GrafCorder

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by jrandeck

The only think that might have happened is an anti-virus update, but nothing major.

Try disabling it?

[ThurstonX]

Originally Posted by jrandeck

OK, I spoke too soon, VLC was having trouble playing the firewire stream this morning also.

It's just frustrating because HD recordings were running reliably (though not quite 100%) for several months with grafcorder and now I can't figure out what the problem is.

This may or may not be related to the problems you're having, but are you a Comcast customer? I, too, had GrafCorder working, but about 5 weeks ago my original Scientific-Atlanta 8300HD died, so I got a replacement (same model, same version of SARA according to the Info pages, etc.). I've done the following to try to get viewable dumps of already-recorded programs:

* uninstalled all STB Firewire stuff, following exDeus's instructions.
* rebooted DVR and PC, and then connected the firewire cable, after which i got the new hardware prompt; all 4 devices installed correctly according to WinXP's Device Manager
* Unregistered the dump filter, rebooted, re-registered the filter
* recreated the graph, connecting the Sci-Atl Tuner device to the DVBPortal HDTV Reference Dump Filter

When I try test dumps using recordings from various channels (some HD, some SD, all digital; we still have analog sources in the 2-99 range) GrafCorder is getting something, as a file of many MB is created. When I try to watch it in Media Player Classic I get "Cannot render the file." VLC wont play them either. When I look at it in GSpot 2.70a it says unknown type, whereas previous captures are identified as:

File Type: MPEG-2 Transport Stream
Mime Type: video/mp2t

I've tried both firewire ports on the 8300HD and both output something. I've even gone through all the above steps when switching between ports, though I think that was overkill in the end.

So my question, like yours, is what's changed? All signs point to the new DVR, as my PC hasn't changed at all, or perhaps it's something Comcast has changed.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[jrandeck]

Can you open the capture device and play it directly from within VLC without saving it to a file?

I find that sometimes VLC will open the stream and play it fine, and sometimes it just gives me garbage. It's like sometimes I get lucky and start the capture at a point where VLC can sync with the video and sometimes it can't sync and just puts out garbage. I don't know the details of how the video gets processed internally or stored within the file, so I'm guessing here.

I don't know if the problem has to do with the capture programs needing to find a better starting point or whether the firewire drivers need to do something differently to make the other software work (so they'll work like other drivers).

Sorry, I don't have a solution for that one either.

[ThurstonX]

Originally Posted by jrandeck

Can you open the capture device and play it directly from within VLC without saving it to a file?
<SNIP>
Sorry, I don't have a solution for that one either.

I've never had any luck with VLC, but I'll try that as part of my ongoing experiments. Also, I've never been able to dump a "live" stream from the DVR, just things that have finished recording. Not a big deal, as I have a DVR ;-)

The problem is I really need it to dump, as my goal is to archive certain recordings *without* having to go the Copy To VCR S-Video route. That's OK for some movies, as I can convert them to AVIs and make them a whole lot smaller, but for sports the loss of quality makes it not worth it. I'm gonna look into a capture card that will take a component vid connection. My worry there is HDCP (whatever the device-level copy protection is called), since I gather the DVR will only output to a device that is compliant (like my Aquos). Any suggestions for a capture card that does better than S-Vid?

Thanks for the reply.

[jrandeck]

I'm gonna look into a capture card that will take a component vid connection. My worry there is HDCP (whatever the device-level copy protection is called), since I gather the DVR will only output to a device that is compliant (like my Aquos). Any suggestions for a capture card that does better than S-Vid?

The only device that I'm aware of that can capture video from a component input is the Hauppauge HD PVR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116030

HDCP isn't a problem because you can't do HDCP over an analog connection, but in the future component out on HDCP compliant devices might get limited to 480P. Still better than svideo.

[ThurstonX]

Yeah, I've been reading about the Hauppauge for the last hour or so. Not sure I wanna spend $200... yet. It being external is great, as my microATX mobos are fresh outta slots ;-)

Thanks for clarifying the HDCP over component (or lack thereof). I guess I'm down to getting firewire dump to work, buying the Hauppauge or doing without.

[jrandeck]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Try disabling it?

That didn't help, nor did shutting down every app and service I could find.

I did use system restore to set back to Saturday's settings and grafcorder runs now. I still don't know what changed. Does anyone know if there's a way to get a report of what changed between windows restore points?

The only thing I saw that got rolled back was my upgrade of VLC.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by jrandeck

The only thing I saw that got rolled back was my upgrade of VLC.

