SageMCTuner - anyone have this working with cablecard?

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I did say most... obviously, it's possible.. I, for one, never really found a point to 'channel surfing', even before I had a DVR - now that I do, I REALLY don't see why anyone would. Channel Surfing, to me, is the same as saying "hmmm.. I don't know what I want to watch, so let me just flip through watching a little bit of things in progress, until I see something I like, so I can watch the last half of it, then start over again."

Or maybe there's people that enjoy watching live sports like NFL football where 3 games are playing at the same time and flip between them during commercials... or finding some mindless drivel to watch when cleaning the house... or, having watched all your recordings, still wanting to watch tv... or watching live news stories as they happen on different channels... or... or... or...
I'm sure there are many reasons people channel surf. You have to pull yourself away from your own context and think about theirs. It seems ridiculous to blindly state something like "most Sage users certainly never channel surf".

Anyway... I'm happy with my current setup but would love to get rid of the HD-PVRs and cable boxes. Can't wait for the network tuning capability of the Ceton to be released and hear from a SageTV user who's tested it. At that point there will be much less tuning delay and a much better reason for a Sage user to own the device.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

Or maybe there's people that enjoy watching live sports like NFL football where 3 games are playing at the same time and flip between them during commercials... or finding some mindless drivel to watch when cleaning the house... or, having watched all your recordings, still wanting to watch tv... or watching live news stories as they happen on different channels... or... or... or...
I'm sure there are many reasons people channel surf. You have to pull yourself away from your own context and think about theirs. It seems ridiculous to blindly state something like "most Sage users certainly never channel surf".

Those uses are not really what most would consider 'channel surfing'. For the NFL situation, there aren't more than 2 games available at any given time on any cable provider (DirecTV would be an exception), and would most likely be much more ideal to have both games set to record - in which case, there is no 'tuning delay' switching between games. The rest of what you discussed is, yes, watching LiveTV, but no 'channel surfing' in the sense where the tuning delay would be incredibly troublesome (tune once to your 'drivel', and start cleaning). Even the news situation could be handled with a couple quick hits of the REC button. Channel surfing is not the same thing as watching livetv. Channel surfing, to me, is pressing ChUp through the channels, until you find something to watch, and I stand by the assumption that it is NOT a common practice among sagetv users, and really something that has steadily become far less common since the introduction of the onscreen program guide some 15 years ago.

Originally Posted by GollyJer

Anyway... I'm happy with my current setup but would love to get rid of the HD-PVRs and cable boxes. Can't wait for the network tuning capability of the Ceton to be released and hear from a SageTV user who's tested it. At that point there will be much less tuning delay and a much better reason for a Sage user to own the device.

That update to the ceton card has nothing to do with it's usage in sagetv. All it will allow is OTHER 7MC pc's to share the tuner. It does nothing to change the DRM requirements, or lack of SageTV CableCard certification, and as such, does not give a sage user a better reason for owning the device.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Channel surfing, to me, is pressing ChUp through the channels, until you find something to watch...

If that's your definition then I 100% agree.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

That update to the ceton card has nothing to do with it's usage in sagetv. All it will allow is OTHER 7MC pc's to share the tuner. It does nothing to change the DRM requirements, or lack of SageTV CableCard certification, and as such, does not give a sage user a better reason for owning the device.

Hmm... for some reason I was under the impression this would make it accessible to any software that could see it as a network tuner, like the hdhomerun. Suckage. Guess I'll be sticking with the HD-PVR's. At least they're finally working flawlessly.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

If that's your definition then I 100% agree.

Hmm... for some reason I was under the impression this would make it accessible to any software that could see it as a network tuner, like the hdhomerun. Suckage. Guess I'll be sticking with the HD-PVR's. At least they're finally working flawlessly.

Sage doesn't even see the HDHomeRun as a 'network tuner'. It sees it as a BDA tuning device attached to the sagetv server. The HDHomeRun drivers themselves are what handle the network side of things.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Sage doesn't even see the HDHomeRun as a 'network tuner'. It sees it as a BDA tuning device attached to the sagetv server. The HDHomeRun drivers themselves are what handle the network side of things.

Thanks for the explanation Fuzzy.

[stanger89]

There's no standard for network tuners. In fact, I think Sage is about the only app that actually supports network tuners. Most "network" tuners work like the HDHR where the app just uses normal drivers and all the network stuff happens behind the scenes.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

There's no standard for network tuners. In fact, I think Sage is about the only app that actually supports network tuners. Most "network" tuners work like the HDHR where the app just uses normal drivers and all the network stuff happens behind the scenes.

Which, conveniently, is where the FCC may be looking at in the future for ALL content entering the home = over an IP Gateway device that appears as a 'standardized' network tuner for and given source (cable, sat, even OTA). SageTV did support this with multiple conversations with the FCC on it. Only time will tell.

[Ted@TNT]

I'm a big fan of SiliconDust HDHR's, and now they have a new product coming - HDHR Prime. It's a CableCard device designed for 7MC - of course. I'm inquiring with them if they'll also be taking care of their SageTV customers by providing some way for it to work with SageTV running on Windows7 - even if it is by way of MediaCenter, but implemented automatically through their installation.

Anyway, my hopes are high that they'll include us, perhaps it is worth it for a bunch of us to express our interest?

support@silicondust.com

[doncote0]

HDHomeRun® - PRIME™ Quick status update...
We are at CableLabs® for the final review, with release to production in 2 weeks. Pre-order and release dates will be announced shortly following release to production.

