Recording to PC from a SA 8300HD via Firewire [Text View]

HDTVFanAtic

10-19-05, 02:16 AM

I have searched the excellent thread bdraw started for installing Windows Drivers to record on your PC from a cable STB via Firewire for details on connecting up a Scientific Atlanta SA8300HD to your PC via Firewire.

I assure you that I am no newbie to this as the thread was originally written at my request on another site to summarize the 35 pages of postings of trials and errors that were here at the time where people were experimenting how to accomplish this task in an easy step by step method.

Several posts note they are not able to get a SA8300HD to work via the methods listed but other posters state the firewire was not active on the SA8300HD at the time these posts were made (last February).

I switched out one of my Firewire Equiped SA 3250HD as the newer SA8300HD models with active firewire arrived at my MSO. Though they are still clearing out the remaining old discontinued 8300HD models with no IEEE 1394 ports, the new ones clearly have them activated as required by law.

I have confirmed this by looking at the IEEE1394 driver located in the SA 8300HD Diagnostic Screens.

I have also confirmed the output to a DVHS via Firewire.

When I plug in the unit via firewire to a computer with Windows XP, I get the typical unidentified devices x2 and then 2 Tuner AV/C Devices. I can only assume there are 2 because the SA8300HD has 2 tuners in it and it is seeing both of them.

I installed the drivers we have all used for BOTH of the tuners. The Device Manager shows them under Imaging Devices and Windows seems happy with them.

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/3425/devicemanager3lk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Windows XP Clearly knows this is a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD.

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/2831/devicemanager24fp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

But when you start CapVHS, it's the dreaded Cannot Find Capture Device.

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/170/cannotfinddevice3ca.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I have fooled around with this for several hours, installing and reinstalling drivers over and over.

I have plugged the SA3250HD back in and I have seen that work. It captures off the same IEEE1394 cable and port - so I know the cable and the Computer side IEEE 1394 is not the issue.

As Windows knows this is a SA8300HD, its clear the connection is there and working - just finding the right device drivers seems to be the issue.

Has anyone had any success installing drivers that allow the SA8300HD to work with a PC in Windows XP?

I hate to go the Firebus route, but will if this is the only way.

If there is a thread about the 8300HD and this poblem, my apology - but as has been noted and documented in the appropriate forum to David, the search feature is missing many keyword posts since the avs forum software ws update 6 months ago. I cannot find a thread where this has been discussed in detail or a workaround has been found.

If one has, please have a moderator merge this post to that thread. I would also suggest they put a link in the 8300HD topics to that thread.

Thanks

DoubleDAZ

10-22-05, 07:32 PM

Part of the problem is that you are posting the same or similar questions in so many threads that it is hard to keep up. :)

My opinion is that this should be the thread to discuss this issue and the thread link should be added to the Master 8300 list. The few posts in the 8300 Tips & Tricks thread should be moved here and perhaps you would be so kind as to kind of keep a running summary in your first post. I will PM Mark and see if we can't get tha done. In the meantime I will post the suggestion in the Tips thread to move the discussion to this thread.

EDIT: Mark add this thread to the Master 8300 list, so hopefully folks will move any furher discussion here. I will also monitor this thread so that I can add any tips to the first post in the Tips & Tricks thread. Hopefully, this will work a little better than burying the info in that thread.

DoubleDAZ

10-22-05, 08:04 PM

I should add that part of your troubles could be because 1394 is not yet officially supported on the 8300 even though the post may be active. That may be why you can't find an appropriate/usable driver and why the 3250 driver doesn't work right either.

HDTVFanAtic

10-22-05, 08:13 PM

Unfortunately there are 8300 threads all over the HDTV Hardware and Recorders threads - so I agree with you - it's hard to figure where to actually put the info without crossposting.

On a Side Note, the SA3250HD does work exactly as its suppose to with the drivers.

One would think the SA8300HD would do the same.

HDTVFanAtic

10-22-05, 08:20 PM

Let me give everyone an update on this after much more experimentation.

One of my setups consists of a Sony KV-34XBR960 with full firewire and cablecard, an SA8300HD and a Mitsubishi 2000 DVHS.

I can see the 8300 and its output via firewire full screen on the Sony - so it is clearly sending an output - live and off the hard drive.

I can record to the DVHS via the SA3250HD. I have checked the Diagnostics page on the 3250HD and it seems the flags are set the same as they are on the SA8300HD.

However, when I try to record to the DVHS from the 8300HD, it goes for 30 seconds and then stops giving me a CP flashing LED (Copy Protection I would assume).

Even on the OTA Channels that are set to "free" for 5c this happens.

Again, all OTA Channels and Premium Encrypted Channels with 5c work recorded from the SA3250, but fail with CP from the SA8300HD.

I have even tried to move a program from the 8300 to the DVHS as it allows you to do from the menu - but of course it fails there as well - and the 8300HD Menu only seems to want you to move the program to a SVHS recorder????? When the specs should allow you to move it off to the DVHS and wipe it from the SA8300 Hard Drive at the same time with a copy never flag on the DVHS copy of that point.

Has anyone gotten the SA8300HD to work with a DVHS recorder yet?

If you want to save a program more than just a typical time shift, this is the only way to do it and it doesn't seem to be working.

dc10forlife

11-22-05, 11:52 AM

This is a good summary of the problems I am having witht he 8300HD and firewire recording. I've got Passport 1.8.112. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by KermitZ
It took a while for me to get through this string, but I didn't see anything related to the problem I am having, so I hope someone out there can help.
I recently got the 8300HD from Time Warner and love it, so much so that I am now at a point that I have to erase programs to be able to save a new one. I can't use the external drive option mentioned in another string since this is a Passport box, so I wanted to offload the programs to my PC using the process provided here. I have the drivers loaded, start playing a non-5C program, and start recording. Generally, the CapDVHS program will close almost as soon as it is started, but once I was able to capture about 2 minutes of video. I converted it to DVD format, played in on my software player, and it looked great....both minutes.
Now I really want to make this work. One thing that is consistent is that my 8300HD will reboot within 2 minutes of starting the CapDVHS program (even if the program closes immediately)…happens every time. I’ve tried different 1394 cables; I have tried the driver recommended in this string, as well as the Timmmore drivers....same results.
I am running XP Professional SP2 (I tried the patch that was mentioned for SP2, didn't help) with NTFS file system to a 250 GB HD (fresh format), P4 3400 processor, 2 GB ram. I even tried a complete format and reinstall of the operating system and software, but I still have the same issues.
Has anyone been able to get this to work with the 8300HD?

dc10forlife

11-22-05, 12:03 PM

On another note I remember reading that aporter had firewire recording working to a computer using 1.8.111. Anyone out there have any success?

lorenzo1

11-24-05, 12:06 PM

I am fairly new to this but I have been going thru the same things most of you have with the sa8300. Using capdvhs it works for a few seconds then crashes then the sa8300 reboots. I've gone so far as to buy a media center pc and I've had a little sucess recording non 5c channels but after I stop recording the sa8300 will reboot. Now I've only tried this with shows I've already recorded and not with live tv and I should mention I have passport on my sa8300 as well. I'm almost convinced it's a problem with the sa8300, but again I'm no expert.

sierrabob

11-26-05, 08:43 AM

I am definitely shooting from the hip here, as I don't own the SA8300HD. However, these problems seem very similar to the PC recordings problems I have had with CAPDVHS and a 169Time Dish 6000/AVX1 satellite receiver. If you can successfully transfer valid .ts files from DVHS to PC but not SA8300HD to PC then this would indicate that you have the same XP SP2 firewire problems that have plagued other systems. You could further confirm this by installing DVHSTool and trying the Restore function: if files show zero bytes when connected to the 8300HD but build normally when connected to your DVHS, then the firewire handshake just isn't occurring properly. This is likely not a fault with the cable box, but rather a fault in the Windows XP SP2 upgrade which inhibits correct handling of some but not all firewire devices. One suggested fix for this known problem has been a patch (available on several different websites) which rolls back the IEEE1394 drivers to the SP1 configuration. However, this failed to remedy the problem in four different computers that I've worked with.

Not until I removed XP SP2 entirely and re-installed XP with SP1 only could I restore full functionality of CAPDVHS and DVHSTool

This may seem like a drastic cure, but if you have the time, software, and willingness, I would strongly suggest this troubleshooting step. Both CAPDVHS and DVHSTOOL freeware programs were written before SP2, so future compatibility is definitely not assured.

Again this is just a wild suggestion since I use satellite, not cable, but it has solved the problems for me on four different computers.

Bob

dc10forlife

11-28-05, 01:15 AM

Tried rolling back the 1394 drivers with no luck -- same thing happens. I did not go as far as doing a full reinstall. I am still recording on the 3250HD via firewire with no problems.

Randall Morton

11-29-05, 05:04 PM

HDTVFanAtic

11-30-05, 01:24 AM

I tried recording a file to my computer about a month ago just to see if I could. I recorded about 5 minutes and had no problem(SA8300). It played back fine. Also I have no problem going directly to DVHS. I have the SARA version and also am using an external HD. I have no need to record directly to the computer and I was just curious if I could. I think the problem is with the service provider not the box.

Can you list the driver versions you have in your SA8300 Randall? It would be appreciated as a good starting point.

I am definitely shooting from the hip here, as I don't own the SA8300HD. However, these problems seem very similar to the PC recordings problems I have had with CAPDVHS and a 169Time Dish 6000/AVX1 satellite receiver. If you can successfully transfer valid .ts files from DVHS to PC but not SA8300HD to PC then this would indicate that you have the same XP SP2 firewire problems that have plagued other systems. You could further confirm this by installing DVHSTool and trying the Restore function: if files show zero bytes when connected to the 8300HD but build normally when connected to your DVHS, then the firewire handshake just isn't occurring properly. This is likely not a fault with the cable box, but rather a fault in the Windows XP SP2 upgrade which inhibits correct handling of some but not all firewire devices. One suggested fix for this known problem has been a patch (available on several different websites) which rolls back the IEEE1394 drivers to the SP1 configuration. However, this failed to remedy the problem in four different computers that I've worked with.

Not until I removed XP SP2 entirely and re-installed XP with SP1 only could I restore full functionality of CAPDVHS and DVHSTool

This may seem like a drastic cure, but if you have the time, software, and willingness, I would strongly suggest this troubleshooting step. Both CAPDVHS and DVHSTOOL freeware programs were written before SP2, so future compatibility is definitely not assured.

Again this is just a wild suggestion since I use satellite, not cable, but it has solved the problems for me on four different computers.

Bob

Thanks for the suggestion. It might work for some others, but in my case, the firewire driver isn't the cause of the issue as I can record from a SA3250HD with no problem - while the SA8300 clearly has an issue using the same path.

Randall Morton

11-30-05, 03:02 AM

SARA 1.87.23.1

I don't know if this will help but I have built a new computer using an AMD DFI Lanparty board and I tried for a bit tonight to set it up for recording. I was having trouble with the VIA OCHI ieee 1394 interface. I could not get it to recognize the 8300. I have no problem on my Intel motherboard. On the AMD I get the other devices errors like in your first post. I think this is a BIOS problem. Since I don't normally record to the hard drive this is not a big problem for me. I would like to try my other firewire inputs on back of the motherboard but I don't have a 6pin to 6pin cable. I may try a different motherboard BIOS later and see if it makes any difference.

Randall Morton

11-30-05, 04:07 AM

I just tried recording to the Intel computer that I recorded to about a month ago without problems. I'm getting the same thing you are. It is recognizing 2 turner. I also have the same other devices not working in device manager. It indicates some kind of ieee 1394 problem. I would guess this is probably due to a recent XP upgrade or maybe something has changed in the firmware of the 8300. I haven't tried recording to DVHS in a week or two because I usually just got through the firewire on my Sharp which is more stable when I make recordings. I will try to record a DVHS tape later and see if it is still working.

Randall Morton

11-30-05, 11:46 AM

I just made a couple of test recordings to DVHS over firewire from the 8300. First recording about 10 minutes from HDNet recorded perfectly. Second recording was from 8300 prerecorded program. This was Twilight Zone from last night on INHD, it is playing back now and haven't seen any problem in about 15 minutes of playback.

Although I don't have any use for recording straight to the computer, it bothers me now that I can't do it, especially since I was able to do it before. I may fool around with it some more to see if I can get it to work. I'm not going to reinstall my OS to make it work but I may try a different chipset BIOS on my DFI board.

Randall Morton

12-03-05, 03:46 AM

I played around with this some more on the 8300 tonight without much success. I used the Intel 3.4 Pentium computer as I have too many conflicts with the DFI Athlon.

I was able to get the Panasonic DVHS AVC device loaded. It loaded two of these, I assume because of the dual tuners. You want to make sure you don't load the tuner, it has to say DVHS. I was able to do this on both my computers.

When I would start to record from the 8300, after some time I would get a warning that CapDVHS had encountered an error and would have to be shut down. It would record a partial file sometimes but would not play. Also it kept locking up my 8300. I would have to unplug it and let it reboot to get it working again.

On my Sharp Aquos firewire w/cablecard everything recorded perfectly without problems except for Fox and PBS. It would not recognize these two channels at all. I now wonder if I can record these channels directly to DVHS without problem. I will try later. All the other HD channels I tried recorded flawlessly from the Sharp.
I know I recorded a PBS special a couple of weeks ago to DVHS and it worked ok.

I feel that we don't have much longer before we will not be able to record HD at all. I hope I'm wrong.

dc10forlife

12-07-05, 12:26 PM

Judging by the comments in the 1394/firewire recording thread, recording to DVHS from the 8300HD w/ passport is not functioning on any available Passport 1.8.XXX version. At this point, I would have to wager that the problems are on the firmware end rather than on the drivers/bios/computer end.

I think the only thing we can do is wait for a functioning version of Passport.

CProgrammer

01-06-06, 01:01 AM

I have confirmed this by looking at the IEEE1394 driver located in the SA 8300HD Diagnostic Screens.

Last weekend I picked up a new 8300HD with 1394 ports but have not been successful at getting Windows XP SP2 to recognize them (so most of you guys are getting a lot further along than I am). A while back I reverted to the SP1 1394 drivers and have no trouble recognizing other firewire devices (such as my Sony HDR-FX1 camcorder and Canopus AV to DV converter) on my computer. I have even used CapDVHS with the camcorder to capture HD transport streams.

Although various CSRs at Time Warner in Houston claim that my 1394 ports SHOULD be active, they cannot tell me of any way to know for sure. When you view your diagnostic screens, what is the 1394 driver called, and are you seeing it listed on the "Component Information" screen (that's what it's called under SARA 1.87.16.104)? I also have a "Copy Protection" screen, and I notice that all the entries for 1394 are listed as disabled, but I'm not sure whether that means that the 1394 ports themselves are disabled.

Thanks in advance for any light you (or other members) can shed on this.

HDTVFanAtic

01-07-06, 01:15 AM

I did hear back from the people working on the issue here with SA.

It has been elevated at SA again - whether SA is blowing smoke or not, who knows.

SA originally told the cable companies obviously the Mitsubishi DVHS wasn't compliant. I told them to respond that there are really only Mitsubishi and JVC DVHS units and I have both.

If neither work, show us one that does and that their STBs are compliant.

The local people agree with me and are pressing this.

Atleast I recording Scarface right now from the 3250HD.

It's ridiculous you have to have a cable card, a 8300 and a 3250HD just to get everything to work the way you want it to and look the best it can.

bruizjr

01-18-06, 12:32 PM

I too am having the same problems. Who do I bug to fix this? Anyone successful?

dc10forlife

01-18-06, 01:58 PM

Supposedly firewire (IEEE 1394) should work on passport 2.X.XXX. According to reports on this forum, only select people in San Diego have this newer, perhaps beta, version of passport. Someone reported that firewire was working with that beta version.

Good luck getting TWC to act on this. Firewire is apparently not a priority. We probably would not have firewire on our boxes if it wasn't for the federal regulation. Probably the only thing that would get TWC's attention is a lawsuit.

APorter

01-18-06, 02:53 PM

Just to clarify since my name was mentioned earlier in this thread, I did have the firwire port working on a SA8300HD box through a program built to use with Media Center. This worked for awhile and then all of sudden stopped. I haven't played around with it much since I also have a Fusion Lite card to capture HD off local tv straight to PC.

