MyHD Encoder for SageTV

[AndyS]

Thanks for the update. You have PM.

Andy.

[oba01]

Any updates on this project? Sounds like the best thing in the works for many of us. thanks!

[briands]

Originally Posted by oba01

Any updates on this project? Sounds like the best thing in the works for many of us. thanks!

What he said?

[briands]

Originally Posted by briands

What he said?

What I said... I hope to rebuild my server when 5.1 is finalized and am HOPING to pull the MyHD off the shelf and get some use out of it.

[salsbst]

I just got back from my honeymoon. With no more wedding planning to do, and this being no good time to shop for a house, I figure I'll have time to dig back into this.

I found out that most of the HD channels from my cable provider are being delivered unencrypted over firewire, which has tempered my interest in MyHD. However, strangely enough, the locals are encrypted (ironic, no?), so MyHD recording is still of interest to me.

Last time I checked, my code could launch recordings successfully, but had some trouble with stopping them on SageTV's command. I hope to begin to dig back into it this weekend.

My offer of source code for someone who thinks they are more motivated than I am still stands, BTW. I think I've done a lot of the dirty work in getting this thing to "go", but tying up the loose ends, fixing bugs and packing it all into a digestable, installable and documented package feels daunting.

As far as the code itself goes, I introduced a bug during refactoring that is related to multithreading, so if anyone out there has .Net threading expertise and interest, you are a prime candidate!

[Diginerd]

Congrats on the wedding!

I can't code but I can encourage you from the sidelines!!

Go go go! :-)

[the_tom]

Originally Posted by nirvdrum

If you'd like, please check out my site I've set up for my project and see if the registry entries validate with what you think they are. Some I still hadn't quite figured out yet (they're marked with ???).

I don't use Sage or Beyond; I have my own capture s/w, decided to look into adding support for my MyHD card to it, and when I googled for "myhd registry entries" I found this thread and the info about the registry entries in the site that it links to. I found this useful, and identified a few of the unks in the process, here's what I see that wasn't listed on your site:

'|0x003C - 0x003F| Default file name flag; 0x01 = true, 0 = false
'|0x0144 - 0x0147| File name format index; 1 = date-time, 2 = chnum-date, 6 = title, 0x0a = chname-date-time-title, etc.|
'|0x0156 - 0x0169| Channel name (string); comes from the Name in the MCL file

FWIW,

-tom-

[salsbst]

I've released a first version of the encoder. See the first post in this thread: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...92&postcount=1 .

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by salsbst

I've released a first version of the encoder. See the first post in this thread: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...92&postcount=1 .

Hey, it's just like Christmas !!

I'm sure I'll have questions, already have one. Are 'virtual' drives mandatory ? Currently, MyHD uses a local, D:\Images.

And, not quite sure about how to install a 'network encoder', more reading required.

Ken C

[salsbst]

Yes, virtual drives are required. I'm in the middle of a Steelers game, will post more later. Glad you're going to try it out.

[thomaszoo]

I am in the process of trying this out. Here are the problems I currently have:
I am not sure what to put into the Sage.properties file since I don't have a SageRecorder.properties file. Is it similar to the universal network encoder?

I don't have a good network drive so I am going to try to use one of my local drives as the network drive. Is this ok?

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by Ken C

Hey, it's just like Christmas !!

I'm sure I'll have questions, already have one. Are 'virtual' drives mandatory ? Currently, MyHD uses a local, D:\Images.

And, not quite sure about how to install a 'network encoder', more reading required.

Ken C

By "virtual drives are required," I mean that you must allow the encoder to map a drive to the actual recording location, even if it is a local drive. You'll need to physically record from MyHD to subdirectories named "myhd" underneath each SageTV recordings directory. If this doesn't make sense to you, please respond with a list of the paths you have configured SageTV to record to, and I'll try to give you an example of how you could configure MyHD.

[thomaszoo]

I got the (network) drive configured without a problem. I used the mmc/encoders from the UNE instructions, making sure it had a unique encoder #. I launched the encoder and restarted Sage. I went into the Setup Video Sources and added the MyHD encoder. It asked which input I wanted to use (1394, Composite, S-Video) but did not have a tuner option. Did I miss something?

Thanks for the work and the help.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

I used the mmc/encoders from the UNE instructions

Sounds reasonable.

I went into the Setup Video Sources and added the MyHD encoder.

