R5000 - Any updates on MPEG4 / H.264 with Dish Network?

[CanadianEh]

Good afternoon,

Are there any updates on if the true H.264 streams are successfully captured using the R5000 mod on a Dish Network receiver? If so, how does SageTV handle this? Also, what Dish receivers are capable of being mod'ed that support the H.264 / MPEG4 standard? Are there any major "gotcha's" that I should be aware of?

I might be interested in this.... if Dish ever picks up NESN-HD

[DualQuad]

As far as capturing goes, the R5000ed vip-211 captures all streams. While monkeying around with it a while back, I could get sound but no picture or poor picture and lousy sound, that sort of thing, depending on codec pack in use.

Sage playback of these streams has been "promised" for 6.2. If you browse the beta notes, there seems to be some progress toward 6.2, i.e. the 6.1.4 mentions an improved ability to detect h.264 within various wrappers.

A gotcha that I am currently having involves DISH's plan to give the HD channels the same channel number as the SD channels. For simulcast type channels, like National Geographic, this works fine. For channels like Discovery that are not simulcast you tune to the HD channel instead of the SD.

Be forewarned, the R5000 will not make channel flippers happy. The time to tune channels is quite long. In general, the few recordings that get screwed up occur during the boxes reboot window (3AM?). I have had some situations where the R5000 had to be removed from power to resynch with the server.

DQ

[camTexas]

Good to hear someone else is seeing the recent change by Dish to have HD on the same channel number as SD and not simulcast. Anyone found a fix for this yet. I just started browsing through the EPG treads (never even had a need to go there before) to see how to even get the new channels to show up in the SAGE EPG.

Wish I would have noticed before I had almost two weeks worth of taping the wrong sets of shows (Daughter's a 'Dirty Jobs' fan).

Other than this recent issue... and the longstanding H.264 problems... My 2 R5000 units have worked great.

[CanadianEh]

So what everyon's saying is that H.264 (HD) playback is not quite ready for prime time in Sage currently, but hopefully soon, right?

[Fluffdaddy]

Right

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

So what everyon's saying is that H.264 (HD) playback is not quite ready for prime time in Sage currently, but hopefully soon, right?

Can't happen soon enough as far as I'm concerned. I've just lost NFL network because of the way it is broadcast now. It used to be bradcast in H.264 on NFL-HD and I could tune to the regular NFL network to get the SD MPEG stream. No more. Now, no matter which channel I select in the guide it pulls the H.264 stream, which is unwatchable.

Dish vip 211 & r5000

[Fluffdaddy]

So your R5000 mod is useless now ?

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

So your R5000 mod is useless now ?

No, not at all. Most all of the other HD stations are still MPEG-2. NFL net (along with HGTV and FOOD) are MPEG-4 and have unwatchable HD streams.

For all of the other SD channels, the r5000 captures their MPEG-2 just fine and feeds them direct to SageTV, obviating the use of a capture card and the generational loss incurred in encoding an analog signal.

[jdonovan]

I've had great success playing back the 264 streams with the coreAVC codec and media player classic. Not ideal to have to use an external player, but its better than nothing.

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by jdonovan

I've had great success playing back the 264 streams with the coreAVC codec and media player classic. Not ideal to have to use an external player, but its better than nothing.

Tell that to my wife. If it is not seemless, it is not a real solution for many non-techies. it may be cake for us power users, but not our spouses. Time to get this fixed right

[Jumper369]

I had the show Rome on HBO scheduled to record on the SD channel. I decided to watch it live in HD. I actually switched the channel with my dish remote and watched it straight from my dish211. Later I checked the recorded programs in Sage. It recorded Rome in mpeg4!! Played back the recording and it was just as good as when I watched it on the 211. The low sound issue was there, but awesome pic with only the rare stutter.
Jim

[DualQuad]

My HBOHD (on DISH) is not MP4, it seems to be more of a legacy type channel to keep the folks with older MP2 receivers working. The new channels definitely pose problems.

DQ

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by NEOSG

Tell that to my wife. If it is not seemless, it is not a real solution for many non-techies. it may be cake for us power users, but not our spouses. Time to get this fixed right

Just lost Universal HD and AETV HD to MPEG4.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by DualQuad

A gotcha that I am currently having involves DISH's plan to give the HD channels the same channel number as the SD channels. For simulcast type channels, like National Geographic, this works fine. For channels like Discovery that are not simulcast you tune to the HD channel instead of the SD.

That is annoying, I had to remove Discovery from my lineup since it never recorded anything right anymore.

In general, the few recordings that get screwed up occur during the boxes reboot window (3AM?). I have had some situations where the R5000 had to be removed from power to resynch with the server.

That can be turned off in the options (of the sat box). I don't remember exactly where.

[DualQuad]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That is annoying, I had to remove Discovery from my lineup since it never recorded anything right anymore.

I did the same thing. I am wondering if I can make a custom channel lineup on the 211 to keep this separated. This poses a problem though for reboots, where I believe that the 211 reverts back to the All Subscribed channels list.

Originally Posted by stanger89

That can be turned off in the options (of the sat box). I don't remember exactly where.

I noticed that option in the online guide (Menu -> preferences -> Updates) today as I was troubleshooting why my R5000 no longer acquires satellite signal. I suppose that this will only scew up the boxes guide and tuneable channels. Since Sage has a separate guide control should be fine until new channels are introduced?

DQ

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by DualQuad

I suppose that this will only scew up the boxes guide and tuneable channels. Since Sage has a separate guide control should be fine until new channels are introduced?

The only side effect I've noticed is that you've only got guide data (on the box) for about the next 2 hrs. Anything beyond that and it prompts you to do a manual update, which of course you can do quite easily.

[HawgGuy]

Bump.

Anyone have further progress with the latest Sage beta and r5000 h264 streams from Dish?

[CanadianEh]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

Bump.

Anyone have further progress with the latest Sage beta and r5000 h264 streams from Dish?

Another *bump* .... I'd love to go this route someday if there's a proven way to get h.264 working in SageTV from an R5000 mod

[Narflex]

This should work in V6.1.8. We've implemented all the necessary things for it. If there's problems let us know.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by Narflex

This should work in V6.1.8. We've implemented all the necessary things for it. If there's problems let us know.

It doesn't work with my r5000hd modified Dish 211. MPEG2/AC3 HD programming plays great but h264 streams play poorly or not at all. Nvidia, Cyberlink or CoreAVC.

I've not seen anyone with the r5000 report success thusfar.