HD-PVR Setup Stories

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by Brent

I can get some video playback on my single core PC, but it's very choppy and doesn't really work well. On my dual-core everything works fine.

I would NOT recommend running HD-PVR playback on a single core based on my experience and what I've read from others. It's worth it to upgrade the CPU or buy an HD extender from SageTV.

Ok. Thanks! I guess it's time for some hardware upgrades for me.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by Steve52

Just wondered if anyone has gotten the HD PVR to work correctly with a single core processor (AMD 3700+ or less)?

I don't have the HD-PVR hooked up yet, so I don't have the Arcsoft decoder to be able to play it back in Sage, but I downloaded the trial of the Arcsoft software and can play downloaded HD-PVR clips back just fine in it with my 3500+/8500gt combo. I'm getting Dish hooked up Friday, so I can let you know more than about it's performance in Sage when I hook up the PVR.

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by popechild

I don't have the HD-PVR hooked up yet, so I don't have the Arcsoft decoder to be able to play it back in Sage, but I downloaded the trial of the Arcsoft software and can play downloaded HD-PVR clips back just fine in it with my 3500+/8500gt combo. I'm getting Dish hooked up Friday, so I can let you know more than about it's performance in Sage when I hook up the PVR.

Great! Just let us know. There may be others interested as well, especially as the HD PVR becomes more available and the software and drivers become more mature. I have one client that I can easily (and cheaply) upgrade to a duel core, but my main client has a socket 939 motherboard in it so I may need to upgrade the motherboard if a single core AMD 3700+ will not work.

[Shield]

Well I'm getting black screens on my unit quite often now. I'm afraid mine is overheating or something, which is hard to believe considering it's in my cool (66 degree) basement.

Sigh.

[davin]

Originally Posted by popechild

I don't have the HD-PVR hooked up yet, so I don't have the Arcsoft decoder to be able to play it back in Sage, but I downloaded the trial of the Arcsoft software and can play downloaded HD-PVR clips back just fine in it with my 3500+/8500gt combo. I'm getting Dish hooked up Friday, so I can let you know more than about it's performance in Sage when I hook up the PVR.

Are you playing these clips back in the Arcsoft softwre or in SageTV? Be careful... clips play back perfectly for me in the Arcsoft software and in windows media player, but not in sage. Jerky motion and poor deinterlacing (scrolling tickers look "feathered"). If you have the arcsoft software, you should also have the decoders, so you can try it out in sage.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by davin

Are you playing these clips back in the Arcsoft softwre or in SageTV? Be careful... clips play back perfectly for me in the Arcsoft software and in windows media player, but not in sage. Jerky motion and poor deinterlacing (scrolling tickers look "feathered"). If you have the arcsoft software, you should also have the decoders, so you can try it out in sage.

For some reason, the trial software isn't giving me what I need to playback audio in Sage, so these are through theArcsoft software. that's why I said I'd check back in when I get the PVR installed, so I can comment on it's playability within Sage at that point.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by popechild

For some reason, the trial software isn't giving me what I need to playback audio in Sage, so these are through theArcsoft software. that's why I said I'd check back in when I get the PVR installed, so I can comment on it's playability within Sage at that point.

I don't think the trial software includes the required codec for HD-PVR playback... Which would be why that's not working for you.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by Brent

Totally understand that situation. My wife grabs control of the Media Center and no more "playing" with the server for me....


No it doesn't sound familiar. Is that happening with any tuners or just the HD-PVR? Wondering if it has something to do with the IR blaster somehow.


It is extreme, and its an issue with Hauppauge for sure. I had actually forgotten about that step as its been a while now. What is happening is the HD-PVR driver seems to "take over" any other Hauppauge drivers in your setup including your other Hauppauge cards. I can't remember if that was due to the IR blaster or the actual tuner drivers themselves. Regardless I think its okay that you did that.
Just be sure you reinstalled the ArcSoft Total Media Extreme software on the computer (or any computer) being used for playback. Then add that line in the Sage.properties (or SageClient.properties for the client PC if using server mode) and report back.

Just curious, were you able to get video from the ArcSoft TME software at all or did you only try through SageTV?