PNC

01-27-06, 11:04 PM

I have just received an upgraded SA 8300HD (Pioneer s/w) with active firewire, and have been trying to get the PC to be able to view or record MPEG2 streams from the 8300HD digital tuners. I have accessed the 8300HD diganostics pages (channel 611) and confirmed the firewire is active. I have read the various posts in this forum and have installed various drivers as recommended in this forum. The PC sees the 2 SA tuners but I have not managed to get VLC or CapDVHS to do anything other than produce blue screens on the PC and DVR reboots.
Has anyone managed to get a reliable setup with 8300HD and WXP SP2?
What drivers did they use? And if Pioneer s/w, what version?
Thanks !
PS I've since installed a Microsoft Hotfix for firewire with SP2. So far, and it was a failrly short duration experiment, I have no blue screens and no DVR reboots. I will now go back and uninstall and then reinstall (Panasonic DVHS .... drivers?) firewire drivers and check what happens when attempting to run VLC again

jonw

02-01-06, 09:41 AM

I need to try this. I recently got an upgraded 8300 with firewire and SARA 1.87.23.1.

Anyone else get any further with it?

locomo

02-02-06, 05:28 PM

I need to try this. I recently got an upgraded 8300 with firewire and SARA 1.87.23.1.

Anyone else get any further with it?

I haven't tried with a PC but I can record live HD with the above box to D-VHS. I have NOT been able to record a saved program from the SA's hard drive.

PNC

02-02-06, 09:06 PM

I need to try this. I recently got an upgraded 8300 with firewire and SARA 1.87.23.1.

Anyone else get any further with it?

Since my 1/27/06 post I downloaded and installed drivers from the Green Button forum - firewire.zip This is specifically intended to handle the SA8300HD, which I have.

I have the original MCE s/w on my PC with a single ATI analog tuner/capture card. My plan was to initially use the firewire.zip drivers and Cmd application to change channel and try VLC and CapDVHS to view and capture content from DVR. When I use Cmd and do a "channel -v" it shows one Panel device and one Tuner for the SA 8300HD. I am able to change channels (the tuner that is viewed via HDCP on TV). But attempts to use VLC and CapDVHS result in blue screen of death on the PC and the DVR rebooting.

PNC

02-02-06, 09:11 PM

I haven't tried with a PC but I can record live HD with the above box to D-VHS. I have NOT been able to record a saved program from the SA's hard drive.

I know of D-VHS, but do not know any specifics. Wih the D-VHS does it "see" the two tuners of the SA8300HD, or do you see one "current" tuner, whose live TV output is feeding the HDCP?. You can see from my previous 2/2/06 post that I have made some progress with the PC/SA8300HD interface, but am still not able to view or record anything on the PC

hawkeye3.1

02-04-06, 10:10 AM

I haven't tried with a PC but I can record live HD with the above box to D-VHS. I have NOT been able to record a saved program from the SA's hard drive.

I am interested in D-VHS or transfer to PC as a way to archive programs that I have saved to DVR. The second part of the quote has me wondering if this is feasible.

Out of curiosity, has anybody tried the "Copy to VCR" feature. Probably too much to ask that this would direct the DVR stream to the 1394 port in addition to the analog AV outs, but I have not seen this mentioned in any threads I've read on the subject.

Matt_Stevens

02-04-06, 10:45 AM

Rememeber, most cable companies use 5C copy protection, which means no PC will work. Only D-VHS.

JMN322

02-04-06, 12:11 PM

.
It's ridiculous you have to have a cable card, a 8300 and a 3250HD just to get everything to work the way you want it to and look the best it can.

Having just suffered through the whole range of misinformation and ignorance from TWC's CSRs, Techs, and Installers in regards to IEEE1394, I finally perservered and have ended up with the exact same setup you have. But I wholeheartedly agree that it is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS that TWC, because of its ineptitude (IMHO) forces us into this situation.

locomo

02-04-06, 12:43 PM

Out of curiosity, has anybody tried the "Copy to VCR" feature. Probably too much to ask that this would direct the DVR stream to the 1394 port in addition to the analog AV outs, but I have not seen this mentioned in any threads I've read on the subject.

The Copy to VCR is analog only. The firewire outputs the same data as the component and digital coax/optical outputs, i.e. what your currently watching. On my setup, SA83000 to JVC 30k vcr, some channels actually are pretty good, while others have just too many glitches. And i agree with you guys on needing an SA3250. I don't trust the 8300 (on my fourth one).

MatthewR

02-05-06, 11:00 PM

i'm sure when the number of people trying to use this setup is more then 1% of their total subscriber base they will work harder on this issue ;)

HDTVFanAtic

02-06-06, 01:23 AM

i'm sure when the number of people trying to use this setup is more then 1% of their total subscriber base they will work harder on this issue ;)

There will NEVER be more than 1% of their total subscriber base recording to a PC from a 8300 as 1) there are no drivers 2) things will be 5c encrypted to prevent more than 1% from doing it.

PNC

02-06-06, 10:24 AM

There will NEVER be more than 1% of their total subscriber base recording to a PC from a 8300 as 1) there are no drivers 2) things will be 5c encrypted to prevent more than 1% from doing it.

I did download firewire.zip from the green button community
and this does include drivers that have provision for SA 8300HD. I installed these and can change channel on 8300HD, but so far haven't succeeded in retrieving mpeg2 stream from 8300HD using VLC or capDVHS.

HDTVFanAtic

02-06-06, 10:50 AM

I did download firewire.zip from the green button community
and this does include drivers that have provision for SA 8300HD. I installed these and can change channel on 8300HD, but so far haven't succeeded in retrieving mpeg2 stream from 8300HD using VLC or capDVHS.

I should have been more detailed and stated no drivers made by SA or Microsoft for the 8300HD.

PNC

02-06-06, 11:03 AM

I should have been more detailed and stated no drivers made by SA or Microsoft for the 8300HD.

It's all totally frustrating. I wish I had the wherewithall to be able get in there and program stuff .... but I left that all behind years agon when I used to write code for PDP 1145 .... now I have to wait for other better qualified ppl to share the fruits of their labour

chavel

02-06-06, 11:27 PM

Rememeber, most cable companies use 5C copy protection, which means no PC will work. Only D-VHS.

Sounds like it's time to give up. :( I have the Sharp LC45GX6U LCD with a comcast cable card. According to the XP device manager the computer sees the tuner but the CAPDVHS software says no capture device.

BTW how does 5C copy protection know the difference between a DVHS deck and a PC? :confused:

PNC

02-07-06, 05:52 PM

It's all totally frustrating. I wish I had the wherewithall to be able get in there and program stuff .... but I left that all behind years agon when I used to write code for PDP 1145 .... now I have to wait for other better qualified ppl to share the fruits of their labour

I have posted several times in this forum. I guess my fundamental search is for anyone who has been able to successfully record from SA8300HD (Passport Echo 1.8.112 + OS:6.14.43.3841sp) to PC via Firewire.

DigitalfreakNYC

02-15-06, 11:51 PM

Guess I should have checked in this thread before I just posted this. *sigh*

OK guys...major problems here.

I have a SA HD 8300 with PVR.

I hooked it up via firewire. clicked cancel for the unknown and installed the drivers for the other two. then disabled the unknown.

Here's where the problems come in.

If I click "mytray," absolutely nothing happens.

If I click the command prompts and whatknot, I get something similar to what is outlined in the "read" file but it says "no device selected" when i do the channel -v command.

If i try and record in HD through the program, it crashes.

The box also freezes every time I try and record or even have it plugged into my pc.

HELP!

bruizjr

02-24-06, 02:57 AM

Cant wait for the TiVo Series 3...the SA8300HD users group is just too small to figure this one out I think. I'm sure when the Series 3 comes out the users will find out how to get this done. Too bad though.

HDTVFanAtic

02-25-06, 12:19 AM

BTW how does 5C copy protection know the difference between a DVHS deck and a PC? :confused:

simple - it doesnt.

It send the encrypted stream - the PC doesn't decode it and records fubar - the DVHS does know what to do with it and records a viewable program.

Cant wait for the TiVo Series 3...the SA8300HD users group is just too small to figure this one out I think. I'm sure when the Series 3 comes out the users will find out how to get this done. Too bad though.

We know how to do it - right now the settings from the head end will not allow it.

This isn't going to change with a Series 3 Tivo. If you think you can record anything on a Hard Drive and pull it out of the Series 3 and dump it Hard Drive as you could with earlier Tivos, you are in for a most unpleasant surprise. The contents of a Series 3 Tivo will also be heavily encrypted to prevent the content from being taken off. If this were not so, the unit would not pass the cablecard tv lab tests and thus could never work on a cable system with premium content.

If something is 5c encrypted, the cable cards recognize that and will keep it encrypted in the Tivo - which means you are no further along than you were with the 8300. You might be able to pull a hard drive out of a Series 3 Tivo, but 5c encryption once applied is always there.

MatthewR

02-25-06, 04:53 AM

god damn i got this pixies concert saved on my hard drive that i want to burn so damn bad. now i've got to wait for it to be replayed so i can save it from my 3250

ReplayJanitor

03-20-06, 12:34 AM

I plugged my 8300HD into my mac and it doesn't even show as a device in AVCVideoCap or DVHScap.

god damn i got this pixies concert saved on my hard drive that i want to burn so damn bad. now i've got to wait for it to be replayed so i can save it from my 3250
if you're going to burn it, buy the dvd. there's extras on it, too.

MatthewR

03-20-06, 06:38 AM

i just ordered it... but this is actually a different concert... it was recorded in HD in new york. the eidenbourough one i'm getting later this week ;)

philherz

04-23-06, 01:32 PM

I just started to think about trying this and this thread seems to indicate that it's a lost cause if even the experts can't make it work.

It looks like the last post was 3/20/06....anything new going on??????

thnx

HDTVFanAtic

04-23-06, 01:58 PM

As of last week, SA claims they are still working on it. I really think we need the 1394 org to use this as the case to make to FCC.

racprops

05-14-06, 01:21 PM

Right...

OK Here is a new idea, possible a helper.

I have A Mitsubishi HD 1080P TV model 52628 which has 2 fire wire ports, AND I bought and added a Toshiba Symbio 160HD4 which working hooked up and using the TV's tuners with a Cable Card will record full movies with ho problems....

So first, perhaps the answer is in the firmware on the Toshiba, or in it's OS...

I can clone the Hard drive which is a 160 gig drive, so I can stack Hard drives....with movies.

But I can currently only play back on the 52inch Mitsubishi, I can not get playback to my Projector System nor can I do any frame grabs etc.

So perhaps someone can see how the Toshiba is able to record off my cable system AOK...

And perhaps in my case I can filter my recordings thought my TV and Toshiba to my computer....

But so far as I understand it the TV will see the 8300 as a DVR, but when it does do playback I do not know it the content is also on the other fire wire port…

Perhaps by playing the 8300 thought the TV and picking up the playback on the other firewire port??

OR simply record on the Toshiba and feed it's out put to the computer...

I don't have time to try and would be hopeless lose trying... but if any one can try please email me at racprops@cox.net and tell me how to do it.

Thanks.

Rich

twitchee3

05-14-06, 02:47 PM

racprops

05-14-06, 05:59 PM

twitchee3

05-14-06, 07:59 PM

I do not know if I have to rid it of the 5c, all I wanted to do was record it on my PC so that I can do frame captures and play it back on my projector and I can IF I can get it into the computer...

The little HDDVR Toshiba box with its little 160 Gig hard drive all ready does it, I have recorded movies on it.....It works.

I am suggesting if we can figure HOW it works, (firmware or Software) then we might have an answer on how to get our computers to do so as well.

Run the movies though it...as a convertor box??

After all it is only a little computer its self.

One idea.

And there is a software that was suppost to allow me to record from my TV to my computer and then play it back, I just could not get it working...

So for me I can record off my cable, one movie at a time...in 1080I...

So I am not too badly off.

But I really perfir to watch 1080I on my 8 foot movie screen, so I am bugging you guys...

Rich
5c is the mother of firewire though. Many times, STB's will block firewire output to any non-5c enabled devices. This is so that you cannot transfer 5c flagged content to a device which will not enforce 5c, such as a computer. Some STB's, such as the Motorola DCT series, will ALLOW you to transfer content over firewire to non-5c enabled devices, such as a PC, other STB's, such as the Moxi (designed by Digeo and produced by Motorola) will not. I don't know how the SA boxes work in regards to firewire, but if they block output over firewire to non-5c devices, then you're pretty much SOL. Even if your devices are 5c enabled, that means that "copy never," and "copy once" content will not make it onto your PC because you will not have enough allowable copies to transfer it.

Good luck getting this to work.

racprops

05-14-06, 09:01 PM

Right, so the trick maybe to get the computer to look 5C compliant......

Rich

twitchee3

05-15-06, 12:33 AM

Right, so the trick maybe to get the computer to look 5C compliant......

Rich
Good luck, we need some computer wizzes here............. :confused:

samiam75

05-22-06, 08:19 PM

I did download firewire.zip from the green button community
and this does include drivers that have provision for SA 8300HD. I installed these and can change channel on 8300HD, but so far haven't succeeded in retrieving mpeg2 stream from 8300HD using VLC or capDVHS.

So I have a non-MCE XP SP2 system, and have (successfully) installed the FIRESTB drivers. CapDVHS starts up OK and sees the capture device, but immediately crashes when I start recording (see attached image).

Anyone experience this?

twitchee3

05-23-06, 01:24 AM

samiam75

05-23-06, 07:56 AM

Try on a different machine or re-install Windows.

Had a feeling you'd say that. I'll try a reload; see if I can anothe system with F/W.

Anyone know if this will work on a WIn2K box?

twitchee3

05-23-06, 11:05 PM

Had a feeling you'd say that. I'll try a reload; see if I can anothe system with F/W.

Anyone know if this will work on a WIn2K box?
XP only.

bjmjpl

06-14-06, 07:23 PM

soooo -

i have tried to catch up on everything posted - all i want to do is copy my gorgeous Bon Jovi Borgata Concert from INHD (which is a free channel in Cablevision NJ country so doubt any 5c issues) that i have been saving for over 2 yrs now i think...onto my hard disk -

i have 2 questions....

1. - I believe the file on the hard disk in the 8300 is a transport stream (.ts) - if thats correct is everyone trying to figure out a way to COPY that file and then play in VLC and if that is correct, there would be no loss of quality that way right?

I know ip you output through the components or even HDMI to a HTPC then wont that by definition involve a loss of quality because it is rerecoding another instance right?

2. - if above is pretty much right, then is that status that we are waiting from a response from SA on the driver issue, so there is still hope right?

I have 2 boxes and the other one went into a reboot spiral of death and they are replacing it tomorrow - fortunately not the one with my concert:)

Thank you all for the insight and efforts as always - ill try to question the tech tomorrow, but doubt itll get anywhere but u never know - sometimes you get the one geek hacker guy :)

bjmjpl

06-27-06, 07:47 PM

Any Help Please? - Im Trying Out Here....

philherz

06-28-06, 12:45 AM

TrueRock

08-02-06, 06:07 PM

I use the Windows XP drivers described at:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695&page=1&pp=30

I have the new version of software for the Houston Texas Time Warner Cable SA8300HD. But, it has not helped improve the situation.

http://geocities.com/truerock2/IMG_0447.jpg

It looks like the firewire ports are not turned on:

http://geocities.com/truerock2/IMG_0446.jpg

Does anyone have any information about what Time Warner's plans are for the SA8300HD in Houston?

My Windows XP PC is getting power from the firewire cable connected to the SA8300HD. And it recognizes the SA8300HD:

http://geocities.com/truerock2/IMG_0448.jpg

Before Time Warner upgraded the software, my PC would not even detect the firewire cable.

Notice how the Scientific Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device has (Unknown Video #1) next to it. I think this means that the IEEE 1394 port is working, but nothing is comming out of it. Or, at least the device driver cannot see the video comming out of it.

The Channel.exe program works:

C:\Program Files\Timmmoore\MCE 2005 STB Controller>channel -v -a4 2 11
Firewire STB channel changer V1.0.15, by timmmoore
Device 2 Channel 11 Timeout 100 Dec 0
1 "FireBus MPEG2TS Tuner Subunit Device"
'Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device'
"@devicenp:\\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_8300hd&typ_5&id_0#2271ade61100#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 0
2 "AVC Panel Device"
'Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device'

UniqueID '2271ade61100'
VendorID '11e6'
ModelID '206c'
VendorText 'Scientific-Atlanta Inc.'
ModelText 'Explorer(R) 8300HD'
"@devicenp:\\?\avc#scientific-atlanta__inc.&explorer(r)_8300hd&typ_9&id_0#2271ade61100#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 1
3 'VideoMate TV Capture'
"@devicenp:\\?\pci#ven_1131&dev_7133&subsys_c100185b&rev_10#4&2e98101c&0&18f0#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global" 0
4 'ViCAM Digital Camera AVI Driver'
"@device:cm:{860BB310-5D01-11D0-BD3B-00A0C911CE86}\ViCAM Digital Camera AVI Driver" 0
Device Id "Device Version "2.1.0"
Using alternative command 4
Response (0x09 (ACCEPTED)) received 7 bytes
09 48 7c e7 04 00 0b

zimmermatt

08-11-06, 02:11 PM

So I have a non-MCE XP SP2 system, and have (successfully) installed the FIRESTB drivers. CapDVHS starts up OK and sees the capture device, but immediately crashes when I start recording (see attached image).

