HDTV Firewire Support on The Mac

[Diginerd]

Is anyone tinkering with this? It should would be nice to close the circle and get Firewire recording integrated on the Mac. I'm not a coder but from what I read Apple makes it nice and easy (Surprise!)

http://project-tigershark.com/people/rob/blog/2007/01/14/cable-tv-mac-firewire-hd-pvr

Either as built into Sage (Unlikely?) or along the lines of SGR would rock.

How about a challenge for those with some coding skills?

[Diginerd]

I poked about with this http://www.ammesset.com/irecord/ and it's really cool, now if it were fully scriptable there has got to be a way to get this to work.

I'm done with Windows based Firewire capture. it has always been flaky, and forget about vista support.

[jriskin]

I just ordered a new HDTV and I've been tinkering with firewire capture for a couple years now. Windows has ALWAYS been flakey and unreliable (dropping mpeg blocks, audio, frames, etc...), while my G5 powermac has always given me almost perfect HD firewire capture. I've tried 3 different PC's and firewire cards and never managed to get it quite right.

It's sad, because I know I'm going to have to manually record shows on the mac vs. letting sage do it. Not the end of the world and I can always use sage for playback via the media library, but its hardly an ideal solution.

So this is one big vote for firewire on the mac!!!

[guho]

I've developed a way to use a Macintosh on your home network as a SageTV Firewire Network Encoder. As many have noticed, firewire captures from Mac are often clean whereas from PC it is pixelated. I've only tested it on MacOS 10.4.8 (10.4.x required) and an SA4200HD. Works great. It'll even turn on the box before the recording and turn it off when done.

Should work regardless of whether your SageTV server is Windows or Mac. If Mac and running this encoder on the same machine, just set encoder address to 127.0.0.1.

See http://www.hugolyppens.com/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.html

[bcjenkins]

That's cool. Can one Mac control multiple boxes? Also, what channels do you get on firewire?

TIA

B

[bhyman1]

guho, thats great!

I'll give it a try this week when I have a chance.

[guho]

Yes, just run multiple instances of the encoder on different port numbers and associate them with different cable boxes.

I get all the channels (I subscribe to basic digital cable), both HD and non-HD.

That's cool. Can one Mac control multiple boxes? Also, what channels do you get on firewire?

TIA

B

[jriskin]

I can't tell you how much better a solution this is. I've been recording with iRecord, which works, but you lose all the nice features of SageTV (like remembering what you've seen, getting programs at alternative times, on alternative channels, live playback, etc...).

I think my next step might be ditching my PC altogether now. A MacMini + SageMac + HDTV Firewire Plugin + Somesort of Tuner I think would be ideal.

A++ on the plugin! The guys at Sage should really include this built in.

Oh, two small problems.

1. How can I get it to run all the time? I tried launching it with &, but it still seemed to exit when I closed my terminal window.
2. I couldn't get spaces to work in the prefix mapping...

Works:
directoryprefixmap=X:|/Network/Servers/whale/files/
Doesn't work:
directoryprefixmap=X:|/Network/Servers/whale/files/this directory/sage

[Vaskill]

I am not familiar with mapping in OS X. Can someone give me more specific instructions...

UDPATE: Finaly got it to work with a little help from the net. Will not test quality and network impact. First glance, SA3250HD works fine.

[guho]

I can't tell you how much better a solution this is. I've been recording with iRecord, which works, but you lose all the nice features of SageTV (like remembering what you've seen, getting programs at alternative times, on alternative channels, live playback, etc...).

I think my next step might be ditching my PC altogether now. A MacMini + SageMac + HDTV Firewire Plugin + Somesort of Tuner I think would be ideal.

A++ on the plugin! The guys at Sage should really include this built in.

Oh, two small problems.

1. How can I get it to run all the time? I tried launching it with &, but it still seemed to exit when I closed my terminal window.
2. I couldn't get spaces to work in the prefix mapping...

Works:
directoryprefixmap=X:|/Network/Servers/whale/files/
Doesn't work:
directoryprefixmap=X:|/Network/Servers/whale/files/this directory/sage

Glad the SageTV firewire network encoder works well. Point taken about spaces. in your case, as you have done, use a path w/o spaces.

if you exit terminal it's gone. To avoid this, you can use nohup but must redirect output stderr&stdout to files. it is better to just leave terminal up, so you can see what's going on.

[oopsydaisy]

I've developed a way to use a Macintosh on your home network as a SageTV Firewire Network Encoder. As many have noticed, firewire captures from Mac are often clean whereas from PC it is pixelated. I've only tested it on MacOS 10.4.8 (10.4.x required) and an SA4200HD. Works great. It'll even turn on the box before the recording and turn it off when done.

Should work regardless of whether your SageTV server is Windows or Mac. If Mac and running this encoder on the same machine, just set encoder address to 127.0.0.1.

See http://www.hugolyppens.com/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.html

First, let me give you a rundown of my setup. I have a mac mini 1.42Ghz G4/512MB/10.4.10 that I want to use as my SageTV server. I also have a SA4200HD. I have SageTV 6.2.10 installed(don't know if this will work). I have a question and something that doesn't match your instructions on your site. First, from your site, "Add these lines to the mmc/encoders section in sage.properties" I don't see a mmc/encoders section in my sage.properties file. Second, where do I put in the encoder address(127.0.0.1)? I have attached my sage.properties file for review. Thanks in advance

[Diginerd]

This is pretty easy to fix..

paste the text from Hugo's site in after the last mmc/blahblahblah line in your properties

to place the ip address you need to alter this line from the sample config

mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=ENCODERHOST\:6969

to look like this

mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969

Don't forget to go into your network settings an allow the firewall to access port 6969 (Or turn the firewall off if you are on a private network (Which from other lines in your config you look to be) and you have a firewall at the edge of your network between you and the internet.

I'm not too sure if that step is totally neccesary to reach the loopback address (127.0.0.1) so try it without modifying the firewall, but if you get nowhere make the change.

Once we get a few more of us up and doing this then Hugo needs an oscar and a ticker taper parade, as well as we should collectively push this out into the blogshpere as essentially it makes for a HDTV PVR with a free 15 day trial and no reccuring fees on the Mac.

Nothing else comes close! :jump:

Now if only there was HDHomerun support too then we'd be cooking on gas!!

One last thing, I suspect your G4 won't be able to play back the HD you record.. Though my MDD 1.25 can just about in VLC but no chance in Sage. Though if you are planning on having HD capable clients you'll be fine.. Placeshifting clients, or to a regular MVP would be too much for the poor G4 to handle)

[oopsydaisy]

This is pretty easy to fix..

paste the text from Hugo's site in after the last mmc/blahblahblah line in your properties

to place the ip address you need to alter this line from the sample config

mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=ENCODERHOST\:6969

to look like this

mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969

Don't forget to go into your network settings an allow the firewall to access port 6969 (Or turn the firewall off if you are on a private network (Which from other lines in your config you look to be) and you have a firewall at the edge of your network between you and the internet.

I'm not too sure if that step is totally neccesary to reach the loopback address (127.0.0.1) so try it without modifying the firewall, but if you get nowhere make the change.

Once we get a few more of us up and doing this then Hugo needs an oscar and a ticker taper parade, as well as we should collectively push this out into the blogshpere as essentially it makes for a HDTV PVR with a free 15 day trial and no reccuring fees on the Mac.

Nothing else comes close! :jump:

Now if only there was HDHomerun support too then we'd be cooking on gas!!

One last thing, I suspect your G4 won't be able to play back the HD you record.. Though my MDD 1.25 can just about in VLC but no chance in Sage. Though if you are planning on having HD capable clients you'll be fine.. Placeshifting clients, or to a regular MVP would be too much for the poor G4 to handle)

Thanks for the info. I will try this and report my results as soon as possible

[oopsydaisy]

This is pretty easy to fix..

paste the text from Hugo's site in after the last mmc/blahblahblah line in your properties

to place the ip address you need to alter this line from the sample config

mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=ENCODERHOST\:6969

to look like this

mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969

Don't forget to go into your network settings an allow the firewall to access port 6969 (Or turn the firewall off if you are on a private network (Which from other lines in your config you look to be) and you have a firewall at the edge of your network between you and the internet.

I'm not too sure if that step is totally neccesary to reach the loopback address (127.0.0.1) so try it without modifying the firewall, but if you get nowhere make the change.

Once we get a few more of us up and doing this then Hugo needs an oscar and a ticker taper parade, as well as we should collectively push this out into the blogshpere as essentially it makes for a HDTV PVR with a free 15 day trial and no reccuring fees on the Mac.

Nothing else comes close! :jump:

Now if only there was HDHomerun support too then we'd be cooking on gas!!

One last thing, I suspect your G4 won't be able to play back the HD you record.. Though my MDD 1.25 can just about in VLC but no chance in Sage. Though if you are planning on having HD capable clients you'll be fine.. Placeshifting clients, or to a regular MVP would be too much for the poor G4 to handle)

OK, so I tried the above, but Sage does not see a digital tuner as I believe it's supposed to. I have attached my config.txt as well as my altered sage.properties. I am on a private network and since it didn't work at first, I did set my airport extreme to open port 6969 for the address of my mini. Is that right? Anyway, still no go.

[guho]

It could be that the MAC SageTV has other syntax in Sage properties for network encoder than PC SageTV. If you can find any instructions anywhere on how to set up a network encoder as a source to MAC SageTV (such as HD HomeRun etc.) you can apply them to my Firewire Network Encoder and it should work just fine.

[bcjenkins]

I think the problem is that you have too many \ in your section. And you have double mmc/encoders on some lines.

