Firewire "Enter" command on SA4250

[haxer11]

Greetings All,

I have just setup the firewire channel changing support on my SA4250 box and integrated it with Sage. Thanks to the many great guides on this site, it made it rather easy to do.

My cable provider, Cox Communications San Diego, currently is setup to have their STB take a 4-digit channel code, even though all current tunable channels are only three digits long. The normal way to enter these codes via a Cox remote without the "enter" key is to prepend the channel number with a zero. Thus for channel 703, you can press 0703, and the cable box will automatically assume an enter command and immediately execute the channel change.

The firewire utilities "channel.exe" and "channelw.exe" don't seem to pass this leading zero along to the setup box when I enter it via command line. The STB will actually show the leading zero in the channel change. If it is omitted there will be a dash("-") on the OSD which stands for "not entered". Thus the command "channel.exe -f -a4 2 0703", really only sends the value 703 to the STB, which looks like "-703" on the OSD. The same command with a remote looks like "0703" on the OSD.

Long story short, I think I can get much quicker channel changes if I can get the firewire utilities to either allow a prepended zero ("0703") or allow me to send an enter command after three digits ("703" + enter). As of now, the STB seams to wait about 1.5 seconds for a user timeout and then attempts to change the channel.

Any help would surely be appreciated. I have been searching the forums for this matter for about an hour now, and have not really turned up anything. Maybe I am just looking in the wrong places. Nonetheless, any help would be appreciated.

[Taddeusz]

If you figure out another way to do this I'd like to know as well. I've been struggling with this problem for quite some time. I'm with Cox Cable in OKC but our boxes take 3 number channels. I wrote a batch file to attempt to get around the problem. Here it is:

@echo off

if %2 lss 100 goto :twodigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:twodigit

if %2 lss 10 goto :onedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:onedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2

You could easily modify it to enter 4 digits instead of just 3.

If anyone has any other way to do this PLEASE pass it along.

[haxer11]

Taddeusz:

I found a posting with the similar script that you provided.. I hacked it so that it contained a "threedigit" clause to fix my problem.

It certainly works faster than the old way, but it does seem like a kludge. As an engineer, this seems like a "hack" rather than a true fix.

Nonetheless, this is where I am at currently. As with you, I would luv to know if there is a better solution.

If I come across anything, I will let you know. Thanks for the reply.

[Taddeusz]

Yea, its defnitely a hack for a work-around. But as long as it works...

Its unfortunate that the app used for firewire channel changing is no longer being developed as things like this could be corrected. Its also possible that the firewire interface doesn't allow leading zeroes but more likely he's just using an integer variable to store the channel number. Which means any leading zeroes would be stripped out as a matter of course.

Searching around just now I found a utility that's been created for Ubuntu to do firewire channel changes. It sucks that there's nothing newer than the timmoore utility for Windows.

[Taddeusz]

Thought I'd pass this along. I haven't checked the video output to ensure that's what its doing but this plugin here:

http://babgvant.com/blogs/andyvt/arc...nnelproxy.aspx

seems to do the trick. Basically it replaces the exeMultiTuner interface and uses the channel.dll directly instead of having to run channel.exe. Just installed it from work and changed channels a few times. Seems to work like a charm. Again, not sure if its doing the full 3 digits.

To get it working I actually had to remove the HD-PVR as a source and redo it. There was still some residual stuff from exeMultiTuner. Redoing the HD-PVR source fixed all that though.

You should give it a shot.

Oh, if you try this out make sure you specify 4 digits for the "digits per channel" under Tuner Control->Remote Control Options.

[Taddeusz]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I've confirmed that this also does not insert leading zeroes even though I have the number of channel digits set to 3. Kind of sucks but at least its a much nicer interface for changing channels over FW.

[nyle]

Did anyone every figure out a solution to this. I am in the same situation on my TWC 4250HD box. If I could send all 4 digits or an ok/select the channel change would be almost instantaneous. Instead I'm stuck with many seconds between channels. I'm also not so sure if quicker changes might not help some issues I'm having with SageTV not working always with the HD PVR.

Any updates or word from SageTV on a fix.

With an HD PVR, firewire is one of the best ways to change the cable boxes channel.

I can tell you this whole HD PVR mess, has me one step away from going with a Moxio box with multichannel cablecard tuner. Help would be GREATLY appreciated from Sage.

[Taddeusz]

Nope, as near as I can tell the SA boxes won't accept any other commands except for digits. Or maybe I just don't know enough about how to send raw commands?

[aflat]

When I had a 4250 I couldn't send any of the raw commands, so you may just be stuck with the batch file.

[nyle]

Originally Posted by aflat

When I had a 4250 I couldn't send any of the raw commands, so you may just be stuck with the batch file.

Does anyone have the source code for the channelw.exe program that we can get it from? Even if under an NDA? I'll extend it to allow you to specify the number of digits to send padding the lead with zeros.

It can't be that hard since it's already written to do.

-Nyle

[Taddeusz]

Not that I'm aware. It was written closed source by Tim Moore who disappeared from the scene years ago.

[nyle]

I modified the batch slightly to handle 4 digits like my 4250HD wants. Once I edited the registry key to use the batch file instead of channelw.exe directly, I was able to lower my tuning delay to 3000(3 seconds.) That is a huge improvement. (It might need a few more ms but it's good for me.)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\EXEMultiTunerPlugin]
"command"="c:\\getHD\\channel2.bat %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%"

sage.properties -> in the HD PVR tuner section.
delay_to_wait_after_tuning=3000

Modified batch file... I tested it for 1,2,3,4 digit channel changes. Seems to be fine. For my setup I also added -f -a6 in between the channelw command and the %1 %2 - there are good threads in the forum discussing these options.

@echo off

REM Send leading zeros to channelw in order to speed cable box change. This has been modified from original
REM a 4 digit box. Like my 4250HD.

if %2 lss 1000 goto :threedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:threedigit

if %2 lss 100 goto :twodigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:twodigit

if %2 lss 10 goto :onedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:onedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2

I know most of you already know all this but just in case someone comes along that needs a little additiional help.

Sending the full 4 digits to my cable box makes this so much more useful and my HD PVR so far is actually working now. Whereas before it was having tuner problems. So I have my fingers crossed now.

Thanks everyone,
-Nyle

[aflat]

It's not channelw that can't handle the leading zero's, it's channel.dll I think, the driver code.