Different recording formats by Channel? (1 Viewer)

skoka123

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    Yes, it does seem high. Have you tried CBR mode to see if the encoder adheres to the settings? VBR is much more difficult to check as the encoder will use higher bitrates for high motion scenes.

    I will try this and report back soon.

    This is difficult from our perspective because your video is always arriving as h.264 - we can't automatically tell the difference between HD and SD.

    Is there some way for me to check if my STB is doing the encoding because I know for sure that only the HD channels are beamed in MPEG4 and all SD channels are MEPG2. After going through the FAQ on Hauppauge, I got the information that all video are encoded to h.264 (Please see: Support for Colossus).

    I was wondering if there is some way of adding a pre-recording command either in 4TR or TV-Server. If and when I want to record an SD channel set the bitrates lower and set it to high when recording HD. Is this something possible?
    My understanding is that it *may* be possible to set the bitrate on a per-recording basis. I have never tested this, but try:

    1. Open MP.
    2. Go to the TV section.
    3. Click "scheduled".
    4. Click "new" on the left.
    5. Select "advanced record".
    6. Select the channel.
    7. Select the recording type (best to use "record once" for testing).
    8. Select date, time and duration details.
    9. Select the bitrate mode. Pick a different one from the playback and recording settings so that we can tell it really works.
    10. Select the quality. Again, best to choose something different here.

    Does that allow you to set the quality of each recording as you desire? Please provide logs to prove either way.

    I will do that shortly.

    BTW, on an unrelated note, what exactly would I gain by using HDMI over Component if my STB outputs is 1080i and 720P. In either case the Colossus is going to encode the video so what is the big deal about support for HDMI? I am really confused. Did I fall for marketing jargon and hype.
    The big deal is that HDMI is digital. There is no quality loss in the conversion (inside the STB) from digital to analog, and no loss in the cabling. Yes it is true the Colossus re-encodes, but theoretically it is better than doing two re-encodes (digital -> analog in STB to go to component/composite/s-video, analog -> digital in capture card).

    Got it.

    Thanks,
    Srikanth

    I was wondering if there is some way of adding a pre-recording command either in 4TR or TV-Server. If and when I want to record an SD channel set the bitrates lower and set it to high when recording HD. Is this something possible?
    My understanding is that it *may* be possible to set the bitrate on a per-recording basis. I have never tested this, but try:

    1. Open MP.
    2. Go to the TV section.
    3. Click "scheduled".
    4. Click "new" on the left.
    5. Select "advanced record".
    6. Select the channel.
    7. Select the recording type (best to use "record once" for testing).
    8. Select date, time and duration details.
    9. Select the bitrate mode. Pick a different one from the playback and recording settings so that we can tell it really works.
    10. Select the quality. Again, best to choose something different here.

    Does that allow you to set the quality of each recording as you desire? Please provide logs to prove either way.

    Hi mm,

    I do not see the 'New' on the left. In fact all that I see is a delete button at the bottom of the screen. I guess this is probably because I am using 4TR plug-in. If that is the case then I will remove the plugin. I disabled the plug-in and restarted TV Service but I still do not get an option to add new Schedule. Is there a way to do it other than reinstalling MP all over again?

    Thanks,
    Srikanth
     

    mm1352000

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    Hi again

    It is certainly possible that FTR does not support this function because it doesn't support analog tuners. In that case, you would need to use the MP TV plugin. You can re-enable the MP TV plugin (for testing at least) by:

    1. Close MP.
    2. Open Windows Explorer.
    3. Navigate to your MediaPortal install folder (something like C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal).
    4. Navigate into the plugins\Windows subfolder.
    5. You should see a TvPlugin.dll and a TvPlugin.dll.bak. The TvPlugin.dll is from FTR; the bak version is the original MP TV plugin.
    6. To re-enable the MP TV plugin, rename TvPlugin.dll to TvPlugin.dll.ftr and TvPlugin.dll.bak to TvPlugin.dll.

