out that of course you should back up your old 2.2.8 directory before attempting any upgrade!

Originally Posted by Naylia

Are you using V3? Many of us have channel changing issues with V3 and firewire channels. For me some channels work flawlessly and some require that I do a "double stop" inbetween changes or i just get a black screen. It still records though, it seems like it's a problem on the playback side.

[Naylia]

with regards to the timing delay, the stb gets the channel change right away but it takes a small delay for it to start/stop a new ts file on it's end, then sgraphrecorder waits slightly longer to make sure that it doesn't start recording too early, then sage waits even longer so it doesn't jump the gun on sgraph...it all just kinds of adds up to a few second delay.

[davey_fl]

Originally Posted by Naylia

with regards to the timing delay, the stb gets the channel change right away but it takes a small delay for it to start/stop a new ts file on it's end, then sgraphrecorder waits slightly longer to make sure that it doesn't start recording too early, then sage waits even longer so it doesn't jump the gun on sgraph...it all just kinds of adds up to a few second delay.

sounds reasonable - but I think the delays I'm experiencing are excessive. I'll try playing with the timing. Is there any guidelines to this?

[davey_fl]

so in doing more testing, it seems it will tune the first channel, but unless I use Close File before I go back to the guide to select another channel, it just gives a black screen, no matter what the timings... Were previous versions of Sage working better than this?

[Naylia]

Yes and this onen probably does to if you do a TS to PS conversion graph. Problem for me was I upgraded/downgraded to the latest PureVideo decoders and they don't like playing nice anymore in my TS to PS graph.

tune to a channel and let it be black, once it is done and saves the recording can you go back and watch it? because i can go back and watch mine even if they originally tune poorly

an easy fix would be a "on_change_channel_stop=true" kind of thing, because i think the software could do a close file, open new file pretty easily

mine also always tunes the first channel, sometimes it will tune a consecutive channel, luckily though if it needs to record 4 shows in a row, all 4 are perfect when i look the next day

[Naylia]

i think 2000 to 2500 used to be the best possible in Sgraph.ini but that was when people used IR, mine is still at the default, that's something i need to mess with and try to reduce. i think with the channel changing over firewire we might be able to hit 1000 or 1500, i haven't tried playing with the Sage side either

[gtd885a]

Originally Posted by davey_fl

so in doing more testing, it seems it will tune the first channel, but unless I use Close File before I go back to the guide to select another channel, it just gives a black screen, no matter what the timings... Were previous versions of Sage working better than this?

Yeah, that's what I was saying. It's exactly how it works for me now. Funny thing is, it's exactly the opposite problem I had in previous versions (or decoders, or SGR - all new versions). Previously, I had to tune to an analog channel first before tuning to an HD/digital channel to get it to pick up sound.

With all the problems I've had in the past, I can live with having to hit stop before changing the channel. The worst thing about that is, as mentioned, if it tunes automatically you have to wait for it to end to watch it. I havent tried putting it in sleep mode and then starting the recording over (while in progress), that might work.

[gtd885a]

Originally Posted by Naylia

just snag a chaintech av-710, they're like 30 bucks and you can do bit-perfect audio for your music collection if you want too, they're a great buy and should support everything

but i don't really understand how your reciever can't recognize 44.1, every cd in the world is 44.1 khz

OK, so just for the heck of it, I dug around in some of my pulled-parts and found an old Sound Blaster Live (ewwww, I know) with the spdif out via 1/8" mono plug. Found a mono to RCA adapter and hooked up to digital coax on my receiver, and now I have DD/DTS with DVD playback!!! However, in the process, I totally lost sound in Sage. When I play back files recorded with Sage in media player or whatever, it picks up the audio correctly. I'm guessing that if the audio drivers and such were installed before everything else, things would be working. So, I guess I found my weekend project.

[Naylia]

don't you love that! if you dont' install stuff in the right order the priorities of the filters gets all screwed up, you can probably just get away with uninstalling Sage and your video decoders and then install the sound card, then sage then the video decoder

that's the order that seems to work best for me, Sage never seems to have any priority issues accessing it's own decoders but if i install sage after the video decoders sometimes ZP doesn't quite get it right it seems

[gtd885a]

Thanks for the tips as usual Naylia. For the first time ever, I have perfect picture AND 5.1/6.1 sound on HD channels in Sage!!!!!!!!

I think I just hadn't noticed before, but there are a few non-HD digital channels that don't want to work (maybe it's the straight tuner to dump graph?), such as all of the non-HD HBO channels, etc. If I tune to those channels, the system practically locks up and I have no picture or sound for 1-5 minutes. Sometimes, I eventually get a picture, but I don't get sound. I thought maybe it was 5-c encryption, but the channels tune and play fine in VLC. It's always something.

[Naylia]

yeah my first guess would have been 5C but that's odd they they play fine in VLC. Do the recorded shows playback in WMP or any other software (vice direct streaming in VLC)?