Here's a snippet from a network encoder on my linux server:

mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/last_channel=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/provider_id=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/tuning_mode=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/99/0/video_crossbar_type=99
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/audio_capture_device_index=-1
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/audio_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/audio_processor=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/broadcast_standard=ATSC
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/capture_config=53248
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/default_device_quality=Fair
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/device_class=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/dshow_tv_type=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/encoding_host=192.168.0.253\:6969
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/last_cross_type=100
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/multicast_host=
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/video_capture_device_name=FusionHDTV, WDM Video Capture
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/video_encoding_params=Fair
mmc/encoders/-1964508871/video_processor=


Here's yours:

mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/available_channels=mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/brightness\=0 mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/contrast\=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/device_name=mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream\=false
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/hue=0 mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/last_channel\=737
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/provider_id=1876569738441 mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/saturation\=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/sharpness=0 mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_mode\=Cable mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_plugin\=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_plugin_port=0 mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/video_crossbar_index\=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/video_crossbar_type=100 mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_index\=-1
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_name=mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_num\=0
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_processor=mmc/encoders/12348/broadcast_standard\=ATSC mmc/encoders/12348/capture_config\=0
mmc/encoders/12348/default_device_quality=mmc/encoders/12348/device_class\= mmc/encoders/12348/dshow_tv_type\=
mmc/encoders/12348/device_class=
mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0 mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host\=127.0.0.1\:6969
mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=
mmc/encoders/12348/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=mmc/encoders/12348/last_cross_index\=0
mmc/encoders/12348/last_cross_type=100 mmc/encoders/12348/live_audio_input\= mmc/encoders/12348/multicast_host\=
mmc/encoders/12348/never_stop_encoding=false mmc/encoders/12348/video_capture_device_name\=SA4200HD
mmc/encoders/12348/video_capture_device_num=0 mmc/encoders/12348/video_compressor\=
mmc/encoders/12348/video_encoding_params=Best mmc/encoders/12348/video_processor\=

I would change it to:

mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/brightness=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/contrast=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/hue=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/last_channel=737
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/provider_id=1876569738441
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/saturation=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/sharpness=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/video_crossbar_type=100
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_index=-1
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_processor=
mmc/encoders/12348/broadcast_standard=ATSC
mmc/encoders/12348/capture_config=0
mmc/encoders/12348/default_device_quality=
mmc/encoders/12348/device_class=
mmc/encoders/12348/dshow_tv_type=
mmc/encoders/12348/device_class=
mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969
mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=
mmc/encoders/12348/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/12348/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/12348/last_cross_type=100
mmc/encoders/12348/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/12348/multicast_host=
mmc/encoders/12348/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/12348/video_capture_device_name=SA4200HD
mmc/encoders/12348/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12348/video_compressor=
mmc/encoders/12348/video_encoding_params=Best
mmc/encoders/12348/video_processor=

[oopsydaisy]

OK, so I did what you said and it was still a no-go. I kept checking out the sage.properties file to see if I was missing something and sure enough, there is an entry for network encoder discovery which was set to false. I decided to start with a clean sage.properties file and then copied the text from guho's site. I then cleaned it up so that each mmc entry was on a separate line as you suggested. Lastly, I changed the network encoder discovery value to true. Great success! High 5! I've just gotten to the point where sage sees the tuner. I haven't actually set it up or recorded anything yet, but since this was such a hurdle for me, I thought it was important to post my steps and what brought success. Thanks for all your help guys. Now, on to some recording. I'll check in in a day or 2 to report.

[oopsydaisy]

OK, so it hasn't been a day or 2, but I've got another question. Is there a way to leave the STB on all the time, or at least to not shut the box off unless I do it manually?

[guho]

OK, so it hasn't been a day or 2, but I've got another question. Is there a way to leave the STB on all the time, or at least to not shut the box off unless I do it manually?

You can set the poweroffdelay really high instead of 2 minutes. Perhaps to a day. This is 1000x60x60x24=86400000ms. As long as you have at least one recording happening per day, the box will stay on.

[guho]

I think the problem is that you have too many \ in your section. And you have double mmc/encoders on some lines.



You're right. I just fixed it.

[guho]

I'm REALLY excited about getting this to work. This is the exact solution I have been searching the web for.

I'm a pretty experienced MAC user. Most of the directions I understand. Except I have some questions about netinfo. Can someone look at this and let me know if this looks correct?

http://idisk.mac.com/robbie.caesar-Public/Picture%201.png


Or is Netinfo even neccessary when I am not setting up a server/client relationship?
Thanks!

Not necessary if SageTV and the firewire network encoder are on the same computer. The opts should be 'url==cifs://...' as mentioned on my page. Also you forgot to define dir.

[mohanman]

This is pretty crazy stuff. Has anyone gotten this to work with a comcast motorola box? And if so, does it work well?

Mo

[Diginerd]

I believe that it is only for the Scientific Atlantas at the moment, but as guho (The author of this fine tool) mentioned to get another brand of box running should anly be as hard as researching the command set for it.

[robbiecaesar]

Hey Guys,
So I also have the input up and working. I am using the 127.0.0.1 setup. I see the source but havent gotten the live TV showing yet.
I'm using the SA8300HD.

I'm seeing a "No Signal". Anything ideas?
Also my channel change isnt working. Is this because I'm using a SA8300 or because I'm not getting a video feed?

Thanks for the encoder!

[guho]

Hey Guys,
So I also have the input up and working. I am using the 127.0.0.1 setup. I see the source but havent gotten the live TV showing yet.
I'm using the SA8300HD.

I'm seeing a "No Signal". Anything ideas?
Also my channel change isnt working. Is this because I'm using a SA8300 or because I'm not getting a video feed?

Thanks for the encoder!

SA8300HD does not pass live video over firewire. You can play back previously recorded shows over firewire. This is true for my SA8300HD. For anyone having trouble with a particular type of cable box and my encoder, try whether you can capture video with AVCVideoCap (comes with Apple's Firewire SDK) to a file. If that does not work it will not work with my firewire network encoder.

[robbiecaesar]

SA8300HD does not pass live video over firewire. You can play back previously recorded show over firewire. This is true for my SA8300HD. For anyone having trouble with a particular type of cable box and my encoder, try whether you can capture video with AVCVideoCap (comes with Apple's Firewire SDK) to a file. If that does not work it will not work with my firewire network encoder.

So I'm assuming this is a limitation of the box that this will be impossible to work around?

How do you see prerecorded shows? I've setup Sage to see change 690 (my DVR playback channel) but I'm not able to see a feed there either.

I might go and see if I can get a SA4200HD added to my account.

Thanks

[Diginerd]

SA8300HD does not pass live video over firewire. You can play back previously recorded show over firewire. This is true for my SA8300HD. For anyone having trouble with a particular type of cable box and my encoder, try whether you can capture video with AVCVideoCap (comes with Apple's Firewire SDK) to a file. If that does not work it will not work with my firewire network encoder.

That's intersting. My SA8300HD does the opposite, but only recently as before firewire was disabled on it. Now, Firewire is active for the live signal but not prerecorded... I chatted with a friendly tech about it and their view is that they only have to be able to provide A (as in singular) STB in their range to be compliant with the FCC. As the 8300 is a DVR their thought is that they're not obliged to, nor would they want to.

Not going to press it further at the moment as they're either ignoring or overlooking not applying 5c for now...

[robbiecaesar]

That's intersting. My SA8300HD does the opposite, but only recently as before firewire was disabled on it. Now, Firewire is active for the live signal but not prerecorded... I chatted with a friendly tech about it and their view is that they only have to be able to provide A (as in singular) STB in their range to be compliant with the FCC. As the 8300 is a DVR their thought is that they're not obliged to, nor would they want to.

Not going to press it further at the moment as they're either ignoring or overlooking not applying 5c for now...

So are you saying that you enabled a firewire port setting and now you are able to see Live TV and not prerecorded shows?

If so could you explain how that was done?

[Diginerd]

i didn't the cable co did. It's a function of how they configure their STBs..

The 8300 is an oddball box, I'd strongly reccommend you go and pick up a 4200HD for this. most Cable cos have no contracts, so try it for a few days and see if it works for you..

[guho]

I believe that it is only for the Scientific Atlantas at the moment, but as guho (The author of this fine tool) mentioned to get another brand of box running should anly be as hard as researching the command set for it.

It should work for any cable box that accepts the standard channel change commands over firewire. Scientific Atlanta has a slightly deviating command so I implemented a special case for it. Cable box must be able to pass live TV signal via firewire.

[Vaskill]

Guhu, after a few days of using your tool successfuly (thank you very, very much), I have an idea...

What do you think about passing the 5C flag (somehow) to SageTV and adding it to the metadata of the recording? As you may have noticed, some stations/content do not use the "Copy Freely" flag but instead use "Copy Never" or the "Copy Once" flag which cause the recording to fail.

[guho]

Guhu, after a few days of using your tool successfuly (thank you very, very much), I have an idea...

What do you think about passing the 5C flag (somehow) to SageTV and adding it to the metadata of the recording? As you may have noticed, some stations/content do not use the "Copy Freely" flag but instead use "Copy Never" or the "Copy Once" flag which cause the recording to fail.

I should make it an option to only record 'copy freely' content. In SageTV, network encoders aren't asked to provide metadata or is it a file that sits alongside the recording? not familiar with metadata in SageTV.

[Vaskill]

I should make it an option to only record 'copy freely' content. In SageTV, network encoders aren't asked to provide metadata or is it a file that sits alongside the recording? not familiar with metadata in SageTV.

Sage stores metadata about a file it is recording in a database. It currently does not display anything about C5 but does about Closed Captioning, EPG data, etc. (The stuff you see when you look at the Detailed Information of a program recorded). I do not know how hard it is to add a field but I know some have developed XML importers for the WIZ DB. I like your idea of a setting to abort a capture of shows that are not "Copy Freely" and to add, if it does cancel to add a new recording of the same show (in HD) the next time the EPG says it is on (conflicts stop new manual recordings from being added and thus the "enhancement" would skip to the next non-conflicting time slot for the same show in HD).

