The Official R5000-HD Technical Status Discussion - Page 41

I'm using WinXP Pro SP2 with the meivhs drivers.

I'm gonna try using my Mac to do the transfers. If that doesn't work. my options will be to keep the material on a hard drive and watch using my MyHD card, or to go back to the 169time solution, which gave me good results over 75% of the time. I also have a machine I can install Win XP Home SP1. Maybe the firewire drivers will work a little better . . .

Thanks! I really appreciate that you're providing updates. It was one of the reasons for replacing the 169time system with the r5000 (the r5000 is also much easier to use).

Andy

My Motorola Comcast Box has been very unreliable with the R-5000 HD PVR. SOmetimes it simply does not change the channel, sometimes it does. When I use the remote interface and click on numbers, frequently it ignores my first few clicks and then doesn't take all the info. I think this is my problem, that the channel change signals are being sent to my Motorolla 200 series box too rapidly and it does not change the channel properly. So instead of chanel 231 I get channel 23 (CNN!) This is very frustrating, please help! Thanks

I just got 2 Starchoice DSR 505a's moded with the R5000 and I've got everything set up nicely. But I have encountered a problem with 2 channels (that I've found so far) and all that is recorded on them is a blank screen & no sound. They are channels 580&581 Much & MuchMore Music. I know I'm getting the signal and channel since I have the reciever hooked up to an external TV and it gets the picture just fine. But when I record these 2 channels with either STB the file grows as its recording, but when I view the file its blank. Also when I view the channel through the HD5000 DVR media preview software the channels are blank as well. Any suggestions?

Are the channels music video channels or just music channels? I don't think the R5000-HD supports recording music only channels. If there is video with these channels, what does it look like?

TW

Yes to clarify they are Canadian music video channels and I found a third that records a black screen with no sound as well, 583 CMT, country music video channel (not that I really care about this one ). So I'm seeing a theme here, although I am able to get and record 591 PUNCH which is music video request channel.

Ok, an update on my blank channel issue. I found that its a codec issue that affects 3 of my Starchoice channels, 580,581& 583. If I use the Nvidia decoder with VMR9 I do get a picture on these channels. Unfortunately I can't seem to use VMR9 because it causes the jitter/stutter on my HD channels and NVidia doesn't do overlay on a secondary monitor so I am stuck using the Sage mpeg encoder with overlay but then I can't play these channels. So would these channels be encoded differently and in such a way that the Sage mpeg encoder can't play them?

Well, I cannot give you an answer without any certainty - but I can tell you that one 3 different movie titles on Star Choice - out of the blue - for whatever reason - the R5000HD is identifying these Video stream types as 0x1b. I think that's reserved for H.264 video.
This is causing HDTVtoMPEG2 and MPEG2REPAIR to not find any PIDS.

However, older versions of HDTVtoMPEG2 that were less picky have no issues with this - thus showing that it is actually MPEG2 and should have been encoded Stream Type 0x02.

I cannot tell you if this is a bug in the R5000HD Muxer or if it is only doing what the SC Data Stream is telling it to do. On the other hand, I had never had this happen until this past week.

I can logicially assume that if for whatever these channels were behaving in the same way, just as HDTVtoMPEG2 and MPEG2REPAIR think they are a different codec than what they really are, that it is possible some of the players you throw it at would have a black screen and no audio as well.

Since they are both coming from StarChoice, it does seem a bit odd.

I don't have your setup with cable, but did have an issue with channel changes as well with my Starchoice DSR401 receiver (also made by Mot). What seemed to do the trick for me was starting all channel changes with an enter, then the channel numbers, then enter. Once in a while it will not change the channel properply, but it is now very rare. May or may not help in your setup, but since both boxes are made by MOT I thought I would pass it along. David at Nextcom was very helpful last year when I was having this problem and changed how the dvr sent the ir commands. Good luck getting it working right.

Darin

Didn't the DSR401 need an External HDD-200/HDD-201 and thus the IR repeater as opposed to directly inserting the remote control codes into the CircuitBoard ?

I you have windows media center 2005 and a xbox 360 you can watch your ts files without converting them to anything just intall a program call hdtvpump i am sure if you google it you can find it. i installed it an it work great no more making a hd dvd.

Yes. IR repeater from the HD200.

Darin

I can see how an IR repeater would be a little more touchy than a direct feed to the IR input on the circuit board.

Update.

Well, I got an imac mini. Downloaded firewire sdk. Fiddled around a bit to get virtual d-vhs and my tv to communicate. Not really what I had in mind, but it works with my r5000-hd streams.

I was thinking that one of the apps in the sdk would make the mac act like an avhd, but that is not the case. Only virtual d-vhs can output streams to the tv. I was hoping to be able to select from the tv a list of streams to play (like an avhd, I presume), but with the virtual d-vhs app, you have to load the stream file first (just like loading a tape into a d-vhs deck, I guess), then control the 'vcr' with the tv (or the virtual d-vhs program).

