HdHomeRun - Our Answer to QAM?!

[mattbrad2]

Still getting PlaybackException errors when viewing video from HdHomeRun. Media Player and VLC work great, its just Sage.

[mattbrad2]

I did notice something weird though. Changing that line in Sage.Properties didnt change the video format. Video is still saved with .mpg. Isnt it supposed to be .ts now?

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by mattbrad2

I did notice something weird though. Changing that line in Sage.Properties didnt change the video format. Video is still saved with .mpg. Isnt it supposed to be .ts now?

From my answer on the silicondust forums:
Yes they should be .TS files now. Something went wrong. Either a typo or Sage wasn't shutdown completely when you edited the properties file.
On your Sage server in the sage.properties file the line should read exactly like this:
mmc/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=false

Make sure you quit Sage and stop the service if running Sage in service mode before editing the file then start everything back up. If sage isn't closed then the property will keep changing back to the default value of true.

[Ron]

I thought I had it working on my client, but had some issues configuring with Sage, so I decided to start from scratch on my Sage Server.

I still get the Windows error "Application has failed to start because the application configuration in incorrect."

I am on my Sage Server and this thing will not work at all. Any thoughts PLEASE. Becoming quite frustrating and I'm sure I'm missing something quite basic.

Thanks,

[mikesm]

Folks, I am trying to configure SageTV support for the HDHomeRun, and Sage keeps exiting (ie ceases to run) during the channel setup process. I am going through and mapping the channels, using the default STV, and then it just exits. No crash dump, or error message, it just ends.

When Sage is restarted, none of the mapped channel info shows. It's all gone.

Have folks seen this problem before?

Thanks,
Mike

[gplasky]

For both posts above make sure you have upgraded the firmware on the HDHomerun.

Gerry

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by gplasky

For both posts above make sure you have upgraded the firmware on the HDHomerun.

Gerry

I did update it as soon as I plugged it in. It's running the latest rev.

Thanks,
Mike

[soulprops77]

Somebody loved me enough to get me a HDHR for Christmas and it seems very promising.

I'm having a problem with choppy playback in Sage though. Works flawlessly in VLC though.

I'm using NVidia decoders and Overlay (AC3 Filter for audio actually). Any tips on how to to best troubleshoot?

Thanks,
Chris

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

Somebody loved me enough to get me a HDHR for Christmas and it seems very promising.

I'm having a problem with choppy playback in Sage though. Works flawlessly in VLC though.

I'm using NVidia decoders and Overlay (AC3 Filter for audio actually). Any tips on how to to best troubleshoot?

Thanks,
Chris

There are a lot of threads in the main software forum on stutter. For me the issue was due to the use of Zonealarm's firewall, but I'd tried about a half dozen other things before figuring that out. Search for stutter.

[Ron]

See this thread

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22282

which discusses my problems with stutter.

[rfutscher]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Folks, I am trying to configure SageTV support for the HDHomeRun, and Sage keeps exiting (ie ceases to run) during the channel setup process. I am going through and mapping the channels, using the default STV, and then it just exits. No crash dump, or error message, it just ends.

When Sage is restarted, none of the mapped channel info shows. It's all gone.

Have folks seen this problem before?

Thanks,
Mike

I just got my HDHomerun and it is doing the about the same thing. It came with the latest version of firmware.

When I restart Sage, I fine that the channels it scanned are listed but are wrong. Instead of the correct channel listing all the subchannels are high. For example the first subchannel should be [52-2-1], it actually has it listed as [52-2-3]. I found this channel will tune to the 2.1 subchannel but does not have any guide listings. The channel is listed again without the [52-2-3]. That channel has the guide listings but it will not tune.

I receive several channels that are from another area. To get the guide listing for that channel I have to delete the channel and manually enter it again. When manually entering a channel I should get a third dialog box where I can enter the Zap2It ID. I am not always getting this third box when I manually enter a channel for the HDHomerun. Without this box I won't get the program listings. When I do get the channel entered the HDHomerun won't tune the channel.

I also have an HDWonder and it has a good channel listing and the correct guide listings.

[rfutscher]

Originally Posted by jds23

Can you tune these same channels in VLC (but just not in Sage)?

