BDA DVB Network Encoder (2.0.0.6 - February 12 2006)

[AndersNolberger]

Hi

This is a "network encoder" for SageTV that makes it possible to use DVB-T and DVB-C cards in Sage. It is based on the BDA architecture from Microsoft and should work with all DVB-T cards that are supported by Microsoft Media Center and all DVB-C cards with BDA drivers.

Read the readme file or the web page for instructions on how to set this up. The files can be found at http://www.nolberger.se

2006-02-12 Version 2.0.0.6
Fixed a bug in channel scan. In some cases not all channels was found.
Options to reset CI on channel changes and to switch to unencrypted channel when switching between two encrypted ones.

2006-01-16 Version 2.0.0.4
DVB-C support
More reliable scanning of channels (mostly UK)
Faster channel changes, especially between channels on the same frequency

2005-10-04 Version 1.1
More robust selection of devices
Fixed support for multiple cards.
Experimental AC3 support.
More minor fixes to make it more stable on some computers/installations.

2005-12-17 Version 1.1.0.3
Support for more devices
AC3 now works with Sage 4.1
Some smaller fixes for better stability.

To upgrade from old version make a backup of your settings.xml and extract all of the files from the zip file. Copy your settings.xml file back and open settings and make a new channel scan.

Please make files with the frequncies and settings for your area and make it available to me and I will include it in future versions.

Enjoy
Anders

[Bathman]

At last DVB-T. I just ordered a Nova-T. If I can get this up and running I will be able to get all the Freeview channels in the UK on my PVR and I can kiss goodbye to my Sky Digibox and USB UIRT channel changer. Many thanks for implementing this it has been long overdue.

[ck-]

I would really appreciate if someone could give me some advice.
I have spent a bit of time trying to get this to work for my TwinHan Visionplus MiniTer DVB-T

I use the certified 1.2.1.2 certified drivers. Have tried later ones (1.2.1.6 and 1.2.1.7 and they don't seem to work well with anything)
I can use the ScanChannelsBDA.exe to scan channels. As these give output below, that seems OK.
I can use graphedit to build a graph and play it. It's just a blank screen but I assume that is because it is not tuned. The graph is attached. Is it wrong?
I have the Cyberlink PowerVCR II demo installed.

But when I start SBDARecorder and the start Sage and try to view a channel, I just get error message that the graph could not be built.:

Sage: VERSION
Res: 2.1
...
Sage: NOOP
Res: OK
Sage: START SBDARecorder TV Tuner|1|2229267341610|C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\My Documents\My Videos\SageTV\461419413_1_0427_2127-0.mpg|Great
Err:
Res: ERROR
Sage: NOOP
Res: OK
Sage: NOOP
Res: OK
Sage: GET_FILE_SIZE C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\My Documents\My Videos\SageTV\461419413_1_0427_2127-0.mpg
Err: Graph not running
Res: ERROR Graph not running
Sage: GET_FILE_SIZE C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\My Documents\My Videos\SageTV\461419413_1_0427_2127-0.mpg
Err: Graph not running

I am sure I am being stupid. Any pointers?




ScanChannelsBDA output:
# locked 634000, 8 signal locked = Y present = Y stength = 71 quality = 80

Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 634166, 8, 1)
#Alternate frequencies
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 850000, 8, 1)
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 578166, 8, 1)
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 577833, 8, 1)
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 474000, 8, 1)
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 722166, 8, 1)
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 618166, 8, 1)
#Network_1("Sutton Coldfield", 474000, 8, 1)
Program_ 1("BBC ONE" , 4165, 600, 601, 4165) # LCN=1
Program_ 2("BBC ONE" , 4165, 600, 602, 4165) #
Program_ 3("BBC THREE" , 4351, 620, 621, 4351) # LCN=7
Program_ 4("BBC THREE" , 4351, 620, 622, 4351) #
Program_ 5("BBC TWO" , 4229, 610, 611, 4229) # LCN=2
Program_ 6("BBC TWO" , 4229, 610, 612, 4229) #
Program_ 7("BBC NEWS 24" , 4415, 640, 641, 4415) # LCN=40

[KrisAcker]

ck-,

I'm having just about the same problems. The only mux I can get the SBDARecorder to write a file with is from InterVideo WinDVD 6.

