progdvb.com

Hello everybody, this is my first post.
I've got a SAT-PVR with inside a TMX320AV7110GFN AD 18ZBNH3 chipset.

The PVR simply writes on its Hard Disk the input buffer of the TMX320AV7110GFN.

I just wish to know if a SkyStar1, with the same chipset onboard, would be able to read the stream saved by the PVR, by using a Graph.

What do you think about?

From playback mode of ProgDVB, perhaps.
Just try, in case select 'All files (*.*) to access unknown file types.
And perhaps you have to use an older version, up to 4.75, as several later ones have playback issues with some files, not really depending on file extensions...

Without an active DVB application, the SS1 card won't be accessible, as the firmware has to be loaded first.
Well, supposingly you could not use Transport Streams, had to go for Program Streams somehow.
The SS1 decoding hardware always gets hardware filtered streams...

However, this is not a real ProgDVB issue.
In former years, there have been several projects, to make DVB media players with SS1 hardware support, but AFAIK all of those have been stopped meanwhile.

Anyway, for undoubtedly good ideas like yours, you may want to check in at dvbn.happysat.org

Also read the VDR section there, as Linux has less limitations on hardware control, compared with Windoze drivers...

Hello and many thanks for your suggestions.
I'm going to check in at dvbn.happysat.org

However I haven't got a SkyStar1 at the moment.
So, for what concerns the test with ProgDVB, could you try to play this file in hardware mode, please?
http://rapidshare.com/files/51636833/RAI3.mmr.html

Tried to, on ProgDVB 4.75 and even a few other DVB applications I have.
But it always behaves the very same way I've seen when trying to play transport stream files through the hardware. Just fragments of sound and picture showing up, slider is hopping across the file.

Due to old machine and OS, I also had some bad crashes in no time at all, when trying out on some other software, either to play or to demux.
So, right now, I can't really open it here.

Seems, you had to find a way, to extract the streams on-the-fly somehow, and remux and constrain or even stream elsewhere to, before trying to feed the SS1 HW.

As it's taken from RAI 3, it should contain normal DVB MPEG2 streams.
And you won't have sent a crypted recording, I'm sure...

Just guessing, it may consist of .ts style material in a weird proprietary container, perhaps even constrained in a non (Winfoze) PC cmpatible way, or completely unconstrained.
I don't have a really good TS player here.
Even my HDD player doesn't accept it, though it does play almost everything, normally. Lists it as unknown, won't recognize the streams included...

BTW, thanks for that example file, at least it's something to play around with.
But for ADSL flatrate users (like me) only, of course, it's 15.7 MB of size


p.s.

Almost forgot, regarding that file's structure, perhaps you may want to contact the makers of PVAStrumento at
http://www.offeryn.com/
They are trying to dismantle many types of stream containers, and perhaps they like to / can find out more and maybe integrate with PVAS. Nice tool anyway, worth being supported...

Many thamks for your tests
Of course it'a an FTA stream.
I examinated it with an .hex viewer, and I found:

ES Video headers: 0x00 0x00 0x01 0xB3
PES Audio headers: 0x00 0x00 0x01 0xC0

there's no PES Video Header: 0x00 0x00 0x01 0xE0 (in a range from 0xE0 to 0xEF)

So the recording format is similar to the PVA format.
In fact I also found the SyncWords (0x41 0x56) of the AV-packets' headers, typical of the PVA format.

However, according to PVA specifications released by TechnoTrend AG, the stream seems to be a non standard revision of PVA.
As described in this document http://neuron2.net/library/PVA_format_v1.pdf
"...The PVA format is near to the TMS320AV7110's on-chip MPEG-2 Video and Audio decoder input fuffer format..."

So I think the PVR writes direcly to the Hard Disk the input buffer of its TMX320AV7110GFN http://www.linuxdvb.tv/documentation/AV711x_3_1.pdf

This is because I thought about the SkyStar1.
In fact if its TMX320AV7110GFN could decode the stream, then we could simply build a Graph to dump to file the output from the TMX320AV7110GFN, and we should obtain a standard MPEG-2 stream.
Something like this, for example:
RAI3.mmr --> SS1 Demultiplexer --> Cyberlink MPEG Muxer --> Cyberlink Dump Filter

Actually if I try to "Render Media File" with Graphedit I automatically obtain:
RAI3.mmr --> Ulead MPEG Splitter --> Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder --> Video Render
I can view pixellated video and listen no audio.

It's already possible to extract the ES Video and the PES Audio (or even the ES Audio obviously) thanks to a little utility.
However it only extracts the A/V Elementary Streams without taking care of A/V synchronization, because it can't retrieve Video PTS/DTS from the stream.
I supposed this and the author confirmed it and sent me the source codes of its utility, written using C language.

In fact PTS/DTS informations are stored in the PES header for the Audio, but for the Video the PTS/DTS informations should be stored in the AV header itself, because of the missing of a real PES Video header (like for the PVA format).
The problem is to know where PTS/DTS are exactly stored, because the format is a bit different from the PVA, whose header's structure we already know.

