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AVCNoodle - STB Recording via Firewire

29K views 122 replies 27 participants last post by  TGspud 
#1 ·
 http://www.steventoth.net/AVCNoodle/Running.jpg
http://www.steventoth.net/AVCNoodle/...dle_v0.9.0.zip


... and an updated v1.0.0-b1 beta:
http://www.steventoth.net/AVCNoodle/..._v1.0.0-b1.zip


This is the first public preview at a new firewire capture application I'm planning to release, currently under the working title 'AVCNoodle'.


As we speak the preview is known to work with:


* Motorola DCH-3416 (no channel changing)

* Motorola DCT-3416

* Motorola DCT-6200

* Motorola DCT-6420

* Motorola QIP-6416 DVR (Verison FIOS)

* Pace Model DC551PF (no channel changing)

* Scientific Atlanta SA4250

* Sony DHG-M55CV (no channel changing or power on support)

* Sony Television (KDS-R60XBR1), no channel changing


The basic features include:


* TitanTV/iCal integration (channel name and tvpi scheduling support).

* Basic (very basic) Applescript support.

* Manual iCal support for non-Titan environments.

* Multiple STB / Multiple simultaneous recordings.

* VLC support for monitoring the recordings


The preview is not:


* Bug free, please report new bugs here

* Complete, most of the features are basically working but need minor enhancements or bug fixes.

* Polished, parts of the UI need to change and/or disappear. I'd welcome your input - regardless of how obvious something is. Am I lacking something obvious?

* Fully functional, all recordings are currently limited to 30 seconds. This is enough to evaluate the application and test your hardware. I'd love to hear about different STB's, which ones are working, which ones don't.


The preview should give you a flavor of the overall direction. I'd welcome your comments. Either respond here or PM me if you want to discuss issues privately.


Regards


Steve
 
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#27 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pvr4Craig /forum/post/15673043


Stoth, are these tools available? I record digital OTA through an HDHomerun with Myth and some recordings do not play back smoothly. It seems there may be discontinuities in the digital audio OR Myth may not be playing properly. (I've tried tweaking all sorts of settings with no improvement. Playback used to be fine on version 20.2 and initially seemed to be OK with .21-fixes.) I'd like to find a way to list any problems that may be in my recordings.


Craig

Tools available, no.


Use the hdhomerun_config save option on the remote mythbox to grab a stream, it does basic analysis on the captured recording which indicates and stream or network errors resulting in dropped packets.


- Steve


/off topic
 
#29 ·
Firstly, I want to thank all of the people who have given feedback.


Second, looking at the revision hardware list at the top of the tread, AVCNoodle has a 50/50 chance of being able to change channels on the average STB (or TV). Certainly in my home that's a 100% accurate statistic.


I'd have to go back a re-read this thread again but, if anyone here who has reported channel changing issues knows of another firewire application that DOES change their channels correctly - meaning an AVCNoodle deficiency, then I want to hear about that application.


As it stands a 0.9.0, with the exception of a small amount of Ui and bug fixing work, it's only a relatively small step away (for 50% of it's users) from a credible scheduling app, with TitanTV support.. I.E. v1.0


It's going to be difficult to debug channel changing issues for hardware that I don't have so I'm pondering the next step.


GrahamAJones: Responded originally suggesting that for external IR Blaster support he's got some experience "...I worked with both the IRTrans and ZephIR infrared device developers for my [iEye Captain] app.."


Would people prefer to see a v1.0 without IR Blaster support initially, followed possibly by a v2.0 with support for IRTrans and ZephIR"? I don't currently own any of those IR Blaster products but assuming they have a typical API then they'll not be hard to integrate.


Do people want / need post processing to automatically convert (transcode) MPEG2 into something else (mp4 for AppleTV)? Or, is this job best served by the existing well establish applications (VisualHub)? If this is important to you, is this a must have 1.0 feature or is this a 2.0 feature?


As always, your feedback is appreciated.


- Steve
 
#30 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by brettwf /forum/post/15682794


Sheldon,


I have you tried Plex? So far, Plex has played back all recordings for me, even the ones that VLC could not open.


