Device support + Support Module writing

[robotnz1]

Hi Guy's

This is possibly the worst post any software developer desires to see!!!

I have a number of Sat cards from telemedia to skystar HD CI. Having survived the disastrous instal of a Hauppauge HVR4000 - using that abysmal Hauppauge Power Cinema NIGHTMARE of software - finally solved with MyTheatre!! I embarked on a new project which I thought was even more difficult (than using OEM software!) - getting video from a data card. I chose the fairly common Telemedia 200D (sm200dpa) card. There are posts on the internet stating this is impossible.

The solution is here:
http://www.austech.info/other-hardware/4...ogdvb.html

My question is firstly one of integrity and openness! Having learned of GB-PVR I went to the web page to discover the softwares device support. What do I find? A statement that a huge number of devices are supported and that a LIST of ALL supported devices is on the WIKI. So I go back a couple of web pages to the home page and click the WIKI link, then I proceed to read the WIKI. By now I have spent 20-30 minutes of my time and STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE COMPLETE LIST OF SUPPORTED DEVICES THAT IS ON THE WIKI! This really is not good! Imagine is I was not a New Zealander - or worse that English was my tenth language. Is it indeed dishonest? Or intentionally misleading marketing politics??? I THINK BOTH.

Having now joined this forum I am not going to spend any time solving the question of the HUGE RANGE OF SUPPORTED DEVICES - FOR ONE SECOND!

Anyone reading this might like to think I am not a fan of mis-information!

However - frustrated at the start of my GB-Pvr excursion as I was, I figured it was quicker to down load the program and see what devices it found in my knockabout current pile of 'mostly assembled form roadside junk' PC.

The result was - found Skystar 1 CI (WoWeE!); not found 1. Telemedia 200dpa; Not found 2. Ati Aiw 7500 PCI DVB-T (it might be DVB-S).

Now; I think, good software, should say loud and clear, "FOUND BUT NOT SUPPORTED" - 'in a window that a blind man could see' - straight after loading!! AND THAT IS THE FIRST THING IT SHOULD SAY!

So, it having found one card out of three; - I am not going to use GB-PVR on my Skystar 1 CI as I am a firm believer that the best software is allways written by the original designer of the hardware! After all; He, She, It, The Company, who built the item, are the holders of the schematics of the hardware! They don't have to bother reverse engineering anything. BDA drivers are only ever going to be BDA drivers - one food suits all. Can I suggest "Peanut Butter"??

That said, I am fairly intrigued by aftermarket modules like in my link above!
So my main question here (aside from what PCI devices GB-Pvr supports!) is - "how does one go about creating an aftermarket plugin, like the sm300.device"?

cheers to all :-)

[sub]

Great tone for a first post... certainly a nice way to endear yourself to the community

My question is firstly one of integrity and openness! Having learned of GB-PVR I went to the web page to discover the softwares device support. What do I find? A statement that a huge number of devices are supported and that a LIST of ALL supported devices is on the WIKI. So I go back a couple of web pages to the home page and click the WIKI link, then I proceed to read the WIKI. By now I have spent 20-30 minutes of my time and STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE COMPLETE LIST OF SUPPORTED DEVICES THAT IS ON THE WIKI! This really is not good! Imagine is I was not a New Zealander - or worse that English was my tenth language. Is it indeed dishonest? Or intentionally misleading marketing politics??? I THINK BOTH.

Having now joined this forum I am not going to spend any time solving the question of the HUGE RANGE OF SUPPORTED DEVICES - FOR ONE SECOND!

Anyone reading this might like to think I am not a fan of mis-information!

No one is trying to mislead you. I have no idea how you decided this was dishonest and marketing politics - sounds like you have trust issues...

Its pretty simple really - when it comes to digital devices (DVB-S, DVB-T, DVB-C and ATSC), the application should work with any device that has BDA drivers, which is nearly every device made these days.

The app includes definitions for the hundred or so cards we've encountered in the past, which includes all the most common cards, and lots of other less common ones. If your card isnt of these cards, then follow the instructions on the wiki to add a new card definition to the bda.ini file (see http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Hardw...aptureCard), then post the details of that definition so I can add it to the master file - saving any future users of that card from having to do it.

The result was - found Skystar 1 CI (WoWeE!); not found 1. Telemedia 200dpa; Not found 2. Ati Aiw 7500 PCI DVB-T (it might be DVB-S).

Unfortunately it didnt find you cards because, lets be honest, these are old or uncommon junk

If you dont find native BDA drivers for these devices, then there is a BDA bridge driver that can use the devices you have defined in myTheatre, so if you've got it working there, then you should be able to get it working in GB-PVR by installing that driver.

[pastro]

The wiki can sometimes be hard to find information but in this case I think you might want to take another look. The capture card list is under hardware which is a menu item on the left side.
Under that same item is the addcapturecard as well.

[robotnz1]

Hi All

OK... missed the list! Sorry!! Yes my confidence in the entire conception of PCI satellite cards was shaken by the installation of a Hauppauge HVR4000.
Partly restored by mytheatres support for that card - had I known of gbpvr then I would have tried it first.

However I see a whealth of info here so here goes - if this post is off subject please send me to the correct heading for it:

CHANNEL TUNING - via manual channel entry:
I spotted the "No automatic transponder scanning is available yet, so channel tuning data must be entered manually" on the wiki Skystar 2 recorder page linked.
Are there sat channel lists for NZ posted anywhere on this forum? And/or Is there a tutorial somewhere explaining how to enter new channels with all the Frequency/PID/SID/NIT/PMT/PCR/TELETEXT etc info into most PVR programs software so they work?

