Moving to TELUS TV

[Dave Beddows]

I've decided to connect Sage to TELUS TV. I prefer the SageMC features to the TELUS PVR.

I am thinking of buying a Hauppauge Colossus to be my interface. I also have a 2250 dual tuner that currently is pulling QAM off air.

I would like to run both for flexibility.

Does anyone have any advice?

I will have to do the remote IR thing to get this to work and I have heard this can be an issue with more than 1 Hauppauge card.

Does anyone have a Hauppauge Colossus working with a TELUS STB and how have you found it?


Dave

[Dave Beddows]

This article is how I managed to continue using SageTV as a TELUS TV customer. If you are not already a Sage user and googled on to this article; is not for you as SageTV software licenses are no longer available.

SageTV is not a replacement for TELUS TV or PVR but a tool to enhance it. I still use my TELUS PVR for SageTV conflicts. TELUS TV is easier for my family members to use without having to understand Sage. They sort of gave up on Sage when I upgraded away form the old 16X9 STV. I have not yet found an STV as nice as that was. Too bad it isn't available for vs 7.

Sage is like a vintage car. It looks great to others as it cruises down the high speed freeways of modern content providers. Others like the look of it but it takes someone who knows how to tune it and drive a stick to make it go. Not to mention our special support group to get parts working. My wife likes the ride but refuses to drive it.


Alright,
After a few weeks of messing around I have it working. It can be done. It takes a bit of wiggle work.

I have made it work with:
- 4 Core PC WinXP 32bit - 11 terabytes of storage
- 2250 Hauppauge that is grapping off-air QAM (However, it could be on cable if I subscribed to cable. I am lucky in that I live where I get all the major networks in true 1080p off-air for free. Being on the US border I can grab Canadian & US off-air using an alligator clip and a coat hanger.)
- Colussus High Def card for use with TELUS STB
- USB-UIRT - The more expensive wider frequency unit. (I don't know if it was required. I didn't try the IR that came with the Colussus because previous research on this forum suggested using the USB-UIRT if you are running more than one capture card.)
- SageTV vs. 7.1.9
- Sage HD300 extender & 2 Hauppauge extenders.

There are a number of key settings and minor procedures to get things running smooth. Most important is the Colussus WILL NOT work on SageTV versions lower than 7. If you have a valid version 6 license there are instructions on this forum on how to upgrade to 7 and license it.

I used component & SPF audio. The component cables that Hauppauge supply are like a bull in a china shop. They are so thick and cumbersome, they tend to unplug from the STB. I suggest buying shorter lighter cables.

Note: When you install the Colussus, go to their webpage 1st to get the latest drivers. Be careful when they install if you have other Hauppauge devices (Ie. 2250). They will try to update those drivers. I did and was OK but others on this forum had issues and had to rollback their drivers.

The TELUS STB should be set:
- 1080i (I tried it on 720p as well to troubleshoot another issue. It seems to work fine up to 1080i)
- NO SURROUND SOUND. This causes video stuttering
- I use stretch on the Aspect Ratio. (Push Enter bottom/right and follow the prompts.)
- Set your parental controls for a purchase PIN. This is to avoid Sage accidentally sending an OK if the STB should land on a purchase channel now prompt.
- You will have to spend some time determining what channels you get to configure the Sage tuner. Good news is version 7 seems to use Zap-to-it and they have full TELUS TV support.
- Turn off the feature that displays incoming phone calls or they will record on Sage.

Sage pretty much configured itself. When setting up the Colussus choose the 1st of the 2 input choices for the input type you are using. (Don't ask me why they give you 1 & 2. Maybe it can do a dual tuner with a sister board.) Don't forget to pick USB-UIRT if you have one. Some other settings under Customize:
- Always tune channel: <Yes> *****VERY IMPORTANT*****
- Channel Entry Options: Auto-accept after inactivity timeout <Disabled> (I used 3 Max Channel Digits as I don't need the channels over 999)
- Use Repeat Detection for RCS Protocol Remotes <Enabled>

Note: If you don't already know about it. Find the article in this forum to unlock the Unsupported Extras in version 7. You will be glad you did.


So if you made it this far, you have the STB working and watchable through Sage 7. The next challenge is channel changing. This took a week to sort out.

