Capture Card Extras help needed

[lamb0985]

Perhaps add the -re option so ffmpeg knows it is realtime.  That does seem slower than my experience, however tuning my STB can also be slow too so if that is in your test it is possible..  As long as it gets consistent 1x speed the PC shouldn't make a different.  My cheap grabbers had trouble going for a hour though.

Also make sure you are testing with a direct play client too, the browser test will always be slower.  In direct play the time from NextPVR shouldn't be too much different then the batch test to ffplay.

Martin

Are there any options for IR tranceiver that might work that are available on Amazon? I've tried finding one, but everything is just for IR repeaters. I currently am using the HD PVR 2 just for it's IR blasting capabilities but am wondering why there are so few options for IR tranceivers (iguanablast and UIRT are all I've found). My DVR's ethernet port is disabled so there is no way to http change channels, but I do have several IoT IR blasters that I could possibly try to utilize with webhooks to send IR codes to. I would like to return the HD PVR 2 since it is fairly expensive for what it does, and over 10 years old tech now. I was able to change channels with this as my extras file:

<extras>
<channel name="{channel-name}">
      <command>cmd</command>
      <args> /c haupblast.exe {channel} | ffmpeg -f dshow -rtbufsize 100M -i video="USB3.0HD vid eo":audio="Digital Audio Interface (USB Digital Audio)" -c:v h264_qsv -b:v 8M -c:a aac -f mpegts - </args>
    </channel>
</extras>

[mvallevand]

I would have run a batch file with multiple lines and @echo off at the start passing the parameters you need. Then you can test things much easier too.

Blasters are niche products, there are relatively few PVR users, fewer that use blasters and fewer still that don't use them from an HDPVR type device. There probably were more with analog STB device. I am very happy with my Iguanaworks device.

Martin

[lamb0985]

I would have run a batch file with multiple lines and @echo off at the start passing the parameters you need.  Then you can test things much easier too.

Blasters are niche products, there are relatively few PVR users, fewer that use blasters and fewer still that don't use them from an HDPVR type device.  There probably were more with analog STB device.  I am very happy with my Iguanaworks device.

Martin

I appreciate the response, I honestly don't know why I'm putting so much effort into watching cable, but it gives me something to do in my offtime. I'll continue to experiment and hopefully can find a way to IR change channels without the hd pvr 2, as I'd like to save a little money if possible.

[lamb0985]

I would have run a batch file with multiple lines and @echo off at the start passing the parameters you need.  Then you can test things much easier too.

Blasters are niche products, there are relatively few PVR users, fewer that use blasters and fewer still that don't use them from an HDPVR type device.  There probably were more with analog STB device.  I am very happy with my Iguanaworks device.

Martin

I ordered the iguanaworks socket receiver, and was wondering if you could provide the channel change script that you use.

[mvallevand]

I am running on Linux using the irsend command. pkscout posted something I think.

Martin

[lamb0985]

I am running on Linux using the irsend command.  pkscout posted something I think.

Martin

I see the reasoning for a Capture.bat file (since any changes to the extras config requires deleting and rescanning to add channels), but it seems that it either halfway works or not at all.

So you're saying to create a Capture.bat file similar to this:

@echo off
haupblast {channel}
ffmpeg -f dshow -rtbufsize 100M -video_size 1280x720 -framerate 60 -i video="USB3.0HD vid eo":audio="Digital Audio Interface (USB Digital Audio)" -c:v h264_qsv -b:v 8M -c:a aac -b:a 192k -f mpegts -


and then have an extras file like this:

<extras>
<channel name="{channel-name}">
      <command>cmd</command>
      <args> C:\Users\Public\NPVR-Data\scripts\Capture.bat </args>
    </channel>
</extras>





I know I have to be doing something wrong, because this either results in the channel not starting at all, channel starts but doesn't transcode as ffmpeg is telling it to, or it transcodes but doesn't change the channel.

I've tried several iterations of this but haven't been able to make the Capture.bat file work

[mvallevand]

Let's see

- you should probably use /c to start off args
- I don't see any path to your two exes. When you add them make sure to use quotes if spaces are involved.
- when the batch file is working add -v panic to the ffmpeg and if haupblast has output redirect it to > NUL

Martin

[lamb0985]

Let's see

- you should probably use /c to start off args
- I don't see any path to your two exes.  When you add them make sure to use quotes if spaces are involved.
- when the batch file is working add -v panic to the ffmpeg and if haupblast has output redirect it to  > NUL

Martin

I did find that /c is necessary for the bat to even fire, adding -v panic didn't help anything unfortunately, and I'm not sure what you mean by haupblast output redirect to > NUL.
I do have haupblast and ffmpeg environment variable paths set so that I can execute them from anywhere in the commandline but maybe with bat files it's different. It seems like if I put just the ffmpeg command with its arguments, it outputs a video, but none of the transcoding happens (vcopy acopy instead of x264 1280x720 and aac). For now I guess I'll just stick with the format that works, but it's frustrating that it seems like all the bat file does is replace the lines I would have typed manually (but they don't respond the same way). The HD PVR 2 was definitely easier to setup, but it's a lot slower than the hdmi capture device at outputting and changing channels, so I'll keep on messing with it. Thanks again for your time.