Anyone experience this?

This thread seems to have gone quiet so I'm guessing there's no solution to the issues discussed here, but in the off chance let me just say I have the same issues as mention by samian here.

Is there anybody who's been able to figure out firewire recording on an SA 8300HD running Passport?

delusion_

08-25-06, 08:25 PM

zimmermatt

08-26-06, 01:26 AM

It's killing me to be so close and not able to fix it.

I hear you, I've been checking this thread (and all the others) hoping something will come up, but so far haven't heard of anything. AVS Forum seems to be the definitive source for this sort of info. I agree its seems like there should be some solution. I can see the SA 8300HD in my device manager all I need is to be able to record the data off it. Oh well :rolleyes:

Trump48257

08-31-06, 09:09 PM

I've been able to get video off my 8300HD with my new macbok and use Apple's Firewire SDK. Just comes up with lots of video and sound artifacts. Any ideas on how to fix that?

MikeWh

09-01-06, 10:19 PM

Successful recording (albeit only a partial success):

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in here. I've only been working on this for the last couple of nights, but I have been able to successfully play and record from the 8300HD through VLC. I used the stream to file setting in the Capture Device tab. For HD content MPEG TS is a bit choppy with occasional artifacts. MPEG PS appeared to record well. I have only recorded several 5-10 second pieces of live material though. I have not experimented with streaming my DVR recordings yet. Playing them through VLC has worked occasionally, but I haven't figured out how to get them to play every time.

The important note: I have only been successful at recording if I setup VLC to capture the stream, THEN turn on the STB. The channel I have set as my "Power On Channel" will record. I have not been able to change channels or to start a recording while a channel is already playing.

Also, I've only been able to record about 2 secs worth of video using CapDVHS, before it crashes. I haven't been playing with that as much though.

Eugene157

09-08-06, 08:29 PM

Delusion
is that not the same defect one gets when using a DVHS recorder?
Gene

MikeWh

09-08-06, 11:06 PM

Sorry, I really don't know. (I assume you're talking about CapDVHS crashing) . I have since been able to record a bit more without it ever crashing. I haven't tried to see how long it will go though... just been experimenting.

TJ22

10-04-06, 09:25 AM

MikeWh

10-04-06, 07:07 PM

I never got CapDVHS to work for more than about 5 secs. My VLC work became a big disappointment. It was VERY hit-or-miss. It had major trouble with successfully sync'ing. Also, I figured out that something that loaded with VLC messed up my Nero Showtime DVD player, causing it to crash. I uninstalled VLC and Nero worked fine after that. I haven't been back to work with it since. ugh.

replayrob

10-05-06, 10:58 AM

I have the same problem-- if I use the DVHS program, it crashes almost instantly. Instead, I tried VLC to record. It lets you open a recording device (video/audio) and stream it to disk if you want. This works pretty well, but every few seconds (or perhaps every certain number of bytes) the image distorts (gets MPEG errors) and the sound drops out.
Thanks delusion!
When capturing via firewire from my SA4200HD using CapDVHS all the 720P content recorded fine without problems. Any time I tried to record 1080i content with CapDVHS it would crash within a few seconds.
I took your suggestion and tried VLC to capture. VLC does not crash, and I can now record 1080i via firewire to my computer! I also noticed occasional glitches in the transport stream, mostly on ESPN-HD and TNT-HD which make recording pretty much unwatchable. Luckily, the major networks are good and UHD is almost perfect which means I can now record BSG and Firefly in HD on Sunday nights.

Can't thank you enough for mentioning VLC to capture the ts data!

PS... The original "Back To The Future" is on UHD Sunday 9PM Eastern in glorious hi-def.
Hello McFly....don't be a butt-head... get your recorders ready! :D

ExitRooster

10-08-06, 08:21 PM

Hey all, new to this topic, I lurk in the Mitsu hdtv area, lol :)

I have a SA8300HD, and decided to give this a little whirl and see what happens..

I have a laptop with XP Pro on it, and I downloaded that firestb.zip file, followed the instructions for extraction (since I'm not in WMC2k5) which worked fine, watch the drivers get installed etc..

Took laptop to stb, turned off stb, plugged firewire into both, turned on stb and low and behold... nothing happened. No ding 'found new hardware', nothing. Turned stb on and off a few times, nothing. (my tv uses the HDMI cable, so I should mention I had that unplugged that as well, in fear that it wouldn't know where to send the signal even if the tv was off).

With the HDMI cable back in, turned on tv (which works fine still, lol) and looked in the setup for ANY mention of firewire. I see nothing. There's no firewire output option (only the hdmi/dvi, upscale1, and upscale2, and auto I think??). Should there be some mention of firewire somewhere, or does it just happen automatically? What am I missing here? :( I mean, I expected some issues with getting the firewire to play through the PC, much less be able to record my saved shows (just hdtv tv, like nbc/cbs/fox/abc, not premium channels), but I didn't expect to have it just plain not do ANYTHING, lol :( Firewire port works, I use it all the time on a Sony DVCam..

Help?

WhiskeyD0G

10-12-06, 01:18 AM

After recording a particular program on the 8300, can you transfer that recorded program to a PC ?

depeche

10-31-06, 10:04 AM

After recording a particular program on the 8300, can you transfer that recorded program to a PC ?

That's pretty much what people are trying to figure out how to do with the SA8300.... looks like firewire transfer is not working as it would on other devices

FreeBaGeL

10-31-06, 11:06 AM

davehancock

10-31-06, 03:26 PM

So since this isn't working on the 8300HD, if I bought a 3250HD I could record on that and transfer it to my PC via firewire from the 3250HD?

How would that work with both receivers (could I have them both hooked up at the same time?), and would I have to let my cable company know about it or would it just be a plug and play type thing? With the incompetency of the local cable company I doubt they'd be even able to fathom someone owning another receiver.In the US (it's different in Canada) the cable companies OWN all of the STBs (either 8300HD or 3250HD). The boxes have a unique ID and that ID needs to be in the cable system database.

There is no reason that you can't rent more than one STB from the cable company. If they both are in the same room, there is an issue with the Remote Control sending commands to both STBs at the same time. An effective work-around is to only have one powered up at a time.

CANNON-FODDER

10-31-06, 08:31 PM

But the 3250HD does not record does it?

IIRC, you could record on the PC, but the transfer would be "live" from the STB to the PC...

v/r,
C-F

CZ Eddie

11-23-06, 09:21 PM

I'm new to all this, but I tried the CAPdvhs and it explodes the moment I hit record.
I then tried VLC and although it won't record live TV, it does record anything I play back from my 8300HD's archived stuff.

Only problem is the recordings are extremely choppy and unwatchable. Just momentary glimpses of what looks like pretty good video here and there. And I can only playback a few moments worth before it explodes and reboots my computer.

The 8300HD is a real dissapointement. I can't archive to my 5U DVHS and I can't archive to my computer. And even if I use an external HD via USB to archive onto (haven't tried yet), I'm reading that I could only use the 8300HD to play any of that back. So thats another useless option considering the 8300HD is a lease and I don't get to keep it.

T2k

01-22-07, 12:33 AM

OK, it'ss still dead horse here... I dunno what you guys did with VLC but it doesn't record anything for me...

replayrob

01-22-07, 01:06 PM

OK, it'ss still dead horse here... I dunno what you guys did with VLC but it doesn't record anything for me...
I now have the SA8300HD and use VLC to stream capture to my PC as CapDVHS always crashes within a few seconds of starting to capture.
Here's the post that got me using VLC for capture:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8146474&&#post8146474

My Method: I first record the program on the SA8300HD, then play it back- as it's playing back- I capture it to my HTPC (WinXP Pro w/SP2a) with VLC. I then edit out commercials/credits/etc... with VideoRedo- save it as a .ts file then run it through MPEG2repair (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=442446). Then I open the "fixed" .ts file with VideoRedo and simply save it as a Mpeg2 file. It's a few extra steps, but the files, even with a minor glitch here and there- play back really well on my HTPC. I recorded "Firefly" on Friday night and actually had no glitches after authoring, I recorded "BSG- The Story So Far" which had a few minor glitches (two within the first 60 seconds and probably two throughout the remainder of the program) after authoring. So, I'm pretty happy with the results now and renting the SA8300HD is only an extra $10/month from Cablevision.

LMLEGE

01-24-07, 03:42 PM

I am trying to download from my hardrive from motorola 6416 cable box to a XP Media Center. I am using CAPDVHS program, I am getting the program to run, but when tring to record, I get a error, cannot record standard grizzsly,

what am i doing wrong, do I need a different program? :) :)

T2k

01-31-07, 08:05 PM

I now have the SA8300HD and use VLC to stream capture to my PC as CapDVHS always crashes within a few seconds of starting to capture.
Here's the post that got me using VLC for capture:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8146474&&#post8146474

My Method: I first record the program on the SA8300HD, then play it back- as it's playing back- I capture it to my HTPC (WinXP Pro w/SP2a) with VLC. I then edit out commercials/credits/etc... with VideoRedo- save it as a .ts file then run it through MPEG2repair (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=442446). Then I open the "fixed" .ts file with VideoRedo and simply save it as a Mpeg2 file. It's a few extra steps, but the files, even with a minor glitch here and there- play back really well on my HTPC. I recorded "Firefly" on Friday night and actually had no glitches after authoring, I recorded "BSG- The Story So Far" which had a few minor glitches (two within the first 60 seconds and probably two throughout the remainder of the program) after authoring. So, I'm pretty happy with the results now and renting the SA8300HD is only an extra $10/month from Cablevision.

Thanks, I'll give it another try.

ketamine

02-11-07, 06:19 PM

Vidguy

02-14-07, 12:02 AM

ketamine

02-14-07, 02:35 AM

Vidguy

02-14-07, 08:13 AM

I can't record the 5C enrypted channels including DiscoveryHD. I can record the local HD and basic SD channels.

T2k

02-14-07, 03:20 PM

Ouch. So that's why it never worked for me - I wanted to dump my Rome episodes from the box...

ketamine

02-14-07, 03:59 PM

Awwh, man what a bummer. I have some shows on there I'd like to show to some friends and family sometime but keep worrying about a crash. These are shows that aren't available on the market either (HD-DVD or Blu-ray) AFAIK.

I can't record the 5C enrypted channels including DiscoveryHD. I can record the local HD and basic SD channels.

TJ22

02-16-07, 08:25 PM

Cant get anything off of mine not even with VLC. How do I find the if the channel/show is encrypted or not?

Also could I get step but step instructions with VLC on how to capture or view?

Thanks.

delar

02-17-07, 03:07 AM

I use VLC to record - it works, but only the latest version - v8.6a.
Thank you Vidguy for that nugget of information. I've tried using VLC to record from the 8300 live and off the hard drive for many months with no success. I didn't think of trying the latest build (0.8.6a) until you mentioned it (was using 0.8.6). Now it appears to work. I was able to capture about 20 minutes off the hard drive and playback looks perfect. Also, a big thumbs up to VideoLan for the 'fix'.

Vidguy

02-17-07, 10:35 AM

Cant get anything off of mine not even with VLC. How do I find the if the channel/show is encrypted or not?

Also could I get step but step instructions with VLC on how to capture or view?

Thanks.

You need to look at the 8300HD diagnostics screen, page 31 "1394 Information". Read the SA 8300 HD Tips & Tricks -- SARA (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4682052&&#post4682052) thread for instructions. You can change the channels while watching the diagnostic screen to check various channels. There is a delayed reaction, so wait a few seconds after changing channels. If "free" or "undefined" is shown, you should be able to record that channel.

To use VLC:
- Open VLC
- Choose "File" > "Open Capture Device"
- In the DirectShow tab to the right of "Video device name" click "Refresh List," then choose "Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device" from the drop down.
- If you want to capture the stream, click "Stream/Save", go into "settings" and select "Play locally" and "File" and enter a filename ending with .ts. Use the "Browse" button to specify a loacation. Click "OK"
- Click "OK"

aeraun

02-18-07, 01:53 AM

Thanks for your simple method Vidguy. I've been trying to figure this out on and off for several weeks and it's been very frustrating.

My main goal was to at least get a visible image on a capture program and then get a file saved on my pc. Thanks to the tips in posts #83 and #90, I got both. One big roadblock was the old version of VLC I was using. Once I loaded 0.8.6a it eliminated a lot of problems.

I must add that I was blown away at the quality of the stream and the playback. Now I need to work on eliminating the artifacts every couple of seconds. Thanks again..

TJ22

02-19-07, 01:07 PM

You need to look at the 8300HD diagnostics screen, page 31 "1394 Information". Read the SA 8300 HD Tips & Tricks -- SARA (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4682052&&#post4682052) thread for instructions. You can change the channels while watching the diagnostic screen to check various channels. There is a delayed reaction, so wait a few seconds after changing channels. If "free" or "undefined" is shown, you should be able to record that channel.

To use VLC:
- Open VLC
- Choose "File" > "Open Capture Device"
- In the DirectShow tab to the right of "Video device name" click "Refresh List," then choose "Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device" from the drop down.
- If you want to capture the stream, click "Stream/Save", go into "settings" and select "Play locally" and "File" and enter a filename ending with .ts. Use the "Browse" button to specify a loacation. Click "OK"
- Click "OK"

Ok that did work, but the resulting video is has some stutters and occasional pixelation.

What settings do you use when streaming to a file. I tried a raw dump and that seemed to work the best but still exhibited these problems.

uncertainty

02-19-07, 05:47 PM

Ok that did work, but the resulting video is has some stutters and occasional pixelation.

What settings do you use when streaming to a file. I tried a raw dump and that seemed to work the best but still exhibited these problems.

As of now nothing you do with VLC will elimate the video/audio artifacts that crop up now and then. All we can hope for is a firmware upgrade (I'm on the 1.88.xx strain atm) from Cisco for the 8300HD that will resolve this issue.

I would be interested to know if any 1.89.xx users have been able to transfer to their PC using VLC and not experience any audio/video artifacts?

subwoofer

02-19-07, 09:16 PM

Vidguy

02-20-07, 12:09 AM

quick question: Do you have to subscribe to the DVR service to use the firewire port on the 8300HD? I have Comcast HD package but I didn't get them to activate the DVR function so I was wondering if I would be able to copy HD movies onto my computer.

Thanks for all these posts. I need to know about this question because I was having problems with my On-Demand service and a Comcast tech is coming out tomorrow so it might be a good time to get this

I would think so, because if your box is like mine, you will only be able to get a good stream out of the 1394 port for a recorded, non 5C encrypted program. If you want to copy and don't want to pay for a the DVR service, why not just get a SA 3240 or 3250 HD box. From what I understand, the firewire ports on both of those boxes put out a good live stream. I had a 3250 before the 8300, and the 1394 worked great.

I think the dropouts/artifacts are a limitation of the 1994 firewire ports on the 8300 for higher bitrates (like I said before, over 15,000 kb/s). Hopefully, this can be resolved with a firmware fix. I have SARA 1.88.22.1, and would like to hear from someone with a 1.89.xx firmware to determine if this has been resolved.

aeraun

02-20-07, 12:47 AM

subwoofer

02-20-07, 12:56 AM

I would think so, because if your box is like mine, you will only be able to get a good stream out of the 1394 port for a recorded, non 5C encrypted program. If you want to copy and don't want to pay for a the DVR service, why not just get a SA 3240 or 3250 HD box. From what I understand, the firewire ports on both of those boxes put out a good live stream. I had a 3250 before the 8300, and the 1394 worked great.

I think the dropouts/artifacts are a limitation of the 1994 firewire ports on the 8300 for higher bitrates (like I said before, over 15,000 kb/s). Hopefully, this can be resolved with a firmware fix. I have SARA 1.88.22.1, and would like to hear from someone with a 1.89.xx firmware to determine if this has been resolved.

How are you able to get fireware upgrades on these boxes? Do you have to upload them via usb drive?

I would assume from what you wrote that I should be able to get live streams from the box to my PC via firewire. I guess I'm just being cheap and I don't want to have to pay Comcast anymore money but I want to be able to copy and store HD material onto my PC.

subwoofer

02-20-07, 12:59 AM

subwoofer: I'm still testing out my SA 8300 dvr and this is what I've found out so far: To capture any video to my computer using VLC 0.8.6a, it has to be recorded onto the dvr first. "Live" video doesn't capture.

