R5000-HD capture via USB2 & SageTV

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

This special version will cost you an extra $50 over the price of the R5000 hardware mod.

Thank you. That's what I feared.

Guess I will have to read through these 23 pages and see if it's really worth *$800 to me to have the ability to record HD content or just stick with the 2nd rate SD recordings

Just notice that nextcomwireless just went back up to full price. Late to the party again

*adding in the $200 for a open box vip-211 I just purchase

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by olyar15

That's odd. Haven't received an email when it was shipped. My spam filter shouldn't have blocked it since I have received emails from them before I ordered.

I didn't get an unsolicited email about the key either, I had to email Nextcom with the serial number and he sent the key right away, it was a weekend in fact.

[HawgGuy]

Some of my Dish HD channels (notably NFL Network HD) are broadcast in Mpeg-4/HD. Am I correct in my understanding that I won't bew able to watch this (live or recorded) with Sage with a R5000 modded box?

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

Some of my Dish HD channels (notably NFL Network HD) are broadcast in Mpeg-4/HD. Am I correct in my understanding that I won't bew able to watch this (live or recorded) with Sage with a R5000 modded box?

Not right now you cant (thats the easy answer). The hard answer is "sort of". You can certainly record the shows right now, but playback inside sage isnt up to 100%. I can get SageTVPlayer (mplayer) to playback the mpeg4 channels, however framerates drop to as low as 8 FPS on my HTPC during complex scenes. Talking head scenes are nearly perfect, sometimes.

Supposedly Sage 6.1 is going to have the H.264 support built in. Until then, you could record the shows, and then play them back manually in VLC or some other player. Thats about it for now.

[olyar15]

Well, I finally got my modded cable box hooked up and so far, it has been a major disappointment. Biggest problem is that it has trouble switching channels. It is not going to the right channels, looks like the number being sent over the USB cable isn't being received properly. For example, say I want to tune to channel 307 to record the new episodes of "24." Sometimes it will tune in to channel 30, or 37, or even 7. It rarely goes to the right channel. Trying to change the channels via the r5000 programs remote control, I notice that it is extremely finicky about accepting commands. Sometimes button presses aren't registering at all.

Another problem I found is that it won't record SD channels,despite claiming that it does on the website. This isn't as big a deal as the channel changing problem, since I mainly want the box for recording HD.

So, anyone ever had problems like this? Any way to adjust the rate at which it sends IR commands over the USB cable? Or failing that, is there a way to send IR signals via a USB-UIRT? During setup, SageTV doesn't allow me to change channels with an IR blaster because it is being treated as a network encoder. Is there an external way of doing this?

I tried using SgraphRecorder to send IR signals, and it seems to work for that, but then the r5000 program doesn't respond. My guess is that only 2 devices can communicate over a network port. So if Sgraphrecorder is listening over the same port, it prevents sage from communicating with the cable box.

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by olyar15

Well, I finally got my modded cable box hooked up and so far, it has been a major disappointment. Biggest problem is that it has trouble switching channels. It is not going to the right channels, looks like the number being sent over the USB cable isn't being received properly. For example, say I want to tune to channel 307 to record the new episodes of "24." Sometimes it will tune in to channel 30, or 37, or even 7. It rarely goes to the right channel. Trying to change the channels via the r5000 programs remote control, I notice that it is extremely finicky about accepting commands. Sometimes button presses aren't registering at all.

When I beta tested the cable box setup here, I had a few channel change issues, but also have some from satellite boxes as well. I would say contact Nextcom support.

Another problem I found is that it won't record SD channels,despite claiming that it does on the website. This isn't as big a deal as the channel changing problem, since I mainly want the box for recording HD.

Had absolutely no issue recording SD when I had my unit.

So, anyone ever had problems like this? Any way to adjust the rate at which it sends IR commands over the USB cable? Or failing that, is there a way to send IR signals via a USB-UIRT? During setup, SageTV doesn't allow me to change channels with an IR blaster because it is being treated as a network encoder. Is there an external way of doing this?

I believe one of the recent software changes was to speed up channel changes. Looks like they went beyond the max that a DCT box can handle, or at least yours can handle. It could be model specific. Again, contact support.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by olyar15

Well, I finally got my modded cable box hooked up and so far, it has been a major disappointment. Biggest problem is that it has trouble switching channels. It is not going to the right channels, looks like the number being sent over the USB cable isn't being received properly. For example, say I want to tune to channel 307 to record the new episodes of "24." Sometimes it will tune in to channel 30, or 37, or even 7. It rarely goes to the right channel. Trying to change the channels via the r5000 programs remote control, I notice that it is extremely finicky about accepting commands. Sometimes button presses aren't registering at all.

Another problem I found is that it won't record SD channels,despite claiming that it does on the website. This isn't as big a deal as the channel changing problem, since I mainly want the box for recording HD.

So, anyone ever had problems like this? Any way to adjust the rate at which it sends IR commands over the USB cable? Or failing that, is there a way to send IR signals via a USB-UIRT? During setup, SageTV doesn't allow me to change channels with an IR blaster because it is being treated as a network encoder. Is there an external way of doing this?

I tried using SgraphRecorder to send IR signals, and it seems to work for that, but then the r5000 program doesn't respond. My guess is that only 2 devices can communicate over a network port. So if Sgraphrecorder is listening over the same port, it prevents sage from communicating with the cable box.

What box are you using? The DCP501?

Thanks,
Mike

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by olyar15

Well, I finally got my modded cable box hooked up and so far, it has been a major disappointment. Biggest problem is that it has trouble switching channels. It is not going to the right channels, looks like the number being sent over the USB cable isn't being received properly. For example, say I want to tune to channel 307 to record the new episodes of "24." Sometimes it will tune in to channel 30, or 37, or even 7. It rarely goes to the right channel. Trying to change the channels via the r5000 programs remote control, I notice that it is extremely finicky about accepting commands. Sometimes button presses aren't registering at all.

