Hi all,

I hope some are still tracking this thread... because I need some help!

I had my DCT-3216 working just fine, but I wanted to move to the DCH-3200 STB.  So I downloaded the ExDeus drivers and installed them.  They are installed fine, and the channel.exe works (though it needs to use the -f flag to work) and I am able to record content using the CapDVHS application.    So, the fundamentals are there.

But unless I set DEBUG to 1 in the registry, MyTray does not "see" my STB.  And, unfortunately, when I'm in DEBUG mode and select my STB, it does not seem to work with VMC.   When I leave MyTray's DEBUG mode, MyTray doesn't "keep" the assignment to my STB's ID.

Any suggestions?  I'd really like to get this working again with my new STB!

Thanks,
Jon

Jon,

I got my Motorola DCH 3200 set up working using ssterb1 guide. It was posted a few months ago. Here it is again:

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.

Thanks for the info... did you use firestb or firestb-vistarc1? 

Still no answer on Vista x64 support, huh?  There must be someone out there using a firewire connection with 64 bit.  Anyone care to comment?  Perhaps there's someone who has some kind of source code for these drivers?

Hello All -

I finally got HD firewire recording working on my SA 8300 settop! Using VLAN on my PC, with firewire connected to my STB, on my STB I went into its DVR recorded video list menu. I then selected an HD recording (from my STB's recorded video list menu). Once selected, a menu then appears. On that menu, select "Copy to VCR". Your video selection will then stream to your PC via your firewire connection in whatever its original format is (SD or HD) unencrypted!

I must note, I have only gotten this to work using VLAN, but only after playing with the settings until it worked, but I have not been successful with other capture programs.

Another tidbit worth mentioning here. I found this program (but works with XP, not Vista):

http://www.vividlogic.com/products/dtvr.html - I havn't been successful with it, but if anyone's successful with this program, please let us know.

Excellent news. Can you share:

1. download link to VLAN

2. your settings for the SW

 

1.  The link to download VLAN is http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

2.  I'm working on replicating what I did with various drivers and codecs. So far, the sets of drivers and codecs I've reinstalled have caused the "blue screen of death". I did not document the drivers/codecs and SW settings I had when I had success. But I'll keep mixing and matching until it works again, and I'll be sure to document it this time when I get it again.

I'm pretty sure I had set the output to local and the input stream to MPEG TS format.

Ok, excuse the total lack of awareness here, I just got an HDTV and HD box to go with it. So my understanding so far is: I plug the receiver box into my PC's Firewire port, and use this software to record whatever channel it's showing?
Will it record anything? I've seen some notes on "encrypted" channels, and I was wondering if it'll record on-demand orders, or premium channel content, etc...

Now, I can't get it working again. My level of frustration is getting to unhealthy levels.

Can someone who has successfully captured video with an SA8300HD post the file names and version numbers of each of the four drivers, please?

UPDATE:

Yesterday, I had success once again - the most success ever, but still very limited and a lot more work still needs to be done. I documented what I've done and the settings I used this time.

First, I reinstalled the STB drivers by allowing Windows to search and update automatically. Next, I played a recording of this weekend's Saturday Night Live, recorded in 1080i from my SA8300HD STB. In Windows Vista Premium 32-bit, using Tim Moore's STB firewire application, the Deux (sp?) updates, and DVB Bridge already installed, I opened VLAN media player.

With VLAN opened, I selected "Open Capture". On the next screen, I clicked "Refresh" under video capture sources. Next, I selected the SA8300HD tuner for my source. On the bottom of the screen, I put a check mark for capturing source to file. Near the check box option, I clicked the button for advanced options. In the advanced options screen, I selected to stream output locally and I clicked OK and OK again to close the window opened previously.

It took a few moments, but after a short wait, an HD video window came up with Saturday Night Live already in progress! Pressing pause from my STB confirmed that the video on the firewire was a clone of what the STB was outputing to my TV. I then changed the channels on my STB, keeping within my cable cos' HD retransmission broadcast block and I discovered that the live HD video coming from these channels were coming through live and in HD on my PC (still in VLAN) over firewire! I then did a series of tests switching between the "tuner" STB driver and the "panel" STB driver and discovered video output on both whenever both tuners on the STB were deployed!

The above tests were achieved over a dozen separate tests. Not all were successful. Many lead to the blue screen of death or no video at all. The unsuceessful tests could be due to encryption on non retransmitted broadcast channels, but I have not yet tested this hypothesis; however, I did verify that the above tests worked multiple times over retransmitted HD broadcast networks, but have not worked 100% of the time tested.

Oh, "Copy to VCR" does not cause firewire output, as I had previously believed.

NEXT STEPS:

I will do more testing to try to pinpoint the cause of failures. I will attempt to verify whether or not non-retransmitted broadcast HD channels are encrypted or blocked.

Once these questions are answered reliably, I will then take a close look at what exactly Tim's code is trying to accomplish and what exact code modifications would be required, based on my new understanding of what makes firewire video capturing work.

I welcome all to continue by repeating the tests I posted here where I have succeeded in order to see if my success is replicated accross various system setups and other variables. Once success is replicated, please continue with tests to determine the circumstances causing failure.

I'm really hoping someone can figure this out.  JUST got my 3416 working with the Firewire channel changes and CapDVHS works fine (though not on Fox or CBS HD...other HD channels are fine)...

It really doesn't make any sense since the FCC "REQUIRED" the 1394 port to be active.  Why wouldn't Microsoft build it natively into media center anyways???

