Universal Network Encoder (1.0.10 - Mars 20)

[foolio]

[QUOTE=AndersNolberger]Not all graphs work with SGR. The BDA is one example that I will adress in a separate program "real soon now" (TM).
QUOTE]

You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that - I'm hoping your new program supports ATSC BDA. There are basically no ATSC BDA prorams out there (Windows MCE and GotTVPVR, can't get gottvpvr working tho) There are plenty for DVB-T BDA (mediaportal)

[DFA]

insomniac:

I wish I could advise you but I have to play hit and miss at this myself. I understand just enough to be dangerous. However, be sure you are using version of Graphedit from SDK DX9. Usually when everything is good, the devices and filters will color code themselsves.

You're on the right track it seems and when everything is working, you should get a picture.

There are some people in this forum that are "Graph Wizards". Need to single them out and retain their advice for some of these graphs.

DFA

[SHS]

Insomniac you do know your messing with AVI capture any reason for this

[insomniac]

haha...I have/had no idea. I am just fumbling around trying to figure things out. Might you have a good example of something that I can work with? Ive seen that you have built quite a few different graph configurations on your site.

I.

Originally Posted by SHS

Insomniac you do know your messing with AVI capture any reason for this

[insomniac]

thx for your reply DFA. Thats what im hopeing for. Im sure that someone already has a graph made that I will be able to get a better idea what the heck I need to be doing.

Originally Posted by DFA

insomniac:

I wish I could advise you but I have to play hit and miss at this myself. I understand just enough to be dangerous. However, be sure you are using version of Graphedit from SDK DX9. Usually when everything is good, the devices and filters will color code themselsves.

You're on the right track it seems and when everything is working, you should get a picture.

There are some people in this forum that are "Graph Wizards". Need to single them out and retain their advice for some of these graphs.

DFA

[travisbell]

Anders,

I posted an update to my problem, wondering if you could take a look...

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&postcount=207

Thanks!

[AndersNolberger]

A new version is now available on my homepage.

[aikon]

Hi

Is it possible to use the UNE to make sagetv go out through the Xcard tv-output ?

The reason I ask is because the xcard plugin is not working for me and as I know - it can not play divx files yet.

But as I see it the Graphedit is awesome because as I understand - it should be possible to make our own mix of input and output and thereby make the xcard work with pvr-350 and make it all go through the xcard tv-out.

Any one?

[AndersNolberger]

Originally Posted by aikon

Is it possible to use the UNE to make sagetv go out through the Xcard tv-output ?

No, UNE is only for connecting inputs to Sage. It can not play back files.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by AndersNolberger

No, UNE is only for connecting inputs to Sage. It can not play back files.

Can the graph I want to use w/ UNE do a transcode before writing the file? Obviously, SageTV would have to be able to read the file.

[AndersNolberger]

Yes, as long as the graph creates a file format that Sage supports, the input can be almost anything. The restriction is that UNE can't change any properties on any filter except for the file name on the dump filter.

[Grasshopper]

Wow, this looks exciting. But I'm the proverbial dumb kid in the back, raising his hand and scratching his head while the smart kids discuss the cool new stuff.

I understand that using the UNE, I can get HDTV input into Sage via Firewire and a Firewire-enabled HD STB.

It seems that I also need an HD capture/tuner card, yes? Which card is The One To Get?

Can I use this on a Sage Client machine, or must it be connected directly to a machine running Sage proper?

Is it possible to use the Firewire connection to also change channels on the STB, or do I need to use Girder/USBUIRT/IRBlaster type solutions?

What hardware requirements are we looking at for smooth HD recording/playback in Sage? Can Sage stream HD over 100bt Ethernet to a client?

[AndersNolberger]

Yes UNE can be used to get HDTV from a STB with Firewire. You don't need any HD capture card, in fact you don't need any capture card!

For more info be sure to look at this thread: http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=9288.

You can install UNE on the computer running Sage client and let the Sage server communicate with it through the network. But if you have little experience with this kind of setup I suggest that you try to get it running on the Sage server computer first and then move it to the other computer when it is working. UNE can not change channels on the STB through firewire so you need to use Girder and an USBUIRT/IRblaster.

I don't know about the hardware requirement since I don't use this myself.

If you want to experiment start with checking that your firewire connection is enabled and test what channels you can recieve. I understand that not all providers send enough material unscrambled for this to worth it.

[spaceghost]

Grasshopper-
I have to use Gig-E for HD material to play smoothly. It stuttered something horrible (unwatchable) over a 100Mb LAN. Not exactly sure on hardware requirements..but I believe anything faster than a 2.5G/2500+ CPU would be fast enough.

