Possible to use STB Firewire for channel changing only?

[rob.sfo]

I'm having all sorts of STB Firewire related problems, so I'm considering dropping it for awhile. I don't have the time to put into it & I just need to make things work. WAF is in the gutter right now.

So I'm considering running composite from the STB to my PVR-500. My question...is it possible to run the audio/video via rca/composite, but use Firewire to change the channels? I could have sworn I read something about this here, but for the life of me I just can't find it.

Thanks,
Rob

[Bohica]

You know -- I was thinking about this too... and I thought one option -- which is not very good for sage -- is to continue using the Sgraphrecorder... you should be able to build a graph that uses the 500 svideo input instead of the HD capture STB... and then the channel change through firewire would work fine. If it was on the same system -- you really would not be violating sage by not buying recorder. You could do this on a remote system and not buy recorder...

anyway -- no reason this should not work. As a bonus -- my HD channels are outputed through svideo simultaneously -- with quite a nice (but much smaller) picture. So you can still get those channels... easy solution -- just change the graph to get the svideo input and find the audio...

[montgomeryt]

Originally Posted by rob.sfo

I'm having all sorts of STB Firewire related problems, so I'm considering dropping it for awhile. I don't have the time to put into it & I just need to make things work. WAF is in the gutter right now.

So I'm considering running composite from the STB to my PVR-500. My question...is it possible to run the audio/video via rca/composite, but use Firewire to change the channels? I could have sworn I read something about this here, but for the life of me I just can't find it.

Thanks,
Rob

I've been asking this same question all over the place and was told to read Bohica's document. I thought that we could do what Bohica is saying in the next post and just substitute the use of the STB with a standard graph designed to run with w/e hardware you have but I'm still not sure how to got about the whole thing.

[Bohica]

Getting sgraphrecorder working with sage is not that difficult... what are you trying to do? The doc would fairly easily walk you through setting up your stb to change channels via firewire, creating a remote recorder (even if installed on the same system it would be considered a remote recorder by sage)... configuring your graph with graphedit would be up to you... but even in the worst environments that shouldnt be too difficult. Just read the doc and when you get to the HD graphedit parts, substitute other capture devices -- i.e. hauppauge, etc.

[montgomeryt]

Originally Posted by Bohica

Getting sgraphrecorder working with sage is not that difficult... what are you trying to do? The doc would fairly easily walk you through setting up your stb to change channels via firewire, creating a remote recorder (even if installed on the same system it would be considered a remote recorder by sage)... configuring your graph with graphedit would be up to you... but even in the worst environments that shouldnt be too difficult. Just read the doc and when you get to the HD graphedit parts, substitute other capture devices -- i.e. hauppauge, etc.

Yeah, I'm just a little slow. Hey, sorry about my previous post I went back and read it and went back and read yours and I pretty much just repeated what you already said - my bad. I'll work on it this weekend and see what I come up with. Thanks !

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by rob.sfo

I'm having all sorts of STB Firewire related problems, so I'm considering dropping it for awhile. I don't have the time to put into it & I just need to make things work. WAF is in the gutter right now.

So I'm considering running composite from the STB to my PVR-500. My question...is it possible to run the audio/video via rca/composite, but use Firewire to change the channels? I could have sworn I read something about this here, but for the life of me I just can't find it.

Thanks,
Rob

It's a piece of cake You'll need to find the ExeTuner plugin...it may not be called exactly that but it's a plugin that allows you to use a commandline command for the tuner. Essentially you import the plugin and then make a registry change so that when the plugin gets a channel change it will call

c:\something\channelw.exe 'id'

'id' being the id of your setop box on the firewire bus

you don't need sgraphrecorder, but you still need to install the drivers and commandlines apps from timmmoores firewire package in addition to the SageExternalTuner plugin oh and you don't need girder

Here's the plugin:
http://www.sage.tv/2_papers/EXETunerPlugin.zip

Here's the text from the readme:

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%

Do step 1...then add either (but not both) of the reg files to your registry. It does not matter which, the run regedit...browse to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sage\EXETunerPlugin\command

and edit it so that it points to

c:\wherever you installed timmore's app\channelw.exe 'your stb id number here' %CHANNEL%

then i forget if you need to re-setup your tuners and point one of them to the exetunerplugin

personally on my pvr500 one points to the exetunerplugin and the other uses the analog

[Bohica]

very nice...

[rob.sfo]

Thanks Naylia! Exactly what I was looking for.

[montgomeryt]

Naylia!