"Sweet dreams are made of these..."

[oopsydaisy]

OK, so I'm back to report that ever since I got past the initial setup issues I was having, this solution has been flawless!!! If I had this running on an intel mac, it would be pure heaven. Right now I have to record on my ppc mac mini and transfer the files to my intel mac running parallels to remove commercials. I then run those files through visual hub to make great iphone compatible files. I love visual hub. Anyway, I'd like to say thanks a million to guho for this wonderful plugin! I don't even need USB-UIRT support! If it somehow came to support more STBs, the guys at Sage should definitely incorporate this into the next version for OSX.

:clap:

[Diginerd]

I have posted over in the harware support / firewire thread about Multiple STBs and firewire. Easily tweaked for a Mac only environment.

Also go get iPodifier (www.ipodifier.com) and run under windows in parallels, if you have iTune 7.3 or greater on both then selecting specific shows and depth of queues for each is trivallail and automatic)

How to get Firewire Running on the Mac from a clean Install

Download the latest version of SageTV

Install SageTV

Launch SageTV and Run through the 1st Time setup Wizard

Download http://www.hugolyppens.com/docs/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.zip

Install SageTV
Expand SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.ZIP and move to /Applications/ SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder (ie drag the expanded folder to /Applications folder on your Primary Hard Disk)
Launch Sage and complete the setup wizard. Skip “Source Setup” at this time.
Once the wizard is completed you will be presented with the Sage Main menu.
From the Menu Bar (Assuming you’re not in full screen), Select SageTV > Preferences
Click on Startup, and then set the service to Manual and click on stop. The Sage window will post “Connection to server Lost” at this point.
Quit SageTv
Find /Library/Application Support/SageTV/Data/Sage.properties and double click in the finder. You’ll be prompted to choose an application to open the file with. Select TextEdit.
Right after the line
mmc/video_format_code=1
Paste the following:-

mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/brightness=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/contrast=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/hue=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/last_channel=737
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/provider_id=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/saturation=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/sharpness=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12348/100/0/video_crossbar_type=100
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_index=-1
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12348/audio_processor=
mmc/encoders/12348/broadcast_standard=ATSC
mmc/encoders/12348/capture_config=0
mmc/encoders/12348/default_device_quality=
mmc/encoders/12348/device_class=
mmc/encoders/12348/dshow_tv_type=
mmc/encoders/12348/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/12348/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969
mmc/encoders/12348/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/12348/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/12348/last_cross_type=100
mmc/encoders/12348/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/12348/multicast_host=
mmc/encoders/12348/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/12348/video_capture_device_name=SA4200HD
mmc/encoders/12348/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12348/video_compressor=
mmc/encoders/12348/video_encoding_params=Best
mmc/encoders/12348/video_processor=
Save the file, and ignore any Warnings TextEdit gives you about file extensions, and tell it to “use /properties”
Open a Terminal Window (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
Enter:-
cd /Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder
./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder –list
Check that the cablebox is both seen and it is on ID 0, if for some reason it isn’t make a note of the number and follow the OPTIONAL instructions in the next step
Open /Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/config.txt
Amend the line:-
directoryprefixmap=E:|/Network/SAGETV0,F:|/Network/SAGETV1,G:|/Network/SAGETV2,J:|/Network/SAGETV3
so it looks like:-
directoryprefixmap=
OPTIONAL INSTRUCTION (In your device is not on ID0)
Amend the line:-
device=0
To be whatever you device number is.
Take a deep breath.
Showtime!
Back in Terminal enter:-
./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder --configfile config.txt
You should see it sit with the final line reading:-
“Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.”
DON’T Close this window!
Launch Sage TV and you should pop straight into the Setupwizard asking you to setup your new source… 

Enjoy

[oopsydaisy]

I have posted over in the harware support / firewire thread about Multiple STBs and firewire. Easily tweaked for a Mac only environment.

...

What I meant by other STBs was more models besides the 4200. I used the precursor to ipodifier on the PC when I was using Sage 4x, but I haven't checked out the development lately to see how it does with iphone video. I'll check it out.

[guho]

What I meant by other STBs was more models besides the 4200. I used the precursor to ipodifier on the PC when I was using Sage 4x, but I haven't checked out the development lately to see how it does with iphone video. I'll check it out.

Should work for other cableboxes. It just so happened that I have an SA4200HD and tested it with that. Let's get some reports from others about experiences using other cable boxes.

[Diginerd]

I know it works with the 4250HD (I have two of these as well as SA4200s), from the old Timmmoore days when I used to use the 3250HD drivers with my boxes I'd hazard that those boxes will work with this too..

If the code is based off of Apple's I suspect that the Motos should be good too, but I can't confirm as my Cable Co is a Scientific Atlanta Shop only..

[soccerdad]

guho, you rock! This software just works.

[guho]

To those using my Mac firewire network encoder:
- The NetInfo manager has been deprecated so now I am not sure how to mount the recording directories as nicely as in 10.4.x
- SageTV placeshifter runs really poorly on my mac mini under Leopard. Full-screen 1920x1080p 60Hz is a slideshow and it freezes easily

Bottom line: recommended not to upgrade to Leopard until Apple releases a decent service pack.

[mohanman]

Can someone help me with the firewire setup? I have gotten as far as using the terminal window. However, the commands that are listed in that one post # 35 instructions don't work. It keeps saying invalid directory or invalid filename or command. I have done everything, I know my boxes work because Irecord works just fine! Please help me with using terminal
Thanks
Mo

(I am used to dos, but terminal is weird)

[drjb52]

Many thanks to Diginerd and guho for their work. A mac mini seems like an elegant pvr for a cable box. I have a motorola box, DCH-3200 and AVCVideoCap works perfectly, including channel change. I haven't been able to follow guho's instructions for Netinfo Manager (yes, I'm a Window's weenie). I have tried Diginerd's fresh install instructions twice, and the terminal shows that Sage is talking to the cable box, but no ts is recorded, and I get "no signal" messages in live TV, and GET_FILE_SIZE messages reminiscent of the old Timmoore days. Any thoughts?


Mac mini 1.86ghz, Mac OS version 10.4.10, Motorola DCH-3200, SageTV for Mac V6.2.10.1.

[guho]

Is your Sage server a PC? Check whether recording drives accessible from Mac with same paths encoder is trying to use. If not fix mounts or configfile mappings.
Many thanks to Diginerd and guho for their work. A mac mini seems like an elegant pvr for a cable box. I have a motorola box, DCH-3200 and AVCVideoCap works perfectly, including channel change. I haven't been able to follow guho's instructions for Netinfo Manager (yes, I'm a Window's weenie). I have tried Diginerd's fresh install instructions twice, and the terminal shows that Sage is talking to the cable box, but no ts is recorded, and I get "no signal" messages in live TV, and GET_FILE_SIZE messages reminiscent of the old Timmoore days. Any thoughts?


Mac mini 1.86ghz, Mac OS version 10.4.10, Motorola DCH-3200, SageTV for Mac V6.2.10.1.

[guho]

I uploaded a new version of SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder. I was experiencing glitches on many recordings and narrowed it down to the code that writes the recording and made it more efficient. All my HD glitches gone. I get flawless HD on all channels! Also added a .command file that you can drag to login items to make sure it runs upon boot. And added some Leopard instructions to set up mounts via command line.

See http://hugolyppens.com/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.html.

[delgross]

I've been using Sage for years and have long wanted to setup firewire support.
I was very interested when I someone say how easy it is with a Mac.
So I went ahead and installed it per the instructions and am using
the latest version just uploaded. Everything seems to work but I must be mapping the drives wrong in config.txt.

Unfortunately, I had already installed leopard so netinfo was out of the
question. As I already use UNC paths for all machines I thought
I would be able to get around this, but apparently not.

Lets say video is being recorded on \\HTPC\Sage One. How would
I express that in the config file under OS X.? I already tried setting
directoryprefixmap=

Terminal shows that it is finding my motorola box. Channels change.
Sage (on a seperate windows box) shows "NO SIGNAL" and the program
continually generates what look like path errors

Performing stat://htpc/hd/2_700_1210_1838-1.ts
Response: Error 'Error stat //htpc/hd/2_700_1210_1838-1.ts'



Thanks,
ED

[guho]

Please reread my page as I've updated instructions and added non-NetInfo instructions that work with Leopard (and all other MacOS X I presume).

I've been using Sage for years and have long wanted to setup firewire support.
I was very interested when I someone say how easy it is with a Mac.
So I went ahead and installed it per the instructions and am using
the latest version just uploaded. Everything seems to work but I must be mapping the drives wrong in config.txt.

Unfortunately, I had already installed leopard so netinfo was out of the
question. As I already use UNC paths for all machines I thought
I would be able to get around this, but apparently not.

Lets say video is being recorded on \\HTPC\Sage One. How would
I express that in the config file under OS X.? I already tried setting
directoryprefixmap=

Terminal shows that it is finding my motorola box. Channels change.
Sage (on a seperate windows box) shows "NO SIGNAL" and the program
continually generates what look like path errors

Performing stat://htpc/hd/2_700_1210_1838-1.ts
Response: Error 'Error stat //htpc/hd/2_700_1210_1838-1.ts'



Thanks,
ED

[delgross]

I have continued to play around with this. I keep getting the same
error I referenced in my message above. I think the mounts are ok
as an appropriate .ts shows on my sage server. Still nosignal on the
server as well..... any ideas. I would really love to get this to work.

Also, to anyone else.... I have a Motorola HD box and it seems like if
I can solve the above it will work.
ED

[guho]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble.

What's your directoryprefixmap? It should be something like \\htpc\SageOne|/Network/SageTV/SageOne

Can you see all your recordings when you type

ls /Network/SageTV/SageOne?

Please keep it simple with no spaces in the share name, user name or password.

Does AVCVideoCap work?

[delgross]

Thanks for trying to help.