On the availability side we are working with major retail partners to stock the HDHomeRun PRIME and accept pre-orders. The price has been confirmed at $249.

Black Friday - We have been working with the good people at Newegg for a great Black Friday deal on the original HDHomeRun-Dual ATSC/clear QAM tuner. The sale runs Friday November 26 continuing through to Cyber Monday.

Happy holidays,
Ted H - CEO
Silicondust Inc. USA

Looks like it might be available through their "major retail partners" one of which is mentioned in the next paragraph (newegg).

As for cost savings, HD cable box in my area is $10.99/month and DVR service is another $10/month, so this will save about $21/month per tuner minus the cost of the cablecard rental (versus a Comcast HD DVR). I am going to return 2 HD cable boxes once I get this.

[doncote0]

Everyone that gets a CableCard capture tuner, please post their results here (like Mythikal did).

Let us know things like how many streams you are recording in SageTV, what City and State you live in, and if anything is blocked. If you already have another solution that has blocked channels (i.e. Firewire), let us know if you see any difference.

Thanks!

[kmp14]

It will be a while before I am ready to mess with the rock-solid stability of my SageTV server and try getting SageMCTuner going. I will post my results. Hopefully by the time I do it Comcast will allow for self-installs of the cable card.

[Deacon Crusher]

So, you are getting a Ceton tomorrow, but you aren't going to integrate it into Sage or get a Cable Card to go with it?

What are you going to use it for or what am I misunderstanding?

Originally Posted by kmp14

It will be a while before I am ready to mess with the rock-solid stability of my SageTV server and try getting SageMCTuner going. I will post my results. Hopefully by the time I do it Comcast will allow for self-installs of the cable card.

[kmp14]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

So, you are getting a Ceton tomorrow, but you aren't going to integrate it into Sage or get a Cable Card to go with it?

What are you going to use it for or what am I misunderstanding?

Of course I am going to install it and get a cable card. I was just saying that my sagetv rig is so stable that I am nervous messing with it. I might wait a couple weeks before I dive in.

[FIN745]

A little help here: I have the Service installed, but it's not showing up in SageTV as a network encoder or anything. Every time I add anything to Sage.properties it's gone when I look again.

Any help? Thanks.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by FIN745

Every time I add anything to Sage.properties it's gone when I look again.

You can't edit the file while Sage is running. You must shut down Sage completely (including the service) before making any property file edits.

[bollockz]

I have almost the same setup as Mythikal

Windows 7 x64
Bunch of HDD
Ceton InfiniTV 4 Cable card tuner
Etc
(I did a clean install of windows 7 and sagetv 7)

And I followed his directing and they are golden.
I configured this in SageTV v7

When I followed Mythikal's directions all 4 tuners were immediately detected upon SageTV v7 start up and Sage asked me to configure the tuners. The only problem I had was I did not realize that the Avivo did not properly register the dll.

I manually registered it by opening an elevated command prompt and entering

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ATI Technologies\Multimedia\atimpenc.dll"

It registerd the "atimpenc.dll" after a few tries and bam....Video start up up in sage and all 4 tuners are working.


here are the links

SageMCTuner http://babgvant.com/files/folders/sa...ntry14737.aspx

Avivo http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDownload/ATI-Avivo-Encoder-Package-911-for-Vista-Win7-Download-86841.html

Now I am enjoying HD broadcast with four tuners In SageTV

[jptheripper]

excellent. Is it only copy free content? or is it encrypted content as well.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by bollockz

I have almost the same setup as Mythikal

Windows 7 x64
Bunch of HDD
Ceton InfiniTV 4 Cable card tuner
Etc
(I did a clean install of windows 7 and sagetv 7)

And I followed his directing and they are golden.
I configured this in SageTV v7

When I followed Mythikal's directions all 4 tuners were immediately detected upon SageTV v7 start up and Sage asked me to configure the tuners. The only problem I had was I did not realize that the Avivo did not properly register the dll.

I manually registered it by opening an elevated command prompt and entering

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ATI Technologies\Multimedia\atimpenc.dll"

It registerd the "atimpenc.dll" after a few tries and bam....Video start up up in sage and all 4 tuners are working.


here are the links

SageMCTuner http://babgvant.com/files/folders/sa...ntry14737.aspx

Avivo http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDownload/ATI-Avivo-Encoder-Package-911-for-Vista-Win7-Download-86841.html

Now I am enjoying HD broadcast with four tuners In SageTV

Do you have the long channel changing delay?

[kmp14]

For people using the Ceton and doing commercial skipping with ShowAnalyzer: Is Showanalyzer 0.97 able to process the commercials for shows recorded with the Ceton, or is SAV1 (Showanalyzer V1) required. The reason I ask is that I have V0.97 tweaked to the point that it is very accurate. I dont want to switch to SAV1 if it is not required.

I am calling comcast this week to come out with the Cable Card and get the Ceton installed.

[bollockz]

Originally Posted by jptheripper

excellent. Is it only copy free content? or is it encrypted content as well.

I don't have any premium channels (I.E. HBO Etc.) But every channel I do have on my subscription works fine.

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Do you have the long channel changing delay?

Yes I do. Bout 13 seconds. at first I hated it but after you get used to it's nothing really. I usually don't just channel surf but I do watch live TV and it doesn't really bother me all that much

Hopefully Sage will support the cable card directly in the near future