So both "Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device" and "Scientific-Atlanta Tuner AV/C Device" need meistb.inf as their driver?


yep just do it again... uninstall everything, reboot, then reinstall from msi, then reboot.. but dont just plug it back in without restarting. the unknowns just skip.. then you can automatically just install the drivers.

panel doesnt matter, cause thats just to change channels. tuner is what gets you the video. and it probably gave you illegal operation cause its 5c protected.

I found a Copy Protection section on the diagnostic menu. (i did some more searching and i got it to that point, it turned out i was pushing the buttons wrong)

under it it says

Outputs
-----------Protection Type Enabled Constrained
DVI/HDMI: none-----------no-------- no
YPrPb: none ---------------yes-------- no (strangely was disabled when first starting PC until i changed channels)
1394: Unavailable---------Unavailable
Composite: none

Policies
HDMI: 0x0000000C v1
YPrPb: 0x00000002 v1
1394: 0x00000000 v1
Composite: 0x00000000 v1
VOD: 0x00000000 v1

CCI Events

Source Destination CIT EPN EMI BF APS
RF------Video Output---no--- no--freely-no--disabled
RF------Video Output---no--- no--freely-no--disabled


Now this screen true for all channels.

I am able to watch all of my HBO channels without any glitches using vlc. changing to HD froze the computer, the music channels work but the audio skips like crazy.

strangely, i just power cycled the tuner box and i can view through vlc most hd channels. however the only one that comes through without breaking up/glitches is HDNET. local channels come through all blocky, HBOHD is even worse. Everything else is about teh same as the local channels. i was also able to record a brief few seconds of my channel 902 (local channel FOX2, in HD broadcast) they just finished the news, and was playing a non hd version of friends, before it just cut off the recording and crashed the capdvhs recording program. the recordings do look better without glitches, there is just some page tearing objects as things get jagged when being moved around. im guessing thats just from being recorded from interlaced instead of progressive mode. any ideas on why my computer/program crashes when recording certain channels? but i can view them in vlc with tons of artifacts?



bumping my post back up, since im still having this issue.

I have the exact same problem (and it's driving me insane!). Anyone out there who can help?

I had this problem until I rebooted by unplugging the unit for a couple of minutes.

edit2:

So this is probably a dumb question but if a channel has the cci = 0x02 there is no way to capture this correct? I was trying to pull some HD that i previously recorded to my DVR from MHD to my computer and i can't seem to do it. I assume it had the CCI = 0x02 and thus it just captures junk in capdvhs.

Am i just SOL or is there another solution that i haven't found yet?

Thanks all.....




edit:

problem solved after searching through this monsterous thread. The 3416 has dual tuners. Well the tuner i was on had CCI = 0x02 which is some kind of copy protection. When i hit the swap button it whet on to the other tuner and my test capture of CNN worked perfectly. I'll have to try more channels but atleast I know it works now.

bigpow - on the 16.20 fw. Are you seeing the same problem with content getting stretched and cut off when recording over firewire? I have 16.20 fw, and the problem started between 11/18 and 11/20 .

Problem: As soon as I hit record and Firewire recording is enabled in MyTray, any SD content gets almost instantly stretched out and cut off on the right side, only giving me about 2/3 of the picture. HD content recording over firewire works fine (which is huge, and why I want to get all recordings working).

As a 1st test, I unchecked Firewire recording in MyTray and this problem does not appear. 100% full picture.

As a 2nd test, I kept Firewire recording unchecked in MyTray and recorded a channel (as in 1st test). During recording I started to record over firewire via the CapDVHS software. As soon as I hit recording in that program, the MCE recording stretched out and cut off as before. Amazing that one peice of software can impact another like that. The CapDVHS capture was also stretched out and cut off.

3rd test - watched the component output of DCT-6200 on direct connection to TV as I record - same problem on the component output - stretched out and cut off.

After the 3rd test, it's clear that Firewire recording is causing the DCT-6200 STB to stretch out and cut off the picture on all ouputs (except HD channels). Question is why? And how to I fix this? Anyone have this problem?

Things that I've tried to fix this:

- reinstalled FireSTB
- Changed MPEG2 Decoder from Intervideo to NVidia PureVideo
- Changed STB settings
-16:9, 4:3 letterbox, 4:3 pan scan
-4:3 override on and off
-all resolution settings (1080i, 720p, 480p. 480i)
My set up:
- MCE 2005 rollup 2
- Comcast DCT-6200 connected via Firewire to Sony VAIO
- Tuner is Sony MPEG RealTime Encoder Board connected via Svideo
- in San Jose, CA ... if that matters

-----edit---------
I sent the following email to comcast:
-
I've recent started to see a problem with my DCT-6200. I believe this problem may be tied to a firmware upgrade to 16.20. When I try to access video via the firewire port of my DCT-6200 I'm finding that the content gets almost instantly stretched out and cut off on the right side, only giving me about 2/3 of the picture. This occurs on ALL ouputs, not just the Firewire video stream.

I've debuged this problem at length and have confirmed that other users are having this problem. As you know, the FCC has mandated via the "Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR)" that this port be active and functional in reproducing content being sent to the box. See page 145 in this document.
fcc.gov document with filename part76.pdf

You must replace my box "with one that includes a functional IEEE 1394 interface or upgrade the customer's set-top box by
download or other means to ensure that the IEEE 1394 interface is functional."
-

yep just do it again... uninstall everything, reboot, then reinstall from msi, then reboot..

But like I said, I can't install from the msi -- I get an error. I'm using just the drivers themselves that grittree posted. I did try uninstalling the "AV/C panel device", and reinstalling it, using meistb.inf as the drivers. But there was still a driver error. But regardless, I tried recording from ABCHD for a few seconds with CapDVHS, but the resulting TS file was empty (0kb). What could be the problem?

panel doesnt matter, cause thats just to change channels. tuner is what gets you the video.

So does that mean that I can simply disregard it?

and it probably gave you illegal operation cause its 5c protected.

Wait a minute, ESPN is copy protected? I thought that it was only premium channels like HBO that could be copy protected. I'm going to be pretty disappointed if I can't even record from ESPNHD.

Update:

I've managed to capture some video -- for a few seconds at least. It seems that it absolutely will not capture anything on live TV, but I played back a few things on the DVR, and it records for a few seconds before I get an illegal operation. It seems that I have the most success with things in 720p, like Boston Legal. I managed to record 20 or 30 seconds of that before I got an illegal operation, although it varies from one attempt to another. But things in 1080i, such as "How I Met Your Mother", and the Dolphins at Lions thanksgiving game, only record for about 5 seconds before giving me an illegal operation. Any idea what could be wrong here?

You're getting close.

1st, disable any 'panel' driver. You only use the av/c device.

2nd, get and install VLC freeware. Stream with that using 'direct show' while using your SA remote to change channels. Channels can have either or both 5C encryption and CCI copy controls. Only the channels that VLC displays can be captured via 1394. Varies greatly across the country.

3rd, get SP2. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&DisplayLang=en

They will also mail you the CD.

Right, unless you have MCE, do NOT auto install. Always use 'have disk' and point to meistb.inf.

BTW, I don't have a SA box, so the above assumes it works like with Moto boxes.

TJ22, sounds like CCI=0x02 - copy once. Try it with all the OTA channels.

I have no OTA channels only cable and I tried abc, nbc, cbs, pbs to no avail.

Has anyone had any luck with the pace boxs yet?

TJ, try the SD versions of the OTA channels (nbc, etc). Also try streaming with VLC.

I don't have SA so I don't know where the diagnostics screens are showing the CCI status of each channel.

You're getting close.


Am I?

I installed SP2 (had to d/l it upstairs and burn it onto a CD), uninstalled and reinstalled the SA8300HD, and disabled the "AV/C panel device". But I'm still getting an illegal operation after a few seconds of recording. What could possibly be wrong at this point? I'm beginning to think that the computer has become self-aware, and turned against me. In fact, I think I may have heard ominous laughter when I turned it off a minute ago... :eek:

As for what you said to do with VLC, I couldn't figure out how. :o

It's not real easy because you have to disregard what MS suggests.

For each wizard that pops up, disagree with everything MS suggests until you get to a 'have disk' button. Click that (disregard specifying what type of device it is) and point to the meistb.inf in the driver package.


Thanks for reminding me about that. I had mine working long time ago with a Standalone receiver. Now that I got the Verizon FIOS TV and tried to do the same and couldn't get it working. Now that you've mentioned it, using the meistb.inf makes it work again.

I installed SP2 (had to d/l it upstairs and burn it onto a CD), uninstalled and reinstalled the SA8300HD, and disabled the "AV/C panel device". But I'm still getting an illegal operation after a few seconds of recording. What could possibly be wrong at this point? I'm beginning to think that the computer has become self-aware, and turned against me. In fact, I think I may have heard ominous laughter when I turned it off a minute ago... :eek:

As for what you said to do with VLC, I couldn't figure out how. :o

The fact that you said you got a few seconds of HD and even more seconds of SD material to record makes me wonder if perhaps you've got something bad at a hardware level. Could there be a bad RAM chip perhaps?

Or maybe there's something unrelated to the installation of the STB like a leaking video or firewire driver that's causing the illegal operation.

I've been reading of your issues for a while, and it sounds like you're really close. The fact that it records at all says you've got the drivers installed right. But the fact that it crashes after a short time says that there's something working against you. It would make sense that less HD gets recorded than SD because of the much larger requirements that HD has. The resources get eaten up quicker.

I wish I could give you more specific help, but you may be to the point that you need to do some more general troubleshooting like making sure ALL device drivers for the PC are up to date. And try removing anything that's not essential to what you're trying to do (printers, scanners, virus scanners, etc.) This could at least eliminate potential conflicts.

Good luck!

Just to clarify, I did not say that I managed to record standard definition. I said that Boston Legal, which is in 720p, recorded for longer than the stuff in 1080i. As for making sure that all device drivers are up to date, I'm not sure how I'd do that without the PC connected to the internet. As far as printers or scanners, there aren't any. Only the bare essentials, like the monitor. Although, there is the Norton Antivirus and Internet Security, the subscription of which is expired by now. When I get a chance later tonight, I'll disable both of those to see if it makes a difference.

Norton Internet is probably firewalling your 1394.

But like I said, I can't install from the msi -- I get an error. I'm using just the drivers themselves that grittree posted. I did try uninstalling the "AV/C panel device", and reinstalling it, using meistb.inf as the drivers. But there was still a driver error. But regardless, I tried recording from ABCHD for a few seconds with CapDVHS, but the resulting TS file was empty (0kb). What could be the problem?



So does that mean that I can simply disregard it?



Wait a minute, ESPN is copy protected? I thought that it was only premium channels like HBO that could be copy protected. I'm going to be pretty disappointed if I can't even record from ESPNHD.

Update:

I've managed to capture some video -- for a few seconds at least. It seems that it absolutely will not capture anything on live TV, but I played back a few things on the DVR, and it records for a few seconds before I get an illegal operation. It seems that I have the most success with things in 720p, like Boston Legal. I managed to record 20 or 30 seconds of that before I got an illegal operation, although it varies from one attempt to another. But things in 1080i, such as "How I Met Your Mother", and the Dolphins at Lions thanksgiving game, only record for about 5 seconds before giving me an illegal operation. Any idea what could be wrong here?

did you install using the command line.. and not double clicking the program?

Wow... that reminds me -- at one point, I actually did get a popup from Norton saying that an attack on my computer had been blocked. I've got to go downstairs right now, boot that damn computer up, and find out if the firewall is the problem. I'll post back in a few minutes.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the problem. I disabled Norton Antivirus and Internet Security, as well as the Windows firewall that was installed with SP2. But it didn't fix the problem. In fact, it actually seemed to cause a new problem. When I hit record, I got "Error 800705AA: Cannot start capture".

Actually, I just Googled that error in the middle of writing this post, and I see that it's actually a problem caused by SP2. There's a patch for it, which I downloaded, and will have to put on a CD and take downstairs. But I just realized that as a result of that error, I can’t really be sure whether or not disabling the firewall fixed the problem. Perhaps it did, and I simply didn't get an opportunity to see it because of the aforementioned error. Although, I did try to record off of ESPNHD live, and for some reason I didn't get that error. It recorded for about 10 seconds, although the information about the video -- resolution, fps, etc. -- never showed up, and the video couldn't be played. Then I got an illegal operation. But when I tried to record from the DVR, I got error 800705AA immediately. So perhaps the capture would've worked from the DVR, if not for that error, I don't know. But I'm not going to run back downstairs at the moment, so I'll mess around with it more later tonight.

Wow, I guess this is what happens when you start to write a post before you actually know what you're going to say.

did you install using the command line.. and not double clicking the program?

Yes. I got an error message saying "a DLL required for the installation to complete could not be read".

hmm your windows install could possibly be faulty if its missing the file to run the program.


did you try recording any other channel?


on another note, mine gets illegal operations only on certain channels.

bigpow - on the 16.20 fw. Are you seeing the same problem with content getting stretched and cut off when recording over firewire? I have 16.20 fw, and the problem started between 11/18 and 11/20 .

Not really.
At first, the problem was failure to record anything.
After a few days, I found out that I could record some channels (not all, even when 5c=0), but the result is choppy at best. (sometimes with color break & snow)
So I think Comcast didn't do a full 'upgrade' aka 'screwing-up' in one go, they probably pushed the updates over several days.

I'm 100% sure Comcast messed it up for me since I was a happy camper recording all SD & HD news & commercials. I had absolutely no problem recording any (5c=0) shows / clear channels.
I haven't installed a new AV or firewall, etc. This is a stable/production MCE2k5 box.

FYI, I use CapDVHS - never used MCE recording. I don't even have the FireSTB SysTray installed/running. It was always working, like a charm - pre Comcast screw-up.

I haven't had a chance to confront Comcast, to give me a 6200 with older FW yet - been busy at work. Planning to do so ASAP.

Ok, time for an update. I installed that firewire patch (which doesn't entirely prevent the problem that SP2 caused), and tried again to record with my antivirus and firewalls disabled. But just as before, I'm getting an illegal operation after recording 20-30 seconds of 720p, and about 5 seconds of 1080i. And I get an illegal operation immediately when trying to record live TV. What should I do now?

hmm your windows install could possibly be faulty if its missing the file to run the program.

Which would mean that I should reinstall Windows, using the disk that I lost 3 years ago... right? Perhaps I should just gouge my eyes out instead, and then none of this would matter anymore. :D

did you try recording any other channel?

Well as I said, I can't record anything on live TV, regardless of the channel. But as far as things on the DVR, I've captured a few seconds of things on the HD versions of ABC, NBC and CBS. I tried to record ESPNHD and ESPN2HD, but those didn't work. I would've tried FoxHD as well, but the Time Warner here (just outside of Buffalo) doesn't have it yet. :rolleyes:

Which would mean that I should reinstall Windows, using the disk that I lost 3 years ago... right? Perhaps I should just gouge my eyes out instead, and then none of this would matter anymore. :D


lol that works too :p


anyhow, did you make sure the channels arent 5c protected?

Everyone keeps trying to assist DJK06 which is definitely commendable and appreciated.

But my question is has anyone ACTUALLY BEEN ABLE to get ANYTHING off of a sa8300hd?

I have followed this entire post and have seen no one successful in capturing from the sa8300hd.

ATTN: HighDefCowboy, Arvy, Epsilon

and any others in Canada using the service provider Shaw Cable (shaw.ca). I have just ordered a new Shaw cable package with the Motorola 6416.

Is it true that firewire is disabled because of an upgrade to the Motorola firmware (v16.20). I have read many pages of posts but have yet to form a conclusion as to what the status is.

From what I gather so far, the Motorola 6416 that I just paid $748 for doesn't allow recording to PC?

If this is true, have any of you found a work around to make it work or re-enable the firewire port?

At the bottom of the product page it says that it has the connections: 1394 (DTV)
shaw dot ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Television/Digital/Hardware-HDPVR.htm

Another page says it's enabled;

shaw dot ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Televisionold/HDTV/HDTVExperienceTuner.htm

Bigpow - interesting the problem is a bit different for you. When I run CapDVHS i get the exact same problem i'm getting with MyTray.

Anyways - I've compainled and asked them to revert me back to the old firmware. I got a comcast person now who wants to change my box out. I really don't think that's going to fix it - firmware update please. I don't think they need to replace the box for that.

xtrachrisb - I'm not in Canada - but the same firmware 16.20 here in the US via Comcast, is cause the picture to be cropped when recording via firewire. See my posting about two days back.

anyhow, did you make sure the channels arent 5c protected?

How do I find that out?

[B]ATTN:
Is it true that firewire is disabled because of an upgrade to the Motorola firmware (v16.20). I have read many pages of posts but have yet to form a conclusion as to what the status is.


There's a little more to it than that.

From my experience, the firewire is not disabled in v16.20. What changed is that some channels with no encryption (5C=0) do have a CCI control set to 0x02. That is copy-once, with the STB hard drive being the "once". That was not a problem with the older firmware.

I don't know whether the stations or the cableco put in the CCI flag. Here, two of the six OTA stations have the flag set. And they have the same owner. The other stations still copy over firewire as before.

Anyways - I've compainled and asked them to revert me back to the old firmware. I got a comcast person now who wants to change my box out. I really don't think that's going to fix it - firmware update please. I don't think they need to replace the box for that.

Yeah, switching the STB with another one won't solve the problem.
I'm sure the new STB would get pushed to 16.20 eventually.. :rolleyes:

At any rate, it looks like the partnership between STB and firewire is over for good.
:mad:
I'm thinking of checking the other forum, how people with their own QAM256 HD tuners are doing.
If Comcast's FW didn't cause the problems (TV stations did it), then they should run into the same problems. Nevertheless, I won't buy my own HD Tuner - not that desperate to record the news & ads.

Everyone keeps trying to assist DJK06 which is definitely commendable and appreciated.

But my question is has anyone ACTUALLY BEEN ABLE to get ANYTHING off of a sa8300hd?

I have followed this entire post and have seen no one successful in capturing from the sa8300hd.

Yes, just last nite. I cannot get anything live off of it, no matter what channel I tried. However, I got a couple of things off of the HDD in test cases for a few minutes each. That was all the time I had to mess with it. Some recordings would transfer. I got a portion of Studio 60 that was recorded from NBC, but nothing recorded from ABC would transfer. I got a good portion of Battlestar Gallactica from Universal HD that was shown last Sunday. I watched both in VLC, and recorded portions of each with CapDVHS. I was also able to watch recorded SD shows, although the 8300HD does such a crappy job of SD recording, I'd rather use a VHS recorder.

Since the 8300HD has two HD tuners, I will try the other one tonite for live capture. Why it will record off the the HDD but not live is a mystery. Why only some local HD stations can be captured off the HDD is also a mystery. And why I can record anything from Universal HD at all is a real mystery.