Brettwf

I just tried Plex v. 7.? It also wouldn't play the mt2s file avc noodle made.

Good thought though. Thanks.


Steve, if it helps, I have been successful using avccap, & irecord on a motorola dct 6420 and avccap and firerecord on a motorola dct 3416. By successful, I mean inconsistently successful. According to mpeg streamclip, the files often have timecode breaks and data breaks. This is especially true if I am capturing from dvr playback (instead of timed capture). They usually open/play with vlc.

Quote:
Do people want / need post processing to automatically convert (transcode) MPEG2 into something else (mp4 for AppleTV)? Or, is this job best served by the existing well establish applications (VisualHub)? If this is important to you, is this a must have 1.0 feature or is this a 2.0 feature?

For me, since I have 2 hardware DVRs, my main purpose for capturing with your app is for content I want to add to my media library. I would be encoding to mp4 (x264+ac3) or mp4 (x264+aac) to get reasonable file sizes. I've used established apps like Mpeg Streamclip, AviDemux, and now Handbrake to do it. I really like Handbrake for it's inverse telecine + decomb + vfr. If your AVCNoodle could automatically do that, great - I'd use it for encoding.

If it couldn't do that, I'd use handbrake.

That being said, if I didn't have hardware DVRs, I'd use your app like a DVR, storing shows temporarily to my readyNAS. If they weren't playable using FrontRow or Plex or VLC, they'd have to reencoded to a format that does play.

-btw I know Frontrow isn't really an option because even saved in .mov container it still won't de-interlace on the fly.


Hope this helps, and btw your app looks promising , but I'd really need the Canadian tv listing integration for it to work for me.


Thanks,

--Sheldon McLean
 
#32 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stoth /forum/post/15685506


Just so we're clear, do any of these apps channel change correctly for either of your STB's? If so, how does that compare to AVCNoodle?

All the apps I mentioned including AVCNoodle are able to change the channel on a timed record.


--Sheldon.
 
#34 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stoth /forum/post/15683204


I'd have to go back a re-read this thread again but, if anyone here who has reported channel changing issues knows of another firewire application that DOES change their channels correctly - meaning an AVCNoodle deficiency, then I want to hear about that application.

- Steve

I can use AVCBrowser that came with the latest FireWire SDK from Apple to change channels on both the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD and Pace DC551PF, neither would work with AVCNoodle. AVCBrowser even comes with source code.
 
#36 ·
I've posted beta1 of the v1.0.0 release, download details are on the original post on page #1.


I haven't added any new channel change support. I have cleaned up a lot internally, fixed a lot of bugs, reworked and shrunk the UI. Added a detailed view, right click menu with some shortcuts for previewing the recording etc.


Multiple STB support and scheduling is working via Titan. (no other EPG support yet).


Everything is working for me but I'd love to hear your feedback. I need to add some graphics to represent different STB's, so if you see a large '?' graphic then it's because I need to match your STB with a graphic.


I plan to update the blog ( www.steventoth.net ) over the next few days so I'll be able to provide some basic screenshots, a product overview, a FAQ and a payment mechanism.


If you plan to test this then:


1. Thank you.

2. Completely remove/delete any previous version from your system, if you have any odd startup issues try removing the ~/Library/Preferences/net.steventoth.AVCNoodle.plist file.


I'm all ears, great feedback so far.


- Steve
 
#38 ·
I really want to buy and like this app and use it to time shift all HD channels to my Apple TV, but before I buy it I will still need some of these features/fixes:


1) Record and playback all HD Channels

HD Network/local channels seem to record and playback fine but other HD channels that I record (ESPN, HBO, etc) have some stuttering when I play them back in MPEG Streamclip. All say Copy Freely in the detailed view.

I tried Apple's AVCVideoCap and it does the same thing, OK for network/local and stutter for other HD Channels, but it says that network channels are Copy Freely and all other HD channels are Copy Once, this contradicts what AVVCNoodle says. Maybe I can't record the Copy Once channels ?


2) Channel changing for one of my 2 Comcast HD boxes

Apple's AVCBrowser can change the channel on all my boxes. (I know you are working on this)


3) Display real time video

VLC can't play any files that AVCNoodle records on my 2 Comcast HDboxes. MPEG Streamclip can play everything.


