R5000-HD capture via USB2 & SageTV

[jlindborg]

Just some more results from testing. I couldn't reproduce the weird time shifting stuff reliably on r5000 recordings - which kind of freaks me out. I'd feel a lot better if all the recordings behaved the same... I did find one other recording I had issues with. After running it through VideoRedo it worked fine. I have my encoder set to record with the null packets now - making much bigger files which is a bummer but I have lots of space to burn at the moment so no big deal.

Also of note - both ComSkip and SA routinely have trouble processing the r5000 SD recordings off the DTV - many (not all) of them are not marked properly or at all. Again, if I process the files with VideoRedo and run the commercial detection again, it works great all the time.

I'll leave it recording with null packets for several days and see if it behaves different than recording compressed.

[Kirby]

Well I have to say that I have now lost all live viewing stability. I *think* it is a result of changing my vid cards around, where I was using a Geforce 7800GT, went to an ATI x1600Pro for some h264 testing, and now using a 7800 GTX. Cant tune channels one after another and have playback actually play, but its recording fine. It could also be some sort of issue with dangling ATI drivers still, or my upgrade from 4.1.14 RC to 5.0.2.

So I am planning on doing a clean install of XP and Sage again, and not messing with anything else.

I also am still having issues getting 4 digit channel controls on Sage. Some have eluded to it being a setup issue in tuning control, or an IR file. I would agree if I were using either of those, but this setup is a network encoder. So I've been searching around for something in Studio but cant find anything regarding 4 digit channel numbers. Of course selecting a channel from the guide sends all 4 digits, but direct channel entry when watching live tv, or entering a 4 digit number in the guide jumps to the first three digits (i.e. if I try to enter 9424 for ESPN HD, it jumps to 942). Anyone have an idea there?

[BobPhoenix]

I can't find Opus's post but it involved searching for 'Size(MaxChannel + "")' and changing:

IF Size(NumericEntry) == Size(MaxChannel + "")

to:

IF Size(NumericEntry) == 4

in the Numbers Listener in LiveTV Guide ... and I believe the one in the MediaPlayerOSD numbers Listener if you want it for LiveTV.

If my memory is correct.

I suspect the problem is that MaxChannel is not calculated correctly but I don't know for sure.


BobP.

[Kirby]

Well, I found this post:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...856#post155856

and searched for Size(MaxChannel + "").

I changed 2 of the 4 entries it found to "4", skipping the two that are in an area for audio setup and video setup.

It seems to have worked, except now my graphics are all screwed up, blue background gone, its black now, menu selections are not highlighted but rather seem to shift to a italics mode. and when I change to another menu, the old one still is partially there. Cant reset Sage right now because its recording, maybe after those finish I can restart it and make it work again.

[GKusnick]

Sounds like you saved your modified STV to the wrong directory and Sage can't find its UI graphics files anymore. To fix it, either save it back to the same directory it came from (under a different filename, of course), or else copy the UI graphics from the original directory into your custom directory.

[Kirby]

Yup that was it... Actually I had set my STV to a copy of the original, and thought I was editting it, but somehow I wound up editting the original and something got screwed up. So I replaced it back to stock, and made a new copy, and editted again and its working great now! Finally have control over 4 digit channels!!

Noticed something odd though, this time when I searched for the string, only 2 hits came back, and in the old STV there were 4. Oh well. Got the Guide and OSD both set correctly.

[Ja'Man]

No posts in almost a month? Does that mean everybody is working fine now? That would be good news!!

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I currently use Sage with cable and 2x250 cards. I would like to make the move to Directv (NFL package), and I know that they switched to a different compression recently (for HD?), but from reading the posts in this thread, I gather that this is only for locals? My setup now has my main server in the computer room, a client connected via wirelessG in the living room, and a client connected via Gig ethernet in the bedroom. How would you guys go about doing this if you had my setup? What HD Directv box would allow me to record all the HD channels, now and in the near future? And how many shows can I record at the same time(in HD and/or SD)? And is there anything else I should be concerned about? Thanks.

[Rob]

I'm trying to figure out what I missed when setting up the R5000 with SageTV:

I got the Dish Vip211 with the R5000 mod.

Installed it and the R5000 DVR app works fine. It can control the box and shows the video from it just fine.

Changed the sage TV option in the R5000 software to port 6969 and check the box to enable the server.

Cut and pasted the sage tv encoder property entries from the R5000's website into the sage.properties file and edited the lines they have in red (including setting the IP address and the port to 6969).

Started SageTV and the R5000 continues to say waiting for sage to connect. Also in the SageTV video source details screen, the "network encoder" value is "true", but the "functioning" value is false.

What have I missed??? Any Ideas???

[NEOSG]

I know you said you pasted the lines in the config, but did you also go through the setup source section within Sage to confirm it is there. And, in the setup source section in Sage, have you configured the R5000 network encoder EPG and channel settings?

[camTexas]

If the tuner setup checks out OK within Sage you might try port 6968 instead of 6969. For some reason I could't use 6969 on my system either. Now I have two units running 6967 and 6968 and they work great.

[Rob]

Thank you for the replies. I appreciate your help.

Changing the port to 6968 worked. Now Sage is connecting and controlling it fine. Thanks.

