Hauppauge HD-PVR / Colossus in WMC 10

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

Hauppauge HD-PVR / Colossus in WMC 10

#1

Post by wmcDieHard » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:20 am

Has anybody had any success with HD-PVR or Colossus devices in WMC 10?

I've been trying for days to resurrect the setup that I had working in Windows 7 (Colossus and HD-PVR both working through DVBLink and the 1Geek1Tool Bridge device driver) only to realise that apparently the channel mapping is different between WMC 7 and WMC 8/10. Hauppuage's position seems to be that the mapping changes are too much work for them to bother (see GreenButton thread and Microsoft Forum thread).

I've tried the Hauppauge WMC driver, which installs OK and appears to work according to the Hauppauge control software, but I can't create any channels in WMC. I've also tried the DVBLink and 1Geek1Tool Bridge driver, and again the device installs into WMC, but DVBLink can't create any channels! But I was using the old version of DVBLink (4.0) which came out before WMC 8, so it clearly won't work with the channel mapping changes. I've also tried to manually create channels using other applications: Guide Tool and Guide Editor, both which failed. (GuideTool doesn't even enable the Add Channel button, and Guide Editor fails with an error when trying to create channels in the DVBLink Channel lineups.)

I might try the latest version of DVBLink Server, but I'd be very surprised if the old 1Geek1Tool bridge driver would be compatible with that. So short of trying to remap channels via hand crafted MXF, I think I'm out of options.

If anyone has got HD-PVR or Colossus to work in WMC 10 then I would love to hear about what I've missed!

Venom51

Posts: 568
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Cumming,GA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by Venom51 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 3:49 am

The 1Geek tool stopped being supported after version 4.1 of DVBlink. I have been using the solution with the 1st gen HDPVR since the 1geek tool became available. It still works in WIN10 but you have to do a couple things manually to make it work. The out of support install of Media Center works but when you install the DVBLink client on the machine it will not automatically register in MCE. YOu have to open a command prompt and go to the ehome directory and run the following command.

registermceapp.exe /allusers "C:\Program Files (x86)\DVBLogic\DVBLink\dvblink_addin.xml"

The initial configuration of DVBLink server has to be done server side but it relies on you being able to get your lineup configured in MCE.

wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by wmcDieHard » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:16 am

You're right about DVBLink needing the add-on to be registered manually. I've done the registration, and the add-in shows up in MCE, but when I run the DVBLink synchronise it appears to go through the motions with no error messages, but doesn't actually do anything. A clue is that every time I try to execute the synchronise in DVBLink, it leaves an MXF file: c:\program files (x86)\DVBLogic\DVBLink\{16a16558-snip-bf20b}.channel_data. DVBLink never left this file behind in WMC 7, so it appears that DVBLink is silently crashing when when WMC fails to load this file. Looking at the contents of this .channel_data file shows MXF for the new/changed channels I'm trying to load, so I'm pretty sure its because of the aforementioned channel mapping differences between between WMC 7 and 8.

So I guess you've identified main question: how to get a valid channel lineup created in WMC 10? Are there any other tools that can do this?
Last edited by wmcDieHard on Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Venom51

Posts: 568
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Cumming,GA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#4

Post by Venom51 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:27 am

Is the line up configured on the server side. It can't create and sync a channel lineup until the server side configuration is working.

wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#5

Post by wmcDieHard » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:47 am

I've done the server setup in DVBLink, which seemed to be all OK and working in that it recognises the 1geek bridge device, plus my lineup and I can match channels, etc. But it doesn't really give any diagnostics. Also DVBLink tuners show up during setup in WMC, so that part seems to be fine. But that said, I'm not absolutely certain whether DVBLink has properly configured the lineup in WMC. I've exported the lineup and looking at the MXF it looks relatively normal with all the elements and I can even see the DVBLink device. But there are no channels in any lineup, which I suspect is due to the same error previously mentioned. On potentially odd thing is that the 'Satellites' element is completely empty! Not sure if its supposed to be this way in WMC 10.

