Network Recorder Experience

[epelic]

Martin, Mike:

I have identifed and solved the problem. I will spare you the very long story. The problem is that the external tuner path name had a space in it:

ExeTunerPath=C:\Program Files\SageChanger\ChangeChannel.bat

The space was between "Program" and "Files". It made no difference if the path was specified with quotes (") around it in the SGR ini file. I am guessing that the SGR issues a MS-DOS command statement which chokes when it attempts to execute "C:\Program" (because it stops at the space and treats the rest of the command line as parameters). Anyway, I created another directory "C:\Program_Files", copyed the batch file to it, and changed the path in the ini file and it works! So the very important piece of documentation is that ... the ExeTunerPath must NOT have any spaces in it ... good to know!

I want to thank you both again for your help. It was by reviewing Mikes ini file (segment) provided I reached this realization.

Now I have to address the issue that if the channel number is less than 100, the channel is not changed by SageChanger. Unlike Channel.exe or Channelw.exe it does not allow setting a time delay. But this problem seem much easier to fix.

[mikeh49]

Glad you figured it out. Long names in batch files have tripped me up too many times. I try to use only the 8.3 short name format although my channel.bat does not adhere to that. It must have worked the first time.

Put a comment in your ini file to remind you that no spaces are allowed.

I'm surprised that SageChanger does not handle channel numbers less than 100. Have you tried the "force single digits" setting? You might see if the author is still around the Sage forum. He seemed pretty responsive when the program was first released.

Good luck.

[epelic]

I did some experimenting and discovered that the "-f 7" parameter works to change the channel (1 to 3 digits). I was using the "-f 5" because the documentation indicated that was the setting I should use for my STB. So, with the "-f 7" setting I am in business!

[Karyudo]

I'm trying to get NetworkRecorder going. I've installed version 0 from the wiki page, and followed the instructions. I don't see anything new in the Settings. What am I doing wrong?

[mvallevand]

The wiki is not clear that the NetworkRecord.dll needs to go in Plugins\NetworkRecorder folder with the xml. Stop the Recording Service before putting it in there though.

martin

[Karyudo]

Thanks for the amazingly quick reply! Turns out that's not the problem, though: it's that I duplicated almost the whole .xml file, instead of just the <NetworkRecorder> block. I'm now seeing two NetworkRecorder devices. Haven't set them up yet, but it's a step in the right direction....

[mvallevand]

Are you creating two or more graphs?

Martin

[Karyudo]

Uhh... I don't know! Am I?

In the NetworkRecorder.xml file, there are two devices, and one's been labelled '25' and instance '1', and the other '26' and instance '2'. No sign of any place to put the unique IDs from SGraphRecorder or anything.

Not sure what I'm doing!

[mvallevand]

NetworkRecorder is network driven so you talk to the various interfaces using http. SGraphRecorder listens on a socket and acts like a server http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/GraphRecorder/ . The NetworkRecorder.xml file points to the server so you need to configure the IP (which if it is the same machine is 127.0.0.1) and the port defaults to 6969. These are the unique ids. If you had used the default on the wiki it would communicate properly with SGraphRecorder defaults. Some of the examples out there are for the SageDCT process that can have 3 or 4 tuners running where each CableCard tuner uses its own port.

What you do at this point is at the channels that you want to use. The protocol defines how NetworkRecorder passes channel information to the server. Assuming you are using SchedulesDirect just select SD as the channel source and tick the channels you want. You don't have to do them all at once. Once the channels are added to the tuner, follow the normal NextPVR configuration of mapping the channels to the EPG data. If you modify the channel list you will need to restart the service for it to take effect. If you want to get guide data you need to run Update EPG in NextPVR.

Martin

[Karyudo]

I'm now able to get video through Network Recorder, and channel changes through FireWire. Yay, me. However, I'm now pretty hopelessly tangled up in my channel lineups, devices, guide info, and recording priorities. I'll sort that out this weekend.