New azbox software out

As much as you may hate to do it, you'll have to enable 'hardware acceleration' to record any HD. I took the plunge 3 months ago and my Elite hasn't had issues with it.
And, I am able to record the NBC hd content on AMC1, which I didn't expect I would ever be able to do. I was waiting for Azbox programmers to either optimize their code or fix the issue another route. Sadly, I think this is the only fix they'll provide.

One thing I don't understand is this; they fixed one problem and in the process they break another thing. I hope they get to fix the issue of not being able to record high bit HD signals. The update before this disabled streaming, and created lots of problems (the box was slow to respond) with the receiver if you added the IPTV "txt" file. I had to go back to 4829.
 
As much as you may hate to do it, you'll have to enable 'hardware acceleration' to record any HD. I took the plunge 3 months ago and my Elite hasn't had issues with it.
And, I am able to record the NBC hd content on AMC1, which I didn't expect I would ever be able to do. I was waiting for Azbox programmers to either optimize their code or fix the issue another route. Sadly, I think this is the only fix they'll provide.


I've recorded many HD feeds without issue. I specifically have not had to enabled "hardware acceleration" for recording or playing back HD from NBC but it could have been the content I recorded. The recording below was made recently when HDNet was ITC and you can see it has a bitrate of 65.000 Mbps.

File Name: F:\Vista Desktop\The Arrival.ts
File Size: 17941936040 ( 16.71 GB )
Program Duration: 02:09:51.15
File Type: TS Stream
Encoding: MPEG2
Video stream Id: 49 (x31)
Encoding Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frame Rate: 29.97 FPS
Bit Rate: 65.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 976 KB
Profile: Main/High
Progressive: Prog or Int
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: 5.1
Audio Stream Id: AC3: 52 (x34)
Audio Bit Rate: 384 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz
TS Mux Rate (bps): 18472365
Est. video bit rate: 17.318 (Mbps)


With "hardware acceleration" it plays back perfectly on the Azbox. Without it enabled, it loses audio and is jumbled. The problem is with the playback, not the recording. All of my recording have played back fine on the PC. I think people may be confusion two separate issues. Recording and playback. From what I can tell, the issues are usually with playback. There are definitely some files that the AZbox can't playback which are playable on my PC.
 
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I've recorded many HD feeds without issue. I specifically have not had to enabled "hardware acceleration" for recording or playing back HD from NBC but it could have been the content I recorded. The recording below was made recently when HDNet was ITC and you can see it has a bitrate of 65.000 Mbps.

File Name: F:\Vista Desktop\The Arrival.ts
File Size: 17941936040 ( 16.71 GB )
Program Duration: 02:09:51.15
File Type: TS Stream
Encoding: MPEG2
Video stream Id: 49 (x31)
Encoding Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frame Rate: 29.97 FPS
Bit Rate: 65.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 976 KB
Profile: Main/High
Progressive: Prog or Int
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: 5.1
Audio Stream Id: AC3: 52 (x34)
Audio Bit Rate: 384 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz
TS Mux Rate (bps): 18472365
Est. video bit rate: 17.318 (Mbps)


With "hardware acceleration" it plays back perfectly on the Azbox. Without it enabled, it loses audio and is jumbled. The problem is with the playback, not the recording. All of my recording have played back fine on the PC. I think people may be confusion two separate issues. Recording and playback. From what I can tell, the issues are usually with playback. There are definitely some files that the AZbox can't playback which are playable on my PC.

First of all, that HDNET video couldn't have possibly have had a bitrate of 65.000 Mbps. The actual bitrate of HDNET video is ~ 18 Mbps. Some video seems to contain a parameter which is something like a target bitrate or something like that, and is often a bogus number, so I think that bitrate you're quoting isn't real. If you look to the bottom of your chart, you see the MUX rate and the video bitrate, which is 17 Mbps. This is the bitrate that is important relative to playing back or recording on the Azbox.
I can play back HDNET HD on the Azbox with no problem, basically anything up through a bit higher than 20 Mbps. And I've never tried enabling the hardware acceleration. Basically waiting for someone to say something good about it before I try it. Anyway, I'm not sure why you'd get jumbled video and no audio for HDNET recordings. That WOULD be expected for the NBC HD though if I remember the bitrates on that, as I currently can't lock that transponder. Seems like it had bitrates up in the mid 20s, but I may be remembering wrong. I've ALMOST been able to play back video that had bitrates in the mid 20s, but not quite. I can't remember, but it's possible that the NBC thing you recorded was using a variable bitrate format, and wasn't putting out full bitrate at the time. I've seen the old CBS HD go from ~40 Mbps down to around 5 Mbps depending on the content. Whereas channels that don't use variable bitrate keep a constant bitrate regardless of content, which seems to be the case with HDNET.



But in any event, the Azbox WILL play lots of different flavors of HD, but it will NOT play high bitrate stuff, at least without the acceleration, and from what I've read, I don't think that it can do it with acceleration on either.
 
There's no disagreement but what I'm trying to differentiate is the difference between issues with recording and issues with playback. I'm not saying the Azbox doesn't have issues with both, but often times the recordings are OK where as the playback is the issue. As a media player, its not that good.
 
As much as you may hate to do it, you'll have to enable 'hardware acceleration' to record any HD. I took the plunge 3 months ago and my Elite hasn't had issues with it.
And, I am able to record the NBC hd content on AMC1, which I didn't expect I would ever be able to do. I was waiting for Azbox programmers to either optimize their code or fix the issue another route. Sadly, I think this is the only fix they'll provide.
I also record and played back all those you mentioned without issues. Sadly, I'm talking about for example some HD Content like the BIG TEN feeds and others. They record fine but break and freeze on playback. I also have "hardware acceleration" enabled.
 
I can't remember but I think 4295 still splits recorded material into 4GB files.
No hardware acceleration in that version for sure.

I'm running 0.9.4991 on my elite and it seems fine. I did noticed that once you upgrade, some of the old recorded material isn't recognized ( however it plays fine on other media center software )
I guess it all depends on if it works fine for you the way it is.

I'm using FW version 4295. Is there really any reason why I should upgrade to the newest?
 
I can't remember but I think 4295 still splits recorded material into 4GB files.
No hardware acceleration in that version for sure.

I'm running 0.9.4991 on my elite and it seems fine. I did noticed that once you upgrade, some of the old recorded material isn't recognized ( however it plays fine on other media center software )
I guess it all depends on if it works fine for you the way it is.

Thanks, does it update the satellite names and transponders? 4295 still shows 91*W as Galaxy 11
 
I've giving up on the "names-thing" long ago. If I know the name of a bird, it's just an accident. :) Orbital position is my mantra !!!
:)

I've been pretty much taking the same approach. It just seems kind of ridiculous that they can't update the names in their software.
 
I've giving up on the "names-thing" long ago. If I know the name of a bird, it's just an accident. :) Orbital position is my mantra !!!
:)
That's the best approach in my opinion. Names change, but Orbital locations remain unchanged!!:D
 
The one thing I do like about the Elites blindscan is if you are looking for a certain thing and you know the SR, FEC, Etc. ..... You just tune it to a sat and let it find just that one thing. Of course, it still sometimes misses it but, it's better than nothing usually.
 
Latest as of today 8/13/2010:

azbox-0.9.5020-patch| epg improvements | some other minor adjustments
 

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