PrimeNetEncoder - HDHomeRun Prime Network Encoder

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jm9843

There is no comparison. Currently the only way to interface with the recording engine or playback recordings is with the Kodi addon. The usability is really bad and would take years of development time to reach some kind of parity with Sage. That's only if they exposed an open API and got lots of community participation. Once Sage goes open source, the only thing HDHR DVR will have going for it is copy-once support. Full disclosure: I'm a backer at the $60 level and have been using the early builds.

Keeping it on topic, Prime Net Encoder has been working great for me. Recordings are perfect, none of the glitchiness I often had with SageDCT. The only issue has been the "ERROR (-10): No encoders can tune the selected station" after restarting the Sage service. Now considering the best way to try the batch method to make it perfect.

When you setup the task make sure to set these options run at windows startup ... run with highest privileges ... run hidden... run if user is logged on or not.

[gveres]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

That is the reason I only run batch files so that if there is a problem I do not have to shutdown Sage .... once i have it running I can then use the sageservice to load it.




It is wrong I fixed mine

I think there is a mistake in the properties. they should say enabled=True
tuner0.enabled=0
tuner1.enabled=0
tuner2.enabled=0

Thank you. That got me one step closer.

BTW, the download still has this problem with the properties file.
I was about to post asking why the status listed the tuners as disabled.

Has anybody managed to get this working with the canadian version of the hdhomerun - the HDHomeRun Connect? It used to be called the HDHomeRun Dual.

I am trying to get it working now but sage isn't getting the video stream. I see this in the logs:

PrimeNetEncoder>echologs
Press 'return' to stop echoing logs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Switching Channel for Tuner: 1051B8C9 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local IP: 10.100.0.12
Listening Port: 7001
ffmpeg Transcode Port: 5010
Starting transcoder: e:\PVR_Files\Sage_Recordings\TheMarilynDenisShow-19944340-0.ts
Passing stream to file unaltered
Switch channel: 13-13-1
Send stream to transcoder: 5010
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stopping Recording: 1051B8C9 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stopping the stream:
Recording stopped
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Switching Channel for Tuner: 1051B8C9 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local IP: 10.100.0.12
Listening Port: 7001
ffmpeg Transcode Port: 5010
Starting transcoder: e:\PVR_Files\Sage_Recordings\TheMarilynDenisShow-19944340-1.ts
Passing stream to file unaltered
Switch channel: 13-13-1
Send stream to transcoder: 5010
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stopping Recording: 1051B8C9 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stopping the stream:
Recording stopped

It just keeps repeating. I still have a couple of pages of posts to go through.

Greg

[nyplayer]

Greg,

You are using the connect did you remap the channels in SageTV .... see this guide on setting up connect tuners.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...62&postcount=2

[gveres]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Greg,

You are using the connect did you remap the channels in SageTV .... see this guide on setting up connect tuners.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...62&postcount=2

Thank you nyplayer. Of course you were correct. I thought they were already remapped properly but they weren't. I misinterpreted your document.

One thing that might help with the doc would be a screen shot after hitting enter on that dialog where you entered 2.1. The resulting screen that shows the channel as 2-1 [2.1] would have made it a bit more obvious to me that I had it wrong.

A note to others that might come across this, the default channel says something like 13-1 [13-1] but it really needs to read 13-1 [13.1].

All seems to be working now. And for the record, I have the HDTC-2US(CA), not the prime and this works great.

Thanks to nyplayer for all the help setting this up and to jvl711 for doing the work to put this together.

Greg

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by gveres

Thank you nyplayer. Of course you were correct. I thought they were already remapped properly but they weren't. I misinterpreted your document.

One thing that might help with the doc would be a screen shot after hitting enter on that dialog where you entered 2.1. The resulting screen that shows the channel as 2-1 [2.1] would have made it a bit more obvious to me that I had it wrong.

A note to others that might come across this, the default channel says something like 13-1 [13-1] but it really needs to read 13-1 [13.1].

All seems to be working now. And for the record, I have the HDTC-2US(CA), not the prime and this works great.

Thanks to nyplayer for all the help setting this up and to jvl711 for doing the work to put this together.

Greg

Glad you have it working... That was just a quick doc that I put together ... have not had a chance to update it.

