Sage TV, HAVA and channel problem.

[blake2415]

Hello all,

Having a problem that is stumping me.

I have SageTv and HAVA connected and these work beautifuly together except that once I hit channel 124, it can't tune any higher. It's strange. ALl my upper channels are found, listed, (HD's are in the 700 range). I can even select any channel and watch SAGE act like it's changing the motorola cable HD box to that channel, but it won't send the correct channel number. If you put in 710 and watch the action in the background, sage will enter channel 124 but it displays 710 just as if it were the right channel.

I have no clue but it could be stated this way. SageTV replaces channel 124 as the channel number it sends for any channel over 124. But it will act normal in other ways including thinking it's on the right channel but it's not.

Anyone know how to fix this? I don't think it's HAVA as I can get another Tuner system to access all channels and HAVA itself does the channels ok.

Bill

[mikesill]

Except I can get up to channel 150 and it becomes "stuck". It appears that SageTV is not sending the IR codes to the STB. When I change the channel by keying the number, I can see the IR codes being sent from the HAVA device to the cablebox. When using the HAVA software, all the channels change as expected. It seems like SageTV filters out channel numbers that appear to be out of range even if they are valud. Ideas ?

[Wheemer]

usbuirt

[Jason]

Whew... First post in quite some time...

I have the HAVA as well... having brought it back out of retirement. I wanted to set it up a standalone tuner, using the HAVA's own IR blaster function, but it is not working as a complete solution.

From HAVA's own website (http://myhava.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=235)...

The short answer to your questions is yes. You can think of the situation this way. When you are configuring the MCE TV Settings, you are setting up the TV Signal using the Microsoft UI. Snappymultimedia has not modified the Microsoft setup process in any way. We simply present ourselves as an available tuner to the MCE UI. Since Microsoft is capable of controlling devices on it's own, and they require an IR blaster to configure properly, the user needs to be able to run through the MCE setup successfully. Once the user has successfully configured the MCE application, the HAVA software is able to 'tap into and listen to' the IR commands sent by the MCE UI to the blaster on the MCE PC. Hava then sends those commands to the HAVA device which sends the commands over the HAVA IR emitter. This is a simplified explanation, but I hope this helps you understand a little better.

It appears that the HAVA needs a bit of trickery to tune anything above channel 150 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...on_frequencies) on a MCE/VMC machine. Since SageTV is not either (thank God!), the virtual tuner is just that... a plain old BDA analog style tuner.

Now... if by some imagination, (come on Sage!) we can mimic that trickery somehow, then we may yet be able to use the HAVA's built in IR blaster for channels above 150.

Stupid question...

Is is possible to edit/change the encoders in the prefs to use a component input on the 'tuner' but also use the RF tuner to send the channel changes? Better yet, would be to have someone much smarter than me, program up a dll that mimics the HAVA's trickery and use that as a tuning plugin!

-Jason

Originally Posted by mikesill

Except I can get up to channel 150 and it becomes "stuck". It appears that SageTV is not sending the IR codes to the STB. When I change the channel by keying the number, I can see the IR codes being sent from the HAVA device to the cablebox. When using the HAVA software, all the channels change as expected. It seems like SageTV filters out channel numbers that appear to be out of range even if they are valud. Ideas ?

[Graygeek]

Jason, take a look at this post in HAVA forum .....

http://www.myhava.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1361

[Graygeek]

After closer reading ... the HAVA s/w fix only supports VISTA32 ... seems like the folks at HAVA are really missing the boat on this issue.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Graygeek

Jason, take a look at this post in HAVA forum .....

http://www.myhava.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1361

This is just to get MCE to allow you to setup the HAVA with a STB for VMC (Vista Media Center). It does nothing ro any other PVR software that uses the virtual BDA driver.

[Graygeek]

So, even if you setup the HAVA for S-Video input in SAGE, the built-in IR Blaster still only goes upto ch 150?

My Platinum is scheduled for delivery next Tues.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Graygeek

So, even if you setup the HAVA for S-Video input in SAGE, the built-in IR Blaster still only goes upto ch 150?

My Platinum is scheduled for delivery next Tues.

Well... it appears that is so... I never fully looked into this specific aspect.

While the HAVA can be used with a STB on it's own (using it's blaster...), and use every available channel, as a virtual tuner, only MCE/VMC can use the internal blaster for channels over 150.

I have an email outstanding to Monsoon on this.

Now if either Hava/Monsoon, some enterprising young programmer, or Sage themselves, can see themselves clear to whip up their own 'magic' to incorporate this functionality into a .dll such as for the USB-UIRT(uu_irsage.dll) or the Actisys (as_ir200l.dll), then we would be in business! In fact, the HAVA would be much more in demand than now... think of the possibilities for a standalone tuner that can accept an HD feed and stream those recording either locally or over the internet! The only thing that is close is the HD-PVR with a few* caveats.

* = Not standalone (requires USB) but records true HD... and no streaming. [IIRC...]

The next best thing would be to incorporate the RTSP channel changing 'hack' into something similiar. At least this will work when HAVA inrporates that function BACK into the firmware. You used to be able to change channels useing a simple command line such as 'vlc rtsp://x.x.x.x/chan_num'.

This would open VLC, change the channel to 'chan_num', and stream it.

