Capturing from a Motorola DCT6416 III

[mlong30]

Hi All,

What is the best way to capture video/audio using the Motorola DCT6416 III device? I some sports games, that were recorded on my DVR, that I would like to play back on my computer and capture/convert to AVI. Any suggestion on the best way to capture? I believe there is a HDMI port on this device, buy I'm not familiar with converting HDMI to firewire.


http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/images/dct6412_back.jpg

Thanks.

[dbanimal]

Hello, sorry to revive an old post but I was wondering if anybody could elaborate on this a bit. Here is a post I had in a different forum:

New member here but been into video for a long time. My question is this, I have a Motorola DCT6416 III DVR from Charter Communications. I confirmed the IEEE ports are active. I have an IEEE card installed on my PC and drivers are installed so my PC recognizes my DVR when plugged in. I have browsed many outdated forums about this topic and have not had much luck. I installed CapDVHS and attempted to use this to record video from my DVR. Here's what happens, I select the DVR as the source on CapDVHS. I then press play on the DVR to playback one of my recorded shows and the instant I hit record on CapDVHS the video freezes on the DVR but CapDVHS keeps recording. When I stop recording, the video resumes on the DVR but in a different location as if it had been playing all along. What I end up with is a large file within 60 seconds of recording or so(HD quality) but when I use VLC to playback there's only about 2 seconds of video and that's about it, sometimes it doesn't recognize the file at all. Does anyone here have a clue of how to accomplish this task successfully? I've been using my Sony Handycam hooked up via RCA and the video suffers because of it, I want high quality video and audio recorded to my PC.

Here are the specs of my PC:

ASUS motherboard, P4 3.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM (soon to be upgraded to 4GB), 320GB Seagate Hard Drive, IEEE 4 port Firewire PCI card, Radeon HD4850 graphics card, Windows XP Pro w/Service Pack 3.

Can anyone help me out with this, I'm at a loss. Thanks in advance!!

[Cornucopia]

IIRC, you can ONLY cap via Firewire/IEEE1394 and ONLY when the source is LIVE, and ONLY if the source doesn't have DRM/Encryption/BroadcastFlag/CGMS.

So I'm not surprised that you couldn't get it to work, you went against rule #2 above.

If you want to be able to save and burn what you watch, that box isn't the way to go, you should get a DVDrecorder/HTPC/DVHSrecorder/etc. and mirror everything you (want to) watch, while it's live.

I've got the same box, MAN, I wish somebody would work some HACK-MAGIC on that baby!!!

Scott

[dbanimal]

Thanks for the response. As I mentioned, I was able to actually see some video of what I recorded but it was only a few seconds worth. Sometimes there would be something but most of the time nothing. This was also with just playback on the DVR. I also tried recording live with the same results. I am able to record to my Sony Handycam using the RCA outputs with no problems but the video quality suffers. This tells me it is not copyright protected if I'm able to record to my Handycam. Any other thoughts?

[Cornucopia]

I've been reading up on this online and examining the user manual and here's what I come up with:

The USB2, Ethernet, and eSATA connectors were put in to future-proof the machine prior to the box actually using them. The HARDWARE is enabled, but either some chip(s) is/are missing or more likely the FIRMWARE has disabled them. Completely, for the present. These might be enabled later on once (according to Moto and Comcast) "the usage rights for the content provders have been successfully negotiated". This likely means: Copyprotection!

The HDMI and Firewire/IEEE1394 digital connections are always live, as are the Component, S-Video and Composite analog connections (and the audio connections).

However, HDMI (and DVI if you use an adapter) use HDPC, and 1394 uses similar technologies. CGMS, etc.
Therefore: ANY program that is flagged as encrypted/protected/nocopy/whatever won't be passed through. Now, HDPC goes through a digital pathway-checking conversation with the receiving device (and I believe the 1394 would also) and those "conversations" aren't instantaneous, so I wouldn't be surprised when a show may start to record and then end up recording nothing after the first few moments.

A possible solution for you would be to use, YOU GUESSED IT, your ANALOG connections: Component (Y-Pb-Pr), S-Video or Composite. Why?
Because they don't have a "pathway security-checking conversation". It's analog, for gosh sakes! Yes, they may have macrovision; yes, they may have VEIL encoding; any of which might be construed by your receiving device as a command to disallow recording, but then again, IT MAY NOT.

