HD-PVR Setup Stories

[phelme]

what's the longest anyone here has run their HD-PVR without having it fail?

I'm going out of town soon and am a bit apprehensive about leaving the HD-PVR in the recording loop without adult supervision. The (smog) Olympics are coming and my wife won't be happy if some events are not recorded.

So far mine has been running for 3 days without fail. That's after I removed it from a role as a network encoder and attached it directly to the server. Network encoding was never reliable for me for the HD-PVR as it would simply stop recording at random. The PVR-150 it replaced was solid as a rock in that configuration.

[bialio]

Mines never failed.

btl.

[killervette]

no failures here...maybe 2 weeks running straight

[bcjenkins]

I just came back from 10 days out

B

[Taddeusz]

I've had mine for two weeks and haven't had any problems.

[gplasky]

I've had mine running since the first shipment. No failures.


Gerry

[sic0048]

Well I FINALLY got my HD-PVR working correctly.

At first I thought the Hauppauge IR blaster wasn't working. Turns out it was, but the test menu on the SageTV video setup doesn't work properly. So I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what was wrong, when I really should have simply tried it out a few times.

Some things I have learned about the Hauppauge IR blaster setup that I will pass along (I realize this is all basic stuff, but there isn't really a good explaination anywhere yet). The easiest way to get it working is to open the Hauppauge IRCOnfg program. Find the correct STB (or at least the correct manufacturer). Press the "Test" button and the blaster will try to turn the box off. If it does, then you have the correct setup. If it does not, try pressing the "Test Next" button. This wil move the IR code up to the next possible box and try to power it off again. Keep doing this until your box turns off. Now the Hauppauge blaster is set correctly. Then follow the directions in Sage to point the IR settings to use the Hauppauge blaster and then select the file that corresponds to the STB you chose in the first step.

I finally got this working, but got a "No Signal" message whenever I tried to watch the HD-PVR either in Sage or in the Hauppauge software. I finally hit on the correct combination of removing the drivers, reinstalling them, and turning the HD-PVR unit off for a few seconds and restarting it. Honestly I don't know what made it work in the end, but it works now. So I am a happy camper. Now if I could just get those hours back that I wasted trying to set the thing up......

[IVB]

Originally Posted by phelme

what's the longest anyone here has run their HD-PVR without having it fail?

I had to reboot mine once since I turned it on (months ago, no idea when, but it's been a while)

[CanadianEh]

I've only had mine 'rebooted' twice, due to power outages that my UPS didn't have the juice to keep it all running long enough (approx 10 mins). I've had my HD-PVR since the first shipment as well.

[rgreenpc]

How long does it take to actually tune a channel and start to get video.

Somone on the TGB forums said something like 30 seconds, and that just seems way to long to be practical.

[IVB]

Originally Posted by rgreenpc

How long does it take to actually tune a channel and start to get video.

Somone on the TGB forums said something like 30 seconds, and that just seems way to long to be practical.

Nah, I don't watch live, but from what i've noticed in my recordings, it only takes perhaps a few seconds.

[killervette]

Originally Posted by rgreenpc

How long does it take to actually tune a channel and start to get video.

Somone on the TGB forums said something like 30 seconds, and that just seems way to long to be practical.

i use it for live tv everyday. about 2-3 seconds with firewire channel changing

[rgreenpc]

So then its comprable with Vista tuners.

[rgreenpc]

Originally Posted by killervette

i use it for live tv everyday. about 2-3 seconds with firewire channel changing

What is the channel change time with a Serial cable and the IR blaster?

[BigMac]

Well, I got mine Friday and spent many hours clearing and reloading drivers to no avail. All I got was a No Signal. The unit does work from Arcsoft and you can hear the fan spin up when you view the capture but can't get Sage to play nice with it.

Monday I'm going to wipe SageTV from the server and start a fresh install (just Sage and the drivers).

Two questions:
1. Is this unit supposed to be soooo warm. I have it placed all by itself with nothing around it and it's very warm to the touch (101 degress, rm temp 80).

2. When I went thru SageTV tuner setup, it only gave me a choice of S-Video and Composite. Where is the component choice.


BigMac

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by BigMac

1. Is this unit supposed to be soooo warm. I have it placed all by itself with nothing around it and it's very warm to the touch (101 degress, rm temp 80).

The thing runs hot; that's all over the forum.

2. When I went thru SageTV tuner setup, it only gave me a choice of S-Video and Composite. Where is the component choice.

That sounds like you aren't running the v6.4 beta and/or are not using the default STV (SageTV3.xml) as your interface. I see your sig lines mention v6.4, but you should double check things by going to the System Info screen -- easiest way is to use the Info command while on the Main Menu.

- Andy

[bcjenkins]

In the 6.4.7 beta things change very quickly with built in IR blaster.

B

[BigMac]

You're right Andy.

I went thru the motion of updating to 6.4.6 several days ago but just checked and it still says 6.3.5 on the server but 6.4.6 on the clients.

I'll do my plan B Monday and uninstall Sage on the server and do a fresh install to 6.4.6 and let you know if that works.


Walt

[Shield]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

In the 6.4.7 beta things change very quickly with built in IR blaster.

B

I noticed that too - I just upgraded to 6.4.7 as well.
However, it set the default quality back to 3.8 GB/hr. When I set it back to 5.9, it doesn't change the channel quite as fast.
Anyone else notice this?

[BigMac]

With the wife and Mother-in-Law watching synchronized diving I had a chance to re-visit my HDPVR setup.

As I noted before I somehow had 6.3.5 on the system so I just just ran the SageTV 6.4.6 setup and again and to my surprise SageTV still said 6.3.5.

I then got into XP's add/remove programs and saw 2 entries for SageTV. I removed both entries and then did a 6.4.6 setup. Add tuner had the expected component and with my test client I was able to see a minute of HD HBO (Transformers). The picture didn't hang or freeze. I had to stop because I was asked to come down and watch more Olympic synchronized diving.

The picture had a couple jerks at start up but settled down with an occasional studder. I''ll look at that (ever so slight) studder problem tomorrow.


walt