Foxtel and SageTV 2010 - Anyone got a working setup?

[iannbrown]

Hi

Does any have a Foxtel dual tuner HD IQ (or any Foxtel stb) working and fully integrated with SageTV. How is the setup, IR control, EPG handled?

I am considering a whole setup as I have SageTV server working a treat, but want to add Foxtel...

thanks
Ian Brown

[mickp]

Originally Posted by iannbrown

Hi

Does any have a Foxtel dual tuner HD IQ (or any Foxtel stb) working and fully integrated with SageTV. How is the setup, IR control, EPG handled?

I am considering a whole setup as I have SageTV server working a treat, but want to add Foxtel...

thanks
Ian Brown

Hey there,

I don't have cable but imagine that the best way to go if you require HD (I'm not sure how much of Fox's programming is in HD) would be with the Hauppauge HDPVR as used by many US users throughout the forums. For channel changing you'd be best to acquire an usb-uirt (usb universal infrared receiver/transmitter (search for it by name)) as the ir sender supplied by Hauppauge has been reported as problematic. If you're not aware of the HDPVR a quick search of the forums should be enlightening .

If you don't require HD Foxtel then a TV card that can record/encode analog sd signals to mpeg in hardware such as the Hauppauge
MCE 150 or 500. PM me know if you'd like one cheap as I have a few lying around from a pre DVB incarnation of SAGE etc.

In theory you should expect to be able to use any old dvb-c card with the appropriate CAM to plug in your Foxtel card. Unfortunately the CAM required for decoding Foxtel doesn't seem to be available

Mick.

[peterjb]

You could get a DVB-S ( or DVB-S2 ) Device, an appropriate MDAPI cam, Card Reader and use the 'DVB Enhancer for SageTV' ( http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36814). I've used it successfully with Foxtel. It is easy to setup, it works well, mpogr and the rest of the user community provide good support & feedback.

Cheers

Peter

[mickp]

Originally Posted by peterjb

You could get a DVB-S ( or DVB-S2 ) Device, an appropriate MDAPI cam, Card Reader and use the 'DVB Enhancer for SageTV' ( http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36814). I've used it successfully with Foxtel. It is easy to setup, it works well, mpogr and the rest of the user community provide good support & feedback.

Cheers

Peter

Nice. Any chance of a quick rundown on your configuration?

Mick.

[peterjb]

Originally Posted by mickp

Nice. Any chance of a quick rundown on your configuration?

Mick.

Mick,

No worries.. I've got a Technotrend S2-3600 USB Card and a USB Infinity Unlimited card reader. I used the downloads and followed the instructions from http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp...&TopicId=21389 to get it up and working under MyTheatre first ( Note that MyTheatre 4.X beta is required for HD ). Then you can follow the instructions in the DVB Enhancer for SageTV download & forum thread to configure it. DVB Enhancer for SageTV can tune either by Foxtel Channel Number or by SID - It probably depends upon what your XMLTV feed..

Although this works pretty well ( the USB Infinity Unlimited is a bit slow ), I'm currently not using it in my Production rig. This is due to the fact that I'm trying to move my SageTV install to Linux and to use a dual DVB-S2 PCI tuner which has native support in the Linux kernel via V4L..

Cheers

Peter

[mattie35]

Now that digital tv is here, the use for the haupauge dual analog PVR card is great.
The card has two Video ins that can used .
I use the first one to capture my pay TV and use a USB-UIRT to switch channels. The only drama you will have is, if you have you have the padding set then you will have to fiddle with back to back recordings. and the second as a VCR source when I want to copy a VHS tape.

Cheers
mattie35

[antplugger]

peterjb, Is there any reason you went for the Technotrend rather than the FireDTV ?

Thanks

[peterjb]

Originally Posted by antplugger

peterjb, Is there any reason you went for the Technotrend rather than the FireDTV ?

Thanks

At the time it came down to $'s.. I couldn't get a FireDTV & CAM that supported Foxtel for even close to a reasonable price locally ( Plus I had no idea if I could actually get it to work!! ) So I managed to find a s2-3600 along with an Infinity USB unlimited delivered from OS for a more than reasonable cost.

Cheers

Peter

[plnewton]

Hi,

I am pretty keen on doing this also!!

If you had a dual Tuner DVB-S Card would you be able to watch two diferent Foxtel Chanels at the same time or do you need two cards and two readers to do this?


We have three HD200 boxes so if I can run Foxtel and be able to watch two chanels that would be great


Cheers!!

[mpogr]

Guys, I'm coming down under in July, so it's in my personal interest making DVBE4SAGE working perfectly with Foxtel
Anyone got it working in their production system? Where do you get the EPG from? I have another piece of software for grabbing EPG from the DVB stream called EPGFROMDVB, but this works only for YES Israel. I could easily modify it to work with Foxtel, but integrating it with DVBE4SAGE would be even better solution. Hope I will find time some day to do so (after we settle down in Melbourne, of course).

