MyTheatre DVB Network Encoder Plugin

[peterjb]

I've recently updated the original Plugin for MyTheatre that supports the SageTV the Network Encoder protocol. I have been running it myself in a dual DVB-T & DVB-S setup with good results, as such it's time to make it available to others.

The plugin has been tested with MyTheater V3.38.2 & V4.X Beta ( available at www.dvbcore.com ).

ChangeLog for MTSageTV Version 1.0.1 :

* Fix Plugin UI Bugs related to specifying MyTheatre Favourite & SageTV TCP/IP Port
* Fix Bug related to setup of Card#.ini default values
* Update to latest versions of JEDI JCL & JVCL Components
* Enable TS recording functionality
* Enable MyTheatre 4.X Beta Recording functionality
* Update documentation to reference SageTV 6.x Setup & Features

ChangeLog for MTSageTV Version 1.0.0 :

* Includes rollUp & rework of changes made since the initial plugin release - Version 0.9.5
* Optmize code for My Theatre Channel Change
* Finalise the Plugin UI configuration logic
* Remove Device Type & DVBCore Version from plugin Display
* Update URL's in documentation and Plugin UI
* Update to latest versions of JEDI JCL & JVCL Components
* Add logic to return current file size for GET_SIZE & GET_FILE_SIZE SageTV commands in plugin logfile
* Add additional logging for plugin PS Packet retrieval
* Correct plugin logging related to empty MyTheatre Favourite and SageTV Channel Change Request
* Fixed SQL to retrieve MyTheatre Channel Lineup to remove 'type' constraint
* Fixed channel change issue with Multiple Channels with the same channel name
* Reformat Plugin Log output to match Indy Log Output ( Makes it easier to merge logs for debugging purposes )
* Add additional logging for DVB-S MyTheatre Events
* Multiple Bug Fixes & Optimizations
* Plugin Will now only respond to events it raises
* Card#.ini files will automatically be created with defaults ( Mine that is! )
* Implement Setup & About Tabs for Plugin
* Apply updates to Documentation to do with Network Encoder setup

Note : Due to the forums limitations on the number of files you can attach to a post, I've removed the source code for the versions of the plugin at this time. If you'd like a copy of it, simply PM me and I'll provide it to you.

Please provide feedback on your success or failure!

Cheers

Peter

[computer33]

I would love to get this working !

I keep getting this error...

8/10/2005 6:31:33 PM ERROR - No MT Channels defined for Favourite : SageTV

Chanels.mdb confirms it is there. I have tried other names like Sage or Movie and changed the ini file but still no luck.



Thanks.

[dazzyb2k3]

When I select my MTSage TV Card 1 in the tuner setup it is listed as composite and none of my channels show up. The only entry in channel setup is "1 - Composite-MTSageTVCard 1 on localhost:6969 Composite"

Otherwise the plugin looks great

Any Ideas??

Thanks

[dazzyb2k3]

Sorry, forgot to mention that ny DVB-T card is a Nebula which does have a composite input. Is there something I have to change to make it use the tuner? It all works perfectly in My Theatre.

Thanks

[peterjb]

Computer33,

Can you please run the following SQL against your Channels.mdb -:

Select A.FavID, CHID, ChNum, A.Name From Channels A, Favorites B Where B.Name = 'SageTV' and B.FavID = A.FavID and ChNum > 0 and Type=1 Order by ChNum;

You can do this by opening the Channels.mdb in Access and going to Queries -> 'Create Query in Design View'. Then Choose View->SQL View from the menu. Then paste the above query into the window. Then Choose Query->Run from the menu.

You should be presented with your channel lineup in Channel Number order. If you aren't then your MyTheatre configuration isn't set up correctly.

Cheers

Peter

[computer33]

Peter,

Your SQL statement works if I change the A refernce to table "Channels" and the B reference to table "Favorites".