I spent a lot of time with it and could not get it to work. AVCVideocap
was new to me, but I installed it and was unable to view the file with VLC.
I know the output is not 5c because I have actually viewed it on a PC.
AVCVideocap did show me a flag of "once only".

So I decided to bite the bullet and bought the Sage Server for the Mac.
From what I read then the path stuff should not matter.
I figure if this works I will run the server on the Mac anyway. For
the life of me I could not get the program to recognize your program as
a network encoder.

If it is not too much trouble I am going to try to attach my config.txt
and sage.properties file and maybe you can see what I can. BTW I
already set find network encoders to true.

Thanks
ED

[Diginerd]

Took a quick look at your properties file. I don't see the mmc/encoders section populated with the section from guho's site or from my guide.

Get that in there to tie it together, if you still have isses we can work from there..

[delgross]

Appreciate it. I don't know how I sent the wrong file. Also just in
case anyone needs to know I have my Mac firewall off.

[guho]

If AVCVideoCap says 'Copy Once' you're out of luck. I know this since one of my HD channels recently started doing this and I've had to remove it from the channel lineup. It will record encrypted data, which grinds SageTV to a halt. Unless you can find channels that can be copied freely and you can play AVCVideoCap recordings back using VLC, I do not think it is going to work for you.

Appreciate it. I don't know how I sent the wrong file. Also just in
case anyone needs to know I have my Mac firewall off.

[delgross]

Ok. I looked at all my HD channels with AVCVideoCap and in fact most
of them have a copy freely flag and I was able to visualize them in
AVCVideocap. No back to my problem with Sage not recognizing the
encoder

Thanks,
ED

[drosne01]

Hi,

I am trying to get this to work on my Intel Mac Mini. I am running OS X 10.5 and I have a Motorola 6200 cable box. I have successfully recorded video from the box using iRecord and DVHSCap. I want to run the program on my local machine, so I skipped the steps on automounting a volume in Leopard. I edited the config.txt and sage.properties and I think I am set up correctly there--but I am attaching them so you can have a look. Anyway, when I run the program (either with the batch file or by manually starting it in Terminal) I get this error:

Last login: Fri Feb 8 00:24:13 on ttys000
/Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command ; exit;
mac-mini:~ $ /Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command ; exit;
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6200
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
-list
Received command: BUFFER default Digital TV Tuner|158|16777216|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf|Great
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf (this Performing....repeats over and over)

Anyone have any idea what is going on here? I am pretty new to Macs so I could be missing something simple.

Thanks,

D

[guho]

is /Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/ writable?

[drosne01]

is /Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/ writable?

I am not sure. In finder it says that Admin can read/write, but then there are two other groups that can only read it--one called "wheels."

Should I make the folder writeable for all groups? I figured the sage process was owned by Admin, so it should be able to write.

[guho]

I am not sure. In finder it says that Admin can read/write, but then there are two other groups that can only read it--one called "wheels."

Should I make the folder writeable for all groups? I figured the sage process was owned by Admin, so it should be able to write.

It needs to be writable by the user the SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder runs as. As a test just make it writable to all.

[drosne01]

It needs to be writable by the user the SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder runs as. As a test just make it writable to all.

OK, I set the folder to be read/write by everyone. I am still getting the same error:

Received command: BUFFER default Digital TV Tuner|158|16777216|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf|Great
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf''

I did not do any networking because I am running the software on the local machine. Could that be the problem? Any other ideas?

Thanks, I really appreciate your help.

[guho]

so if you type

touch '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf'

as a test in the same terminal window you should get a zero-length file there; check with

ls '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV'

then clean up:

rm '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf''

if any of those commands fails it is a problem that needs to be fixed.

[drosne01]

so if you type

touch '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf'

as a test in the same terminal window you should get a zero-length file there; check with

ls '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV'

then clean up:

rm '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf''

if any of those commands fails it is a problem that needs to be fixed.

I tried both of these commands in terminal. They worked. The first one created a file, the second one deleted it. I am stumped. What could be causing this error?

[guho]

Anyone out there who got this working? I do not have mac SageTV, only Windows, and use the mac as an encoder on the LAN.

One thing you could try is even if the BUFFER commands won't work, just set up a channel anyway (don't attempt to preview it) and record something from the cable box. That will issue a START command. I would like to know if that gives the same error.

Also could you try setting directoryprefixmap in the config file to

/|/

This will map / to /, which is a no-op but it could be that I have a bug in the case there is no mapping going on since I only tested it with nonempty directoryprefixmap.

Hugo

[drosne01]

so if you type

touch '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf'

as a test in the same terminal window you should get a zero-length file there; check with

ls '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV'

then clean up:

rm '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/defaulton1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf''

if any of those commands fails it is a problem that needs to be fixed.

So I have been continuing to play with this. I am working exclusively in Terminal now and when I run the program I get a socket error that makes me think that there could be some other underlying problem:

Sagetvfirewirenetworkencoder $ ./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder --configfile config.txt
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6200
Caught exception Failed to set socket address

[guho]

I am familiar with this error as it happened to me all the time. I think it is a Mac OS problem. If you kill the encoder server, it does not release the network socket it is listening on immediately. It takes a few minutes and then it will work again. Or you can reboot the machine.

Did you try setting directoryprefixmap=/|/ in the config file?


So I have been continuing to play with this. I am working exclusively in Terminal now and when I run the program I get a socket error that makes me think that there could be some other underlying problem:

rosner:Sagetvfirewirenetworkencoder rosner$ ./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder --configfile config.txt
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6200
Caught exception Failed to set socket address

[drosne01]

I am familiar with this error as it happened to me all the time. I think it is a Mac OS problem. If you kill the encoder server, it does not release the network socket it is listening on immediately. It takes a few minutes and then it will work again. Or you can reboot the machine.

Did you try setting directoryprefixmap=/|/ in the config file?

I just tried setting the directory prefix to /|/. It seems to have moved things forward a bit as I am now getting a different error. I can't see live TV but I am not getting the file write error.

Here is what I am getting now:

Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|30|2405718016830|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6200'

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/QVCJewelryBeyondExpectations-42736-0.ts
Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'

[guho]

This is hard to troubleshoot as I have no Moto box. Anyone on this thread got it working with the Moto 6200? In your config you have device=0? Perhaps reboot Mac and try again. I assume you can capture from this box with AVCVideoCap, right?

[drosne01]

This is hard to troubleshoot as I have no Moto box. Anyone on this thread got it working with the Moto 6200? In your config you have device=0? Perhaps reboot Mac and try again. I assume you can capture from this box with AVCVideoCap, right?

Yes, config is set to device=0. AVCVideoCap records fine and can change channels on the box over firewire as well.

I tried rebooting and I am back to my original cannot open file error again:

sagetvfirewirenetworkencoder $ ./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder --configfile config.txt
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6200
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|30|2405761891136|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/MarieOsmondDolls-42712-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/MarieOsmondDolls-42712-0.ts''

[guho]

Big 'Thank you!' to Andy Spitzer. He e-mailed me, pointing out I do not properly set the permissions when creating the ts file. Now it is 0666 (instead of a random number from omitting the parameter), combined with the umask in effect when starting the server. In addition the update addresses the annoying issue of getting 'address in use' when exiting and restarting the firewire network encoder. Get the latest update from the download link at: http://www.hugolyppens.com/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.html.

Yes, config is set to device=0. AVCVideoCap records fine and can change channels on the box over firewire as well.

I tried rebooting and I am back to my original cannot open file error again:

rosner:sagetvfirewirenetworkencoder rosner$ ./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder --configfile config.txt
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6200
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|30|2405761891136|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/MarieOsmondDolls-42712-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/MarieOsmondDolls-42712-0.ts''

[karljayne]

I'm seeing this issue too:

SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCH-3200
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: START DCH3200 Digital TV Tuner|668|2415039795268|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/KingTutsMysteryTombOpened-194204-0.ts|Great
Notification deviceDCH-3200, message type: 3758096641
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/KingTutsMysteryTombOpened-194204-0.ts'

Was this determined to be a permissions issue and if so would that have any impact on using directories other than the default one SageTV creates?

On a couple attempts configuing this for local recording I didn't get a "Response: Error 'Cannot open file…" but the ts file never grows beyond zero k. It looks like system is the only one set with write permission on the ts files.

Suggestions?

[guho]

Did you redownload the firewire network encoder recently? I thought I fixed this problem.

I'm seeing this issue too:

SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCH-3200
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: START DCH3200 Digital TV Tuner|668|2415039795268|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/KingTutsMysteryTombOpened-194204-0.ts|Great
Notification deviceDCH-3200, message type: 3758096641
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/KingTutsMysteryTombOpened-194204-0.ts'

Was this determined to be a permissions issue and if so would that have any impact on using directories other than the default one SageTV creates?

On a couple attempts configuing this for local recording I didn't get a "Response: Error 'Cannot open file…" but the ts file never grows beyond zero k. It looks like system is the only one set with write permission on the ts files.

Suggestions?

[karljayne]

I believe I have the latest version, I downloaded it again yesterday. I suppose it's possible I don't have the latest version somehow. I went ahead and downloaded it again, same issue.

I tried recording to a different directory, same issue, the .ts file is created, yet never grows past zero k.

The folder permissions are:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6593/folderss1.th.png (http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=folderss1.png)

The ts file permissions are:
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1249/filebe5.th.png (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=filebe5.png)

Unless there is some issue with the encoder not having permission to write to the .ts file, the only other thing I can think of is somehow SageTV and the encoder are not "looking" in the same directory.

I have had success encoding to a PC, unfortunately the PC chokes on HD stuff. Back to the Mac, AVCVideoCap can capture from the device. SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder has no trouble changing the channels on the DCH-3200.

Thanks in advance for your help. This network encoder is simply awesome.

[karljayne]

For kicks I messed around with directoryprefixmap and I get an entirely differnent message when the SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder doesn't see the ts file.