After recording to my dvr, out of the 18 Hi-def channels I have, video from the following stations will not capture: HBO, Showtime, ESPN, TNT, and A&E. Thankfully I can capture scenes from the other stations like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Discovery, Music-HD, and a few others.

aeraun, Thank you VERY much for posting this info. I wonder why HBO or Showtime will not record. These would definitely be the stations that I would want to get movies in HD on my PC to watch at any time. Have there been any fixes on this or reasons why these don't work?

TJ22

02-20-07, 02:18 PM

subwoofer: I'm still testing out my SA 8300 dvr and this is what I've found out so far: To capture any video to my computer using VLC 0.8.6a, it has to be recorded onto the dvr first. "Live" video doesn't capture.

After recording to my dvr, out of the 18 Hi-def channels I have, video from the following stations will not capture: HBO, Showtime, ESPN, TNT, and A&E. Thankfully I can capture scenes from the other stations like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Discovery, Music-HD, and a few others.

Were you able to get artifact free video? If so what software did you use and what were your settigns?

ketamine

02-20-07, 07:33 PM

I finally was able to capture some pre-recorded video via firewire on my XP laptop using VLC. I had to upgrade my version of VLC to the latest v0.8.6a. I still, like many, have issues with video and audio artifacts. I only did a test capture of for about a minute of and HD recording of Heros. The amount of visual glitches and audio jitter in just that short amount of time was disappointing. I'll have to do some more testing but I couldn't imaging getting a watchable capture if that type of quality (or rather lack of) were to be consistent. I wonder if the limitation is 8300 or the PC?

Has anyone compared the video captured without live previewing if there is any difference?

ketamine

02-21-07, 07:44 PM

Update:

More sucesss to report. As I mentioned earlier I was curious if the choppy captures were due to the 8300, the external 500GB eSATA drive, or my laptop. So I did some cleanup and maintenance on my laptop. I uninstalled about 3GB of unnecessary programs, ran anti-virus and spyware apps, and defragmented the HD w/ PerfectDisk.

Another thing I did was increase the caching rate in VLC to 700ms. I now get a MUCH smoother capture with little artifacting.

I also wanted to see if I would have any troubles with HD subscription channels (non-network). There were no encryption issues when I tested capturing some recorded material from DiscoveryHD.

subwoofer

02-21-07, 08:07 PM

TJ22

02-22-07, 12:00 AM

I used VLC with "stream/save" to a file "dump raw input" and 1000 for caching....no artifacts on SD content.

ketamine

02-22-07, 02:34 AM

Right, but what about HBO or Showtime?

I don't have HBO or Showtime so I can't really comment on that.

ketamine

02-22-07, 02:38 AM

I used VLC with "stream/save" to a file "dump raw input" and 1000 for caching....no artifacts on SD content.

I haven't tried checking the "dump raw input" option. SD content has never been much of an issue. I can capture it all day with no artifacts.

It's the high bit-rate HD material that can cause some problems as far as dealing/managing "hiccups" or artifacts.

uncertainty

02-23-07, 01:37 AM

uncertainty

02-23-07, 01:39 AM

I haven't tried checking the "dump raw input" option. SD content has never been much of an issue. I can capture it all day with no artifacts.

It's the high bit-rate HD material that can cause some problems as far as dealing/managing "hiccups" or artifacts.

I did some testing again tonight and have narrowed it down as far as video artifacts are concerned. Seems any 720p (ABC/FOX/ESPN) recordings play fine no matter the bit-rate. I only did 5 min samples but I've noticed before the video artifacts crop up within the first minute on my other recordings.

Then I went and copied 4 1080i recordings (5 mins each) and you guessed it, all had video artifacts in the first min.

My testing was done using the 1.88.xx strain.

ketamine

02-26-07, 02:34 AM

The problem is definately within the 8300HD atm as I have used my same laptop to copy from a motorola HD receiver with no video/sound artifacts.

Fingers crossed for a firmware upgrade on the 8300HD to correct it....

This doesn't necessarily mean that there is a "problem" with the 8300HD. For instance, have you compared the output bit-rates of the content you're trying to capture from both receivers? Perhaps the Moto limits the input/output bandwidth.

uncertainty

02-26-07, 11:50 AM

This doesn't necessarily mean that there is a "problem" with the 8300HD. For instance, have you compared the output bit-rates of the content you're trying to capture from both receivers? Perhaps the Moto limits the input/output bandwidth.

Both the 8300HD and motorola max out at about 16000bits/sec.........I have confirmed that the 720p TS files (ABC,FOX and ESPN) on the 8300HD have few if any artifacts and I've started to encode them to h.246. Now once the 1080i is resolved I'll be a happy camper.

BTW after trying out numerous video encoders and such I've been able to use 2 products that give great encoding along with removing framing errors from the .TS files.

I use Videoredo to fix the framing errors on the .ts files and covert it to mpeg2 (AC3 audio also) and then use nero 7 to encode the fixed mpeg2 files to h.264 along with ACC audio. Works like a charm, good quality , quick and most of all no audio sync issues thanks to videoredo fixing the audio/video framing issues.

ketamine

02-26-07, 04:41 PM

Both the 8300HD and motorola max out at about 16000bits/sec.........I have confirmed that the 720p TS files (ABC,FOX and ESPN) on the 8300HD have few if any artifacts and I've started to encode them to h.246. Now once the 1080i is resolved I'll be a happy camper.

BTW after trying out numerous video encoders and such I've been able to use 2 products that give great encoding along with removing framing errors from the .TS files.

I use Videoredo to fix the framing errors on the .ts files and covert it to mpeg2 (AC3 audio also) and then use nero 7 to encode the fixed mpeg2 files to h.264 along with ACC audio. Works like a charm, good quality , quick and most of all no audio sync issues thanks to videoredo fixing the audio/video framing issues.

Cool. Thanks for the software recommendations, I will try those out myself. I've personally only used some freeware called mpeg2repair to fix .TS files with minor to slightly moderate glitches. It seems to do a very satisfactory job.

I've had similar results as you in terms of 720p vs. 1080i content. 720p material seems easily handled to VLC via 1394 (firewire) with minimal artifacting. Something I haven't tried is temporarily disabling 1080i as one of the output methods so any 1080i material is down-scaled. I have a feeling though that those settings don't affect data coming out of the 1394 ports. I have 720p disabled as an output method to my display since IQ appears better when the TV scales down 1080i (even though the native resolution is 720p).

What I'd like to see is someone compare capturing from a notebook to a higher spec'd desktop?

The laptop I've been using has a fresh install of XP SP2 with minimal overhead and a practically 100% un-fragmented 60GB drive, but is only a 1.5Ghz Celly w/512MB memory. I thinking of getting an active firewire hub to extend a cable long enough to the office and see if my AMD Opteron 175 (2.7Ghz) rig w/ 2GB OCZ Plat. memory, and 10K RPM SATA3 drives can do any better capturing 1080i content?

I'll keep posting any updates or changes. The firmware on my 8300HD SARA v1.88.24.2. I don't remember if I mentioned that in earlier posts or not.

uncertainty

02-28-07, 02:23 PM

Cool. Thanks for the software recommendations, I will try those out myself. I've personally only used some freeware called mpeg2repair to fix .TS files with minor to slightly moderate glitches. It seems to do a very satisfactory job.

I've had similar results as you in terms of 720p vs. 1080i content. 720p material seems easily handled to VLC via 1394 (firewire) with minimal artifacting. Something I haven't tried is temporarily disabling 1080i as one of the output methods so any 1080i material is down-scaled. I have a feeling though that those settings don't affect data coming out of the 1394 ports. I have 720p disabled as an output method to my display since IQ appears better when the TV scales down 1080i (even though the native resolution is 720p).

What I'd like to see is someone compare capturing from a notebook to a higher spec'd desktop?

The laptop I've been using has a fresh install of XP SP2 with minimal overhead and a practically 100% un-fragmented 60GB drive, but is only a 1.5Ghz Celly w/512MB memory. I thinking of getting an active firewire hub to extend a cable long enough to the office and see if my AMD Opteron 175 (2.7Ghz) rig w/ 2GB OCZ Plat. memory, and 10K RPM SATA3 drives can do any better capturing 1080i content?

I'll keep posting any updates or changes. The firmware on my 8300HD SARA v1.88.24.2. I don't remember if I mentioned that in earlier posts or not.

The notebook Im using to capture the feed is a duo core 2 T7600 so that rules out horsepower being the cause of video/sound artifacts with 1080i material. I've yet to see one post from any 8300HD user that has been able to capture clean 1080i material yet (clean being relative in the sense of being able to watch 5 mins of a feed and not have any video/audio artifacts).

As for disabling 1080i and trying to capture via firewire I agree with you that it will still stream as 1080i as thats what was saved on the HD.

I'm waiting for a 1.89.xx user to post some results that they have with 1080i.

ketamine

02-28-07, 04:32 PM

As for disabling 1080i and trying to capture via firewire I agree with you that it will still stream as 1080i as thats what was saved on the HD.

Are you positive about this? The, albeit limited, amount of testing I did appears it does make a difference. I diasabled 1080i in the advanced setup and set the "Picture Format" to Upconvert 2 (or maybe it was "Fixed"? Definitely one of the two.). When in this setup it appears the box actually puts out 720p stream to VLC even if the material broadcast/recording was 1080i. With this method I was able to capture 1080i content with similar results (as far as amount of skips, artifacts, dropouts etc) of 720p content.

Unfortunately this experiment seems to bring up a new set of oddities. While the video playback was smooth it had and peculiar look to the overall video frame. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like the entire video had these thin, stable, black lines that seemed to be outlining boxes (like tic-tac-toe) around the frame. I don't know if this is due to incorrect VLC settings, my video card, or what. It also appears when I play it back on other computers. I've used VLC (of coarse), WMP11, and WMP Classic with similar results during playback.

I'm waiting for a 1.89.xx user to post some results that they have with 1080i.

Me too. You would think someone would have tried this by now :confused:

delar

02-28-07, 11:30 PM

Me too. You would think someone would have tried this by now :confused:
I have 1.89.17.1 here and have been toying around with this on and off for 2 weeks now. I'm sorry to report that I am seeing the same problems you are. At best, my recordings glitch once every minute or so.

uncertainty

03-01-07, 12:33 AM

Are you positive about this? The, albeit limited, amount of testing I did appears it does make a difference. I diasabled 1080i in the advanced setup and set the "Picture Format" to Upconvert 2 (or maybe it was "Fixed"? Definitely one of the two.). When in this setup it appears the box actually puts out 720p stream to VLC even if the material broadcast/recording was 1080i. With this method I was able to capture 1080i content with similar results (as far as amount of skips, artifacts, dropouts etc) of 720p content.

Unfortunately this experiment seems to bring up a new set of oddities. While the video playback was smooth it had and peculiar look to the overall video frame. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like the entire video had these thin, stable, black lines that seemed to be outlining boxes (like tic-tac-toe) around the frame. I don't know if this is due to incorrect VLC settings, my video card, or what. It also appears when I play it back on other computers. I've used VLC (of coarse), WMP11, and WMP Classic with similar results during playback.

Me too. You would think someone would have tried this by now :confused:

Wow, you just proved video settings on the 8300HD also influence the firewire settings. The weird thing is my unit is set to only output 1080i to my TV yet the material I capture with VLC is both 720p and 1080i depending on the network.

I'm sad to hear that Cisco decided to code the box this way. The reason I say this is its obvious that the video outputs of the box may be entirely different then the corresponding PC/Mac connected to the firewire but like all things it just revolves around the current firmware.

I'll reconfigure my 8300 this weekend and try to replicate what you are experiencing.

Just read a 1.89.xx user still has the same issue as we do....

uncertainty

03-01-07, 12:35 AM

I have 1.89.17.1 here and have been toying around with this on and off for 2 weeks now. I'm sorry to report that I am seeing the same problems you are. At best, my recordings glitch once every minute or so.

Thankx for the input Delar.......hopefully Cisco will resolve this issue regarding 1080i material soon.....

paule123

03-10-07, 03:00 PM

Thanks to replayrob (for the VLC tip) and DoubleDAZ (for help getting my firewire ports activated, SARA 1.88.22.1) I have some limited PC recording capability from my 8300HD. I have tried various things and found that:

- I can reliably record items recorded on the 8300HD. No live feed. That's really all I wanted anyway.
- CapDVHS does not work with the 8300HD.
- I use VLC to record - it works, but only the latest version - v8.6a.
- Using the Media Information function in VLC I found that any recording with a bit rate over ~15,000kbps gives me dropouts/hiccups over firewire, but the feeds are still recordable. Those same original recordings are flawless displayed though component from the 8300HD. I am using a couple of active firewire extension cables to get a 40 foot connection. Don't know if this is the cause, but I might eventually test that possibility by moving the computer closer to eliminate the extension cables.

Just wanted to report I'm getting similar results to vidguy.

Wide Open West (Cleveland) just pushed out a SARA 1.88.22.1 update last week, and this activated the firewire port on my SA8300HD. I can now use the Firestb drivers + VLC 8.6a to view and save to disk previously recorded material off the SA8300HD. I was able to view and save previously recorded 480i/720p/1080i material, from a variety of channels (NBC, CBS, NFLN, HDNet, DiscHD, StarzHD, ESPN, etc) I'm not having any problems with "copy protection" here. Maybe WOW hasn't flagged it yet, I dunno.

Nothing comes over the firewire during live programming.

Like others have reported CapDVHS crashes a few seconds into recording.

I have a fairly elderly Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop with P4 2.66Ghz processor, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon 7500 video card, running XP Pro SP2. It records everything with periodic glitches. Probably not enough horsepower in the laptop... It's good enough to get screen caps off of though. My firewire cable is about 10 feet.

I never had to reboot the SA8300HD, nor did it spontaneously reboot while I was screwing around with this. Note that I did have to unplug/replug the firewire cable in the back of the laptop several times to get VLC to see the firewire content again. I also had an orphan VLC process running every now and then that had to be killed. Sometimes when VLC refused to play the firewire material, I had to reboot the laptop to get it back. So in summary, the whole thing is still kinda flakey.

Update: I tried viewing/recording from the SA8300HD to a relatively new Dell Inspiron 6400 Core Duo T7200 2Ghz w/2GB RAM, and this machine exhibits the dropout problem as well. :(

Update 2: I'm starting to suspect the SA8300HD firewire implementation is the problem here.
a. Samsung SIR-T165 live OTA 1080i via firewire to Inspiron 5100 laptop w/VLC - no video breakups
b. JVC 40K DVHS VCR prerecorded CBS 1080i football to Inspiron 5100 laptop w/VLC - no video breakups
c. Playing prerecorded 1080i HD program from SA8300HD to JCK 40K DVHS VCR via firewire - video breakups recorded on tape, not as severe as the breakups on the PC, but still annoying enough to be unusable.
d. CapDVHS doesn't crash when capturing from the JCK 40K or the Sammy T165, but does crash with the SA8300HD.

jeffa5

03-12-07, 11:38 PM

Wondering if anyone out there has this working with an SA 8240HD. From what I've read, the 8240 is supposed to be almost identical to the 8300, but no analog tuner (digital channels only).

My SA8240HD is running SARA v1.89.18.1 from Cox. I'm unable to get the firestb driver installed. Running XP Home SP2. I ran the firestb MSI, then plugged in the 8240:

4 devices show up:

Tuner AV/C Device
AV/C Panel
2 Unknown devices

The driver installation complains it could not find a proper match for the AV/C Panel device. It picked up the Tuner AV/C Device, but I'm getting this error in the device manager:

"Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)"

I've disabled both unknown devices...also tried disabling the AV/C Panel. Rebooted, reinstalled, etc...but can't get the Tuner device to work. I haven't tried installing the older meitape.inf file yet but may give that a try.

Any advice appreciated.
Jeff

Alowe

03-13-07, 08:04 PM

You need to look at the 8300HD diagnostics screen, page 31 "1394 Information". Read the SA 8300 HD Tips & Tricks -- SARA (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4682052&&#post4682052) thread for instructions. You can change the channels while watching the diagnostic screen to check various channels. There is a delayed reaction, so wait a few seconds after changing channels. If "free" or "undefined" is shown, you should be able to record that channel.

To use VLC:
- Open VLC
- Choose "File" > "Open Capture Device"
- In the DirectShow tab to the right of "Video device name" click "Refresh List," then choose "Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Tuner Device" from the drop down.
- If you want to capture the stream, click "Stream/Save", go into "settings" and select "Play locally" and "File" and enter a filename ending with .ts. Use the "Browse" button to specify a loacation. Click "OK"
- Click "OK"

I am all good on the PC end, using these instructions. How do I tell it to start to record on the DVR? Do I just press play on the recorded show? Not sure what else to do?

Also, what do I do for a recorded show on the DVR?

