SageMCTuner - anyone have this working with cablecard?

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by kmp14

I am using the latest (as of last night) build (1.4) of SageDCT that Andy emailed me. I am not sure if it is officially out on his site for download, and it is not my place to post it, so Andy, let me know if it is ok to post the link.

I'm still testing it. Hope to release it this weekend if the changes are stable.

[zoso]

So is toggling Bridging to on recommended then? What is that doing to help SageDCT? I have had several Halted Recording messages (yellow not red.)

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by zoso

So is toggling Bridging to on recommended then? What is that doing to help SageDCT? I have had several Halted Recording messages (yellow not red.)

It makes the packet size smaller.

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by zoso

So is toggling Bridging to on recommended then? What is that doing to help SageDCT? I have had several Halted Recording messages (yellow not red.)

I am no expert, just experimenting, but so far still good, enabling bridging seems to be working for me.

[xj-boonie]

Originally Posted by kmp14

I am no expert, just experimenting, but so far still good, enabling bridging seems to be working for me.

How hard is it to enable bridging?

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by xj-boonie

How hard is it to enable bridging?

Easy,

Windows 7:
I am going off memory here, so hopefully this is correct: go to the Network and Sharing Center, chose "Change Adapter Settings" from the menu on the left. Right click the Ceton adapter, Properties, Configure, Advanced, Bridging should be the only option. Turn it on. I dont think you need to reboot after applying the change, but I did.

[Endymion]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Not that I'm aware of, and I'm not going to go back and try to make it work.

If you have issues with the later revs, the only productive way to get them fixed is to provide a verbose log that documents the problem.

I had posted a verbose log in post 330 (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=330).

That is with SageDCT v1.3, only 3 of the 4 tuners actually working, and the massive UI slows downs (spinning wheel) when stopping playback.

I dropped back to 1.1 for now, but I can test with the bridging and v1.3 (or 1.4 if you want to PM it to me).

[zoso]

I often get the spinning wheel when stopping playback as well.

[kmp14]

So after a whole day of apparent success after turning on Bridging, with no spinning wheels, disappearing tuners or halts in recordings, I had the tuners disappear about 10 minutes ago. The good news is that SageDCT (v1.4 not yet officially released) seemed to recover and about 1 or 2 minutes later sage found them again.....but the bad news is that after this event, the slowdowns and spinning wheels came back. I think that Sage frequently checks the status of the tuners, like after stopping when watching a recording. For some reason SageDCT seems to sometimes not respond quickly to the status check, maybe related to the tuners disappearing?? I don't know.

[zoso]

I lost all 4 tuners this morning. It may be induced by SageDCT, but I think it is an issue with the Ceton hardware or drivers. When the tuners disapeared in SageTV, I tried to check tuner temperatures using the Ceton web interface. I am using some HTML that somebody posted up at GreenButton to display all 4 tuner temps at once. The point being, this hung as well, so it isn't just SageDCT that loses access to the tuners.

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by zoso

I lost all 4 tuners this morning. It may be induced by SageDCT, but I think it is an issue with the Ceton hardware or drivers. When the tuners disapeared in SageTV, I tried to check tuner temperatures using the Ceton web interface. I am using some HTML that somebody posted up at GreenButton to display all 4 tuner temps at once. The point being, this hung as well, so it isn't just SageDCT that loses access to the tuners.

Ugh. Is it possible that SageDCT is somehow causing the tuners to go south? Since I am having problems with the stability of SageDCT, I am usually using SageMCTuner, and with SageMCTuner I never have this lost tuner problem. I realize that SageMCTuner works very different from SageDCT, but other than a minor glitch here and there, SageMCTuner has not missed 99.99% of my recordings, and I never have any halts in recordings with it. Obviously SageDCT is preferred if Andy can get past these hurdles. It is truly amazing what he has done to this point.

Make sure to donate to Andy via paypal if you can!

[LehighBri]

Looks like ceton just released a new beta firmware today (1.0.3.4). Have folks tried that who are having issues? I'm using SageDCT 1.3 (w/ dll update) plus was using ceton 1.0.3.2 (now using 1.0.3.4) beta and things are rock solid (verizon fios).

[zoso]

What do I need to tell Ceton to get on the BETA list?

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by zoso

What do I need to tell Ceton to get on the BETA list?

Submit a bug report on Ceton's site and say you're having trouble watching sports.

[Griff]

I just requested Ceton to add me to the beta list. Assuming I get added to the list and am allowed to install the latest Ceton beta, will I have to reinstall Sagedct or go through the Sagedct setup process again after installing the beta?

Thanks,

Tom

[anosis]

Guys, I am at a loss. I just can't seem to figure out why my setup will not work.

What I have:
My cable company sent a tech out yesterday and we used WMC to get the ball rolling. The Ceton works fine inside WMC - I can tune channels and record without any issues. Picture quality is great.

EDIT: My firmware version is: 1.0.3.2 (do I still require to get a beta release?)

