WMC Live TV Tuner

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I don't really mind if it's always on, but it seems that sometimes when I force tune to a different channel (with exemultituner), the channel change just doesn't happen. May have to ditch exemultituner for USB-UIRT. This is probably fodder for another thread.

Thanks.

I can assure you if you're having issues, it's probably not ExeMultiTuner. I used it for years for Firewire tuning and I don't recall a single time it failed me. It's more likely a timing issue relating to WMC. Unfortunately I can't really verify that WMC actually tuned the expected channel which is kind of annoying. I could make some adjustments for you to try out if you want.

All of that being said, USB-UIRT will likely work too

[KryptoNyte]

Understood. Let me play and test for a bit. I'll post back when I have a better picture of what's happening.

Thanks again.

[trk2]

So can anyone comment on how well this solution has worked for recording premium channels? Would you recommend ditching the STB in favor of this method?

[EnterNoEscape]

The only problem I have about once a month is WMC can crash, but that's after running non-stop for weeks. It should be very correctable by just just making sure you restart WMC on a schedule; I've just been a little lazy about fixing it.

[trk2]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

It should be very correctable by just just making sure you restart WMC on a schedule; I've just been a little lazy about fixing it.

Well since you have been busy with subtitles and EPGs I'll overlook this behavior... this time. Did you ever try the HP x280n extender?

[KryptoNyte]

I got about 8 our of 10 channel changes reliably. I get about 99 out of 100 reliable changes (or better) with the USB-UIRT+HD-PVR, so no, it didn't work for me.

[EnterNoEscape]

Improvements can certainly be made. Part of the reason I think it fails for some people is I worked a little too hard on getting the changes in very fast and getting rid of the WMC UI just as quickly. If I were to rewrite this, I would add another http call that allows you to slow things down with custom values. WMC doesn't give me any way to verify the tuning went successfully, so unfortunately it's about as good as IR without the need to buy any IR equipment. I'm using it to record HBO, so I don't depend on it as much as others such as KrytoNyte do.

[KryptoNyte]

I probably would have worked harder on it, but there were a couple other issues that popped up with the Linksys hardware that put me off. The concept and development of it were exceptional, as is pretty much all of ENE's programming. I will say that I do not have the WMC crashes that ENE experiences.

[jelwood]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

If you can actually get smooth playback via this software, I'll look into creating an OpenDCT capture device that can receive RTMP.

Did you work on the RTMP server? I'm asking because I'm doing some software capturing (I'm not using WMC). Currently I'm just writing to a file in the SageTV library folder and SageTV imports it after a re-scan of it's library. However, I'd love to see an option to play the streams "live" in SageTV.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by jelwood

Did you work on the RTMP server? I'm asking because I'm doing some software capturing (I'm not using WMC). Currently I'm just writing to a file in the SageTV library folder and SageTV imports it after a re-scan of it's library. However, I'd love to see an option to play the streams "live" in SageTV.

I have not. From what I looked at months ago, it won't be a quick feature to add either. I've got enough things going on right now that I wouldn't get your hopes up that I will get around to this even this year.

[jelwood]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I have not. From what I looked at months ago, it won't be a quick feature to add either. I've got enough things going on right now that I wouldn't get your hopes up that I will get around to this even this year.

No problem... Thanks for the quick response.

[EnterNoEscape]

I finally missed a show using this plugin, so I changed the tuning to be more like the kind of timing you might get using an IR blaster. It now waits 200ms between numbers when tuning channels which should help a lot.

[KryptoNyte]

If we're using EXEmultituner to tune the channel, is it still your software (VMCControllerTuneMod 1.3) that's controlling the speed of tuning? I guess I assumed it was the ir file that was controlling the timing, but maybe not based on your last post.

Is upgrading to the latest just a matter of rerunning the new InstallAndRegister.cmd?

I'm wondering if this will resolve the issues that I was having with the device not changing channels.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

If we're using EXEmultituner to tune the channel, is it still your software (VMCControllerTuneMod 1.3) that's controlling the speed of tuning? I guess I assumed it was the ir file that was controlling the timing, but maybe not based on your last post.

Is upgrading to the latest just a matter of rerunning the new InstallAndRegister.cmd?

As far as I can tell, the ir files don't influence EXEMultiTuner in any meaningful way other than they need to exist.

Re-running InstallAndRegister.cmd will upgrade the old install. Make sure you close all instances of WMC including turning off your WMC extenders before you try to upgrade.

[KryptoNyte]

Just got this up and running again after the upgrade.

WMC7
Linksys DMA2100 on Ethernet cable HDMI out
HDMI -> Component/SPDIF converter
HDPVR1212 via Component/SPDIF

Just tuned 15 consecutive channels without issue. Still testing and crossing fingers for reliable tuning.

[KryptoNyte]

Additionally, I let all the smoke out of one my Ebay bought HD-PVR's this morning. Not sure how that happened, but it and its power supply is going in the garbage. Glad it was cheap.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Additionally, I let all the smoke out of one my Ebay bought HD-PVR's this morning. Not sure how that happened, but it and its power supply is going in the garbage. Glad it was cheap.

Yikes.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Just got this up and running again after the upgrade.

WMC7
Linksys DMA2100 on Ethernet cable HDMI out
HDMI -> Component/SPDIF converter
HDPVR1212 via Component/SPDIF

Just tuned 15 consecutive channels without issue. Still testing and crossing fingers for reliable tuning.

So, are you able to run WMC on the same pc as your Sage software?

[KryptoNyte]

Yes, Win7 of course. On the Ceton InfiniTV4 (pcie) I have (3) tuners dedicated to Sage and (1) tuner being used in WMC (via the DMA2100).

Tuned about 20 or 30 times and has not a missed channel change since ENE's recent update. One more caveat, there doesn't seem to be any 5.1 channel audio sync issues that folks experience with the HDPVR+STB combination.

Am I thinking correctly that even if the EPG were to go away on WMC7 that this solution still works because it just tunes the channel that Sage tells it to tune?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Am I thinking correctly that even if the EPG were to go away on WMC7 that this solution still works because it just tunes the channel that Sage tells it to tune?

That's correct. In fact based on a suggestion by nyplayer, I do not accept the licence agreement for EPG data and it simply doesn't download any EPG data. Doing this allows me to tune any channel from 1-5000+. Otherwise I could only tune channels that WMC's guide data knew about.