Let's stop here. If you go into Setup Video sources after adding the entries to the properties file, you should already see the MyHD encoder, and should not have to add it as a new source. It will show up under the name in the entry, "mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_name".

Here's a working set of entries from my system:

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=210
mmc/encoders/12345/1/0/provider_id=1752385557741
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=200
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/device_class=
mmc/encoders/12345/encoder_merit=2
mmc/encoders/12345/encoding_host=localhost\:10101
mmc/encoders/12345/encoding_host_login_md5=
mmc/encoders/12345/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/12345/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/12345/last_cross_type=1
mmc/encoders/12345/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/12345/multicast_host=
mmc/encoders/12345/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_name=MyHD
mmc/encoders/12345/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/12345/video_compressor=
mmc/encoders/12345/video_encoding_params=Bestmmc/feature_mask_disable\=0

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by salsbst

By "virtual drives are required," I mean that you must allow the encoder to map a drive to the actual recording location, even if it is a local drive. You'll need to physically record from MyHD to subdirectories named "myhd" underneath each SageTV recordings directory. If this doesn't make sense to you, please respond with a list of the paths you have configured SageTV to record to, and I'll try to give you an example of how you could configure MyHD.

Looks like I'm going to need a bit more 'step-by-step'

Anyhow, here is a list of the current recording directories;

C:\Images
D:\Images
\\Media1\d
\\Media1\f
\\Media1\g
\\Media1\h

Ken C

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by Ken C

Looks like I'm going to need a bit more 'step-by-step'

Anyhow, here is a list of the current recording directories;

C:\Images
D:\Images
\\Media1\d
\\Media1\f
\\Media1\g
\\Media1\h

Ken C

Don't worry about asking, I know my instructions are terse. I'll be expanding them once I've seen how people do with the terse version.

Are all of these directories you list configured in SageTV as recordings directories? I know you mentioned one of them in the context of MyHD above.

For this encoder to work, each of your SageTV directories must either be:

(a) on the same machine as the encoder, or
(b) configured in SageTV using a UNC path

Are we still ok with that requirement?

[salsbst]

A few notes...

1) after pointing my Sage production environment to my DEV machine yesterday, I discovered I needed longer pauses in the encoder config. I updated the following two delay attributes to these values to get this different environment to work. I'll update the defaults in the future.

postMessageDelayMilliseconds="100"
preRecordDelayMilliseconds="1000"

2) In the config instructions, I forgot one for MyHD. You should specify that it names files using the pattern, "Ch-Num & Date & Time", so that each file ends up with a unique name.

3) I forgot to make the path to the MyHD exe configurable in the encoder.

Items (1) and (3) will be addressed in the next release. Item (2) I will add to the wiki when I overhaul the instructions based on feedback here.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by salsbst

For this encoder to work, each of your SageTV directories must either be:

(a) on the same machine as the encoder, or
(b) configured in SageTV using a UNC path

Are we still ok with that requirement?

SageTV is running on the machine with the first two, C:\Images and D:\Images. The last four are on a network server.

All six are listed as recording directories with SageTV

Currently, MyHD, which is located on the same machine, is pointed at D:\Images.

Hell, I'm getting confused

Anyhow, there are two machines, one with SageTV, MyHD, and your encoder, that has two recording drives, C:\Images and D:\Images. And there is a network server with the other four recording drives.

Ken C

[thomaszoo]

I replaced my entries in Sage.properties with yours, tweaked them for my system (i.e., changed folder Frey Technologies to SageTV and the server to 127.0.0.1). It now shows up as a tuner, but as non-functioning. I changed the server from 127.0.0.1 to the actual server's name, but no change.

Also, for Tuner Control it says "USB-UIRT Transceiver MyHDProxy". Is this correct?

Thanks again for your help and your patience.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

I replaced my entries in Sage.properties with yours, tweaked them for my system (i.e., changed folder Frey Technologies to SageTV and the server to 127.0.0.1). It now shows up as a tuner, but as non-functioning. I changed the server from 127.0.0.1 to the actual server's name, but no change.

Also, for Tuner Control it says "USB-UIRT Transceiver MyHDProxy". Is this correct?

Thanks again for your help and your patience.

Please post the the logfile.txt that shows up in your SageTV MyHD Encoder directory. 127.0.0.1 should be fine (assuming it's on the same box), BTW.

Since the encoder changes channels for you, you should probably set tuner control within sagetv to whatever it uses to refer to "the card takes care of tuning on its own" (it may be called "cable" or something like that, can't recall).