STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[Kirby]

Actually its not in server mode, and my comment on the lines being gone was wrong. It seems that sage re-ordered the sage.props entries, and put the DCT6200 at the beginning of the mmc/encoders section. I kept looking for it at the end where I originally added it, and not seeing it there, I would add it again, and again and again.

Question I have, why the huge difference in mmc/encoders entries in the two pdf's? In the first, its about half a printed page, the second its about 1.5 pages long. I assume at this point, when I switched back to the shorter of the two last night, and it asked for my DCT6200's audio input source (it shouldnt do that right?) that I was probably using the wrong graph (using the one from the newer pdf howto). Got too tired to make the other graph last night, so I will try that before I reinstall tonight.

Speaking of reinstalling, is there anything magical I need to be aware of when removing sagetv? anything hidden, or stray registry entries that wont be deleted that can cause issues?

[Naylia]

Hey guys...it's been a while since I've been active here. How is everyone's setups going? Looks like some progress has been made...and I got HD for Christmas

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by Naylia

Hey guys...it's been a while since I've been active here. How is everyone's setups going? Looks like some progress has been made...and I got HD for Christmas

Firewire recording and channel changing via my Morotola DCT-6200 is working about near flawlessly. I have no complaints.

[Naylia]

Moto 6200 to TS dump the way everyone's going now?

[Kirby]

You know what? Its truly amazing what happens when the human body gets a little bit of sleep, and then re-reads the instructions.

Once I understood the english phrase of "make sure SGR is in the startup folder" and actually left it running!!!! Now its all working great! Can tune, change HD channels, watch live and record!!! And might I add, just in time for the Orange Bowl!!

[Soulive]

Quick question (and I apologize if this has been covered in this thread),

Does the Firewire support allow playback through the 1394 connection to watch on a firewire equipped TV? Or is it limited to just channel tuning and recording.

Thanks,
Soulive

[Naylia]

Tuning and recording....it's not designed to render the video to a firewire port. You'd probably need a professional grade video card to do that.

[IceStorm]

Using this guide I've managed to get SageTV 4.1.4 beta up and running with a SA4200HD cable box using FireWire recording and channel changing.

However, I still cannot change channels and have Sage "pick up" on the new file created. I've tried adjusting the TuningDelay in SGraphRecorder.ini (currently 3000) and the videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay (currently 4500), but neither helps and I don't think this is where the problem lies.

I've set up the graph for SGraphRecorder to use the newer AV/C Tuner --> Dump.ts method. With this method, the cable box definitely changes channel and begins recording the new channel into a new file in my Videos directory. Sage, however, pauses, waits until the channel changes, then goes back to playing back the final second or so of the previously-tuned channel. It doesn't pick up on the new file for the new show, even though the file's filling up with data. To tune to the new channel I have to stop playback, then re-tune the same show in the Program Guide. This was also happening in 4.1.3.67

Any ideas what may be wrong?

[IceStorm]

I did a bit more digging with Sage's debug console, SGR's debug console, WMP9, and Windows Explorer.

I figured out that it takes my cable box about six seconds to change channel. After adjusting SGR's TunerDelay to 6000 and Sage's videoframe/network_encoding_to_playback_delay to 4500, tuning started working.

I tried tweaking the values down a bit, but any lower and either Sage hangs or I get the problem I was having before.

Any chance channel.exe or channelw.exe could be updated to support hitting the equivalent of the "enter" key after each channel change sequence? Part of the long delay is waiting on the cable box to accept the change on its own. Pressing "enter" forces it to change channel earlier.

[ARMYB77]

This may be a little off topic but I was wondering if someone can create a script that will allow someone to change channels on their cable box Via USB? I know I can hook up a Keyboard to the Cable Box and change channels that way, so is it possible to create a driver for a USB port that will act like a keyboard to the Cable box, and then send commands via that dedicated port?

I know that USB is Host/Device dependent so I believe that making a driver to act like a keyboard device to the Host Cable box would work. But I’m no programmer.

If someone could help me out on this I’m sure it would be very beneficial to everyone.

If there is no chance in this ever working then I would like some feedback as to why this isn't feasible?

