STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[shish]

Originally Posted by gtd885a

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this problem is universal. I don't know of anyone who can change channels on-the-fly, but if anyone can please let us know and maybe you can help the rest of us out.

I think this has been mentioned before, but it sure would be nice to have an option/setting that would hit stop before changing channels automatically if it was flagged (obviously this is only needed if the problem can't be fixed).

I'm going to see what I can do about writing a prog that calls channelw, grabs Sage's handle and sends a stop key, and then sends play to Sage. Sage may need to be retuned since it will pull up the program guide if I recall correctly, but this shouldnt be too difficult. I imagine HIP or Girder might be of help too. I'll let you know how this works.

It would seem to me this behavior would be pretty simple to add as an unsupported option in Sage for channel change behavior. Have the developers ever offered to do it? Judging by the length of this thread, certainly some people are interested.

[Bohica]

I know this helps none at all -- but I fixed this once. Meaning I was able to change from one HD channel to another while watching live. Then I added a second firewire tuner to the server... and the problem comes and goes. I am removing the second tuner and making it remote for resource issues. I will tell you then if the single tuner works...

[montgomeryt]

I can change the channels successfully through my firewire but cannot get any content. I believe they are 5'cing everything - when I try my STB and my PC just reboots. Would there be a way to just use the firewire to change channels for me and how would I do it ?

Thank you in advance.

[Naylia]

There's a plugin called ExeTuner or some such that lets you use an external program (ie...channelw.exe) to change channels. I use it with firewire channel change with my pvr500.

[jcato]

Thanks for all the great info in this thread. I've managed to get this mostly up and running. I am having a couple of issuse, though.

First, when I first tried to play back a file in Sage, it looked as if it had no red in the picture. I played it back in Media Player Classic and it looked fine. I eventually changed from VMR9 to Overlay and the picture looked fine in Sage. What could I try to get VMR9 to work?

Second (and more serious) issue is that after watching a recording, I lose all audio, clicks, other shows, system sounds. It's like it isn't releasing the audio back to windows. To get it back, I have go to the sound control panel and click on the Test Hardware button and that will snap it out of it.

I have an MAudio Revolution, GForce 6800 and 3.2G P4 outputing to a DLP tv at 1280x720. I'm using the default Sage decoders. Would the nvidia decoders be better?

Thanks!

[heffe2001]

I'm having a different problem. When I play back the resulting TS stream (saved as a mpg file), my system become un-responsive to the remote (I use Girder to drive it). Seems to run fine on my main desktop, just not on my HD client...

The Client is the 2.53 in my sig. My main PC is a 3.4ghz 64bit P4, with 2g memory & a nvidia 6800 card, running Win64 & the latest Purevideo decoders. Guess 64b works for clients without tuners .

[montgomeryt]

Originally Posted by Naylia

There's a plugin called ExeTuner or some such that lets you use an external program (ie...channelw.exe) to change channels. I use it with firewire channel change with my pvr500.

I really don't want to use Girder though and according to the instructions you need it ? Would there be a different way to do it ?

[DFA]

Bohica:

A number of posts back, you mentioned you could find no documentation about:

UnloadGraphOnStop=0 or 1
UnloadGraphOnSwitch=0 or 1

"UnloadGraphOnStop" if equal to "1" means that SGR will unload the graph if the encoder is no longer in use (such as going to some other tuner). It is important to note the difference between "stopping" the graph and "unloading" the graph. If set to "0", the graph is simply stopped.

"UnloadGraphOnSwitch" is the difference between just stopping the graph on a channel change vs. completely unloading the graph on a channel change. In this case, "channel change" being relevant for channels assigned to SGR.

I have "UnloadGraphOnStop" set to "1" but not so for "UnloadGraphOnSwitch". These parameters helped resolve problems for some systems that seemed less tolerant and just "stopping" the graph (just like the "stop" button in GraphEdit) was not sufficient.

DFA

[DFA]

Question:

Is anyone using real time TS-to-PS graph with 3.0.6 --> to 4.0 and able to get audio from Sage? Sage now seems to give audio OK only with TS dump. Is this everyone's else experience as well?

DFA

[Bohica]

Originally Posted by DFA

Bohica:

A number of posts back, you mentioned you could find no documentation about:

UnloadGraphOnStop=0 or 1
UnloadGraphOnSwitch=0 or 1

"UnloadGraphOnStop" if equal to "1" means that SGR will unload the graph if the encoder is no longer in use (such as going to some other tuner). It is important to note the difference between "stopping" the graph and "unloading" the graph. If set to "0", the graph is simply stopped.