OK, the saga continues.
The IR blaster is working...still. whew!
Now, I shut down Sage, stopped the SageTV service, and went to add the h264 line to the Sage.properties file, as well as the sageclient.properties files as I'm not sure which one it uses when running the service. I guess another question I have is should I be running the service at all? This machnie always has SageTV up on it and I'm connecting a client to it every now and then.
Anyway, those lines were already in the properties files...both of the files had that exact line.
I then removed the Catalyst drivers from my system, installed the latest (8.7)
I had recorded a HD TV show earlier using the HDPVR, so I opened it in Total Media Theater and it was beautiful! No jerkiness, just wonderful HD.
I went into the advanced settings, confirmed that the Arcsoft decoder was being used for video and audio, I was in Overlay mode, Full Screen exclusion was off. (I tried it with it on and no love.)
Went in to watch live ESPNHD, and it was jerky as hell. Channel changing did not bring SageTV to a screeching halt this time, so I guess that's an improvement. It changed channels, taking literally 5 seconds to do so, but it changed, and was still jerky as anything.
I tried looking at the recording that looked wonderful in TMT, and in Sage, it ws jerky as anything again.
I disabled Quiet n Cool features in my BIOS (saw a posting somewhere about that.) and that did not do anything.
When messing around with the TMT settings, enabling Hardware Acceleration in there makes things worse. If I select Use Hardware Accelleration there, and then go into Sage, it locks up completely when trying to view an HD recording.
My HDHomeRun recordings are pristine. They look great.
I watched CPU usage whgen viewing live TV off of the HDPVR and this is really weird. It spikes when launching an HD channel, but then settles down to its jerkiness, the CPU usage never goes above 30% on either CPU.

Ideas?

[Shield]

CPU specs?

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by Shield

CPU specs?

Sorry 'bout that!
AMD x2 4600
ATI HD2600 XT
2 GB RAM
Component-out at 1080i

[Brent]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

OK, the saga continues.
The IR blaster is working...still. whew!
Now, I shut down Sage, stopped the SageTV service, and went to add the h264 line to the Sage.properties file, as well as the sageclient.properties files as I'm not sure which one it uses when running the service. I guess another question I have is should I be running the service at all? This machnie always has SageTV up on it and I'm connecting a client to it every now and then.

I run as a service - it shouldn't be causing this problem.

............and it was jerky as hell. Channel changing did not bring SageTV to a screeching halt this time, so I guess that's an improvement. It changed channels, taking literally 5 seconds to do so, but it changed, and was still jerky as anything.
I tried looking at the recording that looked wonderful in TMT, and in Sage, it ws jerky as anything again..........

Ideas?

Okay so it doesn't sound like an issue with the HD-PVR. It has to be something with SageTV here...

Are these 1080 channels or something else?
Are you using the latest SageTV beta?

I'm struggling to figure out what to tell you to try next... I remember earlier today or yesterday seeing someone from SageTV telling another person having a similar issue with HD-PVR playback to put a certain .ax file in their windows directory but can't find that post for the life of me. I'll search around and see what I can find.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

Sorry 'bout that!
AMD x2 4600
ATI HD2600 XT
2 GB RAM
Component-out at 1080i

I posted a very long-winded thread that contains my exact setup here in the Hardware area. You should be just fine hardware wise; check out my setup and let me know if you have any questions.
Hope this helps!
Shawn

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by Brent

I run as a service - it shouldn't be causing this problem.

Okay so it doesn't sound like an issue with the HD-PVR. It has to be something with SageTV here...

Are these 1080 channels or something else?
Are you using the latest SageTV beta?

I'm struggling to figure out what to tell you to try next... I remember earlier today or yesterday seeing someone from SageTV telling another person having a similar issue with HD-PVR playback to put a certain .ax file in their windows directory but can't find that post for the life of me. I'll search around and see what I can find.

You mean this one: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...highlight=h264

[Brent]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

You mean this one: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...highlight=h264

Yep, thats the one. You might try it (as those instructions say, back up first). And if that doesn't work I'd submit a trouble ticket with SageTV for good measure as well.

[sorrowstyr]

Story Time and Looking for advise:

After reading all the excitement on the Sage forums about the coveted HD PVR 1212, and how there was great success with the beta drivers, I picked one up this last weekend and installed it.
I have had the same woes as some of you in terms of losing the IR Blaster's connectivity. But doing the HWClear.exe and reinstall of all hauppage devices did the trick... I think ... (I lost the IR Blaster only once since). Thank you sleornard and the rest of you for posting the fix for this.

The image quality going from the my server to the STX-100 is GREAT !!! DEXTER IN HD =D. I am really impressed!!

Ahem, but there are ISSUES:

-- Slow tuning, like 30-40 seconds from channel select on the STX-100 to actual video & audio synced. (Using IR Blaster)
[ I have read up on this, and I could describe this as last 15 seconds being stuttering... any ideas how to resolve this??? Its annoying as .... chinese water torture ]

-- Audio is slightly off like 5ms slower than the video
[ Read a couple of threads, and heard there is a ticket submit, hopefully good news soon ]

-- Sometimes there are garbage lines at the top or bottom of the screen. Like white and black flickering.

