How to record HDTV via Firewire(IEEE 1394) on Windows XP MCE

This method of HDTV recording should work for most Firewire (IEEE 1394) enabled TV tuners. It has been tested on the Mitsubishi Integrated TV's, SA3250HD, Motorola 620X (with firmware 7.10 or higher), and the Samsung T165. Please post about other TV Tuners you have tried it with.

Please note that this method will not allow you to capture copy-protected (5C encrypted) content.

This method captures the original Transport stream (.TS) sent by your HDTV provider, so if it is sent with DD 5.1 then you will capture DD5.1. This method only works with Digital channels, analogue cable channels will not work.

This method does not allow you to transfer shows already recorded on your HD DVR, you can only record live HDTV.

Drivers

1. Download device drivers
   firestb.msi is a MCE 2005 STB Controller for Firewire recording/channel change, Serial DirecTV channel change, USB R5000HD recording/channel change.
   
   Download firestb.msi
   
   There are more MCE specific items included in the package, if you are using using XP then you only need the driver. You may also want to play with the channel changing software, which works on both XP and MCE. There is now a beta Vista Driver as well.
   
   For drivers only, download a driver package that is continually updated to support new STBs, and there are some differences in how the drivers are loaded. If you have issues install the firestb drivers, it can be used with firestb instead of the drivers included with its installer.
   
   Please note that it does require you to force Windows XP to accept the drivers.
   
2. Download Software that can record/capture HDTV using STB Controller
   • CapDVHS
   • DCTrecord
   • MCE sofware
   
   
3. Install firestb.msi and MCE components
   Double click on firestb.msi to install it.
   
   If you are using MCE, install the components you want. If you are running Windows XP then at the very least install the "Firewire Drivers" component. You won't be able to double click on it, you will have to use a different command to skip the MCE required screen:
   

   MSIEXEC /i firestb.msi IDENT=0

   Now you can just choose the driver.
   
4. Plug in the 1394 cable
   1. Found new hardware wizard will come up. Keep hitting cancel until you see "Tuner AV/C Device" or "Tuner AV/C Panel" as the hardware that was found. Install both like any other device.
   2. Then Choose Install the software automatically (Recommended).
   3. Click Next
   4. Keep clicking Next.
   5. Then click Finished.
   6. Click cancel on any other devices that are automatically detected.
   7. I would go back into Device manager and disable the other devices so windows doesn't keep looking for drivers on reboot.
5. Using CapDVHS
   Open CapDVHS. A device should be listed under capture device.
   
   Under settings you may mark the following check-boxes:
   • Convert 188 bytes
   • Check PTS
   • Delete to SyncByte
   
   You may use .TS file extension for all your recordings and leave the default file name format.
   
   1. Select the "Data Info." tab and hit the "Rec" Button.
   2. You should see the info populated.
   3. Hit "Stop" and check your file.
6. Playing captured .TS (Transport stream) files
   You can use freeware VLC player to play .TS files.
   
7. Watching live HD TV with VLC without capturing it first
   1. Open VLC.
   2. Select "File" -> "Open Capture Device".
   3. To the right of "Video device name" click "Refresh List".
   4. Then choose "Panasonic MPEG2TS Tape Sub" from the drop down.
   5. Click "OK"
   Please note that if I hit "Configure" or "Advanced Options" it blue screens my computer. This seems to be much more resource intensive than watching a captured file.
   
   You can also setup a shortcut to run VLC with the parameters for picking up the stream automatically:
   

   "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" "dshow:// :dshow-vdev="Panasonic MPEG2TS Tape Subunit Device" :dshow-adev="" :dshow-size="" :no-dshow-config "

8. Troubleshooting
   • If the driver is loaded but the files are 0bytes after recording. Then you may have the driver loaded improperly or your cable company may have copy protection (5C) enabled. Try a different channel or search for someone who lives near you to see if they are having the same problem. You may also be able to reboot the Tuner. It is impossible to record content marked copy once, because it is protected from multiple copies. Typically if your provider is encrypting, than the only channels you would be able to record are the channels that are also available over the air.
     
   • You may also have the wrong firmware version for the Motorola 620x, to check this.
     To check firmware on Moto 6200:
     Menu -> Setup -> Cable Box -> See Configuration -> one of the entries on that page is Firmware.
     
     If you are using a Motorola 620X with an older firmware you may need to replace your Meitape.inf from the zip file with this one. Try the original one first.

Thanx to bdraw for the guide.

MCE 2005 STB Controller - Firewire recording/channel change, Serial DirecTV channel change, USB R5000HD recording/channel change. It will make SD and HD recordings over firewire. Firewire recordings include Closed Captioning.

It supports the following STBs for recording and channel change via firewire:

• Motorola DCT-3412 (Tested – channel change)
• Motorola QIP-6200 (Tested – channel change)
• Motorola DCT-6200
• Motorola DCT-6208
• Motorola DCT-6412
• Motorola DCT-6416 (Untested)
• Motorola BMC-9012 (Tested – channel change)
• Motorola BMC-9022 (Untested)
• Scientific-Atlanta 3250HD
• Scientific-Atlanta 4200HD
• Scientific-Atlanta 8000HD (Untested)
• Scientific-Atlanta 8300HD

It supports the following STBs for recording via firewire:

• 169time STBs supporting the avx1

It supports the following STBs for channel change and recording via USB:

• R5000HD STBs supporting USB

It supports channel change of Sky STBs using the following controller:

• USB Sky STB change channel controller

It supports external executable programs that can change channel, e.g. Sky Redeye (Untested).

