Utility: SageChanger STBs firewire channel changer for Windows

[mikep]

SageChanger version 0.2 beta.

SageChanger is a STB firewire channel changer for Windows. It's a replacement of timmmore channel.exe.
If you ever missed a recording because your STB was OFF, you need this new changer because it will ensure
that your STB is ON before issuing channel change. It also support querying power status.

Usage
SageChanger [-n <ID>] [-c <channel#>] [-f <changer#>] [-psvhtq]
Options (case sensitive):

-n <uniqueID> of target STB

-c <channel number>

-f <changer> force channel changer:

1 = SA3250HD

2 = SA4200HD (and some 3250s)

3 = SA4250HD

4 = SA4250HDc (and some 8300HDs)

5 = SA8300HD

6 = Motorola Fast (DCH and DCT series)

7 = Motorola Single-digit (default)

-p Ensure STB is ON before issuing channel change.

-q Query STB power status. Returns 2=ON, 1=OFF, -1=Error.

-s Search for installed STBs and display informations.

-t Test only. Do not send commands to STB.

-v Verbose output.

-h Display this help.

It should work with other models too but you will receive the following message:

UNKNOWN STB
Please email the Vendor and Model ID along with the model number of your STB to: (hidden here).
Please run SageChanger again with the -f option to force a channel changer for your STB.

Since I don't own all those STBs myself, if you own one that are non tested, you can
post your result for both commands (changer and power) and I will update the list below.

To test do the following;
1- SageChanger -s --> That will search for STBs and take note of UniqueID.
2- SageChanger -n <UniqueID> -q -v --> That will query the power status of the STB.
3- SageChanger -n <UniqueID> -c 200 -v --> That will change the STB at channel 200. (adjust accordingly)

Please report your success or failure at step #2 and #3. Post Vendor, ModelID, Changer and Power results, thanks!

If you had success with it you can install it by following this if you use EXEMultiTunerPlugin and Channel.exe;
To Install, simply copy the exe to any directory you want.
Open the registry at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\EXEMultiTunerPlugin"
and edit the command key with this: "c:\WHERE_YOU_SAVED_IT\SageChanger.exe -p -n %DEVICE% -c %CHANNEL%"
You are ready to go!



List of Supported STBs
Vendor......Model.......ModelID...version.....Changer....Power
----------------------------------------------Tested-----Tested
Motorola....DCH-3200....0xd330....0.1 beta....Yes........No
Motorola....DCT-3412....0x34cb....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-3416....0x346b....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-3416....0xb630....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-6200....0x6200....0.1 beta....Yes........Yes
Motorola....DCT-6200....0x620a....0.1 beta....Yes........Yes
Motorola....DCT-6212....0x64ca....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-6212....0x64cb....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-6216....0x646a....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-6216....0x646b....0.1 beta....No.........No
Motorola....DCT-6416....0x646b....0.1 beta....Yes........No
Motorola....QIP-6200....0x7100....0.1 beta....No.........No

Sc Atlanta..SA3250HD....0x0be0....0.1 beta....No.........No
Sc Atlanta..SA4200HD....0x1072....0.1 beta....No.........No
Sc Atlanta..SA4250HD....0x10cc....0.1 beta....Yes........Yes
Sc Atlanta..SA4250HDc...0x1f1f....0.1 beta....No.........No
Sc Atlanta..SA8300HD....0x22ce....0.1 beta....No.........No
Sc Atlanta..SA8300HD....0x206c....0.2 beta....Yes........Yes

[sleonard]

Sweet!

I'm just about to do a full re-install just as soon a 7 goes gold. I wasn't looking forward to figuring out how to redo the timmoore FW setup from scratch and was, like many others, unsure of the future of FW tuning.

A few questions.

Will this support 64-bit any time soon?
I assume the FW STB drivers are still needed as well as setting up ExeMultituner?
How does this differ from Timmoores channel.exe?

Anyway,

S

[wayner]

Do I assume that this still uses the drivers that are in Tim M Moore's package and that this program is a replacement for the channel.exe app?

Can I make a feature request? For some reason my STBs will occasionally drop the audio when they sit on the same channel for a long period of time (I am not sure how long but I think it is > 24 hours). This problem is fixed if you change the channel and then change it back.

When you start a new recording in Sage if the recording is on the same channel as the previous recording then it doesn't actually cause the box to retune the channel so you get a recording with no audio.