As you suggested me, I'm going to contact the makers of PVAStrumento, hoping they could help me.
However if you had any idea, just let me know

Well, I've already reached my (momentary) limits of knowledge now, as I'm not a programmer, nor a DVB engineer or streaming expert, just an old style TV mechanic with some more modern hobbies

However, renamed to .pva, PVAS shows this:

PVA> Error in A/V pack size
PVA> Wrong AV pack length
ALERT> No streams found.
ALERT> Try relaxed semantics if TS recording.

(...which I had activated already)

For me it's a hobby too...
I also am not a programmer, nor a DVB engineer or streaming expert
My (poor) knowledge comes out from the documents I find on the web...

Yes, I also tried with PVAS, but the format is a bit different and it can't work in this way...
So, this morning I sent an email to the makers of PVAStrumento

Meantime I received an answer from the TechnoTrend Team:

TechnoTrend Team wrote:The acceleration is normaly always on, if you record or play with our software.
The acceleration with 3rd-person software will not work, cause the 2300 uses a WDM-driver

So, I'm going to inform you as soon as I will receive an answer from the PVAS Team.

More or less nonsense TT are telling...

Watch the Linux VDR people, to get to know, what can be done (already).

An example:
VDR can do file based time shift in hardware mode. Even works on a PII 400, without any trouble.
But it seems, the TT made Windize drivers are to stupid to allow this...

From my point of view, it should be possible somehow, to simulate a file, stream foreign content into it, to play out everything through the hardware (externally and to the PC screen as well), that has a hardware compatible format.
But I have no idea at all, how to do this.

Linux people even do real time conversion of DivX, for example, and play this out over a plugin.

However, some DVB style application had to run in any way, but this might even work like one of the old style MPEG(2) hardware accelllerators then, theoretically. If someone made a suitable interface to make it accessable system wide, perhaps...

I agree with you... TechnoTrend promotes its softwares

However, the last TechnoTrend revision of its card (TT Premium S-2300) has got a TMX320AV7111GFN instead of the TMX320AV7110GFN.
You have got the Hauppauge WinTV Nexus-S rev. 2.2
Maybe your card has also got a TMX320AV7111GFN...
and maybe the differences between the two chipsets, don't allow the TMX320AV7111GFN to correctly decode the .mmr stream...

It's only a theory... so, could you take a look at your card to see which chipset it has got, please?

What a pity, now I have to go offline and dismantle my machine
Stay tuned ...
-------------------

20 min later now...

YES, it's TMX320AV7111, on both, my Nexus 2.2 and the stone old Galaxis SS1 1.3 (R.I.P.)
So no wonder, I suppose

If I remember well, the very first versions of the SS1 indeed had a different DSP. but I've never had one of those, only read about. There was one without a TV out, if I'm right, that had an earlier version of the TI DSP. Can't recall the place this was discussed, nor the brand or HW revision it was of.

Strictly logical, it seems like the older DSP has a bit more ancient pre-PVA way of recording or stream handlng...

I really thank you for your support
Now I've to find a card with a TMX320AV7110GFN onboard, to make the decisive test...
So, I'll keep you informed about my progresses with the .mmr stream

arturo83 wrote:It's already possible to extract the ES Video and the PES Audio (or even the ES Audio obviously) thanks to a little utility.
However it only extracts the A/V Elementary Streams without taking care of A/V synchronization, because it can't retrieve Video PTS/DTS from the stream.
In fact PTS/DTS informations are stored in the PES header for the Audio, but for the Video the PTS/DTS informations should be stored in the AV header itself, because of the missing of a real PES Video header (like for the PVA format).

Hi again
Till now I didn't receive any answer for the PVAS Team, and I couldn't also find any SkyStar1 (or similar cards) with a TMX320AV7110GFN onboard...
However I resolved my problem

My PVR receiver can make recordings in two different ways:
- NORMAL recording
- PAUSE recording (useful to PAUSE a live transmission and PLAY it from the PAUSED point)

I've always made NORMAL recordings.
So I thought to try the PAUSE recording mode.

The PAUSE recording format is a bit different:
it stores both PES Video and PES Audio in the saved stream!
So I can retrieve all useful informations (PTS/DTS) to synchronize the A/V streams

It's been a pleasure to discuss the problem with you

This sounds like timeshift in my ears...

Perhaps the adequate routine uses a slightly more compatible format.
It should be possible, to grasp a recording from a timeshift buffer somehow, like ProgDVB does as an option, synchronious recording or not..

Yes, it's the Timeshift recording mode.
But I don't know much about the ProgDVB's option you're speaking about, because at the moment I haven't got any DVB-S card...

However it's already possible to extract both PES Audio and PES Video from a Timeshift recording made with my PVR receiver.
This is possible thanks to a little utility that is called MediaMex.
Then I can demultiplex the resulting Packetized Elementary Streams with ProjectX to obtain perfectly synchronizated Elementary Streams, so that I can multiplex them together to obtain a compliant MPEG-2 stream.

My PVR receiver is an old (but still nice for me) NOKIA MediaMaster 9902s, the first PVR receiver on the market