I see posts on various internet forums of people asking for channel lists for cards and software which have no search ability. Also most software like mytheatre seems to come with wierd channel lists for northern hemisphere - which require serious editing to tidy them up for NZ skies. The H/V in particular is often wrong. The transponder frequencies shown for Optus B/D 1 for example in mytheate by default have wierd figures we don't know of.

Setting up new channels in progdvb's daunting add channel page is not for the faint hearted and my settings didn't work for TV3 - so far. I would like so much to be an ALL PVR programme manual channel setting wizard! This expectation is somewhat shaken when my Skystar 1 CI scans and finds TV1 at 12519000 on progdvb and yet when I set it to 12483000 manually it can't find the channel???

Creating and transferring channel lists and finding and using channel editors looks to be an enormous learning curve and is fraut with the fact that there are so many formats. It seems the list (.lst) one has never suits transfer to .dvb etc format one needs - lists fail to load into editors with errors etc etc.

All advice and links accepted gracefully!! :-) :confused:

[JonnyCam]

Mytheatre runs off the progDVB core?
If so, the scanning was complete on my system, admittadly with BDA drivers.
(using both progDVB & dvbdream)


There is automatic channel scanning in GBPVR. If your card is set up in GBPVR and you select Optus D1 (NZ FTA) then it should scan the 3 transponders and pick up all of the channels. (using the map digital channels to EPG button)

EDIT: Sorry - thought you had a Skystar2, not 1 - can BDA drivers notbe obtained for the Skystar1?



Also, you speak of misinformation & marketing - really how does marketing apply to piece of free software? (which the Author works very hard on developing and offering his own time for support etc)
You either use it or you don't...


Cheers

[robotnz1]

Yes all fair enough!!
Its pretty amazing that software like GBpvr gets to be born at all in this world dominated with apparent guggernauts like Hauppauge. There is the rebel in us all!! :-) Credit where due I say!!! Great soft job here - looks like!!

I have a Skystar 1 CI I use for SBS (which has some very good programming). I might try Gbpvr on the Skystar 1 but it runs seemlessly on its OEM software so there is not a lot of kudos in fixing whats not broke.

What is 'broke' is my 'project from junk' which is rather more exciting! So I am stuck on channel list. It might be too hard to get my project telemann PCI data card transferred to GBpvr using a BDA bridge. Solution one for getting channels loaded into progDVB (telemann can't scan) was to use the skystar 1 to scan the channels in. This has been only partly successful as the skystar only loads into progdvb as a Twinhan DVBS - which seems to limit its scanning. It only found TV1 And TV2 FTA (+sky) on its scans of 12483 and 12456. Solution 2 (other than getting the skystar to load to progdvb properly) is to find or setup manually a channel list. I have TV1 and TV2 running well - soo I want to use these settings in the progdvb channel window - which I can see scan and print - to use settings as a guide to help learn how to manually add new channels.

So, 1. is there a NZ Satellite channel list on this forum? or does anyone have a link to a NZ channel list - in the right format - or an editable one!? 2. Is there a tutorial for creating a channel list? 3. Is there any info or link to using a ?? channel editor for converting a mytheatre channel list (Channels.mdb?) into a .dvb channel list format for progdvb.

I feel the moderators should now transfer or guide this thread to a 'channels' topic heading!

cheers to all :-) :confused:

[sub]

CHANNEL TUNING - via manual channel entry:
I spotted the "No automatic transponder scanning is available yet, so channel tuning data must be entered manually" on the wiki Skystar 2 recorder page linked.
Are there sat channel lists for NZ posted anywhere on this forum? And/or Is there a tutorial somewhere explaining how to enter new channels with all the Frequency/PID/SID/NIT/PMT/PCR/TELETEXT etc info into most PVR programs software so they work?

I'm sorry, but I cant directly provide you any support for this plugin. I've never even seen it. If you had BDA drivers installed, then GB-PVR takes care of everything and will scan for the channels etc - you wouldnt need to enter anything manually.

I have a Skystar 1 CI I use for SBS (which has some very good programming). I might try Gbpvr on the Skystar 1 but it runs seemlessly on its OEM software so there is not a lot of kudos in fixing whats not broke.

I suspect you'd be better off just continuing to run that OEM software. You're not going to get a seamless experience in GB-PVR if you have add plugins etc to get your devices running.

So, 1. is there a NZ Satellite channel list on this forum?

The built in BDA support has definitions for Optus D1 etc, but only the frequencies. The scan takes care of getting the rest of the channel info automatically.

or does anyone have a link to a NZ channel list - in the right format - or an editable one!? 2. Is there a tutorial for creating a channel list? 3. Is there any info or link to using a ?? channel editor for converting a mytheatre channel list (Channels.mdb?) into a .dvb channel list format for progdvb.

Unfortunately I think you'll find very little info on this stuff. Most people here would never have entered their channels manually.

[JonnyCam]

So, 1. is there a NZ Satellite channel list on this forum? or does anyone have a link to a NZ channel list - in the right format - or an editable one!?

Have you tried Lyngsat? The seem to have the freqs and PIDs listed here:
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd1.html

Is there a tutorial for creating a channel list? 3. Is there any info or link to using a ?? channel editor for converting a mytheatre channel list (Channels.mdb?) into a .dvb channel list format for progdvb.

I don't think you'll find too much info on this forum on how to convert between 2 other different pieces of software. I can't understand why Mytheatre & progDVB don't work exactly the same however, as My theatre is just a front end for the progDVB core. (with added features I guess)

I'm sure most people on this forum don't use channel lists as most people would be using devices with BDA drivers & scanning ability.