Using the AccessDTV HDTV Card w/ SageTV

[Narflex]

If you're getting stuttering problems on playback and your CPU is not maxed out, then you should try increasing the demux buffers. This can be done in the registry at:
HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\DShowFilters\MpegDeMux\NumBuffers

It should be at 32, try increasing it to 48 or 64 (it doesn't need to be a multiple of 16, any value is OK)

[RBTConsultants]

bumped it all the way to 128. Still sound but no picture on on Philly 26 (CBS) although the recording plays back in Zoomplayer using elecard dmux so I know the picture is there.

ABC has 2 sub channels so zoom player handles that very badly with the Elecard dmux, opens 2 video windows, hangs, but plays enough for me to see the TS is there.

Does your reply indicate you don't think there is any problem with the DMUX on TS playback?

Bob

[Narflex]

I think there are issues still with my demux doing TS playback. I'm going to be looking into this again sometime soon. I was waiting to get some more feedback on what does/doesn't work so I've got some hints on where to look for the problems.

[RBTConsultants]

I'll be happy to provide small sample captures of Philly stations if that is useful. You can tell me the logistics of how to get them to you, how big you want them, etc.

Bob

[djg]

Murray,

In answer to your question about trying recordings made with SageTV in the accessDTV DEMO mode, in most cases they work fine. I have one recording of Seinfeld from FOX in Chicago that plays and another that doesn't. But that's the only one so far.

I still the same issues Bob has reported where SageTV works fine on some channels and not on others. ABC, PBS (WTTW), and NBC work great, as does WGN most of the time. But FOX generally shows a still picture that can be paused and advanced but won't play. UPN also acts that way. If Jeff can get it so the play glitches are fixed and subchannels are selectable within Sage, that would be nirvana!

Dave

[mkerdman]

Dave

Jeff said he wass going to be looking into this again soon, particularly after he gets more detailed feedback about what to look for.

So, everyone should downlaod, test and report here.


Murray Kerdman

[JJarmoc]

I'll be posting more feedback once my AccessDTV card arrives. It was shipped last tuesday, and I requested a tracking number, but so far I've gotten neither the card, nor a response from the AcccessDTV folks.

[JJarmoc]

Update on my situation; AccessDTV contacted me via email, apparently after having seen this post (cool!) and provided me the tracking number. My previous email must've gotten lost, possibly on my end. At any rate, it seems there was some confusion about my apartment number, but I should be getting the card today.. woohoo!

In summary - The accessDTV folks are on the ball. Disregard my previous somewhat upset posting.

[djg]

An update on my experience with the accessDTV card and SageTV -

I installed the Elecard MPEG2 video decoder and find that the combination of Elecard video and Intervideo audio decoder works most of the time on 9 of the 10 digital stations I am trying to receive. The video is frozen on that station (UPN-51) but advances when I hit the fast forward button. The audio does not play on some stations that broadcast multiple soundtracks on different sub-channels. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and Fox all work well. It's the independents that are problematic. I get no sound on WGN for their primetime WB programs (no loss in my opinion) but when they switch to a single soundtrack such as for the news, it comes thru fine. It works well enough that after my trial period expired I bought SageTV. I hope Jeff will take this far enough to implement sub-channel selection which I think would fix many of the sound issues I have.

Dave

[JJarmoc]

I've been having trouble so far getting the AccessDTV card itself to work reliably, it seems to be an antenna issue, and I've now uninstalled the card, but get a bluescreen when trying to reinstall.

However, I have been able to get a few hours of steady use so I have a bit of information about Sage's support of the AccessDTV.

Overall, it seems to work pretty well. I was able to record and playback shows from all channels that I'm getting from the AccessDTV at the time. There are a few problems I see with the intergration so far. In order of importance to me, they are;

- Motion doesn't stutter but somehow doesn't feel smooth. It's difficult to explain but is quite annoying. I'm wondering if it may be that my harddrive can keep up with recording an HD and 2 SD streams, and playback the HD stream at the same time.

