HdHomeRun - Our Answer to QAM?!

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by blade

Apparently not because I get an error message from the Sage manager upon rebooting. I kill it and restart and all is well until I reboot again. It may have nothing to do with starting up before the service, but something is wrong that I can't reboot the machine without the Sage manager giving me an error message. I never had this problem until yesterday and the only change I made was adding an ide controller card.

That is a major problem, but the even bigger problem is losing 5 minutes of at least one recording every night. I have no clue where to even begin troubleshooting.

I have a funny feeling there is a bad drive in the mix.
What is the error the Sage manager gives you?

[Polypro]

...and are there any errors in XP's Event Viewer?

I have a direct connection and tftpd32 and the sage_hdhr manager starting from the Start folder. Sage Service starts itself. I don't know who starts first, but everything is working fine.

P

[blade]

Originally Posted by salsbst

Is the HDHR Sage Manager running as an app (as opposed to as a service)? How is it being launched? There are ways to delay it a little bit -- it's quite possible that launching it prior to Sage is not the problem, but that something else isn't quite ready to run it.

I'm running it as an app and launching it from a shortcut in the startup folder. I had time to do a little checking and I think you're right. When I boot the system I notice the network not available icon in the tray. After a few seconds it goes away. I think the Sage Manager is trying to connect to the HDHomeRun before the system can access the network. I never had the problem until adding the ide controller. Maybe it's causing the onboard nic to be initialized a little slower than before. Removing it isn't really an option though. Anyone have any ideas how to get around this problem?

[valnar]

I think if either Sage or the hdhomerun_sage app can monitor their connection status, that would do it. Just have them reconnect (or try to) if it goes away.

I'm not a programmer, so that's obviously easy for me to say, but if the problem can't be solved at the root level, at least forcing a reconnect automatically without user intervention would be acceptable to me.

Robert

[tmiranda]

I finally received an answer from my cable company regarding unencrypted QAM:

yyy Cable is preparing to launch four unencrypted HD channels in the xxx area in the next thirty days. These channels will include NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX. To clarify, yyy Cable is not required to rebroadcast these signals in an unencrypted format. The networks are required to broadcast unencrypted digital signals. We have chosen to add these channels in a format that does not require our customers to rent or purchase an additional set top tuner to receive them so long as their HDTV has a built in tuner.

What is interesting to me is that they are saying that the networks are required to broadcast HD stations but the cable companies are NOT required to rebroadcast them.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I finally received an answer from my cable company regarding unencrypted QAM:



What is interesting to me is that they are saying that the networks are required to broadcast HD stations but the cable companies are NOT required to rebroadcast them.

Sounds like they are going to transmit them unencrypted - that's what the comment about being able to receive them if you have an HDTV tuner.

What's even more interesting is that cable is forced to carry the local broadcasters, either in analog or digital, but not both. In other words, the cable guys only have to carry 1 6 mhz feed from the broadcaster. If they carry both, this is done as part of a negotiated agreement.

Thanks,
mike

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by blade

I'm running it as an app and launching it from a shortcut in the startup folder. I had time to do a little checking and I think you're right. When I boot the system I notice the network not available icon in the tray. After a few seconds it goes away. I think the Sage Manager is trying to connect to the HDHomeRun before the system can access the network. I never had the problem until adding the ide controller. Maybe it's causing the onboard nic to be initialized a little slower than before. Removing it isn't really an option though. Anyone have any ideas how to get around this problem?

I can think of a million ways to hack something together using vbscript... for example, you could write a script that pings another machine on the network repeatedly (every 10 seconds or so) until it gets a response, then launches the HDHR Manager app... such as

option explicit

const myFN = "c:\pingresult.txt"
const anotherMachine = "bach"
const hdhr = "c:\program files\hdhomerun\sagetv_hdhomerun.exe"
const pauseSeconds = 10

Dim myShell
dim success
dim myFSO
dim myFile
dim myResult


Set myShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
success = false
do while not success
	myShell.Run "cmd /c ping " & anotherMachine & " > " & myFN, 0, True
	Set myFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
	Set myFile = myFSO.OpenTextFile(myFN)
	myResult = myFile.ReadAll
	myFile.Close
	myFSO.DeleteFile myFN
	if instr(1, myResult, "Reply from") > 0 then
		success = true
	else
		myShell.sleep pauseSeconds * 1000
	end if
loop

myShell.Run hdhr

(I had most of this script lying around, just needed a little customization.)

[tmiranda]

Sounds like they are going to transmit them unencrypted - that's what the comment about being able to receive them if you have an HDTV tuner.

