Thanks again Scott more good details. A couple hundred bucks is alot if in a few months it's down the tube. Good to know these cards like the MHD-130 have a decent life.

Bdraw. Some ideas to add to the top of the list.

When you direct to select the driver from the place we unpacked the meidvhs files. Three .inf files appear? It's not clear to me in the instruction which one to choose. Also you told me to delete the A/V tuner one from the "Device Manager". I think thats not 100%clear in as you do the steps. I like the inprovements you made. Good job.

bdraw,
Nice work on updating the first page. The link to the screen shots of the Comcast Moto 6XXX screen was great, but how to you get to these screens. I didn't see it in that post. I also followed the thread backwards and it wasn't referenced where I saw it. Of course that could be my problem. :)

I am getting this box on saturday and I have read this posting and I think this is awesome. But what I am trying to do is either use a USB/1394 external hard drive to copy over the saved tv episodes and transfer to my computer. But I think this post was to hook up the 6208 to your computers 1394 port as a network type thing. My computer is over 50 feet away and don't have the money for a signal enhancer. I have and external HDD and want to hook it up direct to the dct.. is this possible?

Thanks
Jeff

Hey,

Ive got the Motorola DCT6400 box from Midcontinent communications. Im trying to follow this tuitorial but i found out i have firmware 09.12. Is there any way to downgrade the firmware or can i still do this with my box??

Thanks

Originally posted by BigFoot
I have and external HDD and want to hook it up direct to the dct.. is this possible?

Thanks
Jeff

yes (firewire) - but it won't work to do anything

Originally posted by chuckvb
When you direct to select the driver from the place we unpacked the meidvhs files. Three .inf files appear? It's not clear to me in the instruction which one to choose. Also you told me to delete the A/V tuner one from the "Device Manager". I think thats not 100%clear in as you do the steps.

Thanks for the sugestion. But which file do you pick? It has been a long time since I wrote the directions, and I use my HD-Tivo to record now, so I don't even remember myself.
Thanks.

Originally posted by thegame_evolve
Ive got the Motorola DCT6400 box from Midcontinent communications. Im trying to follow this tuitorial but i found out i have firmware 09.12. Is there any way to downgrade the firmware or can i still do this with my box??

I updated the FAQ, you have to have atleast 7.10.
9.12 should work fine.

All is working as described with my Cox SA3250 box. Picture is beautiful. Now my question.

Is there any other method, other then VLC to watch either a live stream, or a time shifted stream. When view a Capvhs recorded file or live stream with VLC, I get stuttering video and sound. I get much smoother playback using Elcard and/or WinDVD. Unfortunately I can't view the captured file while it is still being captured, I have to wait until the program is over to watch the file. I would much prefer to watch live, or slightly time shifted, especially sports events. I seem to notice the jutter/stutter in VLC the most during hi action video such as basketball.

Thanks for any help.

Marc

Originally posted by bdraw
I updated the FAQ, you have to have atleast 7.10.
9.12 should work fine.

great thanks.....

When your installing the panisonic driver from the MEIDVHS zip file there are three different .inf files. MeBBrd.ing, Meitape.inf, and Meituner.sys. Which on do you use? Also this would be a nice point to add to the first page instructions.

My HD playback is a little jerky using WinDVD on my AMD 2000+ with a Geforce mx 64mb video card and 1 gig of ram. When I use the Dvico fusionHDTV demo my playback is perfect but being a demo its limited to 3 mins of play. What are the fastest software decoders? Please give me advice on what program, codecs ect. would work best with a slower system like mine.

Thanx!

P.S. this is recorded playback not live, live playback hardly works at all but I dont think that theres a way around that on my system

Originally posted by Namekuji
blah, blah, blah ......
The problem is when I try to capture a game I've recorded (FSW ch 401). I get nothing. I've tried recording the analog channel and then invoking myDVR to play back the FSW game, but when I view the results in VLC, the recording always stops at the point of the switch.


So...I extended my test bed a bit and found that it was this particular program only, whew!

Has anybody heard of the cablecos. flipping the 5C switch based on program? In this situation it's soccer games... one game I could capture fine, the next game I couldn't, a subsequent game I could.......all on the same channel.

Just wondering if anybody else has experienced something like this.

Great thread.. got my 15foot firewire cable 7$ on ebay (shipping included)
worked great..

Video is blurry with horizontal bands, but i will live with that.

HOW can I move or get PVR recorded programs from the 6412
to my PC. I can record live video coming out of the PVR,
but do I have to play my PVR programs in real time to be able
to record them using CAPVHS?
thanks
cj

Well I finally got it working. One question on the 5c issue is that if the channel says free in the SA3250 channel settings I can record it fine, if it says once I cannont because of the non-compliant hardware, but on many of my Cox channels it says "Unknown" in the "5C" status box. Does anyone understand the "Unknown" status for the 5C status and why it won't let me record those channels? Seems to me that "Unknown would have ment that no 5C status was used so I should be able to record it.

Got this working after some tweaking. Thanks for the info! Had conflicting AVC drivers left over from my old 169time system which are still causing issues, but can successful record all HD channels without issue. Well I should qualify that, I can record HDNet, HDNet Movies, Showtime HD, and Discovery HD. Didnt try HBO or the networks yet. Thanks for the great writeup!

Forgot to mention, DCT 6200, firmware 7.15, Charter Cable.

*edit* Looks like HBO works too, captured Matrix Revolutions last night. :D

Originally posted by michaeltscott
[ last sentence in the paragraph above Section D):The EPN field has no relavance except when CCI is Copy Freely--it specifies that Copy Freely content is to be moved and stored securely, but that recordings of it can be copied again the the same fashion without limitation. It essentially modifies "Copy Freely" to "Copy Freely Between DTCP-Licensed Devices Only".


So In some of my channels I get "Unknown" in the CCI/epn fields and I get recordings with zero bites in them. Anyone know whats going on? I can record the "Copy freely" channels

Originally posted by chuckvb
So In some of my channels I get "Unknown" in the CCI/epn fields and I get recordings with zero bites in them. Anyone know whats going on? I can record the "Copy freely" channels The question would be, of course, whether the diag screens on your box has a display of the state of the EPN field.

Chuck, what specific channels can you not record?

the fusionhdtv demo seems to be the only thing that works perfect for playing back HD on my setup...does anyone know where I can buy the full version of the software? I only see links to buy cards packed with the software, I dont want the card. Are there any alternatives for smooth HD playback on a slower system?? Thanx guys

as has been mentioned - this thread is about recording - not playback

For selfish reasons I would like to keep on topic as I am interested in new developments related to recording via firewire, and not playback nor questions answered by reading the thread

Originally posted by michaeltscott
The question would be, of course, whether the diag screens on your box has a display of the state of the EPN field.

Chuck, what specific channels can you not record?

Mike
I'll try to get a partial listing of the channels I can get and what the fields say in the diagnosis screens. But for the ones that say "Unknown' in the EPN field I get files with zero bytes.

To my recollection the HD's all have values of once or clear but the Digital SD's are the ones with "Unknown" in the EPN field.

Im having problems with my motorolla box, i connect it to my comp then it shows "new hardware found" "unknown" then i cancel it out, and it never comes back :( ive restarted a couple of times, and my firewire card is enabled..any help would be great :D

Originally posted by chuckvb
To my recollection the HD's all have values of once or clear but the Digital SD's are the ones with "Unknown" in the EPN field. I think that maybe you mean "CCI" or "EMI"--not EPN. EPN is a special field of the DTCP Descriptor MPEG extensions used to protect Copy Freely content.

What I'd really like to know is what the names of all of the fields displayed on that "Firebus Port Status" page for the SA3250HD running SARA are.

Have a Moto 6200, yet with Firmware 7.15

When I open VHS, I see the capture device, but I do not see any info about the stream, as said in the tutorial.

I can record files, but they do not play in zoom player.

Could that be a firmware issue?

Thanks for the tutorial, great!

Originally posted by trend.ab
Have a Moto 6200, yet with Firmware 7.15

When I open VHS, I see the capture device, but I do not see any info about the stream, as said in the tutorial.

I can record files, but they do not play in zoom player.

Could that be a firmware issue?

Thanks for the tutorial, great!

I have a Moto 6200 with 7.15 firmware and record just fine. I had to use the old driver though. Which one did you try?

A question for you guys recording with this setup... So far, all of my recordings have had no null packets in them. Is this odd? I have never had a recording from OTA or satellite (169time or r5000) that didnt have null packets in it. So what gives here? Is the cable company stripping them before sending out the signal to save bandwidth?

no , yes

[QUOTE]Originally posted by michaeltscott


What I'd really like to know is what the names of all of the fields displayed on that "Firebus Port Status" page for the SA3250HD running SARA are.

Mike
Perhaps this is part of the learning curve to consider the Analog SD Digital, and High Definition as three different animals. I can record all the digital channels except the HBO channels which are marked "copy once" in the EMI and CCI field. I guess that's expected. What I didn't expect was that the Analog channels are apparently not even put on the firewire output of the SA3250. I don't think this is clear to in start of this thread.

Any here is what I see in the fields on the 1394 status page on the SA3250HD.

Channel__Any Analog____Any Digital exc. HBO___HBO
Program__Unavailable_____00000001__________00000002
EMI______Unavailable____FREE______________COPY ONCE
CCI______Unavailable____FREE______________COPY ONCE
VIDEO PID_Unavailable____00000021__________00000001D
AUDIO PID_Unavailable____00000024__________00000001E
PCR PID___Unavailable____0000021___________00000001D
Plug Type__Plug State_____(All the same below for all channels)
DEVLD____Plugid
SRMGEN___Version
Name_____Model
SA________Explorer 3250HD

All the fields with long numbers seem to change depending on channel.

Thanks for the help Mike

Originally posted by Kirby Baker
A question for you guys recording with this setup... So far, all of my recordings have had no null packets in them. Is this odd? I have never had a recording from OTA or satellite (169time or r5000) that didn't have null packets in it. So what gives here? Is the cable company stripping them before sending out the signal to save bandwidth?
Kirby,

The null packets are part of the encrypted transport stream that is received by your digital cable box. Most Digital cable systems run at or below 5% null packet rate. So what actually gets "stripped" are all the other unwanted channels. They are discarded, with any null packets, as part of the conversion to IEEE1394 (actually conversion to IEC 61883-4 source packets) Since 61883-4 keeps track of when to release a TS packet to the STB or DVHS deck, the nulls are implied by the lack of a packet being sent.

An example:

Below the an ASCII version of an example encrypted digital cable transport stream, where V and A are the desired program and e, f, g,h are the un-decrypted other channels, and N is a null packet.

efegVVghfhVfVhgfeAehVefNgh

61883-4 adds a time stamp to each TS packet, so the packets are transmitted at the correct time over IEEE1394, but contain no nulls.

____VV____V______A__V_____

So what is really being "stripped out" are all the unwanted encrypted channels and the occational null packet.

The directshow filters SPtoTSP, TSPcap, Dvhstool, etc. strip the 61883-4 time stamp information and just save the TS packets to the PC. Since no nulls were transmitted, there are none to save to the PC. So the result is the classic "null stripped" transport stream file.

VVVAV

Nulls can be sent and recored over IEEE1394, the digital cable boxes just don't do it that way.

-Techtom

Thanks for that Techtom, very informative! I noticed that most of the recordings so far report the correct program length when played in a software player, however captures made from HDNet dont report the proper playback length. so the timestamp isnt being added properly on some channels? My Discovery HD recordings report the proper length, and I think HBO does as well, whereas Showtime didnt. Seems odd that some channels would have the time correction, and others wouldnt, but oh well.

Originally posted by chuckvb
Perhaps this is part of the learning curve to consider the Analog SD Digtail, and High Definition as three different anamils. I can record all the digital channels except the HBO channels which are marked "copy once" in the EMI and CCI field. I guess that's expected. What I didn't expect was that the Analog channels are apparently not even put on the firewire output of the SA3250. I don't think this is clear to in start of this thread.Thank you for the informative post of the firewire status screen info, particularly since you had to type it all in. Maybe it should be added to the FAQ in the top post somehow.

Yeah, you're right--you can't record Copy Once with a vanilla Firewire interface onto a computer. Your cable box will encrypt it, and you have no way to decrypt it. Also, as you surmised, your analog channels are not prepared for transmission over 1394. Your box would have to have an MPEG encoder to provide that, which it wouldn't need for any other purpose. All of the SD "digital cable" channels should be recordable, if they're not protected.

Well Thanks for all the help. So now I've got a PVR that will record my digital and HD channels and that is pretty cool. Now when I record by just using CAPVHS the TS files just have numbers. If I start adding in additional tools to give me a guide and schedule the recordings (I realize I may need to use Girder to run a IR blaster to the cable box). What's the best software to use for both the firewire channels and if I add in a Analog tuner (or maybe a HD/Analog card)for the rest of the channels?

My goal would be to have easy ATI like guide recording using both the firewire and Analog card.

Slight addendum to my last post: except for rebroadcasts of over-the-air DTV signals, your cable provider can legally mark every channel that is not part of the rock-bottom basic tier (i.e., not including expanded basic) as Copy Once, and many have chosen to do so. You're lucky that yours is only protecting the premium channels :). Enjoy your recording.

Originally posted by Kirby Baker
I have a Moto 6200 with 7.15 firmware and record just fine. I had to use the old driver though. Which one did you try?

I tried the old driver based on your experience. But I still do not see any information in VHS before or during recording.
I can create files, the are not 0, but I can't play them.

I have captured four mpg files from my Motorola 6412 using capdvhs. I can play all files on my PC with no problem. My question is, what are the steps involved and software that I need to edit out the commercials and then burn the project to DVD or multiple DVDs. I have tried using HDTV2MPEG2 to edit out the commercials and this works. I then use nero 6 to create a project and burn the DVD. Nero transcodes the file but it hangs for 3 to 4 hours and never burns the DVD. Anyone have a better way?

Thanks,

Sheldon Thompson

Originally posted by chuckvb
Well Thanks for all the help. So now I've got a PVR that will record my digital and HD channels and that is pretty cool. Now when I record by just using CAPVHS the TS files just have numbers. If I start adding in additional tools to give me a guide and schedule the recordings (I realize I may need to use Girder to run a IR blaster to the cable box). What's the best software to use for both the firewire channels and if I add in a Analog tuner (or maybe a HD/Analog card)for the rest of the channels?

My goal would be to have easy ATI like guide recording using both the firewire and Analog card.

Shamless bump. maybe the first easy question is can MCE make use of the firewire connection?

Originally posted by SheldonT
I have captured four mpg files from my Motorola 6412 using capdvhs. I can play all files on my PC with no problem. My question is, what are the steps involved and software that I need to edit out the commercials and then burn the project to DVD or multiple DVDs. I have tried using HDTV2MPEG2 to edit out the commercials and this works. I then use nero 6 to create a project and burn the DVD. Nero transcodes the file but it hangs for 3 to 4 hours and never burns the DVD. Anyone have a better way?

Thanks,

Sheldon Thompson

If you try to burn HDTV files to a DVD-/+R as DVD project the output to the DVD burner will be an MPEG2 DVD SD file not HD, try to burn your HD files as data like that you can save the original format, If you have files bigger than 4.5 GB split them with HDTV2MPEG2 and use double sided or dual layer discs to reduce the number. For playback use the same player that you where using it to play HD files from hard drive like Windows Media Player 10.

Originally posted by SageXaero
Im having problems with my motorolla box, i connect it to my comp then it shows "new hardware found" "unknown" then i cancel it out, and it never comes back :( ive restarted a couple of times, and my firewire card is enabled..any help would be great :D

SageXaero:
You have to first uninstall the device from the device manager.
And if you have Windows XP SP2 then you will have to turn off the computer and follow the steps on the first thread exactly.

I have a Motorola 6214 and this set-up works great.

I tried the mei XP drivers (set of 3) trying to just VIEW the video stream from a Motorola 6412 (Comcast dual tuner/dvr) box via Firewire.