In Sage I can get the channel listed three ways. They are from a scan, from the guide, and manual entry.

A HDHomerun scan will list the channels but they will be listed incorrectly. For example channels 2.1 will be listed as [52-2-3]. channel 2.3 will be listed as [52-22-5]. Because they are listed incorrectly Sage can not associate the scanned channel with the channel listing in the guide. The listing from the scan will tune but will not have program guide data. You will also see the listing from the guide and it will have the program data but will not tune.

A channel outside of my area will not have a listing from the guide but will have a listing from a scan. To get the guide data, the channels have to be added manually. If I add the channel manually and get the third dialog box, the box where you enter the Zap2It data, the program guide will be listed. It will not tune the channel. The listing from the scan will tune but will not have guide data. Sage can not associate the two.

The scan from my HDWonder is associated correctly with the guide for a local station and only one listing will appear. A manually entered entry for a distant station is also associated correctly with the scan and only one entry will appear. The result is that you have the guide info and can tune the channel.

You can not manually enter the Zap2It data for a channel that is in the guide. Before you can manually enter a channel you have to delete it. You can not delete a channel from the guide data. If you do try and add the channel the third dialog box never appears. If it does appear and you enter a ID from a channel in the guide you get an error message. When I delete a distant channel from the HDhomerun channel scan and try to manually enter it, Sage thinks it is a local channel and I never get the box to enter the Zap2It ID.

[soulprops77]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

Somebody loved me enough to get me a HDHR for Christmas and it seems very promising.

I'm having a problem with choppy playback in Sage though. Works flawlessly in VLC though.

I'm using NVidia decoders and Overlay (AC3 Filter for audio actually). Any tips on how to to best troubleshoot?

Thanks,
Chris

So I figured out the problem on my own and it was not a problem with Sage or the HDHR. It's that I'm recording to a Buffalo LinkStation and I guess the network is too slow to handle it. I was hoping this wouldn't be a problem.

Is anyone else recording to a NAS drive?

[Polypro]

When I set up my box, I did a Command Line scan with the HDHR CLI app and got for QAM the major channel and then subchannel info ie,

82 SS=100 SQ=100 blah, blah
82.2 WXYZDT (7.1)

I then added the HDHR with my provider's Digital Cable Extended package which listed the channel as

270 WXYZ-DT (ABC HD)

I selected it (green circle) and re-mapped the physical channel to 82-2

This doesn't work in your cases?

P

[gplasky]

Mrs. Santa was very, very good to me.

I ran the scan from the GUI. For each QAM channel I found I would fire up VLC to identify what channel it found. A lot if my scans were 1:0.0, 2:0.0, etc. So I had no idea what channel I found. A lot showed encrypted and some had no data. A couple had the full 1:21.0WMYD-DT description but very few showed up that way. I then used the comcast channel guide and Titan TV to see what was on and identify all the stations I could find. And like Polypro, once I finished identifying them all I used my Comcast digital lineup, remapped the physical channels for all the ones and then selected the ones I wanted so the green dot showed up. It was time consuming to figure out what was what. But once that was done everything fell into place.

Gerry

[garyellis]

Ok...I am ready to put down the $169 for HDHomerun...

I have a TV directly connected to the cable. The TV has a QAM tuner, so I get the HD channels that are unencrypted. Thus, I know they are out there.

SO, bottomline, is the HDHomerun "ready"? Am I going to be happy with this product?

I want HD and QAM with dual tuners and I want to be able to record them. Having said that, I have MVP's set up is 2 rooms, will I be able to play the recordings through the MVP's? (I assume, if so, they will only show up as SD)

I also have a Hauppauge 150 and a 500 card. I assume that I can use these still and map channels accordingly. Also, will I need to boost the cable strength since I will have 5 tuners now, with the HDHR and with 2 of them being HD? (1 - 150, 2- 500, 2- HDHR = 5 tuners)


Comments?