But than the file starts playing in Sage without sound, when the sound comes on after a few seconds it freezes, and then you get less then a second of playback every few seconds.

In WinDVD 6 the file will play, but with sound delayed 1 or two seconds. After skipping forward and backwards the delay gets up to minutes!

My card is Hauppage Nova-T and I've been using it with Anders' SDVBCoreRecorder since he released it without any problems.

[AndersNolberger]

Can you try the mux from ShowShifter 2.1 and see if that helps. I am having trouble with ShowShifter 3.0.

[ck-]

Thanks Anders. Tried that and it made no difference. I am now suspecting that my PC is a bit ^&*^%. At various times I have had GBPVR and MediaPortal working on the machine, and now they are not working either.
I have tried so many different encoders, decoders, mux/demuxes, applications, etc. that I think I have a total mess. I think I am going to do a rebuild of my computer and try again.

Originally Posted by AndersNolberger

Can you try the mux from ShowShifter 2.1 and see if that helps. I am having trouble with ShowShifter 3.0.

[KrisAcker]

Originally Posted by AndersNolberger

Can you try the mux from ShowShifter 2.1 and see if that helps. I am having trouble with ShowShifter 3.0.

Anders,

I can't seem to find a mux in ShowShifter 2.1. What's the ID for it?

[AndersNolberger]

It is called "ShowShifter MPEG PS Writer". The GUID is in my example settings file.

[AndersNolberger]

The PS writer is only included in the DVB version of 2.x and that does not seam to be available any longer. Frey has a new version of their demux on the way that will support TS files. Until it is released and I have changed SBDAR to support TS streams try the GUID marked DCL and DPP in my settings.xml. Thay are differnt Cyberlink filters that might work.

[peterjb]

Anders,

Any chance that you can modify the code base to use the ttMuxWrite filter included in the 1.0.4.0 Technotrend BDA Application? I've got it working creating Program Streams from Transport Streams from within graphedit using the HDTVPump TS push filter from dvbportal. After I cleaned up my PC ( to get rid of all the rubbish filters ) it appears to work well for both SD and HD content.

Cheers

Peter

[AndersNolberger]

I have tried the ttMux filter erlier without success. Can you show me your graph so that I can check if I can get it to work.

In the settings.xml file you can change the GUIDs to use for mux and file writer. If the mux also writes the file just leave the file writer portion clear. But as I said before I don't think it works with ttMux right now.

I have experimented with using filters from DVB WebScheduler as file writer/dump and a Flowmeter filter to get exact information of how many bytes that has been written to disk. It seams to work great and I will update the app on my page soon (maybe tonight if I get it ready).

I will release the source for this soon and it would be great to get help with DVB-C and perhaps DVB-S.

[peterjb]

Anders,

I couldn't get the ttmux and ttwrite from the TT Application to work either. But the TT BDA app ships with a ttmuxwrite filter which appears to work a treat ( It might actually be the SS PS Mux in disguise as TT helped implement DVB in ShowShifter ).

I've attached a graph that use HDTVPump, MS MPEG demux and ttMuxWrite to grab the ABC HD channel from a recording of an ABC TS and convert it to a PS.

Cheers

Peter

[dooferlad]

If I get a DVB card is it likely that the mux (or, in fact, demux I guess) that is compatable will come with it? I don't want to have to buy other applications just to get a compatable mux. If I am going to buy anything else, in all honesty, it will be ShowShifter since it has built in support.

[dooferlad]

Actually I take that back - just been looking a bit closer at ShowShifter. Darn it! Why is Sage so nice, but is missing BDA support!

