DirectTV SHEF IP Control Plugin for TVServer (2 Viewers)

[enricong]

Sure, if you have 3 TV's in 3 different rooms, you'd be buying 3 receivers anyways. However, if you utilized the DVRs to record shows, you'd be able to record 6 shows at once where now you can only record 3 at once.
I know I have to record 2 shows at once quite often, sometimes 3. If you have 3 rooms (and possibly 3 people), I could see needing to record more than 3 at once.

As for the 2yr agreement, I thought that you had to sign up any time you activated a new receiver.

 

[LeeTXJD]

Just thought I would post a pointer for those using this great plugin.

My setup would not change channels with the DirecTV SHEF plugin - but it had tested fine in the plugin setup. I had been receiving the following error in the log file:
[2014-09-02 20:00:46,599] [Log ] [3 ] [ERROR] - DirecTV SHEF - DirecTV_SHEF_OnTvServerEvent(): Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.

I discovered that I had inadvertently copied a tab or space into the IP address. I deleted the space and now everything works GREAT.

 

[Timothy Cobb]

I have been searching the forums to get this information but i have only found a lot of probably's and maybes and really am not confident what to do yet.

i am about to get Directtv services and run the latest mediaportal on my mediacenter. i currently have a usb digital cable tuner and i am aware i will not be able to use that when i get service. my question is what do i need to buy to make this work. i have found the following:

-colossus provides input, but some people on the net are saying HDCP makes it so most channels are not viewable
-must have h24 box in order to control over ip (more reliable then ir)
-some forums are saying that premium directv channels are resolution throttled on component outputs

i am looking for someone that already has this setup, to tell me exactly what works, so i can order it. i do not know these things above, i simply read them, so feel free to correct the information if its not right.

thanks in advance

 

[sjevtic]

I have three H24 receivers connected via component video and digital audio (using an external S/PDIF to optical converter) to three Colossus cards. I use SchedulesDirect for EPG, and the SHEF IP plugin to control the receivers over Ethernet. I had some issues in the early days as a consequence of trying the much-inferior HD-PVR (Gen1), so I built a dedicated TV-Server machine. I then had some issues my TV-Server machine and some bugs in earlier versions of MP and Colossus drivers, but with that behind me, the configuration has been running great without intervention for well over a year now. The only real issues I have are with the receiver power control feature of the SHEF IP plugin, though you don't have to use that, and of course the fact that component isn't *quite* as good as HDMI, especially if you have a screen size/viewing distance combination that pushes the limit of 1920 x 1080 in the first place (I have 94" viewed at 10'). That said, expecting DirecTV to look as good as a Blu-Ray in the first place is a bit much anyway. It looks nothing short of spectacular on a more moderately sized screen or mobile device.

I gave up on HDMI during my early experiments because it just worked right. I don't know whether the problems were related to HDCP or immaturity of the Colossus drivers at the time. But once I got it working right and stuffed it all in the cabinet, I never looked back. If you decide to try HDMI, please report back on your results.

I think you can "add" Ethernet functionality to later receiver models lacking an Ethernet using the external Cinema Connection Kit, but at least from my perspective that isn't desirable since it is likely to mean adding several large boxes to your TV-Server cabinet.

Sasha

 

[Timothy Cobb]

i ordered 2 colossus cards, shortly after the directv install i am thinking of ordering http://www.ebay.com/itm/270641169821?afsrc=1 as a lot of people in forums are saying they inadvertently solve the hdcp issue. at the same time i will likely order the optical-coax adapters as well.

since i had so much trouble gathering all the information for this, i am thinking i am going to document what i do and post it on here somewhere for others.

 

[sjevtic]

Well, that's interesting regarding those, umm, "splitters". Please report back on your findings. BTW, I used inexpensive S/PDIF to optical converters from Monoprice, and they have been working without issue. I would be thrilled to get rid of all that if someone finds a simple HDMI-based solution.

One thing I remember having a big problem with when testing HDMI was resolution switching--for some reason, I would lose my stream whenever the receiver's output resolution changed, something that commonly happens when switching between channels broadcast at different resolutions. You can avoid this by turning on the DirecTV receiver's scaling feature, but that's not a viable option from my perspective, as the quality of the built-in scaler is junk and also results in scaled recordings (read: unnecessarily large files).

Sasha

 

[Timothy Cobb]

i will definitely report back... the issues you had with hdmi, is this only a problem when recording? i dont intend to record/dvr much of anything since i have an automated downloader for torrents to retrieve just about everything i would want to dvr. the only reason for directv in the first place is for my wifey's "lady channels, and so i can have the news. what exactly happens with the resolution changes?

 

[sjevtic]

The problem surfaced whenever the Colossus saw a resolution change on the HDMI input, regardless of whether this occurred as a consequence of a tuning change from the recording scheduler or the user interface (i.e., as a consequence of channel surfing). I don't remember a lot about the issue as it has been a couple of years since this kept me up all night, but I do remember rebooting my TV-Server machine excessively because the Colossus got confused and could no longer receive any stream after this event occurred. All of this said, keep in mind that this was many MP releases, Colossus driver, and DirecTV firmware versions ago.

Sasha

 

[Timothy Cobb]

i got everything installed yesterday and everything seems to be working the way it should....EXCEPT the following. i have 2 h24's both working for channel changes via the shef plugin, 2 different clients can watch 2 different channels at ones. but the second client has no audio. i suspect that it has something to do with the schedules direct plugin because when i made the channels, it wanted to know what inputs. i am not sure if i gotta have it create another set of channels with a different input selected. my confusion is that when creating the channels, i used input 1 on both drop downs, yet the channels still work on the second client. it seems to me that if it was the channels i created, it would make sense that the video would not work either. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sjevtic]

Are you using the same audio and video connections on both cards? If so, there should be no need to have separate sets of channels. BTW are you using HDMI? And are you doing so with or without those "splitters"?

Is the problem associated with a particular receiver/card combination? Or is it strictly following the second client? Note that TV-Server sources have priorities, so it might look like there are problems with the second client when it is actually a receiver/card issue. Try testing each with ArcSoft ShowBiz that comes with the Colossus.

Sasha