HDPVR No Workithe, Help!!!

[cpainter]

I was thinking about purchasing one of these units to work with SageTV, but it sounds like I should hold off until Hauppauge gets some of these issues worked out. Would rather wait than deal with the frustration of not having something work.

One question. For those who do have it working, have you come across any issues with broadcast flag settings preventing recording or even viewing within SageTV? Or does this device completely ignore broadcast flag settings?

Anxious to try one of these things out.

Chris

[dvsing]

The HD-PVR will record any content from any component source. Component is totally analog and there is no concept of a "broadcast flag" on the component outputs. The HD-PVR takes advantage of the last HD "analog hole". As far as I can tell component video signals are going to be available for the foreseeable future - there's quite a camp of people out there that prefer component over HDMI (and vice versa of course)... enough to prevent the copyright freaks from wiping component off the face of the earth (For now at least!).

So I have a question for all of you out there with "working" HD-PVRs: I had two HD-PVRs and had to send a clearly defective one back for RMA, but even on the one that works, I notice that perhaps once every two or three days I try to use it and find that its "dead" to SageTV - trying to view capture from it results in "no signal" errors (just like the quick-failing "bad" HD-PVRs with the heat issue). Toggling the power off/on using the front button restores operation and it works fine.

Has anyone else seen this issue where their HD-PVR may work fine for days and then suddenly become unresponsive requiring a power cycle? I'm curious as to whether this might be a driver problem that everyone is experiencing or if I have a "bad" box that is just not as bad as the one I sent back =)

Thanks,
Dan

[padre]

Originally Posted by cpainter

I was thinking about purchasing one of these units to work with SageTV, but it sounds like I should hold off until Hauppauge gets some of these issues worked out. Would rather wait than deal with the frustration of not having something work.

One question. For those who do have it working, have you come across any issues with broadcast flag settings preventing recording or even viewing within SageTV? Or does this device completely ignore broadcast flag settings?

Anxious to try one of these things out.

Chris

I would hold off buying one until they get stable. I have one of the first ones shipped, but luckily, I haven't had any problems with the unit (heat, power or freezing). But because of the number of defective systems, and the lack of 5.1 audio drivers, I'm holding off buying a 2nd unit.

[B-Figgy]

Originally Posted by dvsing

Has anyone else seen this issue where their HD-PVR may work fine for days and then suddenly become unresponsive requiring a power cycle? I'm curious as to whether this might be a driver problem that everyone is experiencing or if I have a "bad" box that is just not as bad as the one I sent back =)

Thanks,
Dan

Actually I have and it's really bugging me that my unit isn't obviously defective. A failure every ten minutes is one thing but I've only had it happen a couple of times over the past two weeks. Is my box still defective or is this part of those early adopter pains we've been expecting which will be solved with a driver or firmware fix?

[cpainter]

Originally Posted by dvsing

The HD-PVR will record any content from any component source. Component is totally analog and there is no concept of a "broadcast flag" on the component outputs. The HD-PVR takes advantage of the last HD "analog hole". As far as I can tell component video signals are going to be available for the foreseeable future - there's quite a camp of people out there that prefer component over HDMI (and vice versa of course)... enough to prevent the copyright freaks from wiping component off the face of the earth (For now at least!).

Actually, I thought there was such thing as copy protection for even analog. When I was in Japan we had something called CPRM. I guess for cable in the US, they are not bothering with any protection since most people still use component; even though I am sure the content holders would love to get rid of it. Look at a lot of the newer products coming out, like the Vudu box, it will not output HD over the component output, only up to 480p. I experienced the same sort of issue with some other products as well. Lets just hope that things stay the way they are for some time to come.

-Chris

[karpodiem]

I'm just hoping all the quirks get worked out before college football season starts in late August/early September.

[stroths]

Mine felt pretty hot, so I did my own fix to cool it down. I took it apart and popped off the gray rectangular top section. However, I left the clear plastic rectangle it was mounted to in the HD-PVR. This left a 2 or 3 inch rectangular hole at the very top of the unit. I hot glued a very quiet Yate Loon 120mm PC fan on the underside of that hole which forces air in and keeps it cool. I replaced the top gray piece with a piece of black screening to keep out a little dust and keep things from poking the fan.

I powered the fan externally with 5v dc plug I had laying around from an old USB hub.

Now everything runs very cool. I used hot glue so I could easily reverse this if I need to send it in for warranty. Unless you look at the top of it or the very back where I have the wires coming out, you can't tell its not stock. The fan is very quiet too. I ran it f 1.5 hours and it was very cool.

When taking apart, I noticed that this thing has no holes for ventilation. The air that my fan is forcing in is blowing out the spaces around the connectors in the back. If I wasn't worried about the warranty, I would have cut some slits or holes in the side to allow the air to escape that way.