My lcd is a 16:9 DVI or DB-15 rgb Sony monitor which can handle NEITHER the DVI out from the cable box (no HDCP handshake) NOR the component video, since that is YPP not RGB!

The Firewire drivers mentioned in the beginning of this thread do NOT produce a valid capture source for CapVHS.

Do I need different drivers because I have Windows MCE 2005 ? or because I have a Motorola 6412 not a 62xx box?

Does anyone know?
If not, I'll have to do the un-thinkable - go analog - i.e buy a box to convert the analog YPP to analog RGB and waste the pure, perfect, digital stream spilling out of the Firewire port.

10 tech points for the fellow geek who can help this MIT (older) newbie!
:)

_______________________________________________________
Originally Posted by latreche34
If you try to burn HDTV files to a DVD-/+R as DVD project the output to the DVD burner will be an MPEG2 DVD SD file not HD, try to burn your HD files as data like that you can save the original format, If you have files bigger than 4.5 GB split them with HDTV2MPEG2 and use double sided or dual layer discs to reduce the number. For playback use the same player that you where using it to play HD files from hard drive like Windows Media Player 10.
_______________________________________________________

I actually wanted to be able to play the DVD in my DVD player or any DVD player. Sorry I didn't explain myself better.

Thanks,
Sheldon

I actually wanted to be able to play the DVD in my DVD player or any DVD player. Sorry I didn't explain myself better.

Thanks,
Sheldon [/B][/QUOTE]
Than you will not be able to watch high def, technicaly is impossible the regular DVD is 480i or 480p that's the maximum resolution you can get.

So, basically burning to a DVD will downsample the HDTV source to 720x480 progressive or interlaced in order to be DVD compliant thus not being true HD. Is this correct or am I missing something.

DVD-Video is 480p at best. If you want anything you record to be playable on DVD players it will have to be converted to 720x480 MPEG2 video.

Originally posted by Techtom
Kirby,

The null packets are part of the encrypted transport stream that is received by your digital cable box. Most Digital cable systems run at or below 5% null packet rate. So what actually gets "stripped" are all the other unwanted channels. They are discarded, with any null packets, as part of the conversion to IEEE1394 (actually conversion to IEC 61883-4 source packets) Since 61883-4 keeps track of when to release a TS packet to the STB or DVHS deck, the nulls are implied by the lack of a packet being sent.

An example:

Below the an ASCII version of an example encrypted digital cable transport stream, where V and A are the desired program and e, f, g,h are the un-decrypted other channels, and N is a null packet.

efegVVghfhVfVhgfeAehVefNgh

61883-4 adds a time stamp to each TS packet, so the packets are transmitted at the correct time over IEEE1394, but contain no nulls.

____VV____V______A__V_____

So what is really being "stripped out" are all the unwanted encrypted channels and the occational null packet.

The directshow filters SPtoTSP, TSPcap, Dvhstool, etc. strip the 61883-4 time stamp information and just save the TS packets to the PC. Since no nulls were transmitted, there are none to save to the PC. So the result is the classic "null stripped" transport stream file.

VVVAV

Nulls can be sent and recored over IEEE1394, the digital cable boxes just don't do it that way.

-Techtom

I just want to add that this is a proper way to output signal over firewire. All those hacked solutions put out complete stream but it is actually wrong.
Samsung OTA STB SIR-T165 also strips null packets and subchannels on its FW output.
Also Mitsubishi tuners put out the whole stream and that is why people can't record anything from QAM256 cable channels. Data rate exceeds what DVHS can handle.

I used this post to download from my Motorola DCT6400 It worked fine. I ended up with a .mpg extension and I am not sure that is what I needed to get it to DVD. (I will use another thread for that). This is a great forum. Thanks, sammy80

Hello. I have the DCT6412 Comcast DVR box. I connected it to my Windows XP computer, with the drivers at the beginning of this forum, but the dctrecord and dctrecordapp programs don't see the DVR box. I might need newer drivers because these drivers were for a DCT6208.

SheldonT got his to work. Anyone (Sheldon) know of the drivers and program I can use?

Thanks,
Bill

billray

i have this same issue i got my windows xp to recognize it however it gives me the samplegrabber error so i'm assuming i don't have it setup right.

If anyone is interested, the source code to dctrecord has been released. I have not been had time to take development further on the app so maybe the development community out there can make it shine. Please see for more info at the original thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=399490


-- John

Originally posted by sammy80
I used this post to download from my Motorola DCT6400 It worked fine. I ended up with a .mpg extension and I am not sure that is what I needed to get it to DVD. (I will use another thread for that). This is a great forum. Thanks, sammy80

I am new at this and maybe someone could point me in the right direction. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Nastea, I figured out the problem. You have to follow the directions at the beginning of this forum discussion and it should work. Specifically, you have to choose the Panasonic .. driver.

Now I'm in the same boat with Sammy80.

Originally posted by sammy80
I am new at this and maybe someone could point me in the right direction. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks I just googled "mpeg to dvd converter" and got a ton of hits. Try that.

I was able to use CAPDVHS to record programs from my DCT6412 to my pc and then I used VLC to play the file. This works great!! But, when I tried to use HDTVtoMpeg2 to view and convert the .TS file, that was playable in VLC, the preview screen displayed a tiny part of the video at the top of the window. Does anyone know how I can get the whole file to be displayed?

The program that I recorded should not be encrypted, because it's a basic local news channel.

Note: I attached the HDTVtoMpeg2 v1.10.6 file mentioned above for anyone interested.

which panasonic one?

Originally posted by BillRay
Nastea, I figured out the problem. You have to follow the directions at the beginning of this forum discussion and it should work. Specifically, you have to choose the Panasonic .. driver.

Now I'm in the same boat with Sammy80.

Ok so once you got it working, what about sound?

I'm not sure about your sound problem.

I thought I saw someone with a problem with a 0KB file being created. If you don't check "convert 188 bytes" under settings of CAPdvhs, you will have this 0kb file problem.

A reply for your previous post - use the Meitape.inf file and use the Panasonic D-VHS AV/C Device. The whole write up is on the first page of this forum.

First and foremost thanks to the OP and others that have made this available to us. Over the past 3-4 days I have read this thread with interest. Last night I successfully captures a 2 hr SciFi show off my DVR using the instructions on the first page.

I have two questions

1) Does the CapDVHS software automatically detect the aspect ratio correctly on the Data Tab during capture? Also, what would you use the Filename and 10min be used for? I have not seen a decription of the features of this software and was wondering what all the options are for.

2) My last question pertains to the usefulness of this software. I have an ATI AIW capture card which I can capture basic cable channels with. Although it is analog the captures are pretty good. My cable company appears to have encrypted everything except basic channels. SO.... is there any benefit for me in using this firewire capture versus setting up my ATI to capture a show on the basic channels?

Thanks in advance!!!

Originally posted by BillRay
I'm not sure about your sound problem.

I thought I saw someone with a problem with a 0KB file being created. If you don't check "convert 188 bytes" under settings of CAPdvhs, you will have this 0kb file problem.

A reply for your previous post - use the Meitape.inf file and use the Panasonic D-VHS AV/C Device. The whole write up is on the first page of this forum.

yeah i got it, i guess i have ot search the playback forum since i have no sound?

well i gues i don't have capdvhs setup right, because vlc can stream the firewire, and it plays the video and sound.

Nastea, you seem to be at the same spot as I. I can download the movie using CAPDVHS and view the .TS file using VLC, but I can't figure out how to copy it to DVD, after running it through HDTVtoMPEG2), so that I can play it in my DVD player.

I did find out that some channels come up with a blank preview screen in HDTVtoMPEG2. Odd enough - my local news channel came up with a blank screen during preview, but INHD was fine and I converted it to .MPEG2.

Just need some help to move it to DVD.

well i would be at that spot, except capdvhs, doesn't record the sound, so i wouldn't even waste my time putting it on dvd, thats the easy part, the hard part is why the hell doesn't it pickup the audio

I have read this forum extensively and cannot get the Motorola 6412 to PC over firewire to work... Here is my situation:

* XP SP2
* Asus P5AD2 Premium motherboard with onboard firewire
* Motorola 6412 STB w/ 9.15 firmware (San Francisco area)
* NO HDTV - Just using SVideo to normal TV
* Firewire to PC
* Installed the drivers w/ the "Have Disk" option (the directions are slightly off here but I found the "Have Disk" button, selected Panasonic from the list and finally selected the Panasonic D-VHS AV/C Device)
* Driver configuration in my Device Manager shows under Imaging Devices - Panasonic D/VHS AV/C Device.
* I open CapDVHS.exe and the device "Panasonic MPEG2TS Tape Subunit Device (Unknown Video #1)" is selected
* I leave the default options (the instruction options seem to be the default)
* I hit Rec and get the error "Error 800705AA: Cannot start capture"
* At times, instead I received the "SampleGrabber" error but mostly the above error.
* For each time I try, a 0 byte file is created.
* I have tried analog, digital and HD channels all in LIVE mode

Theory - Video capture over firewire only works with a 6412 hooked up to a HDTV - possibly enabling the HD video ports including firewire.

Can anyone confirm this or have other options for me to try to get this to work?

Can anyone please confirm success with recording to a PC with firewire with a 6412 AND using Svideo to a normal TV versus using Component or DVI to a HDTV?

Can someone confirm the 6412 can send video over multiple outputs without issue? i.e. Output to all; SVideo, Firewire, Component and DVI AT THE SAME TIME?

Are there any known existing compatibility issues with the 6412 firewire and any of the firewire cards or built in firewire ports on motherboards?

My theory is based on the fact that my neighbor has the same box but he has a HDTV and after following this forums directions he can record over firewire to his pc. I suspect my pc sees the 6412 just fine but there is simply no mpeg stream to capture - possibly because the 6412 thinks I just have a normal TV with SVideo and thus is not sending video to the firewire port.

Specific, relevent and concise answers appreciated!!!

Thanks

i found that the panisonic one you have to choose the second one, there are two named that, if you scroll down a little further you can find it. that was my issue.

Now capdvhs doesn't record the sound but vlc picks it up

Nastea, how do you recommend that I copy the MPEG2 file to my DVD. If I use my HP DVD software (Record Now), it goes ok, but I get an "error" meesage on my DVD when I try to play it. It's a brand new Toshiba DVD player that "supports" my DVD +R DVD.

i use nero, so i can't say much for hp products other than in my opinion they suck. call toshiba, and ask them to confirm what media they support.

stormking
Does your neighbor use this method currently? If not maybe the cable company has enabled encryption since he last tired it. See the troubleshooting section for instructions.

As for the S-Video theory, I can't speak authoritivly on the subject since my cable company uses SA boxes here, but it doesn't seem plausible to me.

I would start over and try to re-install the driver again, and again. Re-Read the directions.
If I get a chance I will go over the instrucitons on an sp2 box and see if I can add any more sugestions.

Remember if Eienstein had ever used a computer he would have never said
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

bdraw -

Thanks for the response!

Yes, my neighbor is currently capturing successfully from the Motorola 6412 to a PC over firewire (within the past week).

-- UPDATE -- He checked capturing still works with firmware 9.15 on channel DHDTV. 03/10/2005.

He did not mention any audio problems either or anything about not getting one channel or another due to encryption. He was actually quite happy with the setup. He had good success except for the fact you need to use a specific player. Again, we are in SF. The only difference between our two setups it seems is that I have a normal TV and he has a HDTV.

We are both technical people for a living so there is some heavy thinking on this subject on this block. Another software engineer I know in SF tried this to a PC without success but indicated it is easier on a Mac. This is *definitely* one of those frustrating technical hacks. But it must be done!

Is there any forum for discussing developing specific drivers for the Motorola 6412 and a more current and user friendly capture application? Sounds like a noble enough Open Source project for those that know the subject.

Can other's with a successful setup offer up any tips or tricks for the 6412 to XP SP2 configuration? Is there only ONE version of a 6412, or could there be perhaps some with firewire enabled and some that do not? Are people using the standard Texas Instruments 1394 driver? I will try to do some trouble shooting with my neighbor but please post any suggestions.

Thanks again.

As a follow up to my 6412 to PC setup:

* The 6412 "Interface Status" screen shows the following when my PC is plugged into the 6412 via firewire:

1394 I/O Device: INST
ACTIVE PORTS: 1
DATA XMISSION: YES
5C IMPLEMENTATION: 0
LOOP STATUS: NO
ROOT STATUS: NO
CYCLE MASTER STATUS: NO

I reached this menu via 1) power off, 2) ok/select, 3) Diagnostics, 4) Interface Status.

Please someone confirm these are the same states as a successful setup. I am slightly concerned with the "5C" line which perhaps is a reference to an encryption setting? I am curious if this switches to 1 if a HDTV is plugged in to one of the DVI or Component ports.

-- UPDATE -- I understand now the above 5C line is not an issue with my problem.

What is interesting to note though is the fact that the "ACTIVE PORTS" line moves from 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 as I plug in and unplug the firewire which is telling me everything should be ok with my 6412 having a normal active 1394 port.

I have the same settings. I have a hdtv connected. active ports,dataxmission ,root status and cycle master status change when I connect my laptop. I am capturing to my laptop but I am getting no sound most of the time . I want to be able to burn to dvd but am having no luck. I bought a stand alone dvd recorder and it is doing fine but it only records dolby 2.0. Iwas told by Panasonic that all dvd recorders will only do dolby 2.0. It would sure be nice to get 5.1. Let me know if I can be of any help

So...what does a technical professional do on his day off? Work on his own technical issues...

Anyway, DUH!, I just figured out that the HDTV2MPEG2 program that I am using to convert my .TS file from CAPDVHS only works with HD signals.

What I mean by "works" is that when I load the file of a non-HD signal the preview screen is blank, but the preview is "ok" with an HD signal.

Get this -
1. Channel 211 (BALHD) ONLY WORKS if I pre-record an HD signal and then capture it as I play it back from the DVR. Streaming live video through CAPDVHS produces a blank preview screen. HOWEVER, the preview screen is garbled.

2. Channel 206 (INHD) works whether it's pre-recorded or live streaming video and the preview is perfect!

Does anyone know if I am doing anything wrong or a program that I can use with a non-HD signal?

Also, does anyone know of a program (possibly free) that I can use to watch the file on my pc that is being converted from .TS to mpegr AND/or a program (also free) to record it to DVD? My DVD software copies the file to DVD, but my DVD player does not like it.

For the people not getting sound. It is much more likely that you are not hearing sound during playback. Or by a very off chance your provider is messing up when outputing the stream.

The stream is muxed when it is encoded and would have to be de-muxed to remove the sound.

The reason why no one writes drivers is because everyone is afraid that by the time they are complete their efforts will be for not, because everything will be encrypted.

This does work with SP2 but the steps are a little different. But not alot different. Someone has written a different inf file to go with the driver, that is supposed to work better, but I haven't tried it, and have yet to add it to the FAQ.

There is an open source effort for Linux. The latest version of Myth is supposed to support just that. But I have had no success getting it to work. I can compile Myth fine, but when I try to compile it with 1394 support it fails. It seems I am missing some header file that I have yet to track down.

I know this thread is long, but the biggest reason the people in the know don't respond to alot of these posts is because it has been covered here many times before. The other reason is that playback and converting to DVD is off topic. Discussing them here only makes this thread longer. Seak these topics else where. We will appreciate it and the others with your problems will too.

The issue does not seem to be rereading instructions but the fact there are many variances in the 6412 and the PC trying to capture without any formal testing. One variance between my 6412 and my neighbors is that he has a Maxtor drive and I have a Seagate. And we walked into the SAME SF Comcast office to get it too. That doesn't tell us much, except that they are not identical. This opens the possibility that other parts could differ as well.

What could be useful in this forum absent of a proper QA department is for people to verify capture or self-certify their systems and 6412 compatibility. For this reason, it would be helpful if the 6412 actually had some version identifier indicating if improvements were made.

I am interesting in seeing data from people who have successfully captured on the 6412.