Alowe

03-13-07, 08:53 PM

Figured it out and just recorded American Idol in 1080i, looks GREAT! No stutter at all!!! Now to try the HD pay channels

uncertainty

03-13-07, 10:46 PM

After reading numerous threads, performing my own tests (using 3 different computers and 3 different boxes) and providing my own experience I have come to the conclusion, which most know, that the Scientific Atlanta firewire currently implemented is fubared....

I recently tried both a 4250 and 4200 and had the same problem with video/audio artifacts as my SA8300HD experiences. My test systems at 3 different locations used both a laptop T7600 duo core 2 along with a desktop E6400 duo core.

ATM it is impossible to receive any decent firewire audio/video stream from a SA8300HD (or 4200/4250 for that matter).......

Fringers crossed that Cisco (which on the IP side I do for a living) releases a firmware upgrade to resolve it....till them Im using a QAM HD card to record unencrypted channels....

Alowe

03-15-07, 09:17 AM

paule123

03-15-07, 10:05 AM

I think something went wrong. I was able to stream live TV, and record from a taped show fine. Now when I try to stream, VLC just sits there with nothing happening? 8300HD DVR? Any thoughts? I rebooted the device as well.

Andy

Close VLC. Open Task Manager and look for any vlc.exe's still running. Kill those. Restart VLC and see if it works again.

You could also try closing VLC, unplugging/replugging the firewire cable, and restarting VLC.

If all that fails, reboot the PC.

I've never had to reboot the SA8300HD, it's always been a PC hardware/software issue for me.

Alowe

03-15-07, 10:12 AM

Close VLC. Open Task Manager and look for any vlc.exe's still running. Kill those. Restart VLC and see if it works again.

You could also try closing VLC, unplugging/replugging the firewire cable, and restarting VLC.

If all that fails, reboot the PC.

I've never had to reboot the SA8300HD, it's always been a PC hardware/software issue for me.

I will give that a try. Seems weird as I was able to stream Idol live, and a recorded copy of UltraViolet fine, then nothing. Once I got it to start, but just a black screen. Nothing should have changed in the diag of the device right? I have never gone in there. I am also using the port closest to the power supply, but I am not sure if that makes a difference. Does anyone have a copy they can post of the most up to date drivers for my box?

Andy

paule123

03-15-07, 10:34 AM

OniKoroshi

03-15-07, 10:41 PM

I got it working fine to record any of my recorded channels except the audio is very messed up, it skips constantly. Are you guys recording your audio through the firewire also or toslink?

uncertainty

03-16-07, 12:40 PM

I did some brief testing transferring a recording of the SuperBowl (CBS 1080i) from the SA8300HD (SARA v1.88.22.1) to a first-generation Mac Mini, and have no problem with blips/glitches/artifacting in the captured m2t file. I'm using Apple's Firewire SDK v2.3, AVCVideoCap, and the guidance found here:

http://www.pressleypress.com/blog/?p=35

So now methinks the glitches on the PC capture side might be related to the Firestb drivers for Windows?

Thank you for that report from a MAC POV. That being the case I would agree with you that the PC firewire drivers have to be the cause of the visual/audio artifacts.

gordonbb

03-16-07, 03:20 PM

We in Ontario finally got working FireWire ports on our 8300's. I have 1.89.16.2 and have successfully captured to both VLC (0.8.6.a) & CapDVHS (3.0.6.e) 1080i content via firewire. I have observed artifacts on the recorded content from 1 or 2 errors in a 1/2 hour capture to almost unwatchable. I had to change the audio output module in VLC from "Default" to "Win32 ..." to get the 5.1 audio to work (known issue with Direct-X & VLC from VLC forum). The level of dropouts seem to correspond to load on the HTPC during recording.

My system is running XP SP2 with the firewire patches on a Asus P4P800SE with a P4 2.4 and 2GB RAM & a T.I.-based firewire card.

Streaming to a file in VLC & Watching at the same time I use 70% CPU. Just streaming to a file I use 30% and get less artifacts.

CapDVHS is "twitchy" but when it works it seems to have less artifacts and uses less load. It seems to like to have the firewire bus reset before recording (unplug the cable) and it appears to crash more often if it loses focus after a recording starts (i.e. you click the mouse on another window). I also have to select the second "unknown Sci Atl Video Tuner" to capture.

I can record flawlessly live HD & prerecorded contents on my JVC 30K D-VHS deck. I suspect that if I try playing pack recordings from my HTPC through the 30K's decoder I will see petter PQ as it's hardware can do better error masking than any software decoder.

jeffa5

03-16-07, 10:29 PM

Update from my previous post...

By adding the hardware ID of my 8240HD to the driver INF file, I was able to get the STB drivers succesfully loaded.

My SA 8240HD is running SARA v1.89.18.1 from Cox.

I have identical problems that you are experiencing with the 8300HD.

- Cannot record live HD (unprotected) content
- CapDVHS crashes after 2 seconds
- VLC works, but the recorded TS file is choppy/pixelated. Tried recording raw, upped the buffer, but didn't help. Also set VLC to record without the "playback" option selected so it's just saving the stream to file. Thinking this would decrease CPU use and help out...but it didn't .
- Same problem with both 720p or 1080i streams.

I'm running an ASUS P4P800D 3.0Ghz Windows XP SP2, with firewire patch. CPU is below 5% during recording without VLC playback enabled.

If anyone here is recording and getting a TS file with perfect playback, would you mind posting your machine specs? i.e. CPU, operating system and service pack level, and method of recording (i.e. VLC or CapDVHS).

Thanks,
Jeff

uncertainty

03-17-07, 06:27 PM

OniKoroshi

03-17-07, 07:02 PM

a8vdeluxe

03-20-07, 09:34 AM

My CapDVHS says it's recording but playback is black with no sound. I'm usiing 3250 HD from time warner, and VLC for playback. VLC can no longer capture either. I can still record to DVHS, and transfer tape file to computer with no problems.

I filed a complaint wtih the FCC. The more we consolidtate the better chance we have for a solution. Here's link to FCC, and links to threads with same problems we are having.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-403695-p-15.html
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=649140&page=4&pp=30

T2k

03-20-07, 11:02 AM

How do you mean? You can dump your HDBO/Showtime recordings to DVHS and capture them or only play back but no capture or nothing at all?
I have a DVHS here at work but I won't want to take it off from one of our editing suite nor bring in my 8300HD from home for nothing... :)

timecop

03-20-07, 11:19 AM

He's probably referring to copy-free OTA programming which the cable company re-broadcasts.
The premium channels would have copy-once flag set to prevent PC copying.

T2k

03-20-07, 11:37 AM

He's probably referring to copy-free OTA programming which the cable company re-broadcasts.
The premium channels would have copy-once flag set to prevent PC copying.

I see - but can you play them back from a DVHS? That would free up my DVR space at least...

jrbd90

03-22-07, 02:27 PM

By adding the hardware ID of my 8240HD to the driver INF file, I was able to get the STB drivers succesfully loaded.

Can you explain what you mean by this?

OniKoroshi

03-22-07, 07:02 PM

http://www.sendspace.com/file/zlbmeh

Here is my cap of some HD content XVID compressed.

jeffa5

03-22-07, 08:30 PM

Can you explain what you mean by this?

OK, here goes:

First you install the firestb.zip driver files as described in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695

Don't connect your 8240HD's firewire cable to your PC just yet...

The driver installation will add an INF file to your system containing information about the STB devices. You need to edit that file and add the hardware ID of your 8240HD. (you can use device manager to get these but I have them below) Use the windows file search to search all *.inf files in your C:\windows\inf folder for a file containing the text 8300hd. On my system it was named OEM14.inf, but it could end with any number on your system. i.e. OEM10.inf, OEM 20.inf.

Find the section:
[Scientific-Atlanta]
add these to two lines after the 8300hd entries:

%AVC\Scientific-Atlanta__Inc.&EXPLORER(R)_8240&TYP_5&ID_0.DeviceDesc%=MEITUNER.SA,AVC\Scientific-Atlanta__Inc.&EXPLORER(R)_8240&TYP_5&ID_0
%AVC\Scientific-Atlanta__Inc.&EXPLORER(R)_8240&TYP_9&ID_0.DeviceDesc%=MSPANEL.SA,AVC\Scientific-Atlanta__Inc.&EXPLORER(R)_8240&TYP_9&ID_0

Also find this line:
AVC\TYP_5.DeviceDesc="Tuner AV/C Device"
and add these two lines after the 8300hd entries:

AVC\Scientific-Atlanta__Inc.&Explorer(R)_8240&TYP_5&ID_0.DeviceDesc="Scientific-Atlanta Tuner AV/C Device (Explorer 8240HD)"
AVC\Scientific-Atlanta__Inc.&Explorer(R)_8240&TYP_9&ID_0.DeviceDesc="Scientific-Atlanta AV/C Panel Device (Explorer 8240HD)"

Save the file and then plug in your 8240HD and follow directions as described in the original post.

I've attached my hacked INF file...you might be better off pulling the device ID's entries from there in case this message board removes any special characters.

Hope this helps, but unfortunately the drivers aren't going to work properly until the 8240hd firmware is updated, or we get some updated STB drivers (the firestb drivers are panasonic released 11/11/2003). Maybe you'll have better luck than I did!

chrisck

03-23-07, 01:17 AM

jrbd90

03-23-07, 10:55 AM

Are the 5c flags imbedded within the recording?

I ask this because currently HD-HBO and HD Showtime are copy freely, but HD cinemax, HD starz are copy once.

If HD-HBO changes the 5c flag will that change pre-recorded materal on my drives (i have the Starwars double triology on my external 500GB Maxtor and would hate to lose the chance to archive it)?

ketamine

03-24-07, 05:20 PM

After reading through this thread I was finally able to stream content off my SA8300HD to a PC hard drive using VLC. Now I can archive my old recordings onto DVD to free up much needed space on the DVR.

Didn't see this posted elsewhere but I can get almost 'live' streaming by using the replay button to rewind the live channel by a few seconds, forcing playback from the disk. The video was heavily corrupted when streaming live but was almost perfect after delaying playback on the channel.

Since you mentioned archiving to DVD I'm assuming you're talking about capturing SD material from your SA8300HD, correct? Not to sound like a wet blanket or anything, but this has hardly ever been the issue. The problem is capturing HD content (via IEEE 1394) to PC successfully. By successfully I mean with little to no audio/video glitches in the .ts file. Have you had any success in the regard?

ketamine

03-24-07, 05:21 PM

I did some brief testing transferring a recording of the SuperBowl (CBS 1080i) from the SA8300HD (SARA v1.88.22.1) to a first-generation Mac Mini, and have no problem with blips/glitches/artifacting in the captured m2t file. I'm using Apple's Firewire SDK v2.3, AVCVideoCap, and the guidance found here:

http://www.pressleypress.com/blog/?p=35

So now methinks the glitches on the PC capture side might be related to the Firestb drivers for Windows?

If some more people can confirm this it would give me a very good excuse to pickup a mac mini :)

*EDIT* Seems I found the answer to my inquiry in the link provided by the OP.

Any chance someone has found or modified a set of Windows drivers with perhaps better "effciency" to get similar results on the PC?

a8vdeluxe

03-24-07, 10:10 PM

....Any chance someone has found or modified a set of Windows drivers with perhaps better "effciency" to get similar results on the PC?....

These drivers always worked before. Now CapDVHS crashes when I try to record. If I reboot Windows I can play in VLC but now has lots of stuttering, and pixilation. So is it a driver problem or - me thinks - a software update of box. And, could either a firmware downgrade, or firestb driver update fix these problems?

Firewire has not been disabled because I can still record with VLC. But is so pixilated it is useless. Firewire has been crippled. Do we need a software guru in here who can write some code? If so, I'll cough up $20 -anyone else?

chrisck

03-25-07, 11:55 PM

Since you mentioned archiving to DVD I'm assuming you're talking about capturing SD material from your SA8300HD, correct? Not to sound like a wet blanket or anything, but this has hardly ever been the issue. The problem is capturing HD content (via IEEE 1394) to PC successfully. By successfully I mean with little to no audio/video glitches in the .ts file. Have you had any success in the regard?

No I meant HD content. I captured a 2 hour 1920x1080 previously recorded show (Styx - One with Everything concert on HDNet - Rogers Canada) and the quality was nearly as good as the original, which itself had quite a few glitches.
I spliced the 16GB .ts into two 8GB .ts files then ran it through mpeg2repair.
When I said archive on DVD, I meant burning the .ts files onto a dvd-9 DL disk.
I'll have to try copying a recording that's a little cleaner but I'm very happy.

The PC that the STB is connected to isn't that powerful either:
Athlon 2000, 512 MB DDR333, WinXP MCE 2005

What I have to figure out now is how to do a timed capture with VLC/VLM
instead of CAPDVHS.

dannyv@cybernex.

03-26-07, 12:32 PM

No I meant HD content. I captured a 2 hour 1920x1080 previously recorded show (Styx - One with Everything concert on HDNet - Rogers Canada) and the quality was nearly as good as the original, which itself had quite a few glitches.
I spliced the 16GB .ts into two 8GB .ts files then ran it through mpeg2repair.
When I said archive on DVD, I meant burning the .ts files onto a dvd-9 DL disk.
I'll have to try copying a recording that's a little cleaner but I'm very happy.

The PC that the STB is connected to isn't that powerful either:
Athlon 2000, 512 MB DDR333, WinXP MCE 2005

What I have to figure out now is how to do a timed capture with VLC/VLM
instead of CAPDVHS.

Chrisck

can you go into detail about your firestb and VLC setup. I've read this whole thread and you seem to be the only person that has had success on a PC.
Myself like so many others can capture the .TS HD stream but during playback and capture, video is choppy, pixilated with audio dropout so bad its unwatchable. I use the 8300hd box with sara 1.89.17.1 on an acer laptop with an AMD 3200+ processer and 1 gig of memory. My guess would be the firewire driver is not able to keep up with the speed that the cable company is transmitting the stream so parts of the stream are being dropped or lost.

dannyv@cybernex.

03-26-07, 01:17 PM

dannyv@cybernex.

03-26-07, 01:22 PM

- Using the Media Information function in VLC I found that any recording with a bit rate over ~15,000kbps gives me dropouts/hiccups over firewire, but the feeds are still recordable. Those same original recordings are flawless displayed though component from the 8300HD. I am using a couple of active firewire extension cables to get a 40 foot connection. Don't know if this is the cause, but I might eventually test that possibility by moving the computer closer to eliminate the extension cables.

Vidguy,
This verywell could be the problem. My feeds are consistantly over 18000kbps and unwatchable. This may confirm my earler statement that the firestb can't support bit rates much over 15,000kbps.

dannyv@cybernex.

03-26-07, 01:54 PM

jrbd90

03-26-07, 03:19 PM

dannyv@cybernex.

03-26-07, 04:07 PM

I am going to investigate some of the information on:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

or more importantly:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

If someone already has or thinks its a waste of time, please reply.

By all means please investigate. If we can get some answers or fresh ideas that would be great. I'll also take a look at the links.

This is very intresting. In a nutshell it states that xp's sp2 locks the transfer to 100mbs as sp1 keeps the port at 800mbs. Thats a drastic throttle down of the port.
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

This artical also has an intresting approch to reverting the firewire drivers back to the SP1 state. But my question is. Does the firestb drivers superseed the sp1 drives and limit the port?

This link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Is microsoft's fix to bring the port back to 800mbp. But to get 800mbp you need to make sure your firewire card is 1394B and not 1394A. So it looks like there are a few new things to try. I think I'm going to check my firewire card and maybe invest in a 1394b card if my existing card is not 1394b.

dannyv@cybernex.

03-26-07, 07:57 PM

This link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Is microsoft's fix to bring the port back to 800mbp. But to get 800mbp you need to make sure your firewire card is 1394B and not 1394A. So it looks like there are a few new things to try. I think I'm going to check my firewire card and maybe invest in a 1394b card if my existing card is not 1394b.

I utilized the microsoft hotfix as outlined in the link above. Before I applied it I went into the registry and confirmed the firewire speed was set to "0" which indicated the firewire driver was locked to 100mps. I applied the hotfix and checked the registry and found that the firewire driver was now set to "2" which indicates the driver is now locked at 400mbs. The capture was much smoother with a lot less microblocking and no audio dropouts. but still not perfect. My guess is a 1395B card and the registry set to "3" should do the trick.

On another note my SD captures used to also be very choppy but now there perfect.

If anyone trys this please post your results. I think we now have a solid direction to go in.

lemmyslender

03-26-07, 08:17 PM

I just started trying this the other day. I bought a cheap CompUSA brand firewire card and an old computer (XP1600, 384mb pc133, 80mb ata100). The firewire card is apparently 1394a. I am using XP Pro SP2, w/ the above firewire fix from MS. Pretty minimal specs.

Preliminary results: SD programs no problem (except Disney Stuff, Showtime). HD programs, I have King Kong(~15000kbps) and Serenity (~10000kbps). I have only done test captures of about a minute or so. Ran both through videoredo to fix errors.