EDIT: Here's a pic

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...hs/HDPVR-1.jpg

[tbatzel]

Originally Posted by dvsing

Has anyone else seen this issue where their HD-PVR may work fine for days and then suddenly become unresponsive requiring a power cycle?

Same problem as you. Similar temporary fix. One out of 10 restarts lets it work for a few days, then it goes back to the No Signal message.

[timnelsonic]

Originally Posted by dvsing

Has anyone else seen this issue where their HD-PVR may work fine for days and then suddenly become unresponsive requiring a power cycle? I'm curious as to whether this might be a driver problem that everyone is experiencing or if I have a "bad" box that is just not as bad as the one I sent back =)

I have not experienced this yet and mine has been running for a couple of weeks now. It gets quite a bit of use, but it's not under constant load, which might make a difference.

[dvsing]

Originally Posted by timnelsonic

I have not experienced this yet and mine has been running for a couple of weeks now. It gets quite a bit of use, but it's not under constant load, which might make a difference.

ok. I've tried a couple things to try and improve stability. I discovered a few days ago that the USB hub I was using might be causing the problems, so I am now connecting the HD-PVR directly into the PC in order to try and rule-out a problem with the hub.

-Dan

[foolio]

Originally Posted by tbatzel

Same problem as you. Similar temporary fix. One out of 10 restarts lets it work for a few days, then it goes back to the No Signal message.

I have this issue as well. I'm not sure whether it's related to the heat issue. I'm thinking of RMA the thing. i plug my device into my computer's USB rather than a HUB.

[ben_95sl1]

Waited 2 weeks to get mine, arrived past Friday, tested it for 2 hrs, then put it back in the box (12 min of rec is all it'll do). Yippee, getting RMA # now. I had already lowered my expectations and didn't even bother getting a HD cable/sat box.

I will warn anyone with a pvr-150 retail with blaster/remote: installing the HD-PVR drivers, and not even the blaster sw, completely disabled the PVR-150 blaster/remote on my sage server...and even after uninstalling the HD-PVR and driver, still broken (tried registry tricks, no luck). Had to Clear ALL hauppauge drivers and reinstall the PVR-150 all over again just to get the system functioning: USB-UIRT is ordered.

Ben

[B-Figgy]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

I will warn anyone with a pvr-150 retail with blaster/remote: installing the HD-PVR drivers, and not even the blaster sw, completely disabled the PVR-150 blaster/remote on my sage server...and even after uninstalling the HD-PVR and driver, still broken (tried registry tricks, no luck). Had to Clear ALL hauppauge drivers and reinstall the PVR-150 all over again just to get the system functioning: USB-UIRT is ordered.

I had the exact same problem with my 150 as well and my solution was also the same. John Rhees and Hauppauge are in cahoots I tell you!

[dvsing]

I finally managed to get the following statement out of a Hauppauge support rep regarding the problem. Turns out it *is* a heat related unit as some of us suspected, and the fix is as I suspected: heat sink/fan =)

Here's what he said:

Not sure when (or if) an "official" statement will be released but I can
give you the following information regarding the units. According to
engineering some of the Ambarella chips do require a higher voltage. The
higher voltage of course creates more heat. To combat this new and reworked
units will have a heat sink on the Ambarella and a fan in the case that will
turn on when the unit is streaming video to the PC (either in preview or
recording - pass thru will not turn on the fan). This issue does not affect
all units but any unit shipping from here on out will have the mods done.
This has been tested on several units known to lock up (mainly customer
returns) so engineering is confident in this fix.

[jakep_82]

My replacement unit is finally shipping today (they received my defective unit Thursday morning). I'll peek inside the new one when I receive it to see if they installed a heatsink/fan.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by jakep_82

My replacement unit is finally shipping today (they received my defective unit Thursday morning). I'll peek inside the new one when I receive it to see if they installed a heatsink/fan.

Just got off the phone with them, mine is shipping today too. I will get mine Thursday!! Finally, I will be able to record me some Component HD!!!

[B-Figgy]

Originally Posted by jakep_82

My replacement unit is finally shipping today (they received my defective unit Thursday morning). I'll peek inside the new one when I receive it to see if they installed a heatsink/fan.

Please do. I'm not worried about having to actively cool this thing but I am worried about their solution being too noisy. As a silent PC enthusiast I have standards, y'know?

[mchias13]

count me in on the list of RMA's being returned to me today. will post outcome when i receive my unit back, hopefully by thurs or fri.

[dvsing]

mine is due in Thursday as well =)

*patiently waits*

As soon as it comes in, I'm going to send the other box back in to be retrofitted even though it seems to misbehave at least *less* than the problem box.

[MeInMaui]

I got my replacement HD PVR a week ago and it has been going strong ever since. It is now my primary encoder. I'll definitely be placing an order for a second one as soon as they are available again.

BTW, I'm recording using the Great quality setting, which yields about 4GB/hr. SD looks noticeably better than my other tuners ever did and HD is simply amazing.

Aloha,
Mike