[Deacon Crusher]

I know Sage doesn't lock tuners or pay attention to the lock state, was wondering since we are using this "network tuner" shim/software to access the prime if it would be possible for it to have some more smarts and do some of this kind of sharing arbitration itself.

Thanks

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Deacon Crusher,

Sage has no clue whether another application is using the Prime ... it does not test to see if a tuner is in use by another application and move onto the next tuner. So if the HDDVR is using a tuner Sage will not see it in use and will try to use it and this will cause a halt and recording failure. In my case I have 2 Primes and I have Segregated it to a different network and am using it on the HDDVR.

The problem is not the HDDVR the problem is the way SageTV allocates it's tuners.


PS there is no way to limit tuners on the HDDVR at this testing level so you cannot assign say 2 to Sage and 1 to HDDVR.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

I know Sage doesn't lock tuners or pay attention to the lock state, was wondering since we are using this "network tuner" shim/software to access the prime if it would be possible for it to have some more smarts and do some of this kind of sharing arbitration itself.

Thanks

The problem is that SageTV tells the network encoder to start a recording based on merit. For example port 6969 (tuner 0) channel 752. At this point Sage sees no network tuners in use....


But little does Sage know. I am watching livetv on channel 754 using tuner 0... using HDHOMERUNVIEW.

Sage tells SageDCT or Primenetworkencoder to begin recording on port 6969 (tuner 0) channel 752. Tuner is in use Sage gets a halt on the recording ... it fails.


What would have to happen is that the network encoder has to be able to test for usage respond back to Sagetv that tuner is in use and have Sagetv select the next available tuner.,, and start the network encoder on the new tuner.

Sage does not know from tuner numbers on the prime all it knows is to start recording on a certain port not a certain tuner. The network encoder associates that port with a tuner number.

[Fuzzy]

This is something that COULD be handled in the network encoder. It would have to 'pool' it's tuners, and before issuing a tuning request, check to see if the tuner is in use by something else, and if it is, choose the next tuner in the pool. A lot of complication for a very narrow use case, and something that would add a bit of a delay to every tuning request.

[Deacon Crusher]

Hey Fuzzy, thanks for adding good language around this idea/request.

The notion of the primenetwork encoder acting as a moderator for requests and having as you say "a pool" of tuners that are spoofed to sage as a specific list certainly makes sense and not sure Sage should try to live in the environment where it "owns" all the tuners, I think a setup that is more share friendly is likely to be a better fit going forward.

Alternatively, as we move into the open Source Sage would it be possible for Sage to "check" a tuner for locks before requesting it's use and be setup so that it in turn "locks" a tuner when it is using it? thereby supporting working in a tuner sharing environment?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

This is something that COULD be handled in the network encoder. It would have to 'pool' it's tuners, and before issuing a tuning request, check to see if the tuner is in use by something else, and if it is, choose the next tuner in the pool. A lot of complication for a very narrow use case, and something that would add a bit of a delay to every tuning request.

[civerson4]

My cable provider (Cox in Orange County, CA) is going all digital in about 6 weeks.

I purchased a HDHR Prime and have it working with the Silicon Dust software. Cox makes me use a tuning adapter (in addition to the cable card) if that makes any difference.

For the life of me, I cannot get it to work in Sage. I have attached my Sage Properties file and PrimeNetEncoder properties file (with a .txt extension I can upload to the forums).

I am running Sage as a service (and have been for 7-8 years). On my HTPC, I have two of the original HDHR QAM tuners and a Hauappage Collossus tuner running.

Dedicated HTPC machine, windows firewall is inactive.

When I try to add the new HDHR Prime as a source, it comes up in Sage. I select it and then it starts getting odd.

It makes me select a Digital Tuner source. And 2-5 "inputs" per tuner appear. I then run through the set up, select a guide and try to tune a channel. Nothing happens, but when I go back to the tuner menu, I see 3 or 5 different versions of the same tuner (tuner 0 in the case a few minutes ago). If I delete the HDHR Prime source, all 3-5 different HDHR Prime sources disappear.

Any help/assistance would be greatly appreciated. After 8-10 hours messing with the installation/settings/properties file, I am at a loss as to what to try next.

[weeber]

Hey guys, looking to install SD prime shortly and wondering if prime network encoder would have any issues with Comcast's MPEG4 roll out? According to SD, the Prime itself doesn't care, but does the encoder? Obviously MPEG4 transmission would negate the need to transcoded, which would be nice.

