Can't get both Colossus cards changing channel properly

[mvallevand]

You might want to check out the digitahome.ca forums about 5C but this looks promising

http://digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php...tcount=107

Martin

[Karyudo]

[I]n Win7 you need to set the firewire back to the legacy drivers in device manager.

Hmm... I don't see that I have the option to just pick "legacy drivers," so I must be missing a step or two. Could you elaborate, please?

You can use SageChanger.exe for the channel changer; I like it better than the channel.exe that comes in the firewire driver package.

How and why do you like it better? (I'll assume for the moment I'll be able to find the file itself when the time comes....)

Thanks for your help -- and for your several previous posts about Network Recorder. I'm definitely leaning in that direction, and it was one of the reasons I figured NPVR was worth sticking with!

[Karyudo]

D'oh! I feel pretty dumb. If changing the FireWire/1394 driver can be shown in real time in a 16-second YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JfbDW6AtI), it must have been a pretty stupid question.

[Karyudo]

Ooh! Some success! Just made a recording from my cable box using CapDVHS, via FireWire. Next step: channel changing. Step after that: Network Recorder.

[mikeh49]

If you can capture with CapDVHS (which is a great little program) you're 95% of the way there. You'll need SageGraphrecorder to capture to NPVR via Network Recorder. To use that, you'll need to create a graph using GraphEdit or Graphstudio. The graph should contain the firewire panel or tuner device (can't remember which), the NPVR TS writer and a "dump" filter to be the recorded file. NPVR will provide the filename for the dump. Unfortunately, I can't remember what I used for that. If you got the legacy driver, you can probably figure it out.

You'll need to use a batch file that is called by SageGraphRecorder to run the channel changer, whether it's channelw.exe or sagechanger.exe. I like sagechanger because it will turn on the cable box upon a channel change, which is handy in case someone turned it off. I think it also has an additional set of options for how to send the channel digits. That said, I used channelw.exe for a number of years before coming across Sagechanger. BTW, just google on SageChanger.exe to find it.

If you need more info on the graph, let us know and I'll grab a picture of what I have.

Attached is my graph (somewhat different than what I said above, the graph rules). Also, the channel changing batch file and the sagegraphrecorder config file. Lots of that was used for intial setup and testing is commented out. I have pretty long delays (5 secs in SGR and 2 secs in Network Recorder) to start a graph. Probably could be shorter, I thought I was having trouble getting the stream established from the STB after channel change.

[Karyudo]

OK, I've fired up GraphEdit for the first time, and I've been able to add the first box (Motorola AV/C Tuner Device). But I can't find either of the other two (NPVR TS Mon and nprvwri.ts) in the filter list. And when I choose "DirectShow Filters" -- a likely place to look, I'd have thought -- GraphEdit crashes.

Any hints for a total GraphEdit n00b?

[mvallevand]

From one noob to another. You have to unregister LAV Video temporarily to use GraphEdit, I found this out tonight

regsvr32 LAVVideo.ax /U

after editing you graph same command without the /U to reregister it.

Marin

[Karyudo]

Interesting. I ended up finding an app -- Filmerit -- that showed I had all the DirectShow filters I needed, but had a couple of broken ones (I think from a legacy PCI card that is physically installed, but doesn't work under Windows 7). Luckily, it wrote a Restore Point, because I then broke something big-time, and ended up with just a handful of mostly generic, nearly-useless filters.

After Restoring, I tried GraphStudio instead, and that seems to not have a problem with anything, including LAV (I guess; they're in the list)! So I was able to insert the 'Motorola AV/C Tuner Device' and 'NPVR TS Mon', and tack on a dump file, which I named 'npvrwri.ts' by myself. (Doing so seems to have put a file of the same name on my Desktop.) Saved this .GRF.

Just on a hunch, I then "played" the graph in GraphStudio for a few seconds, and stopped it. Dropped the npvrwri.ts file into MPC-HC, and... surprise! HD video from my Motorola box!

Time for bed (early day tomorrow), but I feel like I'm on the cusp.

[mikeh49]

I don't know it it makes any difference, but I used the dump.ax filter that comes with SageGraphRecorder for my dump file. Network Recorder and NPVR take over when you run the graph and give the file the correct name and put it in the right place.

Directshow filters is where you find the stuff you need. I should have mentioned that.

You're in good shape, it's all downhill from here. It will be interesting to see how many and which channels you can access via firewire. Hopefully, you can change channels even if you can't get the channels you want. The Colossus should do the trick for those. You can set up the tuners so that you can get some channels via firewire, and some via Colossus, but use firewire channel changing for both.

[Karyudo]

I think I'm going to try my filter graph without changes first, just to see what happens. Then, if it doesn't work, I'll know to change it by adding 'dump.ax' from SageGraphRecorder. But since it's working from the Desktop, I'm hoping my way also works!

Just got SageChange up and running. I've written batch files for two separate Motorola tuners, and both work (i.e. will turn on and change channel on the appropriate box). Seems like I'm about two steps away: get SageGraphRecording going, and then (finally) get NetworkRecorder working.