And, while I'm not specifically making any particular suggestions one way or the other , there are devices that remove macrovision (via TBC VI blanking) and there are devices that allow capping HD via analog Component. Not a perfect world, but better than nothing and better than Std Def composite like your Handicam.

If you want to learn more about your box, just Google "Motorola DCH-3416" and "hack". Also works for the 3412, the 6416, etc.

Scott

[dbanimal]

Thanks again for the info. I have an update:

Last night I decided to try recording again from my DVR to PC via firewire. This time I tried a different firewire port on my PC. It worked!! I was able to record live HDTV and it looked great and sounded great on the PC. I tried a few SD channels and they worked as well, there were a couple channels that wouldn't record so I'm assuming they're copyright protected. As I just said, Live TV recorded fine. DVR playback on the other hand was a different story. A couple of the shows I tried recorded video just fine but with no sound. Any idea why video would look fine but sound is absent during playback? I've heard on a number of occasions that you can record live tv but not playback tv, I proved that wrong but the absence of sound kind of puts a damper on it.

[tluxon]

I have two Comcast Motorola 3416 DVRs (one is the DCT and the other is the DCH) and the DCT exhibits the same behavior you're reporting.

The DCT DVR used to capture playback files just fine until late last summer when a firmware update caused it to start freezing the picture output to the TV upon capture via firewire, even though the video would record just fine. Once this symptom showed up, the audio ceased coming across on the capture. Live capture still works as it always did.

I've been meaning to complain to customer service because this also affects my ability to record to my DVHS VCR, but I've fallen back on using the DCH which still works and I have two TiVoHDs that are much superior in many ways.

The DCH-3416 I have in the other room, on the other hand, has continued to capture live and recorded programs all along. I'm using the same driver for each one, so I don't have a good sense of what the problem is.

One thing that's been different is the way a firewire capture affects each of the DVRs. When a capture initiates on the DCH, playback hesitates for a half-second or so like it's trying to synch up with CapDVHS. Capture on the DCT used to never cause any kind of interruption in the playback.

I'm wondering if a driver tweak would be needed to get it to work properly, but I may just exchange it for a DCH.

Where did you get the driver you're using? I'm using the ExDeus drivers from http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/.

[dbanimal]

I believe that website is exactly where I got my drivers but for a DCT 6416.

"The DCT DVR used to capture playback files just fine until late last summer when a firmware update caused it to start freezing the picture output to the TV upon capture via firewire, even though the video would record just fine. Once this symptom showed up, the audio ceased coming across on the capture. Live capture still works as it always did."

I had done some extensive testing with this. What I found is certain channels when recording live will show no data in CapDVHS such as HDNet, G4TV and a handful of others. They record fine on the DVR but when I try to use CapDVHS while playing back from the DVR, the picture freezes and nothing records on the PC. The only thing I can think of is that those channels are copyright protected and can't be viewed from the firewire ports, I can record using the composite video outs but then the quality is lacking.

On the other hand, I can record a handful of channels live through CapDVHS and the quality is excellent and file sizes HUGE! When I try to record those same channels but from DVR playback - the video records perfect but there is no sound. I have no idea why this is, I might try hooking up the composite audio outputs to the input of my sound card and see if that helps, otherwise I'm at a loss.

[dbanimal]

Any ideas why there is no sound when recording to PC during DVR playback?

[edDV]

Any ideas why there is no sound when recording to PC during DVR playback?

Probably the AC3 is flagged record once.

[dbanimal]

Any ideas why there is no sound when recording to PC during DVR playback?

Probably the AC3 is flagged record once.

Any idea how to combat this?

[edDV]

Any ideas why there is no sound when recording to PC during DVR playback?

Probably the AC3 is flagged record once.

Any idea how to combat this?

They update firmware at will. They have you by the <choose body part>.

Your only advantage is to outfox the local update. Don't press this b'cause many of us have lazy local Comcast sys admin. Look at Time Warner now forcing internet bandwidth limits. Time to regroup not attack.

