In the past I have used Tim Moore's excellent Firestb and Heenan's Dusky Controller (www.dusky-control.com) to change channels via USB on my Sky HD box.

I know that there are a number of users on here. Has anyone managed to get this working under Windows 7? All the options appear in "My Tray" but the channel changes don't appear to work.

Edit: Mods, could you move this to the Windows 7 Public beta forum? Sorry, I didn't know it existed!

matthias2007:

In the past I have used Tim Moore's excellent Firestb and Heenan's Dusky Controller (www.dusky-control.com) to change channels via USB on my Sky HD box. I know that there are a number of users on here. Has anyone managed to get this working under Windows 7? All the options appear in "My Tray" but the channel changes don't appear to work. Edit: Mods, could you move this to the Windows 7 Public beta forum? Sorry, I didn't know it existed!

very good question, I'm curoius about this as well. Apparently most drivers ect that worked on Vista will work on Windows 7, but.... not sure id the new file format .WTV will screw things up.

Anyone else tried FireSTB with Win7?

I currently have FireSTB working on my VMC without about 95% accuracy.  Sometimes recordings only last one minute.  I plan on installing Win7 on a free HD this weekend and will know soon after if FireSTB works with Win7.

Well I installed Win7 on my Vista PC and was unable to get FireSTB working.  MyTray see's the tuner but doesn't record via firewire.  Also, channel changing didn't work either using firewire...  Back to Vista...

phimoore:

Well I installed Win7 on my Vista PC and was unable to get FireSTB working.  MyTray see's the tuner but doesn't record via firewire.  Also, channel changing didn't work either using firewire...  Back to Vista...

Well this is a deal breaker for me.

I'll stick with Vista forever, unless something better or equivilent comes out for 7MC. I cannot live without the one hundred percent perfect channel change and recording of firestb. Ive been using it since it 1st came out (back in MCE, before there was recording with it) and is has not once, ever failed. I'll never understand why ppl would use ir blasters with this option avaliable 

I too am having no luck in Win 7 with firewire capture and a Motorola DCT-6200 STB. The timmmoore drivers install just fine. channel.exe can control the STB and change channels, etc via firewire. However, neither VLC nor CapDVHS are successful in viewing or recording a channel (I am using the TV Guide channel to test, with no 5c). VLC sees the tuner device, but viewing does nothing, no errors or anything. CapDVHS also sees the tuner device properly, but recording to a .ts file gives the error:

Error 800705AA: Cannot start capture

This error used to happen a lot when using firewire capture in XP with SP2, I recall the solution was to install an SP2 patch to fix firewire behavior (KB885222). So I guess somehow Windows 7 has reintroduced the problems with firewire capture (it was OK in Vista).

Installed Windows 7 (build 7100) 4 days ago on second partition, as dual boot with XP pro.

Sure enough VLC doesnt play the Firewire input stream from Motorola STB. All appears to be installed ok in Windows 7, & setting var compatabilities doesnt help. Worked fine in XP Pro.

After messing with this a bit, it seems like Windows 7 is causing the STB to stop "sending video" on 1394 port, maybe even prior to running VLC, (or TSReaderLite).

After booting to Windows 7, with or w/o running VLC ,(or other progs that access 1394 STB TS stream), shut down and boot to XP Pro and VLC can no longer access the 1394 STB video. Unplug/replug the 1394 cable doesnt help at that point. BUT with XP still running, reboot the STB (disconnect STB power for a few), and when STB is up again run VLC and it gets the 1394 input stream from STB fine again.

Same thing happens shutting Windows 7 down, and replacing HD with a prev working (VLC/1394video) XP pro only HD. Rebooting the STB is only way at that point to get VLC (or tsreader) to see any 1394 video steam to access.

Sooooo, it seems like Windows 7 communicating? (or?) via 1394 with STB, results in STB's 1394 ts stream stopping. Don't know answer, just posting info.

** Fixed ** now working as it did in XP pro

Updated the 1394 driver under IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers in device manager, (actually i downgraded it i suppose), to "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)". Driver-Details now show 1394bus.sys > 1394ohci.sys , versus prev. only showed 1394ohci.sys

VLC now plays the 1394 TS stream from CableTV set top box fine, even w/o setting a compatability mode for VLC. (unless compability mode is set still from prev. somehow)

If running VLC changes temp changes the Desktop color scheme to "Windows7 basic " color scheme, then set VLC to use Direct3d or OpenGL (quick set video via menu choices under VLC in start menu).

Have a Kworld qam tuner card installed also, but advantage of connecting STB to system via 1394 is that All my cable channels (excpt premium channels) are viewable (poss recordable) not just clear qam channels. - currently chan 1 - 99 digital + HD broadcast & the extended HD/digital channel set.

Do most media stuff manually outside MediaCenter, but would be nice if MS added ability to access the STB's 1394 ts stream in MediaCenter. (maybe it does & i just havnt researched enuf yet tho)
.

djf100:

** Fixed ** now working as it did in XP pro Updated the 1394 driver under IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers in device manager, (actually i downgraded it i suppose), to "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)". Driver-Details now show 1394bus.sys > 1394ohci.sys , versus prev. only showed 1394ohci.sys VLC now plays the 1394 TS stream from CableTV set top box fine, even w/o setting a compatability mode for VLC. (unless compability mode is set still from prev. somehow) If running VLC changes temp changes the Desktop color scheme to "Windows7 basic " color scheme, then set VLC to use Direct3d or OpenGL (quick set video via menu choices under VLC in start menu). Have a Kworld qam tuner card installed also, but advantage of connecting STB to system via 1394 is that All my cable channels (excpt premium channels) are viewable (poss recordable) not just clear qam channels. - currently chan 1 - 99 digital + HD broadcast & the extended HD/digital channel set. Do most media stuff manually outside MediaCenter, but would be nice if MS added ability to access the STB's 1394 ts stream in MediaCenter. (maybe it does & i just havnt researched enuf yet tho) .

