2009-07-02, 09:40 PM
I've been struggling for a while to get my MVP working like it was prior to the DTV transition (in U.S.). Others on this forum have been very helpful to me, I thought I could share my solution in case it could help someone else. Lots of the bits here are from others on the forums, sorry I didn't keep track to give any credit.
I bought the 2250 before I realized that it saved videos in a format that wasn't compatible with the MVP . Also, I must admit I have had significant problems with the drivers and WinTv application. If these get fixed, perhaps it would be a good card, but I can't recommend it now. It also does not pick-up signals as well as the set-top converter boxes I have (does not find all the channels).
My set-up:
2 150 PVRs (analog tuners)
1 HVR-2250 (dual digital/analog tuners), using the TS Mux
Running XP Home SP 3
Only OTA channels, same channels on all tuners
I hooked up a converter box to each of the 150's. I then used the USB IR/blaster transmitter that came with the HVR-2250. You can get it to work in XP, but you have to hack the INF file for XP to recognize it. (Sorry lost the details on how I did this, but I did find the tip on the net somewhere)
I use IRServerSuite to control the blasters. This was the only software I found that would control port 1 and port 2 on the blasters.
What I wanted to do was be able to watch any of the channels off the 150's from the MVP. I wanted to be able to set recordings on the digital tuners and then watch them after being transcoded.
I am using zap2XML as my EPG source. I download the channel list like usual, then copy it and replace the channel tags so that all the channel numbers are renumbered in the 2000 range (i.e. channel 4.1 shows up as 2041). I do this using sed from GNUwin32 [HTML]http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html[/HTML]
The 150's use the original EPG, and both digital tuners use the modified XML file. Now I can watch analog channels on the 150, and set recordings on the digital tuners. This allows me to control whether the show will be recorded on the analog tuner (I can start watching right away) or the digital tuner (need to wait for it to transcode). The files are transcoded automatically to keep the proper aspect ratio and such.
So my updateepg.bat looks like this:
The digital tuners EPG points to the digtv-rename.xml file
The file rename_channels.sed is the script for sed to renumber the XML file. Each channel gets changed like so:
In config.xml I turned on automatic transcoding of TS files to the "2MVP" profile (also check point to new file).
The config.xml edits I made look like this for the transcoding of TS into MPG:
My convert2mvp.bat (in the Third Party Folder) file looks like so:
I use ffmpeg from WinFF 0.45[HTML]http://winff.org/html_new/[/HTML]. I initially had some problems using the version that was included with GBPVR, but I think it may have just been related to some of the switches I was using.
For the most part the system works really well and it allows me to have 4 tuners, and control what is recoded digitally verse analog. The digital recordings automatically get converted to MPG, so I can watch on the MVP.
I hope at least bits and pieces of this is helpful to others.
I bought the 2250 before I realized that it saved videos in a format that wasn't compatible with the MVP . Also, I must admit I have had significant problems with the drivers and WinTv application. If these get fixed, perhaps it would be a good card, but I can't recommend it now. It also does not pick-up signals as well as the set-top converter boxes I have (does not find all the channels).
My set-up:
2 150 PVRs (analog tuners)
1 HVR-2250 (dual digital/analog tuners), using the TS Mux
Running XP Home SP 3
Only OTA channels, same channels on all tuners
I hooked up a converter box to each of the 150's. I then used the USB IR/blaster transmitter that came with the HVR-2250. You can get it to work in XP, but you have to hack the INF file for XP to recognize it. (Sorry lost the details on how I did this, but I did find the tip on the net somewhere)
I use IRServerSuite to control the blasters. This was the only software I found that would control port 1 and port 2 on the blasters.
What I wanted to do was be able to watch any of the channels off the 150's from the MVP. I wanted to be able to set recordings on the digital tuners and then watch them after being transcoded.
I am using zap2XML as my EPG source. I download the channel list like usual, then copy it and replace the channel tags so that all the channel numbers are renumbered in the 2000 range (i.e. channel 4.1 shows up as 2041). I do this using sed from GNUwin32 [HTML]http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html[/HTML]
The 150's use the original EPG, and both digital tuners use the modified XML file. Now I can watch analog channels on the 150, and set recordings on the digital tuners. This allows me to control whether the show will be recorded on the analog tuner (I can start watching right away) or the digital tuner (need to wait for it to transcode). The files are transcoded automatically to keep the proper aspect ratio and such.