Not sure why that would effect anything... Didn't have the IE beta 8 or any automatic patches?

[jrandeck]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Not sure why that would effect anything... Didn't have the IE beta 8 or any automatic patches?

No automatic updates were applied during that time frame (at least none that created restore points, and I thought they all did that). I upgraded VLC after I started having problems with Grafcorder so I know that wasn't the issue.

There was one other directory that got rolled back, something to do with licensing, I'll need to look at that again, but I don't believe I installed any new apps or updates on Saturday or Sunday, which is when things stopped working.

[mraider]

Fonceur, amazing amounts of work and expertise obviously went into both Externinator and GrafCorder. Thanks for all of your effort...

I've gotten Externinator and Grafcorder working together with a Moto DCH3200 connected via firewire with no actual capture card installed. My only problem now is that BTV won't allow me to select MPEG2 as a recording format, only Divx. Everything still works, but the filename passed to grafcorder is a .avi, insted of a .tp. If I change it to .tp, it's playable in VLC and BTV.

Is there any way to force grafcorder or externinator to use .tp, or append it to the end of the filename?

Thanks!

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by mraider

My only problem now is that BTV won't allow me to select MPEG2 as a recording format, only Divx. Everything still works, but the filename passed to grafcorder is a .avi, insted of a .tp.

The recording format is the one from the monitored tuner, or the one selected during the virtual capture device creation. In BTV-Externinator there is a tab to edit tuners, though even after a reboot, BTV does not always accept those modifications.

As a last resort you can either recreate the virtual capture device or you can shutdown BTV (not just the GUI), then edit the following file:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond TV\devices.xml

You want to find the appropriate tuner and change the SupportDivX to False and SupportMPEG2ProgramStream to True. Save and either reboot or just relaunch BTV.

with no actual capture card installed

What were the steps, as I don't remember the creation of a virtual capture device possible without a real tuner, or did you used to have a Plextor card and removed it or something?

[dvrnewbie]

Hi Fonceur, I've followed the steps to create the .GRF file using Graphedit but I can't get past joining the Digital AV/C Tuner to the HDTV Dump filter. Try as I may, I can't get the blue arrow to join the AVC to the dump filter. When I right click on the AV/C Tuner and click Properties, I get an error that says it the properties cannot be found or something like that.
The firewire drivers are installed and working. I had it set up wit VLC but noticed that VLC wasn't quitting after recording so wanted to switch to GraphCorder.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by dvrnewbie

I've followed the steps to create the .GRF file using Graphedit but I can't get past joining the Digital AV/C Tuner to the HDTV Dump filter. Try as I may, I can't get the blue arrow to join the AVC to the dump filter.

Are you sure that you are not trying to connect the AV/C Panel instead of the Tuner? Could you post a screentshot of that un-connected graph please?

When I right click on the AV/C Tuner and click Properties, I get an error that says it the properties cannot be found or something like that.

You need to register the proppage.dll that comes with GraphEdit for that (regsvr32 proppage.dll).

[dvrnewbie]

Thanks for your quick reply, Fonceur...turned out to be an issue with my mouse. I was able to create the GRF file. I did a test using the example from the wiki and it created the Test.tp file in the original directory I used to configure the filter.
However, I got a .NET Framework exception at the end of the recording. It's a "FileNotFoundException" and I think I know why.
For the 3rd parm on the GrafCorder command, I supplied C:\GrafCorder\Test.tp but the file path configured for the dump filter was C:\My Downloads\Applications\graphedit\Test.tp.

The recording worked, although when recording was on a non-5c HD channel, I did notice some jitter and a few lost frames. Just wondering why the .NET error.
Should I update my .NET framework?

Thanks for your help!

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by dvrnewbie

However, I got a .NET Framework exception at the end of the recording. It's a "FileNotFoundException" and I think I know why.

Not sure which file that might have been...

For the 3rd parm on the GrafCorder command, I supplied C:\GrafCorder\Test.tp but the file path configured for the dump filter was C:\My Downloads\Applications\graphedit\Test.tp.

Typically they won't match (i.e. BTV-Externinator calling it), so it's not an issue.

The recording worked, although when recording was on a non-5c HD channel, I did notice some jitter and a few lost frames.

It's usually a good idea to run Firewire recordings through VideReDo's quickstream fix...

Should I update my .NET framework?

It can't hurt, but not sure why that would change anything..