Gary Ellis

[Polypro]

The HDHR and v's 5 & 6 were prime time ready for me. Some people were having problems, but I think most were set up problems. Some people with v6 had to change encode_digitaltv_as_programstream= *to false*, but I think it's a semi-rare v6 problem, not the HDHR. I've had one or two v6 oddities with either .mpg or .ts, but that's out of ~50 shows recorded so far Edit: v6.0.19 *may* fix this ...and they're always on the disk regardless - they always record complete and on-time. I have my cable split 4 ways (2 PVR 500's & the HDHR) and didn't need to boost anything signal wise. I know nothing about the MVP experience. Search the SiliconDust forums for my posts...I wrote 2 long ones on how to set up the HDHR as a direct-to-server connection, and one on channel scan and guide setup in Sage. There are other ways, but mine worked 1st time, so...in a nutshell:

Install VLC.

Extract Sage_HDHR.zip to SageTV Directory (This includes all the HDHR apps).

Set up HDHR to router or direct (w/tftpd32/Magik/DHCPTurbo - or bridge NICs).

Run most current HDHR app and make sure it finds the HDHR (HDHR MAC Address in upper left corner).

Upgrade Firmware if needed.

Shutdown HDHR app.

Make sure Sage and SageService are shut down.

Start *Sage*_HDHR app (also put in shortcut in startup folder or reg HKLM or HKCU), right click tray icon and and Configure (QAM/Enable) for both tuners. (this writes to the sage.properties file)

Shutdown SageHDHR app.

Run the HDHR command line app (I use the MS Powertoy "Command Line From Here" and just right click on the Sage folder)

Input "hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan 0 qam:1" - without quotes.

Run the scan and write down any channel that doesn't show as encrypted. (The major networks should show up with descriptions, bonus channels might not...some will be VOD channels that go off and on...some are music.

Close CLI app, then open the HDHR GUI app and verify what you found, with VLC, making sure both tuners are functional.

Close HDHR GUI and start SageHDHR app (this always needs to be running, and before SageTV).

Start Sage Service (if used) and/or SageTV.

Setup Video Sources>Add Source should show something like HDHR_ATSC_Capture@127.0.0.1:6970
HDHR_ATSC_Capture@127.0.0.1:6971

Add them using the mostest Digital Cable Extended lineup for your provider.

Disable all channels, then for each channel you got from the command line scan, enable it (green circle) and remap the *Physical* channel number. For example: My command line scan showed WXYZ-DT ABC-HD at 82.2...my guide data shows channel 270 as ABC-HD...I remap channel 270 to Physical Channel 82-2.

Complete for all channels and Finnish Source Setup. Verify in SageTV.

Done. Sounds long and complicated, but it really isn't.

You can try a channel scan in Sage, it's supported and working. But the original way I described leaves nothing to chance in my mind, so I stick with it. The only hitch will be if you're already using the Digital Cable Extended lineup for your Hauppauge cards via a STB...if that's the case, you'll have to pick a nearby town's different provider lineup...but all you need is the channel to be there, just re-map.

P

[PshThLimit]

Does this unit hardware encode or is it software encode? I didn't see any thing about hardware encoding on the web site.

[Polypro]

Like all HD, it (and Sage) just writes the info to the disk...HD is already in mpeg format.

P

[heffe2001]

I'd say make sure you have one beefy server, as it's going to transcode the HD stuff down to something that the MVP can handle. I can't do it on my dual Xeon 2.8, unless I compress the HD recordings down beforehand (sort of defeating the purpose). The quality though, is absolutely superb.

Originally Posted by garyellis

Ok...I am ready to put down the $169 for HDHomerun...

I have a TV directly connected to the cable. The TV has a QAM tuner, so I get the HD channels that are unencrypted. Thus, I know they are out there.

SO, bottomline, is the HDHomerun "ready"? Am I going to be happy with this product?

I want HD and QAM with dual tuners and I want to be able to record them. Having said that, I have MVP's set up is 2 rooms, will I be able to play the recordings through the MVP's? (I assume, if so, they will only show up as SD)

I also have a Hauppauge 150 and a 500 card. I assume that I can use these still and map channels accordingly. Also, will I need to boost the cable strength since I will have 5 tuners now, with the HDHR and with 2 of them being HD? (1 - 150, 2- 500, 2- HDHR = 5 tuners)


Comments?

Gary Ellis