Venom51

Posts: 568
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Cumming,GA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#6

Post by Venom51 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:54 am

Have you added a the MCE Guide Services source in DVBLink? That is what provides the guide data to the client. Also have you launched the Bridgeconfig.exe in the added a lineup in each of your sources that are the HDPVR or Colossus?

wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#7

Post by wmcDieHard » Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:40 am

Have done the Bridgeconfig setup, and added a lineup to the source (only using one this time). Bridgeconfig all runs and tests OK.
I've not enabled the MCE Guide Services this time. I had it configured the first time I tried this, which behaved exactly the same, but I've completely uninstalled and reinstalled everything since then, and this time around I've decided not to use Guide Services. Instead I've enabled the XMLTV plug in (partly because I don't actually get any guide services from Windows, and partly because I've read about conflicts with other guide loads). This seems to be recognised OK by DVBLink in that it loads the lineup into the configuration so that I can match channels. FWIW in the previous install attempt I had MCE Guide Services enabled, and I also loaded a valid lineup and guide data using Big Screen Entertainment guide. (The latter showed up in the lineup, but I still couldn't get any channels to work (WMC would complain about no valid tuner available when I tried to use one of the channels).

I guess everything seems to point to DVBLink not being able to set up the channels correctly in WMC 10.

Venom51

Posts: 568
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Cumming,GA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#8

Post by Venom51 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:50 am

So you ran through the MCE initial configuration, accepted the guide services within Windows, found and configured the tuners but the channel scan could find no channels? The playready update will fail and that's ok as it's expected with the 1geek tool. If DVBLink and MCE exist on the same machine then you do not need to install the DVBLink client. You also can not have the Hauppauge MCE drivers installed as that will cause problems. On any remote clients you need to install the DVBLink client and point it at the IP and port number of your DVBLink server. You then have to again go through the MCE initial setup and configure the tuners and scan for channels. THe DVBlink plugin only synchronizes the EGP data information it does not produce the channel scan.

wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#9

Post by wmcDieHard » Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:22 am

Correct on all counts: have gone through the initial MCE configuration, and it behaved all as described/expected, found the tuners, etc. Its an all in one machine, so I haven't installed DVBLink client, only the server. Haven't got the Happauge MCE driver installed this time. This time I'm using DVBLink 4.0, which worked fine under Win7, and I can open the configuration tool in the browser and do all the usual DVBLink configuration steps. I know that DVBLink 4.0 was released before WMC 8.1 came out, so I believe that its having the same problem configuring channels the Hauppauge MCE driver (as reported in the two links in my initial post). The only later version of DVBLink I can lay my hands on is version 6.0 from the website, but I think its extremely unlikely to work.

Venom51

Posts: 568
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Cumming,GA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#10

Post by Venom51 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 2:27 pm

Now that I think about it I left my DVBLink server on Win7. It's only my remote clients that I moved on to win10. Perhaps DVBLink itself does not work well with WIN10 as the host. I have a spare set of HDPVR's. I'll try to do an install on a WIN10 machine this weekend and see if I have the same issues you are having. Maybe I can help get you going.

I do know for sure the 1geek tool will not work with the 6.0 version of DVBLink so don't waste your time chasing that one.

wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#11

Post by wmcDieHard » Thu Jan 12, 2017 11:43 am

I think I've found a few references about the Win 8.1 WMC channel update issue on the DVBLogic forum:

1. This thread mentions channel update problems after W8.1 update, plus several mentions of the *.channel_data file being left behind.
2. This thread has mention of a similar issue with channel update not working with IPTV.
3. In this thread, the 4th post (by Oberon) mentions that even Microsoft's own samples don't work after 8.1!

From what I can see, version 4.6.0 seemed to be out when W8.1 came along (RTM Aug 23, 2014) although the people having the problem in the threads seemed to be using version 4.5.0. Either way, I'm hoping that one of the subsequent DVBLink server releases fixed the issue, based on the assumption that there would be many more people (or more recent posts) complaining if it wasn't. But the trick will be to find a release that still supports the 1Geek tool. These seem to be the release dates of later versions:

DVBLink 4.6.0 release: circa Jul 03, 2013
DVBLink 5.0.0 release: circa May 29, 2014
DVBLink 5.1.0 release: circa Dec 08, 2014
DVBLink 5.5.0 release: circa Jul 21, 2015

I've found version 4.6.0 so I might try that to see if it fixes the issue without breaking 1Geek. That said, I think version 5.0.0 is more likely to have the fix, but I can't find that version and I think it's less likely that 1Geek will work.

