OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner.

[Deacon Crusher]

Wayne, opendct requires java 8, are you running 7 and 8 together? 8 for opendct and 7 for sage?

Have to have opendct for my hdhomerun primes. So, tried to eliminate 8 and ran into compatibility issue so put it back, but open to trying the two versions of Java if folks think that'll actually work okay/well?

Thanks

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Wayne, opendct requires java 8, are you running 7 and 8 together? 8 for opendct and 7 for sage?

Have to have opendct for my hdhomerun primes. So, tried to eliminate 8 and ran into compatibility issue so put it back, but open to trying the two versions of Java if folks think that'll actually work okay/well?

Thanks

Was that something added as a requirement recently to openDCT? I'm probably not running the latest, or even last few versions, of OpenDCT and it is working just fine for me with Java 7 which is what is on both of my machines.
No Java 8 on either machine since it broke one or more of the SageTV plugins that I "must" have.

I just checked and one is running Java 1_70_71 and the other is running 1_70_79 as reported by SageTV System information. I thought they were both running the same version Java, but I guess there are a couple minor versions different.

I'm not even sure what version OpenDCT is up to but I know I'm running a version at the very least 6-9 months old. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
One machine runs a full Prime and 2 tuners off a second prime as well as a 2 tuner OTA HDHR. The other, my main machine, runs a full prime plus the 3rd tuner off that second prime as well as 2 HD-PVR/STBs and a 2 tuner OTA HDHR.
I have had no issues with tuning, recording, etc that openDCT would have anything to do with.

Both machines run 24/7/365. When I'm away I can run them for weeks on end without a reboot, but when I'm home and using them to view through one of my SageTV Extenders I have to reboot them fairly often because I keep running into Java Heap limit issues.

I just took a look at the first message which was last edited by EnterNoEscape in November and it still says minimum Java version is 1.7 which is what I am running.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Wayne, opendct requires java 8, are you running 7 and 8 together? 8 for opendct and 7 for sage?

Have to have opendct for my hdhomerun primes. So, tried to eliminate 8 and ran into compatibility issue so put it back, but open to trying the two versions of Java if folks think that'll actually work okay/well?

Thanks

I run Java 7 and OpenDCT works fine there is no requirement of java 8 for OpenDCT. The minimum Java version is 1.7

[waylo]

Does anyone else run into the issue of garbled closed captioning .SRT text when using the ccextractor component bundled into OpenDCT? Specifically, this occurs on .ts H264 encoded files coming out of a HDHomeRun Prime.

When ccextractor is running through the streaming file, there are innumerable 'typos.' I can run ccextractor afterwards on the completed file, and the .SRT file comes out perfectly. So I do not think the quality of the file captured is in question.

Is there something different about how ccextractor works when in a stream, as opposed to a finished file, that would cause this?

[mistergq]

Just did a fresh install and upgraded to Windows 10 64. I am also picked up two new HDHomerun Connect. I now have a total of 3 HDHomerun Connects. Two Connects are hooked up to an antenna pointing at the Baltimore stations. The third one i wanted to use to get the DC local stations. I hooked the third one up to my FIOS which only has Clear QAM local stations. I did the scan in the Silcondust HDHomerun Setup program. Detects channels and was able to view them on VLC.

I then tried to setup new source in SageTV, but Sage doesn’t tune to any of the channels on the clear qam tuner. Open DCT does play all available channels for both OTA tuners and one Prime Cablecard Tuner.

What do I need to upload to troubleshoot?

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by mistergq

Just did a fresh install and upgraded to Windows 10 64. I am also picked up two new HDHomerun Connect. I now have a total of 3 HDHomerun Connects. Two Connects are hooked up to an antenna pointing at the Baltimore stations. The third one i wanted to use to get the DC local stations. I hooked the third one up to my FIOS which only has Clear QAM local stations. I did the scan in the Silcondust HDHomerun Setup program. Detects channels and was able to view them on VLC.

I then tried to setup new source in SageTV, but Sage doesn’t tune to any of the channels on the clear qam tuner. Open DCT does play all available channels for both OTA tuners and one Prime Cablecard Tuner.

What do I need to upload to troubleshoot?

It does appear that the connect devices have a qam tuner, and verified by your check on VLC. If you had one of their original network tuners that did support clear qam, I seem to recall them being natively supported in SageTV (does not require OpenDCT). Does any portion of your current ATSC/qam config actually require OpenDCT, or do you still have the Prime cablecard tuner in the mix?

[Tiki]

It’s my understanding that while OpenDCT can work with QAM tuners, it was not designed with them in mind. It was intended for cable card tuners. It expects that you have at least one cable card tuner and relies on the cable card to get the channel mapping’s for the Clear QAM tuner. I don’t think OpenDCT can scan for QAM channels on its own, and I don’t know if there is a way to manually map them.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

It does appear that the connect devices have a qam tuner, and verified by your check on VLC. If you had one of their original network tuners that did support clear qam, I seem to recall them being natively supported in SageTV (does not require OpenDCT). Does any portion of your current ATSC/qam config actually require OpenDCT, or do you still have the Prime cablecard tuner in the mix?