[plnewton]

Originally Posted by mpogr

Guys, I'm coming down under in July, so it's in my personal interest making DVBE4SAGE working perfectly with Foxtel
Anyone got it working in their production system? Where do you get the EPG from? I have another piece of software for grabbing EPG from the DVB stream called EPGFROMDVB, but this works only for YES Israel. I could easily modify it to work with Foxtel, but integrating it with DVBE4SAGE would be even better solution. Hope I will find time some day to do so (after we settle down in Melbourne, of course).

This is where I am at the moment with my install, trying to get DVBE4SAGE to work..

I have also been looking into what to use for EPG and the guys on xpmediacentre seem be using Shepheard EPG mainly, see here:
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...-included.html

As I am in Melbourne also I will probably go with this when I get to that stage

Cheers!!

[mpogr]

Originally Posted by plnewton

Hi,

I am pretty keen on doing this also!!

If you had a dual Tuner DVB-S Card would you be able to watch two diferent Foxtel Chanels at the same time or do you need two cards and two readers to do this?


We have three HD200 boxes so if I can run Foxtel and be able to watch two chanels that would be great


Cheers!!

Sorry, didn't see that post of yours before. The beauty of this solution is that you can have no matter how many DVB-S(2) cards with a single cardreader.
As for more details about making it work in Oz, I'd suggest you contacting Peter (peterjb) who has extensive experience with Foxtel. I'll get to that stage eventually myself after we settle down in Melbourne, but it will take a while (we're arriving on Jul 6th with all our heavy luggage shipped via the sea, so we'll have it maybe in late Aug-Sep).

[antplugger]

Hey mprog, hope you are settled in Melbourne and enjoying the summer. Have you made any progress with your sage setup ?

Cheers

[mpogr]

Yes, I'm actually finishing up my cable Foxtel setup with Sage right now. Had to extend DVBE4SAGE for supporting DVB-C and mess a little bit with the CAM and the EPG, now have a fully working system with 4 DVB-C tuners serving the entire house.
Will publish more details soon.

Cheers!

[antplugger]

Great, looking forward to it. I would love to get away from HD-pvr

Cheers

[mpogr]

FYI, I have just posted the new build 243 of DVBE4SAGE, which includes DVB-C support working with Foxtel and a bunch of additional minor fixes/fine tuning parameters.
If anyone wants to try it out with Foxtel Cable, here is my DVBE4SAGE.INI file:

[General]
LogLevel=2
SetupType=DVBC

[Plugins]
ServedCAIDs=96C

[Tuning]
InitialFrequency=626000
InitialSymbolRate=6950
InitialModulation=64QAM

[Advanced]
ExcludeTIDs=33,213,214,215,216,217,713,714,715,716,717,813,814,815,816,817,913,914,915,916,917
PreferredTIDs=313,314,315,316,317

The ExcludeTIDs and PreferredTIDs parameters are optimized for Melbourne area and might look differently elsewhere.

[antplugger]

mprog and peterjb,

I am keen to dive into this as well but using Vmware !! so I need to use a USB based device.

Couple of questions re the encoder; Would this work with DVBE4SAGE ( http://www.tt-pc.com/2916/TT-connect__CT-3650_CI.html ), Peterjb is this the same as the device you are using ? As it has CI slot would I still need the Infinity USB smart as well ?

Thanks for any help

[mpogr]

@antplugger

I have 2 of these USB devices and they work very well, in fact, they achieve better signal quality than 2 TT PCI devices I have. The CI slot they have is completely useless, so you will need a serial cardreader anyway. I'd suggest you not to buy any Infinity devices, as they are proven to be problematic (either don't work at all, melt your card or work very slowly). The best working Phoenix reader so far has been this one, and it's also very cheap. Make sure you order the fully built device and specify 3.57MHz as its frequency.

[antplugger]

perfect - Thanks for the speedy reply. If I got two of the 3650's would I need two card readers ?

Thanks a bunch. One last question, any recommendations for the best place to purchase the 3650's ?

Cheers

[peterjb]

I was running a TT S2-3600 and a USB Smargo card reader ( or rather a clone of one.. ) It worked pretty well. The Infinityusb was just too slow.. I might grab the reader Michael references as my new server actually has a COM port.. And I might just be headed back to Windows unless I can get S2API support happening under Linux ( or I go out and buy a DVB-S device )

As for buying kit, I've never been able to source them locally at anything like a reasonable cost.. I believe that DVBshop can get them here.. I bought mine from somewhere in the US - Given the dollar situation - might be the go! Just don't tell Gerry Harvey!!

Cheers

Peter