Which PVR-250 drivers?!?

[deria]

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem. I have 3 PVR-250 cards in my box, and I'm starting to think that ONE of them is not working quite right with the drivers that I have installed. They all claim to be the same revision (when looking in the device manager) but one of them is physically different (longer connector where the cable attaches).

Most of the time, recordings are fine. Once in a while, with Sage TV a recording will come out "broken". During playback it shows strange pixellation (macroblock) flashes, and it looks like every 30 frames or so it jumps back a little. Basically the recording is toast. This never happened with Beyond TV, but I -did- have a problem where sometimes Live TV would not start correctly (gave an error). I suspect that may be the same issue.

So, anyway, does anyone have a recommendation for which drivers I should be using when using 3 PVR-250s? I've been using the 23070 drivers from the Hauppuage web-site.

I've seen links to drivers at SHS, but I don't think I can use those drivers? The wordig implies that you need to have a PVR250/350 AND a 150 to use them.

Finally, an off-topic question:

Can you use PVR-250s -and- other hardware encoders at the same time with SageTV (like the Plextor DIVX encoders)?

[Menehune]

I used to have a similar problem when I had my two pvr 250 cards side by side. I think they would overheat causing the card in the center to have bad recordings. Since then, I've separated the cards and added a small case fan to blow across the PCI slots. I also placed my modem in between them-it's a lower profile card then the 250s. No problems since.

[deria]

Hmm, I don't -think- its heat related. My system runs very cool. Still, I have 5 pci slots and only 3 cards so I should be able to space them out a little.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by deria

Most of the time, recordings are fine. Once in a while, with Sage TV a recording will come out "broken".

Is it always the same tuner that does this? You can check the recording details to see which tuner was used when this happens.

So, anyway, does anyone have a recommendation for which drivers I should be using when using 3 PVR-250s? I've been using the 23070 drivers from the Hauppuage web-site.

I've seen links to drivers at SHS, but I don't think I can use those drivers? The wordig implies that you need to have a PVR250/350 AND a 150 to use them.

I think that just means the driver is made to work with any of the cards, not that you have to have a mix of different versions. It has been so long since I followed any info about drivers, I wouldn't know which one to suggest. I know that several people have multiple Hauppauge cards working together, so this should be solvable, unless there is a problem with one of the cards or a conflict with the system.

I use one 250 & two PVR-USB2 devices & they all work together.

Can you use PVR-250s -and- other hardware encoders at the same time with SageTV (like the Plextor DIVX encoders)?

Yes - I used to have a Plextor ConvertX instead of a second PVR-USB2 tuner. They all worked together, but I prefer to stick to Hauppauge tuners.

- Andy

[deria]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Is it always the same tuner that does this? You can check the recording details to see which tuner was used when this happens.

Ah, I never knew I could do that. I am using the SageMC 169 theme which apparently doesn't have that option. Based on your comment I loaded up the original STV, and for the recording that is defective it lists my first tuner. I unfortunately have already deleted the first recording that had this problem, so I have nothing to compare it to. I'll keep an eye out, though.

I don't suppose Sage TV keeps a log anywhere, does it? I looked, but I wasn't able to find one. I also searched the forum, but was unable to find anything here about a log either.

Originally Posted by Opus4

I know that several people have multiple Hauppauge cards working together, so this should be solvable, unless there is a problem with one of the cards or a conflict with the system.

Well, the three tuners mostly work together. There's definitely some sort of conflict going on, though -- if I change the order of the cards in the PCI slots, all of a sudden Sage TV (and presumably every other application) cannot find anything but the first card or the first and the second card. The system detects the cards fine, but they're not visible in Sage Tv. I spent a few hours last night trying to get my system back to normal after moving the cards around (eventually had to move them back to their regular spots).

[deria]

Hi,

In my previous post I had said that moving the cards between slots made SageTV not detect them properly. Actually it seems that just changing the drivers makes SageTV not detect the cards. The Beyond TV setup wizard has no trouble detecting or using the cards, though -- I'm very puzzled. When I go to the source display, where there used to be 3 there is now 1 and the other two don't show up in the "add source" display.

Is there something I need to do to make SageTV re-detect the cards? I'm totally at a loss to explain this.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by deria

I don't suppose Sage TV keeps a log anywhere, does it? I looked, but I wasn't able to find one. I also searched the forum, but was unable to find anything here about a log either.

Only the beta versions output a log file during normal usage. There is info about opening the consle window on the SageTV FAQ page (not the forum's FAQ thread) and on p. 206 of the v4 PDF manual.

