Anyone using firewire with Rogers SA4250HD? (channel changing only)

[wayner]

I have been using firewire channel changing with two SA3250HDs (hooked up to HD-PVRs) for a couple of years.

When I set up a server about two years ago I tried using a SA4250HD but the Tim M Moore drivers didn't seem to work. There were some other drivers (from here) that I quickly tried but then I just figured no point playing around and I switched boxes so that I was using a 3250HD rather than a 4250HD.

It now looks like one of my 3250HD boxes may be dying (it reboots every day or so for no apparent reason) and I don't have another one to use in its place. I have a 4250HD that I could move to this location but then I need the firewire to work for channel changing.

Has anyone successfully used a 4250HD from Rogers for channel chaning via firewire? If so what drivers did you use and do you have to use any of the addional parameters (like -f4)?

[DMT]

I have 2 Rogers SA 4250HDs using firewire channel changing.

I think I used the drivers included with Timmmoore but I might have used these stb_firewire_drivers_2009-02-25

-f -a4 -n used to work but as of June 2010 I had to change to –f –a6 –n

Channel changes have always been 100% accurate.

[wayner]

Thanks - I will look for those drivers. I have also never had problems with channel changes but my SA3200 with a USB-UIRT IR emitter taped to the front also rarely has problems.

Did you notice if Rogers did a software upgrade in June to require the change?

[DMT]

Originally Posted by wayner

Did you notice if Rogers did a software upgrade in June to require the change?

Yes, it was a Rogers update.

[wayner]

I had promised some folks an update on this issue. As a refresh - I have been using Rogers 3250HD boxes with Sage for years but one of my boxes died. I am also in the process of building a new server running Win7 (from XP and WHS) and I want to continue using firewire for channel changes. That means that you have to use the 32 bit version of Win - specifically I am using Win 7 Pro 32 bit.

I first tried installing the original Tim M Moore drivers and apps. Win 7 tried to automatically load drivers for the STB which I don't ever remember seeng from XP. I then downloaded the ExDeus drivers and they appeared to work.

However I could never get the Tim Moore channel.exe or channelw.exe to work to actually change channels. I had to use the new SageChanger app with the -f 4 option and it works great.

Note that on a SA3250HD the original Tim Moore drivers and apps work fine.