So my updateepg.bat looks like this:
Code:
c:
cd "\Program Files\gbpvr\Third Party\zap2xml"
zap2xml -d 14 -u removed@removed.com -p password -o digtv.xml
"\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\sed.exe" --file=rename_channels.sed digtv.xml > digtv-rename.xml
The digital tuners EPG points to the digtv-rename.xml file
The file rename_channels.sed is the script for sed to renumber the XML file. Each channel gets changed like so:
Code:
s/I49958.labs.zap2it.com/I2042.labs.zap2it.com/g
s/<display-name>4.2 WTMJDT2<\/display-name>/<display-name>2042 WTMJDT2<\/display-name>/g
s/<display-name>4.2<\/display-name>/<display-name>2042<\/display-name>/g
In config.xml I turned on automatic transcoding of TS files to the "2MVP" profile (also check point to new file).
The config.xml edits I made look like this for the transcoding of TS into MPG:
Code:
<CustomFFmpegConversions>
<Conversion name="2MVP" exe="convert2mvp.bat" cmd="{SOURCE_FILE} {DEST_FILE}" targetExtension=".mpg" />
</CustomFFmpegConversions>
My convert2mvp.bat (in the Third Party Folder) file looks like so:
Code:
@echo off
:: call with first parameter input file, second parameter output file
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set inputfile=%1
if %2=="" (
set outputfile="%~dpn1.mpg"
) else (
set outputfile=%2
)
for /f "eol=; tokens=1 delims=~" %%a in ('c:\utils\ffmpeg-winff.exe -i %inputfile% 2^>^&1') do (
call :findvideosize %%a
)
echo Input video size is %videosize%
if /I %videosize% == 1280x720 c:\utils\ffmpeg-winff.exe -y -i %inputfile% -f svcd -vcodec mpeg2video -r 29.97 -s 720x360 -aspect 4:3 -padtop 60 -padbottom 60 -padcolor 000000 -b 5000k -mbd rd -trellis -mv0 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -async 1 -acodec mp2 -ab 224k -ar 48000 -ac 2 %outputfile%
if /I %videosize% == 1920x1080 c:\utils\ffmpeg-winff.exe -y -i %inputfile% -f svcd -vcodec mpeg2video -r 29.97 -s 720x360 -aspect 4:3 -padtop 60 -padbottom 60 -padcolor 000000 -b 5000k -mbd rd -trellis -mv0 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -async 1 -acodec mp2 -ab 224k -ar 48000 -ac 2 %outputfile%
if /I %videosize% == 704x480 c:\utils\ffmpeg-winff.exe -y -i %inputfile% -f svcd -vcodec mpeg2video -r 29.97 -s 704x480 -aspect 4:3 -padleft 8 -padright 8 -padcolor 000000 -b 5000k -mbd rd -trellis -mv0 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -async 1 -acodec mp2 -ab 224k -ar 48000 -ac 2 %outputfile%
if /I %videosize% == 640x480 c:\utils\ffmpeg-winff.exe -y -i %inputfile% -f svcd -vcodec mpeg2video -r 29.97 -s 704x480 -aspect 4:3 -padleft 8 -padright 8 -padcolor 000000 -b 5000k -mbd rd -trellis -mv0 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -async 1 -acodec mp2 -ab 224k -ar 48000 -ac 2 %outputfile%
c:
cd "\Program Files\GBPVR"
comskip.exe %outputfile%
goto :eof
:findvideosize
:: first look for "video:"
shift
if "%1"=="" goto :eof
if not "%1"=="Video:" goto findvideosize
:findvideosizeloop
shift
shift
shift
set videosize=%1
goto :eof
I use ffmpeg from WinFF 0.45[HTML]http://winff.org/html_new/[/HTML]. I initially had some problems using the version that was included with GBPVR, but I think it may have just been related to some of the switches I was using.
For the most part the system works really well and it allows me to have 4 tuners, and control what is recoded digitally verse analog. The digital recordings automatically get converted to MPG, so I can watch on the MVP.
I hope at least bits and pieces of this is helpful to others.