All -- Sorry I put off writing this, as I know I should have posted what I am about to write here some weeks sooner than now when I had ran new tests that give new answers to our questions, but more importantly resulting in further progress at getting firewire recording working once and for all!

1. Non-retransmitted broadcast ATSC (to QAM over cable) channels are scrambled with 5C, while retransmitted broadcast (to QAM over cable) channels are "in the clear" over Comcast cable systems. I reached this conclusion after running a program that analyzed the firewire media stream. The program read the data on all non-retransmitted cable channels as "garbage" (litterally designating the word "garbage" as its data type).

2. All STB DVR recordings I tested (on my SA8300HD) were not encrypted during firewire playback. I tested a variety of recordings from retransmitted broadcast, HD & SD basic digital cable and digital HD premium channels, like HBO (which I subscribe to) and all playback over firewire with no encryption to cause "garbage" data streams!

While #1 is a definate disadvantage, with a little programming, code could written to cause playback off a recorded delayed loop of a few seconds from the STB - ala a virtual "live" driver!

3. I learned that there is a very important difference in "D-VHS"-enabled firewire drivers and non-"D-VHS" firewire MPEG TS drivers. D-VHS drivers enable the connecting device to communicate via a 2-way convervation with the STB. The device asks the STB for the 4-digit PID numbers of each available media stream. The STB sends that info to the device. The device then tells the STB which streams it wants and then sends a command to que and start the TS stream. The beginning of the stream has an identification signal and a command that marks the beginning.

4. Unfortunately, SA boxes will not work with D-VHS. This means (for my testing) I have to work with just the TS MPEG layer for firewire recording. This is headache since to get firewire recording working, I have to set recording and playback manually from both the PC and the STB and I have to start STB play and PC records in sync or nothing will not work.

5. If your cable system uses the newer Motorola boxes, consider yourself lucky. Not only are you free from the D-VHS bug, but these boxes (not the SA boxes) have clear-QAM RF modulation output. What does that mean? That means that with digital TV tuner card for your PC that can demodulate unencrypted QAM, simply connect the coax output of the Motorola DVR STB to the digital input coax of your tuner card and presto Windows MCE thinks it has a Cable Card and will record all your HD digital subscription!

PeterAlt:

5. If your cable system uses the newer Motorola boxes, consider yourself lucky. Not only are you free from the D-VHS bug, but these boxes (not the SA boxes) have clear-QAM RF modulation output. What does that mean? That means that with digital TV tuner card for your PC that can demodulate unencrypted QAM, simply connect the coax output of the Motorola DVR STB to the digital input coax of your tuner card and presto Windows MCE thinks it has a Cable Card and will record all your HD digital subscription!

Umm.... there's just no way I'm reading this right.  Are you saying that because I have a Moto DCH-3200 and an AverMedia Combo PCI-e clear-QAM card, that all I have to do is connect the coax cable from the 3200 to my Aver card and I have the equivelant of a CableCard PC???

I just can't get excited about this until someone confirms this for me.  I'm stuck at work and can't try it for a few hours yet...

Any clarity appreciated!
Jon

JonDeutsch:

PeterAlt:

5. If your cable system uses the newer Motorola boxes, consider yourself lucky. Not only are you free from the D-VHS bug, but these boxes (not the SA boxes) have clear-QAM RF modulation output. What does that mean? That means that with digital TV tuner card for your PC that can demodulate unencrypted QAM, simply connect the coax output of the Motorola DVR STB to the digital input coax of your tuner card and presto Windows MCE thinks it has a Cable Card and will record all your HD digital subscription!

Umm.... there's just no way I'm reading this right.  Are you saying that because I have a Moto DCH-3200 and an AverMedia Combo PCI-e clear-QAM card, that all I have to do is connect the coax cable from the 3200 to my Aver card and I have the equivelant of a CableCard PC???

I just can't get excited about this until someone confirms this for me.  I'm stuck at work and can't try it for a few hours yet...

Any clarity appreciated!
Jon

Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with an SA box and praying that one day Comcast will introduce the Motorola boxes in my area. But, you are in luck! You will also need a Microsoft IR receiver with included IR blaster to control your STB (or you can use firewire for that, but you have to get it working first with the IR blaster before you can replace it with firewire).

EDIT: Once you make all the connections, run MCE setup and tell it you have a STB. MCE should find the STB's clearQAM signal on whatever channel the STB uses to broadcast it over.

PeterAlt:

Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with an SA box and praying that one day Comcast will introduce the Motorola boxes in my area. But, you are in luck! You will also need a Microsoft IR receiver with included IR blaster to control your STB (or you can use firewire for that, but you have to get it working first with the IR blaster before you can replace it with firewire).

EDIT: Once you make all the connections, run MCE setup and tell it you have a STB. MCE should find the STB's clearQAM signal on whatever channel the STB uses to broadcast it over.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the quick follow-up.  I tried to set things up this way, but I was unable to determine exactly which "input" the coax signal was coming through on.    I wonder how I can determine this?  Can anyone else advise?  This seems way too good to be true.    In fact, might it be?

Hear me out.  So, my Aver card supports Clear QAM, but I thought it only worked via its channel mapping application.  Is the channel mapping app only required because I'm using its built-in tuner and not an external tuner?

Any additional insights appreciated.  There are a few overlapping things here that I'd like to sort out, if only because it's such a pain in the a%@ to setup the clear QAM mapping.  The STB configuration would likely wipe out all the mapping I've done to-date.

Thanks again,
Jon