[Jesse]

Hi,

After ten years I am looking to switch from Diretv to Dish. I want to use the R5000 with sage but I dont want to get caught up in D*'s mpeg2-->mpeg4 monkey motion. Looks like E* has already got this worked out and offers alot more HD content to boot. I am thinking of going with one of the vip211 boxs and I am wondering how well this thing works. I have read through most of this thread and so I know there have been some problems.

I see from Rob's last post that he has his working "fine." Does that mean it is pretty much seamless? If I end up with any issues similar to those that jlindborg had then my wife will drive a stake through my heart.....

Please let me know if there is anything I need to know.

Thanks in advance,

Jesse

[NEOSG]

Mpeg4 in h264/AVC still is not seemlessly playable in Sage. But, that is only 2 national and LIL HD channels. And it is stated by Sage that it will be supported in the 5.1 version of Sage. If you can live watching Mpeg4 outside of Sage then your good to go. You can still record it in sage, just not watch it there. All other content can be recorded and watched in sage seemlessly.

[Jesse]

Hi NEOSG,

Thanks for your reply. I just headed back hear to post re. H264 as more searching indicated that it may be the real problem. Good to know that V5.1 will (should) address this. Am I gonna need any really crazy hardware to get H264 playback? My HD client PC is a P4 3.0 with a gig of ram and a 6600gt. As soon as the 7600gt is available in AGP I will upgrade. If this wont get it then I would like to know now.

The LiL's are not much of a problem as I can get them OTA with my vbox tuners. What are the two nationals? If you are an E* user then how about your take on the "voom" channels that E* offers. Is there any real content there or is it just fluff so they can claim to have the most HD content?

THANKS AGAIN!

Jesse

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Am I gonna need any really crazy hardware to get H264 playback? My HD client PC is a P4 3.0 with a gig of ram and a 6600gt. As soon as the 7600gt is available in AGP I will upgrade.

Hard to say as the player/codec issues are still changing on a regular basis. For example, I can only get things to play smoothly using the CoreAVC decoder. Elecard's stuff bites on my box, and I have a decent machine for playing. Pentium D, 2Gb Ram, and 7600GT PCIExpress card. So, i would think that would be enough for the Elecard player and codecs. But, no deal. There is also the Cyberlink Decoder, but I think that is geared towards the ATI market, but still should work with Nvidia cards. There are a few other decoders for H264 playback out there. But, it was failry easy for me to combine CoreAVC with Media Player Classic. had H264 stuff playing smoothly in an hour.

Originally Posted by Jesse

What are the two nationals?

StarzHD and NFLHD

Originally Posted by Jesse

If you are an E* user then how about your take on the "voom" channels that E* offers. Is there any real content there or is it just fluff so they can claim to have the most HD content?

Took me about 6 monhts I think to watch and record what i wanted off of Voom. Now I seem to see new content on a trickle. But, with the World Cup on, and before that hockey Playoffs, i hadn;t really watched voom stuff too much.

[Jesse]

Hi,

Just so I can be clear:

All other content can be recorded and watched in sage seemlessly

So sage will playback anything other than LiL, StarzHD and NFLHD?

It is gonna be quite a little pile of money to switch, and I want to know what I am getting into. I am hoping a new and more powerful client pc will not be required, but I guess MPEG 4 is gonna be unavoidable if you are with E* or D*.

Thanks again.

Jesse

[Jesse]

Hi,

After skimming through this thread again I see that dbfresh23 has gotten H264 files to play in sage with some help from sage support. This is good news and it looks like this may be a part of the V5.1 beta.

I am hoping dbfresh23 will give a rundown of his hardware specs so I can get an idea of what will be required to playback H264 HD files.

How about it db?

Thanks in advance,

Jesse

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,

After skimming through this thread again I see that dbfresh23 has gotten H264 files to play in sage with some help from sage support. This is good news and it looks like this may be a part of the V5.1 beta.

I am hoping dbfresh23 will give a rundown of his hardware specs so I can get an idea of what will be required to playback H264 HD files.

How about it db?

Thanks in advance,

Jesse

The recorded files can be made to play in a single sage system, and somewhat from a client. The Demultiplexer filter that works for H264 files to view them on a single instance of Sage, does not seem to support accessing them while a file is currently being recorded on a server and trying to watch said file on a client. This basically kills any form of timeshifting of tv. I tried several filters and they seemed to work in one form or anotehr, but not 100% for every feature that I currelty use sage in. So, it is easier for me as far as the WAF to simply tell her that ANY mpeg 4 stuff has to be played from a client using MPC.

I contacted sage support and they had NOTHING to offer. They suggested decoder filters, not the splitter/demultiplexer filters that I asked about.

Anyone please correct me if I am wrong, and please point me towards the filter your using to achieve this.

Thanks

[Kirby]

I've been too swamped with other things to mess around with any H264 testing again. Its definitely something that we need to get working, because rumor is that E* is going to convert all their current "quasi-mpeg4" channels (those would be the new HD channels that are available only to ViP receivers, ESPN2 HD, National Geographic, HGTV, the five new Voom's that were added before, Universal HD) to true MPEG4 H264 video, and soon. That will make a total of 11 national H264 HD channels on E*, with Food HD rumored to be coming soon as well. Add to that the growing list of HD LiL in MPEG4, and its becoming very obvious that we need a seamless H264 solution for this.

Where are these rumors about 5.1 beta having support? I havent seen anything yet, linkage please!

[zoop]

anyone using the r5000 with sagetv linux oem?

thx

/jer