STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[willgill]

You might consider another hard drive dedicated to media. One hard drive for operating system and apps, one for storage of recordings, mp3s, pictures etc. Make sure you format that new drive with large clusters as it mentions in that PDF.

If you want to make this HTPC a server, I'd actually get two more hard drives.
A smaller 120Gig or so for Windows and
a another 500Gig external USB or Firewire hard drive.

I'd migrate your current contents of the 500Gig drive to the new smaller 120Gig drive. Then format the 500Gig drive with large clusters and move all movies, pictures, recordings there.

The 500Gig external drive is for drive image backups.

That should help skipping. You can also try using Overlay instead of VMR9 in SageTV. Also, it could be a weak cable TV signal. Weak pixelated signals cause havoc for capturing via firewire. Last thing, check your graph and make sure you're only using two items, the Cable STB tuner and the dump.ts

[yunfeng]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Has anybody figured out how to capture the CC closed captioning stream and save it into the video file, and then get Sage to display it.

I was able to get the closed caption to be played with graphedit by following these instructions:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=108495

Note that you need to UNCHECK the "Convert to A53" checkbox under "Core CC Parser" filter property as described in
http://www.theatertek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8932

The recording is from the firewire output of Motorola DCT-6200 dumped directly to TS file. So the TS stream already has CC embedded in it.

However, I haven't been able to get cc to show up in SageTV. It seems people have been able to get it working for hdhomerun:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2408
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...closed+caption

[rebelBodhi]

If you want to make this HTPC a server, I'd actually get two more hard drives.
A smaller 120Gig or so for Windows and
a another 500Gig external USB or Firewire hard drive.

I'd migrate your current contents of the 500Gig drive to the new smaller 120Gig drive. Then format the 500Gig drive with large clusters and move all movies, pictures, recordings there.

So you think that's the problem.. SATA is not fast enough to write to the same disk the OS is running on? I suppose I could spring for another smaller drive. But I've got everything installed on this 500gig..

I do have the 500 partitioned (one for the OS, one for applications, one for captures)

If I do end up needing to get another disk, is there an app anyone recommends that could mirror a partition on one physical disk to another? (maintaining the drive letter would be nice too)

Also, I'm curious: you don't think it could be system memory? I only have 1GB.. Is there an app that could run in the background while I try capturing that could log mem/cpu usage to find a bottleneck? Thanks a lot!

[willgill]

Originally Posted by rebelBodhi

So you think that's the problem.. SATA is not fast enough to write to the same disk the OS is running on?

Well, there's two problems there. Default Windows cluster size is too small for efficient writing and reading of large media files. The other issue is as you mentioned, your system has to write/read to one drive. It doesn't matter if it's partitioned, it's still one drive.

Originally Posted by rebelBodhi

If I do end up needing to get another disk, is there an app anyone recommends that could mirror a partition on one physical disk to another? (maintaining the drive letter would be nice too)

Acronis True Image does this quite well. www.acronis.com Take your 500Gig contents and image them to the new smaller drive and make it your OS drive. No reinstallation or anything needed.

Originally Posted by rebelBodhi

Also, I'm curious: you don't think it could be system memory? I only have 1GB.. Is there an app that could run in the background while I try capturing that could log mem/cpu usage to find a bottleneck? Thanks a lot!

CTL+ALT+DEL and check memory stats. SageTV is a memory pig for sure. I think 1gig is sufficient if you're running a dedicated SageTV computer. If it's general purpose computer pluse SageTV, up it to 2Gig.

[Bandit]

Sorry for asking questions I am sure have been asked before, but there is no way I have the week needed to read all the posts in this thread

I currently have an Athlon 3200+ running a PVR-250 and a NVidia Dual Tuner. The PVR-250 is fed through S-Video form a STB and the NVidia Tuners are both plugged directly into the wall as I dont pay for any of the higher channels anyways. I want to get off the wall outlets as comcast in my area will be only digital with no analog signals within the next year(so I've heard). I'm not opposed to upgrading to a Core Duo for added power that may be needed. All of my imported vids, pics and music are on a network server, the Sage server is just for sage and has a drive dedicated for live tv recording.