Thanks

Armyb77

P.S. I use SageTV 2.2

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by ARMYB77

This may be a little off topic but I was wondering if someone can create a script that will allow someone to change channels on their cable box Via USB?

Don't think it's possible, pretty sure USB is designed for keyboard input only and does not have direct access to commands like channel up/down.

[aperry]

Woohoo, I have HDTV recording working via Firewire! At long last, and many previous attempts, it seems to be finally working...

I had been using a Motorola DCT-6412 PVR unit, and had not had much luck. I decided that I should drop the cable PVR service from my account to save the $4.95 a month, and got a DCT-6200 to replace the PVR unit. I decided to go back in and try and configure Sage for Firewire recording again, using the two guides posted here, and it all works great!

I am running the straight Tuner -> TS graph, and the only problem I ran into was that I needed to use the Sage MPEG Audio Recorder (could not get sound with the NVidia decoder). Thought that was a bit strange...

Anyhow, thanks all for the help from everyone here, and the guides to get everything working.

Should help out the WAF a bit as well...
---------------------
One quick question I have though, I've seen folks stating about having problems when running SGraphRecorder and the SageTV service. Is this still the case? Do you still need to avoid using the Sage service when using this setup?

[Naylia]

I also cannot use the latest Nvidia audio decoder inside of Sage...firewire or no If you read the FAQ over at nvidia it mentions that they are aware that they broke something in 3rd party support...

[dertb]

Any one have an idea why it would take about 20 seconds for the recording to start playing back? Appears to record fine changing channels seem to work ok..

amd Dual Core 4400 2 gigs of ram an a 7800 video card...

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by dertb

Any one have an idea why it would take about 20 seconds for the recording to start playing back? Appears to record fine changing channels seem to work ok..

amd Dual Core 4400 2 gigs of ram an a 7800 video card...

I have the same problem from time to time. It doesn't always happen. And only when trying to playback HD recordings. I never bothered to ask if anybody else was having the problem. I've just been living with it.

[Naylia]

I occassionally have similar with my Fusion5...I don't know what it is...just that sometimes it requires a little patience prior to starting an HD stream

[WellThen]

As far as the long delay for playback of HD, I was having the same problem. I've found that by using the Intervideo video and audio codecs (the ones that come with WinDVD, not the Non-CSS ones that come with the Hauppauge TV cards) I get almost instant playback; much faster than with any other codec. Let me know if that helps you.

I'm having a weird problem where some firewire-captured HD files won't play back, whether streamed through Sage to my Client, or through Windows Media Player 10 directly over a network share. They will playback through VLC, though. It's not a difference by broadcast network, because I have a recording of part of Law and Order from NBC that plays back fine, but last nights Tonight Show will only playback in VLC.

Thanks for any help you can offer...

[evilpenguin]

I've found that VLC is a lot friendlier when it comes to bad recordings(high bit error rates), that might explain why it only plays in VLC, but I imagine it doesn't play perfect i.e. track the proper time and fast forward and rewind accurately.

If this really is your problem then the only two things you can do about it is to either clean up your cabling (limit splitting w/o amplification, terminate all unused cable outlets, tighten your connections, and ensure that none of your cables are kinked or crushed) or call your cable company and tell them you are having a problem with specific HD channels and they should send out a service technician with a meter that can measure the signal quality and bit error rate of the channel in question.

[evilpenguin]

I'm having a problem when I try and watch shows while they are recording over firewire. I'll start watching the show and everything will be perfect, however, after 20-25 minutes of watching (not recording) the show will all of the sudden start to stutter a ton and I can't ff or rewind properly. From this point I only have two options.

1) I can stop the recording and restart it so that Sage starts writting a new file and then I can watch that recording for ~20-25 minutes before things start stuttering again. (You can imagine how frusterating it is to watch football games like this )

2) Wait until the show finishes recording and then the show will play perfectly.

Has anyone else seen this problem, and perhaps fixed it somehow?

[heffe2001]

I've noticed the exact same problem, and THOUGHT I had found a work-around by pausing for a minute or 2 at the start (it was like sage was catching up with the stream, and having trouble), but it just made it go a bit longer before starting it up again.