- I'm unable to playback subchannels at all. This isn't a huge deal, as there's not much on subchannels in my area that I'd like to watch (except the HD PBS feed which is great for showing off a system.)

- Some way to specify which shows use the HD tuner. Ideally, I'd like the guide data to include information on what is broadcast in HD and use the digital OTA tuner for these shows if it's available. Short of that, being able to force a recording to use a specific tuner would help too. I could raise the priority of the DTV tuner so it'd be used first if available, but the problem with that is if I'm recording two shows at the same time, and both are available on my DTV lineup but one is HD and one is Digital SD, I have no way to ensure the HD show gets precedence.

- When playing back a recording or watching a live stream, I do not get DD5.1 audio. It appears this may be due to a limitation of the AccessDTV to output DD on the PCI bus. Mega bummer.

- During the initial setup phase I'm still in, having a signal strength meter within Sage would be very helpful. I'm not sure if this is really possible though, and it likely wouldn't be of much use past these first few days.

-

All in all, it seems to be working fairly well. The core is definitely there, but there's just a few things that could make it really great.

[Chuck Coughlin]

Well I finally had a chance to build up the computer and test Sage with the ATV card over the weekend. Here are my findings:

The install went smooth without incident. The sage setup screens helped me through selecting local over the air DTV stations. This part went well all though my local UPN station was not listed. This raises the question can I manually add stations?

I initially decided to install the Sonic decoders based on what I have heard on AVS when using these decoders with a radeon based card.

Since this was my first exposure to Sage it took me a while to get the hang of going to live TV. Once I got there I found the I had no picture at all. I did get some intermittent sound but it was mostly studders. So following the advice of Narflex I registered the decoders that came with the ATV card. After a reboot of the software I found I had a picture! Interestingly though I could only receive programs with station that did not have any sub-channels. Well this is not entirely accurate. Our local NBC (1080i)affiliate broadcasts one major and two minor channels. Sage tuned into one of the sub-channels that was showing the local weather map. The other channel, CBS (1080i),either was blank or gives me studdering sound with a frozen frame.

I did get a great picture on ABC (720p) and Fox (480p). I was able to do all the trick play features and it seemed to work as advertised.


My system spec's
XPsp1
AMD 2200+
ECS K7S5A Pro
512 DDR
Radeon 7200

Questions:

How can I pick sub channels?
Will there be further development using this card?
Can Dolby Digital sound be passed through to a SPDIF out on a sound card?
Can these files be played through a LAN with the Sage network client?
Is there a way to utilize the RGB output on the ATV card?

If you guys need any additional info or want a beta tester I would be happy to help!

[Rob]

Chuck,

Regarding your question:

"my local UPN station was not listed. This raises the question can I manually add stations?"

From reading other posts, it is my understanding that you cannot manually add stations; however, starting Nov 1, you should get UPN fine. Sage currently only purchases a subset of the program data from Zap2it. Starting Nov 1 they will purchase the entire set of Zap2it data. I'm currently missing several of my local channels (including UPN), but when I look on the Zap2it web site they are all present. So, they should be available Nov 1 (when sage starts buying all the Zap2it program data).

[stanger89]

This is really encouraging news. Couple of questions from a SageTV junkie with money burning a hole in my pocket.

Will the AccessDTV SW run along side SageTV? Just wondering if I get an one and it won't work well with SageTV in my area. Will I be able to use the AccessDTV SW and SageTV at the same time?

[stanger89]

Just thought everyone here might be interested. The AVSForum AccessDTV team/AccessDTV has released a massive driver/app update (at least it looks like that to an interested person without an ADTV).
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=310478

[mkerdman]

Originally posted by stanger89
This is really encouraging news. Couple of questions from a SageTV junkie with money burning a hole in my pocket.

Will the AccessDTV SW run along side SageTV? Just wondering if I get an one and it won't work well with SageTV in my area. Will I be able to use the AccessDTV SW and SageTV at the same time?

stanger89


Yes, absolutely the new accessDTV v2003.0 and SageTV are complelety compatible.


Murray Kerdman

[stanger89]

You guys are making it harder and harder to to avoid buying one of these.