* OS and version
* Firewire card used
* Firewire drivers used
* Port on 6412 used
* Location (city)
* Provider
* 6412 firmware version
* Date working
* Exact Panasonic driver used and one that is compatible with the OS version
* Channels successfully captured
* Hard drive model
* Any special reboot/power on sequence for the 6412 or PC. Do you just "plug in"? Or do you have to plug in, repower the 6412 and reboot the PC?

The current directions are very good, but unfortunately based on my experience and others, it is clear that despite closely following the directions it simply still does not work. The directions also do not seem to directly support the 6412 nor XP SP2. As for reading through the forum, this thread is so large, it is impractical to read everything. If problems and solutions are being provided in the thread and not reflected in the first directions, then the directions may need updating. Having said that however, I have read through much of peoples' comments and have tried many suggestions.

Thanks again.

StormKing,

I have the 6412 and have it working with my XP SP2 system. I have HDTV so I don't have xactly the same setup, but... I thought of something you might try. Set your 6412 for HD output even though you are using S-video. You won't be able to see the program guide and other overlay stuff, but it might get the recording working. If that works at least you will know that the problem is not your computer.

jkingsley4 -

Great suggestion! Unfortunately it did not work. I assume you mean change the output from 480I to 1080I or 720P from the menu? Depending if you plug in a svideo or hd cable, then power on, I believe this is auto selected. So for my box it is set to 480I for svideo since I don't have a HDTV.

I manually selected 1080I, 720P and then 480P and tried capturing again but I get the same "Error: 800705AA: Cannot start capture" error after hitting the Rec button. The "Panasonic MPEG2TS Tape Subunit Device (Unknown Video #1)" is of course still selected. So to recap, the PC *sees* the 6412 through the driver, and the 6412 menu says the firewire port detects a connection. It is just as though there is just no MPEG2 stream.

Thanks for the suggestion. I think it is something along these lines that will make it work. I would love to hear if someone has successfully captured from the 6412 who only has a non-HDTV. I also wonder if there is any type of signal that Comcast sends the box that somehow sets it as a HD or non-HD TV.

I've questioned Comcast customer service on the set of commands they can send. Apparently, they can send a "hit", "init" and a "warm" I think (they are not very technical). They only send an "init" when you first get the box and gets all data and guide info over 45min or so. The "hit" will remind it which channels are allowed. I wonder if there is anything in the signals that differentiates between a TV and a HDTV. I doubt it, but it could be that a signal from the office inits the box as a normal TV and therefore the MPEG2 stream isn't sent over the firewire. Just floating theories at this point!

I can now capture audio/video from the Motorola 6412 to my PC via Firewire (my Firewire chipset supports Firewire 800 but I use the 400 port).

The problem was the Firewire drivers in XP SP2 and Microsoft's lack of making correct drivers for chipsets with Firewire 800 prior to the release of XP SP2. Using the Firewire drivers from XP SP1 fixes this.

The following was the solution for me:

1) Boot in safe mode
2) Rename SP2.cab in C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\SP2.cab to SP2old.cab (this prevents XP from RECOPYING the following files which are replaced)
3) Overwrite these files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers

1394bus.sys
arp1394.sys
nic1394.sys
ohci1394.sys

With older XP SP1 versions (which you can download off the net somewhere):

4) Reboot

Note: If not done in safe mode and cab file not renamed, the SP2 drivers are copied back by XP.

There is a well known issue with XP SP2 and 1394 which may only affect those of us with Firewire 800. Mine is a Asus motherboard with firewire 400/800. Microsoft for whatever reason did not release compatible Firewire 800 drivers with SP2 which limits Firewire transfers to 100Mbps and can not allow capturing over firewire.

This article notes this:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17794

I came to the conclusion that the Firewire drivers were the issue when I tried to capture DV from a camera via Firewire for the first time in months, post SP2 install, and it failed (when it worked fine a few months ago prior to SP2). DV captured failed. I researched this. I fixed this and of course it fixed capturing from other firewire sources i.e. the Motorola 6412.

There is also a patch from Microsoft on their site somewhere for this that was posted in Dec 2004. This is a manual update. To be honest, it could have been the manual driver swap or this update as I did both on the same reboot prior to success.

UPDATE -- This is the Microsoft patch I used:
"Performance of 1394 devices may decrease after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Here is more info on swapping the drivers and about the patch:
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

This patch and/or the driver swap back to SP1 1394 drivers work for me.

I really hope this helps someone. My only explanation why my XP SP2 did not work while others did, is that I believe I have Firewire 800 and I am guessing - those with working XP SP2 capturing setups use Firewire 400... or perhaps its something else. But this DID work for me. Note I do not mean I'm using a Firewire 800 cable from the 6412 to PC, its just my chipset supports both.

FYI, I am currently playing back using BSPlayer and the Moonlight-Elecard MPEG2 decoder and it looks great. :)

Cheers

Can someone provide a link for the meidvhs drivers? All of the links mentioned in this forum seem to be dead.

Thanks for your time...

stormking
Great post!
Thanks for contributing.
If you write complete directions specific to sp2, I will add them to the first post.
The first post is not as up to date as it might be(sp2) because I no longer use this technique for recording since I bought my HDTivo. I depend on others in this thread to supply up to date information.

Originally posted by cscoppa
Can someone provide a link for the meidvhs drivers? All of the links mentioned in this forum seem to be dead.

Thanks for your time...

The link works for me

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=4514386

Hope someone out there can help! I am trying to archive from a MOTO 6208 to a winxp MCE 2005 pc using firewire. I tried the meidvhs.zip drivers, but it won't run properly. I checked device manager, do I need different drivers? The MOTO 6208 has firmware version 8.12. Has anyone tried this with MCE?

I use MCE (of course I'm not in the MCE shell) so it's not MCE but I think you need to describe what you've done and what happening when you try to record using CAPVHS. If you read the first post it's got alot of information in it now.

I should have put more details in my original post. When I plug in the 6208 using the firewire Windows recognizes two devices, one is an unknown device, the second is called AV/C Panel. I attempt to install the meidvhs drivers to the AV/C Panel. Hardware update wizard says it cannot find the necessary software. In the original post the hardware is recognized as Tuner AV/C Device, this does not happen in my case. Is XP not recognizing the 6208 properly?

I've got a 6208 under xp with those two devices you list with ?'s under ? other devices but also have the Panasonic DVHS device working fine under imaging devices - maybe re read directions?

finally got driver download to work... using SP2... had to do right-click ... save target as...

thanks!

Originally posted by mojo6969
I should have put more details in my original post. When I plug in the 6208 using the firewire Windows recognizes two devices, one is an unknown device, the second is called AV/C Panel. I attempt to install the meidvhs drivers to the AV/C Panel. Hardware update wizard says it cannot find the necessary software. In the original post the hardware is recognized as Tuner AV/C Device, this does not happen in my case. Is XP not recognizing the 6208 properly?

You should see more than 2.
Try the first one. It is definitly not the Panel.

Does this work with the MIT MDR-200? If so how well and which would likely be a better choice for this the MDR-200 or the Samsung T165?

I have been running into a couple of issues when Nero Vision Express is encoding the Mpegs that I have created with HDTVtoMPEG. I'm have a Comcast 6412 and I have been using CapDVHS0306e to capture the transport stream through the Firewire port. Playback of the streams has been succesful within the OnAir HD Editor. Then I use HDTVtoMPEG2 1.11 to convert the .TS file to MPEG2, which I dump into Nero Vision Express SE 3.1. After Nero Vision Express encodes and writes the DVD file to my computer, I've noticed some problems upon playback. Please listen and I'll be very grateful if you can help.

First, I have had problems with the audio syncing correctly with the video towards the end of these files. After Nero Vision has finished encoding the video and creating the DVD, I will check it in Nero Showtime. Lately I've witnessed the video falling out of sync with the audio after 30 minutes of the show. Since Nero is taking a large MPEG2 file from HDTVtoMPEG, I have broken the MPEG files into 1024 MB chunks, which seems to resolve this... So, I may have fixed this issue. However this solution has incurred another dilema.

This dilema is my second problem. Now that I have broken the show into three to five MPEGs, I dump these individually into Nero. I don't merge the files together out of fear that the audio/video sync issues will arise. Rather, I let each MPEG file remain its own movie/title on the disc and allow the disc to play the titles back to back. However after encoding and writing the DVD, I have often noticed Nero adding 40-180 seconds of black silence to the final .VOB files...!!

I could conver the .VOB files to MPEG again and edit them with VirtualDub, however this is adds another step that I fear will only encourage more problems with my current process. Can anybody offer some advice from their experience?

I'm running Windows XP with an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ and 1 GB of RAM. I don't believe this is my problem...

Any adivce will be welcome!

Thank you,
Tim

Tim,
I don't know if this will help as I haven't seen exactly this problem, but I was getting synching issues after converting files to mpeg using H2. And on one occasion I found that NVE wouldn't even accept one of my file segments. Now I simply rename the transport files from ".ts" to ".mpg" and import them into NVE. No conversion needed. Works like a charm. It'll at least cut out an extra step for you.

Roreman, one .TS file for an hour long show in HD is anywhere from 4 to 6 gigs for me. When I dumped a 6 gig .TS file into NVE, I received a message saying that the resulting file would be too large for a single DVD and prompted me to ask if I wanted to reduce the video down. Unfortunately, NVE was not able to do this. Any thoughts?

Also, if I skip H2 what program can I use to edit out the commercials? My version of NVE has not allowed me to choose the "Edit Movie" option on these shows. I don't know if this is because I am using Nero Vision Express SE 3.1...? Any other thoughts?

Thank you for your advice!

Hmm, you got me there. I don't use SE, but with the regular version you need to "Make Movie" before you can "Edit Movie". That is, choose "Make Movie", import the renamed ts file into the timeline, save as a project, and go from there.

Another thing you could try is to use VLC to process the file before importing into NVE. I found that the VLC .ts files (renamed to .mpg) are much more NVE-friendly than the originals.

Does NVE SE let you set custom file sizes (i.e. bit rates)? I find that the jump in sizes using NVE's auto resize are too big. I prefer to pick a bit rate that will result in a file size that almost fills the dvd.

I did a demo recording of an HD channel using CAPvhs. Does it have a max time limit as it stopped recording before the show ended?

Chuck, there is a box in the upper left where you set the number of minutes. Be aware that any three digit number will scroll out of view to the left in this box. Just put your cursor in the box and tap the left arrow.

stormking, YOU ARE THE MAN. I have been fighting the same problem for a week now. I found your post yesterday and downloaded the sp2 patch and ran it. Rebooted and magic, works perfectly. I have the same motherboard as you, p5ad2 premium. Can record all chanels in all formats. Even using a thirty foot cable, no repeater. You did some awesome research there, excelent catch. The moderator should make note of your post. I think it would help a lot of people. Thanks.

Is there any way to modify CapDVHS to allow simultaneous write to and read from the output .ts file? It would be great to start watching the recorded program before it's finished.

Originally posted by drouge
Can record all chanels in all formats. Even using a thirty foot cable, no repeater. Where on earth did you find a 30 ft. firewire cable?

Originally posted by drouge
stormking, YOU ARE THE MAN. I have been fighting the same problem for a week now. I found your post yesterday and downloaded the sp2 patch and ran it. Rebooted and magic, works perfectly. I have the same motherboard as you, p5ad2 premium. Can record all chanels in all formats. Even using a thirty foot cable, no repeater. You did some awesome research there, excelent catch. The moderator should make note of your post. I think it would help a lot of people. Thanks.

Added link to troubleshooting section.

Originally posted by drouge
stormking, YOU ARE THE MAN. I have been fighting the same problem for a week now. I found your post yesterday and downloaded the sp2 patch and ran it. Rebooted and magic, works perfectly. I have the same motherboard as you, p5ad2 premium. Can record all chanels in all formats. Even using a thirty foot cable, no repeater. You did some awesome research there, excelent catch. The moderator should make note of your post. I think it would help a lot of people. Thanks.

Thanks! Glad it helped.

Correct me if I am wrong but 5C=0 means that I should be able to copy via firewire to my computer....right?

Well, I can copy any channel below 99 with no problem. However Cinemax will not work. CapDVHS does not show any values under the data info tab during recording and the ts file will not play in VLC. I have checked the diagnostics on my Motorola DCT 6208 (FW 8.12) and all the channels I am subscribed to are 5C=0.

Any ideas???

I bought the 30" firewire at Fry's for twenty dollars. Yes cajun_junky, my 6800 say's 5c=0 too. I also have dvi hooked up with hdcp enabled. Hmmm.
I'm still trying to figure out how to encode and burn to dvd.

For those using Nero VisionExpress to convert the TS files to MPEG-2/DVD format, how long is the conversion process? CPU/Processor?

Originally posted by cajun_junky
Correct me if I am wrong but 5C=0 means that I should be able to copy via firewire to my computer....right?

Well, I can copy any channel below 99 with no problem. However Cinemax will not work. CapDVHS does not show any values under the data info tab during recording and the ts file will not play in VLC. I have checked the diagnostics on my Motorola DCT 6208 (FW 8.12) and all the channels I am subscribed to are 5C=0.

Any ideas???

michaeltscott posted a rather lengthy note a ways back on 5c vs broadcast flag and suggested that there may be an improper implementation of this, causing the issue.

Look - this thread is just so long its useless now. If you can't find it at the top, you're going to blow hours going through everything. I suggest that this thread be maintained as "how do you get capture working", ie what drivers, software, equipment do you need. Any particulars, like playback or capture of specific channles should be moved somewhere (like a new thread). I'm going to start one about this topic.

I am having the same problem as below (posted back in february by another member).

I have tried deleting the driver and re-installing it. I am using a Motorola 6412 box though. It shows as "Tuner AV/C Device" in the hardware manager (under imaging devices).. any suggestions?

I have tried rebooting, connecting the firewire to different ports, deleted the driver several times and re-installing. The other 2 hardware items that popped up were "cancelled" and ignored in the hardware manager.

EDIT: - OK Ignore my message.. but, I will leave this here in case someone else has the same problem! I guess I read the instructions too quickly. I didn't realize for any device you need to select the panasonic dVHS. I let windows autoselect the driver and that is what messed me up! So, it works fine now


Originally posted by ecrrolson
I've tried everything, with same results...
When I open CapDVHS I get "Can not find capture device"
I have a Moto 6412 (I think) have the device installed under Imaging Devices - Tuner AV/C Device
I tried the original driver download, then the alternate meitape.inf as well...
The hardware is recognized, when I plug in the firewire.
Is there a new driver?
Should the device in Device Manager read "Panasonic D-VHS AV/C Device"
or just "Tuner AV/C Device"?
Any help would be appreciated!

I'm pretty new to this, but was able to capture and translate from my Bay Area Comcast 6412 successfully today to my laptop using SP2, CapDVHS0306e, and HDTVtoMPeg2_1.11-Beta3.

Like others, I ran across the driver issue with the default driver being installed and not the special Panasonic one. If this happens to you, be don't have to uninstall the driver, just update it, unselect show Compatible Drivers, and find the right one. I also installed the MS 1394 patch, but I'm not positive it did anything. It wasn't needed to get the capture process to work.

However, once I captured some HD video (ESPNHD) and converting it, I was having problems with stutter on the video and usually the audio dropping out or not even playing at all. After trying a few things, the obvious came to may, maybe the audio and video codecs on my laptop were not running quickly enough to decode in real time the video and DD5.1 streams. I moved the MPG file (100M for 1 minute) to our desktop machine (P4 2.4 1G RDRAM) and voila, the files play almost perfectly fine in WMPlayer 10. I say almost, 'cause this even taxes that machine machine the CPU status on the machine, it was running between 80 and 100% for the minute. A couple of minor skips happened when it hit 100%.

So, before you drive yourself crazy thinking that there is a problem with the capture or conversion process, make sure your PC can actually handle the playback.

Greg

I have a strange issue, but I'm hoping it's an easy one. I have the Motorola DCT6200 hooked up via firewire to my PC and I'm using capvhs to capture.

When I capture HD channels the playback is fine, but when I'm on anything else (either normal local stations or digital) it seems to capture ok, but both the video and audio during playback are accelerated.