Playing the streams through firewire is nice, the computer does what it's good at- sending a stream of data, the tv does what it's good at- decoding/displaying a ts stream (in hardware of course). The picture/sound is as perfect as the original (tested with recent 'discovery atlas hd' r5000-hd recordings). I like bypassing all the unnecessary layers that are usually required to playback a stream, letting the tv do all the hard work an hdtv is supposed to do- decoding hd streams/converting to native resolution/etc.

I also took an mpg (originally an hd stream that I converted to a dvd mpg with ffmpeg) and ran it through vlc, converting it back to a ts stream. It played throught the virtual d-vhs, with 5.1 sound and a great picture (played with virtual d-vhs WHILE it was converting in vlc). I also played a dvd using this method (no upconverting dvd player needed). Open dvd in vlc, set to stream out to a ts file, load ts file in virtual d-vhs, play (WHILE converting). I think unix pipes fits in here somewhere (any unix guru's out there?).

As soon as I get this all figured out, my tv will break down, and there will be no tv's left that have firewire.

Any chance the Nextcom people put out a osx version of their software? I didn't think so. (So I could eliminate my 'capture' laptop).

Thanks, it appears to work now (or at least did last night on one show) with the new R5000HD program file they sent. Can't seem to copy the program file into the program files directory for some reason, it always makes a shortcut (as a Mac person, Windows still mystifies me at times). I have been running it from the desktop where the zip file landed...

I'm a Windows person, my new imac mini mystifies me at times

In Windows (XP), if you 'drag and drop' a file (or shortcut) to a different location on the same drive (letter), it will move the file. If you 'drag and drop' a file (or shortcut) to different drive (letter), it will be copied. If the icon has a little arrow in the bottom left corner, it is a shortcut. Also, when you 'drag and drop' a file (or shortcut), when you see a little + by the icon, it will be copied, if no + then it will be moved. (If I remember right, Windows 98 would make shortcuts when dragging an executable file to a different location, indicated by the shortcut arrow that would appear as the file was being dragged).

A surefire way to move files is to right-click the file(s), then select cut or copy, then go to the folder you want, right-click then choose paste. Cut will move the file, copy will obviously make a copy of it.

You can copy a file by holding down the Ctrl key as you drag it, no matter where it is.

Can someone explain why the Rate KB/s on the Nextcom DVR will show roughly 3700 on HBO from E* and roughly 7400 on HBO from C-Band - and yet the file size and bitrate are very similar for the actual title?

The stream from C Band consists of the whole transmitted MUX. The direct stream is just the video and audio of the desired channel. John

Are you saying I should be able to get HBO-HD East and West in the same stream even though I am just tuned to one of the channels with the IRD

If not, then I guess I am still not comprending the difference. What else would be in the mux?

Both East and West could be in the same stream. The channel you selected is decrypted the others are not, so they can not be seen. The R5000 software only records the decrypted channel.
John

Got it. thanks.

On another question, I recorded a movie - but the PVR did not change it to the correct channel. I noticed this about 82 seconds into the cap and changed the channel manually to the correct channel.

Now when I try to trim file with HDTVtoMPEG2 I cannot see past the point where the channel change occurs.

Several years ago someone else had this issue (as did I) and I realized you could cut the file into smaller sections with H2, load all but the first section so it sync'd on the good channel - then load the first section and manually back it up to where the screen went blank on the first wrong channel - include it from there and re-assemble.

For whatever reason, that doesn't seem to work now.

The file is over 8 meg so I know its all there. TSREADER reports only the typical 0x11 and 0x14 PID. The bars do go from green to red at the point of the channel change unfortunately.

I have used the Nextcom Transport Stream Cutter and told it to extract from 1Min 30 seconds forward - still a big file but no video or audio.

Nothing seems to be able to pull out the the movie that is taking up over 8 gig of file space.

Any suggestions on things to try?

Or am I just stuck with an encrypted channel cap such as CTDISH noted above?

Use one of the old versions of HDTVtoMPEG2, from before the time when it did PID stripping and renumbering.

I actually did that as well......same deal.

TSReader is only showing the usual 4 PIDs in the stream.

never mind....maybe i was out of line..sorry..t

That's pretty funny. But actually, I have bought a lot of stuff in this hobby that way.

At any rate, I had good success with these guys many moons ago when I had my DTC100 modded.

It was $1k back then, and I had to send them my DirecTV box (which back then cost lot's more than now), so what do you think about that as an act of faith!

They are extremely responsive to email inquiries. I've been doing business with them since their inception, and have not experienced any lack of response to any of my questions.

I can't even get a legit local address or phone number for the local management at my baby bell local phone company.

And your point?