[gsr]

Originally posted by JJarmoc
I've been having trouble so far getting the AccessDTV card itself to work reliably, it seems to be an antenna issue, and I've now uninstalled the card, but get a bluescreen when trying to reinstall.

Which version of the software are you trying to install? What version of Windows? I'd definitely go with the new software and driver release that we posted at iTech's accessDTV site yesterday:

accessDTV HiDefinitionPVR 2003.0 Release

If you're having problems specific to the accessDTV drivers and/or software, it may be more appropriate to post at AVS forums so we don't clog the Sage forum with stuff that isn't Sage specific.

- When playing back a recording or watching a live stream, I do not get DD5.1 audio. It appears this may be due to a limitation of the AccessDTV to output DD on the PCI bus. Mega bummer.

How do you have the audio hooked up? Currently, the accessDTV only outputs digital audio from the SPDIF connector on the accessDTV card. We'll be investigating how difficult it would be to send it out a soundcard's SPDIF output - not sure yet if that's a software only, driver only, or software and driver level change.

[chrisc16]

I just ordered an AccessDTV card this morning in the hopes that I can put together some sort of HD PVR with Sage. Should I expect any problems if AccessDTV is the only capture card for Sage?

Also, will it be possible to view the recorded HDTV on a client over ethernet?

Thanks,
Chris

[JJarmoc]

In response to GSR -
I have not yet tried that new software. I'll do that tonight and report back. Honestly, the ADTV has been pretty much collecting dust since I bought it, since I can't get it to lock channels reliably.
As for audio, I'm using my onboard soundcard's SPDIF. I have switched to the ADTV's output when watching through it's application, but when watching through SageTV, the output of the ADTV does nothing, so the best I get is stereo through my SPDIF. Obviously, I'd be excited it DD5.1 were available through my soundcard. I need to have my receiver attached to my soundcard for other TV and DVD audio, so using the ADTV's audio is really not aforeseeable option. It'll be soundcard stereo or soundcard DD for me. I'd prefer DD, but for the time being stereo is alright..

[Rob]

Well between vacation, kids and new accessdtv drivers I have not had time until recently to try this all out.

After installing the first set of v2003 accessdtv drivers I was getting some blue death screens from accessdtv and some instances where sage would simply close itself, but after installing the second v2003 accessdtv driver, these are gone and it nearly works completely. If it matters, I always start sagetv first and then put it to sleep when I use Accessdtv. Then I always close accessdtv before awaking sage.

The accessdtv tuner integrates into the sage guide perfectly (well i had to map the analog local stations to their digital counterparts, because the digital ones were not in the guide). When a program is selected from the guide (to record or to watch) sage uses the accessdtv first and the pvr350 if the accessdtv tuner is busy (perfect!).

I've recorded content from all my local digital stations (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, UPN, WB and a local affiliate KDFI). All these recordings playback perfectly using the accessdtv software. Using sage to playback, Fox and WB are fine. ABC and CBS playback their weather subchannel. The others freeze, stutter or skip through the video. I get the same results when I select one of these channels to watch "live" in sagetv. I find it interesting that the stations that work for me do not for some other users and the stations that don't work for me do work for some other users.

So I'm currently using sage to do all my recording and for the stations that do not playback in sage I use the accessdtv software to view them.

For the playback that does work in sage, I've noticed I am getting spdif dolby digital passed to my receiver and I can switch my the resolution to 1080i and it looks great on my RPTV.

I'm sure hoping sage (Jeff) can resolve the playback issues and provide the ability to select subchannels. I wish there was a way I could help to get this done. Right now this is so very close to a perfect pvr solution, with both analog tv and digital tv being controlled through one application.

Another thing I've noticed, but have not played with enough to know if there is already a solution within sage, is aspect ratio control. Since digital content sometimes comes 16x9 and sometimes comes 4:3 with curtains on the side, accessdtv has settings for "has curtain" and "has letterbox" so that in all cases black bars can be removed. I'm not sure how to do this yet with sagetv.

Keep up the good work Jeff!!!

Thanks,
Rob