TELUS TV Cisco330 boxes have a feature that puts them to sleep after a few hours. This is seen as a detriment. I know I wished it wasn't there until I got it working and realized it is a blessing. The issue is that if the box goes to sleep; how do you change the channels while the box ignores the IRT. There are many solutions regarding 3rd party apps that will send keep alive signals out on the IRT. The problem is that causes viewing issues if a signal is sent while you are recording.
The nice thing about the TELUS STB is that an <OK> will wake up the box. After 2 days of reading ideas on keep awake I found Sage 7 is equipped to do this for us if you know where to go back and configure it.
So the solution is, on every channel change send <OK>###<OK> where ### is your channel. This way the box wakes up and gets the channel. If it is already awake the 1st <OK> does nothing. Note: It will also turn a powered off box on.
If you are set to "Always tune channel" in Sage, then it will send IR codes between shows even if you continue to view the same channel from the STB. This should prevent sleep unless you are watching something that runs longer than the go to sleep timer. If this is something you intend to do, you can get around it by programming 2 or more manual recordings instead of the guide triggered record.
Why did I say the sleep feature of the STB is a blessing. Not only does it free up bandwidth for internet but more importantly it frees up IPTV bandwidth. If you have more receivers/PVR than HD streams, you are aware of the prompt to sacrifice a stream elsewhere when you pick a HD channel. Sage has no way to recognize this which creates a great potential to miss a recording if other boxes are taking the bandwidth. The same sleep timer that turns off the STB connected to Sage also shuts down your other STB's that may have been left running on a HD stream. The sleep feature helps reduce the chance that you will miss a Sage HD event due to another STB being left on. If your program is really important you still may want to force a SD recording if you have an active household with few HD streams. Either that or train your family to release a HD stream when needed.

So now to configure the USB-UIRT. Once you find it, it is wonderful. I am assuming you have already gone through the intial Colussus USB-UIRT setup that did digits 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. If you were not successful try again, it is very important that you hold the remote only a few inches away from the UIRT.
Now we have to program <OK> which was not in the original setup and doesn't seem to be there unless you know where to look. This is only there after initial card setup. Go to Source Setup and choose Colussus and go to Tuner Control. Under Learn New Command follow the prompts so that you now have a <OK> command. Pick Remote Control Options and put the <OK> command in Channel Change Prefix Code and Channel Change Confirm Code.
Note: In my set up I used Digits per Channel <3> Delay Between Codes <750 msec> Delay Between Channel Changes <800 msec> & IR Blaster Repeat Factor <2>. The reason I increased the stock delay between codes is I wanted the box to have a little longer to come out of sleep before it got its 1st digit. This was done only by intuition. It may not have been required. All I know it is works well. I do not use Sage to channel surf so channel changing delays are not an issue for me. if they are for you; you can try reducing the delays and setting the Repeat Factor to 1. Make sure you test it a few times out of sleep before you rely on it. If you find a threshold share it with us.

It is that easy. Now the superior recording algorithms of Sage can be put to use. No recordings of shows that have been previously watched. Sage recognizes if an individual episode is available later on HD and if there is a conflict will search out an SD solution before abandoning the recording. Not to mention hard drive space, placeshifter and the other benefits are now back.

So if you are a SageTV user don't be reluctant to switch to TELUS as your TV service provider. So far it works and works well with Sage for me.

If anyone tries more than one Colussus and indexed IRT's, I would be interested in how it works out.

[Dave Beddows]

Just a further comment. TELUS tends to turn on extra channels for free preview each month. This month, March 2013, they have 25 extra channels turned on for free over and above my packages. If you just browsed through working channels to add the stations from which you can record be aware that some may be turned off at the end of a free preview.

This happened to me on March 1 (after the free preview was over) Sage recorded an hour of "Press OK to subscribe to this channel". At first I blamed it on the IRT. I later found that the IRT & Sage where working great, I had just set it up to record a station I no longer had.

BTW - The old version of Show Analyzer won't work with the Colussus recordings. It doesn't like the compression codec. I am now running a trial of the latest version of Show Analyzer to see how it performs. So far it has locked up my PC once but it may have been my fault as I left the old version running in the background as well by accident.