Performing stat:/localhost/Volumes/Jellyfish2/JellyfishTV/TheNewsHourWithJimLehrer-276182-0.ts
Response: Error 'Error stat /localhost/Volumes/Jellyfish2/JellyfishTV/TheNewsHourWithJimLehrer-276182-0.ts'


I also tried absolute UNIX paths and was back to the zero k file issue:

SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCH-3200
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: START DCH3200 Digital TV Tuner|109|2415236458176|/Volumes/Jellyfish2/JellyfishTV/TheNewsHourWithJimLehrer-276182-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Volumes/Jellyfish2/JellyfishTV/TheNewsHourWithJimLehrer-276182-0.ts''

Performing stat:/Volumes/Jellyfish2/JellyfishTV/TheNewsHourWithJimLehrer-276182-0.ts
…
Performing stat:/Volumes/Jellyfish2/JellyfishTV/TheNewsHourWithJimLehrer-276182-0.ts
Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'

[guho]

What is your umask setting? What user does the encoder run as?

I'm opening the file with

_fileDesc = open( fileName_.c_str(), O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR|S_IRGRP|S_IWGRP|S_IROTH|S_IWOTH );

The latter argument should evaluate to 0666. I have no clue what's wrong with this and why the permissions would be nonwritable to anybody other than 'system'.

Reference: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man2/open.2.html.

Please tell me where I am going wrong.

[karljayne]

I'm using the default umask of 022, I haven't customized this at all. I have the encoder running at login from the same user account as SageTV. Do I need to declare it to run as a specific user?

The more I'm looking into this the more it appears to OS related.

Apparently Leopard default file setting work a little differently than in Tiger. In Leopard User Private Groups are depreciated and all users are members of the Staff group with files set to r-- by default.

I'm wondering if the SageTV service and encoder are running as the same user

For now, I'm back to encoding to a PC, which works great.

[paulmlawrence]

Hey guys,

i just moved and my new cablebox from Cablevision is a SA4200HD.

I followed the instructions that Diginerd posted on getting SageTV and firewire working and am having no luck.

When i get the encoder running it sees my cable box. I've inputed the mmc lines into my sage.properties file, but when i launch SageTV it doesn't find any video sources.

I tried this on a MacBook Pro running Leopard and on a PowerBook 12" running Leopard and no dice. The OS on the powerbook seemed to respond better to the coding. For instance when i input ./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder –list on the MacBook Pro all it does is start the encoder. When i input that entry on the PowerBook it displays my CableBox info showing me what device and what ID it's on.

I'm wondering if my issues are more related to Leopard than anything else? Is it worth downgrading to Tiger to try or is there some additional stuff i have to do in Leopard to make this work.

Thanks!

Paul

[karljayne]

I was reading a little about file permissions and umask, it appears you are setting the permissions correctly and the OS is changing permissions with umask.

"By default, and with a umask of 000, files get mode 666 and directories get mode 777. As a result, with a default umask value of 022, newly created files get a default mode 644 (666 - 022 = 644) and directories get a default mode 755 (777 - 022 = 755)."

I'm not sure if there's a work around and setting umask to 000 is not a good thing appearantly.

I did notice that you have a O_TRUNC decalration, would that explain the zero file size? Or does that only truncate to 0 when initially opened/created?

[paulmlawrence]

So i wiped out my 12" powerbook and installed a clean version of tiger. ran all the updates.

I then followed diginerd's instructions to the letter and i'm still having no results. when i run the encoder it sees my cable box, but SageTV Server does not see any input device.

I'm attaching my properties and config files to see if i'm missing something.

Any ideas??

[guho]

In my opinion it is not worth it to downgrade to Tiger when using SageTV server on a PC. I run Leopard for the firewire encoder (writing to a PC) and it works fine. People are reporting file permission issues when encoding to a mac on Leopard.

Hey guys,

i just moved and my new cablebox from Cablevision is a SA4200HD.

I followed the instructions that Diginerd posted on getting SageTV and firewire working and am having no luck.

When i get the encoder running it sees my cable box. I've inputed the mmc lines into my sage.properties file, but when i launch SageTV it doesn't find any video sources.

I tried this on a MacBook Pro running Leopard and on a PowerBook 12" running Leopard and no dice. The OS on the powerbook seemed to respond better to the coding. For instance when i input ./MacOS/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder –list on the MacBook Pro all it does is start the encoder. When i input that entry on the PowerBook it displays my CableBox info showing me what device and what ID it's on.

I'm wondering if my issues are more related to Leopard than anything else? Is it worth downgrading to Tiger to try or is there some additional stuff i have to do in Leopard to make this work.

Thanks!

Paul

[guho]

Could you try setting umask to 0 and encoding to the mac and letting us know whether it works?

Also I'm curious if AVCVideoCap also has the permissions problem. It uses fopen() to create the file.

O_TRUNC just truncates the file if it were to exist already.

I was reading a little about file permissions and umask, it appears you are setting the permissions correctly and the OS is changing permissions with umask.

"By default, and with a umask of 000, files get mode 666 and directories get mode 777. As a result, with a default umask value of 022, newly created files get a default mode 644 (666 - 022 = 644) and directories get a default mode 755 (777 - 022 = 755)."

I'm not sure if there's a work around and setting umask to 000 is not a good thing appearantly.

I did notice that you have a O_TRUNC decalration, would that explain the zero file size? Or does that only truncate to 0 when initially opened/created?

[karljayne]

I set umask to 0 in umask launchd.conf and the encorder started working locally (rw-rw-rw-). When i changed umask to 002 I was back to the zero k file issue. For security and stability reasons I'm back to 022.

Intersting thing, AVCVideoCap is writing files (rw-r--r--), but now I'm not able to view them. They will start with a little sound, but no video plays back. Something else must be going on, it was working just a few days ago.

One thing I did notice is that AVCVideoCap is writing to group Staff and the encoder ts file is group Wheel.

[guho]

Just edit the .command file that comes with the encoder to include a line at the top:

umask 0

then it will just be for the encoder process, and you do not have to worry about security and stability for other cases.

Everyone: this is the workaround then for using the encoder for local encoding onto the Macintosh file system as opposed to onto a mounted Windows file system. I just uploaded a new zip file that has this umask command in the command file.

I went into a shell, just creating some files both under /Users/Shared/SageTV/... and my own home directory and did notice differences in the permissions. It must be driven by both umask setting and folder settings/ownership. I hope a Mac OS expert can shed some light on the wheel vs. staff group issue for instance.

I set umask to 0 in umask launchd.conf and the encorder started working locally (rw-rw-rw-). When i changed umask to 002 I was back to the zero k file issue. For security and stability reasons I'm back to 022.

Intersting thing, AVCVideoCap is writing files (rw-r--r--), but now I'm not able to view them. They will start with a little sound, but no video plays back. Something else must be going on, it was working just a few days ago.

One thing I did notice is that AVCVideoCap is writing to group Staff and the encoder ts file is group Wheel.

[karljayne]

No luck with your update on Leopard, still getting zero k files. Going to downgrade that machine to Tiger tonight and see if i can get this working.

Side note: I don't think Leopard supports per-user umask, and instead uses ACLs for file permissions.

[paulmlawrence]

Ok, So i finally got SageTV to recognize the CableBox as an input. Everything seems to be working except for the previously mentioned in the above posts.

getting the zero size files as well.

I added the umask line to the command file and I'm still getting the errors.

My machine is on 10.4.8 so far. might further update to 10.4.11 and see if issues get resolved.

any ideas?

[guho]

On my Mac there is no ACL on /Users/Shared/SageTV nor on /Users/Shared/SageTV/TV as evidenced by 'ls -le'. On my Leopard mac, I own directory /Users/Shared/SageTV but the group is shown as 'wheel'. All my other files in my home directory have group 'staff'. I am not even a member of group 'wheel'. I am confused by the whole deal.

I bet that if you were to put in a directoryprefixmap (case sensitive!) in the config file, such that instead of writing to this directory it wrote recordings to your home directory, you would not be getting 0-length files. Of course this is just an experiment, since you want the recordings written to this directory otherwise SageTV can't play them. But it could prove the problem is specific to this directory and could be fixed by changing some permission setting somewhere in the folder hierarchy.

No luck with your update on Leopard, still getting zero k files. Going to downgrade that machine to Tiger tonight and see if i can get this working.

Side note: I don't think Leopard supports per-user umask, and instead uses ACLs for file permissions.

[karljayne]

So i messed around with directoryprefixmap, including subsituting \ for / amoung other things until i had an interesting thing happen.

When I set directoryprefixmap to "/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV|/" and in SageTV the recording directory is "/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV", 2 files are created. A zero K one in the TV directory and another file with full RW permissions in the /root that is recording. I'm not sure what this means as I still can't view the recording. Maybe someone who understands all this stuff better than I do will have some insight. If I set directoryprefixmap to "/|/" and SageTV's recording directory to "/" I'm back to zero k files.

I'll add that I'm still encoding to an XP box with no problems, so thanks again for this encoder!

[guho]

Thank you for your in-depth research. It's helping me as I do not have this kind of setup; my SageTV server is on a PC. This is advisable anyway as SageTV LLC does not support the Mac very well, the current Mac OS version is a bit atrocious and no new beta seems to be forthcoming.

If you can swing the $150 for a basic headless PC to use as the server I would recommend it.

Back to this: I almost guarantee that SageTV Mac is doing it. It is somehow interfering with or overwriting the file written by the encoder. Would it be possible for you to run SageTV and the encoder as different users? And use the directoryprefixmap you used to map to /? Then the file in the TV directory should be owned by SageTV's user, whereas the file in / should be owned by whatever user the encoder runs as.

If this is confirmed could you file a support request and ask for a workaround or perhaps a Sage config file setting that makes SageTV not do this.