    After that see if you have the option...

    mm
     

    skoka123

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    Hi again

    It is certainly possible that FTR does not support this function because it doesn't support analog tuners. In that case, you would need to use the MP TV plugin. You can re-enable the MP TV plugin (for testing at least) by:

    1. Close MP.
    2. Open Windows Explorer.
    3. Navigate to your MediaPortal install folder (something like C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal).
    4. Navigate into the plugins\Windows subfolder.
    5. You should see a TvPlugin.dll and a TvPlugin.dll.bak. The TvPlugin.dll is from FTR; the bak version is the original MP TV plugin.
    6. To re-enable the MP TV plugin, rename TvPlugin.dll to TvPlugin.dll.ftr and TvPlugin.dll.bak to TvPlugin.dll.

    After that see if you have the option...

    mm

    Hi mm,

    I did the above. I restarted the TV service but that did not help. I have even restarted the PC still no change. I am able to set up a scheduled recording through MP UI. When I look up the Schedules in MP TV server Config I do not even see the scheduled recording. I see it in the Program Guide within MP as marked for recording. When I go to 'Upcoming Recordings' I only see the recordings set in FTR but not the one set through MP.

    Please see the attached screenshot.

    Any other ideas? If I have no option I will take a backup of the installation and reinstall MP.

    Thanks,
    Srikanth
     

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    • Schedule.png
      Schedule.png
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    mm1352000

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    Have you checked the MP configuration TV settings to ensure that the TV plugin is pointing to the correct TV Server?
    What happens if you use MP to schedule a simple recording from the EPG?

    I'm finding it hard to figure out what is going wrong from here - I'm at work so I don't have access to my own MP machine to check that it works for me. If it is relatively easy and painless then by all means try a backup and reinstall. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful...
     

    skoka123

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    Hi mm,

    Looks like even after renaming tvplugin.dll to tvplugin.ftr and tvplugin.dll.disabled to tvplugin.dll it looks like FTR still has the control as it is still showing up in the 4TR recording notification.

    Can you or someone please attach the tvplugin.dll for 1.2 RC so that I can overwrite the dll on my HTPC? I am afraid something must have got messed up when 4TR was installed.

    The tvplugin.dll I have is 425,984 bytes.

    Thanks,
    Srikanth
     

    mm1352000

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    Hi again

    Maybe check the TV Server install directory for other *.disabled files - it has been quite some time since I last tried FTR so I'm not entirely certain which files it updates...

    mm
     

    mm1352000

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    rekenaar: :D

    skoka123: I just noticed in your log that you seem to be using an older Colossus driver. This is causing you to have to wait at least 10 seconds for each tuning. I'm surprised you didn't mention that. It is certainly not normal. Please update to the latest driver from -->here<-- to resolve that issue. I'm quite keen to see if the quality control actually works so I look forward to your test results with constant bitrate mode.

    Best regards,
    mm
     

    skoka123

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    Hi mm,

    I was using the older driver. I am now using the new driver ver 29192. In fact that has enabled 20 mpbs bitrate. It used to be 10 mbps prior to that. You were probably referring to the older logs.

    You are correct that there is a lag in Live TV. Even with the new drivers I still have problem with live TV. I am able to watch live TV with FTR client (watch Live TV option in FTR Management console). When I try to watch live TV from MP client or even from MP server I have mixed results. More often that not, there will be inactivity and then a brief BSOD and reboot.

    I do not think this has anything to do with MP. I had this problem develop recently as a result of which I reinstalled Win7. In fact I had trouble running Windows Experience Index. My system used to crash. Finally it has worked OK. Now I can run WEI any number of times without crashing Windows.

    The only problem I now have is with Live TV in MP. As I am not sure if it is MP related I have not raised it as an issue. BTW, even preview in TV server config does not work. Earlier I used to get just 1 frame and the video used to pause. This I believe is due to the codec used by Windows. Now I do not get any preview at all after I followed the guide for codec setup.

    Again Live TV works flawlessly through FTR but not within MP. Sometimes this happens even with recorded TV. May I should approach Hoborg for SAF codecs. I do not want to confuse you with irrelevant issues.

    I have been busy last weekend. I will get you all the bitrates that you want to be tested this week/weekend. Please let me know the test scenarios and I will try them out and post the logs.

    Thanks,
    Srikanth
     

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