King Kong has a couple of errors (~3), but is very watchable. Serenity seems to have less, but was a shorter capture. Again, very watchable. Sound seems ok in both.

Converted the King Kong capture to 720P (tv is 720, more playable on the old computer, half the size), only 1 noticable error.

I will try for some longer captures, hopefully tonight.

*edit* Looking at some 1394b cards online, they all seem to have a 9-pin connector instead of the six pin connector. Seems to me that the SA8300HD probably has 1394a and not 1394b capabilities since it has a 6-pin connector. If so, I don't think a 1394b card would see any performance gain.

Any thoughts?

paule123

03-26-07, 08:44 PM

By all means please investigate. If we can get some answers or fresh ideas that would be great. I'll also take a look at the links.

This is very intresting. In a nutshell it states that xp's sp2 locks the transfer to 100mbs as sp1 keeps the port at 800mbs. Thats a drastic throttle down of the port.
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

This artical also has an intresting approch to reverting the firewire drivers back to the SP1 state. But my question is. Does the firestb drivers superseed the sp1 drives and limit the port?

This link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Is microsoft's fix to bring the port back to 800mbp. But to get 800mbp you need to make sure your firewire card is 1394B and not 1394A. So it looks like there are a few new things to try. I think I'm going to check my firewire card and maybe invest in a 1394b card if my existing card is not 1394b.

FWIW, the port on the SA8300HD is a 400Mbit port, so I don't think an 800Mb capable 1394b card will buy you any improvements... I'll give this patch a try next week sometime and report back.

codex

03-26-07, 09:42 PM

jeffa5

03-26-07, 10:10 PM

I've tried falling back to the SP1 drivers, and even went as far as throwing in a harddrive and doing a fresh install of Win XP w/ SP1. Neither made any difference really. I don't think it's a problem with transfer speed, as I get noise (and lots of it) on low bitrate stations as well (3kbps).

I was about to try reinstalling XP SP1, glad you saved us the trouble!

Seems our experiences all to point to the STB drivers as the culprit. Regardless of our units (8300HD or 8240HD) or firmware, we are all using the same Panasonic STB device drivers:
MEISTB.SYS ver. 1.00.130.1430 date 11/11/2003
MEISTRM.SYS ver. 1.00.130.1100 date 11/11/2003
Those are fairly dated drivers. I think we need to seek out a newer version or some STB drivers from another manufacturer. I haven't found any yet...please post here if you find any!

toro34

03-27-07, 01:36 AM

i still, despite reading every post in this thread, cannot get my 824o to connect to vlc, drivers arent working....

:(

dannyv@cybernex.

03-27-07, 08:54 AM

i still, despite reading every post in this thread, cannot get my 824o to connect to vlc, drivers arent working....

:(

Look at post #137 on page 5 in this thread. It very well could be your problem.

dannyv@cybernex.

03-27-07, 08:58 AM

FWIW, the port on the SA8300HD is a 400Mbit port, so I don't think an 800Mb capable 1394b card will buy you any improvements... I'll give this patch a try next week sometime and report back.

Good point I didn't consider the stb port.

So if opening the port up on the PC side does show improvement this would mean that the issue is the transport stream speed.

Would it be correct to assume that if the pc port matches the speed of the STB port you should be able to get a decent capture. So the problem must be with the STB output.

jrbd90

03-27-07, 09:22 AM

I installed the MS update with the firewire fix.

My STB was upgraded to 1.89.20.1 late last night;
I will try to make some time and try a partial capture of Into the Blue and Return of the Jedi and report back.

jrbd90

03-27-07, 02:01 PM

We may want to try a newer version of VLC.

Beta copies of the newest versions can be found at:

http://nightlies.videolan.org./

paule123

03-27-07, 08:24 PM

dannyv@cybernex.

03-28-07, 12:25 PM

paule123

03-28-07, 12:45 PM

paule123,

Did it make any kind of improvement at all. Or would you say its exactly the same or worst then before.

I would say it's the same.

Meteor

03-28-07, 03:35 PM

I installed the MSKB firewire update and it did not cure the glitches in my VLC recordings of 720p and 1080i prerecorded content.

Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5100, P4 2.66 GHz, 512MB RAM, XP SP2 with the firewire fix. Laptop has a built in firewire 400 port. STB is SA8300HD running SARA 1.88.22.1 on Wide Open West cable in Cleveland.

paule123

I've been trying to capture HD in so many ways and with different PCs is not even funny and I came to the conclusion the firewire driver in XP is broken, until is fix or we get a new one I don't think we'll be able to sucessfuly capturing HD.
The funny part is I have the same laptop as you and reading your previous post of having good results using a Mac I decided to convert my Dell in a MacIntel and guess what it works great !!! :) and let me tell you it's a pleasure to run not crashes it just plain work.
My next computer is definitely a Mac, please don't ask how I did it, Google it.
I leave you a screen grab of my Dell capturing HD.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/279/grabjx7.th.jpg (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grabjx7.jpg)

paule123

03-28-07, 03:53 PM

Excellent work, Meteor. I think that pretty much puts the blame on the XP firewire drivers.

Now if I could only upgrade my JVC 40K DVHS deck to Mac OSX, so it would work properly with the SA8300HD, I'd be all set :D

codex

03-28-07, 04:13 PM

uncertainty

03-28-07, 05:44 PM

a8vdeluxe

03-28-07, 08:51 PM

Meteor,
I was actually looking into getting Mac OSX loaded on my PC since it seemed like Mac users were having no issues with recording via firewire. Before I went through the trouble of doing so, I called my friend who has a MacBook and he said he'd swing by sometime this week to allow me to do some testing on it, so I held off on the OS install on my machine.

With Macs having no issues recording, this rules out the software versions on the STBs. So it looks like the culprit is one of 3 things: the drivers we are all using for out STBs, the software we all using to capture the stream (VLC and/or CapDVHS), or something else within windows XP SP2. My guess is the drivers. When I did a fresh install of WinXP SP1, this ruled out any kind of change from SP2 being the problem.

Since I was still getting errors using SP1, same drivers, and same software that preiously worked in the same envoirnment, it leads to maybe something has changed with the streams themselves.
Maybe the software we are using to capture doesn't know how to handle some of the info in the streams?
Maybe the driver is having problems with the streams?

I have no answers but am encouraged by the effort being put forth here. I'm not an engineer, or programmer, but am wondering:
Is it possible that a firmware upgrade would allow apple computers, but cripple windows?
The apple drivers must be different than window drivers since different O/S.
If streams have changed - aren't streams just pure condensed data - why working on apple?
Is there program that can convert apple drivers to windows drivers?
What is cost of apple o/s, and how difficult is it to do a dual boot?
My computer is set for automatic updates, could Mr. softy be telling me that I have to buy his $400 version of vista?
I think when I originally installed I had four driver selections to record in CapDVHS - unknown panel and tuner, and sa3250 panel and tuner. Now I only have two - sa3250 tuner and panel. Reinstall does not add unknow tuner and panel drivers now. Could this be the problem, and if so, why would it reinstall differently?
Though it would take me at least a month of Sundays to do(no thanks), would a windows fresh reinstall work?
Is the code for the windows driver viewable, changeable, and how difficult would it be to correct by a programmer if that is our problem?
No answers here, only questions.
Scientifically speaking have we really ruled out any causes? cable firmware upgrade, firewire driver no longer functional because of firmware upgrade or change, windows update, some kind of change in stream size, amplitude, improper reinstalation of drivers, or something else altogether?
I am offering $20 to anyone who can get my windows box recording HD again, cause I'm just about ready to throw my cable box out the window.

paule123

03-28-07, 09:24 PM

I have no answers but am encouraged by the effort being put forth here. I'm not an engineer, or programmer, but am wondering:
Is it possible that a firmware upgrade would allow apple computers, but cripple windows?
The apple drivers must be different than window drivers since different O/S.
If streams have changed - aren't streams just pure condensed data - why working on apple?
Is there program that can convert apple drivers to windows drivers?
What is cost of apple o/s, and how difficult is it to do a dual boot?
My computer is set for automatic updates, could Mr. softy be telling me that I have to buy his $400 version of vista?
I think when I originally installed I had four driver selections to record in CapDVHS - unknown panel and tuner, and sa3250 panel and tuner. Now I only have two - sa3250 tuner and panel. Reinstall does not add unknow tuner and panel drivers now. Could this be the problem, and if so, why would it reinstall differently?
Though it would take me at least a month of Sundays to do(no thanks), would a windows fresh reinstall work?
Is the code for the windows driver viewable, changeable, and how difficult would it be to correct by a programmer if that is our problem?
No answers here, only questions.
Scientifically speaking have we really ruled out any causes? cable firmware upgrade, firewire driver no longer functional because of firmware upgrade or change, windows update, some kind of change in stream size, amplitude, improper reinstalation of drivers, or something else altogether?
I am offering $20 to anyone who can get my windows box recording HD again, cause I'm just about ready to throw my cable box out the window.

Apple has embraced Firewire technology from Day 1, so IMO their programmers have had much much more experience with firewire than Microsoft. It doesn't surprise me that the Apple firewire implementation works so much better. With Apple's firewire SDK, you can really see a lot of the "plumbing" going on, options galore, and it's well documented, whereas on Windows, firewire programming seems to be a bit of black magic mastered by a select few. If I remember history correctly, Apple was doing digital video editing with firewire peripherals long before Windows/Intel.

Firewire has always been a bastard child on Windows/Intel platforms, partly because Intel was always promoting USB technology in their chipsets. Intel probably didn't want to pay the extra 10 cents for another vendor's firewire chip on their Intel boards. :rolleyes:

a8vdeluxe

03-28-07, 09:48 PM

Apple has embraced Firewire technology from Day 1, so IMO their programmers have had much much more experience with firewire than Microsoft. It doesn't surprise me that the Apple firewire implementation works so much better. With Apple's firewire SDK, you can really see a lot of the "plumbing" going on, options galore, and it's well documented, whereas on Windows, firewire programming seems to be a bit of black magic mastered by a select few. If I remember history correctly, Apple was doing digital video editing with firewire peripherals long before Windows/Intel.

Firewire has always been a bastard child on Windows/Intel platforms, partly because Intel was always promoting USB technology in their chipsets. Intel probably didn't want to pay the extra 10 cents for another vendor's firewire chip on their Intel boards. :rolleyes:

Nice sumation of Win/Tel and firewire - bastards.
Cost of apple o/s, and dual boot?
But when my was working for about a year I had no problem.
Still hoping that someone will find a windows solution since many of us seem to have lost our firewire/cable box recording HD option. Wasn't it bdraw who came up with this brainstorm?

a8vdeluxe

03-28-07, 11:30 PM

dannyv@cybernex.

03-29-07, 08:47 AM

paule123

I've been trying to capture HD in so many ways and with different PCs is not even funny and I came to the conclusion the firewire driver in XP is broken, until is fix or we get a new one I don't think we'll be able to sucessfuly capturing HD.
The funny part is I have the same laptop as you and reading your previous post of having good results using a Mac I decided to convert my Dell in a MacIntel and guess what it works great !!! :) and let me tell you it's a pleasure to run not crashes it just plain work.
My next computer is definitely a Mac, please don't ask how I did it, Google it.
I leave you a screen grab of my Dell capturing HD.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/279/grabjx7.th.jpg (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grabjx7.jpg)

Meteor,

Intresting thought of converting the PC to a mac. I often thought about installing virtual machine for macintosh but as this is an MS product I'm sure there firewire implementation is the same as on XP. I do have a power mac G4 hanging around doing nothing that I'm thinking of installing OSX on and giving that a try. I'll report back my results.

One question,
Are the TS files created on a mac compatable with a PC. I have limited space on the mac so I would need to capture on the MAC then move the stream to a PC to edit and convert.

uncertainty

03-29-07, 01:44 PM

dannyv@cybernex.

03-29-07, 01:57 PM

paule123

I've been trying to capture HD in so many ways and with different PCs is not even funny and I came to the conclusion the firewire driver in XP is broken, until is fix or we get a new one I don't think we'll be able to sucessfuly capturing HD.
The funny part is I have the same laptop as you and reading your previous post of having good results using a Mac I decided to convert my Dell in a MacIntel and guess what it works great !!! :) and let me tell you it's a pleasure to run not crashes it just plain work.
My next computer is definitely a Mac, please don't ask how I did it, Google it.
I leave you a screen grab of my Dell capturing HD.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/279/grabjx7.th.jpg (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grabjx7.jpg)

I'm going to set up a mac g4 with OSX 10.4 tiger this weekend. Can you give me some detail as to what I will need to set up capturing such as firewire driver, video capture software etc. etc. plus any other hints or tricks you can think of.

paule123

03-29-07, 02:08 PM

I'm going to set up a mac g4 with OSX 10.4 tiger this weekend. Can you give me some detail as to what I will need to set up capturing such as firewire driver, video capture software etc. etc. plus any other hints or tricks you can think of.

Follow the steps here:
http://www.pressleypress.com/blog/?p=35

The Firewire SDK package has the AVCVideoCap application already built in. I followed his "AVCVideoCap" method, those were easier than fooling around with the Virtual DVHS "channel 63" weirdness. So, to paraphrase the Pressley site:

AVCVideoCap :

1a) Perform steps 1-4 ...

1) Download and install Apple’s Firewire SDK found at ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/FireWireSDK22.dmg
2) Connect your Mac to either firewire port located at the back of the 8300HD while the Mac is off.
3) Power on the Mac
4) Tune to the HD channel you wish to capture. (On your STB)

2a) Run the AVCVideoCap app located under /Developer/FirewireSDK22/Applications/
3a) Select your device in the AVCVideoCap UI.
4a) Click the Capture from Device button.
5a) Choose where you want the video saved.
6a) Enter how long you want to capture in minutes.
7a) Hit continue.
8a) Capturing occurs!

Note I am using the Firewire SDK 23, which is a little bit newer and available here:
http://developer.apple.com/sdk/
You have to set up a free Apple developer account to access it, though.

To answer your previous question, yes, TS files are compatible between Mac and PC. Transport Streams are just the raw data from the broadcaster without any re-encoding, so they are playable on anything that supports TS.

uncertainty

03-29-07, 02:40 PM

Follow the steps here:
http://www.pressleypress.com/blog/?p=35

The Firewire SDK package has the AVCVideoCap application already built in. I followed his "AVCVideoCap" method, those were easier than fooling around with the Virtual DVHS "channel 63" weirdness. So, to paraphrase the Pressley site:

AVCVideoCap :

1a) Perform steps 1-4 ...

1) Download and install Apple’s Firewire SDK found at ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/FireWireSDK22.dmg
2) Connect your Mac to either firewire port located at the back of the 8300HD while the Mac is off.
3) Power on the Mac
4) Tune to the HD channel you wish to capture. (On your STB)

2a) Run the AVCVideoCap app located under /Developer/FirewireSDK22/Applications/
3a) Select your device in the AVCVideoCap UI.
4a) Click the Capture from Device button.
5a) Choose where you want the video saved.
6a) Enter how long you want to capture in minutes.
7a) Hit continue.
8a) Capturing occurs!

Note I am using the Firewire SDK 23, which is a little bit newer and available here:
http://developer.apple.com/sdk/
You have to set up a free Apple developer account to access it, though.

To answer your previous question, yes, TS files are compatible between Mac and PC. Transport Streams are just the raw data from the broadcaster without any re-encoding, so they are playable on anything that supports TS.

Paulie does AVCVideocap allow one to set the size of files to save? For example if I wanted to save a 2 hour movie into 4GB files will it allow that type of save or can it only be done manually?

thanks

paule123

03-29-07, 02:54 PM

Paulie does AVCVideocap allow one to set the size of files to save? For example if I wanted to save a 2 hour movie into 4GB files will it allow that type of save or can it only be done manually?

thanks

I really don't remember what the options are in AVCVideoCap. Here's a little AVCVideoCap tutorial I found:
http://project-tigershark.com/people/rob/blog/2007/01/14/cable-tv-mac-firewire-hd-pvr

I also stumbled across this, something called iRecord might be useful to you:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060421212958602

How-To: MacOS X Firewire HDTV recording
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=386740

Google is your friend.

NV5655

04-01-07, 03:38 PM

a8vdeluxe

04-01-07, 05:58 PM

No more questions. I quit, the cable box just went out the window, down 8 flights towards the trash bin, bounced off plastic covering of bin, went over the fence, just missed a car parked there, and may it rest in peace. ;)

Just kidding folks. Here is a precious find for all you diehards...if anyone is left other than me. On demand programs record perfectly with firewire drivers. What does this mean?