[bcjenkins]

Narflex has mentioned there is a new version in private testing. You might also apply to be a private tester if inclined.

B

[karljayne]

To get this working on the local machine I had to open up some permissions. I might have gone overboard with permissions but here's what I did to get this working on Leopard:

Tell SageTV where you want to save shows in Setup>Detailed Setup>General>Video Recording Directories

Next, open up terminal and become the super user: sudo bash
at the # prompt open up permissions for the directory you created with this:
chmod +a "everyone allow write,append,writeattr,writeextattr,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /Users/Shared
and change the /Users/Shared to the path of your new folder. For example, /Volumes/MyHardDriveName/MySageTVFolderName

Next I had to open up some permissions for my user, to do that I downloaded Sandbox (http://www.mikey-san.net/sandbox/). In Sandbox I created a new access control entry that enabled my account full read and write permissions for that directory.

This approach is simillar to the umask 0 approach and is not very secure. I'll probably go back and see what permissions need to be enabled to get this working.

Note: the recent SageTV 6.4.0b did not resolve zero k file issue, but did work with the steps above.

[guho]

karljayne: great you got this to work!! It should be easier than this. Mac OS X is not always easier to use than Windows ;-)

Now for a related issue. At the moment I am using a Mac Mini 1.83 Core2Duo as both firewire encoder and SageTV client. Even with the latest Mac beta version the full-screen 1920x1080 HDTV playback quality is much worse than the PC version of SageTV (even on the same mac mini with bootcamp running Vista). Given that Sage TV LLC worked so long on the new beta and still didn't get it right, I am afraid they never will.

What I am thinking of doing is moving the encoder to its own box, so I can have the mini permantly running SageTV client on Vista.

Here's the question. What is the cheapest low-power solution for running the firewire encoder? Several options:
- PowerMac G4 from ebay. Costs at least $75 incl. shipping and am not sure how much power it uses (say G4 500MHz single, 512Mbyte)
- Hackintosh on PC laptop. Takes lots of time to set up
- Another mac mini (ebay prices surprisingly high even for used G4 minis, forget about Intel-based minis)
- Perhaps PowerMac G3. Is it powerful enough? Does G3 use less or more power than G4?

Any suggestions welcome. Power important as this things runs 24x7 What hardware are all of you using for this?

[iconic]

Now for a related issue. At the moment I am using a Mac Mini 1.83 Core2Duo as both firewire encoder and SageTV client. Even with the latest Mac beta version the full-screen 1920x1080 HDTV playback quality is much worse than the PC version of SageTV (even on the same mac mini with bootcamp running Vista). Given that Sage TV LLC worked so long on the new beta and still didn't get it right, I am afraid they never will.

Video playback performance is being addressed now...

[guho]

Video playback performance is being addressed now...

Great! I will give it another go before buying an additional mac to use as firewire encoder. In the meantime, I hope the development team takes advantage of the QuartzDebug tool, which comes with XCode. As SageTV plays back video, it shows the framerate. For SDTV I get a solid and expected 30/second. For HDTV 1080i or 720p, especially when enlarging the window, it goes down to 20/sec or less. All while CPU usage hovers at 50-60%, indicating lack of CPU power is not the issue.

[iconic]

All while CPU usage hovers at 50-60%, indicating lack of CPU power is not the issue.

No.... but memory bandwidth is an issue, especially when the GPU is trying to do millions of read/modify/write cycles each second to the same memory that the CPU is running from (the GMA-950 GPU in the minis does not use dedicated VRAM). It might be *capable* of pushing 10.9 GB/s transfer rates, but that's under hermetically sealed laboratory conditions, real world use will prove (and has proven) quite different.

[guho]

I just tried the new Mac beta and playback on my mini core2duo and it is mostly perfect. So much better than before. Still, there is one hiccup every 2 seconds on an HDTV signal with rolling ticker.

When I boot Windows on the same Mac Mini and run SageTV client/placeshifter, HDTV playback is flawless. So while memory bandwidth may be a limitation, it can be overcome.

No.... but memory bandwidth is an issue, especially when the GPU is trying to do millions of read/modify/write cycles each second to the same memory that the CPU is running from (the GMA-950 GPU in the minis does not use dedicated VRAM). It might be *capable* of pushing 10.9 GB/s transfer rates, but that's under hermetically sealed laboratory conditions, real world use will prove (and has proven) quite different.

[iconic]

I just tried the new Mac beta and playback on my mini core2duo and it is mostly perfect. So much better than before. Still, there is one hiccup every 2 seconds on an HDTV signal with rolling ticker.

When I boot Windows on the same Mac Mini and run SageTV client/placeshifter, HDTV playback is flawless. So while memory bandwith may be a limitation, it can be overcome.

You are correct about that, and we are still fine tuning things :)

[ke4pym]

Hi everyone.

I picked up a SciAtl 4250HDC box yesterday. I've been able to get SageTV to see the box (as well as the FirewireNetwork encoder. But, I've been unable to get the two to play nicely.

When doing a channel scan, I see this error repeatedly:

Received command: AUTOINFOSCAN 44
Response: Error ' Unknown command 'AUTOINFOSCAN'

(The 44 changes as Sage increments the channel numbers.

I grabbed a copy of AVCVideoCap. I told it to capture from the device on a specific channel. The box ignored that channel command, but I did get a clean file (and verified it) from AVCBrowser.

Then, after the channel scan is complete, and I just try to watch live TV, I get this error:

Performing stat:/applicaions/sagetv/tuner0/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/214_Error
Response: Error 'Error stat /applications/sagetv/tuner0/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/214_error'

FWIW, a file in that folder called SA4200HDon1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf got created this time.

My machine is a 2008 Mac Pro 10.5.2 with 4GB and plenty of disk space.

What am I missing?

config.txt:
portnumber=6969
channelchangemethod=scientific-atlanta
channelchangedelay=10000
directoryprefixmap=|/applications/sagetv/tuner0
poweroffdelay=120000
device=0
maxrecordingbuffers=512

I can paste other stuff as necessary.

[guho]

If it is a local SageTV instead of a remote server, please omit the directoryprefixmap.

Also please do all the permissions changes described earlier in this thread by karljayne.

Not sure channel scan works, just manually select the channels you wish to pick up using the firewire encoder. It might work though, I just never tried it.

Hi everyone.

I picked up a SciAtl 4250HDC box yesterday. I've been able to get SageTV to see the box (as well as the FirewireNetwork encoder. But, I've been unable to get the two to play nicely.

When doing a channel scan, I see this error repeatedly:

Received command: AUTOINFOSCAN 44
Response: Error ' Unknown command 'AUTOINFOSCAN'

(The 44 changes as Sage increments the channel numbers.

I grabbed a copy of AVCVideoCap. I told it to capture from the device on a specific channel. The box ignored that channel command, but I did get a clean file (and verified it) from AVCBrowser.

Then, after the channel scan is complete, and I just try to watch live TV, I get this error:

Performing stat:/applicaions/sagetv/tuner0/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/214_Error
Response: Error 'Error stat /applications/sagetv/tuner0/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/214_error'

FWIW, a file in that folder called SA4200HDon1270016969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf got created this time.

My machine is a 2008 Mac Pro 10.5.2 with 4GB and plenty of disk space.

What am I missing?

config.txt:
portnumber=6969
channelchangemethod=scientific-atlanta
channelchangedelay=10000
directoryprefixmap=|/applications/sagetv/tuner0
poweroffdelay=120000
device=0
maxrecordingbuffers=512

I can paste other stuff as necessary.

[ke4pym]

Here's some more info.

I got it to bring up the default channel (14). But I had to turn the unit on first.

The video would play for a moment, then stop, audio would come up then stop then video would return. Really weird. Video was clean as a whistle when it played. Okay, now video on 14 is mostly stable. But if I do any other application work, it really gets jerky. I wouldn't expect that from my system with a pair of Seagate drives in RAID1.

Change the channel to 225 - nuttin (see below).

Now, if I change the channels, it will play for about 15 seconds and quit. Then come back for 15 seconds then quit. But I can't get it to switch channels to save its life.

Thanks for the reply guho.

I've completed the steps above as requested.

I'm getting a little further. I remapped the channels so I have 14 and 225.

When I start up Sage and tell it to watch live tv I see the network encoder go to work.

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/320_225_0512_1702-0.ts
Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|14|2421252388884|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/321_14_0512_1703-0.ts|Great
Response: OK

Then, the menu options go away in the Sage screen and nothing. I hit stop or play and it just says no signal.

So I change the channel.

Received command: STOP
Response: OK

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/320_14_0512_1703-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SagteTV/TV/320_14_0512_1703-0.ts
Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|225|2421252477068|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/320_225_0512_1703-0.ts|Great
Response: OK

And again, nothing but black screen :( I see the files get created though.

[guho]

Sounds frustrating. For each of the created .ts files, see if vlc media player will play them. do they have nonzero file size? you could also be encountering encrypted channels.

Here's some more info.

I got it to bring up the default channel (14). But I had to turn the unit on first.

The video would play for a moment, then stop, audio would come up then stop then video would return. Really weird. Video was clean as a whistle when it played. Okay, now video on 14 is mostly stable. But if I do any other application work, it really gets jerky. I wouldn't expect that from my system with a pair of Seagate drives in RAID1.

Change the channel to 225 - nuttin (see below).

Now, if I change the channels, it will play for about 15 seconds and quit. Then come back for 15 seconds then quit. But I can't get it to switch channels to save its life.

Thanks for the reply guho.

I've completed the steps above as requested.

I'm getting a little further. I remapped the channels so I have 14 and 225.

When I start up Sage and tell it to watch live tv I see the network encoder go to work.

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/320_225_0512_1702-0.ts
Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|14|2421252388884|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/321_14_0512_1703-0.ts|Great
Response: OK

Then, the menu options go away in the Sage screen and nothing. I hit stop or play and it just says no signal.