So just to clarify, you have timmoore's firestb plugin running as expected within 7MC. What I mean is, not simply via VLC but the actual app along with mytray and firewire recording?

-Chris

soul_staker .....

Nope, don't have "mytray" & firewire recording working within 7MC.

Had to go and install an old hvr1600 tuner card and experiment seting up 7MC with that & firestb, b4 answering.

Viewing / recording / stb channel changing / file managing i normally do manually outside of media center.

If VLC, and capDVHS, can access " xxx Tuner AV/C Device" & STB's 1394 ts stream , MS could easily (If they wanted to) add same 1394 access options inside 7MC for viewing / recording. When/If they do, then i may actually use 7MC .
.

I gave this a shot this week and was unable to achieve anything, even with the legacy driver. For those of you interested in using firestb with windows 7, or even vista with TV Pack, it seems that firestb is not compatible with either.

Although I have confirmed that djf100's use of legacy driver's does work for many people, it is only the 1st step, and does not work for everyone. What I mean is this:

1. Windows 7  uses a new 1394 texas instruments driver, which appears, by most accounts, to completely disable video transfer via firewire (wether it be from a stb, a digital camcorder, or whatever). It seems SOME people are having sucess using the legacy driver to re-enable the 1394 capabilites. Well getting te firewire hardware to work like it did in all previous versions of Windowss is only the 1st hurdle in getting firestb to work in Windows 7. The next problem.....

2. So now you may have the actual firewire port and associated hardware up and running with the legacy driver. Now you need to install the firestb plugin, and get that working. Well.....something that media centre in both Windows 7 and Vista+TV Pack have in common, prevents the fiirestb from working. Is it simply the new .wtv file format, or something alot more intricate?..... I don't know. But, unless someone can either rewrite the app or change the exsisting one, it does not appear this will ever work...... which means I will stick with plain Vista until ximmortal finalizes his new TV tuner for firestb, which work in Tv Pack (infact TV Pack is a requirement), and hypothetically Windows 7 once the 1394 driver issue is settled. Which brings me to my final point.

3. Since ximmortal's app directly relies on the firestb drivers and it only works in TV Pack (latest version) and hypothetically Windows 7, then there is no problem with the acutal firestb drivers. That means, by the process of ellimination, that the incompaibility issue lies with the MyTray App .

........ Huh, well anyone feel like bailing Tim Moore out of jail, or where ever he's been for the past few years and seeing if he would immediately update MyTray?.... or perhaps he's in the phone book...... lol

Anyway, this was not really a reply to any question, just thought I'd summarize the isues facing firestb and Windows 7/Vmc+Tv Pack to date. As you can tell, I have zero programming knowledge, as such, I cannot contribute to solving the problem, I can just whine about it.

-Chris

 

Not having used MCE or Vista prev, i have trouble knowing what to look for that isnt there or should be there. (any files supposed to end up in the eHome folders, etc?).

If i open the "default.htm" from explorer and set the settings there, it has the check box to set for record & has a tuner "uniqueID" to choose, etc, but the changes arn't retained if i close and reopen that file. The changes are reflected in "mytray" task bar when opening that.

Opening that taskbar MyTray are all those
choices from default.htm supposed to be in there also?, all mine shows is the top check box to enable record & the drop down box next to it. In the middle is text "tuner1" & "tuner2", but nothing else in that middle section.

MyTray & the fireSTB stuff seems to be doing something on my system, not recording tho, but it did set up the "fire" & "old" folders under Recorded Tv. Also is creating the "tuner.log" & "tuner.txt" files in the temp folder (c:\users\%user%\Appdata\local\temp).

The contents of those two files would likely help someone that understands that part of it. I'm guessing TunerTracker.dll creates or is part of creating those. I tried couple times recording & then opening those files. First time there were lines re not starting & 5C, lots of other lines re not not finding reg entries / finding reg entries, finding tuner ID switching tuner, etc. Second time i tuned STB to a known clear non 5c'd channel. looking at files, nothing re 5C, but mass lines re setting/getting data & not setting/getting data.

If fireSTB setting up & working *Inside* MCE & MC7 strictly depends on tuning to & recording an Analog tv channel in MCE or MC7, (with the 1394 stream being parallel recorded), then its not going to work for me at all, due Cable Co here switched to all digital, and turned off Analog channels.

sooooo, all that fwiw, heheheh
.

I was able to get FireSTB and Windows 7 working.  The trick was to make sure that you reboot or poweroff the STB if you had tried to capture from it before changing to the "Legacy" host driver.

If you are trying this for the first time here are the steps to follow:

1. Unplug power from the STB
2. Find the 1394 host device in the Device Manager and Update Driver (actually downgrade to the Legacy driver)
3. Reboot the computer
4. Plug the STB back in and let it boot up
5. Connect the STB to the PC via firewire cable
6. Install the appropriate STB drivers (I used the zip from http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire)

X

ximmortal

I see you got the FireSTB and Win7 working.  How about the Media Center portion is it recording shows?