Walter

[peterjb]

dazzyb2k3,

I cocked up the Network Encoder defintion in the doco. Cut and paste the following into your sage.properties and you should be OK.

mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/atsc_tuning=false
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/cable_based_rf=true
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=
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/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/video_crossbar_type=1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/atsc_tuning=false
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/cable_based_rf=true
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/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/2/0/video_crossbar_type=2
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/atsc_tuning=false
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/cable_based_rf=true
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/video_crossbar_index=1
mmc/encoders/12345/2/1/video_crossbar_type=2
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/atsc_tuning=false
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/brightness=-1
mmc/encoders/12345/3/0/cable_based_rf=true
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/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/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/12345/default_device_quality=DVD Standard Play
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/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_name=MTSageTV Card 1
mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12345/video_compressor=
mmc/encoders/12345/video_encoding_params=DVD Standard Play

I'll amend the doco shortly..

Cheers

Peter

[peterjb]

I've updated the attachment with the resolution for the SQL issue and the documentation for the Network Encoder definition

[dazzyb2k3]

Thanks for the update Peter, I'm a big step closer but not quite there yet!

It now lists all the inputs from my card fine. I selected MTSageTV Card 1 : Tuner (am assuming this is the correct one) and now when I go to map the channels it lists 175 entries. Is this correct given that I have only 3 setup in MyTheatre SageTV favouites? I went through and mapped the first 3 anyway. When I go to view channels 1 and 3 don't do anything and channel 2 works but with audio only.

I get the feeling i'm missing something here (probably in the sage tuner configuration). Excuse the ignorance, i'm quite new to SageTV and this is my first attempt at setting up network encoding.

Any ideas welcome.

Thanks

[dazzyb2k3]

Slight update - after doing nothing inparticular. When I go to the channel mapping screen I now get both video and audio (yay!) of whichever channel Mytheatre is set to. However I cannot view or change to any other channels from within sage. As if the channel change info is not getting back to Mytheatre. I'll enable the logging and see if I can isolate anything.

Slowly getting there - the one channel i can see works beautifiully!!

[computer33]

Success! I also now can get video and audio. Love it!

However, only one channel is available to me?

So far so good.

[peterjb]

When you tune in the first channel for the first time, it does take a a period of time for the picture/sound to occur. I'm pretty sure this is due to the startup work that MT has to do when you first tune to a channel and start recording. Subsequent channel changes should be quite quick. I'm averaging < 4 seconds on my BDA device and < 1.5 second with non-BDA hardware.

If you are having issues, could you turn your traces on and please post the logfiles? Thanks!

[dazzyb2k3]

I enabled the logging and I found and error when executing the line

"mmc/encoders/12345/default_device_quality=DVD Standard Play"

I checked the recordings folder and all the files were there and I could see new ones created as I changed channels within sage - it was just that they weren't being played back. I edited the above line to read

"mmc/encoders/12345/default_device_quality="

Now everything works!! but it's painfully slow to change channels <4 secs would be great, i'm around 10 secs at the moment.

Still working on it though. Thanks Peter

[insomniac]

i just now got a chance to try this out. No luck here, but im assuming that its a DVB-S thing maybe? Has anyone confirmed that this works with DVB-s? Seems like it should be the same for all sats, but dunno...

I.

[peterjb]

Insomniac,

The plugin is hardware agnostic, MyTheatre is handling the device/tuning/recording support whether it be DVB-S, DVB-C or DVB-T ( Using native or BDA device drivers). The plugin is simply providing the glue between SageTV and MyTheatre.

What do your logfiles look like?

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

thats what i was figuring, but i just could not get it to work. Ill take a look at the logs a little later today.

thx for the reply peter

I.

[insomniac]

Good stuff Peter!

so it was definately that i was a dumbass and did not read the logs. My channels in the channels.mdb were not configured correctly. All is well.

One thing to note is that channel changes are extremely slow(about 3 times slower than Yojas dvbcore mod). The good thing is that channels change every time! very cool.

when using MT from within its interface, changes are very fast. Am I missing any speedups here? Im not using BDA.

[Slicky]

I've been trying this plugin but don't have it working yet. The mtsagetv.dll appear to be version 0.96. I am use a nexus-s.