[Dave Beddows]

After running flawlessly for almost 2 weeks, the audio started skipping yesterday. I started and stopped Sage and I have also reduced the resolution output of the TELUS STV to 720p from 1080i. Other posts in this forum have suggested that for similiar issues. If you are setting up you may want to choose 720p as your initial resolution.

It is working again. I don't know if the stop/start of the Sage Service did it or if the reduction in resolution fixed it. Unfortunately I stopped the Sage service to view the STB output on different software which by the way was not skipping leading me to believe a buffer or something in Sage wasn't happy.

Time will tell to see if the skipping returns.

[Dave Beddows]

I decided to run the donate version of Comskip. I don't want to put Show Analyzer down because I used it without any issues for years but it seems the new version I tried just wasn't performing and may have been causing my skipping issue. I won't know unless it comes back.

The Comskip is a joy to work with. It is integrated with Sage 7 so nicely if you install the comskip plugins. You can set up see what is happening on sage. No more dirmon to run as a service in the background.

Note: If you are using a colussus you will need the donate version of comskip. Info on it is here:
https://code.google.com/p/tmiranda/w...ercialDetector

[Dave Beddows]

After much help from others on this forum I have found that the audio skipping issue with my Colussus card is a known problem with Sage. It is not being caused by Optical or resolution settings. I'm going back to 1080i for fun.

Update Note: I did find that when I went back to 1080i my HD300 played files fine but the Hauppauge MVP extenders didn't like the files; so in the interest of being able to watch my programs in any room, I have returned to 720p.


I have learned that if you use the Colussus you must stop & restart the Sage TV service every so often depending on how many times you use the Colussus.

Skiingwiz made a nice plugin that you can download and install from the Sage 7 menus that adds a Sage Service restart to the Setup menu. It is quite handy.

I am hoping that someone will come up with a plugin or utility that will run every day at a preset time that will check to see if Sage is recording and if not will then do the service stop and restart.

If I get one I will explain here how I set it up.

Otherwise I have been running comskip now for a while and love it. I recommend it and the plugins that tmiranda made.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Dave Beddows

After much help from others on this forum I have found that the audio skipping issue with my Colussus card is a known problem with Sage. It is not being caused by Optical or resolution settings. I'm going back to 1080i for fun.

I have learned that if you use the Colussus you must stop & restart the Sage TV service every so often depending on how many times you use the Colussus.

Skiingwiz made a nice plugin that you can download and install from the Sage 7 menus that adds a Sage Service restart to the Setup menu. It is quite handy.

I am hoping that someone will come up with a plugin or utility that will run every day at a preset time that will check to see if Sage is recording and if not will then do the service stop and restart.

If I get one I will explain here how I set it up.

Otherwise I have been running comskip now for a while and love it. I recommend it and the plugins that tmiranda made.

Here is the quick and dirty plugin I came up with after I got a colossus a couple of years ago. It is not 100% functional it only works when a recording is about to start even though there are options to tell when clients and extenders are connected - those don't work the last time I tested. The recordings starting does. You can put in whatever you want it to execute. I currently have mine executing a cmd file to stop and restart the SageTV service also uploaded but the default is to execute the shutdown command and restart the whole PC. You will need to remove the .txt extensions that I added to get the files to upload. You also need to edit the SageTVPluginsDev-rdp_restart.xml and rename it and add the correct address to download the zip file from. I have mine on a separate server that has FTP access enabled. You configure it from the "installed plugins - configure plugin" menu as this is a "General" plugin. I also included the Java source if some feels ambitious and want to fix the bugs. It works well enough for me that I haven't bothered to see what I did wrong.

[Dave Beddows]

Thanks Bob,
I'll try to figure this out.


I was looking at SJQ but so far haven't gotten much further than installing the UI.

Funny that in the documentation for using SJQ it mentions setting up Sage to do a restart if idle as an example of what can be done with it, but there isn't actually anything shown to set that example up.

[c5davey]

Originally Posted by Dave Beddows

This article is how I managed to continue using SageTV as a TELUS TV customer. If you are not already a Sage user and googled on to this article; is not for you as SageTV software licenses are no longer available.