I'm on Knology cable with SARA software.

Jon

Can someone confirm in the Moto 6412/6416 diagnostics screen

d11 (interface status)
1394 I/O Device
Active Ports:0

means that zero of the two firewire ports are active? There are currently no cables attached but I've checked with one run to a PC with Active Ports:0, as well.

I talked to Brent at Shaw today and he said that the firewire ports are enabled but you have to download drivers from the Internet and they don't support that. Does anybody have a link to the post that describes exactly which drivers and how to install them? I have read many pages of posts, but want to follow the instructions that will work, hopefully the first time :)

Here's a link to install the drivers:

http://hdjunkie.com/tutorials.html

There are only one set of drivers for STB to PC via firewire. Written by Matsushita Electric (mei). However there are three iterations of the .inf file out there. They are named meitape.inf (2004), meistb.inf (2005) and meistb.inf (2006). The actual drivers, the .sys files are all the same.

I suggest you use the latest .inf file since it has been modded to include more STB models. You can get them by using the timmmoore MCE package, or for just the drivers use the ones in post #3234. The link in the post just above has the 2005 version of the .inf file.

Yes, just last nite. I cannot get anything live off of it, no matter what channel I tried. However, I got a couple of things off of the HDD in test cases for a few minutes each. That was all the time I had to mess with it. Some recordings would transfer. I got a portion of Studio 60 that was recorded from NBC, but nothing recorded from ABC would transfer. I got a good portion of Battlestar Gallactica from Universal HD that was shown last Sunday. I watched both in VLC, and recorded portions of each with CapDVHS. I was also able to watch recorded SD shows, although the 8300HD does such a crappy job of SD recording, I'd rather use a VHS recorder.

Since the 8300HD has two HD tuners, I will try the other one tonite for live capture. Why it will record off the the HDD but not live is a mystery. Why only some local HD stations can be captured off the HDD is also a mystery. And why I can record anything from Universal HD at all is a real mystery.

I'm on Knology cable with SARA software.

Jon

Could you give me a quick rundown of what you are using ie what version of windows, which driver, cable provider, version of firmware and possibly the order you are doing everything in? I have winxp sp2 and I extracted the firemsi drivers and installed them (pc recognizes the stb) and then I used capdvhs. orginally capdvhs crashed immediately. Now it willl keep running but the fire size is zero and the data info is not being populated.

I am trying to install the drivers for firewire capture but my Comcast box is a 3416 dvr box not the 6412. Motorola is under the manufacturer but there is no model for a motorola tuner av/c device. I am using winxp. not sure if it's sp2. Any ideas?

The 3416 is identified as a 3412. It's listed in the latest .inf file.

AVC\MOTOROLA&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0.DeviceDesc="Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-3412)"

i downloaded the .zip file from the replayguide.sourceforge website. dont know if its the latest version. if it's not where can i get the latest. thanks

zx, the .inf file is just text. Look inside with notepad and see if the DCT-3412 is there. Probably not.

To get the latest you have two choices.

Running MCE or XP-SP2, get the package linked in post #1. This is the easiest method.

Running any XP or MCE, get the drivers in post #3234. Use the instructions here to install:
http://hdjunkie.com/tutorials.html . This is not quite as easy.

One more problem. I can capture the video without issue, but when I do, I get no sound. Suggestions?

bavanlan, assuming it's HD, you can't capture just video. HDTV is sent as an mpeg2 stream which has both audio and video in it. What you capture (actually just a file transfer) with capdvhs is a transport stream, which is an envelope with the mpeg2 stream(s) inside.

Probably what you are missing is an AC3 audio codec needed by the software you are using to play the .ts file.

has anyone gotten a Motorola QIP6416 box under Verizon Fios to work?

I just got mine working (my biggest problem was not reading the entire first post) but it looks like most channels are protected. You can record all the Sabado Gigante you want though...

Drinklime,

I was thinking of getting FIOS TV when available so I wanted to confirm that
with FIOS, even the network channels are protected?

I thought that networks are supposed to be unprotected 5c=0 channels?

I hope we can get them to change that.

I cant say 100%. Some channels worked and some didnt. For example I tried to grab a bit of the Tonight Show HD and Late show HD, neither worked. But yesterday Frontline on PBS HD worked. I havent tried too many channels.

Well, I just tried some locals (1-49) and the ones I tried worked.

I know this isn't exactly the right place, but I couldn't find a subforum/thread that answered my questions so I'm posting them here. I plan on using my computer as source for my home theater in progress. I would like to run my cable box through the computer so that the video card can upscale/deinterlace the video to 1080p before it goes to the projector. I've only just begun researching the best way to do this, but so far it seems that Firewire into the computer is the easiest solution. The cable box will be an 8300HD. I'm not really interested in recording TV to my computer, I just want it to go through my computer so the computer can act as a video processor. Is there any way to just have the cable box go to the computer via firewire, upscaled to 1080p, and output via DVI? I want to be able to watch live TV, is this possible with the methods suggested in this thread, or will that only work for recording? Also, although I'm only trying to pass the video through my computer and not record it, will I still suffer from the same problems as everyone else here who are trying to record? Thanks in advance :)

Moto 6416 III TWC SoCal (firmware ver. 12.35)

I decided to lease the box a couple months ago and happened upon this thread. Happily, the drivers were installed and off I went into recording this and that and whatever could be sent to a PC. For an unrelated reason, TWC reset the box remotely. A day or two later, I went to transfer a recorded movie to my PC and CapDVHS didn't see the Moto (no connected device). Called TWC and had to explain to them what IEEE 1394 is. The sent a tech out to replace the box. Same thing, nothing. The supervisor said the ports aren't enabled and won't be. Called back a week later, explained to another tech what IEEE 1394 is. The sent out someone with a Moxi which I didn't want. They rescehduled. 4 days later another Moto box arrived with inactive ports (I'm looking at CapDVHS connectivity and d11 in the diagnostics screen with 0 IEEE 1394 ports enabled). This installer assures me in 5 days the warehouse will provide a 'good' STB. The day before the installation, TWC calls that they have no such STBs available. I give up and hang my head.


TWC, maybe the firmware needs to be flashed!!!!!

I know this isn't exactly the right place, but I couldn't find a subforum/thread that answered my questions so I'm posting them here. I plan on using my computer as source for my home theater in progress. I would like to run my cable box through the computer so that the video card can upscale/deinterlace the video to 1080p before it goes to the projector. I've only just begun researching the best way to do this, but so far it seems that Firewire into the computer is the easiest solution. The cable box will be an 8300HD. I'm not really interested in recording TV to my computer, I just want it to go through my computer so the computer can act as a video processor. Is there any way to just have the cable box go to the computer via firewire, upscaled to 1080p, and output via DVI? I want to be able to watch live TV, is this possible with the methods suggested in this thread, or will that only work for recording? Also, although I'm only trying to pass the video through my computer and not record it, will I still suffer from the same problems as everyone else here who are trying to record? Thanks in advance :)

Remember a PC is not a licensed device and probably never will. So the short answer is can't do, firewire is broken on the 8300HD and even if you get it to work you're at the mercy of 5C, there is not such thing as a component DVI/HDMI PC encoder card and if it's one available it probably be extremely expensive.
Fusion HDTV or MyHD cards may be a solution for you but only to record and watch QAM/8vbs CLEAR TO AIR signals. I have the FusionHDTV card but the software sucks.

PEOPLE give up with firewire on the Passport 8300HD is not working in HD and it's unreliable on SD, don't you think if it's feasible to transfer to a PC would it be a thread dedicated to this STB.
This is the best you can do with it, read this short thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=593271&page=3&pp=30

there is not such thing as a component DVI/HDMI PC encoder card and if it's one available it probably be extremely expensive.
$249 Intensity card (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/) (shipping soon)

From the specs section of that site:

"The HDMI standard can include copy protected encryption, such as DVD players. The Intensity card therefore will NOT capture from copy protected HDMI sources. Always confirm copyright ownership before capture or distribution of content. Intensity media file formats are fully compatible with DeckLink and Multibridge capture cards"

This is a new area for me. I have a Motorola 6412 phase iii stb from Comcast here near Detroit, MI. I recently DVR'd the six Star Wars movies broadcast by Cinemax. Together they take up 60+ percent of the DVR's capacity.

The process listed on the first pageof this thread...can I use that to transfer these recordings to an external unit? And what kind of external unit can I transfer to? D-VHS? PC? Other?

Is there a common link that someone can link me to in order to flesh out what i need to know and what I need to do in order to trasnfer these movies from the 6412 to somethign else?

Thanks in advance.

Just wondering if the drivers on the first post are the most up to date?

Also I currently have the Motorola DCT-6412 III from Comcast but am thinking of swapping it out for a Motorola DCT-3416. I was wondering if these are supported in these drivers?

Also if anyone else uses Comcast or maybe their cable provider happens to use the same boxes, do the non-DVR , just plain HD boxes support recording or channel changing over firewire? If so what models?

Thanks.

There have only been one set of drivers. Just some updated .inf files to match the device ID of the newer STBs. The 3416 has the same device ID as the 3412, which is in the .inf file linked on the first page.

The 6200 is supported, at least for recording.

Fellas, I need some help. I have a Comcast 3412 I in Connecticut.

I picked up a firewire cable and ran it into the back of my Windows XP system. I followed the guide and installed the drivers via command line. When I rebooted and plugged in the firewire cable It installed the AV/C Device and the AV/C Panel I think, something like that. It tried to install other stuff too but had no idea what that was, so I cancelled that out and removed the device so it wouldn't keep bugging me. I was left with two entries in my Windows XP hardware manager under IMAGING DEVICES:
Motorola AV/C Panel Device (DCT-3412), and Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-3412).

Problem is when I open up CAPVHS I have two capture devices listed. Motorola Tuner Device (unknown Video #1), and Motorola AV/C Panel Device.

IF I click RECORD on the Panel Device...I get an ERROR from the app saying it could not connect SampleGrabber.

IF I click RECORD on the Tuner Device it starts recording an mpeg......but it doesn't put any info at all in the DATA INFO area. When I stop it and go to play the file, there's nothing there.....some clicking perhaps.

I've tried a couple different digital channels.

Anyone have any ideas on whats going on? Any info would be appreciated...and yeah this is my first day trying this out so if its something obvious, I apologize in advance.

************************************************************ **
I think the AV/C Panel device should NOT be installed . . . just the AV/C device. I followed the instructions at replayguide-sourceforge-net/dct6412 which are for the motorola drivers for the DCT6400:

I followed these exactly and was able to capture beautifully and get the *.ts files resulting converted to a VIDEO_TS folder for DVD or to MPEG.

Lucidor

Lucidor, it doesn't help or hurt having the 'Panel' device installed. It's irrelevant.

The reason you get good results and the other person doesn't has to do with your cableco and which channels you are recording. Do a search on "CCI" or "0x02" in this thread for an explanation.

It would help if Bdraw updates the first post to explain these latest changes. That's where most people start.

Hey everyone just wanted to let those who have a ff/rw problem after recording from dvr to pc know that I just found a solution to the problem w/o having to reset your box. After you are done recording whatever it is you want and have ff/rw issues just hit record again and ff or rw and while you are doing that stop the recording and now your ff/rw issues are cured. :)

Lucidor, it doesn't help or hurt having the 'Panel' device installed. It's irrelevant.

The reason you get good results and the other person doesn't has to do with your cableco and which channels you are recording. Do a search on "CCI" or "0x02" in this thread for an explanation.

It would help if Bdraw updates the first post to explain these latest changes. That's where most people start.

Hi Grittree:
I wasn't sure about the AV/C Panel, just that a final step was to disable all other 1394 devices except the AV/C Tuner, so I guess it's just that they're not needed.
I have Comcast in Motgomery Co., Md. and I may see problems with other channels, but so far I've cleanly gotten TNT-HD(249), NBC-HD(212 I think) and SciFi channel. The only problem I've seen was a zero length file when I forgot to power on the Cable box ! LOL :-/
I'll take a look at those "CCI" and "0x02" posts. Thanks for the info.

Lucidor

So I can get it to stream via VLC, but the streaming is incredibly pixelized. This is the same when I produce a capture using the MCE recording via TIMMORE's software. I've tried three different computers (two Vista, once XPSP2) and three cable boxes with all the same resultant.

What causes the pixelization/frame dropouts? Every once in a while it will be smooth for a second or two and then go to pixelized again. This is with SA3250's and I tried a 8300 as well. I've swapped out the 3250's for new ones.

I've got "free" for the CCI/EMI (which is logical since I'm trying to do PBS). But my results are the same on all of the channels I try.

I'm wondering if signal levels could be it. My understanding is an RF signal of anything better than -7 is fine. I've got usually a -3, which should be fine.

Fwiw, this is in Alexandria, VA with Comcast.

Wirebrook, are you getting a normal picture when directly watching the STB?

If so, then your signal levels are fine. The data on the firewire cable is exactly the same mpeg2 file as on the STB hard drive. Transferring to your PC is a trivial file transfer unless there is encryption or copy protection involved.

Next, can you watch a known good TS file on your PC? If you have never tried, you can download a 30sec 1080i clip here:
http://demod.dvico.com/hdtv/hdtv_demo2.tp
then rename from .tp to .ts

quick update:

I was one of those who were affected by the recent Comcast firmware update;
I haven't contacted Comcast yet to get a replacement STB, but last night I tried it again and it worked (sorta).
I'm able to record the shows defect free again. The only exception is CBS-HD (weird, huh?!) and Discovery-HD. I was able to record their shows before the FW update. (except when they set 5c ON, of course)

I also noticed that the STB performs a LOT slower now with the new FW... this is when it comes to channel surfing, and power-up time.
One side note, I think the new FW actually fixed something, such as DVI out (now it has HDCP) works better with my TV (was getting random out-of-synch before).

Any take?

Wirebrook, are you getting a normal picture when directly watching the STB?

If so, then your signal levels are fine. The data on the firewire cable is exactly the same mpeg2 file as on the STB hard drive. Transferring to your PC is a trivial file transfer unless there is encryption or copy protection involved.

Next, can you watch a known good TS file on your PC? If you have never tried, you can download a 30sec 1080i clip here:
http://demod.dvico.com/hdtv/hdtv_demo2.tp
then rename from .tp to .ts

Yup, I have no issues playing back the file, nor any other HD content on any of the PC's. Interestingly, when I do playback the file on other computers it always pixelizes in the same place, which makes me believe the actual recording is the problem.

When I watch via the STB, the picture is just fine. Any other thoughts? I can easily upload a 10-20MB clip to show what I'm referring to.

I have a problem getting this method to work. I have a DCT 6200, and when I installed the driver files that are on the beggining of this thread it was successfully installed, but when I plug the firewire into the back of my PC and the dct 6200 nothing happens. Does not detect anything at all.

Any suggestions?

I'm having a real problem with audio dropouts and audio lag dumping from firewire on a DCT 3416 I to both a JVC 5U and JVC 4000U DVHS recorders. My prior unit was a 6412 and worked great until its HD died. Comcast came and replaced the bad unit with this 3416. Now I can't record via firewire. :( Are others experiencing the same problem?

I contacted my cable provider, and had them swap my DCT 6200 and now the firewire works fine. ! w00t!

I installed the drivers from post 1 but after i captured some of a channel, my computer didnt recognize the format. I have a motorola 3416 box and using winxp. I changed the file extension to .ts but when i try to play it with nero or win media player it doesnt work, Am i doing something wrong?

i removed drivers then reinstalled and finally got it to capture part of Fox-HD but there is no sound.

i removed drivers then reinstalled and finally got it to capture part of Fox-HD but there is no sound.
Perhaps you need a certain codec to play back the audio.

how would i know if i need a codec? Originally it wouldnt capture correctly. when file ext was changed to .ts in capdvhs it would create a file that couldnt play. i used a different program which converted it to a mpeg2 format and now it plays in nero and win media player but no sound. is it an audio codec or something else i am doing wrong.

how would i know if i need a codec? Originally it wouldnt capture correctly. when file ext was changed to .ts in capdvhs it would create a file that couldnt play. i used a different program which converted it to a mpeg2 format and now it plays in nero and win media player but no sound. is it an audio codec or something else i am doing wrong.

Download Gspot and analyze the original stream and the converted clips to see if you got the AC3 codecs installed.
to play ts or tp streams on windows media download HDTVpump.

I have the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD with Time Warner Cable. I have followed all of the instructions here about installing the drivers and making everything work. I was able to get the device installed properly and it is recognized by all my capture programs. However, I am unable to make it actually capture the picture on the screen regardless of the program I use. It either gives an error or just captures a black screen.

I was just curious if anyone else had run across this issue and if so what did they do to fix it.

Thanks.

I have the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD with Time Warner Cable. I have followed all of the instructions here about installing the drivers and making everything work. I was able to get the device installed properly and it is recognized by all my capture programs. However, I am unable to make it actually capture the picture on the screen regardless of the program I use. It either gives an error or just captures a black screen.

I was just curious if anyone else had run across this issue and if so what did they do to fix it.

Thanks.
That could be because the channel is copy protected. I'd suggest trying a few different channels and see what happens.

I have been recently capturing programs from my Moto 6412 to my PC without much issue. I am trying to edit the streams, removing commercials, and then save to DVD and every time I do the audio/video no longer remain in sync.

My latest issue is that when I am capturing with CapDVHS (apparently I have discovered how to save it directly as .mpg) and then add it to my authoring software, which is currently ULead Workshop 2, I get video but no audio. Tried it again and I get neither audio or video recognized. However they always play perfectly in Windows Media Player.

Any ideas? This process was working fine and has stopped. I reloaded drivers, all software, powercycled the STB, tried both FW ports and have the same results (yes, both ports work). No new firmware versions.

My latest issue is that when I am capturing with CapDVHS (apparently I have discovered how to save it directly as .mpg)

No, changing the extension to .mpg doesn't make it a .mpg. If it is on the STB drive as a .ts (which HDTV is), then that is what you get. Capdvhs is only a file transfer program. You can call it a .jpg if you wish, but calling it .ts will remind you what it really is.

Yup, I have no issues playing back the file, nor any other HD content on any of the PC's. Interestingly, when I do playback the file on other computers it always pixelizes in the same place, which makes me believe the actual recording is the problem.

When I watch via the STB, the picture is just fine. Any other thoughts? I can easily upload a 10-20MB clip to show what I'm referring to.
I have the exact same problem as you do. Watching via the STB is perfect, playing HD content form the computer is perfect, recording and playback via Firewire of HD content results in major pixelization and audio drop outs.

I've tried updating drivers for the Firewire adapter, re-seating the Firewire card in a different slot, ensuring the Firewire card has it's own IRQ, and changed the Firewire cable. None of these made the slightest difference!

Someone please suggest a solution to this problem. I would hate, just hate, to have to buy TWC's HD DVR service just to be able to record HD content!!