I do have a prime cable card turner, but I like local stations not being recorded with that device so that the normal cable stations without conflict. I really don’t feel like spending a lot of energy on trying to get HDHR Connect to work this way. I may either pickup a smaller antenna that I can return and see what I can pick up from DC area. Or I may see what amazons return policy for it is.

Originally Posted by Tiki

It’s my understanding that while OpenDCT can work with QAM tuners, it was not designed with them in mind. It was intended for cable card tuners. It expects that you have at least one cable card tuner and relies on the cable card to get the channel mapping’s for the Clear QAM tuner. I don’t think OpenDCT can scan for QAM channels on its own, and I don’t know if there is a way to manually map them.

Thanks. I screwed up the mapping already once and even though I am pretty sure I said copy, so I a, not sure I want to play with it anymore. I got everything else working with a complete fresh install.

[KryptoNyte]

Just out of curiosity, why not grab another Prime or two and cablecard(s) and have 6 or 9 total tuners that can do it all? I know there's a rental fee on the cablecards, but it's only a few bucks a month isn't it?

Man, if I had FIOS here, I'd have (2) Primes up and working immediately and finally a smooth ride on 6 tuners, instead of all this screwing around with Hauppauge HDPVR's and such.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by Tiki

It’s my understanding that while OpenDCT can work with QAM tuners, it was not designed with them in mind. It was intended for cable card tuners. It expects that you have at least one cable card tuner and relies on the cable card to get the channel mapping’s for the Clear QAM tuner. I don’t think OpenDCT can scan for QAM channels on its own, and I don’t know if there is a way to manually map them.

As I recall OpenDCT is setup to work with QAM, and if a cablecard is in the mix, it actually is the "better option" as it can use the cablecard information to tell the QAM tuner which channel to actually tune into. So OpenDCT should follow a "guide channel" around the physical spectrum when the cableco shifts it around, so long as the guide channel number doesn't change. Unlike SageTV itself, which will remain locked on the physical channel.

Or in other words OpenDCT knows channel 506 is actually 12-6-506 and will know when/if it moves to 34-1-506 because the cablecard will tell it. So if you setup OpenDCT in the right way, you just setup your QAM tuner to use DCT and tune to "506" like you do with the CableCard and DCT does the rest.

Edit: then I notice we're basically saying the same thing. But IIRC, with a cablecard in play, there is no need to QAM scan, the cablecard already knows the channel assignments and DCT can get that data. From there, it is just a matter of determining encryption status, which can be (best) done on the CC side of things, although that may require some manual work, don't remember if he automated some of that.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

As I recall OpenDCT is setup to work with QAM, and if a cablecard is in the mix, it actually is the "better option" as it can use the cablecard information to tell the QAM tuner which channel to actually tune into. So OpenDCT should follow a "guide channel" around the physical spectrum when the cableco shifts it around, so long as the guide channel number doesn't change. Unlike SageTV itself, which will remain locked on the physical channel.

Or in other words OpenDCT knows channel 506 is actually 12-6-506 and will know when/if it moves to 34-1-506 because the cablecard will tell it. So if you setup OpenDCT in the right way, you just setup your QAM tuner to use DCT and tune to "506" like you do with the CableCard and DCT does the rest.

Edit: then I notice we're basically saying the same thing. But IIRC, with a cablecard in play, there is no need to QAM scan, the cablecard already knows the channel assignments and DCT can get that data. From there, it is just a matter of determining encryption status, which can be (best) done on the CC side of things, although that may require some manual work, don't remember if he automated some of that.

Right, that’s why I was trying to say - if you have both a CC and a QAM tuner, OpenDCT can get the QAM mapping info from the CC and life should be good. But, if you only have QAM, I don’t know how you do the mapping with OpenDCT.

[Zogg]

Everything has been working until today, and I can't figure out what is broken.

I have 2 HDHR Primes with CableCards and 2 original HDHR's configured for OTA. All tuners are controlled with OpenDCT. Tuning with the HDHR's has been working, and still does if I use channel preview in Video Sources setup. But when it's time for a recording, it fails.

I can see in the log file that when doing a channel preview, or a few days ago when all worked correctly, OpenDCT seems to recognize that the HDHR is a legacy device and tunes the channel properly. Now, there are no messages about using the frequency and just an error saying "The channel 19-11-1 does not have a program on the lineup qam_hdhomerun_legacy."

I'm not sure why it now thinks the original legacy HDHR's are doing QAM tuning instead of OTA.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by Zogg

Everything has been working until today, and I can't figure out what is broken.

