MyTheatre DVB Network Encoder Plugin

[kelleyga]

Originally Posted by kelleyga

This is my setup:

PC 1 Running latest version of Sage
PC 2 Running MT and Twinhand 1020

All working ok but one little problem I can not figure out how to fix. I have done all I read but still can not find the problem.

When sage is recording using MT I can not see the recording until it is completed done (recorded is finished). I think I found the reason but do not know how to fix it. While recording a program using MT in Sage, I click the recording under CURRENTLY RECORDING and choose VIDEO RECORDING DETAILS. I can see in there that SAGE shows FILE:[C:\SAGE VIDEOS ...] refereing to the local PC1 where sage is running, which is a mistake because the file is located in computer PC2 in C:\Sage Videos. Once the program is recorder and done, then SAGE fixes it and changes the path to \\PC2\Sharename.

Why is this happening and how can I fix it. All other works great, channels change, I can see video but again once it is recorded not before.

Thanks for your help.

This is the SAGE error I get when I want to see a program that is being recorded by MT:

THERE WAS AN ERROR PLAYING WWE MONDAY NIGHT
RAW:
ERROR (-20): There is no MediaPlayer that can playyback the selected file while it's being recorded.

[rickgillyon]

You need the recording folder to be referred the same by both machines, preferably a mapped drive with the same drive letter. Can probably use a UNC path too. i.e. partition your C drive on PC2, say to C and R (or have separate recording drive R), share R, record to R, map that drive to R on PC1, add R as a recording folder in Sage on PC1. Easiest way to do it IME. Whatever, PC1 and PC2 need to agree where recordings are, and as PC1 has a C drive it can't be on C.

[technazz]

Originally Posted by kelleyga

This is the SAGE error I get when I want to see a program that is being recorded by MT:

THERE WAS AN ERROR PLAYING WWE MONDAY NIGHT
RAW:
ERROR (-20): There is no MediaPlayer that can playyback the selected file while it's being recorded.

Make sure you have the Video turned off in MyTheatre when using Sage. That will also cause that error.

Technazz

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by technazz

Make sure you have the Video turned off in MyTheatre when using Sage. That will also cause that error.

Weird, mine works fine with the video on in MyT. I turn it off, but I've left it on a few times by accident and it still worked.

[debennett2]

I have a couple questions. I just got MT working like I wanted as far as getting my sats tuned in and all that. Now I want to use SageTV as the interface:

1) How do I get EPG data? Do I use the directions in the PDF file from the first post or is there a better way now? I can't imagine taking hundreds and hundreds of channels and putting them in order.

2) Does anyone have this working with multiple instances of MT? If so, does it work well for you? That is my end goal.

Thanks for the pointers guys!!!

[grooves12]

Originally Posted by debennett2

I have a couple questions. I just got MT working like I wanted as far as getting my sats tuned in and all that. Now I want to use SageTV as the interface:

1) How do I get EPG data? Do I use the directions in the PDF file from the first post or is there a better way now? I can't imagine taking hundreds and hundreds of channels and putting them in order.

2) Does anyone have this working with multiple instances of MT? If so, does it work well for you? That is my end goal.

Thanks for the pointers guys!!!

See these threads:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17566
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19826

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by debennett2

1) How do I get EPG data? Do I use the directions in the PDF file from the first post or is there a better way now? I can't imagine taking hundreds and hundreds of channels and putting them in order.

This plugin and EPG data are two entirely different issues. Stick all your channels in a Favourite in MyTheatre, note the numbers, and these become the physical channels you need to map against your lineup in Sage. What you use for your EPG lineup depends on your location and your preferences. At least any painful setup of channels is one-time!

For your lineup, if you need to use XMLTV, there are several solutions, including the one linked above and a few others. I use the multi-lineup one by nielm.

Originally Posted by debennett2

2) Does anyone have this working with multiple instances of MT? If so, does it work well for you?

I have 4 MyTheatres running using the Cardn method, very stable.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

I have 4 MyTheatres running using the Cardn method, very stable.

How are you doing this, multiple PC's, or all on the same machine? I thought MyTheatre would only let you run 2 instances per PC? Or has this changed in later versions??