I have a DCT6412 II and have been using the firewire method to capture videos to my PC.


Something changed around last week. When attempting to capture video, it no longer displays any info in CapDVHS.exe like size, aspect ratio, etc. Nevertheless, it recognizes that a firewire device is there and records a .TS file of seemingly normal size.

When I try to open the .TS file in HDTVtoMPEG2 the program crashes with an exception error. Note that I get this same problem when trying to capture analog or digital, so it's not an encryption issue. At least it shouldn't be.

Has anyone else had this problem or recommend a troubleshooting approach?

Busybee, many people have recently had this problem. It is the "copy once" flag set on some channels. It varies widely by location which stations are affected.

Thanks. I don't think DTCP/5C is enabled, but I'll double check tonight. It behaves this way no matter the channel. Even things like analog CNN. Would all channels be "copy once" across the board?

You ae right, this is not 5C encryption. In my market, it's only two of the local stations. Use VLC streaming to quickly check which channels are flagged.

Thanks. I don't think DTCP/5C is enabled, but I'll double check tonight. It behaves this way no matter the channel. Even things like analog CNN. Would all channels be "copy once" across the board?

I think that IS DTCP/5C enabled on the source. "copy once" flag should engage DTCP/5C protection, otherwise it is meaningless. Your situration looks like the Japanese BSD system with "copy once" enabled, hence no more PC recording.

regards,

Li On

No, changing the extension to .mpg doesn't make it a .mpg. If it is on the STB drive as a .ts (which HDTV is), then that is what you get. Capdvhs is only a file transfer program. You can call it a .jpg if you wish, but calling it .ts will remind you what it really is.

After a while of thought I realized my error. Thank you for the reply.

I realize this is a forum for capturing to the PC, but does anyone have a good suggestion for a DVD authoring program that does not make the video/audio go completely out of sync? I have tried ULead Workshop 2 and Sonic Roxio 8 and neither have been good with a few attempts. Or is this a hopeless cause?

I've had good luck using tsconverter to reencode ts to mpg. Then tmpgenc dvd author, but I assume once you have a mpg with audio in sync, the authoring shouldn't matter.

Beware you do need to install pdmpgmux.ax to convert to mpg. Details are at the tsconverter site.

I've had good luck using tsconverter to reencode ts to mpg. Then tmpgenc dvd author, but I assume once you have a mpg with audio in sync, the authoring shouldn't matter.

Beware you do need to install pdmpgmux.ax to convert to mpg. Details are at the tsconverter site.

Thanks grittree! I have been able to re-encode as mpg with both HDTVtoMPEG2 and VideoRedo and able to play the new file with the video and audio in sync with Windows Media Player (which also plays the ts files). Something seems to happen when converting to the DVD. Sometimes the video freezes or gets a lot of artifacts, or just the audio seems to go faster or slower than the video. No rhyme or reason on what may happen.

I will try your suggestions and see if it comes out any better.

I am interested in getting some HD material off my SA 8300HD hard drive and onto my HTPC. After scanning this thread I am beginning to think this is not possible.

Has anyone had any success getting material off of the 8300HD and onto a HTPC? I believe this question has been asked before but wasn't answered.

I am planning on downloading the drivers on page 1 of this thread and then use DVHS to try and get the material off. I'm really not even sure if the DVHS program is appropriate as it seems to be for capture of live TV and not for archiving off of a hard drive. (Software Suggestions?)

If anyone has anything to share on the SA 8300HD it would MUCH appreciated.

Sorry for the Newbie questions.

Thanks

For anyone using VLC to stream live TV via firewire, the newest version (0.8.6) now works again with Firewire/Motorola STB. No need to use the extremely outdated 0.7.2

Thanks. my TV works great with my laptop using the drives and CapDVHS posted here. I can now record FTA shows without any other expensive HD device, and then squeez it using BeyondTV. I'd like to know if anybody was successful with other kind of software

Can someone clear up a few things for me please?

In the 6416 III's diagnostics setup d11 (interface status), there are several subcategories under 1394 I/O Device. Active Ports, Data Xmission, 5C Implementation, Loop/Root/Cycle Master Status are listed. Leaving aside the Status lines, Active ports set to 0 tells me neither of the two firewire ports are activated. Data Xmission set to No indicates data cannot pass through the firewire ports. 5C Implementation set to 1 means encryption is in effect so streams will not cature via a PC or DVHS.

Are my assumptions correct?

Ok, i've been trying to follow all the steps to transfer video to me pc via firewire. I installed a firewire card, and installed the drivers for the 6412 because I guess it is supposed to work with the 3412 unless I was misinformed. My problem is...

I got everything installed, and the box would show up on my hardware list. But then it would disappear. I don't know if the drivers are bad, or if its a bad cable/firewire card. or what. I just kept running into problems. I would have to restart because apparently I had ti install sp2, then the sp2 firewire drivers, and everytime it would be gone. Then I would try to reinstall the box, and it wasn't working for some reason... any ideas?!

#2 I was trying to use HDTVtoMPEG2 to convert the .ts file to .mpg. I ran into problems with that because It was giving me an error message "Can not find channel". But the "channel" area on the right side of the screen was grayed out. I have no idea what to do. PLEASE HELP!!

Can someone clear up a few things for me please?

In the 6416 III's diagnostics setup d11 (interface status), there are several subcategories under 1394 I/O Device. Active Ports, Data Xmission, 5C Implementation, Loop/Root/Cycle Master Status are listed. Leaving aside the Status lines, Active ports set to 0 tells me neither of the two firewire ports are activated. Data Xmission set to No indicates data cannot pass through the firewire ports. 5C Implementation set to 1 means encryption is in effect so streams will not cature via a PC or DVHS.

Are my assumptions correct?

Except I believe these only become "active" once a firewire device is attached. In other words, it will always show the info you're seeing until you attach the device at which time the categories will come to life.

I went on VERIZON FIOS TV Service a few weeks ago and ran into the problem with recording over the 1394 interface. I reported to the FIOS people at VERIZON and they have found the cause. They have patched the firmware for the STBs and have tested it. It will released and updated on all of the STBs in the next 4 to 6 weeks or when ever the next firmware update is done to the STBs. :)

I have the exact same problem as you do. Watching via the STB is perfect, playing HD content form the computer is perfect, recording and playback via Firewire of HD content results in major pixelization and audio drop outs.

I've tried updating drivers for the Firewire adapter, re-seating the Firewire card in a different slot, ensuring the Firewire card has it's own IRQ, and changed the Firewire cable. None of these made the slightest difference!

Someone please suggest a solution to this problem. I would hate, just hate, to have to buy TWC's HD DVR service just to be able to record HD content!!
I now have this problem as well. For a year I've been capturing HD movies and playing them back without issue. Sometime in November things started to fail in the same way mentioned by you and Wirebook - pixelation in the captured stream. My guess is that something in the computer has changed but I have been unable to restore my machine back to a time when it worked properly. One new piece of data is that I can get a clean capture of a short duration like 5 minutes. When I capture the same DVR program for a long time then it goes bad even for the first minutes that were clean. I suspect the PC but haven't figured out what to try next.

Well, I just read back a few pages and I have the same 6412 firmware (16.20) and the problem occured at the same time as others reported. So it looks like Comcast pushed out a firmware upgrade that screwed up capturing for good. So much for HD captures from the 6412.

Has anyone gotten this to work? I *almost* have it working but the audio stutters randomly. This is on a P4 3.0G machine with 512MB of RAM, SP2. Any ideas? Thanks!

JimVR, count me as another 6412 owner with 16.20 firmware person who is very frustrated by the pixelated output on my TS firewire captures. Are there any workarounds yet?

I think the issue with the Comcast/Motorola boxes which have the new 16.20 firmware is not a glitch at all, but the result of the introduction of the CCI setting - "Copy Control Indicator."

Like many of us, I'd been able to record 5C=0 content for several years until the new firmware arrived. It took a bunch of phone calls, but I persuaded Comcast to replace my 6200 series with a 6400 series box. No difference.

I probed a little deeper and found when the CCI setting is active (something like '0x2') -- no recording via firewire is possible. When it's not ('0x0'), I can still record.

Googling "CCI" and "Copy Control Indicator" doesn't turn up a whole lot, but it's obvious that this is yet another copy control scheme (in addition to 5C). I'm wondering if there is anybody who can speak authoritatively on CCI. In addition to wondering exactly what it is and where it came from, there are two other important questions:

(1) Who sets 'CCI' (the cable company or the content provider) and;
(2) In the case of OTA channels -- is it legal? In my mind, this is the "broadcast flag" issue, especially if it is being set by broadcast stations (and I half-suspect that's the case).

I got to the point of discussing CCI with an interested in-house Comcast tech, but the conversation seems to have ended with his promise to try to find out more about who controls the setting.

It really does seem, though, that the days of building our own HTPCs and recording even over-the-air broadcasts is drawing to a close, like it or not. I'm guessing we'll be consigned to purchasing/renting dedicated equipment that will allow time-shifting, but little or no archiving

The DRM era is really going to be interesting.

JimVR, count me as another 6412 owner with 16.20 firmware person who is very frustrated by the pixelated output on my TS firewire captures. Are there any workarounds yet?

I am also running into the pixelated output. Also, I don't get any audio when recording HD (CSI Miami CBS previously recorded with DVR). I'm running a 6412 III from Comcast.

Is CBS HD a protected station? If so, this is a strange way to protect media. You can *almost* watch it! :mad:

I think the issue with the Comcast/Motorola boxes which have the new 16.20 firmware is not a glitch at all, but the result of the introduction of the CCI setting - "Copy Control Indicator."

Like many of us, I'd been able to record 5C=0 content for several years until the new firmware arrived. It took a bunch of phone calls, but I persuaded Comcast to replace my 6200 series with a 6400 series box. No difference.

I probed a little deeper and found when the CCI setting is active (something like '0x2') -- no recording via firewire is possible. When it's not ('0x0'), I can still record.

Googling "CCI" and "Copy Control Indicator" doesn't turn up a whole lot, but it's obvious that this is yet another copy control scheme (in addition to 5C). I'm wondering if there is anybody who can speak authoritatively on CCI. In addition to wondering exactly what it is and where it came from, there are two other important questions:

(1) Who sets 'CCI' (the cable company or the content provider) and;
(2) In the case of OTA channels -- is it legal? In my mind, this is the "broadcast flag" issue, especially if it is being set by broadcast stations (and I half-suspect that's the case).

I got to the point of discussing CCI with an interested in-house Comcast tech, but the conversation seems to have ended with his promise to try to find out more about who controls the setting.

It really does seem, though, that the days of building our own HTPCs and recording even over-the-air broadcasts is drawing to a close, like it or not. I'm guessing we'll be consigned to purchasing/renting dedicated equipment that will allow time-shifting, but little or no archiving

The DRM era is really going to be interesting.


If any of these problems relate back to Comcast, it wouldn't surprise me one bit. I've been paying the premium for this DVR for almost 2 years now and all the HD I ever watch (not much) is hit and miss. Some shows drop and pixelate while watching live TV! Despite numerous calls, techs, and other nonsense Comcast hasn't been able to fix it. Also, the on-demand is pretty much useless unless you happen to watch it during the day when nobody else is? Always get the dreaded "server unavailable" errors and it always miraculously manages to work when they send the techs out on a wednesday afternoon. :confused:

Curious, are you able to watch SD tv live via firewire and VLC without audio stutter? I know I posted it above, but I'm sure others have tried?

In trying to debug the firewire capture issue I did notice that DVHS could not detect the 1280x720 CBS channel while the other channels I tried worked OK. It's irrelevent since all captures more than a few minutes long are pixelating badly. It actually looks like Comcast is able to degrade the signal quality on the firewire output of the 6412 box.

My Comcast service has been fine except all channels started pixelating (Comcast calls it tiling) and a service call revealed that the signals levels at the tap were about 15 dB too high. That was corrected within a day and all was well until 16.20 was pushed out :(

Is there a How-To for Mac users ?

:D

...Googling "CCI" and "Copy Control Indicator" doesn't turn up a whole lot, but it's obvious that this is yet another copy control scheme (in addition to 5C). I'm wondering if there is anybody who can speak authoritatively on CCI. In addition to wondering exactly what it is and where it came from, there are two other important questions:

(1) Who sets 'CCI' (the cable company or the content provider) and;
(2) In the case of OTA channels -- is it legal? In my mind, this is the "broadcast flag" issue, especially if it is being set by broadcast stations (and I half-suspect that's the case).A couple months I ran into the CCI "roadblock" on about half of the HD channels we get over Comcast in the Seattle area. Refer back to the vicinity of this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8709517&&#post8709517) (about a page forward and back). Also, this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8710513&&#post8710513) in another thread covers a bit more of my situation.

The CCI flag is embedded in the program stream to which it applies, but I've come up pretty much empty when it comes to finding out who embeds it and when. I suspect it's somehow being done "automatically" (without active human intervention) by some kind of algorithm(s) that's been programmed into our DVR's firmware. This could make it difficult to undo and almost impossible to prove that someone is illegally embedding it. Perhaps a convenient workaround for the DRM people to the codes that regulate when it's allowed to be set to something other than "Copy Always" (00x0).

Tim

Is there a How-To for Mac users ?
Yes, there is! (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=386740)

I just swapped out my 3412 that was having too many problems for a 3416 and now I can't get my notebook to find a capture device when starting CapDVHS. Has anybody else run into this situation? What steps should I take to get back in business?

Thanks!

Yes, there is!

T'anks. You da man :D

I just swapped out my 3412 that was having too many problems for a 3416 and now I can't get my notebook to find a capture device when starting CapDVHS. Has anybody else run into this situation? What steps should I take to get back in business?

Thanks!
It's normal to lose the drivers when swapping Moto boxes. But you should have gotten 'found new hardware'.

Troubleshooting is done in device manager.

It's normal to lose the drivers when swapping Moto boxes. But you should have gotten 'found new hardware'.

Troubleshooting is done in device manager.When I went from a 6412 to a 3412, I was able to get it all working in Device Manager in a few minutes. Last night I spent about 3 hours in Device Manager (along with trying every combination of whether my DVHS was on or off or 1394 connected or not) with absolutely zero success.

If it was going to work at all, I can't imagine it being that difficult.

I fiddled a bit last night to no success but will report this:
The streams that view pixelated in WMP and VLC play without pixelation in Theatertek 2.4....HOWEVER...there is a lot of stuttering. Theatertek appears to be locking on to the last 'clean' frame and holding it until another clean frame.

I don't know if that has to do with I frames (keyframes) in the transport stream or what exactly but there appears to be some sort of alteration of the stream from these Comcast boxes...I simply doubt that all broadcasters decided to alter their feeds at the same time.

The question I'm wondering is, was this an inadvertent side-effect of the latest Comcast firmware, or a deliberate 'locking down' of the 1394 output? I don't know anyone who could answer that definitively.

I fiddled a bit last night to no success but will report this:
The streams that view pixelated in WMP and VLC play without pixelation in Theatertek 2.4....HOWEVER...there is a lot of stuttering. Theatertek appears to be locking on to the last 'clean' frame and holding it until another clean frame.

I don't know if that has to do with I frames (keyframes) in the transport stream or what exactly but there appears to be some sort of alteration of the stream from these Comcast boxes...I simply doubt that all broadcasters decided to alter their feeds at the same time.

The question I'm wondering is, was this an inadvertent side-effect of the latest Comcast firmware, or a deliberate 'locking down' of the 1394 output? I don't know anyone who could answer that definitively.

All seems kind of crazy for what they charge doesn't it? I'm two steps away from calling up Comcast and telling them to take the !@#$ back and set back to regular analog cable. I can still watch the few shows I watch and there are other ways to get the current TV shows in HD with a LOT less frustration let alone high cost! ~$133\month for "basic" digital cable with the PVR and the high(er) speed internet (10 bucks more and works intermittently only like the tv system) so I can spend more time on forums like this trying to debug Comcast's problems! Sure, makes sense to me! :D

...The question I'm wondering is, was this an inadvertent side-effect of the latest Comcast firmware, or a deliberate 'locking down' of the 1394 output? I don't know anyone who could answer that definitively.I suspect what you're seeing is firmware related.

Have you tried capturing any of the same affected program streams to D-VHS? I'm not sure what methods might be available to try to lock down firewire other than the CCI copy once flag that wouldn't also mess up the firewire connection to 5C-compliant devices.

Are these program streams that you're having issues with all flagged copy free (CCI=0)?

I'm sure you've already considered all this, but I get a lot of pixellation in my captures when my hard drive's free space is low (5% total capacity seems to be the threshold) or if some disk-accessing program (Diskeeper for me) happens to be running in the background. Also, longer lengths or lower quality firewire can give me similar symptoms. 20 feet of higher quality firewire seems to be about the max or I start getting breakups. Have you ruled all that out?

It's normal to lose the drivers when swapping Moto boxes. But you should have gotten 'found new hardware'.

Troubleshooting is done in device manager.When I went from a 6412 to a 3412, I was able to get it all working in Device Manager in a few minutes. Last night I spent about 3 hours in Device Manager (along with trying every combination of whether my DVHS was on or off or 1394 connected or not) with absolutely zero success.

If it was going to work at all, I can't imagine it being that difficult.Here's something else.

I had thought the 3412 and the 3416 would be pretty similar to each other as far as what the PC would "see", but each time I hooked up the firewire from the 3416 to the notebook last night, a hardware device was detected as a "Motorola DCT-3412". I don't remember ever seeing that before when hooking up the 3412 to the same notebook.

I'm wondering if the detection of the Motorola DCT-3412 is preventing CapDVHS from showing the "Panasonic D-VHS" device as available to capture from? If so, is there another version of CapDVHS that can work with the "3412" being used as the capture device?

Has any one figured out a way of recording over 1394 from MCE without requiring an a tuner card connected to the STB?

In my setup, I was have my hauppauge tuner connected directly to the cable (i.e., NOT to the STB) and the MCE recoginizes workks well with it. With the GREAT guide at the starting of the thread, I was able to view several SD/HD channels using VLC and also record them using CapVDHS. The main drawback with this current setup is that I will need to manually configure CapVDHS.

If any one is aware of a means of intergaring CapVDHS with some "Program guide" or some way to have MCE record over 1394 without needed another tuner, please let me know. I am will make my life a lot easier :)

I'm wondering if the detection of the Motorola DCT-3412 is preventing CapDVHS from showing the "Panasonic D-VHS" device as available to capture from? If so, is there another version of CapDVHS that can work with the "3412" being used as the capture device?

The 3412 and 3416 have the identical device ID, so that's not an issue.

As to the Panasonic device, an explanation of how drivers work is needed. When you install a driver, the actual drivers (meitape.sys & meistrm.sys) are specified in the .inf file. Depending on which .inf file you use (meitape.inf or meistb.inf), you end up with the device name that matches the device_id in the .inf file. If you used either of the meitape.inf files, you will see Panasonic. If meistb, it will say Motorola. You can make it say what you want. The .inf file is plain text.