"UnloadGraphOnSwitch" is the difference between just stopping the graph on a channel change vs. completely unloading the graph on a channel change. In this case, "channel change" being relevant for channels assigned to SGR.

I have "UnloadGraphOnStop" set to "1" but not so for "UnloadGraphOnSwitch". These parameters helped resolve problems for some systems that seemed less tolerant and just "stopping" the graph (just like the "stop" button in GraphEdit) was not sufficient.

DFA

Yeah -- I figured that was what it was. Just saw no difference on my system using any combination of the settings... was mostly hoping it would fix the channel change problems...

[DFA]

As an additional FYI, "TuningDelay" is the amount of time in msec that the graph is stopped or unloaded, depending on "UnloadGraphOnSwitch" choice, to avoid recording the discontinuity that occurs in the MPEG stream when the STB moves to a different channel. It was found early on that this transient, if recorded, seemed to trip up most decoders.

I have always used the "TuningDelay" parameter in conjunction with the "sage.properties" parameters:

videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay=x
videoframe/time_to_start_into_tv_file_playback=y

What worked well for me in the past for 2.2.8 to 3.0.5 was when:
(videoframe/time_to_start_into_tv_file_playback) > (videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay) > (TuningDelay)

However, none of this may no longer apply.

DFA

[Bohica]

I find on my recorders -- changing with the FW cable is very fast. I can set it to 500 ms delay and get a reliable stream. Somehow -- in testing I once got the system to actually change channels whle watching live tv... stll havent gotten the time to go back and explore how -- but will soon.

[DFA]

I can no longer hop from one FW HD channel to another. It is as if "videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay" is broken or has no meaning any more since the symptoms I'm seeing are reminicent of what happens when Sage tries to start playing a file that does not yet contain data or worse, has not yet even been created by the SGR dump filter (black screens of death and frozen frames from previous channel). In my experience, the value of "videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay" always needed to be greater by one or two seconds than that of the SGR "TuningDelay" without exception.

The other possibility is that Sage has changed something in the NE protocol that the UNE/SGR needs to be updated for.

For those new to all this and attempting to use STB FW, bear in mind that the SGR/UNE was a proven solution for 2.2.8 for a reasonable number of people. It is Sage that seems to have tripped things up. We just need to put our finger on the problem so that it can be addressed.

DFA

[Bohica]

Good to see you back in the game

[DFA]

I have shot off a support request to Sage asking for the verification of function of the Sage "videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay" parameter and/or any changes to the NE protocol for which the UNE may need updating.

The issue I am addressing revolves around STB FW LiveTV viewing and channel switching.

DFA

[Bohica]

Ok -- riddle me this Batman...

Background...

Single PVR 350 and Dual STBs via firewire on the server. Can change channel in live TV now if the dual STBs via firewire alternate (which happens most -- but not all of the time). Removed 1 firewire tuner from sage props. Successfully change channel during live OCCASIONALLY -- but not in a repeatable manner.

wierd.

[DFA]

Can't say for sure. Dual STB's will appear as distinct and discrete encoders. I can usually start Sage into a HD channel but can't change to another without at least leaving the encoder. Dual STB's and hence encoders means starting and stopping alternate encoders which is no doubt helping.

I can change channels if using TS-to-PS graph. Change time to play is very long but can never get audio (with Sage anyway). Lost audio with orginal FW configuration after 3.0.5. Has not been good after that.

DFA

[DFA]

Bohica:

Have you monitored the SGR debugger for any problems? If not, right click on the SGR tray icon and select debug. Tick the box that says "Show debug info". In particular, look for any rapid-fire "GetFileSize" requests from Sage. Under normal circumstance, these come about every 5 mins.

DFA

[gtd885a]

Originally Posted by DFA

Bohica:

Have you monitored the SGR debugger for any problems? If not, right click on the SGR tray icon and select debug. Tick the box that says "Show debug info". In particular, look for any rapid-fire "GetFileSize" requests from Sage. Under normal circumstance, these come about every 5 mins.

DFA

What would this mean if this were the case (I have seen this but didn't think anything of it - just thought it was normal behavior), and how do you get around it?

[wad06]

I keep getting the same error:

"There was a playback error in Playback. Details: sage.playbackexception: There was a problem accessing the filesystem for playback."

I can't seem to get past this.

I'm using Sage 2.2.8.
XP SP2
Moto Comcast Box

Everything works fine in VLC. I, however, can't play the dump file in windows media player (only VLC and theatertek). In WM10, it says it's a song and doesn't play it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Wad