Ok, anyone have a SA 4250HD working on Vista x64 via Firewire?  Or am I still a fool for wishing?

Ok

Not sure if this it the correct place to ask this but what the heck.

I get the impression after reading hundreds of posts that I can connect my cable stb to my pc via firewire and use it as my tuner. By that I mean I can basically remove my tuner card from my PC.

My current setup is 2 6200 STBs connected to 2 happaugge cards in my PC, watch 1 record 1 ya know.

I have Vista Home Premium installed.

I have tried to get the Firewire channel changing to work, but my STBs don't show up in the tray system.

I can however change the channel just fine on either STB using the command line.

Comments Appreciated.

Thanks

LB

Just to expand on my prior post.

My current AV setup is:

  Comp 1:
   - Vista 64 Ultimate w/TBs of Space
   - SP5000 Projector (720p)
   - Hauppauge PVR500 (2GB Memory due to 'PVR500 4GB MCE Green Screen' issue)
   - SA 4250HD box via non-HD connections

My 'pie-in-the-sky' setup is:

  Comp 1:
   - Vista 64 Ultimate w/TBs of Space
   - IN82 Projector (1080p)
   - SA 4250HD box via firewire (x2)

  Comp 2:
   - Vista 32 Ultimate
   - TV via sVideo
   - Hauppauge PVR500 (record to Comp1's drives)

  Comp 3,4,etc.:
   - Vista 32 Ultimate
   - Old POS TVs via sVideo or Composite (kids rooms, workout room, etc.)
   - Streaming Recoded and Live Video from Comps 1 and 2 (Shared Tuners)

My big hangups are the obvious ones:
 - Can I get the 4250HD box set up via firewire
 - I don't think anyone has a solution for sharing tuners in Media Center.

I would like to hook in the 4250HDs via firewire, but from everything I have read I don't think it's possible yet.  I think Tim's drivers would work if I was using Vista 32, but they don't work on x64.  (My Vista 64 finds the 4250HD devices, but won't use Tim's drivers for them.)  I've seen posts that there is no way to port the drivers to x64, but I'd love to take a look for myself.  Anybody have the source code on these drivers?

Also, please don't tell me to go to 32bit on the main comp.  If that's my only hope, then I'll just wait a couple of month for Hauppauge's HD PVR card and go Y-Pr-Pb (The HDPVR would allow me to record pay channels as well).

Am I on track or is there something I'm missing here?

Kleettar:

Not true longbow22.  For MCE and Sage TV you have to use additional free for MCE and free (I think) for Sage software.  I think Sage's workaround is better supported.  But Sage costs an extra 70 bucks. 

Sage will tune without a tuner card I think.  MCE monitors the tuner card and makes an extra recording.  You tell Firestb what to do, I have it replace the low def recording. 

But, I had a hell of a time getting it to work because nobody supports it.  I haven't looked real hard at the listing of the problem of the guy above you.  I have no idea if I'll have any idea why he is having his problem.  I might have just got lucky.

But if you already have MCE, I'd try to get firestb working with the tuner card you have.  If it turns out to be too hard, you can always drop the money for Sage TV and maybe get rid of your tuner card.  But I can't guarantee anything because I haven't worked with it.

longbow22:

I have tried to get the Firewire channel changing to work, but my STBs don't show up in the tray system.

I can however change the channel just fine on either STB using the command line.

Comments Appreciated.

Thanks

LB

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permalink/222522/241454/ShowThread.aspx#241454

ssterb1:

This is what worked for me (Motorola DCH-3200).  I’m running MCE 2005 so I’m not sure if this will work for Vista, but I guess it’s worth a shot.