It matters not because there are only the original drivers (the .sys files) ever written. They were written to have the STB appear to be a Panasonic D-VHS tape deck. Timmmoore later revised the .inf file to include some MCE panel device controls and renamed some files.

So, in summary, capdvhs just uses whatever name you see for the image device in device manager. If they match, you are OK. If you don't get the files transferred, it's due to the STB not sending out a copyable stream.

Has any one figured out a way of recording over 1394 from MCE without requiring an a tuner card connected to the STB?


Do you mean connect a PC tuner card to a STB?

Hello grittree,

The instructions at the begining of this forum only work if the TV tuner is connected throught the STB. In my case, I want to connected the analog tuner directly to the cable, so that I can record a channel while I am watching a different channel on my TV. In essence, I want to see if I can use 1394 TS as a second tuner so that I can record two streams (one stream from STB, another decoded through the Analog tuner) at the same time.

I was hoping that some one has already figure out a means for doing this. Are you aware of any such possibilities.

Thanks.

A follow-up on my previous post. Thanks to help from grittree, I have been able to successfully capture streams from the 6412 with CapDVHS, convert to mpg with DVB Ts Converter after loading the correct mux, then cut commercials out with TMPEng Xpress, and then author a DVD with TMPEnc DVD Author.

Small issue, kind of funny but very irritating, when I am cutting commercials out and the show starts back after a Comcast/Seattle locally inserted commercial, the sound is slightly off and then will sometimes get back in line after the next commercial cut. It's not off by much, maybe half a second, but it is noticeable. I am not recording in HD, it is from the Sci-Fi channel. Has anyone else had this issue with any other providers or Comcast markets, or am I still crazy?

Kasri, I still don't understand.

Best I can tell, you have a STB and your MCE PC has a Hauppauge card. So you use a splitter to connect the cable to both devices. MCE does the scheduling and recording for the Hauppauge and the STB does its normal thing.

If you want the PC to also do the scheduling and recording of the STB, then the timmmoore package does that as an MCE program, I think. Never tried it.

The 3412 and 3416 have the identical device ID, so that's not an issue.

As to the Panasonic device, an explanation of how drivers work is needed. When you install a driver, the actual drivers (meitape.sys & meistrm.sys) are specified in the .inf file. Depending on which .inf file you use (meitape.inf or meistb.inf), you end up with the device name that matches the device_id in the .inf file. If you used either of the meitape.inf files, you will see Panasonic. If meistb, it will say Motorola. You can make it say what you want. The .inf file is plain text.

It matters not because there are only the original drivers (the .sys files) ever written. They were written to have the STB appear to be a Panasonic D-VHS tape deck. Timmmoore later revised the .inf file to include some MCE panel device controls and renamed some files.

So, in summary, capdvhs just uses whatever name you see for the image device in device manager. If they match, you are OK. If you don't get the files transferred, it's due to the STB not sending out a copyable stream.Thanks for helping out with this. Since I never saw anything come up in the Capture Device field of CapDVHS, yet the hardware manager was clearly detecting the box, I'll go by the assumption that some other driver got in the way and is interfering. I recall at one time mistakenly installing the firestb driver and I've read somewhere that this can cause a problem with the meitape driver.

Anybody know a surefire way to eradicate the firestb driver? I'm going to try driver cleaner to see if that will do the job.

Oops - it looks like driver cleaner isn't going to do anything for this problem. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

There has never been different drivers. fiestb is just a rename of meitape with some later device_ids included.

The drivers are from Matsushita Electric [MEI], aka Panasonic.

There has never been different drivers. fiestb is just a rename of meitape with some later device_ids included.

The drivers are from Matsushita Electric [MEI], aka Panasonic.Okay, then it's most likely a function of cycling the power on the 40K. With our Xmas tree right beside the entertainment center on the access side, it's made it tougher to get back there. I've certainly seen a power cycle make a difference on more than one occasion.

Thanks!

Is there a way to watch or record a video from my computer onto my dvr? Kinda vice versa of dvr to pc.

Is there a way to watch or record a video from my computer onto my dvr? Kinda vice versa of dvr to pc.What kind of DVR do you have? I'm sure you wouldn't be able to do it with a cable company DVR, but any DVR that can record from component, s-video, or composite jacks would be able to. I've been using a Channel Plus 3025 (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=180-725) for several years to splice in a couple of my video sources into my cable co's analog channel lineup for anything with an analog tuner to be able to display/record.

I resolved my capturing issues with my Motorola 3416 by re-following "to the letter" the steps spelled out in the guide at http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html. Having followed those instructions several times over the last couple years I thought I had memorized it but apparently not. Now all is working fine again.

I resolved my capturing issues with my Motorola 3416 by re-following "to the letter" the steps spelled out in the guide at http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html. Having followed those instructions several times over the last couple years I thought I had memorized it but apparently not. Now all is working fine again.Actually, it turns out I didn't. Oh, I did get past the can't find capture device error, but the captures are zero bytes long. I've tried every possible combination I can find between the Motorola and Panasonic choices (the capture device used to always be referred to as a Panasonic DVHS capture device), and I can't get any of them to actually capture a file.

Any ideas at all?

Merry Christmas!

Actually, it turns out I didn't. Oh, I did get past the can't find capture device error, but the captures are zero bytes long. I've tried every possible combination I can find between the Motorola and Panasonic choices (the capture device used to always be referred to as a Panasonic DVHS capture device), and I can't get any of them to actually capture a file.

Any ideas at all?

Merry Christmas!

Have you tried a channel that didn't have the copy protection? Good luck! Merry Christmas to you too! And TY for replying to my question above. I do indeed have a box from the cable company ::sigh::

Have you tried a channel that didn't have the copy protection? Good luck! Merry Christmas to you too! And TY for replying to my question above. I do indeed have a box from the cable company ::sigh::That was the first thing I double-checked. 5C is "0" for the whole box and CCI was "00x0" for the programs I tried to capture. I tried to capture SD programming as well with the same result. Normally when I try to capture a program that has CCI=00x2 (copy once), I get a growing file with no resolution or bitrate information and when I try to open it in Womble Video Wizard or VLC it acts like it's an encrypted file. These capture attempts are more like what I've experienced when a simple disconnect->reconnect sequence solves the problem, only no number of reconnects makes any difference.

I believe I've tried every Tuner A/V Device override possible using Motorola and Panasonic (the mfr that was listed in the capture device window of CapDVHS for all my capturing with the previous 3412) as the manufacturer, and I've tried numerous driver files (meibbrd.sys, meitape.sys, meituner.sys, meistb.sys) with all the choices they offer. Half the time I get the "no capture device" error and the other half of the time I get the zero byte captures.

I imagine it's possible that I don't have the right tweaked driver file so I'd really like it if someone who's successfully capturing from a 3416 could share the driver details from Hardware Device Manager of the Tuner they've got installed and enabled.

Thank you!

That was the first thing I double-checked. 5C is "0" for the whole box and CCI was "00x0" for the programs I tried to capture. I tried to capture SD programming as well with the same result. Normally when I try to capture a program that has CCI=00x2 (copy once), I get a growing file with no resolution or bitrate information and when I try to open it in Womble Video Wizard or VLC it acts like it's an encrypted file. These capture attempts are more like what I've experienced when a simple disconnect->reconnect sequence solves the problem, only no number of reconnects makes any difference.

I believe I've tried every Tuner A/V Device override possible using Motorola and Panasonic (the mfr that was listed in the capture device window of CapDVHS for all my capturing with the previous 3412) as the manufacturer, and I've tried numerous driver files (meibbrd.sys, meitape.sys, meituner.sys, meistb.sys) with all the choices they offer. Half the time I get the "no capture device" error and the other half of the time I get the zero byte captures.

I imagine it's possible that I don't have the right tweaked driver file so I'd really like it if someone who's successfully capturing from a 3416 could share the driver details from Hardware Device Manager of the Tuner they've got installed and enabled.

Thank you!

ok. I'm def no expert at this but in capdhvs there are two capturing options for me comcast 6412 blah blah which gives an error "no capture device" and the other option unknown something something which is the one that works w/o error. And I've sometimes experienced the same problem as you with getting a blank file which I think has something to do with copy protection or perhaps something completely different. I've noticed that some things i can not record onto my pc live, but if i record it on my dvr then record it on my pc it works fine. I would just try as many channels as possible and see what you get. I used to think i installed everything wrong or was missing a driver then i figured out my problem was having too many processes run. Again I'm no expert. :)

I imagine it's possible that I don't have the right tweaked driver file so I'd really like it if someone who's successfully capturing from a 3416 could share the driver details from Hardware Device Manager of the Tuner they've got installed and enabled.

Thank you!
I upgraded from a 6412 to a 3416 and the firewire capture is working for me on the 3416.

Short version: I used the firestb.msi installer from the top of this thread, rebooted, then went into Device Mgr and updated the drivers for the tuner and panel to the ones labeled DCT-3412.

Long version:

I had the drivers installed from the 6412, so when I booted up the first time after upgrading to the 3416, I got the Found New Hardware wizard, chose "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)", and then pointed it to search in the folder where I had the drivers already. I cancelled the driver install for the panel and unknown devices.

It installed the driver for the generic Tuner AV/C Device, which didn't work (I got the "no capture device" error). I went into Device Mgr and updated the driver, this time choosing "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" and manually selecting the Panasonic Tuner AV/C Device. It still gave me the "no capture device" error.

I ran firestb.msi with "msiexec /i "C:\path\to\firestb.msi" IDENT=0". I ran through the setup with all the default options, then rebooted.

I then went into Device Mgr again and updated the driver, choosing "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" and manually selecting the "Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-3412)" driver that was already on the list (added there by firestb.msi). I also updated the driver for the AV/C Panel, selecting the Moto 3412 driver from the list (also added there by firestb.msi).

I opened CapDVHS, selected the Motorola tuner from the drop-down list, and voila, capturing works.

I finally got capturing to work with the 3416 using a meistb.sys driver, but not until after about 6 cold boots of the dvr and a cold boot of my JVC 40k. It seems quite tenuous that it required so many cold boots before a perfect capture, but at least now I know I can do it with the 3416 and CapDVHS.
I upgraded from a 6412 to a 3416 and the firewire capture is working for me on the 3416.

Short version: I used the firestb.msi installer from the top of this thread, rebooted, then went into Device Mgr and updated the drivers for the tuner and panel to the ones labeled DCT-3412.

Long version:

I had the drivers installed from the 6412, so when I booted up the first time after upgrading to the 3416, I got the Found New Hardware wizard, chose "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)", and then pointed it to search in the folder where I had the drivers already. I cancelled the driver install for the panel and unknown devices.

It installed the driver for the generic Tuner AV/C Device, which didn't work (I got the "no capture device" error). I went into Device Mgr and updated the driver, this time choosing "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" and manually selecting the Panasonic Tuner AV/C Device. It still gave me the "no capture device" error.

I ran firestb.msi with "msiexec /i "C:\path\to\firestb.msi" IDENT=0". I ran through the setup with all the default options, then rebooted.

I then went into Device Mgr again and updated the driver, choosing "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" and manually selecting the "Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-3412)" driver that was already on the list (added there by firestb.msi). I also updated the driver for the AV/C Panel, selecting the Moto 3412 driver from the list (also added there by firestb.msi).

I opened CapDVHS, selected the Motorola tuner from the drop-down list, and voila, capturing works.Thanks for the detailed reply. For some reason I skipped the firestb.msi file because it looked like it was just for MCE and I'm just using XP. With meistb.sys, I found the closest it came to listing a DCT-3412 device was "Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-6412)". Perhaps that has something to do with having to do so many reboots. In any case, I'll try firestb.msi tonight.

Thanks!

With meistb.sys, I found the closest it came to listing a DCT-3412 device was "Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-6412)". Perhaps that has something to do with having to do so many reboots. In any case, I'll try firestb.msi tonight.

As someone else mentioned, it's all the same driver underneath, but different INF files included with the driver have different Hardware IDs listed as supported by that driver.

The 3412 and 3416 have Hardware ID "AVC\MOTOROLA&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0" for the tuner and "AVC\MOTOROLA&DCT-3412&TYP_9&ID_0" for the panel.

To have the hardware properly identified, it's Hardware ID needs to be listed in the INF file. The name of the hardware will then show up in the list of compatible devices when installing the driver, and that seemed to be the key that made it work for me (not having to manually force the driver to install with an INF file that doesn't list the Hardware ID).

To view a Hardware ID for a device, you can go to Device Mgr, right-click and select Properties for a device. Go to the Details tab and select Hardware IDs from the drop-down box.

To view the Hardware IDs listed in an INF file, you can open it (just double-click, or right-click and select Open) and view the text. Each section will have a list of compatible Hardware IDs.

To view the INF file for firestb.msi, first install it. Then go to your %windir%\INF folder and find the last oemXX.inf file. ("%windir%" is the location of your Windows installation, typically C:\Windows.) It is a hidden folder, so in Windows Explorer, you may have to go to Tools menu > Folder Options > View tab, and select 'Show hidden files and folders'. INF files for unsigned drivers are copied to the %windir%\INF folder and renamed to oemXX.inf, where XX is a serial number. The last number should be the last driver you installed.

...To view the INF file for firestb.msi, first install it. Then go to your %windir%\INF folder and find the last oemXX.inf file...When I tried to run firestb.msi with "msiexec /i "C:\path\to\firestb.msi" IDENT=0", I got an error saying,

"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A DLL required for this to install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor."

I'm guessing this error must have something to do with my OS being WinXP as opposed to MCE.

BTW, I went ahead and looked at my highest numbered oemXX.inf file and saw that the driver that I got working is meitape.sys - not the meistb.sys that I first thought.

Are you running XP? If so, is there any way you can send me the driver files that you're using so I can give them a try? PM me if you can.

Thanks!

Tim

...BTW, I went ahead and looked at my highest numbered oemXX.inf file and saw that the driver that I got working is meitape.sys - not the meistb.sys that I first thought...Hmmm - I'm not so sure about this. When I go into device manager and look at the Driver Details of the Imaging device -> Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-6412), both (my notebook sees both the JVC 40K and the 3416) show the meistb.sys driver.

But one thing's for sure. This is absolutely not working satisfactorily the way I've got it set up. Whenever I make a single capture, it seems to "break" the transport functions of the 3416. I've actually had this problem before, but it was completely solved by keeping the 40k turned on and set to the firewire input. That doesn't appear to work anymore with the 3416.

Anybody have any successful workarounds if not a completely different driver set?

When I tried to run firestb.msi with "msiexec /i "C:\path\to\firestb.msi" IDENT=0", I got an error saying,

"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A DLL required for this to install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor."
Did you use the path to where you had the firestb.msi file, or were you using my example path? I was using an example. Replace "C:\path\to\firestb.msi" with the full path to wherever you have the firestb.msi file. So that may be "C:\some folder\some other folder\firestb.msi", or "D:\folder for special things\folder for very special things\most specialist\firestb.msi", or wherever.

I'm guessing this error must have something to do with my OS being WinXP as opposed to MCE.
Don't think so. I'm on Win XP SP2.

BTW, I went ahead and looked at my highest numbered oemXX.inf file and saw that the driver that I got working is meitape.sys - not the meistb.sys that I first thought.

Hmmm - I'm not so sure about this. When I go into device manager and look at the Driver Details of the Imaging device -> Motorola Tuner AV/C Device (DCT-6412), both (my notebook sees both the JVC 40K and the 3416) show the meistb.sys driver.
I don't know what order you did it in, but the last one you must've installed was meitape.sys, while the driver name you selected in Device Mgr was an option associated with the meistb.sys driver you installed earlier.

"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A DLL required for this to install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor."

I'm guessing this error must have something to do with my OS being WinXP as opposed to MCE.

BTW, I went ahead and looked at my highest numbered oemXX.inf file and saw that the driver that I got working is meitape.sys - not the meistb.sys that I first thought.




I think you need to have SP2 to run msiexec. Or maybe you need the updated .net installed.

meitape.sys and meistb.sys are the exact same 22,891 byte driver. Just a rename.

...This is absolutely not working satisfactorily the way I've got it set up. Whenever I make a single capture, it seems to "break" the transport functions of the 3416. I've actually had this problem before, but it was completely solved by keeping the 40k turned on and set to the firewire input. That doesn't appear to work anymore with the 3416...BTW, the transport (FF, REW) functions don't seem to "break" as badly as long as:

1) The 40K's firewire is plugged into the 3416 firewire port nearest the power cable;
2) the 40K is turned on and tuned to the firewire input (usually I-6 now, but sometimes it's label as I-2 and sometimes it "slips" to F-1, whereas it used to always lock in at I-3).

So far I have found that if I don't have the 40K on line as described above, I can't use the PC<-->3416 hookup without breaking the transport functions regardless of which port I use on the 3416.

Did you use the path to where you had the firestb.msi file, or were you using my example path? I was using an example. Replace "C:\path\to\firestb.msi" with the full path to wherever you have the firestb.msi file. So that may be "C:\some folder\some other folder\firestb.msi", or "D:\folder for special things\folder for very special things\most specialist\firestb.msi", or wherever...Yes, I specified the path where the files were on my computer.
...I don't know what order you did it in, but the last one you must've installed was meitape.sys, while the driver name you selected in Device Mgr was an option associated with the meistb.sys driver you installed earlier.It doesn't make sense to me that there would be a descrepancy between what files Device Manager says are installed and which files are specified in the appropriate oemXX.inf file. If anything, I would tend to trust the files listed under the Driver Details button in the properties window of the listed device since it is "live" in Device Manager whereas the oemXX.inf file is resident whether the firewire is connected or not. There must be some other explanation such as perhaps some file other than the highest numbered serialized file might possibly be current.

I think you need to have SP2 to run msiexec. Or maybe you need the updated .net installed.

meitape.sys and meistb.sys are the exact same 22,891 byte driver. Just a rename.For several reasons the notebook I'm using for this is still on SP1 and yet msiexec seemed to run okay - at least I know it started because I saw the image of the 3412 and then the list of four install selections with three checked by default. I'm not sure if I have .net framework 2.0 (it may still be on 1.1 from way back when) - I'll have to check when I get home.

I suspected that meitape.sys and meistb.sys were the same, so thanks for confirming that for me. What driver comes out of firestb.msi? Also, I noted a few supporting drivers but I can't name them off the top of my head. Perhaps there are some differences there as well.

Thanks for taking the time to try to help me out. Hopefully this will end up being helpful to others who try to do the same thing. Also, it would be nice to get this thing working without requiring the 40K to capture successfully from my 2nd 3416 in the family room.

Tim

2) the 40K is turned on and tuned to the firewire input (usually I-6 now, but sometimes it's label as I-2 and sometimes it "slips" to F-1, whereas it used to always lock in at I-3).
Tim
You can clear the I-? numbering. Go to the menu, select "Initial Set Up", then select "Other". "Reset Number" will clear out all the stored 1394 devices and start again at I-1.