Venom51

Posts: 568
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Cumming,GA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#12

Post by Venom51 » Sat Jan 21, 2017 7:10 pm

I haven't been able to get the 4.1.0 version of DVBLink and the 1Geek HDPVR tool happy in Windows 10. I can get all the pieces installed but never get the HDPVR source to show up in DVBlink server.

wmcDieHard

Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:42 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#13

Post by wmcDieHard » Mon Jan 23, 2017 4:41 am

I think I've got DVBLink 4.0 working properly in WMC 10, including the 1Geek bridge. There were a couple of things worthy of note, the prime one being the need to run WMC in Administrator mode! Once I did that, DVBLink was able to add channels properly. Note that I think the other reason why I was having problems is that I live in a region where there is no guide data available from Microsoft (Australia) so I had to manually load up an MXF lineup file before setting things up. I say "I think" because when I did this I was able to find the channels when setting up TV services in WMC, but its possible that not running in Admin mode was the main problem. Will do some more testing, but so far I can set up channels, do channel changes and see/record channels all fine. If I get more time to test I will document the steps and post them up here.

User avatar
w84no1

Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:09 am
Location: Central Virginia

HTPC Specs: Show details

#14

Post by w84no1 » Wed Feb 08, 2017 8:06 pm

I was using DVBLink 4 with Windows 10, but never could get it completely stable. I went back to using DVBLink 3.2 and it has been pretty flawless for the past 3 or 4 months. I had 4 HD-PVRs running but one has died, but the other 3 have been chugging along. Since I use ServerWMC and KODI for all my clients, I didn't need the extras of version 4.
NextPVR + KODI + EMBY = PVR Happiness

Octavean

Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:50 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#15

Post by Octavean » Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:52 am

I'm surprised the old DVBLink for Hauppauge HD PVR software works in Windows 10 with Media Center.

I'm going to have to test this out so I can move away from Windwos 7.

BTW, the 1geek1tool website seems to be down and has been for some time. I'm wondering if the software can still even be installed and activated. I have some degree of fear that it has become abandonware. I hope that is t the case.

User avatar
Crash2009

Posts: 4357
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:38 am
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

HTPC Specs: Show details

#16

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Nov 21, 2017 7:05 am

bump

User avatar
w84no1

Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:09 am
Location: Central Virginia

HTPC Specs: Show details

#17

Post by w84no1 » Tue Nov 21, 2017 7:59 pm

I was able to register mine, but that was a year ago.
NextPVR + KODI + EMBY = PVR Happiness

User avatar
w84no1

Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:09 am
Location: Central Virginia

HTPC Specs: Show details

#18

Post by w84no1 » Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:14 pm

I can confirm that there is no way to activate the licence from 1geek1tool. My Windows 10 install undated to the Anniversary Update and broke my system. I reinstalled WMC v8.8.1 and couldn't detect any DVBLink turners. I updated DVBLink from 3.2 to 4.something and the DVBLink tuners were detected, but the 1Geek1Tool licence needed to be updated.

So, I am officially done with WMC. Since I use Kodi as the frontend for my LiveTV I have just switched to NextPVR. I miss the ease at which I could schedule recordings, but the channel change speed between the 2 are night and day, so maybe it was a good thing I was forced to find another solution. Now I just have to figure out how to get all my .wtv recordings into NextPVR. It was a good run.
NextPVR + KODI + EMBY = PVR Happiness

User avatar
Crash2009

Posts: 4357
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:38 am
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

HTPC Specs: Show details

#19

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 6:00 am

w84no1 wrote:I can confirm that there is no way to activate the licence from 1geek1tool.
Maybe ask DanTheMan for activation help. Sounds like Dan modified the exe from the old version and placed it into the new version.

viewtopic.php?p=122103#p122103

User avatar
w84no1

Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:09 am
Location: Central Virginia

HTPC Specs: Show details

#20

Post by w84no1 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 1:21 pm

Crash2009 wrote:
w84no1 wrote:I can confirm that there is no way to activate the licence from 1geek1tool.
Maybe ask DanTheMan for activation help. Sounds like Dan modified the exe from the old version and placed it into the new version.

viewtopic.php?p=122103#p122103
That was for guidetool, not the hdpvrbridge.
NextPVR + KODI + EMBY = PVR Happiness

Post Reply