Hauppauge Colossus Capturing with GraphEdit & rcTvCap

[MounaLafi]

Hi,

I would like to achieve the following with my Hauppauge Colossus:

1. Use the scheduler option for capturing.

2. capturing HD Channels with the highest Bitrate available.

The issue now is:

1. Scheduler options is available only in WinTV & not available in ShwoBiz.

2. There is no option to control the Bitrate in WinTV unlike ShwoBiz which has this option in Format Settings ----> Video Encoder.

I've been given the below suggestion by jagabo:

So, which program I should use.

I used to use a filter graph and rcTvCap along with Windows' Task Scheduler:
http://blog.arogan.com/2008/06/hauppauge-hd-pvr-model-1212.html

This method is being used successfully with Hauppauge HD PVR here.

But I couldn't find a similar Video Encoder for Hauppauge Colossus like Hauppauge HD PVR.

As you can see in the attached jpg the only Video Encoder I've found for Hauppauge Colossus is TS Encoder,
and the problem that it doesn't have "Virtual Video/Audio In".

I'm just wondering if anyone used rcTvCap successfully with Hauppauge Colossus or is it just limited to Hauppauge HD PVR?

If it is not possible, any suggestions for capturing software that has both the scheduler and the ability to control Bitrate.

[gll99]

I believe if you set the bitrate parameter you want to capture with in Showbiz then wintv will use the last setting as default. It should be easy to test.

[vhelp]

if you want to control the bitrate in that graph above, right-click on the ...encoder filter and select properties.

for your Colossus, you want to search for any *.ax files from their installation folder for the softare suite you may have installed for it. then register it. look for things that might say, ..enc.ax or something like that, or post them up here, and someone might be able to determine which one to register. then, after you register them, you search for them (usually under the Directshow Filters list) and insert them into the graph, then experiment with each filter to find the one(s) that work.

see this discussion for some possible tips..
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/355970-hauppauge-hdpvr-1212-and-graphedit?p=2241220#post2241220

these are things i learned through trial and error recently.

[MounaLafi]

I believe if you set the bitrate parameter you want to capture with in Showbiz then wintv will use the last setting as default. It should be easy to test.

I thought so also. I think I read it somewhere, but again it seems to apply for Hauppauge HD PVR not for Hauppauge Colossus.

I did many tests, WinTV is reverting back to the default bitrate (i.e. 12 Mbs) Variable.

[MounaLafi]

if you want to control the bitrate in that graph above, right-click on the ...encoder filter and select properties.

for your Colossus, you want to search for any *.ax files from their installation folder for the softare suite you may have installed for it. then register it. look for things that might say, ..enc.ax or something like that, or post them up here, and someone might be able to determine which one to register. then, after you register them, you search for them (usually under the Directshow Filters list) and insert them into the graph, then experiment with each filter to find the one(s) that work.

see this discussion for some possible tips..
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/355970-hauppauge-hdpvr-1212-and-graphedit?p=2241220#post2241220

these are things i learned through trial and error recently.

Thanks for the tips.

You gave me an idea regarding controlling the bitrate in the graph.

GraphEdit is always crashing when I try to do that.

I realized that there is something wrong in the settings of the Graph itself.

I'll post my experience below.

[MounaLafi]

I'm glad to say that I did it finally

I managed to do a schedule capturing using my Hauppauge Colossus with GraphEdit, rcTvCap & Windows Task Scheduler.

Thanks to jagabo for pointing out to this solution.

And thanks to gll99 & vhelp for their discussion here which helped me a lot.

First, the original Graph I've posted is correct.



There are no additional filters required if you want to capture in .ts format.

I've created a batch file (Capture.bat) with the following command line inside it:

rcTVCap Colossus.grf "Dump" 60 "F:\Test\test.ts" HQ

but it was giving me an error message all the time when I tried to run it:

5/16/2013 1:24:11 AM  ERROR (setFiltProp): Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
5/16/2013 1:24:11 AM  ERROR: Failed to set filter property (setFiltProp): HQ
5/16/2013 1:24:11 AM  Cleanup
5/16/2013 1:24:11 AM  Done!

So, I removed the HQ from the end the command line in the batch file and it became like this:

rcTVCap Colossus.grf "Dump" 60 "F:\Test\test.ts"

The batch file worked now and I can see the CMD window starting capturing.

But the size of the generated .ts file was zero bytes!

I opened the settings of the Hauppauge Colossus Crossbar Filter in the Graph file to check the input and output for Video and Audio

It was:

Audio:
Input: 8. Audio Line In
Output: 1. Audio Decoder Out

Video:
Input: 1. Video YRYBY In
Output: 0. Video Decoder Out

I'm capturing through HDMI, so I tried to change those settings to the following:

Audio:
Input: 9. Audio SPDIFDigital In
Output: 1. Audio Decoder Out

Video:
Input: 0. Video SerialDigital In
Output: 0. Video Decoder Out

The capturing is working, and I'm getting a .ts file with a 28 MB size for the test capturing of 60 seconds.

But when I played that .ts file it was only 8 seconds long and looked like fast forwarded.

Then it hit me when I came back to the settings of the Hauppauge Colossus Crossbar Filter in the Graph file.

When I choose the video input to be:
Input: 0. Video SerialDigital In

There is an information beneath it says:
Current Input:
0. Video SerialDigital In
Related Pin:
7. Audio SPDIFDigital In

So, I adjusted my setting to be the following:

Audio:
Input: 7. Audio SPDIFDigital In
Output: 1. Audio Decoder Out

Video:
Input: 0. Video SerialDigital In
Output: 0. Video Decoder Out

I tried to capture now and it is working perfectly

A few things to note though:

- I Opened the settings of Hauppauge Colossus Capture filter and choose the Video Standard to be: PAL_B, and saved the graph file. When I opened the graph file later the option of Video Standard was empty, but the capturing is still working with this graph file.

- I was able to change the Bit Rate in Hauppauge Colossus TS Encoder filter easily to 20 Mbs and GraphEdit didn't crash.

- The Windows Task Scheduler didn't work with me at first, so I did my research and here are few tips that helped me (I believe the second tip is the most important one):

1) Make sure that the task is set to "configure for Windows Vista or Windows 2008" on the first page of the task properties (under the "general" tab)
2) Make sure that the task is set to "start in" the folder that contains the batch file: open the task properties, click on the "actions" tab, click on the action and then the "edit" button at the bottom. In the "Edit Action" Window there is a field for "start in (optional)" that you set to the path to the batch file.
3) Make sure that the task is running as an account that has explicit "Full access" permissions to all these things: The .bat file itself, the folder containing the .bat file, and the target files/folders that are affected by the .bat script. Inherited permissions didn't seem to work for me.
4) Make sure that the account running the task is a member of the local "administrators" group for this machine
5) Make sure that the task is set to "run whether logged on or not"
6) The Task should run successfully with expected output when you right-click on the task and select "run" If it does that then it will run successfully when you are logged off.

Thanks again for everyone.