That's awesome! I finally got it to change channels with Bohica's doc but I obviously didn't setup the graph correctly. Think I'll undo what I did and give this a shot !

Thanks everyone !

[Naylia]

by the way, the above only sets up channel changing if you are not recording via SGraphRecorder and firewire, if you want to record via firewire and change channels via firewire you should be able to just follow the docs in the firewire stb thread.

again, the above targets folks that use a pvr card, but want to use firewire to change channels on the stb instead of an ir blaster

[chrismo16]

Originally Posted by Naylia

by the way, the above only sets up channel changing if you are not recording via SGraphRecorder and firewire,

I want to do both. I have followed the pdf on recording and channel changing via firewire. I have set up my HD channels to use SGR and the rest over svideo. When I change to a SGR channel in Sage my STB changes to that channel but if I change to an svideo channel in Sage my STB does nothing? Is there a way to combine the 2 methods?

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by chrismo16

I want to do both. I have followed the pdf on recording and channel changing via firewire. I have set up my HD channels to use SGR and the rest over svideo. When I change to a SGR channel in Sage my STB changes to that channel but if I change to an svideo channel in Sage my STB does nothing? Is there a way to combine the 2 methods?

chris, got your pm....just follow the steps a few posts up and at the end point your s-video input to the exetuner plugin

[ryan711]

Does the exe tuner plugin allow you to control any stb with a serial port such as the coolsat 5000 free to air box

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by Naylia

chris, got your pm....just follow the steps a few posts up and at the end point your s-video input to the exetuner plugin

I have been trying for a couple of days now. I have the EXETuner plugin, updated the registry, re-setup the s-video tuner and selected the EXETuner but it still is not working. I do have firewire recording working. Does anyone else have both firewire recording and s-video w/firewire channel change working?

Thanks.

Wayne

[gtd885a]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

I have been trying for a couple of days now. I have the EXETuner plugin, updated the registry, re-setup the s-video tuner and selected the EXETuner but it still is not working. I do have firewire recording working. Does anyone else have both firewire recording and s-video w/firewire channel change working?

Yes, been recording over firewire for a long time now, and just got the channel changing for the svideo channels working last night, only took a couple minutes (thanks to this post actually). Works SOOOOOO much better than that stinkin' IR blaster I've been trying to use for months

Not sure what to tell you. For the registry entry, what I did was just copied the text in the sgraphrecorder.ini for the location of channelw.exe (just to be sure), and then appended the %CHANNEL% to the end (forgot that the first time I tried it).

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by gtd885a

Yes, been recording over firewire for a long time now, and just got the channel changing for the svideo channels working last night, only took a couple minutes (thanks to this post actually). Works SOOOOOO much better than that stinkin' IR blaster I've been trying to use for months

Not sure what to tell you. For the registry entry, what I did was just copied the text in the sgraphrecorder.ini for the location of channelw.exe (just to be sure), and then appended the %CHANNEL% to the end (forgot that the first time I tried it).

Thanks. I wanted to make sure before I spent anymore time that it was actually possible. I just did as you mentioned (copied the text in the sgraphrecorder.ini for the location of channelw.exe) and now it is working. Not sure what was different, but I am there now.

Thanks again. Now I can find a better use for the USB-UIRT.

Wayne

[abasu2003]

anybody having problems with the channel changing? I thought firewire would never have problems but it seems that many times, it will send the same number twice. so for "203" it will send "220" and then a 3 will come after it. anybody seeing this, any ideas how to fix it?

[abasu2003]

Originally Posted by abasu2003

anybody having problems with the channel changing? I thought firewire would never have problems but it seems that many times, it will send the same number twice. so for "203" it will send "220" and then a 3 will come after it. anybody seeing this, any ideas how to fix it?

anybody?

[mechling-burgh]

I have been using firewire changing for over a year and have it only not get the right channel once. That said when I was trying to record over firewire and change channels I did have problems. If you are only changing channels it should work fine, I even have a repeater on mine to stretch the distance of 30 feet.

[abasu2003]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

I have been using firewire changing for over a year and have it only not get the right channel once. That said when I was trying to record over firewire and change channels I did have problems. If you are only changing channels it should work fine, I even have a repeater on mine to stretch the distance of 30 feet.

Well, that helps. I am recording over firewire. But whats odd is that channel misses happen when I'm not actually recording anything over firewire, like my encoder is not in use. I've played with the delay times and nothing seems to be working. Specifically, channel numbers are getting sent too many times.