I have Nvidia's Personal Cinema setup (geforce 5700fx) and am using the forceware app to play back the streams. Unfortunately I can't really say that the non-HD capture/playback was working at any point in time - it's a recent addition, and I don't remember now if I actually tested it out on non-hd channels when I connected the box to the PC.

Any help would be appreciated. I've reinstalled the driver and all that and I'm just not sure where to go from here.

Thanks in advance!

lagerr

Originally posted by cajun_junky
Correct me if I am wrong but 5C=0 means that I should be able to copy via firewire to my computer....right?

Well, I can copy any channel below 99 with no problem. However Cinemax will not work. CapDVHS does not show any values under the data info tab during recording and the ts file will not play in VLC. I have checked the diagnostics on my Motorola DCT 6208 (FW 8.12) and all the channels I am subscribed to are 5C=0.

Any ideas??? Just curious--are you subscribed to any other premiums (HBO, Showtime, Starz!). If so, can you record them?

BTW, doncaruna, that thing about 5c and the broadcast flag would apply, since Cinemax is not a broadcast channel.

Originally posted by timmyq
Playback of the streams has been succesful within the OnAir HD Editor. Anyone know where I can get a copy of the Sasem OnAir HD Editor v1.07 -- FilterSDK ? It appears Sasem went teets up and their website along with the Sasem zip file link on the first page of the thread. Thanks.

EDIT: Nevermind, I found the SDK setup files on my other PC. If anyone needs a copy, let me know.

I apologize in advance if this is way off subject or not an appropriate question, but I am relatively new to this idea of connecting my cable box to my computer.

I have read through most of this thread and while is not exactly what I am trying to accomplish, I believe someone may be able to point me in the appropriate direction.

I have Comcast HD & DVR box and all I want to do is simply pass the signal from the box thru my PC to my projector. My projector currently only has one RGB input and I want to be able to easily switch between viewing content from my HTPC and from the Comcast box. I do not need to be able to record to my HTPC nor do I need to use my HTPC to control the cable box.

Any suggestions on how I can simply pass the the video and audio through my computer would be greatly appreciated.

Originally posted by michaeltscott
Just curious--are you subscribed to any other premiums (HBO, Showtime, Starz!). If so, can you record them?



I currently have Cinemax which I can record to my DVR. However, I can't record a live Cinemax show to the PC or copy it via firewire to the pc from the dvr.

The only things I can transfer via firewire are channels below 99. I haven't actually tried all those channels but assume they would all transfer ok. I have tried about 10 different channels.

Totally bizarre! I have checked on numerous occasions the 5C and it is always 0 on all channels.

Originally posted by cajun_junky
I currently have Cinemax which I can record to my DVR. However, I can't record a live Cinemax show to the PC or copy it via firewire to the pc from the dvr.

The only things I can transfer via firewire are channels below 99. I haven't actually tried all those channels but assume they would all transfer ok. I have tried about 10 different channels.

Totally bizarre! I have checked on numerous occasions the 5C and it is always 0 on all channels. Actually, abnormal diagnostic indication aside, what you're experiencing is to be expected--Cinemax wouldn't normally be recordable to a PC using a vanilla 1394 interface from many cable systems and probably not from any of them once they, and their STB suppliers, get their act together on this 1394/DTCP thing. Normally, you'd expect it to be marked Copy Once, and you could make one non-copyable recording of a program using a licensed DTCP device. FCC regulations allows the cable companies to mark everything except any digital channels in their basic services tier that way (not extended basic--rock bottom cheapest basic service).

Your box is a Motorola HD DVR, isn't it? So, unlike the SA3250HD in use by many of the people here, it has an MPEG encoder and you can probably therefore record your analog channels with it over 1394. Is this true?

Originally posted by michaeltscott
Actually, abnormal diagnostic indication aside, what you're experiencing is to be expected--Cinemax wouldn't normally be recordable to a PC using a vanilla 1394 interface from many cable systems and probably not from any of them once they, and their STB suppliers, get their act together on this 1394/DTCP thing.

Normally, you'd expect it to be marked Copy Once, and you could make one non-copyable recording of a program using a licensed DTCP device. FCC regulations allows the cable companies to mark everything except any digital channels in their b

Yep, I just thought that maybe my cable company (Insight) might not have their encryption setup yet. It was wishful thinking I realize.

Originally posted by michaeltscott
Your box is a Motorola HD DVR, isn't it? So, unlike the SA3250HD in use by many of the people here, it has an MPEG encoder and you can probably therefore record your analog channels with it over 1394. Is this true?

Yep, it is a Motorola. The only thing I have done is play the show that is already recorded on the hard drive and capture it via firewire as it plays. I have not tried to capture a show playing "live" on an analog channel but might in the future.

Does CAPVHS have a limit to how long it will record?

In my (still-limited) experience with it, the only practical limitation is the amount of disk storage available for the capture.

this is a 6208 box....I have firewire on the motherboard (asus) and it works. Well, until I put SP2 on the system, I just manually whacked that last week to get the drivers for firewire back to the sp1 version.

It does not like the drivers at all...any suggestions....I am driver king at work (I deal with a 4 way cpu, with several RAID cards and such) drivers are not new, but this is killing me.

Should I get SP2 back on and do some other update for the firewire?

Help, got to off load the NCAA games to the PC....

Go Cards!

Just wanted to thank the OP for this post! Had it up and running in under 10 minutes (the driver install was giving me grief so I let it install one driver, then manually update it to the correct one in device manager).

Will I be able to capture transport streams from the Panasonic TU-DST50 STB using the method described in the original post?

Has anyone had any success recording the playback of a recording from the 6412 to their PC? I have tried a few programs and they are really glitchy except FOX SD Digital records ok. Also, I can record to my PC everything live perfectly, HBOHD, SHOW HD, INHD, Local HD with the exception of ESPNHD. It is very glitchy and breaks up like crazy. I suspect 5C but when 5C was turned on before, the playback was a blank screen...ESPNHD gives me several seconds of clear video but then glitches. Any others have similar experiences?

Is it possable to record from my tosh. 52hmx94 firewire ports on back of tv to win.xp, tryed the capsdvd software no luck .

I have read and read and I don't think this questio has been answered.
Instead of recording a show directly onto my PC, is it possible to record shows like normal on the DVR (Motorola DCT6412) and then copy the recorded files to my PC using firewire?

Originally posted by dalepmay
I have read and read and I don't think this questio has been answered.
Instead of recording a show directly onto my PC, is it possible to record shows like normal on the DVR (Motorola DCT6412) and then copy the recorded files to my PC using firewire?

Yes. You can record show the same way from the DVR through firewire. You just play the recorded show, and set capvhs to record it. I did that couple times and it works fine.

Is there any way to make the PC read the box as an external drive so you can just copy the files over?

Originally posted by mojo6969
I should have put more details in my original post. When I plug in the 6208 using the firewire Windows recognizes two devices, one is an unknown device, the second is called AV/C Panel. I attempt to install the meidvhs drivers to the AV/C Panel. Hardware update wizard says it cannot find the necessary software. In the original post the hardware is recognized as Tuner AV/C Device, this does not happen in my case. Is XP not recognizing the 6208 properly?

The same thing happened to me on my 6412, so I just installed the patched driver on the unknown device and it worked perfectly! Hope I helped.

When using capDVHS, how does one select which show they want to rip to their HTPC? When I hit record, and have several shows on my moto box, it wants to record all of them. Any suggestions?

Originally posted by mad62
Will I be able to capture transport streams from the Panasonic TU-DST50 STB using the method described in the original post?

I have the same question. My PC will only show a AV/C Subunit When I try to install the TU-DST50. What am I doing wrong or is the TU-DST50 not a viable option. Also I don't see a .INI file in the unzipped meidvhs folder.

Edit. getting closer. figured out how to get the drivers in as a imaging device per the instructions. it is listed under capvhs as a
Pansonic MPEG2TS Tape SubUnit Device <unknown video #1>
Now CapVHS is not showing any file size when I do a test capture.

Hate to bug you but i am stumped. I followed all of the instructions and was actually recording just fine. My problem was that i couldn't get any of the files ( after converted to MPEG from TS) to DVD. So i spent a couple of days downloading and removing software to burn a DVD. In doing so I have now messed up CAPDVHS. The Panasonic device shows up in the drop down box but when i hit record, the time at the bottom is counting down but there is no longer all the information in the other feilds like aspect ratio, frame rate, bit rate, etc. and nothing is recording.
I've tried removing the drivers and reinstalling and even system restoring...nothing. Under device manager there is only an "unknown" and no other devices.
If anyone knows what is going on could you please help me
thanks

An old thread, I know, but a good reference. My odd question... so you can transport video from your TV to your PC via firewire (on sets that support it). What about the other way around? How do I send video to my TV via firewire? (My particular set is a sony kd34xbr960.)

Originally posted by jmccorm
An old thread, I know, but a good reference. My odd question... so you can transport video from your TV to your PC via firewire (on sets that support it). What about the other way around? How do I send video to my TV via firewire? (My particular set is a sony kd34xbr960.)

I have hooked the firewire output of the cablebox to the firewire input of my TV and it just works. No setup required except for changing the input of the TV to the firewire input. My set is a Mitsubishi WD-52525.

This is an awesome thread. My setup is Comcast 6412, DFI Ultra with A64 3000 (939 chipset), 512 M ram and ATI XL800 grpahic card. I have window XP professional which had a slightly different procedure but everythings work like champ. I have the new DFI Ultra D motherboard and I have a little problem with VLN playback on cracking audio noise. I upgrade the audio drivers from DFI website and problem solved. Just in time for MASTER.

I had to pay a visitation fee of $25 to upgrade my digital cable receiver to the 6200. Turns out most of the channels are encrypted. Any way to record all the channels that I pay for? It's not like any of the stuff I like to watch gets released on DVD anyway. I feel cheated.

Hello all,
Last night I traded in my Motorola 5100 HD box for the Motorola 6412 HD DVR from Comcast. Obviously you all know what this is. On the first page of this thread, I followed the great post that told me how to hook up the firewire and the Panasonic driver, and the DVHS software. It all seems to work, and I am able to record and playback the recordings.

What I have not been able to find in the 57 pages of this thread:

1) Can I control the channels from my PC, set up a recording schedule?
2) Can I extract previously recorded material on the DVR?

Also, if I want to record programs to DVD afterwards, what is involved. I have seen bits and pieces throughout this thread, but I'm hoping by now someone has a definative method, and recommended software.

Thanks all.

Originally posted by tmorgenthaler

What I have not been able to find in the 57 pages of this thread:

1) Can I control the channels from my PC, set up a recording schedule?

One of the 3? devices windows detects when you plug in the FW cable is a tuner device, and in theory, if you had a driver for this you would be able to use most of the PVR software out there to change channels. As far as I know, there isn't a driver for the tuner though, so no.

As far as scheduling a recording, here is what I did:
1) Setup a timer in the STB to change the channel to my required program. (Not sure if the 6412 has this or not, I used a 6200)

2) Setup a second timer using Windows Scheduler that called a batch file which in turn ran DCTRecord for the required amount of time. DCTRecord supports commandline args for controlling the record process.

I think I posted details of this approach earlier in this thread, or maybe in this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=353608&goto=newpost).
Anyway, here is the batch file I used as an example. You'll need to modify some of the paths, as they reflect my setup and aren't generic enough for just anyone to use.

--Eric

@echo off
if "%1"=="" GOTO USAGE
if "%2"=="" GOTO USAGE
ECHO %date% %time% %1.ts %2 minute(s)>> D:\TV\Recording.log

:MAKEFOLDER
d:
cd \TV
MD %1
CD %1

:RECORD
C:\CAPDVHS\dctrecord.exe -s 128 -t %2 -f %1.ts
GOTO ALLDONE

:USAGE
ECHO. DCTRecord.cmd %%1 %%2
ECHO %%1 Folder Name and FileName
ECHO %%2 Time to Record - In Minutes
ECHO.
PAUSE

:ALLDONE

Originally posted by tmorgenthaler

Also, if I want to record programs to DVD afterwards, what is involved. I have seen bits and pieces throughout this thread, but I'm hoping by now someone has a definative method, and recommended software.

Thanks all.

The way I do it is like this (assumes you already have the .ts file on your computer):

1) Use HDTVtoMPEG2 (the most recent beta - the release version didn't work properly) to convert the stream (it works on SD streams, as well as HD) to a "standard" MPEG file. This doesn't do a perfect job, but it does good enough to set the file up for the next step...
2) Use TMPGEnc to "Simple Demultiplex" the file. This creates separate video and audio files for your DVD authoring program.
3) Create DVD (this is tricky) - DVD-Lab Pro balks at the audio file created by de-multiplexing, but offers to fix it and does a good job. Also, it warns me that the video file is of a non-standard resolution for DVD (the SD streams I've ripped have been 528x480i). It says that the file may not be playable in all DVD players. I watch on my computer, so I leave it alone to avoid re-sampling and making the movie larger. YMMV - depending on your DVD authoring program.

Thus, I have a "bit perfect" DVD copy of an MPEG2 transport stream.

Now... this method does not seem to work for HD content. I have successfully ripped the HD content into .TS files, used HDTVtoMPEG2 to convert to .MPG, but Windows Media Encoder doesn't like the file.

Does anyone know a way to frame-serve media encoder? Or any other way to get an HD stream converted to HDWMV? I realize that this will not be "bit perfect" like my SD example, but I like WMV's hi-def quality and small file size.

Cheer!

Originally posted by EHHoffman

2) Setup a second timer using Windows Scheduler that called a batch file which in turn ran DCTRecord for the required amount of time. DCTRecord supports commandline args for controlling the record process.......


I just input the schedule parameters into CAPDVHS directly and leave the program running. Especially for recordings that repeat etc. Is there some advantage of a batch file over direct entry into scheduled recordings?

I also use a combination of direct starting of recording as I do have the recording motorola box so I can start previously recorded material.

For scheduled recordings I leave an extra minute or so on each end and check that I got it all with H2 before starting to watch or leaving recording on HD

Originally posted by holthaus
this is a 6208 box....I have firewire on the motherboard (asus) and it works. Well, until I put SP2 on the system, I just manually whacked that last week to get the drivers for firewire back to the sp1 version.

It does not like the drivers at all...any suggestions....I am driver king at work (I deal with a 4 way cpu, with several RAID cards and such) drivers are not new, but this is killing me.

Should I get SP2 back on and do some other update for the firewire?

Help, got to off load the NCAA games to the PC....

Go Cards!


hothaus,

Any luck getting 8.13 and 6208 to record yet?

I have the same 6208 box, firmware, and OS(XP SP2) as you . Everything worked fine for me until the 6208 was updated with 8.13 firmware and new interactive guide.

I had no problems recording with 8.12 and XP SP2.

I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling drivers individually and then tried all of them with no luck. Unplugging firewire and plugging back in no longer works for me. This would occasionally fix any problems I was having. Also turning 6208 box off and back on doesn't help. 5C implentation still shows as zero in 6208 menu. CAPDVHS creates file but will not play, also data info page in CAPDVHS no longer displays information like it did for 8.12 when recording, but an unplayable file is created.

Originally posted by RalphArch
I just input the schedule parameters into CAPDVHS directly and leave the program running. Especially for recordings that repeat etc. Is there some advantage of a batch file over direct entry into scheduled recordings?

I also use a combination of direct starting of recording as I do have the recording motorola box so I can start previously recorded material.

For scheduled recordings I leave an extra minute or so on each end and check that I got it all with H2 before starting to watch or leaving recording on HD
I found the UI for window's scheduler much easier to use, and more advanced. It allows for repeating events of just about any kind you could imagine. Plus, it's easy to disable an event without loosing the schedule should a show skip a week or something. Plus, it will wake the PC from a power saved state. I setup my machine to go into hibernate mode after 10 minutes of inactivity, so the thing auto-wakes and sleeps all by it self.

