R5000-HD capture via USB2 & SageTV

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by techtom

Sage TV has a problem with H.264 in a mpeg-2 transport streams. Your samples are either h.264 elementary streams (Annex-B, NAL format wo/audio) or ASP (AKA mpeg-4 part 1 systems, .mov, quicktime format).

I created the following test case (for kirby). I downloaded the nasa 720p h.264 clip from the Apple HD web site. The clip plays in any h.264 capable player. I demuxed the clip into h.264 video and AAC audio, converted the audio into mp3 and remuxed the video and audio into an mpeg-2 transport stream. The resulting clip is spec compliant, but not all players would play it. CoreAVC didn't work at all, Videolan's VLC had audio problems, SageTV couldn't play it either. Windows media player and Graphedit (if I renamed it from .ts to .mpg) played it perfectly. Elecard w/AVC plugin played it perfectly, regardless of the extension. BTW I've installed the Cyberlink AVC codec support for hardware assisted H.264 playback w/ATI Radeon X1600.

The problem is with the selection of the demuxer. The microsoft directx mpeg-2 demuxer does not handle h.264 video streams correctly. If I rename the remuxed clip to .ts, graphedit will render the graph using the microsoft mpeg-2 demuxer and the resulting graph will not play. If the remuxed clip is renamed to .mpg, graphedit will render the graph using the elecard mepg-2 demuxer, which does understand h.264 video and the playback is perfect. The resulting graph uses either the elecard avc decoder or the cyberlink AVC decoder. Both work, but the cyberlink uses the avi hardware and can playback 1080i clips.

If sageTV is using the directx mpeg-2 demuxer to build its playback graphs, the demuxer will flag the video incorrecly and the resulting graph has no hope of working...

-Techtom

Tom, I wasn't using the SageTV MpegDeMux filter. I got a registry edit from SageTV that allowed me to specify a different demux filter to be used, so I set it to use the Elecard demux filter. After doing so I managed to get the H.264 files playing in SageTV - still not the stream I downloaded from the R5000 website. I got ahold of another H.264 stream from the R5000 - this one in HD - it played fine in SageTV except for stuttering which is most likely due to my video card not being able to handle it, I get the same stuttering in WMP. So at this point Sage can render every single H.264 file that I've thrown at it except for that one sample.

[bullgates]

Originally Posted by Kimper

I am holding off on buying because somewhere along the way it dawned on me that the only HD stuff I would really sit down and watch is from the big 3 broadcasters (abc,cbs,nbc) that I get OTA anyway.

No matter how awesome it looks, I just can't imagine sitting down and watching a show about Desert Lizards...

So, holding off a while. Now if I could get fresh Battlestar Galactica in HD I might convert to dish just for that. But I have yet to figure out who has the Sci-fi channel broadcast in HD?

Canadian sat provider is your only choice for SCI-Fi in HD.

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by bullgates

Canadian sat provider is your only choice for SCI-Fi in HD.

Yeah, except UniversalHD shows BG in HD, but its months delayed from Sci-fi channel airings.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by bullgates

Canadian sat provider is your only choice for SCI-Fi in HD.

Which one is that, and is it actually the Sci-Fi channel or just sci-fi (the genre)?

[Kirby]

I think its just the Genre. I had ExpressVu for a while, and Stargate Atlantis and Star Trek Enterprise were shown in HD on one of the CITY-HD channels. Or maybe Atlantis was on M-HD or one of those other channels they have, I cant recall.

[Kimper]

So back on topic..

Stanger, did you decide yet if you are going to "Pull the trigger" and get one of these?

[stanger89]

I think the only question is when. Looks like I'll be moving in the next month, beyond that I have to see when I catch up from the remodeling I've been doing. If people say SageTV is an expensive hobby, try having a house

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by stanger89

If people say SageTV is an expensive hobby, try having a house

I'll second that!! I'm in the process of gutting my entire 1900sqft house - plaster and all - replacing EVERYTHING! New partition walls, 24 windows, siding, roof, insulation, electric, plumbing, boiler etc... I feel your pain!

[Kimper]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

I'll second that!! I'm in the process of gutting my entire 1900sqft house - plaster and all - replacing EVERYTHING! New partition walls, 24 windows, siding, roof, insulation, electric, plumbing, boiler etc... I feel your pain!

Dang
Make sure you throw some Cat-5/fiberoptic/coax in there!

Just finished some mild remodelling myself, just wait till the wife then decides that the new looking house needs some new furniture.... Chaaa Ching$$$

[dj7675]

Hoping for some help on my r5000 setup. I have it working perfectly with 2 r5000's-one for starchoice and one for 4dtv. I would like to have each tuner record to a separate folder but sage seems to record it wherever it wants. I can't seem to figure out how it chooses what folder it records but I would like to control it. Is there a way to tell sage where you want each tuner to record too?

