Difficulty sourcing Hauppauge MVP in the UK

[ron.smythe]

Hi,

I'm having problems sourcing the standard MVP's in the UK, everyone seems to be out of stock and not getting any new stock. I know there is not currently another media extender, but was wondering if there was a time frame for new extenders.

Any info would be helpful as I am currently helping two friends design systems around SageTV and the MVPs.

Ron.

[rickgillyon]

Nope, none of my usual sources have them either, just showing wireless ones (which can be used wired at twice the price). I wonder why they are out of stock everywhere? Perhaps a new model coming...

[doc]

I have 2 on pre-order from www.scan.co.uk but as you say, they're out of stock and I have no idea when they'll be in stock.

I bought one 3 weeks ago from there, and was hoping they'd be getting more in stock quickly as it says 'pre-order now', but alas its not been the case.

Frustrating isn't it

[rickgillyon]

Dabs are now showing 3-4 WEEKS for delivery. Glad I don't need another right now...

[doc]

Looks like I'm gona have a lovely christmas moving mine between my bedroom, office and living room

[Franc]

Same here in Holland.
Just bought a wireless and am thinking about another one, wired, but there's no stock anywhere.

[rickgillyon]

Currently, you'd need to buy wireless and wire it up...

[Franc]

I suggest you don't buy any of these

Man, am I furious! These things are so instable it is not even funny anymore.
Right now I have one not getting beyond the bootup screen with the funny colored lines at the bottom. It just hangs there.
After that happens I have to leave it unplugged for several minutes before it will even TRY to boot up again!

Seriously, don;t waste your time with these things, they need some serious upgrades before they can be considered useful....

[doc]

I understand your frustrations, when they dont work they're a nightmare but when they do they are great. I'm lucky that mine seems to be working fine.

I'm using the latest beta and java v6. It was quite slow in the menu's with java 1.4

If there was a different product on the market that did the same job and worked with sage I'd more than likely try that rather than the hauppauge ones, like you say, they're very flakey, but £40 is a lot cheaper than building a client that produces as good a display on the screen.

They should be firmware upgradeable too, but alas they're not

I think the wireless ones are a waste of the extra cash. Get a wired one and a seperate bridge, and theres very little cost difference. I've been frustrated with them working with some routers and not others. As you can guess, they never seem to work with the one I have, but work with a crappy one my friend has, but his doesn't have half of the other functions that I require.

For now though I'm waiting until the wired ones come into stock as I can get 2 of those cheaper than the price of one wireless one.

[Franc]

I wish I knew about the wireless part being so flakey too, before I bought it.
Now I bought the wMVP and had to add a wifi extender to get it to produce moving images on my TV upstairs. Even then, I have to use a wire between the wMVP and the extender because it refuses to connect to my wireless network through it, while downstairs it connects to the main wifi router without problems..

Wait a minute...did you say they are NOT firmware upgradeable??

[doc]

Originally Posted by Franc

Wait a minute...did you say they are NOT firmware upgradeable??

Hauppauge say download the latest software and use that, but theres no actual firmware that you can update.

I wish there was another make extender available, maybe we should cross our fingers for the long anticipated HD extender. I hope hauppauge have learned from the experience of these mvp's and make future models a lot better.

and I hope an HD extender isn't too expensive when they come out. I'm not going to splash out on a PS3 or anything like that just to use HD.

[perf]

Just to get the balance right for people who read this thread:

The wired MVP works amazingly well with SageTV. I have three that I have used for quite some time. They provide the same user experience as the server, and the image quality when connected to an SD TV is better that you get from the TV out of any video card. The load on the server is minimal, so you can use a very low-spec server computer.

/Per

[ron.smythe]

As an update for all UK Hauppage users, I mailed hauppauge and this was the reply:


Hi,

Sorry for the delay in replying, as far as we are aware there should be some available in retail stores (a load went out to distributors recently), have you tried all the shops on our where to buy page? The product is not going end of life by any means!

Best regards

Oh well, time to wait for them to come back into stock!

Ron.

[doc]

I just double checked on the scan website and they're not listed at all now, so I've emailed them asking if they are still expecting some.

It would be nice to know as they've already taken my £90.66 for 2 of them.

In the mean time I'm building a small pc I have lying around at work so i can put sage client on it to watch it in the back bedroom over christmas. Fortunately I have a streamzap remote sat here doing nothing too.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Franc

Seriously, don;t waste your time with these things, they need some serious upgrades before they can be considered useful....

As orthers have said, many people are using them quite happily. I would suggest you make sure you're using the latest Sage, latest Java, blow away your clients folders, use the default STV and don't use service mode. If you still have trouble, upgrade or try a different router if you can. I've had few problems in v6, they provide a great feature set for the price when they do run.

[doc]

I just got this response back from www.scan.co.uk about my order

Thank you for your order. Having checked the stock situation for you, I have found out that unfortunately there is still a shortage in stock of the following item:

HAUPPAUGE MVP NET PLAYER

We have now been informed that this product is discontinued with the suppliers and we're not able to replenish our stock as we had hoped. However, we're still able to proceed with your order immediately if you can select one of the following options:


1. Choose an alternative. A refund/debit will be processed wherever necessary. Suggested Replacement = 2. Cancellation and refund of the item in question.

we'll have to wait and see if any more come back into stock elsewhere...

funny how hauppauge say one thing and a supplier say another!

[Franc]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

As orthers have said, many people are using them quite happily. I would suggest you make sure you're using the latest Sage, latest Java, blow away your clients folders, use the default STV and don't use service mode. If you still have trouble, upgrade or try a different router if you can. I've had few problems in v6, they provide a great feature set for the price when they do run.

I AM using the latest Sage (6 RC2) and the latest Java (although I can't imagine it matters much what version of Java I am running on the server? does it use Java for server mode?)
Default STV really doesn't do it for me and how can I run an MVP without service mode??????

EDIT: and God knows how many times I have deleted the client folder ... loosing all my settings and IR commands in the progress

[doc]

Originally Posted by Franc

and how can I run an MVP without service mode??????

as long as sage is running on your main sage pc your MVP should be able to connect.

I don't use service mode as some people have had a few problems with it, just start sage and leave it running, just don't close the program down completely.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Franc

I AM using the latest Sage (6 RC2) and the latest Java (although I can't imagine it matters much what version of Java I am running on the server? does it use Java for server mode?)

Make sure it's Java 1.6 not 1.5.9 (which may still be served by default). RC2 is not the latest Sage. Java version directly influences things because it affects the stability of the server and therefore connection and stability of the MVPs.

Originally Posted by Franc

Default STV really doesn't do it for me and how can I run an MVP without service mode??????

Default STV with NO imports will allow you to determine more easily where your problems lie. Use other STVs and imports only when it works. Service mode is not required for MVP, the SERVER is required. Service mode makes it less reliable and less responsive IME.

[Franc]

Thanks for clearing all this out.
I found out after my post that v6 was officially released so I downloaded and installed it
I did an autoupdate of Java but I see it is 1.5.0??
I'll have a look at that.

I must say that I could swicht the MVP on this morning and it connected faster than ever, so maybe something was fixed.

I also didn't know I could run it NOT using service mode, so I will try that too and see what the difference is. Downside is I have to run the client part on my server...