When you flip to an on demand channel is looks like the same pixalated crap. But if you play a selection.....presto. I'm recording again. It is only in SD though, and since time warner only has one HD on demand movie channel, and it is PPV I have not tried it yet. But, again, why is on demand recordable but not network channels???

twitchee3

04-01-07, 06:20 PM

OK everyone, some questions. I tried viewing firewire content on an older system and was met with less than spectacular results. I now have an Core 2 Duo setup that's ten times as far, so hopefully it'll work better.

1- Has anyone tried this with the HD/DVR QIP6416-2 model from Verizon FIOS?

2 - What are you using to record from Firewire, and how close is the quality to true HD DVD or Blu-Ray specs? I'm wondering if it's worth going through the hassle.

And 3 - Does any old firewire card work? and where are the driver links for the box again?

thanks!
1. It works on the Fios HD DVR just as it works on other Motorola DCT units.

2. A DVHS recorder or firewire equipped computer (Windows/Mac/Linux) can be used to capture the digital transport stream. Since the transport stream is transferred digitally, your recording will be EXACTLY bit for bit the same quality that it was broadcasted in by your cable head end. I don't know exactly what you want to know in comparison to HD DVD or Blu Ray, however these new Hi Def movie standards use 1080p HD resolutions, but currently no digital TV provider broadcasts any content in resolutions higher than 1080i. All network HD content is broadcast in either 720p or 1080i, so you're not going to be able to get 1080p recordings yet because the content isn't there.

3. Essentially yes, as long as you have a functional firewire card with updated drivers, you shouldn't have any problems.

dannyv@cybernex.

04-02-07, 08:47 AM

Just kidding folks. Here is a precious find for all you diehards...if anyone is left other than me. On demand programs record perfectly with firewire drivers. What does this mean?

When you flip to an on demand channel is looks like the same pixalated crap. But if you play a selection.....presto. I'm recording again. It is only in SD though, and since time warner only has one HD on demand movie channel, and it is PPV I have not tried it yet. But, again, why is on demand recordable but not network channels???

a8vdeluxe,

In my case SD channels record perfectly but the HD channels are all pixilated and audio is choppy. If you read some of my earler posts on this page you will find a firewire hotfix procedure from microsoft. In a nutshell here is the information I refer to.

By all means please investigate. If we can get some answers or fresh ideas that would be great. I'll also take a look at the links.

This is very intresting. In a nutshell it states that xp's sp2 locks the transfer to 100mbs as sp1 keeps the port at 800mbs. Thats a drastic throttle down of the port.
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

This artical also has an intresting approch to reverting the firewire drivers back to the SP1 state. But my question is. Does the firestb drivers superseed the sp1 drives and limit the port?

This link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Is microsoft's fix to bring the port back to 800mbp. But to get 800mbp you need to make sure your firewire card is 1394B and not 1394A. So it looks like there are a few new things to try. I think I'm going to check my firewire card and maybe invest in a 1394b card if my existing card is not 1394b.

I tryed this and it did make it better but the problem still does exist. It seems the problem is in the firestb drivers. I'm in the process of setting up a Macintosh G4 which from all I have read in the forums seems to work perfectly.

So as fustrating as it is don't give up. Your amoung many of us here who are having the same exact problems.

uncertainty

04-02-07, 02:52 PM

a8vdeluxe,

In my case SD channels record perfectly but the HD channels are all pixilated and audio is choppy. If you read some of my earler posts on this page you will find a firewire hotfix procedure from microsoft. In a nutshell here is the information I refer to.

I tryed this and it did make it better but the problem still does exist. It seems the problem is in the firestb drivers. I'm in the process of setting up a Macintosh G4 which from all I have read in the forums seems to work perfectly.

So as fustrating as it is don't give up. Your amoung many of us here who are having the same exact problems.

I borrowed a mini mac from a colleague at work and low and behold like others have mentioned it performs flawlessly for archiving from the SA8300HD. I'm going to pick up a used Mac on ebay for the time being. I'll keep checking in on this thread though hoping one day someone fixes the firewire drivers for the PC.

dannyv@cybernex.

04-02-07, 04:57 PM

I borrowed a mini mac from a colleague at work and low and behold like others have mentioned it performs flawlessly for archiving from the SA8300HD. I'm going to pick up a used Mac on ebay for the time being. I'll keep checking in on this thread though hoping one day someone fixes the firewire drivers for the PC.

uncertainty,

How well did the mini mac play back the raw .ts stream. I've read a few post that said that the less powerful mac's like the G3/G4 do a great job of capturing streams but playback of the stream is not so great unless you have a powerful machine like a g5 or better.

I just got done setting up a g4 but have not had time to test it yet.

uncertainty

04-02-07, 09:46 PM

pinbwiz

04-10-07, 09:13 AM

The mac mini I had for the weekend was the 1.66mhz version (low end) and using VLC it was able to display full 1080i with no pausing. However I'm just going to pick up a low end Mac on ebay to just save my recordings as I already have my HTPC setup for that purpose.
Out of curiousity how powerful is your Macintosh HTPC setup (processor speed)? Do you think 1.66mhz is the bare minimum processor that should be used to playback the 1080i recordings?

Also with your MACintosh, which HD-channels were you able to successfully record(CBS,NBC,ABC,WB,FOX,etc..)? Were you able to record TNT,DISC, or Universal?

Final question: were there any issues with recording prerecorded content from your SA8300 DVR or were you only able to record live content?
Thanks for sharing this valuable info!

jcgarand

04-10-07, 05:44 PM

uncertainty

04-10-07, 09:08 PM

Out of curiousity how powerful is your Macintosh HTPC setup (processor speed)? Do you think 1.66mhz is the bare minimum processor that should be used to playback the 1080i recordings?

Also with your MACintosh, which HD-channels were you able to successfully record(CBS,NBC,ABC,WB,FOX,etc..)? Were you able to record TNT,DISC, or Universal?

Final question: were there any issues with recording prerecorded content from your SA8300 DVR or were you only able to record live content?
Thanks for sharing this valuable info!

The Mac Mini I had (1.66mzh duo core 2) was just a loaner from a colleague and it was fine for playing back my 1080i material (TS flavor). I was able to backup any of my recordings on the SA8300HD and also time-shift (let buffer build for 1 min or so then record the material) some live material, such as TNTHD, would cause many video artifacts when recorded in this manner.

Keep in mind the ability of archiving your recordings is also dependant on your cable provider as they may modify the 'copy once' bit.

uncertainty

04-10-07, 09:10 PM

I just swapped my old 8300HD for a new one that has the 1394 ports so I'm looking forward to giving this a try. Has anybody tried it with Vista? Are the drivers and VLC going to work in Vista? ...I have a HTPC with a E6600 core2duo and 2GB of RAM, so I expect there's enough horsepower under that hood, but it's runnign XP-MCE right now so I'm wondering if better luck could be had if I dug up a copy of Vista...

-Brian

The firewire drivers currently available are for the MCE/XP so you will have to use them for vista. I wish you the best of luck but if you read this entire thread I think you will see that many feel those drivers need to be improved to allow archiving to a PC.

Vidguy

04-12-07, 02:29 AM

I just swapped my old 8300HD for a new one that has the 1394 ports so I'm looking forward to giving this a try. Has anybody tried it with Vista? Are the drivers and VLC going to work in Vista? ...I have a HTPC with a E6600 core2duo and 2GB of RAM, so I expect there's enough horsepower under that hood, but it's runnign XP-MCE right now so I'm wondering if better luck could be had if I dug up a copy of Vista...

-Brian

If you could dig up a copy of OSX Tiger for X86 systems, then you might have something. Supposedly, it works... ;)

dannyv@cybernex.

04-16-07, 11:01 AM

I'm going to set up a mac g4 with OSX 10.4 tiger this weekend. Can you give me some detail as to what I will need to set up capturing such as firewire driver, video capture software etc. etc. plus any other hints or tricks you can think of.

Just want to follow-up on my attempts with the mac g4 that I setup.
The mac captures far better then the PC. I captured a 1 hour HD program on a network cable channel and a 1 hour HBO HD show and both captured perfectly with no frame dropouts. I had some microblocking and audio dropout which was on the 8300hd original recording. I noticed that after the microblocking and audio dropout on the HBO show. The audio went out of sync for about 5 minutes. On the network show (the program 24 on fox) the microblocking and audio dropouts on the origional recording (8300hd) were present on the capture but did not make the audio go out of sync. The microblocking and audio dropouts were not excessive (once every 20mins or so). I used mpeg2repair on these streams but this did not help. I used avcdvhs to capture and did not need to use avcbrowser to detect the stb. I had to open and close avcdvhs many times before it let me capture anything (capture button remained grayed out). If anyone has a solution or explination as to why this is happening on avcdvhs it would be greatly appreciated.

I copied the stream from the Mac G4 to my PC and used nero vision express 7.0 to convert the stream to DVD and this worked perfectly and resulted in DVD quality video and 5.1 digital audio. Nero also recoginized the stream (.m2t) from the mac and needed no converting.

rock99rock

04-20-07, 02:57 AM

The firewire drivers currently available are for the MCE/XP so you will have to use them for vista. I wish you the best of luck but if you read this entire thread I think you will see that many feel those drivers need to be improved to allow archiving to a PC.

Just a thought... those drivers are for the STB, not the firewire interface itself. Maybe vista's new driverbase has improved upon XP's support of FIREWIRE... Im gonna dig up a copy of vista and try it out, to rule it out.

timecop

04-20-07, 03:14 AM

rock99rock

04-21-07, 02:04 AM

It doesnt, and it didn't.
Those drivers you're all using aren't XP drivers anyway.
No additions were made to AV/C drivers in Vista.
So you might as well not even bother.
If every person who's contacted me over these last 2 years about "writing a new windows 1394 driver" would acutally complete their projects we'd have about 10 different drivers to choose from.

I wish i saw this yesterday. :D Vista is kicking my htpc's old ass anyway. Who woulda think no nforce2 support, no ati 9250 720p support. What a pain. oh, to uninstall...

rock99rock

04-21-07, 02:21 AM

Meteor

04-25-07, 01:03 PM

Hey Meteor... excellent work. What version is that? Im trying to see if my hardware is compatible.\\ Thanks

Rock, what I did it's highly illegal, I was frustrated working with broken firewire drivers in XP and reading from people having success with the MAC I decided to give it a try.
I borrowed tiger OSX version 10.4.8 disk from a friend.
WARNING-- Apple would never ever release the OS for PC users, even if you buy a legitimate OSX disk from the store and install on a PC you're breaking the license agreement.
If you're still want to pursuit this, search on the net or go to insanelymac forum for info in your hardware.
I already bought a MacPro laptop and I am having excellent results transferring from my 8300HD, too bad the cable co. is adding copyright flags in most of the premium channels, leaving just the locals and a few others.

uncertainty

04-25-07, 05:55 PM

a8vdeluxe

04-25-07, 07:35 PM

davehancock

04-26-07, 12:27 PM

I just downgraded my cable service to basic cable(channel 2-25) with SA3250 box, and HD pacakge. Current cost is now $30/month($15 for basic and $15 for HD box/HD basic package). I was told by cable company that I could not recieve extra HD package without the $70 digital package. But I still receive most of them(espn, universal, hdnet/movie, inhd). Does anyone know if this is illegal(should I be getting non-network HD channels without standard digital package?)
If ok, I need to complain because I'm not receiving the new ESPN 2 channel or old Discovery channel. If not, I'll keep my mouth and enjoy the HD I should not be receiving. :)

PS Time Warner website seems vague to me on pricing.Where are you located (add your location to your profile please)?

The law regarding what they must carry on the basic tier only really only applies to the local (qualified) OTA stations. They MUST provide the main (HD) channel of any such local digital that they do carry on the basic tier, BUT there is nothing in the rules about how they handle (and charge for) the cable network channels (HD or not).

Nimo

04-26-07, 12:29 PM

Has anybody tried it with Vista? Are the drivers and VLC going to work in Vista? ...I have a HTPC with a E6600 core2duo and 2GB of RAM, so I expect there's enough horsepower under that hood, but it's runnign XP-MCE right now so I'm wondering if better luck could be had if I dug up a copy of Vista...

-Brian

I'm recording on Vista with my DCT 6200 with the new TWC FW: 16.35 using CapDVHS "via" firewire. I'm using the firestb-vistarc1 drivers by Timmmoore and using VLC 0.8.4a anything above this build for some reason won't playback HD stuff when watching TV. SD is no prob with the latest build but as soon as I hit HBO HD or any other HD ch it freezes so back to 8.4.

Although TWC has crippled a lot of DVR's with their new FW in different county's I can at least say here in LA I can still record all my HD channels Discovery HD, HBO, @Max etc... Local stations record fine 2 through 13.

Regards,nimo/smurfer

hi_i_am_wade

04-27-07, 11:44 AM

Hey everyone, I have my played around with my SA 8300 DVR and I was able to get good, not great captures on my PC. Here is how I did it. Step-by-step. (I can't post links yet.)

I first followed the directions listed on AVS forum for recording by IEEE 1394. With one exception. I am using the Vista drivers. Vista drivers improved performance slightly. You can get the Vista drivers on Timmorre's sight. Google "firestb.msi" for the drivers. Note: Vista drivers are 32-bit only. Not a problem for most people since pre-installs are always 32-bit (though they should be 64-bit because the 32-bit Vista is crippled a little).

I used the latest version of VLC to capture. Although, I was successful in getting other programs to capture.

I turned caching values to 0 in the advanced DirectShow properties in the options for capture. The sound is jittery during playback, but that is not how it is capturing. I find caching values of 0 improve the video capture, decreasing errors. I also find that the video has less errors in Vista. And finally, I find 720p video to have less errors too.

Note, I still haven't obtained perfect capture. But if I keep tweaking and keep playing, I may yet. Hope this helps.

I currently have the latest firmware for my 8300. You know you have it if it can fast forward by 4x. My cable company is Suddenlink in North Carolina.

P.S. Can someone post the correct links?

rock99rock

04-29-07, 03:29 PM

Rock, what I did it's highly illegal, I was frustrated working with broken firewire drivers in XP and reading from people having success with the MAC I decided to give it a try.
I borrowed tiger OSX version 10.4.8 disk from a friend.
WARNING-- Apple would never ever release the OS for PC users, even if you buy a legitimate OSX disk from the store and install on a PC you're breaking the license agreement.
If you're still want to pursuit this, search on the net or go to insanelymac forum for info in your hardware.
I already bought a MacPro laptop and I am having excellent results transferring from my 8300HD, too bad the cable co. is adding copyright flags in most of the premium channels, leaving just the locals and a few others.

Meteor...

I now have a dual boot system of xpPro sp2 AND OSX. It was a pain, but everythng is working flawlewssly... luckily my motherboard has a good following. I say flawlwessly... It was. The first night that i got everything to work( audio, lan, it was brilliant). Captured part of "Planet Earth" , and it played back ffine on the mac using AVCVideoCAP, and VLC. I made the mistake of letting it auto update (the OS) and that broke the installation. So i had to start over (re-install the OS, didnt do anything different). NOW, When i capture... SOMETIMES it shows packets coming in, others it does not, BUT NO MATTER WHAT, even if its a 100mb 1 minute file (.m2t), it will NOT play back on vlc. I tried transfering to a pc via shared drive, wont play there either. Any ideas? Thanks for opening this door... its an awesome setup using a mac on my pc.

opaque

04-30-07, 06:54 PM

paule123

04-30-07, 07:17 PM

Not only is the file format on the SA8300HD proprietary, the video files are encrypted, most likely with a key unique to that STB.

Even if someone did try and figure out the directory structure, they'd probably be in instant legal trouble courtesy of the MPAA, RIAA, etc etc.

a8vdeluxe

04-30-07, 08:45 PM

paule123

05-01-07, 02:03 AM

Legality smegality. Let's just get these boxes working again. I want my firewire back!

From what I read you won't have the SA8300HD to kick around much longer. The next generation "SA9000" with CableCard are on the way.

jrbd90

05-01-07, 09:47 AM

From what I read you won't have the SA8300HD to kick around much longer. The next generation "SA9000" with CableCard are on the way.

Why would a cable company's cable box need a cable card?

Unless SA will market them like a TIVO alternative and sell directly?

paule123

05-01-07, 11:34 AM

Why would a cable company's cable box need a cable card?