[jgsouthard]

I switched from SageDCT to PrimeNetEncoder a month or so ago when the Silicondust firmware update broke SageDCT. Once I got through the significant transition pain and got it working, recordings have been more stable and glitch free than before the firmware update.

My problem is that I'm seeing a big jump in "Halt Detected In Recording" errors. Before I was getting one every other day or so, usually the first recording in the morning (morning local news). But now I'm getting multiple errors per day, including some that repeat to the point that I lose the recording (vs. recovering after reset).

The jump in errors occurred at the same time as the encoder switch, with no other known changes in configuration.

Signal strength to the HDHomeRun Prime is good from my Comcast cable, 85-87% strength, 100% signal quality, 100% symbol quality consistent on every channel.

The errors are almost always on the first tuner, but I assume that's because it's first in priority and not because there is a specific problem with that tuner.

I have two hard drives in my SageTV server, one for the System and one for Recording (2TB), and the recording drive has 700-800GB free space. It is heavily fragmented, however.

Any hints as to what might be going on? Could drive fragmentation be causing this?

[mechling-burgh]

Is is always at the start of the recording? Do you have the drive sleep and is it a green drive? I was having halt detected at the start of recordings and it turned out to be that I was letting the green drives go to sleep. I turned of drives going to sleep under power options and I have not had a problem since.

[jgsouthard]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

Is is always at the start of the recording? Do you have the drive sleep and is it a green drive? I was having halt detected at the start of recordings and it turned out to be that I was letting the green drives go to sleep. I turned of drives going to sleep under power options and I have not had a problem since.

It is USUALLY at the beginning of a recording (not always), and it is USUALLY when it is the first recording in the last several hours. So you got me excited that maybe I had missed something when I set up the Power Options on this server several years ago.

But no. The computer never sleeps, the hard drive never sleeps, and the hard drive is a Western Digital Caviar Black.

[titanium]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Nothing wrong with what you are doing that is just 1 disadvantage of running PrimeEncoder as a runnable task. It takes a while for it to run and recognize the tuners.... you have 2 options.

1. If you autologon to the server you can setup a batch file to run at logon and remove it from the runnable classes.

2. If you do not use autologon at boot time ... you need to setup a task to run the batch job at startup whether user is logged on or not.

I chose not to run it as a runnable task so maybe a user that does run it as a runnable task has a workaround.



All other network encoders do not run within Sage Sagedct runs as a service outside of SageTV. SgraphRecorder runs outside of Sagetv.

see this thread more info.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=126


PS this is not really a PrimeNetencoder problem but a problem the way SageTV loads runnable processes and the way it rediscovers network encoders.

I am having trouble getting this to run from the command line. Can someone post a sample batch file?

[jgsouthard]

Originally Posted by titanium

I am having trouble getting this to run from the command line. Can someone post a sample batch file?

I'm running the following at system startup in Task Scheduler, with the batch file placed in the same directory as PrimeNetEncoder.jar and ffmpeg.exe:

cd /d "%~dp0"
:loop
java -jar PrimeNetEncoder.jar
goto loop

[titanium]

Thanks!

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jgsouthard

It is USUALLY at the beginning of a recording (not always), and it is USUALLY when it is the first recording in the last several hours. So you got me excited that maybe I had missed something when I set up the Power Options on this server several years ago.

But no. The computer never sleeps, the hard drive never sleeps, and the hard drive is a Western Digital Caviar Black.

I use keepalivehd to make sure my drives are always ready .... you can give it a shot it might help.

https://keepalivehd.codeplex.com/

[theguru]

That was very helpful. I just installed it and will see if it helps with my stops.

[sundansx]

OK, a stupid question that I likely know the answer to, but will ask anyway. Lets say you have a cable company in Beaverton, Oregon and their name is "dbag-fios-asstier" and they think it is funny to 4C/"Copy once" every channel except maybe broadcast channels (this is not just the HBO's and Showtime). I presume that this solution won't work with this unfortunate setup? Anyone have an update on "dbag-fios-asstier" in Beaverton, OR?

nyplayer,
are you using Comcast with this? I might just move to Comcast if they are able to update their quality game with mpeg4.