So I change the channel.

Received command: STOP
Response: OK

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/320_14_0512_1703-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SagteTV/TV/320_14_0512_1703-0.ts
Received command: START SA4200HD Digital TV Tuner|225|2421252477068|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/320_225_0512_1703-0.ts|Great
Response: OK

And again, nothing but black screen :( I see the files get created though.

[karljayne]

I get the auto scan error too, I imagine this is because the channel change delay is set to 10 seconds and SageTV races through the channels when auto detecting, leading to a huge disconnect between the encoder and SageTV.

Another glitch I've noticed is SageTV doesn't appear to know how to handle 5C'd Copy Once flagged files, but the encoder will allow them to be written to disc. The result is although the encoder appears to working and video appears to be 'recording' there is no playback.

I manually check channel by channel for my lineup, and that takes time. Some of the channels in my lineup are 5C'd for Copy Once (most pay movie channels and History HD for whatever reason), I disable those.

[guho]

You are correct about that, and we are still fine tuning things :)

Thanks Iconic. I did not see any differences yet going from Mac 6.4.2 to 6.4.3 placeshifter. Hope you're still focused on Mac full-screen hi-res playback quality, as there are lip sync issues with HD and occasional big hiccups every few seconds on my Mac Mini Core2Duo 1.83. Please let me know.

[ke4pym]

Okay, I've messed around with this 4200HDC box via firewire.

SageTV and the Network encoder were throwing me for some loops so I grabbed the AVC stuff from Apple.

I cannot change channels on the box via Sage+NENC or via AVC Browser.

However, I can use the AVC Capture and capture good files. It won't change the channels. AVCBrowser is the same way. I can't change the channels at all via firewire. I can do it all day long with the remote.

Using the AVCBrowser, and the VLC player, I can watch most channels. Encluding HDNet and HDNet Movies. However, anything High Def is just pixelated. Not sure what is going wrong with that.

I think I'm going to have to give up on this box. It half way works. But that's not good enough.

[guho]

You are correct about that, and we are still fine tuning things :)

I noticed playback of 720p is not smooth in Mac Placeshifter latest beta. 1080i is very good. This is on my mac mini core2duo 1.83. To reproduce play a 720p with rolling ticker such as ESPN2 HD, and see how jerky it is full screen on 1920x1080.

[jerryhart]

I have a Motorola DCT 6416 STB and SageTV server running on my old cube. I installed the encoder according, I thought, to the instructions.

When I set up the sources, I see my STB and can set up the program guide, but don't seem able to change or view any channels. When I try to scan for channels, or try to set one up manually I get the following message:

Received command: BUFFER DCT-6416 Digital TV Tuner|5|16777216|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

When I try the autoscan, I get this:

Received command: AUTOSCAN -1
Response: Error 'Unknown command 'AUTOSCAN''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'


Obviously I have done something wrong, but I cannot work out what. I am using my cube to run as a trial server, and will probably get a mini if I can get this to work. I would be grateful for any advice you guys can give me.

Thx

Edit: I forgot to add that my STB responds to channel changes and records great using AVCVideoCap.

Thanks again

[guho]

Seems like it does not handle the space in the encoder name well.

As an experiment, just try recording from a channel. So just enable some channels in the lineup that you know are not encrypted and try recording (timed record for a few minutes perhaps). This will result in START commands instead of BUFFER commands and they might work better.

I have a Motorola DCT 6416 STB and SageTV server running on my old cube. I installed the encoder according, I thought, to the instructions.

When I set up the sources, I see my STB and can set up the program guide, but don't seem able to change or view any channels. When I try to scan for channels, or try to set one up manually I get the following message:

Received command: BUFFER DCT-6416 Digital TV Tuner|5|16777216|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

When I try the autoscan, I get this:

Received command: AUTOSCAN -1
Response: Error 'Unknown command 'AUTOSCAN''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/DCT6416onlocalhost6969DigitalTVTuner-0.mpgbuf
Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'


Obviously I have done something wrong, but I cannot work out what. I am using my cube to run as a trial server, and will probably get a mini if I can get this to work. I would be grateful for any advice you guys can give me.

Thx

Edit: I forgot to add that my STB responds to channel changes and records great using AVCVideoCap.

Thanks again

[jerryhart]

Thanks very much for your answer and suggestions, but still no luck :-(

Not sure what you mean by the space in the encoder name. I don't see one.

I tried your suggestion of trying to record, but still no joy. I get a "no signal" message in the preview window for any channel I try, although the signal strength bar is full green, and I get green dots by each channel.

I got this message from the encoder when I tried to record:

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|5|2441521679150|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/14492_5_0906_2113-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

then lots of lines that say this:

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/14492_5_0906_2113-0.ts

but no files appear in the folder. I have set permissions so that all users can read/write to this folder.

I tried to upload the sage.properties file, but am unable to for some reason.

Am at a dead end right now and would really like to get this working.

[guho]

Please try again removing the "device=DCT-6416" line from the config file. You put DCT-6416 as the name, is this how it is reported using --list? It is somehow unable to open the connection to the device by name DCT-6416.

If you remove it it will just default to the first device (assuming you have 1 STB hooked up). Perhaps it will work then. This is how I ran it on my mac mini.

[jerryhart]

Thanks for getting back to me again.

This is what was in my config.txt

portnumber=6969
channelchangemethod=
channelchangedelay=
poweroffdelay=120000
device=0
maxrecordingbuffers=512

I removed the device line, and when I run the command line, I get this response back in terminal:

Last login: Sat Sep 6 21:26:08 on ttyp1
/Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command; exit
Welcome to Darwin!
jerrys-cubes-power-mac-g4-cube:~ jerry_cu$ /Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command; exit
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6416
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.

This looks the same as I was getting before.

When I open SageTV client on my macbook, and try watching a channel, the STB changes channel now, which it wasn't doing with device=0 in the config.txt file. Still not visible on my macbook though, I get "no signal" on the macbook, and the following in terminal on my cube server:

Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|5|2441649528010|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/GeorgeShrinks-SnowmansLand-70794-0.ts|Great
Notification deviceDCT-6416, message type: 3758096641
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/GeorgeShrinks-SnowmansLand-70794-0.ts''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/GeorgeShrinks-SnowmansLand-70794-0.ts

The last line keeps repeating, followed by:

Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'

when I stop trying watch the channel.

I tried doing a timed recording on the same channel. This time my STB did not change channel and I got the following message on my servers terminal:

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|5|2441650202198|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-RowingPains-70485-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-RowingPains-70485-0.ts

last line repeating....

Tried recording another channel, the same response:

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|11|2441650586184|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/TheSimpsons-51368-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/TheSimpsons-51368-0.ts

Any ideas?

[jerryhart]

It seems that sage will only change channel once without restarting it.

The first time I get this in terminal:

/Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command; exit
Welcome to Darwin!
jerrys-cubes-power-mac-g4-cube:~ jerry_cu$ /Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command; exit
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6416
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: VERSION
Response: 2.1

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|15|2441652774980|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts|Great
Notification deviceDCT-6416, message type: 3758096641
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts

The second time around I get this message in terminal:

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|16|2441653055230|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-219008-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-219008-0.ts

Ch 15 and 16 are the only two I have enabled in my line up for the moment.



Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|16|2441653055230|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-219008-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

[guho]

This message

Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts''

can be addressed if you follow instructions earlier in the thread. This issue occurs when you run SageTV on a Mac. I always ran SageTV on the PC with the firewire encoder on a networked Mac so I never had this problem. It has to do with permissions and access control lists.

I am puzzled about it only working the 1st time. I ran it flawlessly for months using a Mac Mini on a scientific atlanta 4200HD. Please also try it on another mac and please be sure your O/S is up to date (Leopard or Tiger?). If you have access to an Intel mac, pls run it there.

Anyone else out there reading this thread got it to work with a Moto STB? Please provide pointers.


It seems that sage will only change channel once without restarting it.

The first time I get this in terminal:

/Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command; exit
Welcome to Darwin!
jerrys-cubes-power-mac-g4-cube:~ jerry_cu$ /Applications/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder/SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command; exit
SageTV Firewire Network Encoder
Copyright (c) 2007 Hugo Lyppens. All rights reserved.
This software is free for personal use only.
Notification controller DCT-6416
Starting SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder, listening for commands from SageTV.
Received command: VERSION
Response: 2.1

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|15|2441652774980|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts|Great
Notification deviceDCT-6416, message type: 3758096641
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Tennis-USOpenMensFinal-59509-0.ts

The second time around I get this message in terminal:

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|16|2441653055230|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-219008-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-219008-0.ts

Ch 15 and 16 are the only two I have enabled in my line up for the moment.



Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|16|2441653055230|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/Babar-219008-0.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device DCT-6416'

[jerryhart]

Thanks guho, but I am not making much progress at the moment :-(

I tried to follow karljayne's instructions, and have the following permissions set for the destination folder, according to Sandbox POSIX Info:
Owner: root(0)
Group: everyone(12)
Permissions: drwxrwxrwx

I know very little about terminal, but I believe that this means all users have read, write and execute permissions on that directory. However, I am still getting the following:

Received command: START DCT6416 Digital TV Tuner|15|2442700920678|/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/10520_15_0913_1701-0.ts|Great
Notification deviceDCT-6416, message type: 3758096641
Response: Error 'Cannot open file '/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/10520_15_0913_1701-0.ts''

Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/10520_15_0913_1701-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/10520_15_0913_1701-0.ts
Performing stat:/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV/10520_15_0913_1701-0.ts
Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'

For some reason, my STB only responds once to a channel change request until I restart SageTV (usually), or reboot.

I watched the destination folder while I tried to make this one minute recording, a .ts file appeared in Finder during the minute that the recording should have taken place, but its size stayed at 0KB, and then it disappeared after the recording stopped.

