Fios TV and Sage

[bcjenkins]

Honestly, I have no clue on how to make it work with SageTV yet. I figure I would cross that bridge when I get to it. Right now I am looking for confirmation that Verizon leaves them enabled.

My next door neighbor has RPTV and is getting FiOS TV today. We'll be testing with his as soon as it is installed.

As far as changing with firewire, try Naylia's link above.

B

[sundansx]

Of those that have Fios TV, how is the picture quality compared to Direct TV? Digital Cable? I have Fios Internet and Comcast cable now, as they don't have Fios TV in Portland Oregon yet.

I hooked up two SD STBs for digital cable to sage via , but the picture was crap. It was soft and blocky. I measured Comcast SD video at 1.3 Megabit Mpeg 2 when I was able to capture video via FW on an HD STB (they started 5C encryption around here about a year ago). As a result of the crap picture (and the STB kept dropping audio) I dumped the STBs and am back to using analog cable.

I would like to try DirectTV or Dish, but they want a 1 year commitment before they even talk to you. DirectTV doesnt even give a trial period.

[sundansx]

Hey, what is the fee structure for Fios TV? ie...what is the monthly charge? Is there a long term commitment you need to sign up for? Thanks.

[cenwesi]

I called them today and asked about the Fios TV in Maryland. I was told they will start rolling them out beginning January for $34. Ohh and i am sick and tied of ComCast Jacking up their prices for Cable not to mention Internet.

[geogecko]

I've got FiOS for internet/cable/phone, and am playing about $130, that's with taxes and everything, including two SD STB's.

I'm using two STB's with my USB-UIRT to control them, coming into my PVR-500. I had to build IR "forts" around them (used two pieces of electrical tape over the IR emitter, and then made black card stock pieces with a hole in it for the IR emitter with the tape on it, to stick through. This keeps the other from changing channels on both STB's.

I think the SD quality is very good, much better than the analog Comcast cable I had before.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by geogecko

I've got FiOS for internet/cable/phone, and am playing about $130, that's with taxes and everything, including two SD STB's.

I'm using two STB's with my USB-UIRT to control them, coming into my PVR-500. I had to build IR "forts" around them (used two pieces of electrical tape over the IR emitter, and then made black card stock pieces with a hole in it for the IR emitter with the tape on it, to stick through. This keeps the other from changing channels on both STB's.

I think the SD quality is very good, much better than the analog Comcast cable I had before.

That's what I was afraid of. Fios compared to DirecTV only saves a few bucks a month which is worth the serial connection I think.

[sundansx]

Did you have to do a year contract thing with FiosTV like I had to do with the internet? If so, did they give you a trial period? How long?
thanks

[geogecko]

No contract, and no trial period. That was the deal...

[sundansx]

Cool, Im gonna sign me up some of that when it is ready here. thanks.

[Kev]

My experience is the same as geogecko, I get all three utillities for $130 tax and fees included. The picture quality is noticably better then Comcast, but you loose the abillity to tune non-local stations without a STB. Also worth noting is that there were 0 installation fees and although there website advertises a 1-year contract commitment, I was able to get it without.

[bcjenkins]

Great, now that we have the non topic questions answered, anyone with a fios box care to hook a serial cable up and see what you get in hyperterm or some app? ReplayTV was a no go.

Thanks,

B

[Kev]

I am perfectly willing to try it out, but still havn't found how to do it yet. The Naylia link supports the firewire channel changing but the QIP 2500 doesn't have firewire. It only has USB 1.0 and serial data port. If you can point me to a procedure to change channels with either of those connections I will give it a try. I looked around on the Motorola support pages but no driver downloads there, nor any help.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Kev

I am perfectly willing to try it out, but still havn't found how to do it yet. The Naylia link supports the firewire channel changing but the QIP 2500 doesn't have firewire. It only has USB 1.0 and serial data port. If you can point me to a procedure to change channels with either of those connections I will give it a try. I looked around on the Motorola support pages but no driver downloads there, nor any help.

This forum thread seems to address integration with Sage:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1606

Download the files: http://sourceforge.net/projects/multidcttuner/

Make sure you go through the thread for install instructions, etc.

Thanks for the help

B

[mattdcknsn]

Sorry about being away for awhile, life seems to take me away from tinkering. I will try this out as soon as I can, its alot easier to experiment with this than with Fire Wire. I can pick up a serial cable tommorow at work and test it out (hopefully) this weekend. I'll let you know what results I get.