If the driver for your stb was attained from ExDeus’s “stb_firewire_drivers_2007-12-17.zip” file, which can be found here, (or other) instead of timmoore’s “firestb.msi” setup file, and mytray is having trouble, try this:

- Uninstall FireSTB / MyTray (don’t restart yet)
- Go to Device Manager and delete the stb drivers and unplug the firewire cable(s)
- Restart
- Reinstall FireSTB / MyTray (restart)
- If you haven’t already done so, extract all the files from ExDeus’s zip file to a folder on your desktop
- Copy the following files from the new desktop folder to your desktop:
     firestb.inf,  miestb.sys,  miestrm.sys,  mstapeo.sys
**Note: If you don’t have any or all of the last 3 files, it should be okay.  The .inf file is the most important.**
- Open the drivers folder in the C:\Program Files\Timmoore folder.  You should see files similar to the four files copied to the desktop.
- Rename the fierstb.inf on the desktop to whatever the .inf file name is in the drivers folder.
- Cut the four files from the desktop to the drivers folder.
- It will ask you if you want to replace existing files.  Click yes to all.
- Plug in the firewire cable(s). the Found New Hardware wizard should come up.

- Install the stb devices specifying the drivers’ location as the drivers folder in C:\Program Files\Timmoore folder.

When the hardware wizards are complete, you should now see the tuners in MyTray. (May require another restart.)

Good Luck.

Kleettar:

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.

Thanks! I'm one step closer now. Finally got it (almost) working with a SA3250 after adding this registry key. Problem is the firewire recordings are completely unwatchable. They studder horribly on two different computers, using either MCE or WMP11 as a player. Hardware should be more than adequite on both machines, as watching/recording OTA HD is no problem.

Main HTPC:

• Vista Ultimate x86 SP1
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200
• 4 Gigs of Memory
• ATI Radeon X1250 HDMI HDCP Video 128mb
• 1.25TB SATA 3 Hard Drive Capacity
• ATI Theater 650
• SA 3250 Firewire Recording

Other Test PC:

• Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600
• 4 Gigs of Memory
• ATI Radeon X1350 (non HDCP) 256mb
• ATI Theater 550

Based on that last post, it sounds like there might be problems with Vista's SP1 with FireSTB??

Can anyone specifically confirm that FireSTB has continued to work fine through a Vista SP1 upgrade?

We've been using FireSTB with our R5000HD modded STB for about 5-6 months for HD and Vista Media Center.  It has been working well (not 100%, but close and if FireSTB fails to generate the HD dvr-ms file correctly I can recreate it manually using TSConverter2.5).  I'm concerned that SP1 will somehow screw things up...

Alright HT Slider.. you seem to be the person with the answers I need... Everywhere I've googled about this you keep popping up..

Situation: x64 Vista Ultimate Media Center system (will rebuild to x86 if I can get this HD Dish Network feed into MCE though).

Dish VIP-622 DVR receiver + tax refund = R5000HD mod..

Just to be crystal clear before I make the purchase.. ship my box out.. and begin the crusade of getting this to work..

The R5000HD modification will allow me to do ALL of the following:

Have Vista MCE recognize this device as a valid source of TV:

1. I will get full MCE guide listings of programs
2. Channel changing will work
3. I will be able to schedule recordings from the MCE guide
4. I will be able to use this to view the feed from the LIVE TV section of MCE
5. I can do all the above list with full Xbox 360 and v2 extender support
6. I will get Dolby 5.1 audio from any streamed LIVE TV content through this solution.. Xbox 360 with optical into AV receiver.. I'll continue to get the 5.1 audio from the HDTV via the R5000HD mod.  No major changes from any other 5.1 audio playback that MCE supports.

Now.. the nice to have but not essential to my decision:

1. How many of these devices can I intergrate into Vista Media Center?  I have one VIP622 now, but I'd love to be able to bring in a VIP322 into this equation, continue to use my OTA for more sources, etc.

Is this the last piece of my complete HD, good audio, MCE system?  I have over 150 DVDs burned to dvr-ms on my system and use the My Movies interface.. I consolidated all my pictures and music to the media system.. All I'm missing is bringing my Dish Network 622 in as my primary Live and Recorded TV source so I can relocate my "disaster" as my wife calls it to the basement and go full extenders across the house.  All of this for.. ESPN-HD, Fox Sports-HD, Food-HD (for the wife).

Thanks in advance,

Ian

This looks like it has amazing potential... Live TV through firestb. The "nearly" holy grail

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/post/253414.aspx