R5000-HD capture via USB2 & SageTV

[pengdahl]

Originally Posted by Kirby

You need to check you facts. Sage Service runs just fine using local drives. Only the recording drive(s) has to be local, you can run a vast number of remote drives as UNC mounted import directories. Or if you use all UNC paths, you have to wait for the show to finish recording before you view it.

I understand you, but in my setup, I use a network server to record my programs. That is, my recording drives are not local - that's the whole point. I don't want to use them as import drives only. I use them to increase the total amount of recording space I have available. I think most people who run a network server for storage also use it this way.

To be clear, I should explain my setup:

HTPC computer (connected to tv): runs SageTV program in service mode. Has a Happauge PVR card attached to a Dish6000 receiver. Has two local hard drives ( G: and H: ) used for recording and accesses network drives using UNC paths. Also has drive letters mapped to the server's drives (currently Q:, R:, S:, and T:, labelled Media1, Media2, Media3, and Media4).

Server computer: Not running SageTV at all (not even server). Has a R5000-HD modified Dish211 attached to it and is running the R5000 Network server program. Also has a Fusion HDTV card attached, running the HDNE program. Has G: and H: mapped to drives on the first computer.

The video directories on the sage computer are configured as follows:
G:\Video
H:\Video
\\Server\Media1\Video
\\Server\Media2\Video
\\Server\Media3\Video
\\Server\Media4\Video

I've already mentioned that watching shows that have finished recording works fine. Its the behavior or live tv I'm trying to find a solution for.

Kirby, are you related to the makers of the R5000-HD mod at all? I'm just trying to see where you're coming from on this. As it stands, the limitations of using (really using) the R5000-HD solution with Sage are pretty extreme, and don't exist with other network encoders. I just don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to run my system this way and have it work.

[pengdahl]

Originally Posted by blade

I haven't been following this thread, but are you talking about the Sage service? If so the service can access mapped drives. I ran it this way for over a year and a half.

Could you explain how you were able to configure the service to use mapped drives? When I run in service mode, they don't even show up as options for me to select. I have also read statements by Opus4 on this board that claim that service mode cannot use mapped drives.

I should also mention that on page 15 of the Sage manual, it states the following:

"If you with to have SageTV access any network drives, keep in mind that a service cannot access mapped drives, therefore network drives must be configured in SageTV as UNC Paths"

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by pengdahl

Could you explain how you were able to configure the service to use mapped drives? When I run in service mode, they don't even show up as options for me to select. I have also read statements by Opus4 on this board that claim that service mode cannot use mapped drives.

UNC listed drives are not the same as mapped drives. If I said mapped before, it should have been UNC. My apologies.

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by pengdahl

I understand you, but in my setup, I use a network server to record my programs. That is, my recording drives are not local - that's the whole point. I don't want to use them as import drives only. I use them to increase the total amount of recording space I have available. I think most people who run a network server for storage also use it this way.

To be clear, I should explain my setup:

HTPC computer (connected to tv): runs SageTV program in service mode. Has a Happauge PVR card attached to a Dish6000 receiver. Has two local hard drives ( G: and H: ) used for recording and accesses network drives using UNC paths. Also has drive letters mapped to the server's drives (currently Q:, R:, S:, and T:, labelled Media1, Media2, Media3, and Media4).

Server computer: Not running SageTV at all (not even server). Has a R5000-HD modified Dish211 attached to it and is running the R5000 Network server program. Also has a Fusion HDTV card attached, running the HDNE program. Has G: and H: mapped to drives on the first computer.

The video directories on the sage computer are configured as follows:
G:\Video
H:\Video
\\Server\Media1\Video
\\Server\Media2\Video
\\Server\Media3\Video
\\Server\Media4\Video

I've already mentioned that watching shows that have finished recording works fine. Its the behavior or live tv I'm trying to find a solution for.

Kirby, are you related to the makers of the R5000-HD mod at all? I'm just trying to see where you're coming from on this. As it stands, the limitations of using (really using) the R5000-HD solution with Sage are pretty extreme, and don't exist with other network encoders. I just don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to run my system this way and have it work.

I am not affiliated with Nextcom, other than being one of their first beta testers back when they started, and have used their mod on several receivers spanning E*, D*, and cable.

I invite you to try your hand at getting Sage to fix the issue here, but they told me that there was no solution to the way the network encoder code handles its requests over the network to the server. Plain and simple, if you want to view LIVE recordings you are going to have to record your R5000 captures to a local hard drive on your Sage Server.

Let me illustrate a system that works well:

Sage Server - Running Sage headless in service mode. 2 R5000's connected locally, along with 2 OTA HD cards installed. 2 local hard drives for recordings,setup in Sage as E:\ and F:\. No other recording drives in the system.