Ron

It doesn't make sense to me that there would be a descrepancy between what files Device Manager says are installed and which files are specified in the appropriate oemXX.inf file. If anything, I would tend to trust the files listed under the Driver Details button in the properties window of the listed device since it is "live" in Device Manager whereas the oemXX.inf file is resident whether the firewire is connected or not. There must be some other explanation such as perhaps some file other than the highest numbered serialized file might possibly be current.
The highest number would be the last unsigned driver you installed on your system. In Device Mgr, you can select any of the named options that correspond to any of the drivers installed on your system. Depending on what you've selected, the current driver is not necessarily the last one installed.

I've attached a copy of the files I'm using. It is essentially the motorola6412_firewire.zip file, but with the INF file installed by firestb.msi, because it allows many more Hardware IDs for both Moto and Scientific Atalanta boxes. You can download and use the files, or simply copy and paste the following text to a new text file, and name it something like firestb.inf. Copy it to a folder with a copy of the meistb.sys, meistrm.sys, and mstapeo.sys drivers, and remove or rename any other .inf files. Then point to that folder when installing/updating the driver in Device Mgr.

{ Attached file and code removed. Download my latest driver package from http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/stbfirewire/ }

I believe I made some progress last night, as I installed an update to the installer that permitted it to run all the way through installing the firestb information file and driver. Now I'm able to select the driver with the DCT-3412 hardware ID but I'm still "breaking" the transport functions (FF & REW) of the DVR as soon as I hook up the firewire. This is regardless of the presence of the 40K and with the firewire connected to either of the 3416's ports.

I've learned that SP2 handles firewire-attached storage devices differently, so I'm hopeful it will solve my "broken" transport issues. I now suspect that my problems could be due to the notebook still being on XP Pro SP1, but updating to SP2 has not been as simple as when I did it with my other PCs way back when. I've been in the process of trying to update the notebook to SP2, but MS update has been giving me the run-around. Whenever I try to get to the page to download SP2 I get re-routed to a page that only provides for the install of security updates and hotfixes to SP1 and Office Pro 2003. I ran the update this morning and it took over an hour and used up nearly all of my remaining free space (I just ordered a 120GB drive for the notebook to help out with this).

Do those of you who are successfully capturing from the 3416 all have XP SP2 and have not seen any problems with FF & REW on the DVR?

BTW, the transport (FF, REW) functions don't seem to "break" as badly as long as:

1) The 40K's firewire is plugged into the 3416 firewire port nearest the power cable;
2) the 40K is turned on and tuned to the firewire input (usually I-6 now, but sometimes it's label as I-2 and sometimes it "slips" to F-1, whereas it used to always lock in at I-3).
...Last night when I was using the drivers from firestb.msi, I wasn't able to find ANY combination that allowed capturing without "breaking" the transport functions. I don't know if that's because of the drivers in firestb.msi or if I just got "lucky" a few times with the meitape.inf drivers.

Hopefully I can get SP2 on this thing and have it work out so I don't have to be concerned about how the 40K is hooked up.

Tim

...Hopefully I can get SP2 on this thing and have it work out so I don't have to be concerned about how the 40K is hooked up.Well, I got SP2 and all the updates, including the SidSpeed=S400 fix (for the Error 800705AA: Cannot start capture error.

Capturing is still extremely inconsistent and troublesome - considerably more than I ever experienced with the 6412 and the 3412.

I have a second 3416 that I haven't been experimenting with because I don't have a 40K convenient to it. I'll try that for a bit with the notebook alone to see if I get any better performance with firewire capture out of it.

So you guys are capturing from your 3416 without "breaking" the transport (FF & REW) functions? Hard to believe that I might just have another bad 3416 (I returned one already) that's working great in every other way. Maybe I'll just have to go back to the 3412's when the space-hungry Bowl games are over.

So you guys are capturing from your 3416 without "breaking" the transport (FF & REW) functions?
No issues here. It works just as you'd expect... If, of course, you'd expect it to work.

Well, last night I tried to capture from the other 3416 without "breaking" the transport (FF & REW) functions to no avail. Simply hooking up the firewire doesn't seem to do anything to mess up the transport functions, but subsequent to making the first capture it gets all messed up and further capture segments result in increasing pixellation almost like the 3416's drive is being ground to a halt (suspicious! - perhaps more than just the SidSpeed setting?). FF & REW slow to a crawl (slower than Play). The only thing that fixes it is a cold boot on the 3416. This is with both of my 3416s.

It's the same kind of behavior I first got with my 3412, but this one doesn't go away by anything I do with the 40K. In fact, the 40K has been recording a few times where the picture from the 3416 just went away.

I have a DCT6412 II and have been using the firewire method to capture videos to my PC.


Something changed around last week. When attempting to capture video, it no longer displays any info in CapDVHS.exe like size, aspect ratio, etc. Nevertheless, it recognizes that a firewire device is there and records a .TS file of seemingly normal size.

When I try to open the .TS file in HDTVtoMPEG2 the program crashes with an exception error. Note that I get this same problem when trying to capture analog or digital, so it's not an encryption issue. At least it shouldn't be.

Has anyone else had this problem or recommend a troubleshooting approach?

This was talked about around 30 days ago and I haven't heard anything on it. I thought I'd give it a bump. I'm seeing the same issue. VLC also does not show the output of the stream as it used to.

Is this the end? There is some content (unprotected) on my DVR that I'd like to clean up.

This seems to happen on all channels.

This was talked about around 30 days ago and I haven't heard anything on it. I thought I'd give it a bump. I'm seeing the same issue. VLC also does not show the output of the stream as it used to.

Is this the end? There is some content (unprotected) on my DVR that I'd like to clean up.

This seems to happen on all channels.

Same question here...I'm on Comcast and really want to get down to business of capturing my 6412 DVR shows into Windows via 1394 connection.

I've tried to be patient while the thread went down a different tangent...but dang....Any breakthroughs on this 1394/Comcast front?

I am having some strange problems with captured large clips from the Motorola DCT6412, and I am wondering if I am capturing correctly with CapDVHS.

If I capture a SMALL clip (a few minutes, 45-75 MB) from (for example) an already stored 1hr49minute SD movie from the DCT6412, I can do the following:
1) View and listen to it with Nero 7 Showtime on my PC
2) Create an excellent DVD if I use the HDTV2DVD tool described in the http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html link which is at the beginning of this thread. The picture when viewed on my TV is great (non-jerky), and the audio is good too.
3) Note, however, if I use Nero 7 Vision to read in this SMALL .ts file directly, the resulting burned DVD has audio but with a jerky picture.

Here is the problem. If I capture that same entire 1hr49minute movie, this is what happens with the LARGE (3 GB) .ts file. :
a). I can view the .ts file with Nero 7 Showtime on my PC, but there is no audio.
b). HDTV2DVD cannot even read in the .ts file.
c). HDTVtoMPEG2 (also described in the link above) can read in the .ts file and convert it to a mpg. That resultant .mpg file can be watched with Nero 7 Showtime and then it has audio. If I read in that .mpg file into Nero 7 Vision, I can create a DVD folder on my hard drive after it takes over 3 hours to reencode it. However, the burned DVD (from this hard drive folder) has a jerky picture, with sound that is fine, on my TV.
d). Note, if I use Nero 7 Vision to read in this LARGE .ts file direclty, the resultant DVD has no audio, and the picture is jerky on the TV.

I am using all of the CapDVHS settings mentioned at the beginning of this tread.

This is particularly frustrating as a retest can take over 5 hours, between recapturing the movie and then reencoding it to work on a DVD. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

----
Update several hours later. I was able to fix the LARGE .ts, thanks to the post below from Lee11 on 5-11-2006. I cut off the first couple of seconds from the beginning of the .ts file using HDTVtoMPEG2 and saved it as another .ts filename. (HDTVtoMPEG2 is very quick.) Then I was able to read in the very slightly modified .ts file into HDTV2DVD. HDTV2DVD processed the 1hr49min file in just 2hrs16mins, and the picture and sound both look great on the DVD on my TV!

I have encountered this problem several times, each time I was able to resolve by one of the following methods:
1) Re-save the file using HDTV2MPEG2, openign the file and then converting to a .ts file with another file name.
2) Trimming out the lead in to the program and then re-saving using HDTV2MPEG2

I haven't really found a pattern but I believe it doesn't like it when the specs change, say frame rate or resolution. I seem notice the problem more when the recording starts with SD and then changes to HD. But it is not always the case.

I say just try re-writing the files using a .ts editor of some kind, it has worked very consistently for me.

Good Luck.

Is the 5C encryption added by program or by channel. Is there a way to find out if a recording has any encryption associated with it? I know how to verify the status with the channel, but does it chage depending on the program?

Thanks!

Is the 5C encryption added by program or by channel. Is there a way to find out if a recording has any encryption associated with it? I know how to verify the status with the channel, but does it chage depending on the program?
It can be changed per program, but I don't know how it is implemented by each cable/content provider.

It would be best to check the channel status during a particular program you are wondering about. If you don't want to interrupt what your STB is doing, you could just start CapDVHS during the program to see if the stream info comes up.

Is the 5C encryption added by program or by channel. Is there a way to find out if a recording has any encryption associated with it? I know how to verify the status with the channel, but does it chage depending on the program?

Thanks!On our Comcast Seattle boxes, 5C is always set to 0 but CCI (embedded on a program by program basis is being used to control what kind of copying is allowed. They are not all treated the same. For example, everything from KIRO-HD (CBS) has CCI set to 00x2 but only HD programs on KCPQ-HD (Fox) have CCI set to 00x2 (all SD programming on KCPQ-HD is set to 00x0). I'm discussing it with a customer service manager at the Redmond, WA office (Dave Perry) and really hope to get it resolved before March Madness.

wow, i haven't had to record anything via firewire for a couple weeks now. And today I tried and it seems 99% of every channel has the copy protection on now. I'm guessing we don't know any way behind this? It's silly that they do this when you can easily record via vcr or dvd recorder.

I'm in Boston and have a DCT 3412 I from Comcast. ESPNHD, HBOHD, and INHD have CCI set to 00x2. FOXHD, CBSHD, and NBCHD have CCI set to 00x0. I'm assuming that 00x2 means copy once, which would refer to copying to the DVR itself, and 00x0 means you can copy it off to a PC. I recorded a movie on Encore (CCI=00x2) but it won't stream using CapDVHS. Does this mean there's no way for me to transfer it off the box??? This is very disappointing if I'm unable to copy these programs off. Why do some channes allow it and others don't? I'm fairly new to all this, so I hoping someone out there can help me. Thanks.

I'm in Boston and have a DCT 3412 I from Comcast. ESPNHD, HBOHD, and INHD have CCI set to 00x2. FOXHD, CBSHD, and NBCHD have CCI set to 00x0. I'm assuming that 00x2 means copy once, which would refer to copying to the DVR itself, and 00x0 means you can copy it off to a PC. I recorded a movie on Encore (CCI=00x2) but it won't stream using CapDVHS. Does this mean there's no way for me to transfer it off the box??? This is very disappointing if I'm unable to copy these programs off. Why do some channes allow it and others don't? I'm fairly new to all this, so I hoping someone out there can help me. Thanks.

Yes. I am most certain that you will not be able to copy it to PC. Darn copy protection.

On our Comcast Seattle boxes, 5C is always set to 0 but CCI (embedded on a program by program basis is being used to control what kind of copying is allowed. They are not all treated the same. For example, everything from KIRO-HD (CBS) has CCI set to 00x2 but only HD programs on KCPQ-HD (Fox) have CCI set to 00x2 (all SD programming on KCPQ-HD is set to 00x0). I'm discussing it with a customer service manager at the Redmond, WA office (Dave Perry) and really hope to get it resolved before March Madness.
You say it's "embedded" on a program-by-program basis. Do you know anything about the Moto 3416 using Embedded CCI with the DTCP_Descriptor for MPEG-TS, as opposed to the Encryption Mode Indicator (EMI)?

According to the 5C DTCP spec (http://www.dtcp.com/data/wp_spec.pdf), "recording devices such as D-VHS are a format-non-cognizant recording and playback device", meaning the 3416's output would require the EMI to encrypt any bitstream.

For those wanting more info, check out DTCP Specification Volume 1 Version 1.4 (Informational Version) (http://www.dtcp.com/data/info%2020050228%20dtcp%20vol%201%20%201p4.pdf), starting at page 39 for CCI.

I'm in Boston and have a DCT 3412 I from Comcast. ESPNHD, HBOHD, and INHD have CCI set to 00x2. FOXHD, CBSHD, and NBCHD have CCI set to 00x0. I'm assuming that 00x2 means copy once, which would refer to copying to the DVR itself, and 00x0 means you can copy it off to a PC. I recorded a movie on Encore (CCI=00x2) but it won't stream using CapDVHS. Does this mean there's no way for me to transfer it off the box??? This is very disappointing if I'm unable to copy these programs off. Why do some channes allow it and others don't? I'm fairly new to all this, so I hoping someone out there can help me. Thanks.
CCI codes:

Copy Never (11 or 0x03)
Copy One Generation (10 or 0x02)
No More Copies (01 or 0x01)
Copy Freely (00 or 0x00)

"Copy One Generation" (0x02) does not refer to the initial recording on the DVR, but to one copy to a DTCP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTCP)-compliant device, i.e., a DVHS deck.

A PC connected via Firewire is not DTCP-compliant, so no copying that requires authentication is allowed. That means only content marked "Copy Freely" (0x00) can be transferred to a PC, as all others require authentication.

I believe the premium channels, like Encore, are always marked "Copy One Generation" (0x02), even if the Encore channels are part of a digital cable package and not added a-la-carte.

You say it's "embedded" on a program-by-program basis. Do you know anything about the Moto 3416 using Embedded CCI with the DTCP_Descriptor for MPEG-TS, as opposed to the Encryption Mode Indicator (EMI)?

According to the 5C DTCP spec (http://www.dtcp.com/data/wp_spec.pdf), "recording devices such as D-VHS are a format-non-cognizant recording and playback device", meaning the 3416's output would require the EMI to encrypt any bitstream...Thank you for your question because it helped me learn that there was more than one way for a program to carry CCI. I didn't realize my use of the term "embedded" might be inappropriate, as I was using it in a more generic way to characterize that the CCI value was being used in some manner to locally manage copying at a program-by-program level rather than a station-by-station level.

I've only gotten errors with anything I've tried to use to open and look at files I've captured from CCI=00x2 programs. If I sent you one would you be able to tell what method of CCI marking was being used?

A technician at one of our local stations (KIRODT-CBS) told me they put a new encoder in place at about the same time I started noticing all the KIRODT programming through Comcast had the CCI value of 00x2. However, I don't think he has any idea why or how the CCI value was suddenly different than the 00x0 it had always been before. Could be built into the encoder, I suppose, but wouldn't that also affect what they broadcast OTA? (I add that because the people recording OTA programming have noticed no difference)

When I brought the issue up with Comcast, they also didn't have any clue as to why the CCI value changed. All we know for sure at this point is that somewhere between September and October of '06, about half of the HD stations started showing CCI=00x2 where they had always been 00x0 before. There's no apparent rhyme or reason that we can make out as to what programs would or should be CCI=2, because we only see it from local stations (but not all - the local NBCHD & ABCHD are still CCI=00x0). ESPNHD, ESPN2HD, UHD, MHD, TNTHD, DHD, INHD (here it's actually a NBAHD, NFLHD, FSNHD and INHD mix), and GOLFVS (Golf and Versus) are all CCI=00x0.

I have a sense that this whole CCI thing has a long way to go before it's worked out and applied nationwide in a rational manner. Perhaps it's a function of various generations of encoders out there and DVRs that are not handling it uniformly.

I've only gotten errors with anything I've tried to use to open and look at files I've captured from CCI=00x2 programs. If I sent you one would you be able to tell what method of CCI marking was being used?
I can try capturing some protected content and see what I get. I don't remember if I can capture the encrypted stream, or if I just get a 0 byte file. I'll get back to you.

I don't know enough at this point to know what the encoder at your local broadcast affiliate would actually do. I don't know how content is delivered to them, or what each individual encoder might be doing (are they just rate-shaping, are they just encoding locally-originated content like an HD news broadcast, or are they transcoding all broadcast content from some other format?).

I don't think he has any idea why or how the CCI value was suddenly different than the 00x0 it had always been before. Could be built into the encoder, I suppose, but wouldn't that also affect what they broadcast OTA?
5C DTCP is used over digital buses with bi-directional communication, which would be required to negotiate a connection and authenticate a device. It wouldn't be used in broadcast (or at least it wouldn't be respected), as it's a uni-directional medium (your receiver can't communicate with the broadcast transmitter). An OTA tuner wouldn't even check for 5C DTCP. That's what the proposed Broadcast Flag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_flag) was for.

I don't know the exact details about how the Comcast content is delivered to a STB, but I believe it has its own system for flagging content, which tells the STB how to flag the content with 5C DTCP when generating the new bitstream that is output on the Firewire ports. I believe the STB would have to generate a new bitstream for output over a new link, which means the box would have to control the adding of the EMI. If you were looking for something that changed with the box, and possibly the way it handles content, within the Sep-Oct timeframe, F/W 16.20 (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Firmware_and_Software#Version_16.20) for the Moto boxes was first pushed out Sep-20.

I can try capturing some protected content and see what I get. I don't remember if I can capture the encrypted stream, or if I just get a 0 byte file. I'll get back to you...All of the files I've captured from CCI=2 programs are of essentially the same length they would be from a CCI=0 program. The difference seems to be solely in the header of the file. ???

If it's even possible it would be interesting for us each to capture the same few seconds of the same national show and compare them byte-for-byte. At the very least it would show us if something's been re-encoded or simply transcoded. Who knows what else we might be able to tell.

...I don't know the exact details about how the Comcast content is delivered to a STB, but I believe it has its own system for flagging content, which tells the STB how to flag the content with 5C DTCP when generating the new bitstream that is output on the Firewire ports. I believe the STB would have to generate a new bitstream for output over a new link, which means the box would have to control the adding of the EMI. If you were looking for something that changed with the box, and possibly the way it handles content, within the Sep-Oct timeframe, F/W 16.20 for the Moto boxes was first pushed out Sep-20.So you're saying the STB (in my case the DCT-3416) generates a new bitstream for output on its firewire ports? And you're thinking that the box itself has responsibility for adding the EMI? That gives me a completely different perspective than what I've had. I always get the CCI values for a program from the diagnostics screen for the two tuners, so I had figured the box was nothing more than a glorified tuner that simply passed on what it was given (in terms of content streams). I hadn't even entertained the idea that it might be involved in encoding/transcoding data, elevating the significance of the firmware the box is running on far beyond what I would've anticipated.