So moving on to SageTV and SageDCT:
I installed SageDCT 1.3 with the dll that was not part of the package from Andy's link and place the dll while the service was stopped into the same directory. I started the config app and did a scan (I left all the settings as they were). The Ceton is recognized and I receive 4 indititual tuner hits. I press the generate properties button and save it in a text file.

Moving on to Sage itself:
I stopped the service and exited sage. I copied the DShowPlayer.dll and MpegDeMux.ax into their respective folders from the latest beta build. Then I opened the properties file and added in all the lines from the text file that was created from SageDCT. Saved the properties file and restarted SageTV.

I got to setup/ add sources and all four network tuners show up. I go into each tuner and assign a already predone channel lineup (Charter Digital Basic and Expanded) and repeat this for the remaining three tuners.

Now here is were I am stuck. When I go into the guide and pick for example ch 760 (HGST HD) within about 2 seconds I get the "NO SIGNAL" icon in the middle of the screen and the PC gets extremely slow.

I checked all my settings again and can't figure out why this is not working.

What steps did I miss?

Thanks for anyones help.

[Griff]

anosis - from my own experience, my first suggestion would be to go through the channel lineup within the tuner setup. First make sure the tuner is functioning. Thus far, only three of my Ceton tuners are functioning with Sagedct (one tuner - the last one on the listed tuners, which happens to be tuner 2 - says "false" in the "functioning" description within the tuner setup page). On the non-functioning tuner I get no signal for every channel. On the functioning tuners, I had to check each channel. Some channels that I know are clear qam (like the major networks for which I get a strong signal and a great picture on my HDHR) have no signal, and I had to exclude them from my channel line up for the Ceton tuners for the time being (if anyone has a fix for this, please let me know), but I get a signal on the great majority of the remaining channels in the lineup, and I am living with that setup for the time being.

The channel testing process was painfully slow, with constant wait circles. The Sage interface also is generally slow for me while using the Ceton tuners, particularly when stopping recordings and doing anything within the detailed setup screens. I don't know why, but it appears from this thread that we are not the only ones experiencing that problem. I am hoping the Ceton beta may help.

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by Griff

I just requested Ceton to add me to the beta list. Assuming I get added to the list and am allowed to install the latest Ceton beta, will I have to reinstall Sagedct or go through the Sagedct setup process again after installing the beta?

Thanks,

Tom

I don't think you should not need to go through the SageDCT setup process again.

I would recommend stopping the SageTV and SageDCT services while upgrading the firmware, just to be sure SageTV doesn't go haywire trying to find the tuners during the upgrade.

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by Griff

anosis - from my own experience, my first suggestion would be to go through the channel lineup within the tuner setup. First make sure the tuner is functioning. Thus far, only three of my Ceton tuners are functioning with Sagedct (one tuner - the last one on the listed tuners, which happens to be tuner 2 - says "false" in the "functioning" description within the tuner setup page). On the non-functioning tuner I get no signal for every channel. On the functioning tuners, I had to check each channel. Some channels that I know are clear qam (like the major networks for which I get a strong signal and a great picture on my HDHR) have no signal, and I had to exclude them from my channel line up for the Ceton tuners for the time being (if anyone has a fix for this, please let me know), but I get a signal on the great majority of the remaining channels in the lineup, and I am living with that setup for the time being.

The channel testing process was painfully slow, with constant wait circles. The Sage interface also is generally slow for me while using the Ceton tuners, particularly when stopping recordings and doing anything within the detailed setup screens. I don't know why, but it appears from this thread that we are not the only ones experiencing that problem. I am hoping the Ceton beta may help.

Griff, do you know if Tuner 2 works in Windows Media Center? Maybe go into Media Center and see if 4 recordings will work. Maybe your Ceton is defective.

If it works, maybe that tuner is on a port that you are using for something else? It is a longshot, but possible.

Even though SageDCT is not official, it is in Ceton's best interest to see it working. If all else fails, contact Ceton, they may be able to help.

In the meantime, I know Andy continues to work on improving SageDCT.

[Endymion]

Originally Posted by kmp14

Griff, do you know if Tuner 2 works in Windows Media Center? Maybe go into Media Center and see if 4 recordings will work. Maybe your Ceton is defective.

If it works, maybe that tuner is on a port that you are using for something else? It is a longshot, but possible.

Even though SageDCT is not official, it is in Ceton's best interest to see it working. If all else fails, contact Ceton, they may be able to help.

In the meantime, I know Andy continues to work on improving SageDCT.

I have the same issue as Griff (1 of the 4 tuners shows as non-functional in Sage when using SageDCT 1.3). I verified all 4 work in WMC, that there is nothing on the port, and then further verified all 4 work in Sage when I downgrade to SageDCT 1.1.

I also had the spinning circle/slowness issue with SageDCT 1.3... I think it's likely related to the "non-functional" tuner (sage trying to query it?). Once I dropped back to SAgeDCT 1.1, the slowness stopped.

Now I just have to deal with the massive resource leak in 1.1, which I am doing by setting up a windows task to restart the SageDCT service 4 times a day when no recordings are being done.

Hopefully Andy can quash the issues with 1.3 when he has the chance... I LOVE SageDCT!