I am getting the error:

9/9/2005 7:53:35 PM Card Type - DVB-S
9/9/2005 7:53:35 PM DVBCore - DVBCore v5.70.10.00 Copyright (C)2002,2003 Saar Software
9/9/2005 7:53:35 PM TCP/IP Port - 6969
9/9/2005 7:53:35 PM Plugin Enabled - True
9/9/2005 7:53:35 PM MT Favourite - SageTV
9/9/2005 7:53:35 PM ERROR - No MT Channels defined for Favourite : SageTV

The log says there are no channels but I believe that I have the favourites group set up correctly. I tried the sql query in this thread but it doesn't work as listed. I will try adjusting it to test the db. I assume the dll knows to look in the MT directory.

I do not get picture or sound. Here is another portion of the log:

9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM MyTheatre - FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED Received
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM Debug - Start Recording...
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM Debug - Open PS File :
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM ERROR - Unable to create recording file :
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM Debug - WM_START_RECORDING Processed
9/9/2005 10:33:28 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE

and this:

9/9/2005 10:36:03 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/9/2005 10:36:05 PM ERROR - Unknown SageTV Network Encoder Command - BUFFER MTSageTV Card 1 Composite|0|16777216|C:\DVB recording\MTSageTVCard1on192168026969Composite-0.mpg|Great
9/9/2005 10:36:05 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/9/2005 10:36:05 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/9/2005 10:36:05 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/9/2005 10:36:05 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE

and some more:

9/9/2005 10:46:15 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/9/2005 10:46:15 PM SageTV - SWITCH
9/9/2005 10:46:15 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/9/2005 10:46:15 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/9/2005 10:46:15 PM SageTV - NOOP

What kind of tuner/composits/tuning options should be picked in sage when setting up the source?

I hope all of the above helps.

Thanks

[peterjb]

At Last some DVB-S Users!!!!

Insomniac - I don't really know why channel changes would take so long, as I'm essentially doing what Yoja's mod does - but without AVBroadcaster. It would be worth running the plugin in Test mode ( MyTheatreSetupTest=1 and MyTheatreTrace=1 in the ini file). When you the run MT standalone, it will loop through the channels you've defined for SageTV and record them ( changing channels every 10 seconds ). This exercises the same logic that occurs when SageTV makes requests - but without SageTV's involvement. If this works OK - Then the problem is probably not with the plugin ( I Hope! ).

If you look at the logfile the time difference between the MT_CMD_SWITCH_CHAN_BY_CHID command and the FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED command is the time taken by MT to respond to the Channel Change request. In my case it takes about 1-2 seconds..

10/09/2005 9:37:57 PM MyTheatre - MT_CMD_SWITCH_CHAN_BY_CHID Received
10/09/2005 9:37:57 PM Debug - WM_CHANGE_CHANNEL Processed
10/09/2005 9:37:59 PM MyTheatre - FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED Received

and

10/09/2005 9:38:17 PM MyTheatre - MT_CMD_SWITCH_CHAN_BY_CHID Received
10/09/2005 9:38:17 PM Debug - WM_CHANGE_CHANNEL Processed
10/09/2005 9:38:18 PM MyTheatre - FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED Received

Slicky - In terms of setup - choose the TV Tuner Option - configure your channel lineup by simply choosing the channels whose channel numbers match the channels you've defined in MT. I'll update the doco to show the process that I've followed ( But I'm currently running 3.0.7 - So it won't be identical )

I've attached a new version of the MTSageTV dll. It is a work in progress, but runs fine in my rig at the moment. It contains some bug fixes and enhancements ( But the Setup Function's do not currently work ).

Let me know how you go.

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

I got this! Slicky open up your channels.mdb and go to the channels section. Find field "type" and change everything to 1 . You should see some 2's 154's etc...change them all to 1 and watch tv!

I.

Originally Posted by Slicky

I've been trying this plugin but don't have it working yet. The mtsagetv.dll appear to be version 0.96. I am use a nexus-s.

I am getting the error:


The log says there are no channels but I believe that I have the favourites group set up correctly. I tried the sql query in this thread but it doesn't work as listed. I will try adjusting it to test the db. I assume the dll knows to look in the MT directory.

I do not get picture or sound. Here is another portion of the log:


and this:



and some more:



What kind of tuner/composits/tuning options should be picked in sage when setting up the source?

I hope all of the above helps.

Thanks