6.1.6RC DTV serial control issues

[clayfree]

I have been having problems reliably changing channels via serial control on my DirecTV receivers. In an effort to exhaust every option I have installed the latest beta. The current DirecTSerialControll.dll still does not work so I have dropped in an older version (5.1.06) and it seems to work.

Now here is the problem: The server and clients will change channels to watch live tv but if I set it to record a show it will not change channels at all. I can now watch live tv but have no ability to schedule recordings.

This may not be a specific issue with 6.1.6 but I felt I shouldn't post in the regular forum since I was running beta.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Clay

[bcjenkins]

I haven't missed a recording yet, 4 D11-100 receivers using PatersonTech USB TV Translators. You should send an email to Sage.

B

[flavius]

I used to use the DCT2000 stuff, but a short while ago it stopped tuning - could be coinciding with one of the betas. Couldn't get it to work again and switched to USB-UIRT. With the serial control I had been getting an increasing percentage of failed channel changes, with USB-UIRT zero, so far.

[clayfree]

Thanks for the replies. I have D10-100 boxes which use low speed data ports so I don't think the Peterson cables are an option for me. I had flawless tuning with BTV but nothing but trouble with Sage and serial cables. BTV was very detailed when setting up serial tuning and had listings for each generation DTV box. I was a little surprised when Sage had no optiond for different boxes, now I know why. It seems like they don't put much emphasis on serial tuning. I guess I can look at a usb-uirt but it seems like a less reliable connection. Today I have tried every combination of Java and tuning.dll with different results. I have an email into tech support so maybe they can point me in the right direction.

[flavius]

I have taped the USB-UIRT emitter to the STB, right in front of the sensor(s). Works better than my serial connection ever has.

[traker1001]

Try Replacing the DLL with This one.

[clayfree]

Thanks for the help everyone.

traker1001, I think that's the .dll I am currently using and it gives me the best results. The newer .dlls do nothing.

flavius, I ordered a usb-uirt last night to try it out. The direct serial connections should be faster and more reliable..IN THEORY. At this point I will try anything just toget it to work so if the usb-uirt works I will order more if needed. How many receivers can a usb-uirt control, just one?

I spent all day yesterday installing, un-installing, rebooting and testing. I have tried java 1.42, 5.0 and 6.0. I even tried different DirecTV reveivers, RCA 420, 430 and DTV D10-100, 200. The D10 boxes will not respond at all to any combo of the .dll and java. Of the RCA boxes one tunes successfully and the other tunes the channel once and then stops responding. As of now I have 1 Satellite tuner for my entire system but that's better that none which is what I had yesterday. Like I mentioned in my earlier post I was surprised with the lack of options what setting up the video sources. Another frustrating thing is once a source is set up there is no way to test the tuning and make adjustments. You have to exit setup go to the guide and try it out, then if it doesn't work you have to delete the source and start over. Also, if you have multiple sources it's difficult to determine which one is being used from the guide. It would be nice to have a source set up screen that allowed you to change channels and test the tuning.

I just go a reply back from Sage support so tonight I will recreate some of the errors and send them a log file. Hopefully they can give me direction.

Clay

[traker1001]

I use 4 d10-100 using the latest beta of sage and direct serial control using the old dll. My channels have never missed a change and change faster than my cable channels when my tv is hooked directly to cable.

Test your low speed data ports independant of sage. Also one thing you should consider is if you are using a USB 2 Serial converter, The MS drivers (The ones you get off of MS's update site or come with windows.) Never work properly, You should always go directly to the manufactures website to get this drivers and replace the MS drivers with the true manufactures drivers.


As far as the USB-UIRT goes, Someone can correct me if I am wrong, But You can control 2 receivers per usb-uirt, and can have as many USB-UIRT's as you can muster up USB ports. So in potentially as many receivers as you want basically.

[Wheemer]

With the use of the USB-UIRT's zone feature and the two additional external emitters, you can control 3 boxes. But if you can change your stb's to work with different codes, you can control more.

[clayfree]

Hey tracker1001,

Thanks for the suggestion of testing the serial ports independent of Sage. I tried DTV Serial Control Utility but did not thoroughly test it with both ports and boxes, I will try that. This has got to be an issue with my serial ports, too many people are using serial tuning without problems. I saw an earlier post about clearing ports through the registry so I may try that. The tuning is sporadic and usually locks after tuning to the first channel so I think something is locking the port(s). I do have a USB to serial adapter but I have the correct drivers installed. I also have 2 serial ports built in and I have been using those only for my recent tests. I had BTV installed on the server and it tuned without problems, I have since uninstalled it but I wonder if it left something behind that's trying to control the port.

[traker1001]

Last time I set up my sage server, I was having the exact same problem as you are now. MY symptoms were that I could tune both receivers exactly fine outside of sage, However once I started sage, It seemed to lock the serial ports so the one used first, Was the only one that worked until I restarted the system. The sage logs reported as serial port locked.

I use an Edgeport 4 - usb 2 Four port serial for my serial ports and have the ones on the system board disabled. The solution that ended up working for me, Well It was one of three things, installing The old directv dll, Reinstalling my chipset drivers for my system board, Or back tracking to an older xp driver that I got directly off of edgeports website. I am not sure which one of these things was the exact fix or even if it was any ONE of these things, However ever since I did that, Sage has been tuning lightning quick and perfectly acurate.

***EDIT****
One other thing I did that I doubt was the fix, but you never know, Push red reset button near access card slot; when hello screen appears punch 0,2,4,6,8 on remote and it will tell you that new software is loading.

Also you more than likely know this, But make sure your serial ports are set to 9600,8,N,1.

Wish you the best!

[sakker]

Yes, slow down the serial ports to 9600 baud, if you are using the tvtranslators there is firmware that is sort of specific depending on which firmware your dtv boxes have on them.

One thing I had to do on 1 of my cables/boxes but not the other two was to manually change the port from what it came up and autoconfigured as in xp control panel/system/device manager/ports I think it autoconfigured as port 10 and absolutely no combination of what I did would allow it to change the channels, when I manually changed it to another port and configured that in Sage it worked like the other 2.

It was a pain that there was no way to configure things more once you had set up the tuner, say change to a different port, or confirm channel changes without having to exit the install area, go to tv, if it didnt work, go back to settings and remove that turner, make changes and go through the whole install procedure again. Could definitely use some work.

[crowland]

Assume you have already done this, but if not try:

Close SageTV and the service if running and open up your Sage.properties
file. Look for this line, "seeker/fast_mux_switch=true" and change it from
true to false.

It fixed channel changing problems for me. (though I have not had exactly what you are describing)

[clayfree]

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions! I have had other things(life) interfering so I was not able to devote time to Sage last night. Tonight I should have time to try these suggestions and I will report back. I have a USB-uirt arriving today but now it has become a matter of pride and I am determined to get serial tuning to work.

Clay

[Halstead]

This is interesting. I'm getting ready to switch over to 6.1, but I do need the DCT2000 device control to work. Are folks saying that Sage 6.1 breaks it? is anyone successfully using multidcttuner with Sage 6.1.6? I'm unclear on whether Tracker is using the current beta.

[traker1001]

I AM currently using the latest beta, however, The first thing I do after I upgrade is replace the directv dll file with the older file above.

All my tuners are still going strong via the serial ports.

***EDIT****
Latest beta currently using being 6.1.7 now.