2nd PVR-250 doesn't work in Sage

[edmc]

Bitten by the urge to utilize the new multi-tuner capabilities of SageTV, I ordered a 2nd Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250. It just arrived yesterday so I thought: How difficult could this be - I've already got one of these in my system!

First oddity, the new PVR-250 is somewhat different than the first one. The board's a bit smaller and has a Composite Video Out. The components look te same, though rearranged to save board space. The big Tuner/Demodulator block has a new label on it though...

Original (bigger) PVR-250 Tuner/Demodulator block reads:
NTSC/NTSC-J
48012 Rev F210

New (smaller) PVR-250 Tuner/Demodulator block reads:
NTSC
32031 REV B110

I was able to get each of the cards to work with the Win2000 TV Viewer App that came with each card (v1.0 w/ Original, v1.6A w/ New). The latest Driver seemed to work with both.

After getting all this going, what worked in SageTV was:
1 - Original Card installed, New Card *NOT* installed

What I just couldn't get to work in SageTV was:
2 - Both Cards installed and enabled in SageTV
3 - Both Cards installed and only Original Card enabled in SageTV
4 - Both Cards installed and only New Card enabled in SageTV
5 - New Card installed, Original Card *NOT* installed

Mind you, the Win2000 App worked with either card.

Any ideas?

I was all set to return the New Card as "DOA" until I happened to try the Win2000 App that came with it and saw that it worked just great.

I do recall that when Jeff (or was it Dan) listed all the permutations that they had tried that they actually didn't list 2 PVR-250s (a 250/350 combo was listed as I recall).

So, should I give up and send the New Card back?

[edmc]

I've discovered that, as far as WinXP's Device Manager is concerned, the two devices are, indeed, not identical. The Encoder driver that gets loaded for the Original PVR-250 is simply called "Encoder". The Encoder driver that gets loaded for the New PVR-250 is curiously called "Encoder-16".

Can Frey determine their level of support for the Encoder-16 cards?

[SHS]

Original board rev1 and rev 2 come with iTCV15 rev 3 come new iTVC16 it list as Encoder-16 which is a encoder only chip by the way that what I have rigth now edmc.
I'am not sure how multi-tuner works in SageTV but just a guest try pick two diff channel to record on the same time.

[edmc]

Thanks, SHS... But from what you say, it appears you are able to get the iTCV16/Rev3 card to work in SageTV - is that right?

What I have found with the iTCV15/Rev1/Rev2 card is that I need to have both the Encoder Driver and Decoder Driver installed as well as the Win2000 App in order to get a picture in SageTV.

With the iTCV16/Rev3 card, SageTV reports several problems trying to "select" the MPEG-2 Encoder or Decoder (can't remember which). This occurs during startup and during channel change. At no point do I ever see a picture at all. I don't believe I get sound either, but I wasn't always "looking" for that in my permutations.

SHS - could you confirm that you are running an iTCV16/Rev3 card?

If that is the case, then perhaps this card is slightly DOA. Can't for the life of me figure out why the Win2000 TV Viewer App would work with it, though. I should say, however, that it was somewhat flakey to install - to get WinXP's Device Manager to even see the card, for instance, was a challenge... IRQ conflict? I tried several slot combinations, though my options are somewhat limited in my particular case. My AGP slot holds an ATI 7500 with a honkin' passive heat sink which obscures the adjacent PCI slot...

[Narflex]

Ed,

Did you get the WinTV app working with both cards in the system? If so, how were you able to select which card it was using?

As for SageTV, log files please. :) Then I can give you the details on what's going on. They're the sagetv_x.txt files in your SageTV folder, you can email them to support@freytechnologies.com.

One other thing, in 1.2.4Beta Sage will not detect hardware that has been removed. It will still list it as being present. This is fixed in 1.2.5 Beta.

Thanks,

[SHS]

Yes that rigth edmc I have rev 3 board and SageTV ans SageRecoder working just fine here.
try with clean driver install
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2140
also read my post here
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12602&highlight=hcwpvrp2+sys#12602

[edmc]

> Did you get the WinTV app working with both cards in the system?
> If so, how were you able to select which card it was using?

I saw no way to actually select which Tuner Card to use, actually. SHS? Any clue on how this might be done?

I am concerned that Device Manager doesn't seem to Add New Hardware... for both cards during a clean boot. Could be from an incomplete uninstall that SHS suggests I do. I'll try again tonight...

> As for SageTV, log files please.

Will do...

> One other thing, in 1.2.4Beta Sage will not detect hardware that has been removed... This is fixed in 1.2.5 Beta.

Yeah, noticed that. Fortunately, it called the New Card #2 consistently, so it was easy for me to force SageTV to use the Original Card.

[SHS]

WinTV2000 dosen't work with multi-tuner

[edmc]

Thanks to SHS's excellent "clean house" instructions, I now have BOTH of my PVR-250's working in SageTV!!!

What I believe turned out to be the problem was an incomplete UnInstall step. I had forgotten that the InterVideoSDK was part of the Hauppauge Installation. Each time I UnInstalled/ReInstalled, I was leaving InterVideoSDK installed. It was either that or some other left-over scraps cleaned up by the tools in the .ZIP download SHS pointed me to.