The other reason I did this is because I wanted to use DCTRecord because it allowed me to set the size of the capture file segments. By using a small file segment (128MB), the resulting files played as-is much better on my MyHD 120 card. Otherwise I have to converting it back to an ATSC stream which takes an extra step, and time. (The streams from the MoTo are null-packet stripped and my MyHD card didn't like that too well.)

--Eric

Okay, please forgive my ignorance, but why do I have to record into .ts format from the CapDVHS program? It is set to MPEG by default. It does record from my 6412 in MPEG format. Seems to me I should be able to burn a DVD very easily from MPEG. Am I missing something here? Is the TS format a higher quality or something?

Originally posted by EHHoffman

The other reason I did this is because I wanted to use DTCRecord because it allowed me to set the size of the capture file segments. By using a small file segment (128MB), the resulting files played as-is much better on my MyHD 120 card. Otherwise I have to converting it back to an ATSC stream which takes an extra step, and time. (The streams from the MoTo are null-packet stripped and my MyHD card didn't like that too well.)

--Eric

Eric - for what its worth I have a MyHD also (MDP-100) and use that for playback as well as TT2. My files are also null stripped from Motorola 6208 (COMCAST) No need for me to convert recordings to ATSC and I just use single file approach (99.9 g). The only thing that doesn't work for me is the FF and rewind, but even on that I have been reading of a beta software for MyHD which addressess this.

Originally posted by RalphArch
The only thing that doesn't work for me is the FF and rewind, but even on that I have been reading of a beta software for MyHD which addressess this.

This is exactly the problem I was speaking of. The problem, at least with previous versions of the software, is that if you have a really large non-ATSC compliant file and try to FF, it scans the entire file which can take a very long time. It appears as though the MyHD app is locked up because it will not respond to any further UI commands. (It does continue to play the move at least). If you wait long enough, it will come back, but I got tired of accidentally hitting the wrong button and "locking" the thing up. Also, by using small file segments, I kind of get a FF type of functionality by using chapter buttons. It at least advances to ends of each file segment.

I normally use this for TV shows where I have commercials I want to skip over. I dump the whole thing after viewing it anyway. For movies or other things I want to keep. I have a second set of batch files that process the entire thing and convert it back into one large ATSC compliant file which I then store in a folder marked to compress files. This gives me back all the space wasted by null-packets while maintaining a file that is completely compatible with MyHD.

--Eric

Originally posted by tmorgenthaler
Okay, please forgive my ignorance, but why do I have to record into .ts format from the CapDVHS program? It is set to MPEG by default. It does record from my 6412 in MPEG format. Seems to me I should be able to burn a DVD very easily from MPEG. Am I missing something here? Is the TS format a higher quality or something?

TS stands for Transport Stream, and is just a way of packaging up one or more other data streams, in this case MPEG2 streams. That is how it comes from the STB, and these utils simply save it to disk.

The "internal" format of a TS file is mpeg2, just like what a DVD is, but it is packaged different. The MPEG2 content itself may or may not be DVD-compatible (most likely not). The DVD spec allows for a couple resolutions, but the most common is 720x480i. I have yet to see a TS file from my STB that came across in that format. HD content will be something with a much higher resolution, while SD will be something lower, yet not as low a 352x240 which is another format supported by the DVD spec. To be in full compliance with the DVD spec, you will most likely have to re-encode your content if you want to be able to play it in a STP.
I have heard of some reports of DVD players that will not balk at an out-of-spec resolution as long at it is not greater then 720x480, so you might try it out.

--Eric

Okay, thanks. I'll have to check it out when I get home from work. I set the capDVHS software to record a South Park episode as an experiment last night. I'll have to see what the resolution is set at. It might be an easier way to go with SD broadcasts, but HD might be a different story.

hi all. am new to this forum.
i have been following this thread for a few days now. i just got my 6412. the firmware is 9.15. will i still be able to transfer my recorded programs over to my pc. i havent tried yet becuase my laptops hd is full so am waiting on an external hd.

ps.
good job on this forum guys.

Originally posted by EHHoffman
The problem, at least with previous versions of the software, is that if you have a really large non-ATSC compliant file and try to FF, it scans the entire file which can take a very long time.I'm using the beta with very large files stripped of NULLs (from the beta MyHD, from FusionHDTV, and from HDTVtoMPEG2). It doesn't pre-process the file as the previous version did. FF/REW works. On a few files, the FF and RW are very short, but by using the 8xFF (6), you can still skip commercials. The only caveat I've seen is you must re-scan your channels completely. I saved my recording schedule, wiped the channels and re-scanned, then I re-loaded the schedule. Everything has worked fine.

Xesdeeni

Originally posted by Xesdeeni
I'm using the beta with very large files stripped of NULLs (from the beta MyHD, from FusionHDTV, and from HDTVtoMPEG2). It doesn't pre-process the file as the previous version did. FF/REW works. On a few files, the FF and RW are very short, but by using the 8xFF (6), you can still skip commercials. The only caveat I've seen is you must re-scan your channels completely. I saved my recording schedule, wiped the channels and re-scanned, then I re-loaded the schedule. Everything has worked fine.

Xesdeeni

I've been following that thread for a while, and recall reading that this was being implemented. I guess one of these days I will have to upgrade the software. I'm still using a version (forget the v# now) that predates the timeshifting features. I've kind of gotten a process worked out and it gives me no troubles so I haven't been in that big of a hurry to change things. :)

--Eric

ok... maybe i missed this. when i offload my recordings from my dvr the file is 0bytes. i have checked and double checked the driver install. i have sp2 and ran the firewire patch. i am confused! any help would be appreciated.

Originally posted by msanders03
ok... maybe i missed this. when i offload my recordings from my dvr the file is 0bytes. i have checked and double checked the driver install. i have sp2 and ran the firewire patch. i am confused! any help would be appreciated.

what is the encryption status of the channel you are trying to record? If 5c=1 you are out of luck. Try an unecrypted channel then.

Otherwise do you have settings right in dvhs capture (convert 188 bytes, check pts delete to syncbite all checked?)

i work for comcast cable here in missouri and our system isn't encrypted yet
all channels say 5c-0. when i run capdvhs i set the setting to the instructions and tryed to pull my recordings off the dvr. but got 0bytes?

Try a system restore operation to XP SP1, or uninstall SP2. Sounds painful, but it may work for your situation. The firewire patch did not cure my similar problem either.

Hi I'm new to this thread. i have the dct 6412 from comcast out of washington state. I followed the instructions and it works great I can record all analog, digital and HD channels. I'm sure this has already been posted but how do i extact shows I have saved on the dct 6412 hard drive.

Kingromeo, the only way to extract the recording is to play the show.

I have another question, is there any software can join split and edit the .ts files?

Originally posted by Vic Y
Kingromeo, the only way to extract the recording is to play the show.

I have another question, is there any software can join split and edit the .ts files?

H2 see this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=395744)

Vic Y, Hey thanks that method worked great now I'm going use HDTVtoMPEG2 so i can burn to cd

I'm a Comcast subscriber in MA with the Motorola DCT 6412. I am able to record shows following the directions in this thread. But no matter which channel I record, the output video has a narrow horizontal band of black and white artifacts/noise at the top of the frame for the entire duration, almost like the v-hold got messed up and the previous channel is overlapping it a bit.

I've gone through most of this thread, and haven't seen any similar reports. Does someone know how I can fix this? Thanks.

Originally posted by glibnub
I'm a Comcast subscriber in MA with the Motorola DCT 6412. I am able to record shows following the directions in this thread. But no matter which channel I record, the output video has a narrow horizontal band of black and white artifacts/noise at the top of the frame for the entire duration, almost like the v-hold got messed up and the previous channel is overlapping it a bit.

I've gone through most of this thread, and haven't seen any similar reports. Does someone know how I can fix this? Thanks.

Sounds like closed caption information but I don't recall ever seeing it on any of my TP captures from the 6200. I didn't think they included that information in the MPEG stream, but as a separate piece in the TP stream, where the STB then merged it back in for analogue outputs (where it would normally be covered up by over-scan on a TV).

What are you using for playback? Might it be merging the CC info back into the display but since you don't have any over-scan, you are seeing it?

--Eric

RalphArch, thanks. The software works great. I just edit the Master Tournament and burn to the DVD.

Originally posted by EHHoffman
Sounds like closed caption information but I don't recall ever seeing it on any of my TP captures from the 6200. I didn't think they included that information in the MPEG stream, but as a separate piece in the TP stream, where the STB then merged it back in for analogue outputs (where it would normally be covered up by over-scan on a TV).

What are you using for playback? Might it be merging the CC info back into the display but since you don't have any over-scan, you are seeing it?

--Eric

Hi Eric,
I see this noise whether I play a live or recorded stream with VLC, or the demuxed or converted stream from PVAStrumento/HDTVtoMPEG. I have closed captioning disabled. Wouldn't that be at the bottom of the screen? The band of noise is constant, there's no breaks between frames or programs or channels, that's why I said it looked like old-school analog v-hold problems, because it's almost like I'm not receiving the full frame to record. Would a screen cap help? Thanks again.

Originally posted by glibnub
Wouldn't that be at the bottom of the screen?

The textual display of closed caption information does usually appear at the bottom of the screen. What I was referring to was the actual CC data stream. Typically, if you viewed a normal TV signal on a device with no over-scan, you would see this CC data show up as white garbage along the very top scan-line or so of the display. When you turn CC on in the display device, it decodes that white garbage and overlays the text down at the bottom where you can see it.

Since I've never seen it on any TP stream I've captured, I've always assumed that CC info was encoded into the TP separately from the MPEG stream. This would require that the playback device be CC data aware and would know how to display the textual info if requested, or encode it back into the white garbage for analogue outputs. This would normally be the job of the STB, but on the PC it would fall to the software player.

Maybe in your case, the CC info is being included in the MPEG stream from your cable provider; in other words, part of the picture. If that is the case, the only way to get rid of it would be to use a display device that had over-scan, or use a software player that allowed you to crop the output on playback. I think MPC allows for this and I suspect that some of the other better software players will to, like ZoomPlayer or TheatreTek.

A screen shot wouldn't hurt to at least see if we are talking about the same thing.

--Eric

I have a 6412 box and want a off-the-shelf PC to do the recording. Sony seems to have most of the ingredients that I need.
What is the difference between all the Sony Boxes? (RX,RA,RZ,VGC series)?

hi fellows...

just got my firwire 6p tp 6p wire that i used to connect my amd64 pc to the sa8300hd dvr..so i can figure out how to access whats on it...

but windoze xp just sees the port no other anything!!! no unknowns or anything...
how do i know which version do i have sara or the passport??

thanks

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Barco 801S, Centerstage CS2 w/SDi,Infocus X1,SA8300HD DVR/STB,AMD64 HTPC/HCPC, kenwood vr8070 receiver and the rest of the audio system is also kenwood!!! (looking for a standalone dvdplayer to modify with SDI...)
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Originally posted by dr1394
DTCP/5C encrypts the whole 188-byte Transport Stream packet. I've attached a DOS shell program that is similar to TSReader, but without a graphical user interface. It also does demuxing to elementary streams.

With this program, a DTCP/5C encrypted Transport Stream will demux to 0 byte elementary streams and print a million errors.

Usage is:

xport <-pavtdszn> <infile> <program number> <video stream number> <audio stream number>

typically:

xport something.ts 1 1 1

The output files are always named bits0001.mpv for video and bits0001.mpa for audio. Unless the -n option is used, the demuxer will time align the beginning of the two elementary streams so that a remux to PS or back to TS will have correct A/V sync.

Options:

p = parse only, do not demux to video and audio files.
a = dump audio PTS.
v = dump video PTS.
t = GOP timecode mode, count repeated fields/frames.
d = dump all PID's (useful for debugging muxers, but tons of output).
s = suppress TS rate dumping (useful when piping output to a file).
z = demux to PES streams (instead of elementary streams).
n = demux all audio, don't try to cut the start of audio to match the start of video

Ron

does this prog work woth the sa8300hd's firweire port??


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Barco 801S, Centerstage CS2 w/SDi,Infocus X1,SA8300HD DVR/STB,AMD64 HTPC/HCPC, kenwood vr8070 receiver and the rest of the audio system is also kenwood!!! (looking for a standalone dvdplayer to modify with SDI...)
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hi fellows...

just got my firwire 6p tp 6p wire that i used to connect my amd64 pc to the sa8300hd dvr..so i can figure out how to access whats on it...

but windoze xp just sees the port no other anything!!! no unknowns or anything...
how do i know which version do i have sara or the passport??
someone emtioned the 3250..but i have a sa8300hd..also i read someplace that you have to ask the cable company for a firewire friendly box!!!i gues they are turned off from sa...
anyhow
thanks

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Barco 801S, Centerstage CS2 w/SDi,Infocus X1,SA8300HD DVR/STB,AMD64 HTPC/HCPC, kenwood vr8070 receiver and the rest of the audio system is also kenwood!!! (looking for a standalone dvdplayer to modify with SDI...)
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I've been using this method for a while to extract recordings from a DCT6412 to my WinXP SP2 laptop (with firewire patch installed). Thanks very much for bdraw and others for documenting this.

Lately though I find that I have to unplug and re-connect the firewire cable several times for the initial handshaking to "take". Otherwise when I start CapDVHS it says "Capture Device Cannot Be Found" and obviously I don't see the Panasonic device listed in the Device list and can't capture. If I unplug, wait a few seconds and reconnect enough times eventually I can start CapDVHS without the error message and then locate the Panasonic device and do captures. I can never get it to work first time anymore.

Anyone else have trouble getting the initial handshaking to work and have to re-connect the firewire cable a few times to get it to work? Any ideas why doing this a few times eventually works? I figure it should either work or not, why sometimes? Note, this was happening before XP SP2 update too, but not as badly.

NOTE: I connect the firewire cable with both the DCT6412 and Laptop turned on. Is there a better procedure perhaps with the DCT and/or laptop turned off or some way to more reliably get the correct initial handshaking?

As a side note too, once in a while a few seconds after starting a capture on an HD channel/recording WinXP blue screens and reboots and I have to go through the whole firewire multiple re-connect process again to get things going. Gets pretty annoying sometimes when there are multiple firewire handshaking issues and XP crashes.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I have a Motorola DCT 6412 with firmware version 9.17 installed.

It seems like the earlier notes on recording via firewire to Windows XP presumed that the user didn't have SP2 installed.

Well, it is reasonably safe to say that everyone has SP2 installed now. Why? Even you installed the block, it expires now. The entire thread for installing the drivers are now obsolete - wish we could just have an updated page. Finally, I found one dated "April 05" so I thought I was fine. Downloaded the zip file and plugged in my 6 to 4 pin firewire cable.

Previously, in safe mode, I renamed the SP2.CAB driver file to old and copied the SP1.CAB 1394 drivers. Followed the instructions closely. I am double checking now and in c:\windows\system32\drivers folder I see, indeed, those 1394 drivers are dated 2002 so they have not been written over with the 2004 ones.

I clicked cancel until I got a away from an "unknown"

Bottom line, no driver. It doesn't like the ones here and I, of course, can't use the CapDVHS.exe program because it can't find a tuner. I am an experienced computer user and have spent over an hour on this. Bottom line, I am disappointed. Wish there were more instructions or we could completely purge the postings prior to windows xp sp 2 . I

Ive had no luck either getting this to work,just built a shuttle htpc with MCC 2005 with sp2.
Might have to wait for updated drivers to appear, i just want to record to dvd the shows on the motorola 6412 dvr.

to bud-man

you need 4 of the sp1 firewire drvs and also to rename the cab file so that windows doesnt rewrite the same four you just replaced after the nest reboot!!!

Martin

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Barco 801S, Centerstage CS2 w/SDi,Infocus X1,SA8300HD DVR/STB,AMD64 HTPC/HCPC, kenwood vr8070 receiver and the rest of the audio system is also kenwood!!! (looking for a standalone dvdplayer to modify with SDI...)
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For those having trouble with dct6412 (I currently have 9.12 firmware) and WinXP SP2 I just confirmed that the same old drivers do work. I uninstalled the drivers I had installed from before and went through the whole process of re-installing drivers last night and got it to work. The instructions for SP2 are actually quite different than posted at the start of this thread but nonetheless if you know what you are doing you can get it to work using the same drivers as posted:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=4514386
(the meidvhs.zip file).
At some point I will probably uninstall the drivers again and document exactly step-by-step how to do it in XP SP2.