When my Microsoft software 3412 (at the time) first got the updated firmware (v12.35 IIRC), it immediately got the rebooting bug so I got it reverted back to v12.31 within the week. It was at least a couple weeks later that I first saw a station with CCI set to "00x2". Of the other stations that now have CCI=2 programs, I was still capturing from at least one of them more than a week after the first appearance of the CCI=2. This caused me to suspect (perhaps incorrectly?) that the firmware didn't have anything to do with the appearance of CCI=2.

So you're saying the STB (in my case the DCT-3416) generates a new bitstream for output on its firewire ports? And you're thinking that the box itself has responsibility for adding the EMI? That gives me a completely different perspective than what I've had. I always get the CCI values for a program from the diagnostics screen for the two tuners, so I had figured the box was nothing more than a glorified tuner that simply passed on what it was given (in terms of content streams). I hadn't even entertained the idea that it might be involved in encoding/transcoding data, elevating the significance of the firmware the box is running on far beyond what I would've anticipated.
My understanding is that DTCP is not used over the cable system. Some other scheme is used to scramble the data. DTCP is an encryption scheme designed for Firewire and used b/w 2 devices, which have to negotiate a set of encryption keys and then encrypt and decrypt data b/w the 2 devices. Similar to using SSL on an encrypted web page, the 2 devices negotiate to encrypt data for each other, and no third party can listen in and decrypt the data.

So even if the cable system used DTCP, the STB would have to decrypt the stream using DTCP, and then send it to the MPEG decoder for video output, and to a another chip to encrypt and package the content into a new bistream for output over Firewire. I'm not suggesting the STB encodes or transcodes the MPEG stream, but that it re-packs it into a new bitstream with the proper headers and flags for DTCP output over Firewire.

As far as the CCI values in the diagnostic menu go, I assume they are set by a flag in the data coming over the cable system, but that doesn't mean it has to be the CCI flag from DTCP, it could be any proprietary flag they use for the cable system.

Darn it! How come DVD's come out and they get cracked, HD-DVD comes out Blu-ray comes out, and the new AACS gets "decrypted". Its been years since we've had HD channels coming over FireWire TO OUR PC's, we even have files with REAL data, and we can't decrypt them! ack!!

Darn it! How come DVD's come out and they get cracked, HD-DVD comes out Blu-ray comes out, and the new AACS gets "decrypted". Its been years since we've had HD channels coming over FireWire TO OUR PC's, we even have files with REAL data, and we can't decrypt them! ack!!Now you understand why they've never allowed a PC software-based 5C implementation...

The issues with 1394 capture of local DTV stations on cable are due to the Motorola boxes now responding to the ATSC Redistribution Control descriptor (also known as the Broadcast Flag) when it is present in the OTA bitstream.

The easiest way to get around this is with a QAM capture card for your PC.

Ron

I'm wondering if anyone has been able to successfully use the techniques in this thread to capture via firewire/IEE1394 the output from the Toshiba TV's that have that interface?

The issues with 1394 capture of local DTV stations on cable are due to the Motorola boxes now responding to the ATSC Redistribution Control descriptor (also known as the Broadcast Flag) when it is present in the OTA bitstream.

The easiest way to get around this is with a QAM capture card for your PC.

RonThat must be what's happening to several of our local OTA HD broadcasts. Isn't the Broadcast Flag supposed to be in "remission" at this time? Are OTA broadcasters able to just switch it off?

What QAM capture cards are most PC-friendly? What about component or HDMI capture cards? I believe Blackmagic has something (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/), but I don't think it will do any good on CCI=00x2 content.

That must be what's happening to several of our local OTA HD broadcasts. Isn't the Broadcast Flag supposed to be in "remission" at this time? Are OTA broadcasters able to just switch it off?

What QAM capture cards are most PC-friendly? What about component or HDMI capture cards? I believe Blackmagic has something (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/), but I don't think it will do any good on CCI=00x2 content.The BlackMagic card clearly states that it won't capture copy-protected HDMI, which I'm pretty sure is ALL of the output from a Comcast/Moto box (since it requires an HDCP-compliant display).

Besides, it captures raw, uncompressed HDMI video - which is like 1GB/minute or worse and probably requires a multi-drive striped RAID array just to get the necessary write speed.

so I've read bits and pieces from this thread. I see that it's currently a losing battle. But I'll ask this on a side note.

Is there any way to record OnDemand content... even to the DVR. I'm fairly certain I have a 64XX model HD-DVR box from comcast. (I got it in July).

It's SD content, to be specific, exercise programs for the SO. And I'm aware of why we SHOULDN'T be able to record on demand content even to the DVR, but I'm curious if there's a workaround to the PC or otherwise that doens't involve a VCR :)

so I've read bits and pieces from this thread. I see that it's currently a losing battle. But I'll ask this on a side note.

Is there any way to record OnDemand content... even to the DVR. I'm fairly certain I have a 64XX model HD-DVR box from comcast. (I got it in July).

It's SD content, to be specific, exercise programs for the SO. And I'm aware of why we SHOULDN'T be able to record on demand content even to the DVR, but I'm curious if there's a workaround to the PC or otherwise that doens't involve a VCR :)It's very rare for me to want to record OnDemand programming so far, but I have ReplayTVs hooked up to each of my 3416s which can record anything put out of its s-video or composite outputs, including OnDemand programming. It's a piece of cake to get the program to the PC using DVArchive.

There are many other methods, but that's mine.

The BlackMagic card clearly states that it won't capture copy-protected HDMI, which I'm pretty sure is ALL of the output from a Comcast/Moto box (since it requires an HDCP-compliant display).I would've thought that anything that could be captured by a PC over firewire (5C=0, CCI=00x0) would be capturable by that Blackmagic card as well. Is programming flagged copy free also considered to be copy-protected HDMI just because it's going out over HDMI?
Besides, it captures raw, uncompressed HDMI video - which is like 1GB/minute or worse and probably requires a multi-drive striped RAID array just to get the necessary write speed.Now that could be a problem - but at least then you'd have it to do something with.

Darn it! How come DVD's come out and they get cracked, HD-DVD comes out Blu-ray comes out, and the new AACS gets "decrypted". Its been years since we've had HD channels coming over FireWire TO OUR PC's, we even have files with REAL data, and we can't decrypt them! ack!!
I was just thinking the same thing after reading all the news articles.

That must be what's happening to several of our local OTA HD broadcasts. Isn't the Broadcast Flag supposed to be in "remission" at this time? Are OTA broadcasters able to just switch it off?

What QAM capture cards are most PC-friendly? What about component or HDMI capture cards? I believe Blackmagic has something (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/), but I don't think it will do any good on CCI=00x2 content.
Many DTV stations inserted the RC descriptor into their bitstreams last year, when it looked like the Broadcast Flag was going to be implemented. Most have just left it in, but they could take it out. On FOX stations, it's being inserted by the FOX network. That's why the encryption isn't there during non-network programs.


For QAM capture, The MDP-130 seems pretty popular.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/mdp130.asp

Ron

Darn it! How come DVD's come out and they get cracked, HD-DVD comes out Blu-ray comes out, and the new AACS gets "decrypted". Its been years since we've had HD channels coming over FireWire TO OUR PC's, we even have files with REAL data, and we can't decrypt them! ack!!
5C/DTCP is more difficult to hack, since it only runs on embedded systems which usually have a less popular CPU (like ARM or MIPS) and a real-time OS (like VxWorks). So it's very difficult to even start hacking a 5C/DTCP enabled box.

In addition, the actual scrambler is in silicon, so even if you could get to the content key, you'd still have to know how the (secret) cipher in the scrambler works.

The scrambled bitstreams that you've captured with capDVHS are useless. The content/scrambling key changes every 30 to 120 seconds, so you need many content keys to decrypt a movie.

Ron

I would've thought that anything that could be captured by a PC over firewire (5C=0, CCI=00x0) would be capturable by that Blackmagic card as well. Is programming flagged copy free also considered to be copy-protected HDMI just because it's going out over HDMI?.When I read the Blackmagic specs that say it "won't capture copy-protected material", I was assuming that meant it wasn't HDCP-compliant - and, like with non-HCDP displays, the Comcast/Moto box would simply refuse to output *any* video. But perhaps the card is HDCP-compliant, and it simply obeys any copy-protection flags in HDCP content. I don't know if this is the case, or whether HDCP works like DTCP/5C in this regard.

But still - the sheer size & speed requirements of uncompressed HD video make it totally impractical for archiving or timeshifting, IMHO.

But perhaps the card is HDCP-compliant, and it simply obeys any copy-protection flags in HDCP content. I don't know if this is the case, or whether HDCP works like DTCP/5C in this regard.
The HDCP signal does not contain any flags like DTCP/5C does.

Basically, if an HDMI signal is encrypted with HDCP, then it is always considered "copy never," so it cannot be recorded by any HDCP-compliant device. Otherwise, if it's not encrypted, then it is effectively considered "copy freely," so it can be recorded by any device, even by devices that cannot decrypt HDCP at all.

I suspect that the card cannot decrypt HDCP at all, not even for viewing purposes. If true, I would simply call it HDCP-incompatible, not HDCP-compliant. In other words, the card can only receive non-HDCP signals (i.e., HDMI signals that have not been encrypted with HDCP).

I can capture mpeg2 transport streams from my qam tuner (an HDHomeRun). I would like to look for the embedded DTCP_Descriptor to confirm if it really is there, and if so what the value of the DTCP_CCI field is. I want to compare that to what my Comcast 3412 (16.20) is reporting to try and get some evidence of where the CCI=2 determination on the 3412 is coming from.

I've looked through the technical spec

http://www.dtcp.com/data/info%2020050228%20dtcp%20vol%201%20%201p4.pdf

which clearly defines the format of the dtcp_descriptor, which is in fact an ATSC_CA descriptor. However, the document doesn't describe how to find the ATSC_CA descriptors, in the stream.

Does anyone know of a program that will analyze an MPEG-2 TS and print out the CCI flag, or dump the descriptors?

I did do the cheap thing already. The dtcp_descriptor has a 1 byte tag of 0x88 , followed by a 1 byte length, followed by the CA_System_ID of 0x0fff. I don't see that pattern in the stream, but it's not clear to me that I should really expect to see it in the clear.

I'm just looking at Comcast's transmission of HD OTA channels, which are not encrypted. Of the 4 networks, the 3412 get CCI=2 for NBC and ABC, and CCI=0 for CBS and FOX. My QAM tuner is happy to capture all of them, but I would like to be able to also get NBC and ABC by firewire off the 3412.

I can capture mpeg2 transport streams from my qam tuner (an HDHomeRun). I would like to look for the embedded DTCP_Descriptor to confirm if it really is there, and if so what the value of the DTCP_CCI field is. I want to compare that to what my Comcast 3412 (16.20) is reporting to try and get some evidence of where the CCI=2 determination on the 3412 is coming from.

I've looked through the technical spec

http://www.dtcp.com/data/info%2020050228%20dtcp%20vol%201%20%201p4.pdf

which clearly defines the format of the dtcp_descriptor, which is in fact an ATSC_CA descriptor. However, the document doesn't describe how to find the ATSC_CA descriptors, in the stream.

Does anyone know of a program that will analyze an MPEG-2 TS and print out the CCI flag, or dump the descriptors?

I did do the cheap thing already. The dtcp_descriptor has a 1 byte tag of 0x88 , followed by a 1 byte length, followed by the CA_System_ID of 0x0fff. I don't see that pattern in the stream, but it's not clear to me that I should really expect to see it in the clear.

I'm just looking at Comcast's transmission of HD OTA channels, which are not encrypted. Of the 4 networks, the 3412 get CCI=2 for NBC and ABC, and CCI=0 for CBS and FOX. My QAM tuner is happy to capture all of them, but I would like to be able to also get NBC and ABC by firewire off the 3412.
You're looking for the wrong descriptor. You should be looking for the RC descriptor instead. It's tag is 0xAA. The DTCP descriptor is only sent on the 1394 link.

For tools, you can use TSReader:

http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader/

or you can use my command line tool xport (which also does demuxing):

http://www.w6rz.net/xport.zip

Here's the thread where myself and others debug this issue on Comcast in the SF Bay Area (starting around this post).

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8963494&&#post8963494

Ron

When I open vlc and stream ondemand then go to lord of the rings which is 5c=1 in hd it captures about a second of the movie then stops and then I can do the same process over again but with capdvhs open instead of vlc and it records a second of it even though it is 5c=1 has anyone else been able to do this?

The HDCP signal does not contain any flags like DTCP/5C does.

Basically, if an HDMI signal is encrypted with HDCP, then it is always considered "copy never," so it cannot be recorded by any HDCP-compliant device. Otherwise, if it's not encrypted, then it is effectively considered "copy freely," so it can be recorded by any device, even by devices that cannot decrypt HDCP at all.

I suspect that the card cannot decrypt HDCP at all, not even for viewing purposes. If true, I would simply call it HDCP-incompatible, not HDCP-compliant. In other words, the card can only receive non-HDCP signals (i.e., HDMI signals that have not been encrypted with HDCP).So this sounds like the Blackmagic HDMI capture card would record *nothing* from a Comcast/Moto box, not even in-the-clear channels - since the box doesn't output video at all to non-HDCP displays.

There's no apparent rhyme or reason that we can make out as to what programs would or should be CCI=2, because we only see it from local stations (but not all - the local NBCHD & ABCHD are still CCI=00x0). ESPNHD, ESPN2HD, UHD, MHD, TNTHD, DHD, INHD (here it's actually a NBAHD, NFLHD, FSNHD and INHD mix), and GOLFVS (Golf and Versus) are all CCI=00x0.


Same here. For some reason 5c=1 on my local stations, yet 5c and CCI = 0 for stations like DHD, TNTHD, INHD, all Encore movie channels...etc...

It makes no sense at all, like someone is randomly flipping switches. I was under the impression that for local hd stations the cable companies were required to leave 5c=0.

Anyways, comcast is soon taking over my area, so it doesn't look too good for the future of my firewire capturing.

On the upside, I finally got HD streaming over LAN working with my Motorola 6200 and VLC.

You're looking for the wrong descriptor. You should be looking for the RC descriptor instead. It's tag is 0xAA. The DTCP descriptor is only sent on the 1394 link.

For tools, you can use TSReader:

[Ron

Well, I did get a hold of TSReader and no RC descriptor. Below is what shows for two HD channels from Atlanta Comcast via QAM. Program 10 is the CBS affiliate, Program 806 is NBC, both off the same QAM channel (108). The 3416 shows CCI=0 on CBS and CCI=2 on NBC.
There is no RC (0xAA) descriptor on either, but there is private data descriptor 0XA3 on NBC.

I'm not including it below, but I also checked FOX (CCI=0) which has no 0XA3, and ABC (CCI=2) which does have an 0XA3. So it look 0XA3 is the discriminator in Atlanta.

Is there a tag name for 0XA3 that TSReader doesn't know?

Program Number: 10
Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 0 SB Size: 0
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)

Stream Type: 0x02 MPEG-2 Video PID 62 (0x003e)
MPEG Video: Bitrate 38.810 Mbps Resolution 1920 x 1080i
MPEG Video: Framerate 29.97 fps Aspect Ratio 16:9 Chroma Format 4:2:0
Descriptor: Data Stream Alignment Descriptor
Alignment type: video access unit
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0x86
e2 65 6e 67 7e 3f ff 65 6e 67 c1 3f ff .eng~?.eng.?.

Stream Type: 0x81 AC-3 Audio PID 63 (0x003f)
AC3: Bitrate 384 Kbps Sample Rate 48 KHz
AC3: Mode complete main Coding 3/2 5 L, C, R, SL, SR
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x41432d33 (AC-3)
Descriptor: ISO639 Language Descriptor
Language: eng
Audio type: undefined
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0x81
08 bc 1b 09 1f .....

-------
Program Number: 806
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)
Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 45000 SB Size: 512
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xa3
01 65 6e 67 01 00 00 05 50 72 6f 67 31 .eng....Prog1
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xaa
ff .



Stream Type: 0x02 MPEG-2 Video PID 49 (0x0031)
MPEG Video: Bitrate 38.810 Mbps Resolution 1920 x 1080i
MPEG Video: Framerate 29.97 fps Aspect Ratio 16:9 Chroma Format 4:2:0
Descriptor: Video Stream Descriptor
Multiple frame rate flag: False
Frame rate: 29.97¼
MPEG-1 only flag: False
Constrained paramter flag: True
Still picture flag: False
Descriptor: Data Stream Alignment Descriptor
Alignment type: video access unit

Stream Type: 0x81 AC-3 Audio PID 52 (0x0034)
AC3: Bitrate 384 Kbps Sample Rate 48 KHz
AC3: Mode complete main Coding 3/2 5 L, C, R, SL, SR
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x41432d33 (AC-3)
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0x81
08 38 05 00 00 00 .8....
Descriptor: ISO639 Language Descriptor
Language: eng
Audio type: undefined
Descriptor: Data Stream Alignment Descriptor
Alignment type: slice, or video access unit

There is no RC (0xAA) descriptor on either, but there is private data descriptor 0XA3 on NBC.

...

Program Number: 806
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)
Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 45000 SB Size: 512
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xa3
01 65 6e 67 01 00 00 05 50 72 6f 67 31 .eng....Prog1
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xaa
ff.

Um, what about that last line: Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xaa ff?

I would imagine 0xaa is the RC flag and the value "ff" means copy never. Am I wrong?

TSReader doesn't claim to support (http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader/descriptors.html) the 0xaa RC Descriptor tag, so might it just show up as "User Pirvate Descriptor" by default if it's unrecognized?

Um, what about that last line: Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xaa ff?

I would imagine 0xaa is the RC flag and the value "ff" means copy never. Am I wrong?

TSReader doesn't claim to support (http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader/descriptors.html) the 0xaa RC Descriptor tag, so might it just show up as "User Pirvate Descriptor" by default if it's unrecognized?

Yes, I must be a little blind missing that last 0xaa descriptor.

Also, its there only in the other CC=2 channel the ABC affiliate

Program Number: 3
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)
Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 45000 SB Size: 512
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xa3
01 65 6e 67 01 00 00 06 57 53 42 2d 44 54 .eng....WSB-DT
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xaa
ff .

Also note, that these two CC=2 streams have both an "0xaa" and "0xa3" Descriptor,
and all the CC=0 have neither.

Although "0xa3" is shown as private, I also see it listed in the TSReader reference as ATSC "component name". There are two ascii strings in each, "eng" common to both and "prog1" in the NBC, and "WSB-DT" the station name in the ABC.

I think we have a clue, that whoever is inserting the "0xaa" is also inserting the"0xa3". Still not clear to me who that is. I wonder if the "eng" identifies it in some way.