My only problem now is I've split the Cable Signal so many times that it's now weak enough to affect reception. I'm off to Fry's to hopefully address that shortcoming.

Oh, and I did find a small nit bug with this new arrangement. Normally, hovering the mouse over the SageTV Tray Icon will show what it's recording. At this moment, I'm recording two shows simultaneously. Of course, it only shows one of them in the pop-up caption. I can certainly live with it... :-)

I can't wait for the next Tuner Card addition - an HD Tuner hopefully... News here in the SF Bay Area is that Comcast is now within 45 days of rolling out HD-over-Cable (a big deal for those of us surrounded by obstructions from the OTA Towers).

[SHS]

Hey Jeff I just wondering now that SageTV has Multi-Tuner capabilities what about S-Video/Composite and Multi-IR Blasters for something like DishNetwork, DirecTV satellite?.

[Narflex]

I'm going to be working this into the betas really soon. It will work now if the boxes each can have different codes. So if you've got 2 satellite receivers, set them to receiver IDs 1 and 2. Then select a different Device for each of them in the Setup Wizard and that corresponds to the codes for receiver IDs 1 and 2.

So currently you can only configure one IR blaster or serial control in 1.2.4 Beta. But you can have different codes for each input, like explained here.

[SHS]

I see no need rush it just wondering been we have 3 DishNetwork receiver here

[Narflex]

You should be able to do that right now then. You can just use one IR blaster to control all 3 of them and set each Dish receiver to a different receiver ID.

Mark's familiar with this I'm sure if you've got any questions.

[Mark Lamutt]

SHS - yes, you could control the 3 dish receivers with one blaster, but the 3 receivers would probably have to be sitting on top of each other to get them close enough together for the blaster to work with all 3. Changing the remote addresses on the receivers is easy - get to the system information screen of the receiver you want to change, press the SAT button on your remote until it flashes red, then enter the number of the new remote address using the remote number pad - i.e. 03 to set to address 3, press the # button and then press the REC button. The system information screen should update with the new remote address just set.

However, Jeff will have to help out with the actisys codes for any Dish addresses beyond address 1. I never could get the actisys to learn the dish network IR codes, but managed to take a preexisting file from the showshifter board and modify it to work with the actisys and Sage. Jeff has talked about writing a Philips Pronto to actisys IR file format converter. If he could do that, then I could very easily generate actisys IR files for any dish network address.

[SHS]

Hey Mark that work on the remote but couldn't the Dishnetwork box it self to change the address

[SHS]

REC button have be push 2 time for it to work rigth

[Mark Lamutt]

Of you have to have the system information screen displayed on your television.

[SHS]

(Of you have to have the system information screen displayed on your television.) Yes I know that Mark.

This way didn't work
press the SAT button on your remote until all four MODE button light up then the SAT button should be flashes red, then enter the number of the new remote address using the remote number pad - i.e. 03 to set to address 3, press the # button and then press the REC button

But this dose work
press the SAT button on your remote until all four MODE button light up then the SAT button should be flashes red, then enter the number of the new remote address using the remote number pad - i.e. 03 to set to address 3, press the # button and then press the REC button wait for SAT button to stop flashing red then press the REC button then system information screen update with the new remote address just set.

Funny thing is I try diff remote Address and be dran no matter what address I use it still change channel hehehehe.
I one for Remote Address 4.

[Mark Lamutt]

Huh, that's wierd. I don't have to press the record button twice for any of my receivers. But whatever works, I guess. :)

[SHS]

I guest my only option would be is a 4 Port Serial PCI Card and Multi-IR Blasters and assign each DishSatelliteReceiver"X".ir 1 thur 4 to each com port for each dish box.

[Mark Lamutt]

That's an ugly solution to the problem, though, and may not even work. I'm not sure that the actisys can work with anything other than COM1 and COM2. There has to be a more elegant way to do it...If only the actisys cord was a little longer - that'd make it quite a bit easier to deal with.

[SHS]

that not a problem I'm all ready longer cable on mine
Use this BS (serial device that connects COM 1 or COM3 (or COM2 or COM4) at the same time, neither device will work as you will have an IRQ conflict as each pair share the same IRQ) that the problem mark.

[Narflex]

There's something I'm not clear on here. It seems like there's only one procedure you're using to do this, when there should be 2 parts to it.

One part should be changing the receiver ID for the satellite receiver box itself, so it only recognizes the signal from that ID. The other part is changing the receiver ID for the remote control so its transmitting only for that ID.

Maybe that second 'Record' you have to it signals the receiver to accept the new receiver ID from the remote control or something like that.

So have you been able to get the remote control for your dish receivers to be unique with respect to this for the remote control? Maybe I'm just confused, because from your other post it seemed like the problem may just have to do with the Actisys transmitting in some sort of universal ID format that hits any receiver ID.

[SHS]

That what I think it is a universal ID format that hits any receiver ID I take it all way up 15 and still change the channel Ahhhh hehe

[Narflex]

Mark, can you confirm this by changing the receiver ID on yours?

[Mark Lamutt]

Huh...I'll be. That's new to me, and I'm sure that it wasn't like this with the previous version of the Dish software. But yeah, I confirm that it makes no difference what address the receiver is set at - the IR file will change the channels.