1.) Is it possible to run multiple STB using FW? If yes, is it not recommended because of the load on the CPU?

2.) Are you able to watch live what is being recorded over FW?

3.) From some of the reading I did in this thread I saw problems due to everything being in the same area and there only being one EPG feed, so you can't have only the HD channels pointed to the STB using FW. Is this still an issue or has a work around been found?

I just ordered a 42" Westinghouse 1080p TV is why I am finally entering the HD realm!

I'm sure there are more questions and/or concerns I have or should have, please tell me what they are

Thanks for any input!

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Bandit

1.) Is it possible to run multiple STB using FW? If yes, is it not recommended because of the load on the CPU?

2.) Are you able to watch live what is being recorded over FW?

3.) From some of the reading I did in this thread I saw problems due to everything being in the same area and there only being one EPG feed, so you can't have only the HD channels pointed to the STB using FW. Is this still an issue or has a work around been found?
!

1. I don't, but I have heard that others do. Recording off the FW takes almost no CPU load, you just need HD throughput to write the streams.

2. Yes

3. It is still an issue, but there is a workaround in that you select a second EPG feed for the STB. I use a digital lineup for my STB and the analog lineup for my analog tuners, both from the cable company for my city. If you dont' have that option, use a neighboring CC lineup that has the same channel numbering. And if you can't find one, then if you really needed to, you could make your own EPG using an XMLTV importer.

[dynamix]

I also have an SA 3250HD. I can install everything fine, but the playback quality is unwatchable on the HD channels.

If I open the capture source in VLC, it plays back at an acceptable framerate, but there are large blocky artifacts all over the screen. If I go further and do a straight STB -> dump in graphedit, there is stuttering and blocky artifacts. If I spit the video through nvidia filters and then dump, there are no blocky artifacts but the framerate is unwatchable. SD programs don't seem to have any issues, but I haven't really tested it much.

I'm guess it's all caused by errors in the video stream coming from my cable box? Is anyone successfully using the SA 3250HD? I've read through this whole post and only remember seeing one person using it without any problems.

I've installed the latest firestb.zip drivers... and the old meistb.zip drivers. About the only thing I haven't tried is reformatting my movie partition to 64k... But even if it was a harddrive problem, wouldn't it still play ok in VLC? It does not.

Here are my specs...

WinXP Pro
Athlon64 3500+
Asus M2NPV-VM
2 gig ram
400gig sata samsung

Thanks.

[rebelBodhi]

Thanks willgill,

That makes sense. And thanks for the advice on the imaging program. I'll give an update after I get a new drive and mirror the OS over.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by dynamix

If I open the capture source in VLC, it plays back at an acceptable framerate, but there are large blocky artifacts all over the screen. If I go further and do a straight STB -> dump in graphedit, there is stuttering and blocky artifacts. If I spit the video through nvidia filters and then dump, there are no blocky artifacts but the framerate is unwatchable. SD programs don't seem to have any issues, but I haven't really tested it much.

Hi dynamix,

I had the same exact problems you described when trying to set up FW recording on my SA 3250HD. Blocky artifacts on all HD channels, basically unwatchable. The funny thing was that I had one channel (HBO HD!) that came in crystal clear. Btw, I have my drives formatted with 64k, so I doubt that this will help you. I gave up on it and now use FW only for channel changing. If you make any headway with this, please let me know

Dirk

[Wheemer]

Hello... previously I had this working for the one good hd channel I have that's unencrypted.

Now that I'm running Vista, I'm trying to get it working again. I'm having some trouble with RegDumpFilter.bat. I want to use the dump filter to just dump the feed directly to the drive. But the registration says there's an error, and that filter never appears in graphedit.

Can I use another filter I already might have? Any suggestions?

Thanks

EDIT: Also, what's with sage requesting the files size a million times per second...

[UFGrayMatter]

Is there a way to prevent the command box popup during a channel change? If i'm watching a movie in ZP and a channel change is sent - it minimizes my ZP and screws everything up . Obviously im using FSE in ZP and want to keep it.