I think we have a clue, that whoever is inserting the "0xaa" is also inserting the"0xa3". Still not clear to me who that is. I wonder if the "eng" identifies it in some way.
It seems likely to me, especially given the results in the SF Bay area (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8978664&&#post8978664), that the 0xaa and 0xa3 tags are being added by your local broadcaster, and the Moto box adds the DTCP tags in order to honor the RC tags. For broadcast content coming from the network, it also appears the flag could come from the broadcast master (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8996878&&#post8996878).

I doubt the 0xa3 is important with respect to the copy protection. It's probably just added for other purposes by the same hardware or software that adds the RC Descriptor.

The component_name_descriptor syntax and usage is defined in ATSC a_65c (the PSIP specification).

http://www.atsc.org/standards/a_65cr1_with_amend_1.pdf

As ExDeus suggests, it has nothing to do with copy protection. The RC_descriptor is also defined in a_65c. The value (0xff) has no meaning. In fact, on FOX network feeds, you'll see this descriptor with zero length (just the 0xAA). On the Motorola STB's, just the presence of the RC_descriptor triggers 1394 encryption.

BTW, if you capture an in the clear stream on 1394 and run it through TSReader, you'll see the DTCP_descriptor.

Ron

It seems likely to me, especially given the results in the SF Bay area (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8978664&&#post8978664), that the 0xaa and 0xa3 tags are being added by your local broadcaster, and the Moto box adds the DTCP tags in order to honor the RC tags. For broadcast content coming from the network, it also appears the flag could come from the broadcast master (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8996878&&#post8996878).

I doubt the 0xa3 is important with respect to the copy protection. It's probably just added for other purposes by the same hardware or software that adds the RC Descriptor.

Since my HDHomeRun will also capture OTA ATSC, I can compare the QAM directly to the ATSC.
For example. for NBC

OTA

Program Number: 3 WXIA-DT
Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)
Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 45000 SB Size: 512
Descriptor: ATSC Component Name Descriptor
Component Name: Prog1
Descriptor: ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor
ff .

QAM

Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)
Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 45000 SB Size: 512
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xa3
01 65 6e 67 01 00 00 05 50 72 6f 67 31 .eng....Prog1
Descriptor: User Private Descriptor: 0xaa
ff .

So, the same 2 descriptors show on OTA/ATSC and Comcst/QAM, its just that TSReader declares them private and doesn't label them for QAM.

I agree that the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor is the critical one, I read in the IEEE paper

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5/33232/01566622.pdf

Redistribution Control Descriptor: The core purpose
for the redistribution control descriptor (commonly referred
to as the broadcast flag), is to signal that the content owner
is asserting his or her rights with regard to redistribution
of the program. The ATSC PSIP standard states that “The
descriptor’s existence within the ATSC stream shall mean:
‘technological control of consumer redistribution is signaled.’”
The FCC in the United States codified the broadcast
flag in rules that may be found in 47 CFR 73.8 and 73.9 [7]
and 47 CFR 76.1909 [12].

So I guess it comes down to the Atlanta NBC and ABC affiliates asserting the "broadcast flag" and the Motorola 3416 implementing it with CCI=2 over DTCP. Probably these two stations are using a common component (since they are also the only ones with a ATSC Component Name Descriptor) that may default to asserting the RC descriptor.

It would appear that Comcast is not directly involved.

There is however, one Comcast related mystery. As it turns out CCI=2 only shows on only one of the two headends in the area. The Comcast engineer says that both get the same ATSC station feeds and are configured identically.

I checked out my local channels via Comcast, and only the Fox and (Fox owned) MyNetworkTV affiliates have CCI=2.

I also noticed in the Diagnostic Menu of my Moto 3416, in the d06 CURRENT CHANNEL STATUS page, CCI=0x02 and RC Flag=0x01.

For those with CCI=2, are you also seeing RC Flag=0x01?

My capture over Firewire didn't work (DTCP was enabled by the RC Flag!), and OTA TS captures show the following:

Program Number: 3
PCR on PID 49 (0x0031)
PMT Version: 0
Service name: KMSP-HD

Stream Type: 0x02 MPEG-2 Video
Elementary Stream PID 49 (0x0031)

Stream Type: 0x81 AC-3 Audio
Elementary Stream PID 52 (0x0034)

Descriptor: Multiplex Buffer Utilization Descriptor
Bound Valid Flag: 1
LTW Offset Lower: 180 Upper: 180

Descriptor: Maximum Bitrate Descriptor
Maximum bitrate: 2025150 bytes per second

Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x47413934 (GA94)

Descriptor: Smoothing Buffer Descriptor
SB Leak Rate: 40503 SB Size: 2048

Descriptor: Registration Descriptor
Format identifier: 0x43554549 (CUEI)

Descriptor: ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor <<<< ---------- RC flag


Program Number: 4
PCR on PID 65 (0x0041)
PMT Version: 0
Service name: KMSP-SD

Stream Type: 0x02 MPEG-2 Video
Elementary Stream PID 65 (0x0041)

Stream Type: 0x81 AC-3 Audio
Elementary Stream PID 68 (0x0044)
Notice only the HD stream has the RC flag. I'd say it's pretty clear the RC flag in a stream triggers the DTCP CCI=2.

There's no apparent rhyme or reason that we can make out as to what programs would or should be CCI=2, because we only see it from local stations (but not all - the local NBCHD & ABCHD are still CCI=00x0). ESPNHD, ESPN2HD, UHD, MHD, TNTHD, DHD, INHD (here it's actually a NBAHD, NFLHD, FSNHD and INHD mix), and GOLFVS (Golf and Versus) are all CCI=00x0..


My comcast area is the opposite of this. All the local HD channels, ABC, Fox, etc... can be easily captured as they have CCI = 0 but the other HD channels like MHD, UHD, etc... are CCI = 2 and DRM = 1 when looking in the d06 menu of my 3416.

The other digital SD channels are hit or miss it seems like. For example I can't capture the cartoon network, Nickelodean or MTV, but Food TV, CNN and The Fuse Network is ok.

One thing that seemed strange to me was that I could capture all the ESPN SD channels fine, but not ESPNHD or ESPN2HD. They show the same programming so I'm guessing it's the HD part that makes the difference.

I tried to do some test captures last night which lead me to this conclusion. I even rebooted my STB, unplugged it for a few minutes and plugged it back in, to make sure I didn't have some wierd settings set.

...
For those with CCI=2, are you also seeing RC Flag=0x01?
...Yes. I just checked all the locals that have CCI set to 0x02, and every one of them have the RC Flag set as 0x01. If indeed the origin of the Broadcast Flag is national, it would seem that some boxes convert that into a CCI=0x02 and some of them do not. Perhaps there is something the local cable companies can do (if they're so inclined) to suppress the STB's built-in "adjustment" of the CCI value in response to the RC Flag.

I keep getting ERROR:Cannot open output file or ERROR 80040217:Cannot connect sample grabber when using Cap-DVHS. I had this working on a 6412 before, and the box died. I hooked up another 6412, and it will not work no matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall the driver. I'm showing the Motorola device in Cap-DVHS, but it gives the above error(s) whenever I try to use Cap-DVHS. Anyone have a fix for this? It's driving me nuts! I'm using firmware 16.20

I keep getting ERROR:Cannot open output file
I'm going to start with the obvious: CapDVHS will not overwrite a file that exists. Have you tried deleting the output file or changing the name to a new output file before attempting to record?

I checked out my local channels via Comcast, and only the Fox and (Fox owned) MyNetworkTV affiliates have CCI=2.

I also noticed in the Diagnostic Menu of my Moto 3416, in the d06 CURRENT CHANNEL STATUS page, CCI=0x02 and RC Flag=0x01.

For those with CCI=2, are you also seeing RC Flag=0x01?

Notice only the HD stream has the RC flag. I'd say it's pretty clear the RC flag in a stream triggers the DTCP CCI=2.

HD or SD i do not have RC Flag=0x01 on channels with CCI=0x02 tho I do have DRM=0x01 on those channels.

I'm on Armstrong cable in Western PA and seemingly all of the HD broadcasts of the major networks are CCI=0x02 with a mix of RC=0x01. I can record SD channels just fine, but only one or two HD channels are CCI=0x00. This was the first time I set up the FW->PC and I thought I hosed something up, but apparently we're getting hosed from somewhere else :rolleyes:

Checked a little closer tonight and it's similar to what others have seen:
Locals that are CCI=0x02 all have RC=0x01.
Stations where CCI=0x02 and RC=0x00 are 5C=1.

I don't think naming the captured stream to ts, tp, mov, or dvr-ms makes any difference during the capture phase. In fact, you can simply name it 2006-11-15 without an extension.

Later, when you play the stream through various software players like WMA, PowerDVD, or VLC, you will need to rename to TS of MPG.

As for 3250HD and 8300HD working or not. If you are in New York city and Time Warner cable, those 1394 outputs are active on the 3250HD and you can capture using both CAPDVHS and VLC with no problems with no encypted channels.


Is it only true for the 3250 or 8300HD works as well?


With most HD premium channels like HBO, SHO, and MAX, you cannot record anything longer than a few seconds at a time. I think this is due to something in the stream that kills the CAPDVHS or VLC capturing program once initiated.


5c?
If so, wouldn't a DVHS deck work just fine?


I have had HD 1080i recordings that were as long as 5 seconds before termination.

As such, it's a big waste of time trying this firewire recording and recording with the HD-DVR is the only way to go until they have recordable Blu-Ray or HD-DVD machines.

Paul

I failed to see what would change with the arrival of those recordable HD formats when the problem is at capturing...

I'm still interested in the value of the "broadcast flag" on the troublesome channels. Notice that TSReader shows

Descriptor: ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor
ff .

I'm wondering about the "ff" value of the descriptor and what it means.

It seems like the definitive documentation on this that everything refers to is

http://www.atsc.org/standards/A65-B.pdf

which is a members only document., I can't get.

Does anyone have information on the possible flag value, and in particular what "0xff" means?

I'm thinking that an affirmative value of the descriptor is something other than "ff", and that the Motorola implementation keys on the existence of the descriptor rather than its value.

I'm still interested in the value of the "broadcast flag" on the troublesome channels. Notice that TSReader shows

Descriptor: ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor
ff .

I'm wondering about the "ff" value of the descriptor and what it means.

It seems like the definitive documentation on this that everything refers to is

http://www.atsc.org/standards/A65-B.pdf

which is a members only document., I can't get.

Does anyone have information on the possible flag value, and in particular what "0xff" means?

I'm thinking that an affirmative value of the descriptor is something other than "ff", and that the Motorola implementation keys on the existence of the descriptor rather than its value.
I already answered these questions (along with the correct link to a_65), only 10 posts back.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9381047&&#post9381047

Ron

Guys, this is very strange. My Moto 6208 has 5C set at 0 for all of my HD channels. I am able to capture to my laptop for all of them, with the exception of HBO. Unfortunately, my 6208 will not display any CCI information on any channel. I am sure it has to do with the CCI flag. How can I analyze the steam to see what is going on. When I "record", I do not get a 0-byte file. I am afraid to call them, as they just might flag the other 15 channels.

So, the 6208 doesn't have the same diagnostic screens as the later models?

Using VLC streaming is the easiest way to see which channels you can capture. If it streams in VLC, capdvhs should capture it.

So, the 6208 doesn't have the same diagnostic screens as the later models?

Using VLC streaming is the easiest way to see which channels you can capture. If it streams in VLC, capdvhs should capture it.

My 6208 has different diagnostic screens. VLC will stream all HD channels with the exception of HBO. I am probably beating a dead horse here, but I would just love to know what is going on.

djdrock,

what are the other channels that you are able to record? If it's NBCHD, ABCHD, CBSHD ESPNHD, TNTHD, etc. then I'm pretty sure everyone can copy those. It's the premium subscription channels like HBO that are flagged "copy never" and don't work (as you have seen).

I can copy Sho-HD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD, Universal HD, MTV-HD etc...I know, it is strange, every channel except HBO-HD.

I have scoured the net looking for similar circumstances of this, and nowhere can I find someone with the moto 6208, has 5C=0, can record all HD channels except HBO-HD. One thing to note, the only non-HD channel that I can record, or see through VLC, is Encore WAM, and one local station. Very very strange. Maybe I shouldn't complain, but wow, this is crazy!

I can copy Sho-HD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD, Universal HD, MTV-HD etc...I know, it is strange, every channel except HBO-HD.

I have scoured the net looking for similar circumstances of this, and nowhere can I find someone with the moto 6208, has 5C=0, can record all HD channels except HBO-HD. One thing to note, the only non-HD channel that I can record, or see through VLC, is Encore WAM, and one local station. Very very strange. Maybe I shouldn't complain, but wow, this is crazy!

My 6200 moto box is the same way. I can record INHD, Discovery HD, TNTHD, all Encore SD channels, yet, 5c=1 for my locals, Cartoon Network, and some random other SD channels. I don't subscribe to HDNet, HDNet Movies, UHD, Sho-HD, or HBO-HD so I can't test those out.

Can someone give a list of Cablevision high def channels that you can archive to PC via this method (also how long does it take to archive a 1 hour high def show?)
Lastly, what's the filesize on a 1 hour high def show?

thanks,
Jon

Can someone give a list of Cablevision high def channels that you can archive to PC via this method (also how long does it take to archive a 1 hour high def show?)
Lastly, what's the filesize on a 1 hour high def show?

thanks,
Jon

I have Cox, not Cablevision. File capture is done in real time though. You play the show on the cable box, and hit capture on the PC. So it takes 1 hour for a 1 hour show. For me, a 1 hour show in HD is 7-8 GB, although it does vary some, and probably depends on whether it's 720p or 1080i.

Chris

i'm "attempting" to capture from a comcast HD PVR, and i'm getting mixed results. the shows i'm trying to capture are recorded performances by Beck on SNL and david letterman a couple months ago.

i did a test with CAPDVHS and reviewed it with VLC on a (regular broadcast, not recorded) SD channel of something random (i think it was "peoples court" or something like that).

video and audio were fine.

so, i queued up my DVR recordings. pressed play on the TV... then went over to the PC input and hit record on CAPDVHS. went back to the TV input to watch the performance. went back to the computer and stopped the recording. saw a large file was made. great! nope :(

when i played this in VLC it NEVER showed any audio, and it was kind of laggy at points.

so, i repeated the capture process on the same show again. this time i saw a grey sceen was recorded for the first few minutes, then the laggy video came in.. still no audio.

third time - all i got was a grey screen, no audio

fourth time - the grey screen would come and go, when i do see video it's laggy still. no audio again.


could the problem be my PC specs can't do HD playback? or that i'm trying to record from the DVR instead of regular broadcast? or that its HD?

here are my PC specs:
P4 1.7 GHz
ASUS P4T-E
1GB RDRAM (4x256)
250 GB ATA 7200
GeForce4 128MB Ti4400

I'm NOT an expert, and I've never gotten a scenario like that to work, but these are some of the problems I'd expect with what you're doing:

-one may need a special Transport Stream (TS) player or converter to deal with the gross data spewed out on HDD. This data, I expect, is similar if not identical to the TS files on a DVD. Maybe worse, since it's HDTV.

-may need some extra HDDs to handle the data, and a spare PC to devote to TS conversion.

-may have to rerun conversions because of overrun and underrun problems.

-automatic resets and retries initiated by the slapcard on a standard HDD may ruin a run. Maybe a guy needs several of those special HDDS that don't do thermal resets, etc.

-if standard SD is OK then maybe it's easier to get a show from ********** than record it oneself.

-for HDTV to DVD a guy may have to wait for HD DVD burners.

what isn't clear to me is whether i'm having record/capture problems, or playback issues (of the raw .ts files created). if it's just a playback issue, then i'd be inclined to keep archiving stuff to my pc and sort out the playback later. my DVR is full and Rome and 24 just started new seasons :)

what isn't clear to me is whether i'm having record/capture problems, or playback issues (of the raw .ts files created). if it's just a playback issue, then i'd be inclined to keep archiving stuff to my pc and sort out the playback later. my DVR is full and Rome and 24 just started new seasons :)

I'm not sure either, but I will say I can capture fine with a P4 1.5M laptop. It struggles to play back 1080i though, but mostly just drops frames so it looks choppy. My P4 2.8 Ghz plays those files back fine though, so I mostly just use the laptop for capturing. Also, I found that the NVidia Pure Cinema decoder uses FAR less CPU cycles to play back 720p and 1080i than VLC, and it looks better also. So if you have a newer NVidia graphics card, I highly recommend the NVidia plugin for HD and DVD playback. I have a 6600GT card.

Chris

Why not just download a known good .ts file and see if you can play it?

Mine captures with a "BLUE" tint on the video and no audio. Any ideas?


EDIT! Fixed! ATI Drivers need to be set to "LET APPLICATION CONTROL" the video settings in the control panel. When I set that, the blue tint went away. VLC works awesome plays back 5.1 and everything.

I'm sure the chances of someone having the willingness and ability to help me is very slim, however i'll post this just in case. My name is Amanda, and I am completely illiterate when it comes to this whole thing. All I know is that I have a Motorola DCT-6412, an IEEE 1396 Firewire cable, and Microsoft Windows XP with plenty of storage space to transfer videos so I can burn (using Nero or Roxio) them to a dvd. If anyone could break down a "how to guide for idiots" for anything that might help I would DEEPLY appreciate it. I'm normally very good with computers, but this is something I am completely lost about.

I'm sure the chances of someone having the willingness and ability to help me is very slim, however i'll post this just in case. My name is Amanda, and I am completely illiterate when it comes to this whole thing. All I know is that I have a Motorola DCT-6412, an IEEE 1396 Firewire cable, and Microsoft Windows XP with plenty of storage space to transfer videos so I can burn (using Nero or Roxio) them to a dvd. If anyone could break down a "how to guide for idiots" for anything that might help I would DEEPLY appreciate it. I'm normally very good with computers, but this is something I am completely lost about.


Go here this should help you: http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/#Setting_up_for_drivers_for_DCT6412

and to dl capdvhs there should be a link ont he first page of this thread. Good luck!

I'm still a little confused on one topic: :(

I got the capturing thing down... connected it OK, and got a couple channels that I now learned weren't 5C protected to record to my pc without any jitters or anything like that.

But I still can't figure out how to get my DVR recordings that are saved on my moto box from there onto my pc's hard drive. Is this at all possible to do so? I may be just looking in the wrong posts, and I apologize in advance, but maybe someone can lead me in the right direction.

I'd really appreciate any kind of input on this DVR to PC HD (hard drive not high def) :p transfer knowledge.

Thanx so much!

I have a question. I need to buy a an ExpressCard FireWire card for my laptop.
Will the ExpressCard type work? I noticed there are Firewire 400 and FireWire 800 cards. Which protocol does the DCT 64xx use?

I have a question. I need to buy a an ExpressCard FireWire card for my laptop.
Will the ExpressCard type work? I noticed there are Firewire 400 and FireWire 800 cards. Which protocol does the DCT 64xx use?

