ssterb1:

Yesterday I started a thread here asking people that use (or are trying to use) FireSTB to encourage the developers of the HDHomeRun at Silicondust to develop a similar solution for live and recorded tv in Media Center via firewire from a stb.  Until they do, I’m trying to record via firewire using FireSTB.

For the love of Pete folks!!!  Get off MCE/VMC and just switch to SageTV!!!  I have been on SageTV with ONLY FIREWIRE connected to my HTPC for 6 months now and it is a dream.

Microsoft is not in any way serious about delivering REAL HTPC solutions.  If they were, they would be putting out updates like Sage does (Every 1.5 to 2 months).  They also would have sold MCE as a add-on product in an effort to saturate the market.

 

TO ALL THE PEOPLE STRUGGLING TO GET FIREWIRE WORKING IN MCE/VMC...

THE SOLUTION IS TO GET SAGETV AND BE DONE WITH IT. (5C ISSUES NOT WITHSTANDING)

ssterb1, you rock! the tuner is coming up in mytray now!  I wonder if it's the order of installing drivers that made the difference, or the fact that you said to copy the drivers into the timmoore directory first and install them from there... but it worked!

channel change is still not working, so I need to look into that a little more, but under "tuner1" in mytray it actually lists the channel that i'm currently tuned to... so it seems to be it's pretty close to working...

as far as firewire recording goes, i can record firewire now (including high def!)... BUT most of the time its either pixelated or choppy.. so i need to work on that too

at least i have a solid start now though, thanks again!

Thanks ssterb1! This did the trick for me. I'm running Vista and using a Motorola DCH3200 so now we know it works for both MCE 2005 and Vista. What a relief I thought I'd never get it working.

Well I almost believed que3jxp.  I've been so bummed trying to get my HCD 3200 to work.  So I downloaded Sage TV and it doesn't support firewire either.  I looked around and its something someone wrote just like this stuff.  And the install for the firewire was long and complicated.  I didn't even bother.

So long story short, I said to heck with this and went back to working on this MCE problem.  And I can't believe it took me, a mainframe COBOL programmer to figure a work around.  I had a hunch it just wasn't talking to the recording program correctly or that my tray didn't really know my tuner even though it looked right.  I guess my hunch was right.

If you read Tim's FAQ he mentions a debug option but he doesn't say how to set it.  I added a double word value in the same location that he mentions that you can turn off fire wire channel change with the setting "EnableChannelChange".  I called the double word "Debug" and set it to 1. 

I restarted my tray and opened it.  Now I had options under tuner1.  I had been looking at the logs Tim's FAQ mentions in the hidden temp directory. I figured out it had defaulted to some USB device I didn't even have.  I changed my tray drop down for tuner 1 to use the device that was hex (all letters and numbers) that the log indicated was my STB. 

Now it is recording anything I record in the fire directory under the main recorded tv directory.  The sound is 5.1 and the video is Hi-Def.  I hope this helps many of you out there now and in the future.  It seems to be very slow showing up in Media Center.  I'd say about 15 minutes after its done recording.  I can browse to the fire directory and start it before it shows up in media center and it plays fine.

Also, for the guys trying the get firewire channel change to work, I think I know how.  I haven't tried this but it will probably work.  I have to use the -f option to get channel to change the channel too.  I think you could follow Tim's instruction in the FAQ to use a different tuner program, but use channel.  I would think you could put the -f in the string for the program name.  If not, I read something about a suffix registry setting.  Please post if that works for you.  If I get tired of the IR-blaster, I'll try it and post if no one else has by then.

Good luck guys.  I hope this helps with the frustration.

Kleettar:

Well I almost believed que3jxp.  I've been so bummed trying to get my HCD 3200 to work.  So I downloaded Sage TV and it doesn't support firewire either.  I looked around and its something someone wrote just like this stuff.  And the install for the firewire was long and complicated.  I didn't even bother.

Well, I am sorry, but you did not try very hard.  I am using SageTV and firewire with two DCT 62xx series boxes.

Also, I personally rewrote the instructions recently and it is nowhere near as complicated as you are making it sound.

And lastly, there are two things that can never be cured in MCE that Sage handles fine.  Client/Server and LIVE TV from firewire.

I'm down to try SageTV. I've pretty much given up on my MCE. I filed a complaint with TWC as they wouldn't help me with my cable boxes and my firewire hd signal issue. They finally called back and left a message, but that's it. :-( Any one seen those new boxes from Digieo?

I didn't say it was impossible, but it looked like a new set of hassels.  Besides, I now have MCE working perfectly with my STB via firewire.  I can't say about two boxes because I don't have two.  I was just pointing out that firewire isn't supported right out of the box by Sage either.  And to get firewire working it looked like you needed to install about 3 or 4 applications and configure them.  To get this working I just had to use the updated firewire drivers and firestb.  But, I did have to mess around with it to get it to work, and it was frustrating.  Hopefully, my experiences will make it much easier for everyone else.

I just tracked down a registry entry in Tim's FAQ called "argument" and its for passing arugments to the channel change program.  I just added the entry with a -f.  Now firewire channel changing works just fine. 