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

How are you doing this, multiple PC's, or all on the same machine? I thought MyTheatre would only let you run 2 instances per PC? Or has this changed in later versions??

Must have, I wasn't aware of any limitations. All running on the same machine as Sage.

[marsh9man]

What drivers are you using to run multiple DVB-s cards? I can only get extra cards using BDA, but they seem to require more CPU, and bog down if I have two HD channels going at the same time. The WDM require far less resources, but only work for one card for me.

[kelleyga]

Hi Rickgillyon, thanks for your help above. I fix the problem. I now use ALL my directories \\pc\sharename and not only the remote MT pc. Now it works good.

But I am getting now a different problem. Before the video recorded from my MT PC was being saved in that pc. Now I am just using the video directories in my Sage PC. Now when I played the videos that were recorded thru my MT PC the video goes slow, the audio is not good (can not understand it) and some times it is ok, but most of the time the video is bad, like if it was a bad signal, no good video or audio. But all the other recordings done thru my Sage PC with my pvr II card which record in the Sage pc also are OK. If I go and see the signal directly from MT it is clear and nice with good video and audio. So, something happens when the program is bein recorded from my MT to the disks attached to my Sage PC.

Do you have any idea what it could be? It is strange, before It was playing perfect, but now that I changed all video directories to UNC and the video from MT is being recorded to the Sage PC disks I am getting this problem

Well, thanks for your help.

P.S. One more question I was gettting confused with. I see that the First Post in this Thread where the ZIP file is attached, the version of the DLL is 1.0.0.0. Later there is another version on POST #53 but the version is 0.9.8.0, which looks like an older version but the date is newer. What is the latest version of the DLL plugin to use?

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by marsh9man

What drivers are you using to run multiple DVB-s cards? I can only get extra cards using BDA, but they seem to require more CPU

I'm using DVB-C not DVB-S. All BDA drivers, running at 5-7% CPU each when recording. I think it depends on the cards, the FloppyDTVs run at 5-7%, when I tried a Twinhan BDA it ran at around 20-25%, so I ditched it.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by kelleyga

Now when I played the videos that were recorded thru my MT PC the video goes slow, the audio is not good (can not understand it) and some times it is ok, but most of the time the video is bad, like if it was a bad signal, no good video or audio. But all the other recordings done thru my Sage PC with my pvr II card which record in the Sage pc also are OK. If I go and see the signal directly from MT it is clear and nice with good video and audio. So, something happens when the program is bein recorded from my MT to the disks attached to my Sage PC.

Well, if the files are good on the MT machine and local recordings on the Sage PC are good, I guess you must have a problem with recording over the network.
If you have any firewalls or antivirus enabled on either machine, uninstall and see if it helps (you can always put it back later).
Copy a big file from the MT machine to the Sage machine, see what throughput you're getting.
What sort of network do you have?

If the worst happens, you can always run MyT locally on the Sage machine (if you have enough slots/CPU etc.).

[debennett2]

A few questions now that I have this working (kinda):

1) I notice that on reboot, using the network encoder is generally a bad bad thing. Anyone thought of a workaround (i.e. delay one program from launching, some kind of batch process)? Any speculation on the culprit?

2) Channel changes take between 10-12 seconds for me right now. Is this the norm? It seems to take about 7-8 seconds with mytheatre by itself. Anyway to tune this down anymore? Anyone know where the issues lie?

Thanks for any tips/tweaks!!!

[travisbell]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

I'm using DVB-C not DVB-S. All BDA drivers, running at 5-7% CPU each when recording. I think it depends on the cards, the FloppyDTVs run at 5-7%, when I tried a Twinhan BDA it ran at around 20-25%, so I ditched it.

I also did this. Owned a Twinhan which was crrrrraaaapppp and bought a FireDTV S. Wow. Amazing card, always works and wayyyyy better supported.

Cheers,

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by debennett2

I notice that on reboot, using the network encoder is generally a bad bad thing.

You'll have to be more specific than "bad bad thing"! Does it fail to tune, set fire to your house, sleep with your partner, what?

Originally Posted by debennett2

Channel changes take between 10-12 seconds for me right now. Is this the norm? It seems to take about 7-8 seconds with mytheatre by itself.