[pishposh]

Possible work-around for the "no sound" from DVR playback issue:

I've only begun experimenting with CapDVHS dumps from my leased DCT 6416 III. The "no sound" problem from DVR playback initially affected me as well. VLC played my .ts files just fine, but no audio. And what I discovered is that, at least in my case, the audio is in fact being captured, and it isn't protected in any way with DRM. In my case, it's VLC itself. Even the latest version, for whatever reason, doesn't like how the transport stream from my 6416-III conveys the AC3. That, or VLC's internal AC3 decoder doesn't like the particular AC3 elementary stream format the 6416-III produces from DVR playback.

Regardless of which of those two possible reasons is the cause, I just know I'm able to play my otherwise "silent" .ts files in Media Player Classic with full audio. And that's because I coincidentally have the Haali Media Splitter and AC3Filter installed (Haali lets MPC and other players read .ts files, AC3Filter lets MPC and others read AC3/A52 audio).

Once I discovered (courtesy MPC+Haali+AC3Filter) that these .ts files' audio was in fact intact and playable, I looked through VLC's preferences (Ctrl-P) and found and checked its "Use system codecs if available (better quality)" option (under Input & Codecs). Once I did that, then even VLC was able to play my "silent" .ts files with sound. (Of course, checking that option makes VLC use AC3Filter and possibly even Haali rather than its own, internal codecs and splitters. So it's not a solution, since one of the big advantages of VLC is being able to use its internal splitters/codecs, giving you, in effect, an alternate group of splitters/codecs for playback purposes if your regular system-wide ones fail to work with a particular file. Nevertheless, the fact that Haali+AC3Filter in MPC -- and VLC configured to use Haali+AC3Filter -- yields audio proved that, at least in my case, there is non-DRM'ed audio present, and that it's only VLC which fails to handle it.)

Give this a try, folks, and see whether it similarly solves your problem. If so, someone might wanna make a very short .ts from their DVR (one that normally plays silently in VLC), and send it to the VLC folks so they can figure out where their bug is.

PS. Another way of "solving" the silent VLC playback issue (one that lets you keep VLC in its normal mode, where it uses its own internal codecs) is simply to strip off the transport layer. You can do this easily in VLC. (1) Go to Media > Convert/Save. (2) Pick a "silent" .ts file. (3) On the next dialogue, under "Outputs", paste this line into the "Generated stream output string" field (without bothering with any other settings):

out=#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ps,dst=C:\o utput.mpg}}

That's it. When you click [Save], the transport stream's internal program stream will be written to C:\output.mpg, and at least in my case, that will play WITH audio even when VLC is configured to use its internal codecs.

Anyway. FYI incase it helps anyone.

[dbanimal]

Wow, thanks a million for this info, I will give it a try!!

[dbanimal]

One other thing, will I be able to create a DVD of my recordings with audio per your instructions, or is this only to get audio in VLC?

[dbanimal]

Hmmm, I did everything you mentioned which created C:/output.mpg but I still have no sound when playing it. Am I missing something?

[pishposh]

Hmmm, I did everything you mentioned which created C:/output.mpg but I still have no sound when playing it. Am I missing something?

Beats me! I began experimenting with CapDVHS only this Friday, and summed up everything I know in my original post. Did you alternatively try installing AC3Filter (and if necessary, Haali) and playing one of your "silent" .ts files in Media Player Classic?

Anyway, try playing http://www.sendspace.com/file/l3rssu in your VLC. That's one of my own "silent" .ts files. For me, here, it has no audio if played in VLC with its default setting (using internal codecs). But the audio plays fine, on the oher hand, in Media Player Classic (with the aid of AC3Filter and Haali) ... or in VLC itself if configured to use system codecs ... or if just converted to MPEG-PS (.mpg) first. See if the same is true for you at your end using this file. If so, and if these same "tricks" don't yield audio for you from your own .ts files, then we must be dealing with different issues that merely have the same symptom.

You could also upload one of your own .ts files (please keep it reasonable in size). I can try picking it apart and seeing what's up...

[dbanimal]

Thanks, I did not give those others a try yet. Funny story...my DCT6416 died last night so I took it to my cable company and they gave me a brand new DCH6416. Haven't been able to try it out yet but will soon. I hope the firewire ports are enabled!