Also, the PQ is 1000% better than Adelphia (if thats saying anything) and just as good if not better than DirectTV. I am paying roughly 80 a month for internet and TV which is a SD and an HD box, expanded basic with the HD channels. I went with another VOIP provider.

I have had some bad experience with the tech support, basically if you have a problem call sales and have them transfer you. Their "automated" system is junk. Hope that helps.

[mattdcknsn]

Doesnt look good. I tried to set it up but it wasnt able to get a response. Here is the log output:

Port set to 0 ... delaying COM Port initialization
Closing device 
Port set to 0 ... delaying COM Port initialization
MultiDCTTunerDLL $Rev: 20 $ Initializing Serial Port 1 for device StubDevice ... done
Attempting to initialize DCT StubDevice
SENT: type 0x70, len 2, id 0x04, seq 0x03
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to init_1; trying to continue
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x03
      data 0x00
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to initialize_2
Serial timeout
No initial status message
Closing device MotorolaDCT2000
MultiDCTTunerDLL $Rev: 20 $ Initializing Serial Port 1 for device MotorolaDCT2000 ... done
Attempting to initialize DCT MotorolaDCT2000
SENT: type 0x70, len 2, id 0x04, seq 0x03
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to init_1; trying to continue
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x03
      data 0x00
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to initialize_2
Serial timeout
No initial status message
Reading current channel
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x13
      data 0x21
Serial timeout
No response to packet
Failed to get current channel, trying again
Reading current channel
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x23
      data 0x21
Serial timeout
No response to packet
Attempting to re-initialize DCT
Closing device MotorolaDCT2000
MultiDCTTunerDLL $Rev: 20 $ Initializing Serial Port 1 for device MotorolaDCT2000 ... done
Attempting to initialize DCT MotorolaDCT2000
SENT: type 0x70, len 2, id 0x04, seq 0x03
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to init_1; trying to continue
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x03
      data 0x00
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to initialize_2
Serial timeout
No initial status message
Reading current channel
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x13
      data 0x21
Serial timeout
No response to packet
Increased timeout_scale - now at: 0.750000
Writing setting scale to config file.
Reading current channel
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x23
      data 0x21
Serial timeout
No response to packet
Increased timeout_scale - now at: 1.125000
Writing setting scale to config file.
Reading current channel
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x33
      data 0x21
Serial timeout
No response to packet
Attempting to close and re-open COM connection
Closing device MotorolaDCT2000
MultiDCTTunerDLL $Rev: 20 $ Initializing Serial Port 1 for device MotorolaDCT2000 ... done
Closing device MotorolaDCT2000
MultiDCTTunerDLL $Rev: 20 $ Initializing Serial Port 1 for device MotorolaDCT2000 ... done
Attempting to initialize DCT MotorolaDCT2000
SENT: type 0x70, len 2, id 0x04, seq 0x03
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to init_1; trying to continue
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x03
      data 0x00
Serial timeout
No response to packet
No response to initialize_2
Serial timeout
No initial status message
Reading current channel
SENT: type 0x78, len 3, id 0x04, seq 0x13
      data 0x21
Serial timeout
No response to packet
Unable to communicate with DCT. Try increasing scale value
Closing device MotorolaDCT2000

I could easily be messing things up during install since I have never done this yet. I'll be open to trying things out if anybody can give me an idea.

[mattdcknsn]

I am trying to play with com port settings now to see if it has a funky setup. Anybody know of a program that queries the com port with different settings?

[sundansx]

have you been using the command line version of the dct serial control program? I set this up for my comcast boxes a while back and used that to troubleshoot before integrating into sage.

[mattdcknsn]

I didnt know there was a command line version of that utility. How do you invoke it?

[sundansx]

If I remember right it was not part of the sourceforge distibution...You can get the files from post #85 here:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=dct2000

there was another guy in this thread that said he was able to hook up his DCT2xxx box and then fire up hyperterminal and press the enter key. the box gave back a character or something, you might try that. You probably have to talk directly to the correct port and set the correct baud rate. That would be one way to toggle thru different baud rates to see if that is a problem.

[mattdcknsn]

I tried that program referenced and nothing happened. I am unable to test channel changing at the moment, verizon messed up my TV and I am getting nothing now. Apparently my STBs were being billed to somebody else and when they canceled my boxes were canceled. So I have been living off of OTA and PS3 for the past week. Hopefully it'll get fixed soon.