STB Firewire (IEEE-1394) Support

[UFGrayMatter]

OK - some more debugging.

I ran SGR in debug to view what was going on.

I have been getting the error:
"Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service" when Sage tries to program a show. Other times I get the normal info of a show recording but still get "NO SIGNAL" in sage.

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter

Ok - I think I solved one problem - I think Sage is loading before SGR so there is no control when I boot. If I close both, start SGR and then Sage, then channel changing occurs.

Now on to playback - there isn't any. Fox - the channel that came in the best for me before rebuilding the PC now gets "No Signal" as do many other channels. That picture is back to being crap again AND it has crashed the system twice now.

Ummmm...where do I start.

First - my graph looks like this:
Tuner -> dump.ts.
That's what it looked like before the rebuild and it worked well.

The only question i have with that is that I'm using MPEG2Dump filter. Is that correct? Is TS an mpeg stream?

Any other suggestions?

MPEG2Dump just dumps the raw TS stream to the HDD. You could try swapping it out for the one that's bundled with sgraphrecorder, it's called SDBArecorder I think, that one converts the stream to a programme stream.

[UFGrayMatter]

Originally Posted by PhillJones

MPEG2Dump just dumps the raw TS stream to the HDD. You could try swapping it out for the one that's bundled with sgraphrecorder, it's called SDBArecorder I think, that one converts the stream to a programme stream.

I tried that and got an error when I did.

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter

I tried that and got an error when I did.

Have you tried building a filter chain that demuxes the stream and remuxes it again before dumping it to HDD.

Spaceghost's first walkthrough has an example filter chain. (post 355)

[UFGrayMatter]

Originally Posted by PhillJones

Have you tried building a filter chain that demuxes the stream and remuxes it again before dumping it to HDD.

Spaceghost's first walkthrough has an example filter chain. (post 355)

Here is a graph of some testing I did straight in GraphEdit:

Tuner -> TS Info Parser -> MPEG DemultiPlexor -> 
     Audio -> AC3 Filter -> Direct Device
     Video -> MPV Decoder -> VMR 9

This allowed me to view exactly what the 4200HD was spitting out.

Dismal results.
FOX was my best channel before (Thank god b/c i have to have my 24!)
Now - Black Screen
NBC was good before
Now - Black Screen
ABC/CBS - kinda crappy before
Now - Still Crappy
HBO - Great Before
Now - Only Channel that is still good

My HTPC has been off for a week b/c of a downed fan which initiated the upgrade in MOBO and CPU, so I can't be sure WHEN the signal went to hell.

I'm in Westchester County, NY and we just had massive flooding, so I don't know if that might be part of it.

I did check the diagnostics screen on the 4200HD and there are no red flags anywhere, like orange numbers from a bad signal.

I need to go to the cable store and get a new HD box for the bedroom and was thinking of either replacing the current 4200HD for a new one to see if that's the problem or upgrading to maybe the 8300 to see if that is any better.

Any thoughts on any of the previous? See any reason for my signal problems or advice on where to go next?

Thanks,

Ryan

[UFGrayMatter]

have many of you STB users tried or made the switch to HDHomeRun? W/ what results? IS there a comprehensive list somewhere so that I know before what channels I may be expecting to get.

I'm in NYC area w/ Cablevision

Thanks,
Ryan

[UFGrayMatter]

Here is some more debugging from SGR:

I've tried 3 different graphs all using different dump filters - here is what i get:

Unspecified error
Unspecified error
No dump filter!
Unspecified error

The first error comes as soon as I start SGR. The rest come as soon as I click on something to play.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter

have many of you STB users tried or made the switch to HDHomeRun? W/ what results? IS there a comprehensive list somewhere so that I know before what channels I may be expecting to get.

I added an HDHR to my rig with an existing FW'ed STB so I could take the load off the STB. With the HDHR recording 2 digital locals, I could still have the STB available to record any of my subscribed analog or digital channels via firewire.

there isn't a comprehensive list, but you can check this thread, http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ght=qam+lineup , or go to avsforum.com to see if there is info regarding your cable company's QAM lineup. Otherwise, you just need to hook up some sort of QAM tuner and see what you get.

Just remember, available QAM channels aren't always the same as your available FW channels.

[UFGrayMatter]

Just Upgrading my STB's from 4200 to 4250.

The AV/C Tuner was able to install using Timmmoore's drivers but the AV/C Panel won't...

Any ideas?

[Contact-DXM]

Hello all!

I'm determined to get firewire recording to work. So far, the closest I've gotten is "kind of". I can view live TV via VLC, and I can also view it via a direct show test graph I made. I've run into a little snag though while trying to record video. The problem I'm having is converting the TS file to an MPEG-2 file.

Originally Posted by DFA

TS --> PS conversion is no big deal; the fillters are readily available to do this.

Where can I get those? Are there any freely available, or what software do I need to buy?

Right now I've got my graph setup as follows:

[Motorola AV/C Tuner Device] -> [Nvidia TS info Parser] -> [MPEG-2 Demultiplexer] -> [MPEG-2 Muxer that I don't have?] -> [an MPEG-2 Dump filter which I also don't have?]

So.. My questions are as follows: What MPEG-2 Muxer and MPEG-2 Dump filter should I use, and where do I get them? Surely someone else has a good working combination?

Thanks you!

[dflachbart]

Hi,

does anyone here know if the STB firewire drivers can be installed on Windows 2003 Server? I would only need the channel changing functionality to control my STBs, no recording...


Thanks,
Dirk

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by Contact-DXM

Hello all!

I'm determined to get firewire recording to work. So far, the closest I've gotten is "kind of". I can view live TV via VLC, and I can also view it via a direct show test graph I made. I've run into a little snag though while trying to record video. The problem I'm having is converting the TS file to an MPEG-2 file.



