WinTV PVR2 USB remote issue + video card suggestion

[ernieandbert]

I just got the WinTV PVR2 USB up and running. All works great except for the remote.

The PVR2 has a built in IR reciever that works fine for the software that came with the PVR, but when I try to use it for SageTV only the pause and play buttons work. If I try to switch the IR input to USB it states that it cant find anything. If I try to manually configure the buttons in the advanced menu it does not do anything when I press a button on the remote.

Any help is appreciated!!!!
(Newbie here!)

Thanks

[Opus4]

See the FAQ thread for this entry: How do I use the Hauppauge remote to control SageTV? When I press a button, nothing happens.

You probably have the newer Hauppauge remote & will eventually find yourself looking at either post #3 of Hauppauge link 1 or post #15 of link 3 in my sig lines.

- Andy

[ernieandbert]

That did it. NICE!

Thanks!!

One other quickie -
I have a P3 700 with 512MgRam collecting dust. Would this work OK with Sage, or is it to slow to risk?

Thanks!!!!!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ernieandbert

I have a P3 700 with 512MgRam collecting dust. Would this work OK with Sage, or is it to slow to risk?

That depends on how you want to use it.

For recording: It should work fine, since all the hard work is done on the hardware encoder card(s). You may want an IDE upgrade, depending on what is in the system now.

For playback: Not sure about using a regular video card, but I used an old p2-400 for almost a year. It had 2 tuners and an Xcard to handle playback in hardware. SageTV was slow to start, but once it was running, I was able to record 2 shows, play one locally on the Xcard, and stream one to a client simultaneously w/o a problem. Someone else will have to comment on using a software decoder on a p3-700.

- Andy

[ernieandbert]

OK still on the subject of the P3 system - What TV out card would you suggest? It only has PCI slots. Not looking for expensive, but want the TV out to look as good as possible (I don't care about anything else on the card - just TV out).

Opus - I notice you are in NJ - I grew up in Morris county. Now I am in the Poconos!


Ernie

[ernieandbert]

What about this one - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...167119642&rd=1

[Wheemer]

I have an AGP version of the FX5500 256M and it works very well in my P4 3.0 machine, however it jumps and pauses randomly in my AMD 1400. Might be an AMD thing?...

In the P$ 3.0 it performs fine with no problems at all.

Why not get the xcard?

[ernieandbert]

And the xcard is what? Is it PCI?

[Opus4]

Xcard info can be found on the Sigma Designs site; it is a PCI card. A few comments on it:

It has a hardware decoder for SageTV's MPEG2 recordings; can decode other files types, but not in SageTV at the moment. It makes a slow PC quite usable for video playback.

But, there is no Windows desktop or other output to your TV like a video card would do, though there is now an alpha plugin to allow the SageTV UI to be shown on the TV. It isn't as versatile as a video card in terms of what you can display on your TV.

There are other good/bad points, but that is a start.

- Andy

[Karen0302]

Will SageTV use the IR detector on the PVR-USB2 if it is connected to Sage? How does one configure this?

Karen

[Opus4]

It works the same as any Hauppauge IR receiver: via the Hauppauge IR software.

- Andy

[Karen0302]

Andy,

Thanks for the reply. Now, the next question. What happens if both it and the one on the PVR-350 card are on the same system? The reason I ask is that as soon as I added the USB2 to my main Sage system, my remote stopped working.

I had been using the silver remote and the detector plugged into the PVR-350 card. I hadf edit the irremote.ini file so that it used the FINDWND function to send messages to Sage directly. But as soon as the USB2 was in place my remote stopped working.

Any thoughts?

Karen

[Opus4]

You've tried pointing the remote to both receivers to see which one is active? And powering the USB2 down & plugging it back in again, then restarting ir.exe?

The Hauppauge software just picks one & uses that, but I'm not entirely certain how it decides its default selection.

There is a registry setting to force a preference for which class of IR receiver gets used: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\hauppauge\ir" has a DWORD "I2CType" entry that determines preference; the decimal values are:

1. 19: prefer 250/350
2. 23: prefer the PVR-USB2
3. 24: prefer the WinTV-USB2

There is _suppposed_ to be one for 18 to prefer the 150, but the IR drivers still can't tell the difference between a 150 & the 250/350, the last I heard.

I have a 250 & PVR-USB2 -- the USB2's receiver is the one that gets used on my system w/o making any registry changes. (but maybe I just don't remember making the registry change)

- Andy

[Karen0302]

Andy,

Thanks for the info! It was exactly what I needed!! I edit that registry entry and as soon as I restarted the IR application .... my PVR-350 detector was working again. Thanks a bunch!!

Karen