[lamb0985]

Let's see

- you should probably use /c to start off args
- I don't see any path to your two exes.  When you add them make sure to use quotes if spaces are involved.
- when the batch file is working add -v panic to the ffmpeg and if haupblast has output redirect it to  > NUL

Martin

I am having trouble because the IR receiver on my socket only iguana blaster isn't picking up on my remote key presses, so recording keys isn't working. I placed the example keys into the data folder, and thought this was working, but I think it's just picking up on my WinLIRC installation that has a working remote key config. I am able to change channels manually through command prompt with "c:\program files (x86)\iguana-blaster\"execute.py -c #whateverchannel. 

I have my npvr extras file setup to execute CMD then <args>/c "c:\program files (x86)\iguana-blaster\"execute.py -c {channel} | ffmpeg #allmyparametersforffmpeg</args>

This method previously worked when I had the hauppauge hd pvr 2 using:

haupblast {channel} | ffmpeg #allmyparametersforffmpeg

both should be getting the {channel} from the rest of the extras config. I know this may not be the place to post this, but support for this whole thing is extremely outdated and limited. I'll post my extras config file for my HDMI capture card at the end of this post. I also wonder why the iguanablast is only working if my WinLIRC is configured..seems weird that it's not working without it.

<extras>
<channel name="{channel-name}">
      <command>cmd</command>
      <args>/c "c:\program files (x86)\iguana-blaster\"execute.py -c {channel} | ffmpeg -f dshow -rtbufsize 100M -video_size 1280x720 -framerate 60 -i video="USB3.0HD vid eo":audio="Digital Audio Interface (USB Digital Audio)" -c:v h264_qsv -b:v 15M -c:a aac -b:a 192k -f mpegts -</args>
    </channel>
</extras>

I returned the HD PVR 2 which I almost regret now because in comparison, the IR channel change worked flawlessly.

[lamb0985]

holy hell, winlirc was causing all the issues as far as i can tell. i removed it, rebooted, redid my extras and right now it is actually working as it's supposed to.

extras file is as follows:

<extras>
<channel name="{channel-name}">
<command>cmd</command>
<args>/c python.exe "c:\program files (x86)\iguana-blaster\execute.py" -c {channel} | ffmpeg -f dshow -rtbufsize 100M -video_size 1280x720 -framerate 60 -i video="USB3.0HD vid eo":audio="Digital Audio Interface (USB Digital Audio)" -c:v h264_qsv -b:v 15M -c:a aac -b:a 192k -f mpegts -</args>
</channel>
</extras>

thank you for all your help, total cost of hd capture card $40 and iguana blaster $45 = $85 VS the HD PVR 2 1512 $165. Cost of my time and loss of what little hair i have left, let's not talk about that..


UPDATE:

So I have now found an even cheaper way to have this setup using a IP channel changing tool that I found on github. It only works if you have Spectrum as a cable provider, but it negates the need for ordering and setting up the iguana USB IR transceiver. If anyone else is wanting to try this out https://github.com/keatontaylor/SpectrumSTBControl is where you download the tool to change channels. Setup is fairly simple, and I just had to adjust my extras config to include the new command instead of the previous one I was using for the iguana blaster.

I also have been experimenting with altering ffmpeg commands in my extras config, by using OBS to stream to an rtmp server that I created by downloading monaserver. This allows me to make changes on the fly with the GUI of OBS instead of trying different commands with ffmpeg (much more beginner friendly and easy to use).

My new extras config looks like this now (customize this based on where your directory for the ip channel change app/info is and input your info instead):

<extras>
<channel name="{channel-name}">
<command>cmd</command>
<args>/c python.exe "C:\PathToWhereverYouPutSpectrumSTBControl-master\changechannel.py" spectrumusername spectrumpassword {channel} cableboxmacaddress | ffmpeg -i "rtmp://192.168.1.19/live/tv" -c:v copy -c:a copy -f mpegts -</args>
</channel>
</extras>

I'm sure this could be modified even more, but I definitely enjoy having more options to change settings without having to redo my extras file everytime (although I did utilize the FindAndReplace.sql script I found somewhere else to be quite useful in changing tuning values in the npvr database file so that I wouldn't have to redo channel scans/filtering every time I make a change).

Hopefully this helps someone out in the future if they're interested in getting something like this started. NextPVR is a great little piece of software and I really have enjoyed understanding more of how it works.