DTV 3250SD STB capture support via firewire / 1394 (1 Viewer)

whitead

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July 12, 2005
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I have been using MP since last summer with a PVR150 (analog of course). I have digital/hd cable, so all these wonderful channels are mediaportalless (that's a new word BTW).

It turns out that the STB I have, a Scientific Atlanta 3250SD, has an active firewire (IEEE-1394) port. With a bit of googling I found windows XP/MCE drivers for this STB here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=403695

All from the above forum, I found that I can:
1. Capture video as a transport stream (.ts) over the firewire link. This is using the CAPDVHS program found in the avsforum.
2. Change channels via the firewire link using the command line program included with the STB drivers (channel.exe).
3. View the live transport stream using VLC Media Player.
4. Convert the captured .ts file using TSconverter into a .dvr-ms and play it back in MP.

So it seems like all the pieces are there to make viewing/captureing/channel changing work within MP. It is already working in SageTV and BeyondTV for these STBs. So this brings me to my questions...

In MP setup, my STB shows up in the list of available capture cards. There are four listings:
1. Scientific-Atlana AV/C Tuner Device (General S/W encoding card).
2. Scientific-Atlana AV/C Panel Device (General S/W encoding card).
3. Scientific-Atlana AV/C Tuner Device (General H/W encoding card).
4. Scientific-Atlana AV/C Panel Device (General H/W encoding card).

I can choose either of the above tuner devices, but I'm not sure where to go from there. Aren't there other STBs that are working in MP? I could be mistaken, but doesn't the FireDTV connect via firewire? What would it take to be able to support this hardware?

I know that the channel changing part of it could already work using 901Racer's MPExTuneCmd Plugin. We just need MP to recognize the STB. This would probably work for everyone with Motorola 6200/6208/6412 STBs and the Scientific Atlanta 3250HD/SA8000/SA8300HD STBs.

So what is the next step? What's involved in viewing/captureing a transport stream? VLC Media Player is opensource, so I'm sure that the code could be used in MP if it doesn't already handle it. I'm not a programmer, but I would be willing to help in whatever way possible. Thanks,
AW
 

Callifo

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  • December 7, 2004
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    Youll probably have do to whats in the how to get my tv card support added, as they would have to look a the available filters and see if its suitable to add support for. If its a DVB set top box and uses an SDK only then support would be unlikely but thats what you need to find out.
     

    ffiarpg

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    July 13, 2006
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    I have a Motorola 6200 STB and would like to capture firewire from this box to MediaPortal in addition to my already supported ati capture card. If MP is unable to do this, i may have to find another program to suit my needs. Thanks for the great software and keep up the good work. :)
     

    dash80

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    April 2, 2007
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    I have the SA 3250HD. My big problem is that I cannot get my Microsoft MCE IR Blaster to change channels. I've tried everything to no avail. The LED's blink as if it works, but the channel will not change. So, I've given up on the IR solution. I had looked at channel. exe because I started with Sage-TV, but gravitated away from it at discovering the superior Media Portal.

    Now, how do I change channels using FireWire or the use ports using Media Portal?
     

    que3jxp

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    January 18, 2007
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    OK all you MediaPortal developers, this has got to be the umpteenth time someone has brought up firewire and Moto/SA STBs. Including myself twice.

    I personally believe that MP has the greatest potential out there but seemingly ignoring a constantly recurring request to add firewire when two of the three primary Windows products out there (MCE and Sage) are doing it seamlessly.

    There is a very good chunk of us out there that are already well addicted to the MCE Firewire setup and we are going nowhere without Firewire support.
     

    ximmortal

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    October 27, 2007
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    Hello?

    Okay, it has been a few months since this question has been asked, so why not ask again...

    Has anyone gotten firewire support working in MP or TVE3 for the Moto DCT6200 STB?

    The reason I am asking the question is I would like to develop this support if it is at all possible. As stated in prior posts, it is possible to acquire drivers and get the device itself working in XP etc. and even render the TS data with VLC player (open source).

    Before I get my hands dirty, does anyone know of a reason why this might be a wasted effort. Just seems strange that someone hasn't tried to get this working with requests dating over a year ago.
     

    que3jxp

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    January 18, 2007
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    Has anyone gotten firewire support working in MP or TVE3 for the Moto DCT6200 STB?

    I gave up on MP. I also gave up on MCE.

    I did some research and discovered that SageTV has the ability to fully support firewire devices via a nice add-on/utility called SageGraphRecorder. I am now using SageTV version 6.2 (A license of server and client were bought only 3 days into my demo period) and I do so with two DCT6208 units and I am very satisfied. LiveTV works perfectly and from there, it is nothing but more goodness.

    Anyhoo, I go by QUE3JXP just about everywhere so if you are in the SageTV forums, that is me there too. I recently rewrote the instructions on how to set up a multi DCT62xx tuner setup and reposted them on the Sage forum.
     

    ximmortal

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    October 27, 2007
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    Thanks for your input/advice. I really was hoping to get MP working, as I like the look and feel of MP better and the open source aspect allows me to add whatever I want.

    Though it does look like Sage has some advantages (Linux clients) for a somewhat reasonable price.

    I'll give the Sage demo a try for a fair comparison. Thanks.
     

    m0deth

    Portal Pro
    December 31, 2006
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    Amen, QIP6200 firewire user here wanting this in TV3 to serve up up TV off one rental box.

    C'mon guys, pretty please? so much attention is focused on non-North America solutions, unless you tune crap analog cable, or a few basic ATSC stations, in MP we're screwed for DTV? we kinda need something to help us let go of MCE!! As this is an easily enough done thing for a POS like MCE....it has to be somewhere near as easy for MP.

    I can provide all the literature on the two driver sets and the firestb.msi app made for MCE to tie into the guide.(everything I collected getting it work that is.) Maybe it can lend a clear path for the filter graphs for the coders, I dunno. Even if it's resized to DVD quality for network stream....to cover your butts....at least we can access our stations via TV3 controlling the stb through firewire. shoot even just channel change support with it would get that much working via svid input, that gets an analog stream in DVD quality over the network to clients. I'd be happy for that much as I don't really require HD in the bedroom.

    I am a FiOS user now, and MP's great guide and such are useless now, manual record works via svid on my 150, but I collect a few eps of different series at a time and watch when I have a day off, and cannot do this now.

    Please include this in MP II if not I....this is kind of a must have for 1/3 to 1/2 of NA MP users who are on digital cable/FiOS/Sat STBs. It really helps the FiOS users, as you are required to rent the boxes, they will not reflash an owned unit. And I refuse to rent a second just to pump another analog stream thru MP.

    Please let me know where/how I should upload the necessary files to you guys to get the ball rolling? Ximmortal, if you are still there, I can run tests for you ON a working MCE machine running MP as main app. MCE runs the record schedules in the background off the stb, but a nice firewire .ts from the tv3 engine would look better than the svid stream from the box, even if resized to DVD quality.

    Anyone else need this still? North Americans speak up here! I know alot of you would like this type of setup, as it avoids alot of the ridiculous cost associated with basic digital home video tasks nowadays. I'm pretty sure we're in the same boat, and the models supported by the driver are on almost all of the NA network boxes. whoever wrote the final package for MCE did a fine job. I wish he were around to try it for MP.

    please? with sugar on top?

    :)
     

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