Am I right in thinking that BDA isn't just for DVB (technically), so Sage could be extended to support it without the developers needing to use a DVB card? Is sat or cable using DVB yet in the US? Surely it is for HD broadcasts, so there must be some SD stuff as well?

*goes for a lie down*

[zoe]

Have had Sage working with my pvr 350 for a few weeks and was so impressed that I bought a Nova-t (for some reason I thought I had read that Sage natively supported it).
I have tried to use SBDArecorder to get this working but can't.
I have made the relevent changes to the setup.xml and sage.properties but I'm unsure as to what should happen when I open sage after starting the sbda app. Should I have a new option when I go to the device configuration in sage? (I don't).
I am running Sage 2.2.8 and the latest technotrend bda drivers for my nova-t.
If anyone has any tips that would great. I can post my config files if neccessary.

[AndersNolberger]

dooferlad,

The Mux I use the most is from Cyberlink PowerDirector or PowerProducer. They work very well for me in Sweden. You can download a trial before you choose to by it. I hope that the external mux will not be needed in the future, either becouse Sage will be able to play the TS stream or becouse of a new open source mux that is tested in the FireWire thread on this forum.

BDA is for both DVB and ATSC that is used in the US. But there are differencies in how to use DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S and ATSC so it must be tested with all of them.

zoe,

If the changes in the sage.properties is correctly done the new card should show up in the setup wizard. It does not matter if SBDARecorder is started at this point, it should be there anyway.
Make sure that Sage is completely stopped (not in sleep) and that the service is stopped to if you use service mode before trying to make changes to the properties file.
If that does not help you can post your config files so that I can have a look.

I will release a new version of SBDARecorder soon with a few improvements.

Anders

[zoe]

Hi Andreas

I am not running Sage in service mode and I had stopped Sage before making the changes.
I have attached my sage.properties and the setup.xml (renamed extensions to .doc because of attachment restrictions on forum). I have only added a few sample channels into the setup.xml.
Interestingly even though I pasted the new mmc/encoders lines after the original definitions Sage has moved them up before the original definitions.
It has also added a back slash after the host name in this line.

mmc/encoders/12345/encoding_host=pvr\:6969

When I first noticed this I took all the config out and did it again thinking maybe I made a typo but exactly the same thing happened.

Thanks for your help

Zoe

[AndersNolberger]

That looks ok to me. But could you test to replace your "12345 rows" with these instead:

mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/contrast=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/hue=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/last_channel=8
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/provider_id=11
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/video_crossbar_type=1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/contrast=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/hue=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/last_channel=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/provider_id=0
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/video_crossbar_type=2
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/contrast=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/device_name=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/hue=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/last_channel=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/provider_id=0
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/video_crossbar_index=1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/video_crossbar_type=2
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/contrast=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/hue=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/last_channel=
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/provider_id=0
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/saturation=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/sharpness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/video_crossbar_type=3
mmc/encoders/12345/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/12345/audio_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12345/capture_config=2058
mmc/encoders/12345/default_device_quality=
mmc/encoders/12345/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/12345/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969
mmc/encoders/12345/encoding_host_login_md5=
mmc/encoders/12345/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/last_cross_type=1
mmc/encoders/12345/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/12345/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_name=SBDARecorder
mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12345/video_compressor=
mmc/encoders/12345/video_encoding_params=Best

Also I dont know wath the many \u0000 in the beginning of the file is. But if everything else works I suppose thay does not matter.

[Ian Norman]

Anders
I am getting the same problem " Graph Not Running"
I have changed the settings.xml with different Mux but no go.

I presumed I was doing something stupid.

I am looking forward to trying your new version when it's ready

Thanks

[zoe]

Anders

I used the lines you provided and took out all the /u0000 rubbish at the beginning of the file and I now see the sbdarecorder in the setup options but am getting the 'graph not running' error that a few others have when I try to view a channel. I think I was already using the cyberlink mux but have downloaded and installed the PowerProducer trial just in case. Doesn't seem to make any difference

Any more tips?

Thanks

Zoe