This is a network encoder, so think of it as having a tuner card in any machine you want on your network(as long as that machine is hooking up to your stb with firewire). I may be wrong, but you don't need any sage software loaded on the machine that is going to use the firewire (to your stb). This does use IP to communicate so if you are going to use 1 computer for everything, you'll at least need a network card to get an IP loopback(127.0.0.1).

--Edit: My Eth card was bunk. Swapped it out and it runs fine over 10/100.

[DFA]

spaceghost:

I was wondering about Ethernet speed requirements for HD. I wasn't sure if 100Mb would do it or not. Someone else had mentioned in the "STB Firewire" thread (you?) that the UNE would be used remotely and all I could say about it was to be cautious about speed requirement. So, Gig-E it is. Thanks.

DFA

[dvsing]

Hello everyone-- I finally decided to dive into all of this a couple of days ago and went down to Comcast to pick up a Motorola 6200 box... After a few hurdles, I have everything up and running except the USB-UIRT which is due to arrive tomorrow.

A little background- I am using the UNE+Mot6200(1394) on top of an existing SageTV system with two encoders (PVR250, PVR350), one of which is connected to an older comcast motorola dct2000 box (using dctmutlituner dll w/ serial cable thingy). .... So the addition of the UNE now brings my capacity to three encoders.... nice =)

I ran into the lineup problem mentioned on the STB Firewire thread so I ended up using a similar nearby lineup for the 6200 box and only made the 4 or 5 HD channels available for now-- so the UNE is only used for the HD channels that I can get on the other two encoders.

After upgrading codecs, video drivers, and everything else that I could possibly upgrade, I seem to have reached a point of stability.... except for one thing:

For some reason, the UNE dissapears from sage after some amount of time-- Sage thinks that it's gone.. drops off the scheduled-recordings listing and shows up as "functioning: false" on the setup wizard subscreen. A look at the folder that UNE is recording to shows that the file is STILL being written to,.. so I think this issue is just a communication issue between sage and UNE.... Sage is still alive and UNE is still alive but they aren't talking... UNE debug messages stop and it looks like sage isn't talking to it. I'm using the ip address and port 127.0.0.1:\6969 to talk to UNE (using loopback, not real IP address). This may be because I've told Sage to try and tune the UNE but on the UNE configuration I have girder turned off (no USBUIRT yet). Would this cause this sort of problem? Other than that, great work on this!

A problem I thought of that might exist is that Sage doesn't know how much space to allocate for stuff that the UNE is recording, and if the storage disk starts to become full then it may run out of space for having not deleted enough older/watched programming. Sage makes this size estimate based on the "recording quality" and the length of the show, I would imagine-- is this even an issue? or does sage constantly monitor the available space and delete programs until it sees that it has enough space? (in other words, are the shows deleted to make space at the beginning of another new show being recorded, or only at the moment when the space is absolutely needed?)

-Dan

[Stealth1971]

I have been building a BDA capture app that works as a Sage Network encoder... My app targets the ATI HD Wonder right now, but I can modify it

I am having some errors with playback right now however. I believe it it is the filter I am using to MUX back my streams before I dump to a file...

Anders,

How did you come about the Cyberlink mux filter? I have been using ATI's MUX filter - I have a feeling it is make my MPEG2 file non compliant. I can only get playback through WinDVD and Windows Media which is loading Cyberlink's decoding filter

Any thoughts would be helpful.

FYI -

The capture app (for the BDA stuff) is 100% C++ and the network encoder server that controls it is C#(.NET) - I didnt want to do the networking stuff in C++

I am so close... Willing to share source code to get this fixed...

Thanks

[AndersNolberger]

Fun!

I am not using Cyberlink MUX. When I am experimenting with DVB I am using the MUX/PS-writer from ShowShifter. But I have heared that it does not work that good with HD. DFA is using Cyberlink I think but he is in egypt right now and is not monitoring this forum for a few days.

[Stealth1971]

Oh - I didn't spend tons of times reading through this thread - I just went back and found where it was DFA using the Cyberlink MUX - he got it from the Cyberlink's apps trial install . I am going to try that. If UNE is working stable/solid I am going to attach my ATI HD Wonder/ BDA capture to it and give it a shot.... Should work my if I can get my PS stream right. The only other thing I can think that is going wrong (if its not the MUX filter) is that the AM_MEDIA_TYPE structure has wrong values and the values are affecting how Sage's Dump filter writes the stream???? (this structure is needed for calling the SetFileName() method of the FileSink interface) I am querying the output pin of the ATI Mux filter to get its output AM_MEDIA_TYPE values and using that.

I would love to know how the Sage MPEG Dump filter uses that structure...

[Stealth1971]

mux follow-up...

The CyberLink Mux and dump work... but when I import the capture file into Sage isn't calculating the file time length... It will play but rw/ff is all screwed up