Originally Posted by deria

When I go to the source display, where there used to be 3 there is now 1 and the other two don't show up in the "add source" display.

Is there something I need to do to make SageTV re-detect the cards? I'm totally at a loss to explain this.

While SageTV (or the service) is not running at all, edit sage.properties & look for mmc/ignore_encoders. If the tuners are listed on that line, either delete the line or at aleast remove the tuners from the list.

Worst case: save a copy your sage.properties file, delete the original & its 'autobackup' copy, then restart to fully reconfigure. If the tuners still aren't seen...

Is any other program running that would use the cards at the same time? If they are already in use, SageTV won't be able to see them.

- Andy

[deria]

I'm not trying to artificially inflate my post count, believe it or not.

I did some digging and I see a line in my sage.properties file that says:

mmc/ignore_encoders=Motorola AV/C Panel Device|Realtek AC97 Audio|Diamond XtremeTV PVR600 USB WDM Encoder|Motorola AV/C Tuner Device|Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture \#2|Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture \#3|

I'm not sure why this line has all the tuners on it. I *suspect* that after removing the tuners with hwclear and rebooting, SageTV started and decided that the devices were no longer there (which is true, as far as it goes). What puzzles me is a) why it would decide to permanently and silently ignore these tuners forever and b) why it would not give some kind of warning somewhere in giant red letters along the lines of "omg, wtf, where did your tuners go?!??!!!one!".

Anyway -- I closed Sage TV, stripped the content of that line, and opened SageTV again. The tuners now appear in the list. I removed them all and added them again just to be sure they were configured right, then scheduled 4 recordings and all 4 recordings started at the scheduled time and appear to be working fine.

On an unrelated subject, some new drivers were posted by SHS in the SHS PVR forums for the pvr 250/350 that are labelled "Beta Lite CD Release 2.0.35.23258". I'm not sure if they'll work much better than the existing drivers, but off the top of my head two things were very noticeable: 1) they are WHQL certified so no more annoying prompts about uncertified drivers, and 2) you only have to install them and then all of your tuners are automagically detected (previously I had to go through the driver file copying for each individual tuner). All 3 of my tuners at least -appear- to function with the new drivers (which has not always been the case -- some driver sets from hauppauge have caused one of my tuners to go all wacky).

[deria]

Originally Posted by Opus4

While SageTV (or the service) is not running at all, edit sage.properties & look for mmc/ignore_encoders. If the tuners are listed on that line, either delete the line or at aleast remove the tuners from the list.

Heh. I was typing up my response while you were posting I guess. You are right, of course, that was the problem.

Originally Posted by Opus4

Is any other program running that would use the cards at the same time? If they are already in use, SageTV won't be able to see them.

No, no other programs running.

I think the "solution" for most people will be to just ensure that Sage TV does not autostart while installing drivers. I think that if I had removed the autostart of Sage TV before rebooting, it never would have had a problem at all.

[Opus4]

Solutions are being looked at for the ignore line getting populated with devices that shouldn't be there, but obviously that must not have been part of 4.0.

Ayway, hopefully, those updated drivers will take care of things.

- Andy

[hoadie]

Hi,

For what it's worth, my system has a PVR-250 & PVR-350 running V4.0 without any dramas except the EOF problem with the 350..

The other day I updated my 250/350 drivers to the latest from the Hauppauge website (vainly hoping it might fix the EOF issues) and after restarting Sage it failed to detect the 350 as a tuner, though oddly enough the UI-out was still working..

Anyway, I stumbled across this post and found an entry on the mmc/ignore_encoders line for my 350 and after removing this entry I was able to re-add the 350 as a tuner.

I had made a backup of the sage.properties file earlier that day so I can confirm that the entry definately wasn't there prior to updating the driver.

Anyway, thought this might be useful to someone

Ben

[Deadbolt]

Can people list what drivers they are using successfully (no reboots, or lock-ups, or stuttering) for PVR-250 and PVR-350?

Thanks!

[buck1952]

PVR 250-16, PVR 350, 1.18.21.22266

[deria]

I switched to the latest drivers from the SHS web-site, and since then all 3 of my PVR-250 tuners are more-or-less getting along. I haven't had any corrupt recordings. I've had some exceptionally snowy recordings, but I think thats more likely related to my cable signal being split in half, then half of that being split in four ways. Ever since I turned up the gain on my signal amplifier I seem to be "ok". I did add an extra tuner to the mix though, a USB 2.0 Diamond Xtreme PVR600. That works quite nicely (but has the opposite problem of the hauppuage; not enough drivers instead of too many).