So I am at something of a standstill here. Having gone through the whole thread a couple of times and I see that some people have experimented with Moto boxes. By their absence in recent threads, I assume that they have been successful. Any advice from anyone? Would be most appreciated.

[soccerdad]

Guho,

Cablevision has updated the firmware on the SA4250, and maybe the 4200 also, breaking the firewire channel changing. Are you able to update the firewire encoder to work with the new firmware?

Some coding info here: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/355387

-soccerdad

[oopsydaisy]

Guho,

Cablevision has updated the firmware on the SA4250, and maybe the 4200 also, breaking the firewire channel changing. Are you able to update the firewire encoder to work with the new firmware?

Some coding info here: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/355387

-soccerdad

I am also having this issue where the channel change no longer works. I am on Cablevision in the Bronx. Neither my 4250, nor my 4200 work anymore.

[soccerdad]

I got my boxes to change channels again. I think Scientific Atlanta went from a non-standard set of commands to the standard. There were two options for the channelchangemethod= line in the config file: "scientific-atlanta" and blank. Set the line like this and channel change should work again:

channelchangemethod=

Guho, any chance of releasing the sourcecode for the firewire network encoder?

[oopsydaisy]

I got my boxes to change channels again. I think Scientific Atlanta went from a non-standard set of commands to the standard. There were two options for the channelchangemethod= line in the config file: "scientific-atlanta" and blank. Set the line like this and channel change should work again:

channelchangemethod=

Guho, any chance of releasing the sourcecode for the firewire network encoder?

Cool. I will try when I get home.

[oopsydaisy]

Worked like a charm. Thanks Soccer.

[guho]

soccerdad: Thanks for figuring this out! If there's a good reason to release the source code I will consider it. SageTV ought to integrate this into the product. Has it been solid and reliable?

I got my boxes to change channels again.

[soccerdad]

It's been fairly stable for me lately. Running SageTV, three firewire encoders, one HDHomerun, comchecker, and Windows XP inside VMware for the energy detective (TED).

Once every few weeks I have to reboot, only a couple of those have been because the firewire encoders got confused and started tuning the wrong channels. I'm hoping the stability will increase when the Mac version of the TED software is released, it has been announced for Dec 08. Comchecker works good but running the windows executable of comskip using Darwine on OSX is probably not the best with regards to stability.

[Steve247]

Hello,
I have a Mac Pro, I D/Led SageTV and SageTV Client. The other night I followed all the instructions to the best of my ability and was not completely successful. SageTV was able to recognize my SA 4250 and see the channels, but I didn't get any picture. Tonight I used App Zapper to get rid of both apps, and the preferences, etc, and started fresh. Now it doesn't even see the 4250, i.e. no video source. Two things; 1. I need to enable Read & Write permissions to save the sage.properties file (I'm logged in as admin) and everytime I open sage.properties it seems to have lost all the mmc encoder lines that I pasted and saved.

Thanks for any help,
Steve

[guho]

I suggest making sure no SageTV processes are active while editing sage.properties. Please go up in this thread to resolve the permission issues as per Karljayne.

Hello,
I have a Mac Pro, I D/Led SageTV and SageTV Client. The other night I followed all the instructions to the best of my ability and was not completely successful. SageTV was able to recognize my SA 4250 and see the channels, but I didn't get any picture. Tonight I used App Zapper to get rid of both apps, and the preferences, etc, and started fresh. Now it doesn't even see the 4250, i.e. no video source. Two things; 1. I need to enable Read & Write permissions to save the sage.properties file (I'm logged in as admin) and everytime I open sage.properties it seems to have lost all the mmc encoder lines that I pasted and saved.

Thanks for any help,
Steve

[Steve247]

I tried on both my wife's MacBook Pro and my Mac Pro and in both cases SageTV freezes while loading and says "SageTV Service is initializing". This is after of course starting with opening SageTVFirewireNetworkEncoder.command.

Thanks for any help
Steve

[Steve247]

The log files on both our computers say:
"Sun 12/14 1:00:09.144 Error establishing server connection of:java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused". I have the latest java on my Mac Pro, I didn't upgrade the MacBook Pro.

Steve

[Skaught]

I too had massive issues with the permissions. I found an easy fix.

I added a USB2.0 HDD and set the permissions on it to everyone everything recursive.

I then told Sage to put recordings there restarted the whole show and it is kinda working now.

I was also having big issues with channel changes as I think the bad permissions were glitching out the channel changes somehow.

I still have a pile of testing to do and I have to get my Gyration keyb/mouse/remote working.

HD plays back flawlessly btw. And I am running a Sage Stable release. No need for a beta or anything.

I am on a 1.8ghz mac mini @ 800x600 (My projector's native res)

[mbze430]

Ok so! I've read from Page 1 to the end. I have done most what is suggested. I can Record and do Live Play back with the AVCVideoCap & AVCBrowser via my MacBook Pro both HD and SD sources

So right now I am trying to get SageTV to play/watch/record locally on my MacBook Pro.

Seems like it's a give and take. Once in awhile I have to turn off my STB or reboot SageTV. When Changing channel sometimes it won't change even though the channel works before.... Is there anyway to stabilize this? Here is my config.txt

portnumber=6969
channelchangemethod=
channelchangedelay=
directoryprefixmap=
poweroffdelay=120000
device=0
maxrecordingbuffers=512

Any suggestions? I can post the SageTV file if needed as well

[oopsydaisy]

Hey, guys. My SA4250HD had been recording fine for a long time then all of a sudden, it stopped recording. I haven't had time until just now to do some investigation. It seems that my mini is now detecting the 4250HD as a 4300! Have any of you seen this and is there a way to get this fixed? Below I have attached the message the firewire encoder gives as it attempts to take control of the box for a recording. I was already seriously considering a mini upgrade, which would give me an excuse to start from scratch. If this is some kind of software that was pushed by Cablevision to prevent recording via firewire, maybe my money would be better spent on a Tivo, or should I get an HDHomerun? I haven't owned a Tivo in about 6 years, about the time I discovered Sage. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks in advance


Received command: START SA4250HD Digital TV Tuner|750|2498547577172|/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts|Great
Response: Error 'Could not open device Explorer(R) 4300'

Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Performing stat:/Volumes/SAGE/TV/TrueBlood-ReleaseMe-2143692-2.ts
Received command: STOP
Response: Error 'Not Recording'

[oopsydaisy]

Seriously, no responses in almost a month? This used to be a pretty popular thread. Have people moved on to tuners?

[csmcdem]

Seriously, no responses in almost a month? This used to be a pretty popular thread. Have people moved on to tuners?

hey i had the same problem. I fixed it by switching to the other firewire port on the 4250hd from cablevison (one to the right) seemed to work for me.

Hope it works for you

[oopsydaisy]

Tried it and it doesn't seem to work. I'm really anxious because some of my favorite shows are starting up soon. Decisions, decisions. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion

[oopsydaisy]

OK, so I've upgraded my mini to a 2009 model with Snow Leopard. Success! I do have a question though. I never attempted to play live tv on my old mini because I knew it couldn't handle HD, but I'd like to on my new one. Tried last night, but came up with "no signal". Would I need an actual tuner to watch live tv in Sage, or should I be able to watch via firewire? Maybe an issue with Snow Leopard? Anyway, thanks again to Guho for this great solution for the mac!:clap:

[gilbreen]

oopsydaisy,

I just purchased a Mac mini to use as a SageTV server and planned on using a SA4200 cable box with it. I was hoping to use it as a tuner for SageTV. Are you saying that a cable box connected via FireWire cannot be used as a tuner to watch live TV? I was thinking/hoping that using the instructions to set it up as a network encoder would allow one to watch live TV.

If not, I guess my next attempt would be to use it with an HD-PVR but I don't believe that channel changing is supported on the Mac side with an HD-PVR.

[oopsydaisy]

I was not able to view live TV under Snow Leopard. I'm almost finished rebuilding the mini with Leopard to see if this is still the case. I'll post results shortly

[oopsydaisy]

Arrghhh. Went back to Leopard and not only can I not watch live tv via firewire, but I'm back where I started with no recording as well. Apparently, recording wasn't working in Snow Leopard either. You see, it actually recorded shows, but those shows were not playable, even in VLC. Not sure where to go from here and The Office and Fringe start tonight:confused:

[oopsydaisy]

I've rebuilt my 2009 mini about 3 times since my last post. Now, I get white text on a black background and the recordings are coming up as zeroKB. Here are my specs for clarification

Mac Mini 2009 2ghz C2D 4GB ram
10.5.8 with all updates to Java applied from software update
Sagetv v.6.6.1
guho's firewire network encoder
SA4250HD

[guho]

I've rebuilt my 2009 mini about 3 times since my last post. Now, I get white text on a black background and the recordings are coming up as zeroKB. Here are my specs for clarification

Mac Mini 2009 2ghz C2D 4GB ram
10.5.8 with all updates to Java applied from software update
Sagetv v.6.6.1
guho's firewire network encoder
SA4250HD

First of all I would recommend using PCs to run SageTV clients. The video quality is much better. Even on my new mac mini 2009 with the 9400 the playback is flawed and on the same mini under bootcamp/vista it is flawless. Not sure if it is the mac's fault or sagetv's but that's how it is even on kick-ass hardware like the nvidia 9400.

To address your issue with my firewire network encoder, I would suggest fixing the file system permissions again (see earlier in this thread). Then the recordings will no longer be 0-length. Also, please ensure the AVCVideoCap still works. Should say 'Copy Freely', don't rule out cableco started 5C on your premium channels. Hope this helps.

[Ghampton]

Got this working on a G4 Mac Mini that was just gathering dust. The main Sage server is Ubuntu. The only hickup was getting the permissions ironed out on the CIFS shares that are on the Ubuntu box.

Video looks great on a Linux Placeshifter and an HD200 extender. The CPU on the mini is only 3% when recording HD (lower than I would have expected).

Thank you for creating this..

Greg