Where can I get those? Are there any freely available, or what software do I need to buy?

Right now I've got my graph setup as follows:

[Motorola AV/C Tuner Device] -> [Nvidia TS info Parser] -> [MPEG-2 Demultiplexer] -> [MPEG-2 Muxer that I don't have?] -> [an MPEG-2 Dump filter which I also don't have?]

So.. My questions are as follows: What MPEG-2 Muxer and MPEG-2 Dump filter should I use, and where do I get them? Surely someone else has a good working combination?

Thanks you!

SDBArecorder is bundled with sgraphrecorder and does the whole shebang in one fell swoop. See Spaceghosts walkthrough (the second one) for details

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hi,

does anyone here know if the STB firewire drivers can be installed on Windows 2003 Server? I would only need the channel changing functionality to control my STBs, no recording...


Thanks,
Dirk

Just a follow-up: the drivers run fine on Windows 2003 Server


Dirk

[UFGrayMatter]

well - I gave up and went with the HDHomeRun - couldn't be more happy!!

Firewire sucked, got a new box, no drivers, now i get the channels I want - X2

[LazyGun]

So, I think i've read almost every post in this thread, and I've been trying to get FW recording working on my setup.
I've almost got it all done. I can write files using my graph in GraphEdit. And I can play them back. They're a bit choppy but I assume that is just the channel I am testing with.

However, when I try and record in Sage I get nothing.
It changes channels ok, and a file appears in my recordings directory, but it stays at 0kb.

My setup is a little different I suppose.
The HD box is connected to a remote PC. The Sage Server has it configured in the sage.properties to connect to the SBDARecorder using a network name and port.
All my recordings folders are setup using unc paths, and my graph is set to write to the recording folder using a unc path as well.

And I can't figure out what step I have missed.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

P.S. Sage v6.0

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by LazyGun

So, I think i've read almost every post in this thread, and I've been trying to get FW recording working on my setup.
I've almost got it all done. I can write files using my graph in GraphEdit. And I can play them back. They're a bit choppy but I assume that is just the channel I am testing with.

However, when I try and record in Sage I get nothing.
It changes channels ok, and a file appears in my recordings directory, but it stays at 0kb.

My setup is a little different I suppose.
The HD box is connected to a remote PC. The Sage Server has it configured in the sage.properties to connect to the SBDARecorder using a network name and port.
All my recordings folders are setup using unc paths, and my graph is set to write to the recording folder using a unc path as well.

And I can't figure out what step I have missed.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

P.S. Sage v6.0

Sounds to me like sage has a problem connecting to sgraphrecorder. Maybe there's an issue with the sage properties file; where you have to specify the network address and port?

Are you using exetuner directly or via sgraphrecorder?

[fyodor]

Do you have the graph dump file in your sagetv recording directory?

Originally Posted by LazyGun

So, I think i've read almost every post in this thread, and I've been trying to get FW recording working on my setup.
I've almost got it all done. I can write files using my graph in GraphEdit. And I can play them back. They're a bit choppy but I assume that is just the channel I am testing with.

However, when I try and record in Sage I get nothing.
It changes channels ok, and a file appears in my recordings directory, but it stays at 0kb.

My setup is a little different I suppose.
The HD box is connected to a remote PC. The Sage Server has it configured in the sage.properties to connect to the SBDARecorder using a network name and port.
All my recordings folders are setup using unc paths, and my graph is set to write to the recording folder using a unc path as well.

And I can't figure out what step I have missed.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

P.S. Sage v6.0

[LazyGun]

Originally Posted by fyodor

Do you have the graph dump file in your sagetv recording directory?

Yep.
When I created my graph in GraphEdit, I used the Tuner device and the SBDADumpRecorder filter. Output the dump file to my sage recordings folder using a network (unc) share. Sage will change the channel, and create a file with the program name , but then doesn't do anything with it.
The Debug log from SBDA whatsit outputs Get_File_Size a lot. I saw that mentioned somewhere in this thread, but couldn't find a cause or solution.
Sage is running as a service if that makes a difference. Not had a chance to try it running normally but I might be able to try that tonight.

[willgill]

My buddy's channel changing via firewire seemed to just stop all of the sudden. He has a SA 3250 HD STB. When I type in "channel /v 2 8" in the
command line, I get the following, but no channel change. Any ideas?
-----------------------------------------------------------

C:\Program Files\STBFirewireControl>channel /v 2 8
Firewire STB channel changer V1.0.15, by timmmoore
Device 2 Channel 8 Timeout 100 Dec 0
1 "FireBus MPEG2TS Tuner Subunit Device"
'Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device'
"@device:pnp:\\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_3250hd&typ_5&id_0#9c5
d8921600#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 0
2 "AVC Panel Device"
'Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device'

UniqueID '9c5ad8921600'
VendorID '1692'
ModelID 'be0'
VendorText 'Scientific-Atlanta Inc.'
ModelText 'Explorer(R) 3250HD'
"@device:pnp:\\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_3250hd&typ_9&id_0#9c5
d8921600#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 1
3 'Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture'
"@device:pnp:\\?\pci#ven_4444&dev_0016&subsys_80030070&rev_01#3&61aaa01&0&48#{6
e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\{9b365890-165f-11d0-a195-0020afd156e4}" 0
Device Id "Device Version "2.1.0"
Using alternative command 4
Response (0x09 (ACCEPTED)) received 7 bytes
09 48 7c e7 04 00 08
Calling tranport release
Called tranport release
Calling CoUninitialize
Called CoUninitialize

[hydro123456]

Is there any way to make the firewire channel changing faster? It has about a 1 second delay in between each # and I have a 4 digit tuner so it takes forever to change a channel.