Therefore would it be possible to add a variation where the box will always change to another channel and then tune the correct channel. For example you could always tune channel 1, which I never record from since it is a preview channel, before changing to the channel that I want to record from.

FYI - I use SA3250HDs with Sage connected to HD-PVRs and am running Sage 7.

[mikep]

Yes you still need to install STB drivers. I am not aware of 64bits version of these drivers. So your OS must be 32 bits!

It differ from timmore's channel, SageChanger support powering ON your STB! channel.exe doesn't do that!

BTW: If you upgrade to Sage 7, your actual settings will remains Everything was still functionnal after my upgrade to Sage 7 beta!

Mike

[mikep]

Originally Posted by wayner

Do I assume that this still uses the drivers that are in Tim M Moore's package and that this program is a replacement for the channel.exe app?

Yes

Therefore would it be possible to add a variation where the box will always change to another channel and then tune the correct channel. For example you could always tune channel 1, which I never record from since it is a preview channel, before changing to the channel that I want to record from.

It can be done with a batch file without problem!

FYI - I use SA3250HDs with Sage connected to HD-PVRs and am running Sage 7.

Exactly the same setup as me... 2 SA4250HDs with 2 HD-PVRs...

Mike

[mikep]

Here is a sample batch file to accomplish your needs;

If everything is put in c:\STBTools directory, just follow these step;

1- Save this batch in c:\STBTools directory, name it sa4250ch.cmd
2- Put SageChanger.exe in c:\STBTools directory
3- Edit EXEMultiTunerPlugin registry key to call your batch file like so; c:\STBTools\sa4250.cmd %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%

@echo off
rem tune to channel 1
c:\STBTools\SageChanger.exe -p -n %1 -c 1
rem wait 3 seconds
ping -n 3 127.0.0.1 >nul
rem tune to requested channel
c:\STBTools\SageChanger.exe -p -n %1 -c %2

Mike

[wayner]

Thanks Mike - I will try that when I get a chance - unfortunately that might be a few weeks as I am out of town a lot in the next little while. Interesting to note that you use the same trick as I do for pausing a batch file - do a ping.

Are you on Videotron cable? They use similar hardware such as the Scientific Atlanta boxes to Rogers which is my cable provider.

[mikep]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thanks Mike - I will try that when I get a chance - unfortunately that might be a few weeks as I am out of town a lot in the next little while. Interesting to note that you use the same trick as I do for pausing a batch file - do a ping.

Are you on Videotron cable? They use similar hardware such as the Scientific Atlanta boxes to Rogers which is my cable provider.

Yes I am on Videotron. They use the same hardware.
Mike

[SamVimes2]

Hi there!

I am having some problems getting this to work, but I REALLY want the the power check functionality.

Here is the output of my SageChange -s:

C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\SageChanger_0_1_beta>SageChanger -s
SageChanger v0.1 beta

Enumerating capture devices...

Device #1.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device

Device #2.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device

Device #3.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device
UniqueID = a8739eea1c00
VendorID = 0x00001cea
ModelID = 0x0000206c
VendorText = Scientific-Atlanta  Inc.
ModelText = Explorer(R) 8300HD
DevicePath = \\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_8300hd&typ_9&id_0#a873
9eea1c00#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global

Device #4.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device
UniqueID = c05bb4d71b00
VendorID = 0x00001bd7
ModelID = 0x0000206c
VendorText = Scientific-Atlanta  Inc.
ModelText = Explorer(R) 8300HD
DevicePath = \\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_8300hd&typ_9&id_0#c05b
b4d71b00#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global

Device #5.
FriendlyName = Hauppauge HD PVR Capture Device

Device #6.
FriendlyName = Hauppauge HD PVR Capture Device

And then if I execute a command to change the channel:

C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\SageChanger_0_1_beta>SageChanger.exe -n a8739eea
1c00 -c 652 -v -f 5 -p
SageChanger v0.1 beta

Enumerating capture devices...