The DCT 64xx is FireWire 400. An express card should work fine. I use a PC Card in my laptop for firewire capture off the DCT 64xx. It's 2 years old, so doesn't have an express card slot.

Chris

I've been capturing and encoding successfully off my Motorola 6412 for over a year but my company is upgrading to the Pace Micro 775 Tahoe box. I know their is a separate thread for that box but having asked to no avail there, I thought maybe someone here could comment on or direct me to drivers that would work with that box and CapDVHS?

Please?

Wolf

But I still can't figure out how to get my DVR recordings that are saved on my moto box from there onto my pc's hard drive. Is this at all possible to do so? I may be just looking in the wrong posts, and I apologize in advance, but maybe someone can lead me in the right direction.

You have to record the previously recorded programs the same way you record live TV. You have to play them back and capture them as they play. There's no direct HD to HD copy.

Has anyone ever tried cracking open their Moto 6412 box and placing it in their PC as a slave hard drive device? Would the PC even recognize it? If you did this, do you think you would be able to copy the file structure onto a new, larger hard drive and place that new drive back into your Moto box?

Just wondering...

I've been capturing and encoding successfully off my Motorola 6412 for over a year but my company is upgrading to the Pace Micro 775 Tahoe box. I know their is a separate thread for that box but having asked to no avail there, I thought maybe someone here could comment on or direct me to drivers that would work with that box and CapDVHS?

Please?

Wolf

I don't know if the drivers work with the Pace box, but keep in mind there is only one set of drivers (Nov 2003). The only thing newish is the update to the .inf file that matches the device_id of the (different) boxes to the actual drivers. No Pace boxes are listed.

But you can fix that pretty easily. Just d/l the drivers http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/motorola6412_firewire.zip
and patch the meistb.inf file.

First, plug in the 1394 cable and cancel the wizard (3 times). Next go to device manager and disable the AV/C Panel and Unknown devices. That will leave you with one 'bad' device. Double click that and click on 'details'. Write down what it says through ..ID_0. My 3416 says AVC\Motorola&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0\71....

Open meistb.inf with notepad and using 'replace' function (ctrl-h) replace all instances of "AVC\Motorola&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0" with what you wrote down.
Save to a new file such as pace1394.inf.

copy pace1394.inf \windows\inf
copy meistrm.sys \windows
copy meistb.sys \windows

Now, in device manager, update driver for the device. Use pace1394.inf if more than one choice appears. You can safely skip the mstapeo driver.

Install capdvhs and you are done.

I've skimmed over this thread and read the last 10 pages. It looks like there are some issues using firewire to record broadcast channels that are supposed to be freely available per the FCC.

Here's my question: I use Dvico's FusionHDTV5 PCI card in my PC and directly capture unencrypted QAM channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CW, and PBS) without any issues. Everything else (save for some junk advertising channels) is encrypted. Will I get any more channels by also using firewire to record from an HDTV STB if I subscribe to all of the HD services (ESPN-HD, MTV-HD, HD-NET, HBO-HD, SHO-HD, etc.). In other words, the QAM channel is encrypted, but will the STB pass it unencrypted to my PC?

I have Charter Communications in Glendale, CA.

...I use Dvico's FusionHDTV5 PCI card in my PC and directly capture unencrypted QAM channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CW, and PBS) without any issues. Everything else (save for some junk advertising channels) is encrypted. Will I get any more channels by also using firewire to record from an HDTV STB if I subscribe to all of the HD services (ESPN-HD, MTV-HD, HD-NET, HBO-HD, SHO-HD, etc.). In other words, the QAM channel is encrypted, but will the STB pass it unencrypted to my PC?
...It depends on where you live and what the firmware of the HD-DVR dictates.

In Seattle on Comcast with the DCT-3416, I'm able to capture off the box unhindered from ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, Universal-HD, Music-HD, TNT-HD, Discovery-HD, and INHD, all of which require a CableCARD to view from a QAM tuner. We have a problem with some of the OTA locals carrying a broadcast flag which seems to trigger the 3416 to embed a CCI=0x02 (copy once) flag, which prohibits us from watching/capturing such affected channels on a PC.

We have a problem with some of the OTA locals carrying a broadcast flag which seems to trigger the 3416 to embed a CCI=0x02 (copy once) flag, which prohibits us from watching/capturing such affected channels on a PC.As it understand it, per FCC regulations, ALL broadcast shows should be freely available for copying and recording, correct? Is this is an issue with the STB or with the actual QAM channel? i.e. if you plugged your cable directly into a QAM PCI tuner, would the problem go away?

As it understand it, per FCC regulations, ALL broadcast shows should be freely available for copying and recording, correct? Is this is an issue with the STB or with the actual QAM channel? i.e. if you plugged your cable directly into a QAM PCI tuner, would the problem go away?

Cards like Fusion & MyHD ignore broadcast flags. And your first sentence isn't completely correct.

I have 3 more questions:

1. Can I view the stuff from the Moto, or can I only record it. I guess what i'm trying to say
is, can I watch the stuff on my computer, or can I only record it?

2. I keep seeing stuff about this 5C Encryption thing. Why is it there? Is their a list of
channels that have 5C encryption?

3. Can you also use USB instead of FireWire to watch/record on your computer?

I don't know if the drivers work with the Pace box, but keep in mind there is only one set of drivers (Nov 2003). The only thing newish is the update to the .inf file that matches the device_id of the (different) boxes to the actual drivers. No Pace boxes are listed.

But you can fix that pretty easily. Just d/l the drivers http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/motorola6412_firewire.zip
and patch the meistb.inf file.

First, plug in the 1394 cable and cancel the wizard (3 times). Next go to device manager and disable the AV/C Panel and Unknown devices. That will leave you with one 'bad' device. Double click that and click on 'details'. Write down what it says through ..ID_0. My 3416 says AVC\Motorola&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0\71....

Open meistb.inf with notepad and using 'replace' function (ctrl-h) replace all instances of "AVC\Motorola&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0" with what you wrote down.
Save to a new file such as pace1394.inf.

copy pace1394.inf \windows\inf
copy meistrm.sys \windows
copy meistb.sys \windows

Now, in device manager, update driver for the device. Use pace1394.inf if more than one choice appears. You can safely skip the mstapeo driver.

Install capdvhs and you are done.


Thank you! That was just what I needed! I do believe I am back in business!

Wolf :)

CapDVHS only captures for a few seconds and then dies. I don't have time right now to pst the error but will as soon as I return from a urgent errand.

Wolf

I have 3 more questions:

1. Can I view the stuff from the Moto, or can I only record it. I guess what i'm trying to say
is, can I watch the stuff on my computer, or can I only record it?

2. I keep seeing stuff about this 5C Encryption thing. Why is it there? Is their a list of
channels that have 5C encryption?

3. Can you also use USB instead of FireWire to watch/record on your computer?

1) Sure. VLC will let you watch, and will stream that to any/all PC's/Macs in your local network. CAPDVHS will let you capture.

2) Not that I know of. CBS/NBC/ABC should allow you to copy. HBO probably won't. It can be show by show, not just channel by channel.

3) No.

About a year ago, I followed this guide and was able to record HD via Firewire... worked great...

what i don't remember is - will I be able to view streaming content (i.e. HD) REAL TIME via firewire to my computer?

Just got another dct-6200 after moving and I'm going to be setting this up again but I'd like to know whether or not I can watch streaming content from the box to my pc / pc monitor...

*edit... ummm... i guess i didn't see the post right above mine :o

would everyone agree that the first post of this thread is up to date?

Or have there been revisions / shortcuts / more efficient techniques to doing this?

Thank you! That was just what I needed! I do believe I am back in business!

Wolf :)

Alaska Wolf. I'm having trouble getting the driver installed properly for my Pace. Would it be possible if you post the .inf file you modified? I tried modifing meistb.inf but didn't find any instances of "AVC\Motorola&DCT-3412&TYP_5&ID_0". I did find an oem60.inf file that I had from a previous attempt with those entries and replaced them with "AVC\PACE_MICRO_TECHNOLOGY_(PLC)&TDC775D&TYP_5&ID_0" (from the Tuner AV/C Device in device manager) but after using that inf windows complains it's configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged.

Thanks!

Does anyone know what the Ethernet port on the DCT6412 is used for? Can you hook
it to a computer/network and watch/record from it???

[I'm wondering if anyone has been able to successfully use the techniques in this thread to capture via firewire/IEE1394 the output from the Toshiba TV's that have that interface?

Howdy - wondering the same thing too with my Mitsubishi WD-Y65. The tv is recognized by windows xp as an av/c device, but there are no drivers available. Called Mitsubishi, and they were fairly useless as far as providing any PC support for a firewire connection. Has anyone been able to get the Vivid Logic software to work with a firewire enabled set? I did download an eval copy to mess around with - the software installed properly, my tv recognized the pc as an "AV Disc", but recording from the TV Guide on screen, or just hitting the record button started then stopped after 60 secs.

http://www.vividlogic.com/products/dtvr.html

By the way, I don't have a moto or SA box, just an over the air indoor antenna. Output is directly from the tv to the firewire input on my pc. Thanks.

Does anyone know what the Ethernet port on the DCT6412 is used for? Can you hook
it to a computer/network and watch/record from it???

In theory, yes. In practice, it depends on mulitple variables including getting PC drivers and programs installed, whether your cable/satellite service activated the IEEE1394 ports, and which channels are encrypted to disallow recording/viewing among other scenarios. It's a way long story/ A good place to start is reading this thread.

Does anyone know what the Ethernet port on the DCT6412 is used for? Can you hook
it to a computer/network and watch/record from it???
Most if not all cable companies have the Ethernet port disabled on their boxes.

Most if not all cable companies have the Ethernet port disabled on their boxes.
Ok Thanks! :)

I just bought a Power Macintosh G4 computer. Will this FireWire method work
for Mac? What programs/drivers/equipment will I need?

I have been trying to download from my Motorola DCT3416. I followed all the instructions on the "DCT64xx Firewire capture and HD/SD to DVD" Everything was working beautifully until I went to play back the TS file and no matter what application I use to play it back (Windows Media Player or Movie Maker) I keep getting the signal that "this application does not support this file type". Any suggestions?

ellenb - You don't have any software installed to play the HD mpeg TS files. I use elecard moonlight mpeg player. It will install software (codecs?) that will play the TS files not only in the moonlight player itself, but will allow Window Media Player to play the file as well.

I downloaded elecard moonlight mpeg player and still got a "this file is not supported or does not exist" message. It is making me think that maybe I recorded blank space? I tooko my DVR box from the upstairs HD TV and brought it downstairs so I could hook it up to my computer. I used a lttle TV that had a front connection for video and Mono audio to view My Recording from DVR and Play the recording. I Recorded from the DVD Capture application and bottom line of the Data page seemed to record - at least the timer moved. the Data boxes above remained blank. Was it possible for me to make a recording with this set up? or do I have to bring the computer up to the TV?

I have been trying to download from my Motorola DCT3416. I followed all the instructions on the "DCT64xx Firewire capture and HD/SD to DVD" Everything was working beautifully until I went to play back the TS file and no matter what application I use to play it back (Windows Media Player or Movie Maker) I keep getting the signal that "this application does not support this file type". Any suggestions?

Sure. Try VLC. www.videolan.org. Or if you have a newer Nvidia graphics card, the the NVidia Pure Cinema plugin works very well for Media Player with TS files. It uses a lot less CPU cycles than VLC does if you have one of the newer fast NVidia cards.

I have been capturing video from my DCT 6412 with much success using the CAPDVHS program. I have then converted the .ts format to MPEG2 using the HDTVtoMPEG program and/or in some cases the HDTV to DVD program referrenced in the procedure. I have recently discovered that when I play back the Program stream file on Windows media player I am getting this small flickering box jumping all over the screen and across the bottom scrolls the message "The free trial period for this player has expired. For more information visit moonlight.co.il". This web page does not exist. Has anybody seen this or have any idea what is causing this?

I have been capturing video from my DCT 6412 with much success using the CAPDVHS program. I have then converted the .ts format to MPEG2 using the HDTVtoMPEG program and/or in some cases the HDTV to DVD program referrenced in the procedure. I have recently discovered that when I play back the Program stream file on Windows media player I am getting this small flickering box jumping all over the screen and across the bottom scrolls the message "The free trial period for this player has expired. For more information visit moonlight.co.il". This web page does not exist. Has anybody seen this or have any idea what is causing this?

Does the .ts file play fine in VLC?

Thanks Davidietrich and teague. I have downloaded and used both elecard and VLC. I now know I must have captured blank space because other video files worked fine on both above applications - just my test captures from the DVR seemed blank. I will check my set up and try again. Thanks for all you help.

Ellenb, you are recording programs that have the CCI set to 0x02. Nothing you can do.

Thanks grittree. That makes the brick wall I've been hitting a little softer

Does the .ts file play fine in VLC?
I have one MPEG file that was captured as an S2D file type and it plays properly and one .ts file that I can't play on Windows media player but it plays properly in VLC. However, I have another MPEG file that I captured using CAPDVHS but converted MPEG using the HDTV to MPEG software and that will not play in VLC at all. What I am attempting to do is capture recorded video from my DCT 6412 and edit out commercials and put in to MPEG format to then ultimatley burn to DVD. Do you know of another way to accomplish this using VLC to play the video instead? I was pleasently surprised to not see that dancing box on the screen. Thanks for the help.

I have one MPEG file that was captured as an S2D file type and it plays properly and one .ts file that I can't play on Windows media player but it plays properly in VLC. However, I have another MPEG file that I captured using CAPDVHS but converted MPEG using the HDTV to MPEG software and that will not play in VLC at all. What I am attempting to do is capture recorded video from my DCT 6412 and edit out commercials and put in to MPEG format to then ultimatley burn to DVD. Do you know of another way to accomplish this using VLC to play the video instead? I was pleasently surprised to not see that dancing box on the screen. Thanks for the help.

I use CAPDVHS to capture, and the NVidia Pure Cinema plug-in to Windows Media Player to play back (VLC works also). I use SVCD2DVD to burn the CD. I haven't tried to edit these, but a friend uses ProjectX and Streamclip to edit out the commercials:

ProjectX is at project-x.sourceforge.net (http://project-x.sourceforge.net)
Streamclip is at www.squared5.com (http://www.squared5.com)

Chris

I'd like to think that is an easy question answer. I've searched this thread, but at 117 pages it's gets a bit tedious.

Anyway - my Motorola DVR captures a program and presumably stores it as a file on its hard drive. Using this firewire connection, is there anyway to simply copy that file onto my PC?

I have several shows on my DVR that I want to get on my PC. I can't tell if that's even possible at all. Can I capture it on my PC with this setup by playing the recorded show? If so, that means it would take over three hours for a football game to be captured. But can that even be done?

Second - is there a way to simply copy the file from the DVR to my PC, and then use software to render it into something playable on the PC?

I appreciate any help you can give me.

I'd like to think that is an easy question answer. I've searched this thread, but at 117 pages it's gets a bit tedious.

Anyway - my Motorola DVR captures a program and presumably stores it as a file on its hard drive. Using this firewire connection, is there anyway to simply copy that file onto my PC?

I have several shows on my DVR that I want to get on my PC. I can't tell if that's even possible at all. Can I capture it on my PC with this setup by playing the recorded show? If so, that means it would take over three hours for a football game to be captured. But can that even be done?

Second - is there a way to simply copy the file from the DVR to my PC, and then use software to render it into something playable on the PC?

I appreciate any help you can give me.

You cannot copy the file from your Motorola to the PC. You must hit play, and then capture. You are correct that the caputure is done in real time. I've captured a 1 hour show before. I assume a 3+ hour game could be captured.

If you use CAPDVHS to capture, it will give you a .ts file you can play in VLC, or media player with the right plugin.

See http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html for the info on how to setup the firewire capture.

Chris

I have recently discovered that when I play back the Program stream file on Windows media player I am getting this small flickering box jumping all over the screen and across the bottom scrolls the message "The free trial period for this player has expired. For more information visit moonlight.co.il". This web page does not exist. Has anybody seen this or have any idea what is causing this?

moonlight.co.il is now www.elecard.com -- they do the MPEG codecs. You may have installed them for FTA HD-satellite decoding (MPEG 2/4) and/or MPEG-4 DVD decoding.

Can anyone give an answer to this issue:
When i record HDTV video off my motorola DCT6412 III it will record the video but not the sound. Regular tv is fine but hdtv wont record sound. I have an xfi xtreme gamer sound card by creative. I have tried reinstalling the drivers; rebooting computer and turning off the box still wont record. I have been able to hear the sound before when recording hdtv but now it stops recording sound. Im using capDVHS to record and vlc for playback.

I have attempted to install the meistb firewire drivers twice to record from my Motorola DCT-6412 box. It works just fine, but both times I have had to use system restore to roll back changes in order for my wireless card to work again.

I installed:

CapDVHS
VideoRedo
meistb drivers

Anyone have any trouble with device conflicts on your machines? It's a pain to install and uninstall whenever I want to capture. This time before system restoration I attempted to disable the drivers before disconnecting from the DVR, but that didn't work either.

The simple answer is you can't transfer just the video. The transport stream includes both audio & video in mpeg2 format.

The problem is in your sound setup.

Barring the station messing up, but then the Moto box will not have sound playing thru your TV.

I have an SA4250HD box from my cable provider and I'm triyng to set it up to change channels only over Firewire. I'm not concerned with recording HD right now.

I've installed the firewire drivers and command line apps (running WinXP Pro SP2) from Timmmoore's latest Firestb.msi file and when I try to install drivers I pointed it to the Timmmore Drivers folder. It found a driver for the AV/C Tuner device and that installed correctly, but it says there are no drivers found for the AV/C Panel device. I've since manually chosen the driver for the AV/C Panel device by selecting the SA4200HD driver (closet choice, should I be selecting something alse?) from the list and it seems to install correctly. Device manager shows the Panel device as functioning correctly as well.

I do get video when I select the Tuner device in VLC media player, although the video and audio break up frequently and are not really usable, so the Tuner device appears to be functioning ok. When I use the Channel.exe command though, I'm not able to change channels on the STB. I get an error message saying the device is not supported or something similar. I've tried using the -f flag but I get basically the same message.

If anyone has any advice on how I can get the SA4250HD box to accept channel change commands over firewire it woul dbe appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob

Does anyone know if this same method can be used to capture from a DVHS VCR to a PC?

If anyone has any advice on how I can get the SA4250HD box to accept channel change commands over firewire it woul dbe appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob

Just checking if you added the STB device number in the registry, if not this may be your issue and what is stopping it from changing channels.

Just checking if you added the STB device number in the registry, if not this may be your issue and what is stopping it from changing channels.

No, I didn't add anything in the registry. Where do I add the device number?

Thanks,
Rob

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