FYI - Mixing OEM & Retail PVR-250 cards

[tcurtiss]

This is more of just an FYI, as several folks have asked how this whole exercise went:

I have managed to get 3 PVR-250s working together in my tuner PC. Two of them are OEM PVR-250s (got them on Ebay for $89/each) and one is a retail PVR-250 (with IR remote, came w/ Sage hardware bundle). All of the units are using the -15 Conexant chipset. The tuner PC is running SageTV (as a Sage server only [with lots of disk space], since it's tucked away headless in the basement.)

Caveats:
* Windows wants 2 different drivers installed (one for the OEM, one for the retail), despite the same chipset. I grabbed the latest from Hauppauge for the retail, and then the OEM latest from shspvr.com. I got the best results when installing the retail version first, rebooting, then installing the OEM version (so that the newer .sys file clobbered the retail one.) Things were simple for me due to everything using the -15 chipset - I have a feeling it would have been much dicier with a mix of -15 and -16s.
* HEAT - I only have 3 PCI slots in this Dell ~$300 PC (Dimension 2400), so the cards are right next to each other. They seem to work fine, despite running very hot. I am going to cut the case and put a fan over the 3 PCI slots, though, just to prevent any heat issues going forward.

All in all, everything seems to be working properly. The one issue I'm having is more Sage Client-related... essentially 100%CPU lockups when changing channels quickly :(

[Beelzebub]

The retail drivers work with the OEM. You just have to force the drivers. As for heat, I just put a small fan on the heatsink.

[RBTConsultants]

I just ordered one of these Gateway OEM $89 cards from EBAY. I did not give any thought to whether it would be compatible to the card I currently have installed in my HTPC.

What should I look for for compatibility? How do I tell the '-15' vs. the '-16'?

Thanks for your help,

Bob

[ToxMox]

As for the cards running hot. I have the same situation. Two 250s and a 350 all next to each other. I ordered this card cooler and it works great. It lies perpendicular to the pci cards and blows air down inbetween them. Just make sure you have the room for it:
http://www.thecardcooler.com/shopcart/Fans/stealth_card_cooler.htm

FWI I have no affiliation with this company so this isn't a spam.

[JohnMuir]

Must be nice to get 3 running. I am having hard time getting just the 1 PVR-250 running stable!!!

[ToxMox]

What is your setup? Does the computer just lock up shortly after it starts recording? What type of motherboard etc are you running? I'm pretty sure the tuner card needs to be in a bus mastering PCI slot. I was setting up a PVR 250 at my friend's house the other night and the machine would quickly lock every time it started recording. Then we moved the card to one of the bus mastering slots and all was good in the world.

[JohnMuir]

Is there a guide or step by step post for installing this thing?

I am well versed on hardware (make my living as a network admin) yet this thing has been by far the most difficult thing to get stable. (feels like the days were I was manually setting IRQs just to get my Sound Blaster 16 working for Doom)

Works great one day, the next it's "encounted a serious error." this is normally preceded by chirps and skips in the sound.

I'm building a fresh system to see what heppends there, which is why i want to know all the do's and don't for installing.