Thanks

Darin

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by dj7675

Hoping for some help on my r5000 setup. I have it working perfectly with 2 r5000's-one for starchoice and one for 4dtv. I would like to have each tuner record to a separate folder but sage seems to record it wherever it wants. I can't seem to figure out how it chooses what folder it records but I would like to control it. Is there a way to tell sage where you want each tuner to record too?

Thanks

Darin

yeah, use this line:

mmc/encoders/12347/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=

thats an example. your device ID may be a different number. I have files write to my HTPC computer, on a few drives, one being E. Its also shared on the network as "E". So my line is:

mmc/encoders/12347/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=\\\\htpc\\e

and I have the "E" share setup as a recording directory. Hope that helps.

[jlindborg]

While looking into the "drift" I was seeing with the comskip detection stuff I've now noticed a far more serious (though likely related) issue. I've stopped processing all files with VideoRedo last weekend and I've now noticed on 3 seperate shows that using the remote to jump around in big chunks on a file recorded with the r5000 off my DTV is really jacked up quite badly. During live playback of the Mariners game the other day I noticed some small oddities while I'm jumping ahead a little bit it would go backwards - this is quite a bit more serious than just that.

For instance, watching 60 minutes last night - I watched the first segment and then decided I wanted to skip ahead to the Cobert segment - So I fast forwarded in 3 minute chunks and watched the 2nd segment go by and then, boom. It said it was at the end of the file. Huh? I backed out and looked at it and it reports it as an hour long - what the? So I go to play it again and it's now somewhere in the middle of the show - skipping forward some more it leaps backwards and then forwards and I was ending up at a few seemingly random spots in the show. After exiting and loading the show multiple times I was finally able to get it to play back somewhere near the Cobert segement and it played through ot the end fine.

From what I can tell if you just leave it alone and let the show play, all is well. Even with comskip setup the jumps are not that bad, although they are a little off. However a few times now I've seen badly mangled file position logic in Sage using the remote to move around big chunks (i.e. more than one skip) - I've seen it on two 60 minutes episodes and on a recording of Real Time - same behavior. These are the only shows where I tend to skip large chunks of the show in one shot so I'm guessing I'd see the same behavior on other shows - I'll test some more this weekend.

Not sure what the deal is - it's pretty confusing stuff - but figured I'd dutifully report it anyway. Clearly looks to be a sage issue with the file format but I don't know what. I saved the 60 minutes episode and I'll run it through VideoRedo tonight and see if the same behavior exists after it's been "cleaned" just as a test.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

Not sure what the deal is - it's pretty confusing stuff - but figured I'd dutifully report it anyway.

Sounds like there's something weird with the framerate and or the file time/position (I know there's something in there to do with time, but don't remember what it's called).

You should definitly report it to SageTV and at least offer to send them a recording, sounds like there's something in the recordings that the Sage demux doesn't handle right.

[jlindborg]

yep - done that. Not a lot of response on the r5000 specific items I've tossed at support thus far, however.

[Kirby]

are you capturing with or without null packets?

[jlindborg]

I have it selected as "compressed" so presumably that means no NULL packets. The file sizes are around 1.1 gig per hour so...

[Kirby]

yes, compressed strips out null packets, and *can* cause timing issues on certain devices. Give it a try on the 19mbit option (do a HD channel, not SD). If you use a SD channel you are going to have about 16mbit of null packets, and not what you want.

I should note whoever, that I'm using compressed on both cable and Dish, without any timing issues. Maybe this goes back to DirecTV's DSS vs. DBS broadcast type. Or maybe its totally unrelated. But still a worthwhile test.

[jlindborg]

Well, I don't have HD on the DTV yet - but I can try some tests with bigger files on SD recordings just to see what it does...

[Kirby]

You are connected to a USB2.0 port correct (and active as 2.0 not 1.1)? On a SD channel, there would be enough bandwidth to pass the signal, however you could still get some sort of errors in the stream I would imagine. Does D8 still have a HD PPV channel? If so, you should be able to capture the first 5 minutes of a PPV movie, whether that will give enough time to test your jumps I dont know.

[jlindborg]

yes, it's USB 2.0 and captures are fine even without compression - I didn't turn on compressed as an option till after I was using it for a while - and the NExtCom boys already looked at a couple files I uploaded to them to ensure it wasn't dropping packets or the like so no problems there.
5 minutes probably wont do it.