There is a "fast channel switch" setting in MyT, used to cause problems for me but might be worth a try. Later versions were definitely faster than earlier ones. Sage will always take longer than MyT as Sage caches a certain amount of data for network encoders, setting is in sage.properties (somewhere).

Best bet is don't use Live TV, then channel change times are irrelevant.

[travisbell]

Originally Posted by debennett2

A few questions now that I have this working (kinda):

1) I notice that on reboot, using the network encoder is generally a bad bad thing. Anyone thought of a workaround (i.e. delay one program from launching, some kind of batch process)? Any speculation on the culprit?

2) Channel changes take between 10-12 seconds for me right now. Is this the norm? It seems to take about 7-8 seconds with mytheatre by itself. Anyway to tune this down anymore? Anyone know where the issues lie?

Thanks for any tips/tweaks!!!

My Athlon Sempron 3000 took around 7-8 seconds to change channels but over this past weekend I upgraded to a Intel Core 2 Duo and channel changes are down to an easy 4 seconds. So I guess all I am saying is CPU obviously has a lot to do with it... my setup didn't change otherwise.

Cheers,

[kelleyga]

I will try to disable the antivirus to see if it makes a difference. Another problem I just found after rebooting my computer is as follows.

I changed all the video directories to \\pc\sharename. Remember I have 2 pcs, one running MT and one running Sage. Well, if I add a video directory from my MT computer (share is already created with permissions) it will add it in Sage with no problems, but as soon as I close/open sage after that change, Sage will get stuck in the Loading Core... and will not move from there. Then I go to the sage.properties and remove the video directory from my MT computer and sage opens with no problems. Any Ideas?

What is the lates version of the plugin to use? 1.0.0.0 or 0.9.8.0? Thanks.

[debennett2]

Originally Posted by travisbell

My Athlon Sempron 3000 took around 7-8 seconds to change channels but over this past weekend I upgraded to a Intel Core 2 Duo and channel changes are down to an easy 4 seconds. So I guess all I am saying is CPU obviously has a lot to do with it... my setup didn't change otherwise.

Cheers,

I'm using a core2duo 6400, 2gb ram, p5b deluxe motherboard. I wonder what is different about your setup (maybe you can pm me what plugins and line-up you are using)? DVB-S? What cards/fireiwre/usb devices are you using. I have a Twinhan 1027 at the moment with a FireDTV on the way. I will keep the Twinhan of course but I think it will be the second tuner.

You'll have to be more specific than "bad bad thing"! Does it fail to tune, set fire to your house, sleep with your partner, what?

Sorry..hehe. It seems as though if I try to launch directly into Sagetv and view tv, it just craps out and locks of sagetv pretty good. If I crash sagetv (which seems to also crash mytheatre without fail), then launch mytheatre and then sagetv manually, I can then go in and watch tv....albeit with 12 second channel-changing.

There is a "fast channel switch" setting in MyT, used to cause problems for me but might be worth a try. Later versions were definitely faster than earlier ones. Sage will always take longer than MyT as Sage caches a certain amount of data for network encoders, setting is in sage.properties (somewhere).

Best bet is don't use Live TV, then channel change times are irrelevant.

Will try that setting in MT and am using the latest version at the moment of both mytheatre and sagetv. Thanks.

EDIT: Tried that setting and had no affect on channel changing speed. Anyone have any other ideas? Maybe it is my card? WDM drivers maybe? Do they even make these for my card? Will they work if they do?

[travisbell]

Originally Posted by debennett2

I'm using a core2duo 6400, 2gb ram, p5b deluxe motherboard. I wonder what is different about your setup (maybe you can pm me what plugins and line-up you are using)? DVB-S? What cards/fireiwre/usb devices are you using. I have a Twinhan 1027 at the moment with a FireDTV on the way. I will keep the Twinhan of course but I think it will be the second tuner.

MyTheatre 3.3.8, DVB S, FireDTV S w/ latest BDA drivers on Windows Vista Ultimate. I will PM you the rest.

FYI--I just did an official test and it's 5 seconds for a channel change. Not great but certainly liveable.

Cheers,