File Server - For storage, houses 13 drives, all shared on the network, and accessed via UNC paths, \\Library\Import1 for example. No sage installation here.

HTPC - Runs sage client. Client can play any and all files from either of the above 2 servers, recorded or live.

In the above setup, if you push a recording to \\Library\Import1 (use it as a recording directory) your live playback WILL fail. Sage tech support was not real explicit on why, but they did acknowledge to me that it is a result of the way the Client accesses the file over the network, and was something caused by the Sage Network Encoder code. I'm not 100% sure, but I dont think Tim's HDNE uses the stock Network Encoder code.

For me (and others) the best solution so far has been to use the setup I described, and when you have shows you want to archive forever, you move them off the local recording drives to import directories. If you shutdown the Sage service while you do this move, your program info will remain with the file.

Another option you have is to make use of the force recording drive prefix for each of your tuners. You could push your hauppauge and Fusion recordings to a UNC recording drive, and push your R5000 recordings to a local drive.

I havent taken any time to disect the Sage network encoder code to figure out anything about it. Nor have I tried to analyze the network traffic being sent back and forth that is causing the R5000 app to consume processor time if you record to a UNC path. I dont know if the short fall is a fault of MS and UNC or not. All I can tell you is that Sage support said it wasnt something they could fix. My hunch is that its 'getfilesize' requests being sent and not getting an appropriate answer due to the use of UNC.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by pengdahl

As it stands, the limitations of using (really using) the R5000-HD solution with Sage are pretty extreme...

Bear in mind that most SageTV users (and I imagine most R5000 users as well) keep their encoders and their bulk storage in the same box. So while you're correct that this is a limitation, it's not a deal-breaker for most people by any stretch.

For your situation, couldn't you set the R5000 to record to a local drive for Live TV playback purposes, and then later move the finished recordings to one of your network drives for long-term storage? Seems like this should be fairly simple to automate using a batch script that runs in the dead of night, or something along those lines.

[pengdahl]

I went ahead and reconfigured my system to use mapped drive letters for everything. This meant not running the Sage service. For me, the biggest disadvantage of this is that recordings stop when the sage program crashes. When I first enabled the service, this was a big issue for me because sage would crash regularly. Now that it doesn't crash anymore, I think it may be safe to run without the service.

Anyway, the point is - using mapped drive letters seems to have fixed the problem with the R5000HD. I don't like to pronounce a problem completely fixed until I've lived with it for a while, but so far I am able to tune to live programs without much difficulty - I still have the problems of the "No Signal" followed by the picture showing up, and once I had it fail to come up, but after stopping it and choosing the show again it worked. I've seen these issues happen on a system with the R5000HD connected to the same machine sage was on, so I think I at least have it working as well as it can.

Just wanted to report on my experiences so far. Too often on the forums you see people with problems, but you never hear if they are able to fix them.

[mkerdman]

Where can I find all the support documentation on the R5000-HD & SageTV Install & Configuration?

Thanks in advance!

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by mkerdman

Where can I find all the support documentation on the R5000-HD & SageTV Install & Configuration?

Thanks in advance!

Try here,

http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/sagetv.htm
Using the R5000-HD with SageTV

[mkerdman]

Originally Posted by Keenan

Try here,

http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/sagetv.htm
Using the R5000-HD with SageTV

Doah!

Thanks Keenan!

[mkerdman]

After installing the SageTV or Multi versions of R500HD and entering the Device Code you gave me for my Dish 6000 and entering OK, the R5000HD dialog goes from “Idle” to “Remote Off” and simply closes.

What must I do to remedy this?

Thanks in advance.

[pilotguy7ca]

This question relates both to the R5000 and a MVP that I just got. I'm using Sage v6 BTW. Anyways I noticed that everything that has been recorded with my R5000 units gets transcoded when sent to the MVP, both HD and SD material. This does not happen with stuff recorded with my Hauppauge 500 or DVD material. I've currently got my recording setting at "MPEG Max Quality". I understand that the MVP can only accept MPEG2 material but is the R5000 material not MPEG2? Is there a different setting that I could use so this material does not need to be transcoded, or is this not possible due to the nature of the R5000 capturing the exact stream from the Sat?

The reason I don't want transcoding to happen is although I have powerful enough server and don't come close to maxing the CPU out, I find that occassionally during a sweeping pan, or fast motion part of a video, that if the video being sent is being transcoded to the MVP the picture is not smooth, almost like micro stutters. And this doesn't happen during non-transcoded video.

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by mkerdman

After installing the SageTV or Multi versions of R500HD and entering the Device Code you gave me for my Dish 6000 and entering OK, the R5000HD dialog goes from “Idle” to “Remote Off” and simply closes.