One other thing, you did setup the R5000 DVR app for the proper cable STB type didnt you?

[olyar15]

Originally Posted by Kirby

One other thing, you did setup the R5000 DVR app for the proper cable STB type didnt you?

Yes, kind of. I have the DCT5100HD, which isn't listed. They only have the DCT2200 (or something like that, basically the SD only version of the cable box.) It seems to take the same IR commands. And it is communicating with the cable box, just not very well. Tried some of the other models, but that results in no communication at all.

Good news is that it was able to tune to Fox HD last night and record part 2 of 24.

I emailed Nextcom, but haven't heard back.

[olyar15]

Originally Posted by mikesm

What box are you using? The DCP501?

Thanks,
Mike

It is the DCT5100HD. Same as the 6200 except it has no firewire output.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by olyar15

It is the DCT5100HD. Same as the 6200 except it has no firewire output.

Actually, the innards of the DCT5100 and the 6200 are very different. Trust me, I have seen the designs for both of them. The 5100 is much like the 2200 series, with HD added on.

Are you running the latest drivers? Nextcomm had a recent release that was supposed to trim down change changing times.

Thanks,
mike

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Actually, the innards of the DCT5100 and the 6200 are very different. Trust me, I have seen the designs for both of them. The 5100 is much like the 2200 series, with HD added on.

Are you running the latest drivers? Nextcomm had a recent release that was supposed to trim down change changing times.

Thanks,
mike

Yup 5100 is a 2xxx on viagra essentially isnt it? They moved the HD decoding into the box and removed the need for an external HDD-200 (required for the 2xxx series to do HD) with the 5100 right?

As for remote codes though, they both seemed to use the same command set. I had a 24xx and a 6200, and I had to block off the front IR input of the 24xx model when I was tuning my 6200 with remote.

[olyar15]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Yup 5100 is a 2xxx on viagra essentially isnt it? They moved the HD decoding into the box and removed the need for an external HDD-200 (required for the 2xxx series to do HD) with the 5100 right?

As for remote codes though, they both seemed to use the same command set. I had a 24xx and a 6200, and I had to block off the front IR input of the 24xx model when I was tuning my 6200 with remote.

Hmm, that could be why when I used my 6200 for recording via firewire, I could get reliable channel changing using the firewire cable.

[iammike]

Originally Posted by Kirby

I believe one of the recent software changes was to speed up channel changes. Looks like they went beyond the max that a DCT box can handle, or at least yours can handle. It could be model specific. Again, contact support.

I think you're referring to the channel surf mode, which is only applicable to 4dtv receivers. I don't think it should affect a cable box.

I've had the r5000 mod on my 4dtv receiver for close to a year now. The channel changing issue sounds similar to what I originally experienced with my receiver. I think they had to build some delays into the 4dtv logic because the receiver wasn't responding quickly enough to remote commands. After several revisions they got it working correctly. The other thing that can screw up the commands are remote control repeaters near your receiver. I think Nextcomm had some issues with this when they did some of their original testing. I've actually got my receiver turned around backwards just so it's IR receiver can't see my repeater.

The only other suggestion I can offer would be to go back to the latest 2.4 version. I've had some stability issues with the 2.5 beta.

[pilotguy7ca]

Originally Posted by iammike

The only other suggestion I can offer would be to go back to the latest 2.4 version. I've had some stability issues with the 2.5 beta.

Speaking of the latest beta I've been having issues as well and seems to be with channel changes so I've reverted back to 2.4g. From what I've seen it appears that when the channel is changes the r5000 software is expecting data too soon and then crashes. I can usually get it to crash within a few minutes of doing random channel changes. Never had this problem with the 2.4 versions, so I too wonder if they've sped up channel changes too much, mine are moto DSR501's.

[iammike]

You're problem sounds similar to mine, although I had some better luck with it this evening. Last night it was stuttering a lot and after a few minutes the DVR application would crash. I checked my network performance and I was running around 50% utilization . I set the bit rate to compressed which helped some but it still was stuttering. Tonight I kicked my network speed up to 100 mbit full duplex, before I was running half duplex, and it helped the stability a lot although I didn't play with it for too long. I jumped around between the HBO and Starz HD channels on G9 and it seemed to work okay. My network utilization stayed in the teens.

[NEOSG]

Anyone catch this post at Satguys

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=87693

"And YES they were making changes at the uplink, the following channels are now on 1 transponder and all of them are now REAL MPEG4.

ESPN2
NFLHD
NTGHD***
StarzHD
HGTVHD
FoodHD***"

Haven't tested them all yet, but it looks like we just lost more Sage viewable HD channels.

[Kirby]

Yeah, they look pretty darn good too.

Have you tried to watch one of them yet? I've got ESPN2 HD on right now... its almost perfect in Sage.

Dish is using new MPEG4 encoders, they have to be. They couldnt get these results on their older encoders. So I wonder if most of the issues before were the encoders being used, and not Sage/mplayer.

[NEOSG]

Looked good from Dish Receiver to Projector.

haven;t upgraded Sage to 6.x yet. Too busy to hack and whack. Is MPEG4 from R5000 playable right out of the box when upgrading sage to 6.x latest build? Or will there be lots of tweaking to do?

[Kirby]

Right now, my MPEG4 is playing back through mplayer (SageTVPlayer). It was ok on ESPN2, and then on NGC HD for a few minutes, then everything freaked out. StarzHD and NFL HD are reporting their file types incorrectly on the DVR app, so maybe something needs to be changed from Nextcom.