It supports the following DirecTV STBs (New and old command set) for channel change via serial port:

• DirecTV D10
• Hughes HIRD-B3
• Hughes HIRD-B4
• Hughes HIRD-D4
• Hughes HIRD-E4
• Hughes GCEBO
• Hughes GCEBOA
• Hughes HAH-SA
• Memorex MSD5000
• Optimus 5100
• RCA-DRD102RW
• RCA-DRD203RW
• RCA-DRD303RA
• RCA-DRD502RB
• RCA-DRD221RD
• RCA-DRD222RD
• RCA-DRD223RD
• RCA-DRD225RD
• RCA-DRD420RE
• RCA-DRD430RE
• RCA-DRD440RE
• RCA-DRD460RE
• RCA-DRD480RE
• RCA-DRD430RG
• RCA-DRD430RGA
• RCA-DRD450RG
• RCA-DRD450RGA
• RCA-DRD451RG
• RCA-DRD451RGA
• RCA-DRD485RG
• RCA-DRD435RH
• RCA-DRD455RH
• RCA-DRD486RH
• Sony SAT-A1
• Sony SAT-A2
• Sony SAT-B2
• Sony SAT-B3
• Sony SAT-A4
• Sony SAT-A50
• Sony SAT-B50
• Sony SAT-A55
• Sony SAT-B55
• Sony SAT-HD100
• Uniden UDS-100
• Uniden UDS-200

stormking's solution to Windows XP SP2 problems with Firewire:

I can now capture audio/video from the Motorola 6412 to my PC via Firewire (my Firewire chipset supports Firewire 800 but I use the 400 port).

The problem was the Firewire drivers in XP SP2 and Microsoft's lack of making correct drivers for chipsets with Firewire 800 prior to the release of XP SP2. Using the Firewire drivers from XP SP1 fixes this.

The following was the solution for me:

1. Boot in safe mode
2. Rename SP2.cab in C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\SP2.cab to SP2old.cab (this prevents XP from RECOPYING the following files which are replaced)
3. Overwrite these files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers
   1394bus.sys
   arp1394.sys
   nic1394.sys
   ohci1394.sys
   
   With older XP SP1 versions (which you can download off the net somewhere).
   
4. Reboot

Note: If not done in safe mode and cab file not renamed, the SP2 drivers are copied back by XP.

There is a well known issue with XP SP2 and 1394 which may only affect those of us with Firewire 800. Mine is a Asus motherboard with firewire 400/800. Microsoft for whatever reason did not release compatible Firewire 800 drivers with SP2 which limits Firewire transfers to 100Mbps and can not allow capturing over firewire.

I came to the conclusion that the Firewire drivers were the issue when I tried to capture DV from a camera via Firewire for the first time in months, post SP2 install, and it failed (when it worked fine a few months ago prior to SP2). DV captured failed. I researched this. I fixed this and of course it fixed capturing from other firewire sources i.e. the Motorola 6412.

There is also a patch from Microsoft on their site somewhere for this that was posted in Dec 2004. This is a manual update. To be honest, it could have been the manual driver swap or this update as I did both on the same reboot prior to success.

UPDATE -- This is the Microsoft patch I used:
"Performance of 1394 devices may decrease after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Here is more info on swapping the drivers and about the patch:
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

This patch and/or the driver swap back to SP1 1394 drivers work for me.

I really hope this helps someone. My only explanation why my XP SP2 did not work while others did, is that I believe I have Firewire 800 and I am guessing - those with working XP SP2 capturing setups use Firewire 400... or perhaps its something else. But this DID work for me. Note I do not mean I'm using a Firewire 800 cable from the 6412 to PC, its just my chipset supports both.

FYI, I am currently playing back using BSPlayer and the Moonlight-Elecard MPEG2 decoder and it looks great.

Thanx to stormking.

How to check 5c flag if you have a Motorola 640x
To check for 5C protection on channels that you are interested in capturing from (or have recorded from), do the following:

1. Start with DCT64xx turned on and connect the firewire cable between the DCT64xx and your PC.
2. Tune to a channel you are interested in recording from.
3. Enter DIAGNOSTICS page on the DCT64xx as follows with remote: Press Cable, Power off, Select, Select.
4. Scroll down to: d11 INTERFACE STATUS and then click right arrow to enter that module.
5. In 1394 I/O DEVICE section you should see ACTIVE PORTS=1 (indicating the Firewire connection is active) and look at 5C IMPLEMENTATION value. If it is something other than 0 this means 5C protection is enabled and you won't be able to capture that channel.
6. To get out of the Status Page click left arrow with remote and scroll down to EXIT and click Select.

How to check 5c flag if you have a SA DVR with Passport

1. Go to your diagnostic channel, mine in 996
2. Press "Exit" on the STB, a new screen opens
3. Scroll down to 1394, it will display info for the last channel you tuned to.

How to check 5c flag if you have a SA DVR with SARA

1. Go to the diagnostics menu for the STB.
2. For the SA, on the box itself (not using the remote), press and hold the "+" button for a few seconds, the "envelope" light will come on blinking (the + button is the "bulls-eye" in the middle of the 4 "arrow" keys).
3. Press the "info" key next.
4. 19 pages of data is available. Use the left / right navigation keys to move thru pages.
5. Firebus port status is last or second to last page as I recall.
6. SA will show CCI/EMI state rather than use the "5c" nomenclature but same, same.
7. This is shown channel by channel so you must change channels to check state of the channel of interest.
8. Quit by pressing the "exit" key on the front panel.

Converting Transport Stream (.ts) To Program Stream (.mpg)
Making DVD from Transport stream (.ts) from both SD and HD recordings

Will the method described in this thread work with Windows Vista 64bit?

Thanks

i tried,all the steps are difficult. is here easy way to edit HDTV?

I thank you for the best source which will lead the electrical good and services for the betterment of the entertaining sources...keep sharing.