Device #1.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device

Device #2.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device

Device #3.
FriendlyName = Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device
UniqueID = a8739eea1c00 ***FOUND***
VendorID = 0x00001cea
ModelID = 0x0000206c
VendorText = Scientific-Atlanta  Inc.
ModelText = Explorer(R) 8300HD
DevicePath = \\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_8300hd&typ_9&id_0#a873
9eea1c00#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global
Binding to object...
Querying transport interface...
Sending power status command group...
Before: 0x01ffb27f
After : 0x0cffb270
Accepted response.
Power status is ON.
Sending 1st command group...
Before: 0x00487ce7 0x04028c00 0x00000000
After : 0x09487ce7 0x04028c00 0x00000000
Accepted response.
Channel changed!

The power comes on if it's off (which is super awesome!) but the channel doesn't change :-(

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[mikep]

Hi,

please test the following without -p switch:

C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\SageChanger_0_1_beta>SageChanger.exe -n a8739eea
1c00 -c 652 -v -f 5

If the channel change without -p switch I will adjust the delay between both commands.

Mike

[SamVimes2]

Thanks for the prompt reply!

No channel changing love there either unfortunately :-(

[SamVimes2]

Got it! I had to use -f 4, even though I have 8300HDs.

Thanks very much for your help!

[mikep]

Originally Posted by SamVimes2

Thanks for the prompt reply!

No channel changing love there either unfortunately :-(

OK, Try the 4 others scientific atlanta mode, -f 1 to 4 and do so without -p power switch. Your STB must be ON. If you found a mode that work, try adding -p switch after.

Mike

[mikep]

Originally Posted by SamVimes2

Got it! I had to use -f 4, even though I have 8300HDs.

Thanks very much for your help!

Great!.. I was replying ....

[mikep]

I will add your modelID 0x0000206c and will branch it to mode 4 automatically in the next release.

Mike

[mikep]

New release 0.2 has been uploaded.

[mikep]

Originally Posted by SamVimes2

Got it! I had to use -f 4, even though I have 8300HDs.

Thanks very much for your help!

You should try release 0.2 without -f switch and let me know if it work!

[SamVimes2]

Ok, I have it working from the command line but I can't get it to work from Sage. There are a lot of moving parts!

I manually put EXEMultiTunerPlugin.dll in C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common

I configured my two video sources each to use EXEMultiTunerPlugin to tune, but they have two different devices:
EXEMultiTunerPlugin 3
EXEMultiTunerPlugin 4

Then, in C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\EXEMultiTunerPlugin I have two files:
3.ir
4.ir

that contain respectively:
3 38000 400 3
4 38000 400 3

Then inside the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\EXEMultiTunerPlugin

I manually created a string value with name
command

and value
C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\SageChanger_0_1_beta>SageChanger.exe -p -n %DEVICE% -c %CHANNEL% -f 4

Is that all correct? Its been about a year since the last time I set this up with channel.exe!

[mikep]

Originally Posted by SamVimes2

Ok, I have it working from the command line but I can't get it to work from Sage. There are a lot of moving parts!

I manually put EXEMultiTunerPlugin.dll in C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common

I configured my two video sources each to use EXEMultiTunerPlugin to tune, but they have two different devices:
EXEMultiTunerPlugin 3
EXEMultiTunerPlugin 4

Then, in C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\EXEMultiTunerPlugin I have two files:
3.ir
4.ir

that contain respectively:
3 38000 400 3
4 38000 400 3

Then inside the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\EXEMultiTunerPlugin

I manually created a string value with name
command

and value
C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\SageChanger_0_1_beta>SageChanger.exe -p -n %DEVICE% -c %CHANNEL% -f 4

Is that all correct? Its been about a year since the last time I set this up with channel.exe!

You MUST rename 3.ir with your uniqueID. so a8739eea1c00.ir. That file must contain;
a8739eea1c00 38000 400 3

You were using device number and not deviceid with channel. you must change both tuner accordinly, do the same with 4.ir, replace #4 with your other deviceid.

You should also use version 0.2 and remove the -f 4 switch.

Mike

[SamVimes2]

.2 works from the command line without the -f switch.

I still can't get it to work from Sage though - i did as you suggested and created two new .ir files:
a8739eea1c00.ir
c05bb4d71b00.ir

Then i went to the video source setup and changed each of my HD PVRs' tuner control:
EXEMultiTunerPlugin a8739eea1c00
EXEMultiTunerPlugin c05bb4d71b00

and made my registry command:
C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\SageChanger_0_2_beta>SageChanger.exe -p -n %DEVICE% -c %CHANNEL%

did you guys ever make rube goldberg machines in high school :-) ?