4) Automatic Export to iTunes and Apple TV

I can probably to this via scripts or my own app, but it would be nice to have built in.
 
#41 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stoth /forum/post/15768922


Onazuka: Didn't you get my PM asking you for those two sample files that you'd mention? Another fireiwire guy is having similar issues with the 8300 with HBO content, and I think it's fixable.


Please respond.

No, I never got your PM. I just checked again. I had the files all ready to go and I still have them. I just figured that you got busy or had enough information.


You probably know a lot more about this than I do but here's what I found today. AVCNoodle lists all my HD channels as Copy Freely in the details view when I try to record them. With Apple's AVCVideoCap it shows local/network and OnDemand as Copy Freely and all my other HD Channels (ESPN, HBO, etc.) as Copy One. There is a direct correlation for me to be able to record and play back HD channels if they are listed as Copy Freely in AVCVideoCap and not being able to play the HD channels if they are listed as Copy Once in AVCVideoCap. I don't know much about these copy protection issues but if you can fix the playback that would be great. I am definitely not trying to illegally copy anything, I just want to time shift HD to my AppleTV.
 
#43 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stoth /forum/post/15769168


Onazuka: PM resent.

Thanks.


Can you send me another dump of ESPN? Either the current dump is completely managed, encrypted or something else. I'm double checking but a second dump would be good to have.


The other dumps look like I can repair them.


Thanks again.


- Steve
 
#44 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stoth /forum/post/15769852


Thanks.


Can you send me another dump of ESPN? Either the current dump is completely managed, encrypted or something else. I'm double checking but a second dump would be good to have.


The other dumps look like I can repair them.


Thanks again.


- Steve

I can send another ESPN file but the log in and password that you sent me for your ftp server doesn't work anymore.


I was out the past few hours and I used Apple's AVCVideoCap to record a movie of OnDemand. I can play this fine and strange that it works in VLC which to date had not been able to play anything. The even stranger thing is that I just did two test recordings with AVCNoodle, one on ESPN and another on HBO and both played in VLC! I can even watch it while AVCNoodle is recording. Hmmm... Could AVCVideoCap have changed some settings in the Pace box?


Anyway, the new ESPN recording looks fine now. The HBO still has the stutters in MPEG Steamclip, show blocking in VLC.
 
#45 ·
I have one other feature request if it's possible. It is to be able to watch a channel using VLC without recording it to disk. Now that VLC has miraculously started working for me, I thought that it would be good to be able to watch ESPN in a window while I work on the computer without setting up an arbitrary recording time and remembering to delete a large file later.
 
#48 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stoth /forum/post/15683204


I'd have to go back a re-read this thread again but, if anyone here who has reported channel changing issues knows of another firewire application that DOES change their channels correctly - meaning an AVCNoodle deficiency, then I want to hear about that application.


- Steve

Steve,

Whereas both AVCapture and FireRecord will properly change the channel on my Motorola DCH-3416 (Comcast), AVNoodle will not. It does record good mt2 files (viewable/streamable by VLC) on whatever channel it happens to be tuned to, though.


I'd love to have AVNoodle working on my setup - let me know if I can help test anything for you.

Freddy B.
 
#49 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Freddy B. /forum/post/15939974


Steve,

Whereas both AVCapture and FireRecord will properly change the channel on my Motorola DCH-3416 (Comcast), AVNoodle will not. It does record good mt2 files (viewable/streamable by VLC) on whatever channel it happens to be tuned to, though.


I'd love to have AVNoodle working on my setup - let me know if I can help test anything for you.

Freddy B.

Thanks Freddy, good feedback.


I need to find a way to debug this. I'll be in touch.


- Steve
 
#51 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by o0FlipZ0o /forum/post/16306112


My firewire just arrived today and wanted to test out the app.


I have a DCT-6200, and AVCNoodle detects it, but when it starts to record, nothing appears to be getting streamed.


Is this to do with my STB?

It could be.


Switch to ABC then try recording. What happens?


- Steve
 
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