DTC2000 Serial Tuner Plugin

[dilated]

Wrote up a quick plugin for Snap Stream that does basic channel changing. Not sure what else you can do from a plugin... any SDK docs on snapstream ?

I've attached the C++ source as well as the compiled plugin.

[supertoadman]

Cool, ill check this sucker out... I wont have to go through girder anymore!

[sndesigner]

Thanks for creating this and posting it. For the most part, it works. Sometimes it doesn't get a good grip on the channel change command. You should show this to Snapstream. A little more tweaking and it could be perfect and fast.

BTW, is there a way to adjust the channel change latency? It seems a bit too slow. Is there a reason for this lag?

Excellent work. Thank you!

[Keith]

Curious, is this plugin still working for the switch to 'Beyond TV' or does it need to be recompiled to the new directory structure? Is the log the only hardcoded path?

I am still going thru Girder so I know that serial is still working I had not tried this one before the swithch to BTV and I did remember to disable girder before trying.

Thanks,

Keith

[sndesigner]

Upgraded last night to v3.4 and the serial plugin still worked.

[xcskwng]

I'm currently using a Tivo with IR blasters to control a DCT2000 box. I want to replace my Tivo with a PC running snapstream. I've tested my PC using the myHTPC GotTV plugin with the DCT2000 box using a serial cable. I can switch channels using that setup.

I just downloaded this plugin for snapstream and was trying to figure out how to install the tuner. I tried running the BTV setup wizard but that didn't let me choose the DCT2000 serial plugin.

I poked around and found this ini file:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond TV\HWConfig.ini

There is a line that says:

TuningDevice=DirectShow

I'm guessing that I need to change this line to point to DTC2000SerialTuner.dll?

Are there any other changes I need to make?

[Weevil]

I think that I am in the same boat as xcskwng. I know that my serial port is active as I can use MyHtpc and I have also changed my tuning device to DTC2000SerialTuner.dll. However the serial tuner is not working for me. I am new to SnapStream and after looking at the code for the dll I notice that it still refers to the directory of “\Personal Video Station.” I am not upgrading I am installing the new version from scratch so I have no \Personal Video Station directories, only Beyond TV. Does anybody have this working under similar circumstances? I have the hardware, I have the software, I only need working serial communications to realize my goal of ultimate couch potatoness. Please someone, help a brother out.

[xcskwng]

Weevil, this is what you need to do:

Put DTC2000SerialTuner.dll into:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond TV\tuner\

Put DTC2000SerialTuner.ini into:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Personal Video Station\

Note, you must create a directory called "Personal Video Station" if you installed Beyond TV and never installed PVS. The DLL is hardcoded to look for the ini file in the PVS directory.

This is what I did:

1. Stop BTV if it is running.
2. Copy the two files above
3. Modified the ini file to use a sleep time over 1000ms. My DCT2000 (Comcast) does not change channels reliablely with a sleep time faster than 1000ms.
4. Start BTV
5. Goto Web Admin => Configure => Advanced => Video Sources
6. The DCT2000SerialTuner should now show up in the list of tuners.

Hope that helps. I also have a hacked version of the code to change the directory to the present directory "./" rather than hard coding it. If you want, I can upload here.

[Donnieg1]

Used this little plug-in and it worked great for Time Warner Cable in Houston, TX. I had to adjust the sleep time amount in the .ini file to make it change channels consistently. (It would drop numbers every now and then) Right now I have it set to 500. I will experiment and see if I can lower it any to speed up channel changing response time. It seems a bit slow right now but it consistently works.

[lectro]

Thanks for the code, Dilated, and thanks to xcskwng for the easy instructions. This worked perfectly with a serial extension cable between my pc and my Comcast box.

[flavius]

I'm running build 1334, and it looks like my Comcast DCT2244 is working just fine with this dll.

[Zack]

dilated,
I sent you a PM if you're still here
-zack

[Keith]

Well it seems dilated left us with code and went MIA.

I thought that I would post a reworked version for the path issue and a fix to one of my major recording failure points. If the guide or menu was up it would take so long to timeout that you would get audio but looking at a menu for 10-15 mins on the recording. I threw an exit before the channel change so if anything was displayed it would exit that and then send the channel request.

I took out the path information so put the DTC2000SerialTuner.dll in the tuner directory and the DTC2000SerialTuner.ini in the windows directory. If you set logging on it shows up in the program files\snapstream media\beyond tv 3 directory.

FYI, I am working on expanding this to get responses from the STB to be able check if box is powered on and then send channel requests, another one of the major recording failure points.

-Keith

[Zack]

Keith,
Thanks for the work on this.
Having it send an exit is a great idea.

I'm thinking about using VS.net to make a simple installer for this plugin. That would make it easier for people to get it loaded.....
I'll post here once i do that.

I'm switching from Sat to Cable on saturday, so i'll be using this at home

Thanks again,
-zack

[Zack]

Keith,
I realize this is give an inch, take a mile, but are you willing to give the code to your changes? I need to compile another dll that will allow me to use multi tuner.
thanks
-zack