Problem with new install (and 1 other question)

[padre]

I just finished installing my PVR (Hauppauge PVR-350, Compaq 2.5ghz system, WinXP, IR200L). I have a slight problem, though. When I boot the system and go straight to SageTV, and select Live TV, I get audio only and a color bar (test pattern) on the TV! I can resolve this by closing SageTV, start up WinTV2000. I get a fine picture there, close it and restart SageTV and there's my picture!

Is this a bug?

And my question, probably a simple one, is - can you set SageTV to ONLY record the items on its Favorites list (scheduled recordings)? I've programmed about a dozen favorites, which put a bunch of stuff on the recording schedule. But while the box is running, it's recording whatever is only TV at the time the program is running.

Any help would be appreciated.

[justme]

The situation with needing to start WinTV to use the 350's TV output is a known issue. Hauppauge hasn't informed anyone on how to initialize the PVR350's hardware decoder output, so you need to run WinTV first to intialize the 350's HW decoder output. You should only need to do this once until you reboot, then you'll need to do it agian. Narflex is working on this. Either way it won't affect your recordings.

As for SageTV recording everything. It does this to enable you to do time shifting when watching TV. If you put it to sleep it won't record shows unless you have "Intelligent Recording" turned on in the detailed setup.

I'm just another user like you but I hope this helps. Most of these issues have been covered before on this site. So you can do some searching to get some more detailed info. Or you can post again and if I can I'll answer you question. There is a lot of knowledge on this forum both in it's users and it's posts.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll love SageTV as much as I do.

[padre]

justme, thanks for the reply and good insight. I'm glad to know the problem is not my setup, but a known problem. And the sleep mode will definitely help save disk space.

I did some searching, but wasn't able to find much, but its all in the search phrases. I support another forum, doom9.org, which is all about DVD burning. Answered about 350 posts, so I can definitely appreciate the assistance!

My next venture is into MPEG2 editing. Basically I just want to trim/edit the resulting MPEG2 files the program creates and burn them to disc. Anything you can recommend? I have Pinnacle Studio 8, and it's not bad, but not great. I've heard some good things about Ulead's products.

Again, thanks for the tips and insight.

[justme]

Glad to meet someone else who likes to help out their group. Doom9 is a great resource.

OK for editing MPEGs from the PVR line of cards. Almost everyone agrees that Womble's MPEG2VCR is the best nondestructive MPEG editor for the hauppauge line of cards. For some proof just check out some of the posts at SHS's PVR forum. This is a great site for any PVR250/350 owner. SHS is the best ally you can have. He also has a list of assorted editors at his base site. But if you want my opinion just go and get the womble trial. Don't let it's looks fool you. It's a great editor and it's the best for keeping AV sync with files created by a PVR250/350 card.

The editor that comes with the PVR never worked right for me. Bad AV sync, cuts in the wrong place, etc... If money is an issue some people say they have had good result using TMPGEnc. I sometimes use it to try and fix a badly messed up mpeg. Sometimes doing a simple multiplex with TMPGEnc and then editing will result in a better output. There are so many variables with editing MPEGs and the driver version of your PVR card will afect this. In the end if Womble doesn't work out of the box the SHS site has loads of info on different methods to try. But try Womble first and you should be OK.

Best of luck. Don't hesitate to post or PM with a either a question or, a suggestion for me to try.

[jmeeks]

You can turn off intelligent recording and only your favorites and manual records will be recorded. Unless your actively watching something or you minimize SageTv instead of putting it to sleep. (in the taskbar)

Access intelligent recording under the setup menu.

[padre]

Originally posted by justme
If money is an issue some people say they have had good result using TMPGEnc. I sometimes use it to try and fix a badly messed up mpeg. Sometimes doing a simple multiplex with TMPGEnc and then editing will result in a better output.

Well, that's interesting you should mention TMPGEnc. I tried to load one of the MPEG2's from SageTV into TMPGEnc, and it got an error message (something about the format it didn't like). I've used TMPGEnc for other formats (AVI, MOV, etc.) and some MPEG formats. But it's not liking the output from Sage. The reason I went to it was DVDit PE didn't like the MPEG2 either.

I'll play some more with it and try Womble.

Thanks!