I still suffer from the problem of having to re-connect firewire cable multiple times for the initial handshaking to work (see my previous post), but it does work eventually.

wondering if I'm doing something wrong...

Install went without a hitch. CapDVHS works great, but during capture the data info page says:
Size 720X480
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Frame Rate 29.97
Bit Rate 8.5 Mbps

all other fields are blank.

I have no trouble working with the .ts files (Dr. DivX is great for my needs). But they are 4:3. I'm just wondering how a 720x480 capture can be 4:3. Seems mutually exclusive to me.... but then, I'm a newbie.

Any ideas?

-Brandoneus

I went through the whole process of installing drivers under Win XP SP2 tonight and documented it step by step. Here are the instructions. If it's useful perhaps the first post in this thread can include directions for Win XP SP2 with a copy of these:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html#Setting_up_for_drivers_for_DCT6412

NOTE: Even though these instructions are specific for the DCT6412, the driver installation is the same for any other boxes known to work with this method.

Excellent job moyekj!!!!
Works like a charm now, i just had to load the right driver from the folder, before it just loaded default drivers.
brandoneus, the sizes shown are what is inputed from the box
Also could i use a recording software like Ulead Dvd Movie Factory?, using the firewire input and stream the video?

hi folks and..

thanks for the instructions

now only if i could make get it to work with my stb/dvr..

Martin...

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Barco 801S, Centerstage CS2 w/SDi,Infocus X1,SA8300HD DVR/STB,AMD64 HTPC/HCPC, kenwood vr8070 receiver and the rest of the audio system is also kenwood!!! (looking for a standalone dvdplayer to modify with SDI...)
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bdraw
I performed all the steps correctly! But I have no audio upon playback using powerdvd.

dnice37, most likely missing codecs. Try Media Player Classic of Videolan VLC.

After a bit of testing this is what I found... I'm still a newbie so take it with a grain of salt.

...independant of the way the other outputs are setup via the STB menu's on the 6208 and 6412. The firewire stream will be what the STB decodes from the cable signal.

Cartoon Network will always be like 4:3 528X480, others may be enhanced at 4:3 720x480, and on and on....

Thanks for the great site!... All the talented and helpful contributors, not the least of which is Moyekj.

Thank you people!


Now If I could only figure out how to play the stream directly I would be happy with it. If I try to "open capture device" with VLC on my XP box, I get an immediate BSOD. Hard crash. I haven't found anything to play it directly on my Mac PB17 either, although capture works well there too.

-Brandon

Originally posted by moyekj
For those having trouble with dct6412 (I currently have 9.12 firmware) and WinXP SP2 I just confirmed that the same old drivers do work. I uninstalled the drivers I had installed from before and went through the whole process of re-installing drivers last night and got it to work. The instructions for SP2 are actually quite different than posted at the start of this thread but nonetheless if you know what you are doing you can get it to work using the same drivers as posted:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=4514386
(the meidvhs.zip file).


I have uninstalled the drivers and plug in the Firewire to my notebook. I get a found new hardware message, it says "unknown." I hit CANCEL. It doesn't search anymore. So I don't get anything else.

IT DOES NOT come back with "Tuner AV/C Tuner " found.

PLEASE, what do you do when you can't achieve step #5? I have uninstalled, rebooted, EVERYTHING, and it still doesn't know that this is a "Tuner AV/C Tuner ".

So what happens? No matter what I do, it backs out and installs an unknown device. I uninstall it, run "scan for hardware changes" and it does the exact same thing.

I do know what I am doing, but if you see something I am missing please feel free to elaborate. VERY FRUSTRATING.

kculp, how did you uninstall the drivers? It could be that the first time you tried this something went wrong and a driver (the wrong one) for Tuner AV/C Device got installed. I would suggest after you plug in the firewire and cancel the first dialog that comes up to:
1. Bring up Device Manager: Start->Run->devmgmt.msc
2. View->Devices by connection. Look for "Unknown device" (the one you just canceled) and see if there is another device listed next to it - on my system 3 drivers end up under IEEE 1394 Host Controller - one being the Tuner AV/C device, the other 2 ones we don't care to install drivers for. If you see any, right click and select Uninstall.

If you get this far then unplug firewire, wait a few moments, plug it back in and then follow instructions here for installing:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html#Setting_up_for_drivers_for_DCT6412

kculp, I just installed drivers again and I see where some people can have some problems. It's related to the initial handshaking problem I've been having and complained about a few posts back. Basically, after hitting Cancel on the first dialog if you don't get any more devices recognized the handshaking failed. The solution is to unplug the firewire, wait a few moments and then plug it back in and try again. Sometimes it takes multiple tries (I've been up to 6 tries once) before Tuner AV/C device is recognized.

I have seen several questions on this thread about changing channels on the motorola 6200. I have an app that does this. Is this still of interest? I need to tidy it up and write some instructions but the summary is that you need to hack a driver onto the AVC panel device. This seems to be the device that changes channel. The meitape.sys driver that is used to record over firewire doesn't support sending change channel commands (it blue screens the machine). mstape.sys does support sending change channel commands but checks the device type of the firewire device and doesn't work unless it is a tape device. I patched the mstape.sys not to check for the device type and installed it on the avc panel device and then sent change channel commands and it works.

Originally posted by timmmoore
I have seen several questions on this thread about changing channels on the motorola 6200. I have an app that does this. Is this still of interest?

Yes, please post it!!!!

OK, it will take a bit of time. I need to work out the instructions to patch the mstape.sys again, I didn't write down what I did :(
Also I have a command line app that changes channel and a dll and app that plugs into media center 2005. Is there interest in both?
I have tried both with 2 STBs and they work fine, though with the mce2005 you need to work out which firewire device applies to which mce2005 tuner.
Also has anyone seen problems with mixing dct6200s with other firewire devices, I have having problems with having dct6200 and a firewire disk connected up at the same time, either work fine but I can't get both regonized at the same time. I think its related to the firewire hub I have using but would like to know if anyones seen a similar problem before getting another hub.

Originally posted by brandoneus
wondering if I'm doing something wrong...

Install went without a hitch. CapDVHS works great, but during capture the data info page says:
Size 720X480
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Frame Rate 29.97
Bit Rate 8.5 Mbps

all other fields are blank.

I have no trouble working with the .ts files (Dr. DivX is great for my needs). But they are 4:3. I'm just wondering how a 720x480 capture can be 4:3. Seems mutually exclusive to me.... but then, I'm a newbie.

Any ideas?

-Brandoneus 720*480 is used for 4:3 material. That's not an error, or a mistake, or anything short of perfectly 100% normal.

Originally posted by brandoneus


I have no trouble working with the .ts files (Dr. DivX is great for my needs). But they are 4:3. I'm just wondering how a 720x480 capture can be 4:3. Seems mutually exclusive to me.... but then, I'm a newbie.

Any ideas?

-Brandoneus

This come from the fact that the "pixels" are not square. They are taller then they are wide. (With square pixels, 640x480 would be 4:3.)

--Eric

Originally posted by timmmoore
OK, it will take a bit of time. I need to work out the instructions to patch the mstape.sys again, I didn't write down what I did :(
Also I have a command line app that changes channel and a dll and app that plugs into media center 2005. Is there interest in both?
I have tried both with 2 STBs and they work fine, though with the mce2005 you need to work out which firewire device applies to which mce2005 tuner.
Also has anyone seen problems with mixing dct6200s with other firewire devices, I have having problems with having dct6200 and a firewire disk connected up at the same time, either work fine but I can't get both regonized at the same time. I think its related to the firewire hub I have using but would like to know if anyones seen a similar problem before getting another hub.

This would be great. I am looking forward to using it to schedule records. Do you have any more details about your media center plugins.

I would want both the command line app and the media center plugin also.

-- Wolfgang

There are 3 files of interest

1. Channel.exe
"Channel -v" will list all the possible video devices that maybe of interest. Each device will be given a number 1, 2, etc.
"channel D C" will send a change channel to C to device D where D is the number printed from channel -v
2. Tunertracker.dll this needs to be registered using regsvr32 tunertracker.dll. Then MCE ehmsas.exe will find it and send it MSAS events. It tracks all the tracknumber events as well as other events (start and end sessions, starting recording, start livetv) and tracks what channel is on each tuner. It supports 2 analogue and 1 HDTV tuner. It creates a shared memory file containing this information.
3. MyTray.exe, this is a executable, normally sits in the systray. Can display a dialog that allows you to configure which firewire device maps to analogue tuner 1 and 2. It opens the shared memory file that tunertracker creates, monitors for channel changes and sends via firewire the change channel commands. It also updates the tooltip on the systray icon to show what it thinks each tuner is set to e.g. "Tuner 0:2 1:59 2:1131

Channel.exe is independent of media center and was used to test and develop the firewire work.
Tunertracker and MyTray.exe are for use with media center.

I have the EXACT same problem i auto detected instead of picking the panasonic. Now I CANT find Tuner AV/C Device in hardware manager... there is no imaging devices category. How do i uninstall this software so i can reinstall it again??
Originally posted by ylsf
I am having the same problem as below (posted back in february by another member).

I have tried deleting the driver and re-installing it. I am using a Motorola 6412 box though. It shows as "Tuner AV/C Device" in the hardware manager (under imaging devices).. any suggestions?

I have tried rebooting, connecting the firewire to different ports, deleted the driver several times and re-installing. The other 2 hardware items that popped up were "cancelled" and ignored in the hardware manager.

EDIT: - OK Ignore my message.. but, I will leave this here in case someone else has the same problem! I guess I read the instructions too quickly. I didn't realize for any device you need to select the panasonic dVHS. I let windows autoselect the driver and that is what messed me up! So, it works fine now

ok i have got the video capture working, now i just need to figure out how to record to dvd. any help would be app.

thanks

Originally posted by Grimgrak
I have the EXACT same problem i auto detected instead of picking the panasonic. Now I CANT find Tuner AV/C Device in hardware manager... there is no imaging devices category. How do i uninstall this software so i can reinstall it again?? Once firewire is plugged in choose View->Devices by connection in device manager. For me when I do that the 3 devices can be found under IEEE 1394 Host Controller. Once/if you seem them then right click and choose Uninstall for each.

Originally posted by msanders03
ok i have got the video capture working, now i just need to figure out how to record to dvd. any help would be app.

thanks Click on my sig link below for a guide on how to do it. Uses all free software and has steps on how to do it for both SD and HD recordings.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! You would not believe the amount of people who couldn't help. I even called dell's american division for tech support!!
Originally posted by moyekj
Once firewire is plugged in choose View->Devices by connection in device manager. For me when I do that the 3 devices can be found under IEEE 1394 Host Controller. Once/if you seem them then right click and choose Uninstall for each.

Originally posted by moyekj
Click on my sig link below for a guide on how to do it. Uses all free software and has steps on how to do it for both SD and HD recordings.



ok first thank you, but i am having a problem. i am using a 6408, should the process be the same? the files that i get from the 6408 are .mpg
i follow the directions in your guide and when i get to hdtvtompeg2 part
there is no .ts file.

ok n/m i didn't change the file ending in capdvhs.

The info and files to change change via firewire on Windows is at thegreenbutton web site. The attachment is too large to post here and I can't post links here. Go to the thegreenbutton website in communities and 3rd party application section. I will post a link here as soon as I can

One of the things I fixed since I orginally posted is that capdvhs and channel changing work together now. Orginaly I broke the AVC tuner device getting the avc panel device working. The updated meitape.inf in the zip file on thegreenbutton fixes that.

Sorry for the 3 posts in a row but I now can supply the http link to thegreenbutton thread

http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=26&MessageID=104152

Originally posted by timmmoore
Sorry for the 3 posts in a row but I now can supply the http link to thegreenbutton thread

http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=26&MessageID=104152

So this is only for media center??

There is a command line program channel.exe that works independentely of media ceter and a plugin for media center.
channel -v prints a list of devices, the readme tells you how to identify the correct stb device, then
channel D C will change channel using device no D. So you wil need a way to script the correct device and channel numbers into whatever you are using.
I found I could use capdvhs to capture and use channel at the same time to change channels.

This is an example of channel, it was run on a windows XP pro machine without media center. 1 6200 stbbox was pluged in via firewire

This is channel -v, you can see it found 3 devices
1 the stb "tape" device which is really the tuner
2 the stb avc panel device which responds to change channel commands
3 bisoncam which is a usb camera on the machine

C:\Public\fire>channel -v
Device 1 Channel 1
1 "Panasonic Digital AV/C Tape Device"
'Panasonic MPEG2TS Tape Subunit Device'
"@device:pnp:\\?\avc#motorola&dct-6200&typ_5&id_0#84fea2feff9f0f00#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 0

2 "Motorola AVC Panel Device"
'Motorola AVC Panel Device'

UniqueID '84fea2feff9f0f00'
VendorID 'f9f'
ModelID '620a'
VendorText 'MOTOROLA'
ModelText 'DCT-6200'
"@device:pnp:\\?\avc#motorola&dct-6200&typ_9&id_0#84fea2feff9f0f00#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 1
3 'BisonCam, USB2.0'
"@device:pnp:\\?\usb#vid_0402&pid_5603#5&2b754b28&0&2#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 0
Device Id ""
Device Version "2.1.0"

This command selected device 2 the AVC Panel device and sent change channel to channel 99, you can see printed out the response from the stb, with firewire avc command accepted

C:\Public\fire>channel -v 2 99
Device 2 Channel 99
1 "Panasonic Digital AV/C Tape Device"
'Panasonic MPEG2TS Tape Subunit Device'
"@device:pnp:\\?\avc#motorola&dct-6200&typ_5&id_0#84fea2feff9f0f00#{65e8773d-8f5
6-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 0
2 "Motorola AVC Panel Device"
'Motorola AVC Panel Device'

UniqueID '84fea2feff9f0f00'
VendorID 'f9f'
ModelID '620a'
VendorText 'MOTOROLA'
ModelText 'DCT-6200'
"@device:pnp:\\?\avc#motorola&dct-6200&typ_9&id_0#84fea2feff9f0f00#{65e8773d-8f5
6-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 1
3 'BisonCam, USB2.0'
"@device:pnp:\\?\usb#vid_0402&pid_5603#5&2b754b28&0&2#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-0
0a0c9223196}\global" 0
Device Id ""
Device Version "2.1.0"
Response (0x09 (ACCEPTED)) received 12 bytes
09 48 7c 67 04 00 63 ff ff 00 00 00

6412/PC firewire handshaking problem resolved
After much scouring over this thread last night I found comments that using right firewire port when facing the back (left when facing front) was more reliable than using the other firewire port. So I switched my connection over to that port and it does indeed seem to work much more reliably. So for those having trouble with the PC/6412 handshaking make sure you use the correct firewire port on the 6412. I've updated my web page instructions with notes about that.

Originally posted by timmmoore
There is a command line program channel.exe that works independentely of media ceter and a plugin for media center.
channel -v prints a list of devices, the readme tells you how to identify the correct stb device, then
channel D C will change channel using device no D. So you wil need a way to script the correct device and channel numbers into whatever you are using.
I found I could use capdvhs to capture and use channel at the same time to change channels.

I read from your readme.txt that you have to copy some drivers from XP SP2. Do I need XP SP2? I am still on SP1.

--Wolfgang

The instructions for patching the driver only work for the mstape.sys from sp2. If you can get the sp2 driver and patch it I wouldn't be surprised if it works on sp1. I can probably also look at a sp1 version of mstape.sys and find out what to patch for that version.

Wolfgang

I took a look at the sp1a version of mstape.sys and the following should work to patch it


Offset 138 is CC 03 change to D1 CC

Offset 17ad is 8b f0 3b f7 0f 8c a0 01 00 00 change to 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90
Offset 1964 is 8b c6 change to 33 C0

I dont have a sp1 system to try it though. The version number of mstape.sys is 5.1.2600.0
The changes are the same but the offsets in the file have changed.