Now... if only someone would do either of those...

-Jason

PS: You need to email HAVA on this as well. Gary-MM on the HAVA forums is who you should poke...

[Jason]

Hmmm...

I wonder if we could get exetuner to do the job via VLC (open and then kill the process?) and the aforementioned RTSP: channel changing hack...

-Jason

PS: Is anyone else reading this and can give me a hand?

This ReadMe describes how to use the EXETunerPlugin with SageRecorder or SageTV.

1. Extract the file EXETunerPlugin.dll to the Program Files\Frey Technologies\Common folder on your computer.
2. Double-click the appropriate .reg file to configure the plugin for your system.

Configurations

GirderDSSTUNE.reg
This will create the registry setting so C:\Program Files\Girder\Event.exe DSSTUNE is called to perform channel tuning.
Use this if you're doing serial control and using Girder.

DTVCon.reg
This will create the registry setting so dtvcmd.exe is called to perform channel tuning.
dtvcmd.exe must be located in the SageRecorder or SageTV folder or be accessible through the system path.
Use this along with DTVCon and the DTVCmd.exe program that can be obtained from http://pcmx.net/dtvcon/

Generic
The EXETunerPlugin uses a template string (REG_SZ) stored in the registry value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sage\EXETunerPlugin\command

It will replace the string %CHANNEL% in the registry with the desired channel number.
The resulting string is executed as a process and should perform the channel tune.

Example for Girder's registry setting:
C:\\Program Files\\Girder\\event.exe DSSTUNE 203 %CHANNEL% -silent

Example for DTVCon's registry setting:
dtvcmd.exe #%CHANNEL%

[Graygeek]

I have my new HAVA Platinum capturing HD from cablebox using component input. And the HD channel retains original aspect ratio in SAGE, the HD capture fills the screen, not squishing/stretching and no bars. Quality of the picture from the HAVA is much improved over analog cable, you can tell that it has been downconverted, and only stereo sound but hey for non-premium stuff it is great. And only cost $100, plus it can be placed remote from my server as a network encoder!

The key in the latest HAVA software there is a checkbox to enable component capture for Media Center.

As soon as I work out a few details, I'll post my setup info.

If we can conquer the channel change issue, this is a sweet little box.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Graygeek

If we can conquer the channel change issue, this is a sweet little box.

Exactly my thoughts! An unattended tuner that requires no cables!

-Jason

[apschaefer]

Graygeek,

Have you been able to get this to work with the HAVA Remote Driver? I have a Hava Titanium across the country that is accessible via the Hava desktop client. My video project right now is to access that tuner via the Hava Remote driver in Sage and play the video / audio via my Extenders. I would be content just to get the component inputs to work (although channel changing with remote recording would be the holy grail). Every time I add the video source and map the input I don't receive a picture or audio, and occasionally get a playback exception.

The only way I can think of getting this working, if the remote driver doesn't function, is to add an internet video source using the rtsp interface on the Hava, but its nice not having to punch open any firewall rules to access Hava remotely (and seeing it in the Guide is just too cool).

Originally Posted by Graygeek

I have my new HAVA Platinum capturing HD from cablebox using component input. And the HD channel retains original aspect ratio in SAGE, the HD capture fills the screen, not squishing/stretching and no bars. Quality of the picture from the HAVA is much improved over analog cable, you can tell that it has been downconverted, and only stereo sound but hey for non-premium stuff it is great. And only cost $100, plus it can be placed remote from my server as a network encoder!

The key in the latest HAVA software there is a checkbox to enable component capture for Media Center.

As soon as I work out a few details, I'll post my setup info.

If we can conquer the channel change issue, this is a sweet little box.

[Graygeek]

Key item is to have the latest HAVA software ... I'm thinking it's 1.8, not home to look it up right now. There is a check box added to tell HAVA to startup using Component for Media Center. This seems to also work for SAGE, I'm running SAGE 6.5.3. There are two HAVA tuner choices, I then add the HAVA Video Tuner, not the HAVA Remote Tuner, (that choice just locks things up since I did not enable remote in HAVA setup) in SAGE and the IR blaster will funtion if you pick TUNER up to around ch 150. If componet then no IR blaster. I get component input with either choice. I suspect the check box in the HAVA setup is locking it into Component. I'm hoping to play with this some more this weekend. So far I'm very pleased with the capture from HD content .... the quality is much beter than normal video and the ratio retained. Fills my 42" LCD with no bars on sides and no streching/squishing. Note that the resolution is beter on a local network than when used remotely. This is set in the HAVA software assuming your local bandwidth is beter than over the internet. So the picture results would be less impressive in your case being across country.

Hope that helps! If I can get some time to play over weekend I hope to have more info. I still think that if you don't have to have premium HD quality that this is sweet box and a fraction the cost of the HD-PVR.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Graygeek

If we can conquer the channel change issue, this is a sweet little box.

I think I have the answer!

We can use the exetuner plugin to call a lightweight rtsp cleint that will change the current channel!

http://myhava.com/forum/viewtopic.ph...9&p=9439#p9397

If someone can compile a win32 exe file for openrtsp, we can try it out! Here is the link to the source...

http://www.live555.com/liveMedia/public/

Everyone says that using mingw would be easy...

-Jason