Thanks,
Ryan

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter

Is there a way to prevent the command box popup during a channel change? If i'm watching a movie in ZP and a channel change is sent - it minimizes my ZP and screws everything up . Obviously im using FSE in ZP and want to keep it.

Thanks,
Ryan

That's an easy one, use channelw.exe, not channel.exe. The later is for testing purposes only.

[Wheemer]

I get constant stuttering if I try and watch a firewire hd recording as it's being recorded. But if I wait till the recording is finished it is smooth.

I think it might have something to do with sage asking the filesize every 1/100000000 of a sec.

What does everyone else think?

[salsbst]

There is something wrong with the network encoder that is causing Sage to ask the file size so often.

[Wheemer]

This happens for everyone? or it's something wrong with my setup?

[olyar15]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

This happens for everyone? or it's something wrong with my setup?

It happens with my setup, but it doesn't seem to affect playback. Also, I rarely watch live tv so it doesn't really affect me at all.

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

I get constant stuttering if I try and watch a firewire hd recording as it's being recorded. But if I wait till the recording is finished it is smooth.

I think it might have something to do with sage asking the filesize every 1/100000000 of a sec.

What does everyone else think?

I get the same skipping. How do you know how often sage is asking for filesize?

[Wheemer]

From the debug option in the right click menu of the SGR tray icon...

[mhassman]

Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter

Ok here's a whopper (this post is in now way affliated w/ Burger King )of a problem.

I am trying to figure out a recording issue. While not technically a problem w/ Sage or this setup. SOMETHING IS WAY WRONG. I'm hoping somebody can point me in the right direction.

I can run Graphedit and see a pretty picture - but it's only 1 frame every 10 or so seconds.

If I record to a dump file, either .ts or .mpg I get this crap:



I can confirm that it is being recorded like this.

The picture through the cable box to the TV looks great.

I tried on both my TV Recording Drive (1 y/o Samsung SP250) and my OS Drive (Older WD) and get the same thing.

Advice?

Thanks,

Ryan

I've just arrive back home after a few months of travel to find a previously working and happy sage-tv system with HD via firewire is no longer happy.. all is well except the firewire-based channels - they all look like the screen pic above - tested them with vlc-player.

There have been no changes to this system.. just idling & recording favorites. I've checked old recordings from firewire channels - they show the same issue. I don't know when the problem started (older HD content has cycled off with disk space usage), but it's been at least a few weeks. I too have a 3250HD receiver (cox cable in virginia). It's definitely not the computer hardware since nothing has changed.

I'd put money cox pushed a new firmware to my receiver and broke firewire - there's a reference in the diag screens to hbo-vod software package which wasn't there before. Unfortunately, I don't have a vcr with firewire port to test against. I did check the 3250hd's info screens.. no changes to 5c encryption on the channels - still have ~12 unencrypted channels.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix? Seems like a number of people with 3250HD receivers have this new problem.


-Mark

[abasu2003]

Originally Posted by mhassman

I've just arrive back home after a few months of travel to find a previously working and happy sage-tv system with HD via firewire is no longer happy.. all is well except the firewire-based channels - they all look like the screen pic above - tested them with vlc-player.

There have been no changes to this system.. just idling & recording favorites. I've checked old recordings from firewire channels - they show the same issue. I don't know when the problem started (older HD content has cycled off with disk space usage), but it's been at least a few weeks. I too have a 3250HD receiver (cox cable in virginia). It's definitely not the computer hardware since nothing has changed.

I'd put money cox pushed a new firmware to my receiver and broke firewire - there's a reference in the diag screens to hbo-vod software package which wasn't there before. Unfortunately, I don't have a vcr with firewire port to test against. I did check the 3250hd's info screens.. no changes to 5c encryption on the channels - still have ~12 unencrypted channels.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix? Seems like a number of people with 3250HD receivers have this new problem.


-Mark

I'm having the same problems too except I have Comcast Cable and it only seems to be happening on FoxHD - which used to be non 5c encrypted with the rest of the network HD channels. kind of sucks - I guess pretty soon all of them will fall