I have 2 HDHR Primes with CableCards and 2 original HDHR's configured for OTA. All tuners are controlled with OpenDCT. Tuning with the HDHR's has been working, and still does if I use channel preview in Video Sources setup. But when it's time for a recording, it fails.

I can see in the log file that when doing a channel preview, or a few days ago when all worked correctly, OpenDCT seems to recognize that the HDHR is a legacy device and tunes the channel properly. Now, there are no messages about using the frequency and just an error saying "The channel 19-11-1 does not have a program on the lineup qam_hdhomerun_legacy."

I'm not sure why it now thinks the original legacy HDHR's are doing QAM tuning instead of OTA.

And a full reboot seems to have solved the problem, where restarting Sage and OpenDCT did not. Oh well.

[Zogg]

Okay, this problem is recurring and I need some help. My system is described 2 posts back, basically 2 HDHR Primes that work fine and 2 original HDHR's also controlled by OpenDCT that I'm having issues with.

I have not changed the config in OpenDCT or in Sage, and I went back and looked at the config files and all the HDHR tuners are set up identically and in Sage they all look identical as well. I can use the HDHR config tool and see that they are functioning perfectly and can tune all the channels in question just fine.

Attached are 2 log files. The first from last night shows a program set up to record on 1010066D-0, then another on 10105AC2-0, then it fails when trying to set up to record on 1010066D-1.

The second log file from this morning shows a successful recording on 1010066D-0, then it fails trying to record from 10105AC2-1.

Any ideas?

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by Zogg

I have not changed the config in OpenDCT or in Sage, and I went back and looked at the config files and all the HDHR tuners are set up identically and in Sage they all look identical as well. I can use the HDHR config tool and see that they are functioning perfectly and can tune all the channels in question just fine.

Looking at the log files posted, BOTH OTA tuners fail when attempting to tune 19-11-1. Is that a valid OTA stream?

If I understand your config correctly, the Primes are connected to your cable provider, while the original HDHRs are connected to an antenna. If that's the case, I'd expect that two different channel lineups have been configured; one for cable and the other for OTA.

If the above is correct, then there's really no need to use OpenDCT to control the OTA tuners. Try this: use Video Sources setup to directly access the OTA HDHRs.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by JustFred

Looking at the log files posted, BOTH OTA tuners fail when attempting to tune 19-11-1. Is that a valid OTA stream?

If I understand your config correctly, the Primes are connected to your cable provider, while the original HDHRs are connected to an antenna. If that's the case, I'd expect that two different channel lineups have been configured; one for cable and the other for OTA.

If the above is correct, then there's really no need to use OpenDCT to control the OTA tuners. Try this: use Video Sources setup to directly access the OTA HDHRs.

Yes, 19-11-1 is a valid stream, and I can tune that channel manually with the HDHR config program. I do have separate lineups, and the OTA lineup has been in use for almost a year.

Back when I was setting up Sage and learning about things a year ago, I found OpenDCT which supported all my HDHR's so I just used it. I can switch to the other method, but I wanted to give KryptoNyte the option of looking at it first in case there's a bug. I certainly don't mind switching, but it is frustrating because this has been working perfectly for months.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by Zogg

... but I wanted to give KryptoNyte the option of looking at it first in case there's a bug. I certainly don't mind switching, but it is frustrating because this has been working perfectly for months.

What was I going to look at? My memory is failing me ...

[Zogg]

You haven't committed to anything. I posted a problem with log files 3 or 4 posts back with my original HDHR's.

[Deacon Crusher]

EnterNoEscape

Hoping you are planning to rev opendtc to support tuning the new HD Homerun premiere channels from their cord cutting service through the HD Homerun ATSC tuners.

This is huge. Turn off cable TV but still get cable TV over the internet.

This is a dream come true.

If we can just get the pieces to work together.

[Deacon Crusher]

Working on this.

So, stopped all sage services.
Stopped opendtc
deleted opendtc properties (not actually using it right now, so didn't need the history)
ran opendtc console, let sit for a while
Ctrl-c to stop
reviewed properties, looked fine.
started service
started sage service. waited a bit
started sage client.
deleted one of my sage controlled hdhr video sources
chose to add a video source
scrolled down and found the opendtc version of the hdhr tuner I'd removed from sage.
chose it
selected it as a digital tv tuner. waited a bit
selected Continue - Device input ...
selected use tuner on capture card ...
seleced use schedules direct ...
said yes to using existing schedules direct account.
Chose add a new lineup
Found a lineup call HDHomerun Premium TV West National (that was exciting)
Chose extended
said yes do a channel scan
It found all the OTA channels, and listed all the Premium channels but said they failed scan.
I then tried again with Basic and again the premium channels failed scan

BUT, this time I tested one of the Premium channels in PREVIEW and it WORKED.

Just signed up for HD Homerun premium and am going to integrate into Sage.

Will update.