Need help with Network Encoding to Mac Server

[merneric]

Ok, I decided to convert to a Sage Media Server Mac edition, because my Macs seem to just overall be more stable. I have one HDHR running on it great, but as you know, there is currently no way to reliably change channels with the HD-PVR. So I have 2 of these set up on a windows box, and I then set up network encoding as per the instructions in Appendix G. The Mac Server sees the HD-PVRs just fine, and it even changes the channels to the appropriate ones via firewire on the Windows box.

The problem is, that I get no picture on the Mac side, or on any of my extenders. It just sort of hangs for a bit, and then says no signal. Picture works fine on Windows box. I have tried different combinations to no avail. Anyone have experience with this that might be able to help?

BTW, I don't know if it would make a difference, but I am using the Trial version of the Mac SageTV Media Server, as I wanted to make sure the setup would work before shelling out the 80 bucks. Thanks.

[bcjenkins]

Trial shouldn't matter. Turn on debug logging, but I am guessing your issue will be that the windows server needs to be able to write to your video directories on your Mac. IIRC - When I was doing this from Linux (very similar to Mac) I had to make sure the network encoder could connect and then write to the path.

B

[merneric]

Thanks--I think you are exactly right about that. I uninstalled-reinstalled, this time choosing the default video recording dir on the Mac--All was well, and it worked fine. However, as soon as I change to a different hard disk, I get no signal/blank screen-and what look to be 0-byte files. Therefore, I think it definitely has something to do with permissions on the Mac side. Reading through the "HDTV Firewire Support" thread, it looks as if this is a fairly common dilemma on the Mac. Hopefully I can get this figured out, as my default hard drive is not big enough to support HD recordings...

[merneric]

Ok, well after playing around more with this I have discovered the following:

In Sage.properties file, the following is where the video storage dir is:

seeker/video_storage=/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV,20000000000,3;

Now with this property, all works fine. HDHR and HD-PVR on network encoder located on Windows box writes to this dir.

However, if i change the video dir to:

seeker/video_storage=/volumes/MacintoshHD/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV,20000000000,3;

which is the exact same dir, just a different nomenclature, I get a no signal, and a 0 kb file that shows up in the directory with HD-PVR files only--the HDHR files work perfectly!

Obviously, I want to be able to save network encoder HD-PVR files on a different volume, but for some reason I can't get this to work.

I tried sharing the volume/dir, and I can mount it from windows box, and write files just fine. I just can't figure out why the encoder will not write properly to a volume within Sage...

[bcjenkins]

Can you open a terminal prompt and run this?

ls -l /Volumes/MacintoshHD/Users/Shared/SageTV/TV

Also, your volumes is lowercase, assuming typo otherwise correct it first in the props.

B

[merneric]

Sorry for late response on this...unfortunately I did not get a chance to try out your suggestion. Somehow I managed to totally mess up my server to the point of having to reinstall and reconfigure everything from scratch. It's now back up and running, however, during the process, to my pleasant surprise, I discovered that I was able to get all of the HD channels (including channel change) that I subscribe to over a firewire connection on my STB (moto 3200) using Apple Firewire SDK26.

I have since followed the instructions in the firewire encoder thread, although I had the same issues with the 0 kb files. However, by adding a group ACL of "everyone" to the recording directory and changing the permissions on this to read/write, and propagating through, it seemed to fix the problem. I suspect that the same solution would hold true for the HD-PVR windows box encoder as well, however, since I now have firewire recording working so well, I have not bothered to try it yet. I am going to run this for a few days and see how stable it is.

Of note, I can now get CC1 data on my HD recordings, since the firewire captures this as well as opposed to the HD-PVR which does not.