Thanks for the article, its good to know I can switch to Telus from Shaw if I need to.

I live in Burnaby, BC which is not far from the border and I was wondering what area you live in that you can receive clear QAM? I've always wondered if i can receive anything OTA but could never get confirmation from anyone.

Thanks

[Dave Beddows]

I'm in South Surrey. If you have a QAM ready TV just grab a coax cable and cut one end off. Strip it to expose the center conductor and attach that to a metal coat hanger. Do not attach the sheath conductor. It isn't the best antenna but it will give you an idea of what is available where you are. You can buy QAM antennas at places like SMC Electronics on 64th & 203rd in Langley for around $60. I bought one and I didn't get much more than I did on the coat hanger. It did make a difference to reception in bad weather though. Where you are in Burnaby you should get CBC CTV Global & the French station.

[Dave Beddows]

Well after years of programming in Visual Basic I just haven't been able to get my head around scripting within SageTV. Thank you Bob for the plugin listed above. I wasn't sure if it would be for me as you wrote it to run just before a program is set to record and I have multiple tuners that may already be in use just before Colussus records. I don't have the framework tools to pull your scripting apart. Something I need to start playing with once I get time. Any suggestions. What do you use???

However, I did take your idea on the Start/Stop bat file. So until a better plugin solution comes about I've added a bat file to the windows scheduler to stop & start the SageTV service indiscriminately at 2:59am daily.

If anyone wants to do this it is quick and easy task. Here is how you do it in XP:
Open Notepad and put the following in it:

net stop SageTV
net start SageTV


Then from the File drop down
Save As: SageRestart.bat into folder that you know.


From Windows Start choose
All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Schedules Tasks

Click on Add scheduled Task to run the wizard.
Choose the SageRestart.bat file you made and select the daily time you wish it to run.
Apply it

If you get a 0x:70080005 type error it is because of the permissions. If that happens try filling in the Run As field with NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and no passwords.

Hope this helps

[BobPhoenix]

The plugin tests if ANY recording is upcoming not just colossus recordings also if ANY are currently recording it waits. So it will wait if any recording is scheduled to start sooner than the default window of 15(? - sorry at work may be different) minutes. It also will wait if you are watching something on the server when it wants to restart. What doesn't work is if a client is connected or placeshifter/extender is connected and watching something. It uses calls to GetScheduledRecordingsForTime to get ANY scheduled recordings for the current time thru the 15 minute window if none are returned from SageTV then the bat file/command are run.

[Dave Beddows]

Thanks Bob,
Cool stuff.
I misunderstood the previous write up. I might give this a go when I get some time. I still need to set aside some time to learn how to script this stuff myself.

For the time being at least I have something running that will take care of things if I forget.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Dave Beddows

I'm in South Surrey. If you have a QAM ready TV just grab a coax cable and cut one end off. Strip it to expose the center conductor and attach that to a metal coat hanger. Do not attach the sheath conductor. It isn't the best antenna but it will give you an idea of what is available where you are. You can buy QAM antennas at places like SMC Electronics on 64th & 203rd in Langley for around $60. I bought one and I didn't get much more than I did on the coat hanger. It did make a difference to reception in bad weather though. Where you are in Burnaby you should get CBC CTV Global & the French station.

Probably just a typo on your part but what you are describing is making an antenna to receive OTA, not clear QAM as that is delivered over the cable coax.

[exdirtfarmer]

Thanks Dave for putting your howto together for Telus. It helped me get my MTS-TV (Microsoft Media Room on Motorola Hardware) working properly with sageTV after switching from many years of Shaw Direct (Star Choice). Smooth recordings/playback at 1080i so far. Now my wife uses the MTS DVR for daily stuff and I can archive the stuff I want on Sage.

Thanks again for taking the time to post all the steps.

Cheers!

[Dave Beddows]

Yes OTA was what I meant. I called it QAM because the tuner card is set to that.

[Dave Beddows]

You are more than welcome. Glad I could help. What extender are you using? I found my Hauppauage MVP didn't like 1080i but the HD300 was OK.

[exdirtfarmer]

HD200 is working fine. I haven't tried my MVP's yet. If they don't like it I will turn it down to 720.