Server:
AMD X2 4200+ / Win XP Pro / 2GB DDR Ram
1 TB SG Sata 2 x 250 GB SG IDE
Nvidia 6600 GTS using DVI => HDMI to my TV
Tuners:
PVR-150 /PVR-250 / HD PVR 1212
Clients: Media MVP / STX-100

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by sorrowstyr

I have had the same woes as some of you in terms of losing the IR Blaster's connectivity. But doing the HWClear.exe and reinstall of all hauppage devices did the trick... I think ... (I lost the IR Blaster only once since). Thank you sleornard and the rest of you for posting the fix for this.

Can you give some more details or link to a post that give a set of instructions on how to fix this? I think I am experiencing this problem.

Thanks,

[ghostlobster]

FINALLY! I think I've got it much more under control. Here's what I did:
OK, for anyone jumping in at this point, I was having some horrible stuttering problem with my new HDPVR. My hardware is:
AMD 4600 x2
ATI HD 2600xt
2 GB RAM
After going through every suggestion in this thread, and a few others, I got desperate this morning. I yanked the 2600 and just for the hell of it, slapped in a nVidia 8600GT (a POS $50 video card, but it works fine) just to see if we were looking at a video chip specific issue.
I saw the exact same behavior with the 8500GT as I did with the 2600XT. OK, that tells me that the video card is not in play here.
I uninstalled the ArcSoft decoder, installed CoreAVC, changed my Sage props to use CoreAVC and it got worse. OK, that jives with what others have said about the ArcSoft encoders being the best for this.
Went back to the ArcSoft encoders, went into my STB's settings and changed the output resolution to 720p. Whoa!!! THAT WORKED! The PC still has the 8500GT card in there...the inferior 8500GT card, and ESPN HD is gorgeous! The crawl along the bottom is smooth a silk, the colors pop and everything just plain works. My TV does not support 720p, so I've got my desktop resolution set to 1080i, so I really don't care too much about having the source at 720p.
So...at some point, I'm going to slap my 2600XT back in there, but right now, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I do have one question, though. My SD channels are nbot as smooth as I would expect through the HDPVR. Granted, I am not planning on using it too much for SD, but the NHL network is only available on the cable box. I've completely disabled 480i output on my cable box, so everything is coming out at 720p. Any ideas why SD shannels would suck like that?

[sorrowstyr]

Can you give some more details or link to a post that give a set of instructions on how to fix this? I think I am experiencing this problem.

On the HDPVR cd is an app called HWCLEAR.EXE . It will remove all Hauppage related software and drivers. Run this, and reboot your machine. Do not install the drivers for anything when your machine comes back up. Off the HDPVR cd run the setup.exe, and setup drivers and software. Now you your HDPVR and IR Blaster should work. (make sure) After you have tested that you can go ahead and reinstall your other Hauppage devices.

Have Fun !

[phelme]

some rambling thoughts to add.

the HD-PVR installation disc includes the necessary audio decoders for the transport stream files the HD-PVR produces (I think it's AAC related). coincidentally, the HDHomeRun TMExtreme package contains audio decoders that work too. the trial package doesn't.

I would think the ATI 2600XT would work, I have an older 1600XT and it works great with ArcSoft decoders, even with 1080i recordings/1080i, VMR9 output. i have an ATI 2400 sitting on a regular PCI bus that can't cope at all, but I'm thinking it's more the slow bus than the chipset of the 2400.

I'd probably use a 720P source for recordings all the time myself since it's easier on the decoding side (i.e. no de-interlacing) if it wasn't for the 720P frame drop bug in the current HD-PVR drivers.

What I can't seem to get working is closed-captioning and ArcSoft. Anyone get that to work? I'm hoping for CyberLink compatibility in the future to fix that.

Right now it's clear that the SageTV MPEGDeMux filter (which one can't override) and the CyberLink filters just don't work together where HD-PVR files are concerned. I built a graph using the SageTV demux using CyberLink decoders and get the same choppy, halting experience as under Sage. Swap the SageTV demux filter for CyberLink (or even ArcSfot) and the files play great.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by phelme

Right now it's clear that the SageTV MPEGDeMux filter (which one can't override) and the CyberLink filters just don't work together where HD-PVR files are concerned. I built a graph using the SageTV demux using CyberLink decoders and get the same choppy, halting experience as under Sage. Swap the SageTV demux filter for CyberLink (or even ArcSfot) and the files play great.

How do you do that?