Time Warner 4250HDC

[smajor]

Getting prepared for HD with my GB-PVR setup has been fun. The final piece of the puzzle was getting GB-PVR, my PC, and Time Warner HD box talking. I'm posting this here in case someone else is trying to do this with the same hardware so they don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Items needed:

Tim Moore's firestb Package
ExDeus' STB Firewire Driver Package

Since I'm using GB-PVR on XP and not MCE, Tim's package needs to be installed using the following arguements: msiexec /i firestb.msi IDENT=”1”

Next, if you're like me, you'll find Tim's package of drivers are a bit dated, you'll need to use ExDeus' package if you have a modern HD receiver. Just follow standard "Add new Hardware" protocol once you connect your receiver via Firewire.

Finally, test your install using the channel command and the instructions provided. I learned, although it is not clearly documented, that there are several different ways to send channel commands to a receiver. These are accomplished using the -a flag. For example, to change to channel 300 the command for my 4250HDC would be: C:\channel -f -a0 2 300

All done! Just use GB-PVR's built in exe caller for channel changing to call the channel program and execute the commands!

[agidius]

so you are using the firewire input as a capture source??

I didnt know that was possible.
my TV has a firewire input, and I got video from it, and the TV sent it commands for changing channels.

this is something I will have to look into.

[smajor]

so you are using the firewire input as a capture source??

I didnt know that was possible.
my TV has a firewire input, and I got video from it, and the TV sent it commands for changing channels.

this is something I will have to look into.

I haven't looked into receiving video from the box. I've only peripherally looked at that, I think some folks here are capturing video with it, but I have no idea if you can watch it live as if it were the Hauppauge HD-PVR (which I have.) Maybe one of them can chime in.

For me, the goal was the channel changing. It did take some work because of my newer model HD receiver from Time Warner and the slightly different way it accepts those channel commands from the stock firestb instructions.

Hopefully my post will help someone in the future, and the second link with support for most newer model receivers is a gold mine.

[smajor]

One other note for the Scientific Atlanta 4250HDC cable box. Hold down Guide+Info to bring up the HD Wizard.

If you want to "lock" your receiver to a specific HD format, just lie to the wizard about what the HD-PVR can see. I told mine I could only "see" the 720p screen until I can get a video card in my PC that can handle full 1080.

It also stops your tuner from bouncing around the different formats and confusing the HD-PVR resulting in a black screen in GB-PVR and a restart of the application.

[SickBoy]

OK, I have got all the hardware setup with the drivers and firestb packages. How do I set this up as a capture source in GB-PVR?

[mikeh49]

Use the graphRecorder plug-in (described in the wiki), develop some graphs that work using Graphedit and put them in the plug-in. Allow a couple of weeks to get it working. It does work, but getting graphs that are reliable seems to be dependent on your specific hardware. I'll post some graphs that work for me, but it may take a few days.

See this discussion for further info and some graphs:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=38929

[SickBoy]

mikeh49 - what do you have set up for listings? I have a SchedulesDirect account set up for my analog tuners but not sure how to go about that for the Firewire/STB tuning.

[mikeh49]

In Schedules Direct you can select "Add a New Lineup" which will give you all the channels to select. Pick the ones available on your firewire. (For me, this is just the "digital" channels, the analog channels are not on the firewire output of the the STB). In the URL/address box of your browser, there is a lineup ID, for me it is WA46408X or something like that, the last item on the URL line. When you set up the capture source in Config for graphRecorder, you can specify this lineup. I can't remember exactly how, but it has been described in these forums. Search on "schedules direct lineup" for the syntax. I'd give you the specifics, but GBPVR is running on a dedicated box that I can't easily disturb. Perhaps tomorrow. In summary, I have two lineups in Schedules Direct, one for the analog channels for the PVR150 and one for the digital channels for firewire. GBPVR puts them together for display in the TV Guide, but knows which capture source to use for a specific channel.

[SickBoy]

Thanks - I think I've got that sorted now.

The problem I'm encountering now is that when I test the graph (in graphedit) for recording, 480p channels test out fine when I try the graph (they produce an mpeg file that is watchable in Windows Media Player) but one channel which I tried in 1080i doesn't seem to produce a decent graph - it's stuttery and the video/audio cut in and out really bad.

Does this have to do with forcing the box to downscale the signal to 720p or something like that? Or is my computer really just that slow? (Sempron 2600+, 1.5 GB PC3200, FX5200 video, ATA133 hard drive)

[zed]

I think you'll need to at least upgrade your video card to play HD. A 5200 just won't cut it. You might also need more processor. Recording HD is not all that demanding but playback is.