Yes, it is clear they are going to carry the networks unencrypted. What I read into their reply was that I should be grateful they are carrying them unencrypted since legally they are not required to. That's why they said the networks must BROADCAST them but the cable company does not have to REBROADCAST them. I think you are saying basically the same thing....

What's even more interesting is that cable is forced to carry the local broadcasters, either in analog or digital, but not both. In other words, the cable guys only have to carry 1 6 mhz feed from the broadcaster. If they carry both, this is done as part of a negotiated agreement.

I wonder why they would need a special agreement to carry both. Wouldn't it be in the interest of the network to have both HD and SD available to all subscribers?

[aglennon]

Is there anyone using this with Cablevision on Long Island?

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I wonder why they would need a special agreement to carry both. Wouldn't it be in the interest of the network to have both HD and SD available to all subscribers?

I don't know, but I'm guessing the stations are using this as an excuse to suck more money out of the cable companies.

[rsagetv99]

Anyone know if closed captioning is working on the HDHR? I was hoping to speed up showanalyzer on HDHR recorded programs.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Anyone know if closed captioning is working on the HDHR? I was hoping to speed up showanalyzer on HDHR recorded programs.

It is not.

Gerry

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by gplasky

It is not.

Gerry

I'm trying to figure out CC for firewire'd recordings and this is similar. What is the problem we are running into? Isn't the CC in the HD stream that comes from the HDHomerun or Firewire'd STB. If so, then isn't it a matter of Sage not playing the already captured CC. Since supposedly Sage doesn't need to encode the stream, since it is already encoded, but Sage does strip off unneeded "substreams", such as subchannels, for program stream recordings. Transport stream recordings are supposed to be 100%, if I understand correctly. Are we losing the CC portion of the stream in the stripdown? However, recordings of the Firewire'd STB in TS still don't display CC. I don't know of a way to find out if there is CC in the PS or TS file, not like running mpg2srt on an analog mpeg will quickly show you if you have CC.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I'm trying to figure out CC for firewire'd recordings and this is similar. What is the problem we are running into? Isn't the CC in the HD stream that comes from the HDHomerun or Firewire'd STB. If so, then isn't it a matter of Sage not playing the already captured CC. Since supposedly Sage doesn't need to encode the stream, since it is already encoded, but Sage does strip off unneeded "substreams", such as subchannels, for program stream recordings. Transport stream recordings are supposed to be 100%, if I understand correctly. Are we losing the CC portion of the stream in the stripdown? However, recordings of the Firewire'd STB in TS still don't display CC. I don't know of a way to find out if there is CC in the PS or TS file, not like running mpg2srt on an analog mpeg will quickly show you if you have CC.

Sage hasn't programmed the core to utilize cc in any stream-both analog and HD. There would need to be a change in the core to do cc if they were to do it like say MCE. That is why they are currently dependant on the capture card drivers and only Happaugue seems to provide this capability in their PVR 150-250-350-500 line of cards.

Gerry

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by gplasky

It is not.

Gerry

Is that something in the works?

[gplasky]

Couldn't say for sure. It had never seemed to be a high priority on Sage's to-do list. They have always relied on the capture/tuner driver. And Happuague had just recently updated some beta drivers I believe to get this working on the PVR150 and 500s.

Gerry

[hemicuda]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Couldn't say for sure. It had never seemed to be a high priority on Sage's to-do list. They have always relied on the capture/tuner driver. And Happuague had just recently updated some beta drivers I believe to get this working on the PVR150 and 500s.

Gerry

So far it's working on my 350 and 500MCE. my usb2 just got back from RMA today so I'll see what it does when I get back in town.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

So far it's working on my 350 and 500MCE. my usb2 just got back from RMA today so I'll see what it does when I get back in town.

I have sent Hauppauge a couple emails recently asking them if their newer drivers for the usb2 support CCinDVD like they do now for the 150 and 500. I haven't received any responses back on them. They were responsive when I had questions about the new 150/500 drivers.

[thatdude90210]

Finally got one of these. Until recently, I was ok with just using a MyHD 130 for QAM, mostly for watching live and an occasional recording. But now with "Heroes" and "24" on at the same time, I had to give the HdHomeRun a try.

So far, it seems to be working fine in Sage with just a p4 2.53 & ATI x1600 (running overlay + cyberlink decoder). It's a little tedious getting the physical channel numbers, but once configured in Sage, it's pretty seamless.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by malbec

Got my HD Homerun yesterday. I was salivating at getting this setup and installed. And ... every freak'n channel is encrypted. (Mediacom - Des Moines).

So, any of you with better service than I, PM me as I have an HD Homerun to unload to the highest bidder. It has been used less than ten minutes.

That's really a shame. Did you upgrade it to the latest firmware by chance?