I know it sounds goofy, but it's a new FCC requirement that goes into effect in a couple months, IIRC.

davehancock

05-01-07, 11:38 AM

Why would a cable company's cable box need a cablecard?Because of the FCC "Integration Ban" which goes into effect 7/1/07. Cable can no longer deploy new cable boxes that have built-in security functions. The ruling was made years ago, but delayed till now. It was intended to allow companies like TiVo to "play" on the cable network. The long-term objective is to have downloadable security (DCAS), but the short term "fix" is to use cable boxes with CableCards

davehancock

05-01-07, 11:42 AM

From what I read you won't have the SA8300HD to kick around much longer. The next generation "SA9000" with CableCard are on the way.The SA9000 is still a way off. The Integration ban will be satisfied, in the short term, with the SA8300HDC and similar versions of existing products.

rock99rock

05-03-07, 02:35 AM

davehancock

05-03-07, 10:38 AM

Why cant you post links?You need to have 5 posts till you can post links (I suppose it is some anti-Spam measure).

rock99rock

05-10-07, 03:52 AM

ok well i half got the recordings to work on my hackintosh. I can transfer pre-recorded material only right now. other material, timeshifted or live, only sends about half the bits? weird. along with that, i am currently setting up mythtv on ubuntu to record via firewire. forewarning, mythtv is a pain.

Hellbreed

05-17-07, 12:13 AM

dannyv@cybernex.

05-17-07, 10:16 AM

Boy, haven't been on this forum in such a long time. And here I am after getting my SA8300HD looking for answers from the experts, great site!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I did some testing today with a G4 Notebook, has 1GB Ram and is 1Ghz. I tested about 5 mins recording from a pre-recorded movie, got my m2t file, played it on the G4 notebook and it was really studdering. Copied it to my PC and it was very smooth, so it seems the 1GHz is enough to record the file but not play it. The source was 1080i and 5.1 surround and my test file ended up with looking pretty much the same, no audio or graphic issues. Thanks to everyone for their effort!!

I use a G4 450mhz and get great captures but as expected it plays back with studder. I transfer it to my PC and convert it to HD DIVx with 5.1 sound and it plays back perfectly with fantastic video quality and sound. I stream the video back to my home theater setup via my MVIX 760 media control center.

CZ Eddie

05-20-07, 04:24 AM

So, can someone with Time Warner 8300HD and a JVC 5U and a 2.8ghz P4 Windows XP machine make any recordings yet?

So far it looks like it's either Apple, or nothing. :(

shahsmerdis

05-20-07, 03:59 PM

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html

follow that, and choose 8300HD tunner instead of moto....

jrbd90

05-21-07, 11:37 AM

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html

follow that, and choose 8300HD tunner instead of moto....

Can anyone confirm that this works well?

paule123

05-21-07, 11:47 AM

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html

follow that, and choose 8300HD tunner instead of moto....

Can you elaborate on this? I see no mention of SA8300HD on this page, and it seems to be a rehash of what we already know (and does not work)

jayray

05-27-07, 10:28 PM

CapDVHS sees my 8300 but gives the message cannot find SampleGrabber. what does this mean? It took me all day to get it to recognize the 8300. Even MCE recognizes the box. Using Vista home premium. Tried VLC but that went nowhere.
Any help would be appreciated.

jrbd90

05-31-07, 10:40 AM

I use a G4 450mhz and get great captures but as expected it plays back with studder. I transfer it to my PC and convert it to HD DIVx with 5.1 sound and it plays back perfectly with fantastic video quality and sound. I stream the video back to my home theater setup via my MVIX 760 media control center.

Do you a FAT32 file system, if so how do you capture files larger than 4GB?
A single movie will easily go over this limit in about an hour.

I thought of dual booting with my PC and using OSX X86, but wouldn't I have this file size limitation?

jrbd90

06-06-07, 12:14 PM

Success with SA8300HD!!!

Thanks to BWALL23 for tipping me off to TSReaderLite 2.7.45f.

I downloaded it from http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader/TSReaderLite2.7.45f.exe
for the free trial.

At first I recorded the one minute limit allowed with "How I Met Your Mother".
The recording was full of artifacts.

After a couple of hours messing around I was able to record one minute clips from about 35 movies I have on my 500GB ESATA expanded SA8300HD!

All movies were prerecorded, live did not work.

Select fire.dll when opening TS Reader.

Check them out for yourself:
http://rapidshare.com/files/35575940/sample6.ts.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/35582252/sample18.ts.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/35586460/sample22.ts.html

The steps I had to take:

1. I reinstalled the firewire drivers with the vista-arc1 version (sorry I can't find a link) using the method from this site.

2. i installed the XP patch for firewire patch http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

3. I stopped all unnecessary processes on my laptop including "disable radio" for the Proset wireless.

4. In TS Reader, settings: "Data Input Thread" change to CRITICAL
"Main Process Priority" change to realtime
"Stream Processing Thread" change to high
Change the buffer to 250MB for the Streaming Pipe
and 25MB for Thumbnail Pipe

I am able to record even some movies from STARZHD which is very strange because it is listed as copy once.

My ShotimeHD is copy freely but the recordings from that channel didn't work right for some reason.

All others worked very well, the only artifacts present were in the original stream.

The full version of the software is pricey at $99, but there are many more tweak option that are not available on the trial version.
I have not bought it yet because I want to give VLC one more chance.

replayrob

06-06-07, 04:52 PM

Success with SA8300HD!!!
All movies were prerecorded, live did not work.
....I want to give VLC one more chance.
I was never able to get live stream capture via firewire working on my SA8300HD either, so I now record the show first then hit play and use VLC to capture to computer. I recorded "Minority Report" last Saturday night, I'm going to DL it to my computer tonight.

jrbd90

06-08-07, 01:29 PM

I was never able to get live stream capture via firewire working on my SA8300HD either, so I now record the show first then hit play and use VLC to capture to computer. I recorded "Minority Report" last Saturday night, I'm going to DL it to my computer tonight.

Unfortunately i have not had any luck with VLC.

I like TSreader a lot, i just wish it wasn't $99 for the version that lets you record for more than one minute.

dannyv@cybernex.

06-11-07, 04:55 PM

Do you a FAT32 file system, if so how do you capture files larger than 4GB?
A single movie will easily go over this limit in about an hour.

I thought of dual booting with my PC and using OSX X86, but wouldn't I have this file size limitation?

Actually I map my mac over to my windows 2003 server and capture to a shared NTFS network drive. There is no file size limitation on NTFS. So my mac basically works like a capture card passing the file to the windows server.

Alowe

06-12-07, 08:39 AM

jrbd90

06-13-07, 10:26 AM

I installed this app. How exactly do you record from this program?

Alowe

Plug in the firewire to the 8300HD and the computer

When you click the exe file hold down control.

Pick firewire.dll.

Play a recording on your 8300HD.
TS reader should pick up the stream. You will know by realtime bitrates at the bottom of the screen.

If you get nothing, leave the firewire plugged in, restart the computer, then TS reader.

Once you get the stream recognized by the program select record on the top menu, then select record program (you may have to highlight the PAT/PMD stream listed on the left of the screen.

Select an output file, then hit start. Thats it! the trial version only does one minute, but you can try as many files as you want to.

My ShowtimeHD is set to copy freely as well, but record program doesn't work for that although it recognizes the stream well.

I'm hoping record MUX option will work for this but that option is only for the full version which i still need to bite the bullet and buy.

Good luck!!!

paule123

06-16-07, 07:16 PM

Plug in the firewire to the 8300HD and the computer

When you click the exe file hold down control.

Pick firewire.dll.

Play a recording on your 8300HD.
TS reader should pick up the stream. You will know by realtime bitrates at the bottom of the screen.

If you get nothing, leave the firewire plugged in, restart the computer, then TS reader.

Once you get the stream recognized by the program select record on the top menu, then select record program (you may have to highlight the PAT/PMD stream listed on the left of the screen.

Select an output file, then hit start. Thats it! the trial version only does one minute, but you can try as many files as you want to.

My ShowtimeHD is set to copy freely as well, but record program doesn't work for that although it recognizes the stream well.

I'm hoping record MUX option will work for this but that option is only for the full version which i still need to bite the bullet and buy.

Good luck!!!

I have the registered version of TSReader and gave your technique a try. Unfortunately my recordings still show significant glitches. Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop, 2.4Ghz, WinXP SP2.

jrbd90

06-17-07, 05:55 PM

I have the registered version of TSReader and gave your technique a try. Unfortunately my recordings still show significant glitches. Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop, 2.4Ghz, WinXP SP2.

Is the glitching on CBS?

I went back to try to record "How I Met Your Mother" and still have continuity errors like my first trials.

But, HBOHD, CinemaxHD, SHowtimeHD, and STARZHD have all been sucessful although I wish UniversalHD wasn't set to copy once....

paule123

06-17-07, 06:17 PM

Is the glitching on CBS?

I went back to try to record "How I Met Your Mother" and still have continuity errors like my first trials.

But, HBOHD, CinemaxHD, SHowtimeHD, and STARZHD have all been sucessful although I wish UniversalHD wasn't set to copy once....

I didn't record CBS. I recorded my local Cleveland Indians RSN (STO) which is pristine full bandwidth 1080i, and I also recorded some ESPN US Open stuff in 720p. According to TSReader, the bitrates on both were running about 18Mbps. Both had glitches. By glitches I mean clean video interspersed with big chunks of multicolored blocks every few seconds.

jrbd90

06-17-07, 09:22 PM

Most of the movies i recorded were between 14-17 Mb/s.

One thing I did to improve the performance on CBS and NBC was to disable the thumnail stream completely (in settings).

It helped to make glitch free "Office" and King of Queens recordings.

"How I met your Mother" was improved but 1-3 continuity error per minute still exist. Its interesting that the bitrate is ~14 for this still with errors.
It probably didn't help that I was recording two other movies at the timebut I will try again tomorrow or the next day.

aemeeich

06-17-07, 11:39 PM

I am also trying to get my XP SP2 computer to record off of my 8300HD from TW WI. I'm running Passport 2.6.002

Could someone who has gotten this to work show a picture of the 2 diagonistic screens for firewire?

Is there a line that says whether the firewire port is working or not?

I'm guessing by what the first picture shows with all the "0 Not Streaming" on the different lines, that my ports are not even active. Does this change once there is a working receiving end (DVHS, Mac, or PC that actually has working drivers)?

First Picture is of the Firewire page
Second Picture is the Copy Protection screen for Discovery HD
Third Picture is the Copy Protection screen for my local ABC HD

Thanks for any responses.
Michael

jrbd90

06-18-07, 09:06 AM

I am also trying to get my XP SP2 computer to record off of my 8300HD from TW WI. I'm running Passport 2.6.002

Could someone who has gotten this to work show a picture of the 2 diagonistic screens for firewire?

Is there a line that says whether the firewire port is working or not?

Thanks for any responses.
Michael

My diagnostics screens never showed firewire active.

Buy a firewire cable, download TSReader Lite for free, and try it out!

If you don't have a desktop or laptop with firewire, you may be able to get a USB to firewire adaptor or PCMCIA adaptor, etc.

My Dell 9300 had firewire standard so I was lucky.

aemeeich

06-18-07, 11:03 AM

I have tried it with VLC, CapDVHS, and TSReader lite.

When TSReader is running, there is no data or graphs that show up at the bottom. However, once - for about 30 seconds - it did display some numbers. If I remember right, it only was saying about 9 MB/s though. I have not been able to get this to happen again though.

Cap DVHS crashes as soon as I hit record.

VLC doesn't do anything when I hit record.

A couple of months ago, I rented a Sony HDV camcorder. I captured the footage with CapDVHS, but since I didn't know about the windows update at that time - the capture was slightly choppy. It looked like it dropped every 5th frame or so. But it still captured reasonably well.

This is why I'm thinking that my firewire ports on the cable box aren't even putting anything out - and was hoping someone could show if their diagonistic screens showed anthing that would let you know if the firewire ports were even active.

Michael

Harpua14

06-19-07, 02:55 PM

I got Tsreader demo and my 8300hd version to work with no glitches so far
thanks to this thread.

I have another question though, is there a way to watch cable through firewire on my htpc

tcrews

06-19-07, 06:07 PM

I used the TSreader demo on my 8300HD and it captured (1 minute demo time limit) an HDNET HD concert flawlessly on my WinXP SP2 system.

I ordered the full version and am in the process of transferring the concert over. I'll post the results in about an hour (it's been running for 30 minutes).

I've tried CapDVHS which crashes about a minute running and VLC. VLC worked almost well enough when I bumped the cache size up to 5 megs. Still it had the dropouts/glitches every so often that would annoy everyone. I noticed the buffer size of TSReader is 20 megs (default), I wonder if that is to buffer out some of the error/sync issues?

CapDVHS always grabbed flawless transfers before it crashed.....

Just waiting for the concert to finish and I'll post results.

tcrews

06-19-07, 07:19 PM

Finished recording the concert (Joe Satriani) and there was a small amount of glitching. Definitely in the acceptable range (if you are used to cable hi-def glitches). Glitches were small and very infrequent. For me this is a success as I wanted to get a lot of hi-def recordings off my DVR and stream them through my 360. (2 terrabytes on my PC of hard drive space). Now I just need to work on converting the .ts file to a HD-WMV file.

mde71

06-19-07, 08:40 PM

I got TSreader to work on both my XP laptop and my Vista laptop, both dual-core, but as some others have mentioned I'm getting very "glitchy" output, with lots of continuity errors. I followed jrbd90's instructions and used the proper settings. Any idea what could be causing the errors? Streams are coming in at 18-19Mb.

aemeeich

06-20-07, 01:57 AM

tcrews -

Is your 8300 running SARA or Passport? and are you Comcast or Time Warner or something else?

also could you either post a picture of the firewire page in your diagnostic screen or at least type what it says. As I posted earlier, I havn't been able to get it working here, and I'm trying to figure out if it's the computer's fault, or the cable box's fault.

Thank you
Michael

tcrews

06-20-07, 07:57 AM

jrbd90

06-20-07, 09:05 AM

While at work I can give you this....

Time Warner Cable, SARA software on the 8300HD. Versions and all that will have to wait until later (when I'm home).

SARA as well, can check version later, but it is the one that has the 4speed fast forward and rewind.

jrbd90

06-20-07, 10:04 AM

[QUOTE=tcrews] I noticed the buffer size of TSReader is 20 megs (default), I wonder if that is to buffer out some of the error/sync issues?
QUOTE]

I upped the buffer for the streaming pipeline to 250MB from the default 20MB.

I'm doing some tests to see if more or less helps or hurts recordings

Unearthly

06-23-07, 09:55 PM

Hey, I managed to get my 8300HD recognized by XP using the methods described in the thread (Drivers and all installed). TSReaderLite recognizes the device on firewire and starts up, but it won't recognize the stream.

Image of TSReaderLite:
img529.imageshack.us/img529/5406/nosignalud0.jpg

It says Signal: N/A

Does that mean my 8300HD's firewire is disabled? I wasn't able to find in the menus if it was enabled or not. How do I navigate there? My firmware is SARA 1.89.20.1.

jrbd90

06-23-07, 10:15 PM

Unearthly

06-23-07, 10:25 PM

CZ Eddie

06-24-07, 02:42 AM

I tried that, but then I went through some 30+ diagnostic screens until I finally found:

32/39 Copy Protection Screen
..........Copy Protection......Enabled
1394.....Unavailable.........Unavailable

Is there anything I can do (Call the cable company [Charter]?) to get this port enabled?

My screen says the same thing (Sara 1.89.17). Depending on the answer to the above question, I'll look into this new app for recording that you guys are talking about!

paule123

06-24-07, 10:32 AM

You can't get live TV out the firewire port. You have to play back a program that was previously recorded.

CZ Eddie

06-24-07, 12:40 PM

You can't get live TV out the firewire port. You have to play back a program that was previously recorded.

Thanks.

My diagnostics for Copy Protection stil shows 1394 as disabled/disabled, when I play back a recorded show.

paule123

06-24-07, 12:54 PM

Thanks.

My diagnostics for Copy Protection stil shows 1394 as disabled/disabled, when I play back a recorded show.

I wouldn't pay much attention to that, I get the same 1394 disabled status on my SA8300HD SARA 1.89.20.1 (WOW cable, Cleveland) but I can play back prerecorded stuff through the firewire.

It also tells me my DVI/HDMI is disabled, and I know for a fact it works too.

Unearthly

06-24-07, 03:04 PM

CZ Eddie

06-24-07, 03:55 PM

Thanks paule123 !

paule123

06-24-07, 04:55 PM

Is there any way I can definitively tell whether my firewire port is active? I called Charter today and they told me that they don't support the firewire port. I told them about the FCC mandate and they said they'd investigate it and get back to me. Of course, if it is activated, I'd like to know before I get all on their nerves for nothing.

So, how do I tell if the firewire port is working? Preferably through a DVR menu item, as my drivers are all set up and recognize the hardware but get no signal.

Did you try recording something, then play it back, and see if TSReader picks up the stream? Other than that, I don't know of a "definitive" way to see if the port works.

Re the FCC mandate, it seems a few cable companies work around that by offering a non-DVR HD box (i.e., the SA3250HD) with firewire enabled for live TV.