Originally posted by timmmoore
Wolfgang

I took a look at the sp1a version of mstape.sys and the following should work to patch it


Offset 138 is CC 03 change to D1 CC

Offset 17ad is 8b f0 3b f7 0f 8c a0 01 00 00 change to 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90
Offset 1964 is 8b c6 change to 33 C0

I dont have a sp1 system to try it though. The version number of mstape.sys is 5.1.2600.0
The changes are the same but the offsets in the file have changed.

Thanks a lot. I will give it a try and let you know how it goes.

I have updated the firewire.zip file on thegreenbutton
I missed a file out of the orginal zip file that you need to install the drivers correctly.
http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/download.aspx?id=770&MessageID=104152

for those interested, timmmoore's AVC panel drivers work great. I can now change channels over firewire with SAGE-tv and record HDTV. The firewire channel changes are less accurate than I would expect, I still get some drop digits - ie, 910 becomes 91 or 922 becomes 92

Originally posted by timmmoore
I have updated the firewire.zip file on thegreenbutton
I missed a file out of the orginal zip file that you need to install the drivers correctly.
http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/download.aspx?id=770&MessageID=104152

Noob question for you Tim - will this allow me to schedule a recording using an online guide in mediacenter or sagetv once setup? (ie. flagging a chanel to record at a certain time even if the 6200 isn't left on that channel beforehand?)

For media center, it takes over all the channel changing for stbs, so anytime media center wants to change channel on a stb. It tells the IR blaster, the IR blaster is hidden away so doesn't do anything. Tunertracker.dll catches events from media center and via mytray.exe sends a firewire change channel command. Livetv and scheduled recording both work fine. Since the IR blaster is still working you must hide it otherwise the STB is getting 2 change channel commands and will probably get confused.
I dont know Sagetv well but I would expect it to be the same

can u use this ir blaster media center software on a say...sa8300hd series dvr and then have the computer and all that in one place???

i would be interested in that!!!
sorry if it is not teh correct place to ask this...
if it is not...i apologies

martin

Bummer. Works great but I was hoping I could archive saved movies from my 6412 DVR because of the limited space, but does not work. Only able to capture network channels, live and saved to DVR. Does not help me as I already have a Myhd card which captures OTA great. Would be nice if Comcast set these channels to copy once and did not have the flag on InHD and ESPN HD. If someone from Comcast is reading this, I am going to cancel Starz and get rid of the DVR. You just lost $26 a month from this house. That's $312 per year. Just because they pissed me off, I am thinking of going over to Directv and Verizon DSL. I urge you to consider the same.

I've successfully connected my 6412 v9.15 to my XP machine with SP2 (no problems at all). I can record some streams with D-VHSMpeg2 (the Data Info fields populate), but not others (the fields remain blank). I'm assuming these blank streams/channels are protected somehow? Is there a way to get around that? I've found all the info I've needed in this thread, except for that one. Any answers?

I followed the install insrux but think I may have done something wrong as whenever I plugin the firewire, I hear a few rapid beeps (which I think indicates an error) so I cant get the handshake to occur. Plus, when I open CapDHVS I keep getting "cannot find capture device"

How do I "backout" the install and start over?
Is there anything else to try instead of backout and reconfig?

Using Firewire 1394A Cable
DCT6410 box (validated firmware)
Windowx XP2 (insalled the recommended patch)

OK. So I got it working. A few things. I notice some 1px hight flickering lines at the top of the screen (recorded version) ... is this normal?

Additionally, the filesize is massive. 256MB for a 5min clip from SNL. I have MPG full lengths videos, that are longer and quality is equally as good to the nake eye, that are only 30MB. Can filesize be controlled?

Originally posted by rgc101
Bummer. Works great but I was hoping I could archive saved movies from my 6412 DVR because of the limited space, but does not work. Only able to capture network channels, live and saved to DVR. Does not help me as I already have a Myhd card which captures OTA great.

I am in the same boat. It's quite maddening. You can cancel your cable TV service and just pay for cable internet. From my experience, you can still get the unencrypted digital channels (if there are any) using a QAM card.

Does anyone know if there is a list of approved 5c compliant devices? Are the DVHS devices all thats available now?

Anyone know anything about this?

http://www.indigita.com/products/customsolutions/avhd.html

Originally posted by caernavon
I've successfully connected my 6412 v9.15 to my XP machine with SP2 (no problems at all). I can record some streams with D-VHSMpeg2 (the Data Info fields populate), but not others (the fields remain blank). I'm assuming these blank streams/channels are protected somehow? Is there a way to get around that? I've found all the info I've needed in this thread, except for that one. Any answers?

How did you achieve this? can you please explain, i just got this box and was wondering how i can transfer shows to my pc from the DVR. Thanks

Originally posted by Shash703
How did you achieve this? can you please explain, i just got this box and was wondering how i can transfer shows to my pc from the DVR. Thanks 1st post in this thread has all the details how to do it. Or you can refer to my firewire capture signature link below.

Originally posted by caernavon
I've successfully connected my 6412 v9.15 to my XP machine with SP2 (no problems at all). I can record some streams with D-VHSMpeg2 (the Data Info fields populate), but not others (the fields remain blank). I'm assuming these blank streams/channels are protected somehow? Is there a way to get around that? I've found all the info I've needed in this thread, except for that one. Any answers?

You need to change some flags, I guess - look here: http://www.linux1394.org/

I followed the instructions, but no success :( I downloaded the device drivers successfully, but was unable to download the Capdvhs software. I was able to download the DCTrecord software however. Question 1: Do I need both Capdvhs and DCTrecord software? I plugged in the 1394 cable and the "Found new hardware wizard" came up. I saw that "Tuner AV/C Device" was the hardware that was found.
Then I chose "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)"
I clicked "Next", then chose "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install." I clicked "Next", then I saw a list of Manufacturers. I clicked Motorola, but did not see my DVR device listed.

I tried again and somehow ended up browsing the C:\ for the driver "meidvhs". So I installed the driver and received an "Installation Complete" message. However, I am trying to use the Avid Free DV software and I get a message that "No input device found". Avid is not picking up my DVR. The DVR that I have is DCT6412.

Question 2: How can I uninstall the "meidvhs" driver, so that I can try something else? What other suggestions do you have?

T2k, thanks for the response, but as I said in my post, I'm using XP and not Linux. If you meant there's some general info on that site, could you point me towards it? I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

The instructions didn't work for me. Any advice for someone who has a Motorola DVR, instead of a Panasonic?

Thanks.

Originally posted by msj3s
The instructions didn't work for me. Any advice for someone who has a Motorola DVR, instead of a Panasonic?

Thanks.

You need to choose Panasonic not Motorola.

I found somewhere some drivers which were specifically for the motorola are they newer/older than what is posted here?

edit: I believe they were from here: http://forums.freytechnologies.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1950

I have zipped these up and included them along with a modified mstape.sys file which has been hex edited as per the instructions with Firewire STB channel changer V1.01, by timmmoore.

DisabledTrucker. Wow, great find! Thanks very much! These drivers seem to work much better for firewire capture than the Panasonic ones when using the Motorola DCT6412 as the device you are capturing from.

I updated my web page (in signature below) with instructions specifically for DCT6412 with these Motorola drivers.

Has anyone been able to get MCE to work with this process? That is, have MCE see the firewire connected box as a tuner, and use it as such?

How about a slightly different model usage model:

I am considering the purchase of a Mitsubishi digital cable ready DLP or the equivalent RCA unit. Both of these appear to be able to record digital content to an external AV HDD such as RCA's HD2160 via FireWire. Does anyone know of any drivers/software for WinXP that allows it to appear to the DCR HDTV as an AV HDD when connected via FireWire?

Couple of quick questions...

I know they are posted in here somewhere...

I sold my wonderful baby, my Panasonic 45lc13, and now would like to know if there is someone way for me to watch HD on my computer and I have a few questions.

Yes, I am successful in recording HD content off of the live HD channels to my computer's harddrive. But how do I get the HD content that is already on my harddrive. Please help me.

Can someone direct me to instructions on:


How to get the recorded content (Spiderman the Movie HD, Rockets/Wolves game, etc) off of my Motoroloa 6208?

Also, how to I stream (ie watch stuff real time) via the firewire port?

Originally posted by moyekj
DisabledTrucker. Wow, great find! Thanks very much! These drivers seem to work much better for firewire capture than the Panasonic ones when using the Motorola DCT6412 as the device you are capturing from.

I updated my web page (in signature below) with instructions specifically for DCT6412 with these Motorola drivers.

Have to credit Freytechnologies and Timmore for their work, all I did was edit the one file and package all of them together. When you install these and use Timmore's channel app, it will allow you to change channels while your viewing this. So far, I have only gotten this to work while using graphedit to view the channels and some HD channels refuse to show when you change the channel to them, unless you turn off the graphedit first then change the channel then restart graphedit. Hopefully someone can make an app which can fuse all of these into one unit where we can at least watch the tv and change the channels from the tuner, recording capabilities would be considered a plus. I know Sage has been working on a front end, but I would rather have something like PowerDVD with tuner capabilities for firewire controlled STB's.

Also, from what I understand Timmore's drivers were specifically designed to work with MCE 2k5 and the rest of his package is more geared for it. You'll need the channel.exe file and his instructions which are included in his app. See Timmoore's Post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5493518#post5493518) a few pages back on where to get it from pressthegreenbutton.com. This does work just fine with XPSP2 not sure about other versions. Also, I have RyanVM's (RyanVM.msfn.org) update pack preinstalled with my SP2 installation if that makes any difference too, as it includes most all of the updates that M$ has released including some that you have to email them to obtain.

The mstapeo file in the package is what allows avc panel device to change channels, which I notice in your instructions that you left out and kept the file in your repackaged files. You may want to make note of that as well. You do need channel.exe from Timmore's package to get it to work though.

Originally posted by DisabledTrucker
The mstapeo file in the package is what allows avc panel device to change channels, which I notice in your instructions that you left out and kept the file in your repackaged files. You may want to make note of that as well. You do need channel.exe from Timmore's package to get it to work though. Yeah I haven't mentioned anything about channel changing capabilities in that web page. The intent of that page is to describe how to capture from the 6412 and then convert the captured transport stream to a DVD-compatible mpeg2 (and burn to a DVD if desired). With the Panasonic drivers I had a lot of trouble with the handshaking between the 6412 and Win XP as well as a lot of blue screens during capture. Don't know if it was just coincidence and it may be too early to know for sure but these Motorola-tailored drivers seem to work better for me so far, so thanks for digging them up and posting here. I haven't tried the channel-changing capabilities yet. The 6412/Passport DVR solution is fairly decent and working well for me so I'm happy using it's scheduling facilities for recordings, so while channel changing capabilities via firewire is interesting I really don't see much advantage to using it over the built-in solution. Certainly for a non-DVR Motorola box like the 6200 or 5100 I could see this being very useful.

First of all thank you to moyekj the directions were excellent. Two questions however.

1. I am unable to record anything off Discovery HD, INHD 1 or 2, ESPN HD, HBO HD AND SD, and STARZ, I checked and the 5c is set at 1 for all these channels did i do something wrong or am I just not able to pull anything from these channels ( or are do they change the 5c based on the program I've only been playing with this for an hour so i've basically been trying the same programs)

2. Should I redo the install and use DisabledTruckers drivers I used the drivers from moyekj's site on my 6412 firmware 9.15 into my windows XP SP2 box, are there any differences for regular recording.


Thanks,

Originally posted by holthaus
this is a 6208 box....I have firewire on the motherboard (asus) and it works. Well, until I put SP2 on the system, I just manually whacked that last week to get the drivers for firewire back to the sp1 version.

It does not like the drivers at all...any suggestions....I am driver king at work (I deal with a 4 way cpu, with several RAID cards and such) drivers are not new, but this is killing me.

Should I get SP2 back on and do some other update for the firewire?

Help, got to off load the NCAA games to the PC....

Go Cards!

Hotlaus... AWEESSSOME you are a cards fan, do you reside in Louisville, or out of state (I am in the land of the true Blue-Devils, not Duke, but Lexington) and I would like to get ahold of the HD NCAA games. I recorded the first half of WVU miracle massecre, but would like to get the other games as well. can you e-mail me or something phendersonatanimedashemporiumdotdyndnsdotorg

My old insight 6408 got fried somehow (kept blinking and reloading software) so I lost all of my HD content when I got a new one from insight.

Originally posted by NFDffmedic
First of all thank you to moyekj the directions were excellent. Two questions however.

1. I am unable to record anything off Discovery HD, INHD 1 or 2, ESPN HD, HBO HD AND SD, and STARZ, I checked and the 5c is set at 1 for all these channels did i do something wrong or am I just not able to pull anything from these channels ( or are do they change the 5c based on the program I've only been playing with this for an hour so i've basically been trying the same programs)

2. Should I redo the install and use DisabledTruckers drivers I used the drivers from moyekj's site on my 6412 firmware 9.15 into my windows XP SP2 box, are there any differences for regular recording.


Thanks,

I do believe that means all of your stuff is encrypted. I could be wrong. I am unable to even get a signal from ESPN via VLC, so I am assuming that it is encrypted. Yet my CBS, FOX, HDNET, HDMOVIES, HD Discovery channels all come in fine and I can record from them as well.

Originally posted by NFDffmedic
First of all thank you to moyekj the directions were excellent. Two questions however.

1. I am unable to record anything off Discovery HD, INHD 1 or 2, ESPN HD, HBO HD AND SD, and STARZ, I checked and the 5c is set at 1 for all these channels did i do something wrong or am I just not able to pull anything from these channels ( or are do they change the 5c based on the program I've only been playing with this for an hour so i've basically been trying the same programs)

2. Should I redo the install and use DisabledTruckers drivers I used the drivers from moyekj's site on my 6412 firmware 9.15 into my windows XP SP2 box, are there any differences for regular recording.


Thanks, Thanks NFDffmedic. 5C=1 channels cannot be captured using this Win XP solution. Any channel with 5C=0 can be captured without problems. If you search this thread there was a claim that a potential workaround to the problem is first capture a little sample of a non-protected channel (5C=0) and then change channels to the protected channel and then try capturing it. I haven't tried that workaround as everything I have tried to capture so far has been unprotected (5C=0).

As far as switching to the Motorola drivers or keeping the Panasonic ones I'd say if Panasonic ones are working well for you then don't bother switching. I had a lot of trouble using the Panasonic ones and switching over to Motorola ones seems to have cured a lot of the trouble, though it may still be too early to know for sure.

I to had problems with the Panasonic drivers, ie, my capture devices was not working at all. I basically "updated" the drives to the Motorola ones, and voila, my capturing and subsequent viewing, worked just fine.

I did try what you suggested, moyekj, infact I tried it on accident last night, but I did not try capturing the protected channel, just viewing it. It irks me, because I am a serious College Football and Basketball fan, and I want to be able to archive some games.

I had the ESPN HD broadcast of the Louisville vs Miami Football game, on my 6208\6408 PVR's Harddrive forever, and then had to delete it after a while because I needed the space. Same for the NCAA UW vs Louisville tourney game.

OK...found this guide, it was great...everything seemed to go smooth...just a qucik question from those who have gotten this to work...I'm getting no audio, but was wondering when you start the capture program, the video info (left side) of the screen has info. I'm assuming the right side is audio..and those boxes are blank...is this how it is supposed to look...I'll read around and look for more if I can verify that the program is reading the stream right

CapDVHS works great, but during capture the data info page says:
Size 720X480
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Frame Rate 29.97
Bit Rate 8.5 Mbps

all other fields are blank.

is this right? Guessing it's a codec problem, but don't want to go on a wild goose chase if the other fields are supposed to be populated

ace, use Media Player Classic for playback to see if you really have a problem or just a missing codec - it has the built-in codecs needed for audio.