What must I do to remedy this?

Thanks in advance.

Are you talking about this line here?

mmc/encoders/12346/video_capture_device_name=DTC100-100254C

Do you have the right info in there? You need to replace "DTC100-100254C" with the info for your 6000.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by pilotguy7ca

This question relates both to the R5000 and a MVP that I just got. I'm using Sage v6 BTW. Anyways I noticed that everything that has been recorded with my R5000 units gets transcoded when sent to the MVP, both HD and SD material. This does not happen with stuff recorded with my Hauppauge 500 or DVD material. I've currently got my recording setting at "MPEG Max Quality". I understand that the MVP can only accept MPEG2 material but is the R5000 material not MPEG2? Is there a different setting that I could use so this material does not need to be transcoded, or is this not possible due to the nature of the R5000 capturing the exact stream from the Sat?

Your recording quality setting affects only analog SD recordings made by your PVR500. It has no effect on HD programming received by your R5000; that's all pre-encoded by your provider and is just copied to disk in whatever format it comes in. If that format isn't directly compatible with your MVP, you'll just have to live with the transcoding as far as I know.

[pilotguy7ca]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Your recording quality setting affects only analog SD recordings made by your PVR500. It has no effect on HD programming received by your R5000; that's all pre-encoded by your provider and is just copied to disk in whatever format it comes in. If that format isn't directly compatible with your MVP, you'll just have to live with the transcoding as far as I know.

I kinda figured so but just wanted to make sure though. Thanks.

[mkerdman]

My apologies for double posting this question, but, I just now remebered seeing this thread.

All my R5000 recordings scheduled by SageTV are recorded in the .mpg format.

Why are they are not .ts files and is there a way to change that since MyHD does not play .mpg files and I do not want to have to go through and manually rename them, even if that would work?

Also, do you know if there would be any reason why I should not be able to begin playback of a file with MyHD while the SageTV triggered file is being recorded by R5000?



Thanks,

[mkerdman]

Based on the recommendations of several SageTV & R5000 users here, I bought several Dish 211's, had them modified by Nextcom and installed them and the latest SageTV v5.

While all the Dish 211's work fine with the R5000 software individually, I cannot get even one of them to work with SageTV v5.

Below is the sage.properties file portion that references my Dish211-100393D #4 (I have other Dish receivers that are not R5000 modified).

Am I doing something wrong?

All I can get is a series of 0 byte files that are restarts of R5000 and then the R5000 app simply crashes and closes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



ui/numeric_text_input_de_9=WXYZ9

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/available_channels=

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/brightness=-1

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/contrast=-1

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/device_name=

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/hue=-1

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/last_channel=509

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/provider_id=29436723217

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/saturation=-1

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/sharpness=-1

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/tuning_mode=

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/tuning_plugin=

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/tuning_plugin_port=0

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/video_crossbar_index=0

mmc/encoders/12346/1/0/video_crossbar_type=11

mmc/encoders/12346/audio_capture_device_name=

mmc/encoders/12346/audio_capture_device_num=0

mmc/encoders/12346/capture_config=2058

mmc/encoders/12346/default_device_quality=

mmc/encoders/12346/device_class=

mmc/encoders/12346/encoder_merit=0

mmc/encoders/12346/encoding_host=127.0.0.1\:6969

mmc/encoders/12346/encoding_host_login_md5=

mmc/encoders/12346/last_cross_index=0

mmc/encoders/12346/last_cross_type=11

mmc/encoders/12346/live_audio_input=

mmc/encoders/12346/multicast_host=

mmc/encoders/12346/never_stop_encoding=false

mmc/encoders/12346/video_capture_device_name=Dish211-100393D #4

mmc/encoders/12346/video_capture_device_num=0

mmc/encoders/12346/video_compressor=

mmc/encoders/12346/video_encoding_params=Best

[Keenan]

I have only one R5000 device, a Star Choice STB, so I'm not sure what the protocol is for multiple devices, but that # sign in the following line may be causing a problem. I really don't know that much about it, I'm pretty much just guessing, but it might be worth a try removing it.

mmc/encoders/12346/video_capture_device_name=Dish211-100393D #4

[Rob]

I only have 1 modified dish 211, but I could not get it to work using port 6969. Someone suggested I try another port. I changed it to 6968 and it started working fine. I hope this helps you the way it did me.

[mikesm]

Are folks running the R5000-HD well with Sage V6? I am thinking about getting a dcp501 modified, but V6 is a must for me.

thanks,
mike

[Ron]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Are folks running the R5000-HD well with Sage V6? I am thinking about getting a dcp501 modified, but V6 is a must for me.

thanks,
mike

Continues to work great for me. Been running my R5000 (Dish 411) for almost a year now and have the latest V6.