Now I have what I wanted and I don't have to pay another 70 bucks.  So I hope anyone else having trouble is helped by my posts.  But it is pretty stupid that Microsoft doesn't support firewire out of the box, its the perfect solution for HD recording.  And, there is no way the average Joe is up to configuring this stuff.

Anyone have any information on getting a Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC to work with FireSTB?  I used to have it working perfectly with a Motorola 6200, but I moved and Time Warner has forced this 8300HDC on me.  In Tim's nfo, he mentions the 8300HD will work, but the HDC is different.  I tried to get Time warner to give me an older 8300HD, but they said they are obligated by law to give out the 8300HDC, due to the cable card support.  I dont believe this for a second, but the fact remains that they will not give anything but HDC's now.  Any information is appreciated.

I have a SA4250HD from Cablevision. I followed ssterb1's instructions. Now MyTray recognized my STB, I can record fine. But I can not change channel.

Command channel.exe -f -a4 2 channel_number works fine but not MyTray.

 I tried to follow the readme.htm, set

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Timmmoore\channel\Arguments

to -f -a4 2.  It didn't work.

 I also tried to set

HKLM\Software\Timmmoore\MCETray\ChannelChange0 to "C:\Programs Files\Timmmoore\MCE 2005 STB\channelw.exe -f -a4 2 %C"

It didn't work either.

Anyone know a solution to it?

BTW, I also found out that Tim's software has to be installed on C:\Program Files\Timmmoore\MCE 2005 STB, otherwise, it won't recognize my SA4250HD.

s anyone figured out not to have MYtray change channel for multiple tuners? I only have 1 HD STB tuner while all other tuners are analog. however it changes recording station for all tuners.

Kleettar:

I just tracked down a registry entry in Tim's FAQ called "argument" and its for passing arugments to the channel change program.  I just added the entry with a -f.  Now firewire channel changing works just fine. 

Hi Kleettar, could you please tell me the exact registry name, I've tried set

HKLM\SOFTWARE\timmmoore\channel\Arguments

to -f -a4 2, but it still doesn't work

Thanks!

Hi oldshuren, I have bad news for you.  That is where I put it and it seems to work for me.  The key is Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Timmmoore\channel\Arguements

But, I'm not sure that you should have the number 2 in the Arguements.  I'd try it wsith -f -a4 and nothing else.  But, thats only a guess.

One other thing you should do, is track down the log files for firestb.  If you see an error message, you may be able to figure out why it's not working.

Kleettar:

One other thing you should do, is track down the log files for firestb.  If you see an error message, you may be able to figure out why it's not working.

I change Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Timmmoore\channel\Arguements to -f -a4, it still doesn't work :(

In my tuner.log I see,

Starting WinMain 0 (Jun 25 2006 17:20:01): Sun Feb 17 16:58:01 2008
Read FirewireEnabled 1 from registry
Failed to get LiveTVEnabled (default 0)
Failed to get channel timeout (default 50)
Failed to get R5000 channel timeout (default 50)
Failed to get BypassDeviceCheck (default 0)
Read debug 1 from registry
Failed to get fastchannel (default 1)
Failed to get FirstPID (default 0)
Failed to get enablechannelchange (default 1)
Failed to get hdonly (default 0)
Failed to get SendExit (default 1)
Failed to get SendPower (default 0)
Failed to get WatchMonitoring (default 0)
Failed to get prefix (default 'Fire ')
Failed to get firewire directory (default 'Fire')
Failed to get Channel Change String 0 (default use firewire)
Failed to get External Tuner String 0 (default use firewire)
Failed to get Channel Change String 1 (default use firewire)
Failed to get External Tuner String 1 (default use firewire)
Failed to get Channel Change String 2 (default use firewire)
Failed to get External Tuner String 2 (default use firewire)
Failed to get Channel Change String 3 (default use firewire)
Failed to get External Tuner String 3 (default use firewire)
Failed to get ClosedCaption (default 1)
Failed to get SetDTV (default 1)
Failed to get SetATSC (default 2)
Failed to get Postfix (default '-mce')
Failed to get MoveMCEToOLD (default 0)
Failed to get SkipChannels (No skipped channels)

and

Change channel on 0 to 705 (0 0)
Channelstring 0 '' 0 0
Compare 'f8811cea1c00'  'f8811cea1c00'
Send raw command returned not supported
Channel change not accepted 8
Response not accepted, or incorrect channel in response 348 0 0 39
Send raw command returned not supported
Channel change not accepted 8
...

It was using raw command,  it seems this the latest version of MyTray doesn't use

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Timmmoore\channel\Arguements 
Wonder just what "Channel Change String 0" it is looking for?

Finally got the channel changing working :)

I found a program called process monitor at msft's web site. Using it I found that HKLM\Software\Timmmoore\channel\Arguments had never been used, so Tim must made some changes which is not reflected in his readme.

I found out that HKLM\Software\Timmmoore\MyTray\ChannelString{0|1|2|3}  were  accessed.
So I set HKLM\Software\Timmmoore\MyTray\ChannelString0 to "C:\Program Files\Timmmore\MCE 2005 STB Controller\channelw.exe" -f -a4 2 %C . But the process monitor reported buffer overrun error. So I had to create a directory C:\fwstb and copied channelw.exe and channel.dll to it, set the registry entry value tp C:\fwstb\channelw.exe -f -a4 2 %C . Now channel changing is working!