B.T.W. Last night trying a capture I had handshaking and blue screen problems using Motorola drivers too, so I don't think they really do work any better than the Panasonic ones for me after all...

I finally found that starting a short capture of an SD channel first and then moving on to the HD channel capture seems to reduce chances of things going wrong when initiating capture and blue screening during capture. Also, it's vital that I turn off the wireless client and disable all networking activity while capturing or it will likely blue screen. Even just closing the lid on the laptop was enough to cause blue screen, so my guess is my 2.8GHz P4 laptop has barely enough umph for capturing HD.

Does anyone know what is the latest firmware for the Motorola 6208 ? I am having trouble getting my 1394 (firewire) ports enabled and Comcast isn't sure why it isn't working or how to fix it.

I have been using the Motorola package I posted earlier and have had not one problem with being able to view any of the channels from my 6412, digital or otherwise, with the channel.exe I can even control the unit which is in the neighboring room from my P.C. I have been only using graphedit to view them with thus far and it seems to work just fine. I'll post it below in case anyone want's to use it, you MUST have the NVDVD player installed for this to work, I also use PowerDVD audio codec and it's going to my Audigy2 card for output. It should at least give those struggling an idea of what to do to view the content. There isn't much I care to record from it, though I would like to be able to get something working soon which will allow me to do it all. Much of this information is readily available on here, but if you have the NVDVD and PowerDVD installed and as well as the drivers I posted above along with an Audigy2 card, then you'll be all set to watch, at least, using graphedit. If you also use the channel.exe you can change the channels just fine using it in a command window and not even have to use the remote as it's done through the firewire cable. Channel changes are somewhat slow thus far, but at least they do work.

As far as capturing HD, I do fine with my AMD XP-3200 @ 2.2Ghz w/1GB PC3200 memory, onto my SATA drives using my DVico card, although I have yet to try it through the STB. Though it doesn't like to start up all that fast when using timeshifting, it does work and rather well I might add. Then again, I'm not trying this on a laptop either. Which those of you who are, I would say a lot of your problems lies in where Windows idles down the processor after a certain length of time to conserve battery life or whatever. You should check your settings in your control panel under power to assure that your not allowing your laptop to idle down while your attempting to record something. It may be enough for your idling processor to record Analog just fine but when you get into the HD arena it's a whole new ballgame and it takes every bit of energy your pc can muster to handle the bandwidth, let alone a laptop.

Is there anyway to trick it so it thinks its a Capture device like the PVR250? That way I could use this with BeyondTV.

If not how of some of you without a pvr solution like MCE used this software? I see I can use the channel change feature through firewire with girder. It would be nice if it was an actuall girder plugin but passing the commands to the EXE should work just fine.

How are you guys scheduling recordings to take advantage of this new input?

2 Quick questions...

Is this supposed to grab the channel guide info too? My video caps fine but no channel info is captured with the recording.

The other capture software works perfectly but when I try to use VLC I get green squares everywhere and jumpy video. Any easy tweeks for this?

Box
DCT6200

Installed motorola6212v2 drivers from the post above but picked the DCT6200 driver from the driver list during the install.

The motorolla6412v2.zip file doesn't contain any drivers only the graph file I use to view the content from my STB on my pc. The dvhs_drivers.zip from a previous post is the one which contains the updated drivers.

The DCT-6200 is what you should have chosen if you have that model, you have to check and see which one your box actually is for it to work.

As far as using the drivers with any other programs, I have thus far been unsuccessful in using it with any other software, I am going to load up SageTV again and see if I can get it working through it, but I have yet to try this method with it, there are others at the SageTV forums whom apparently have had it to work and, of course, those who haven't. I believe it's still in development and is still hit or miss, but I also believe that the ones whom are having problems with these drivers, it's because they aren't specifically for their make/model of STB, try using the ones listed at the beginning of this thread which include the older Panasonic versions. All you have to do is take the meistb.inf file from the older version and use it with the rest in the above DVHS_Drivers.zip file as that I believe is all that is different in the two versions, it really shouldn't matter which pack you use. The only other difference in the two is the older one doesn't have the mstapeo.sys file which was mentioned above needs to be modified for the channel changing to work. I used XP SP-2 Pro and modified it's file for use on that, so I cannot verify if it works with Home/MCE/etc. I would venture to say whatever works on XP SP-2 Pro will work on most other XP SP-2 versions with the exception of MCE 2k5, which M$ reworked to allow for ATSC reception, even MCE 2k4 with SP-2 should work with it, but I will not guarantee it on any of them.

FWIW, I can tune/view any channel, using the setup I mentioned above, that my STB can switch to, including analog. The only channels I have yet to figure out if they will work or not, are the On Demand channels/recordings I made which require up/down/left/right/ok commands to navigate. Though, if I go and tune them with the STB remote, I can view those channels/recordings on the pc.

*Please forgive me if these questions have already been asked* I've read through about 15 pages, but having to read through 62 is a little much.

Ok, so here's are my questions:

1) I currently have around 10 episodes of a TV show already recorded onto my DVR. I am wondering if it is possible to pull down these episodes onto my computer.

2) If I am recording something straight to my computer, what is the default location for where the recorded program goes?

3) After recording a show, what program do I need to use to either watch the recordings, or convert them into MPEG2?

Thanks.

Karnaught

1) You have to playback each one in real time from the DVR and record each one to a separate file. Once the drivers are installed and working you use the CapDVHS.exe program to capture from the firewire connection. For 10 different shows this means 10 captures to different file names and you can't use transport functions (pause, ff, rew etc) while capturing or that will screw up the recording (audio/video sync problems).
2) The CapDVHS.exe program let's you specify a file name for each capture so you can record them to any folder you want on your PC.
3) Media Player Classic, Zoomplayer, VideoLAN VLC and several others can playback the mpeg2 transport streams you captured to files.

Originally posted by moyekj
<snip> If you search this thread there was a claim that a potential workaround to the problem is first capture a little sample of a non-protected channel (5C=0) and then change channels to the protected channel and then try capturing it. I haven't tried that workaround as everything I have tried to capture so far has been unprotected (5C=0).<snip> I don't know if I suggested this workaround here, but I have posted the concept somewhere ;) I never attempted to actually implement it, because it would require continuous switching (every minute or so) between a channel in the clear and the desired 5c channel. (The encryption starts after 1-3 minutes, in my experience.) This would require two STBs, IR blaster control of both STBs, and two virtual D-VHS capture devices with communication between them to coordinate the duty cyle and finally a "timestamp" file to re-assemble the mess! I decided to go the 169time route instead and I'll have that up and running soon.

Also, I think this method may be dated. Actually, all but the Pay per views have been 5c=0 lately where I live but, unfortunately, they just reorganized InHD-1 and InHD-2. InHD-1 contains mostly worthless crap (at least to me) and poker games and InHD-2 contains all the programming I'm interested in recording/watching. Unfortunately, they turned 5c on for InHD-2 only. (InHD-1 is still in the clear.) Given the reorganization of the content (crap on InHD-1 / good stuff on InHD2) and the coincident enabling of 5c on InHD-2, I'm certain this was deliberate. The method I described above would not work either--there's no delay after switching channels any longer :( Oh well, my $80 / month special has almost expired and my C-band dish is up!

I'll also report that I now have both an HTPC and a Mac mini performing virtual D-VHS duties. The mini has plenty of power for recording, but can only playback through my JVC 30000 DVHS deck (not enough power for soft playback). Recording doesn't take much performance. In fact I can even record across my network with the Mac and play the file with VLC on the HTPC machine (timeshift it) while the Mac is still recording it!

In a nutshell, the virtual D-VHS tools that are available in the Apple firewire SDK contain the best features of DCTRecord, CapDVHS, and DVHSTool. The iCal scripts available elsewhere are the most convenient way to schedule firewire recordings that I've found to date. For anyone looking for a way to control the record function of their JVC DVHS deck from a non-AV/C device (like that damn moto 680x STB!) the Mac proggy could provide the AV/C commands to the deck through iCal and scripts too, though I haven't written them yet. Although I've found the Mac mini to be no more stable, overall, than a modern Windows XP machine (they're about the same--sorry Mac zealots ;)), the virtual DVHS proggy on the Mac does offer more stability than I've ever experienced with the equivalent Windows aps. In fact, it's possible to use the low power modes (sleep, monitor blanking, and disk drive sleep) and still have iCal successfully wake the machine up at the required times! I've found that other strange things sometimes happen when I enable the low power modes, but I've never lost a recording. Maybe it's an interaction with the Synergy mouse/keyboard sharing program that I'm using (I have a dual-torso'ed monster--two computers, one keyboard/mouse, and one DLP!)

My 02.!

Cal

Has anyone tried this out with the new WinXP x64? I was wondering if there were 64-bit drivers out there somewhere for this.

Thanks,

Frank

Originally posted by moyekj
1) You have to playback each one in real time from the DVR and record each one to a separate file. Once the drivers are installed and working you use the CapDVHS.exe program to capture from the firewire connection. For 10 different shows this means 10 captures to different file names and you can't use transport functions (pause, ff, rew etc) while capturing or that will screw up the recording (audio/video sync problems).
2) The CapDVHS.exe program let's you specify a file name for each capture so you can record them to any folder you want on your PC.
3) Media Player Classic, Zoomplayer, VideoLAN VLC and several others can playback the mpeg2 transport streams you captured to files.

You are the best person ever... it works great! :) Except now I'm mad at myself for deleting so many of the episodes that I could have just copied over! :(

Now just a couple more questions and I'll be set...

1) Is there a program, or something that I can use to compress the file and it still be watchable... right now, an hour-long episode will take up a little over 2GB of space! I've dowloaded a different episode of the show off the internet and it is only around 700mb, is there anything I can do about this?

2) Also, what program could I use to convert the file so I could watch it on my DVD player after I burn it to a DVD?

Thanks again.

Karnaught

Originally posted by Karnaught

1) Is there a program, or something that I can use to compress the file and it still be watchable... right now, an hour-long episode will take up a little over 2GB of space! I've dowloaded a different episode of the show off the internet and it is only around 700mb, is there anything I can do about this?

2) Also, what program could I use to convert the file so I could watch it on my DVD player after I burn it to a DVD?

1) The internet files you are downloading are most likely MPEG4/AVI files which have more efficient compression compared to MPEG2 transport streams that you are extracting from the DVR - hence part of the reason for the much smaller file sizes. There are several flows for converting MPEG2 -> MPEG4 if you do an internet search.
2) I've got a pretty well documented flow in my sig link below for converting HD captures to DVD-compatible mpeg2.

Hi all,
Hoping someone can help me. I've got an SA3250HD and I grabbed the dvhs_drivers.zip from DisabledTrucker's post on page 61 of this thread as I would like to use Timmoore's firewire channel changing application. Now for my issue... I uninstalled the older Panasonic drivers, rebooted and for the AV/C Tuner, I can select the listed driver for the SA3250HD in this zip file without a hitch. However, for the AV/C Panel device, there is no corresponding driver. I was able to successfuly select the Motorola 6200 Panel driver, however, this does not work with timmoore's application. Has anyone had luck using the firewire channel changing app with the SA3250HD? Oh, and just an FYI,I'm able to capture without a hitch using capdvhs.

When using the drivers from the first page I get no video or audio when capturing in CapDVHS (same for vlc), and also the data info tab doesnt display any info. It looks like something is being recorded since the files increase in size.

ANy experienced this or know how to fix it? Any help is appreciated

When using the drivers on page 61, I get a "Windows cannot start this hardware message".

Im also using xp with sp2.

Thank you

I'm having a bit of problem getting this to work on HD channels...

I finally got the cable company to get me a box with firewire (SA3250HD), and I've installed the drivers as specified. If I use video-on-demand or tune to any digital channel, I can use capdvhs or dctrecord to record the video and play it back in vlc or whatever no problem. However, if I try to tune any of the hdtv channels (DISCHD, SHOHD, FOXHD, NBCHD, ABCHD), I can only record garbage. If I open it up in vlc I can see a garbled mess with some valid video mixed in, along with sound that has lots of silence, warbles, and pops but almost no sound from the actual show. All of this leads me to believe that it's a bandwidth issue (the pc isn't keeping up with the hd stream but can keep up with the slower digital streams), but 2-3MB/s isn't enough to stress my computer or my HD. I tried using the firewire cable (gold-plated 6' GeekSquad) in both my audigy card (in the PCI card itself and in the expansion panel in front) and in an add-on pci firewire card i bought to see if the audigy was the problem. I've tried resetting the box (both normally and holding down the power button while plugging it back in) and the computer, and both at the same time, and still no luck. I dont know if this matters, but I tried going to the 1394 diagnostic page (the box is running SARA) and it says Unavailable in every entry most of the time (sometimes it has data in some of the top-left fields (copy-freely) but most of the time it says unavailable--i haven't found a pattern for this yet)

Has anyone else had similar bandwidth issue or anything else similar to this, or just have any ideas on what could be going wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks.


Here are some specs:
P4 2.26Ghz w/ 1GB ram
recording to 240GB raid stripe array
Windows XP Pro SP1
Using the meidvhs drivers

Followed the instructions/used software in http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html (Thanks Kevin!) and it's working great - can view live and record HD and standard channels. Very sweet!

64-Bit driver anyone? :confused:

Frank

Originally posted by ghostlobster
Hi all,
Hoping someone can help me. I've got an SA3250HD and I grabbed the dvhs_drivers.zip from DisabledTrucker's post on page 61 of this thread as I would like to use Timmoore's firewire channel changing application. Now for my issue... I uninstalled the older Panasonic drivers, rebooted and for the AV/C Tuner, I can select the listed driver for the SA3250HD in this zip file without a hitch. However, for the AV/C Panel device, there is no corresponding driver. I was able to successfuly select the Motorola 6200 Panel driver, however, this does not work with timmoore's application. Has anyone had luck using the firewire channel changing app with the SA3250HD? Oh, and just an FYI,I'm able to capture without a hitch using capdvhs.

Anyone???

Great info, thanks for the guides Kevin.
Wondering if it would be helpful if someone posted suggestions on how BEST to play back the recorded HD and SD material on the PC?

I've tried Media Player Classic, VLC, Zoomplayer.

Zoomplayer with the NVidia decoders looks great, and if very flexible, but also very confusing with splitters, joiners, filers, profiles, etc.

The Nvidia filters seemed to deinterlace better, but I'm not sure its setup correct and I needed to use HDTVtoMpeg to convert the files or they dont play.

It would be helpful to see a post or guide suggesting what filters and splitters to use for best PC playback of HD, SD analog, or SD digital, and how to set it up?

can i get a quick primer for someone runniing MCE2005?

1) despite having a tuner card, can MCE2005 simply be told on install to look for an STB and it will find it via the firewire port "instead" of the tuner card?

2) alternately, do you tell it you have a digital TV tuner in addition to the tuner card, and it will find the firewire as the digital tuner?

the MCE2005 seems to require the analog tuner card be present, but i would prefer to use my STB as the primary (normally numbered) channels, if possible? i'd also like the convenience of the EPG being accurate "out-of-the-box" using the assigned channels for the HD channels.

Kevin, Great article!
It is good to see someone improve upon my work. Honestly since I bought a HDTivo over a year ago I have spent very little time on this, and I appreciate you picking up where I left off. I also appreciate you helping others out on this thread. I would link to your article from my first post, but I think a moderator would remove it.

Originally posted by JackLT
Great info, thanks for the guides Kevin.
Wondering if it would be helpful if someone posted suggestions on how BEST to play back the recorded HD and SD material on the PC?

I've tried Media Player Classic, VLC, Zoomplayer.

Zoomplayer with the NVidia decoders looks great, and if very flexible, but also very confusing with splitters, joiners, filers, profiles, etc.

The Nvidia filters seemed to deinterlace better, but I'm not sure its setup correct and I needed to use HDTVtoMpeg to convert the files or they dont play.

It would be helpful to see a post or guide suggesting what filters and splitters to use for best PC playback of HD, SD analog, or SD digital, and how to set it up?

I'm using TheaterTek 2 and MyHD to playback TS files. Both work great with no hassles.