HD-PVR Setup Stories

[Clift]

Originally Posted by Shield

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?

One of the settings I messed around with that made things a little faster was going into my Cable box and setting output to only 1080i, disabling 720P, 480P wide, 480P Std, 480i wide and 480i Std. It seemed to make the captures "Start" sooner so that channel change speed increased as well, but that was only for a bit before my whole system took a dive.

[Polypro]

Well, I don't have an HDPVR yet, but I just downloaded and successfully played every HDPVR clip I could find. On Vista with an E6600, I set the properties files for H.264 and AAC to the Arcsoft decoders (I own TMT for Blu-ray). I then stuffed the 1080i clips in an import folder, and Sage played them fine. I was 50% on each core, so that is acceptable until Sage gets EVR working. So, I'd say if you at least have the hardware in my sig (maybe a little less), you should be fine. I may throw an E8500 in, just for a safety margin. Oh, and the quality is unbelievable...no way, unless you do a side by side, can I tell that there is any degradation.

P

[rubell]

I set up mine tonight with a Dish 211. After some struggles I got it all running. Major stumbling block was IR blasted so I used USB UIRT. That also didn't work until I put the repeat command in the file and it worked fine. Don't know why it's not a software config option but if you're having trouble make sure you look into that solution.

[jerryt]

Could someone tell me if the Satellite receiver (VIP211) is outputing video with Closed Captions, Does the HD PVR record the captions?

My HD PVR has not arrived yet, but I was hoping that it would record whatever was being displayed by the receiver.

[Naylia]

What is the minimum software that I need to install to get this up and running? Do I just need the drivers and Total Media Extreme (for H.264 decoder) from the CD? The rest looks pretty useless.

[Polypro]

I would think if you could get your hands on the .ax decoder files, you register them and be good to go. There is something to be said for getting it to work in the native app first though. Maybe install, copy the .ax files, and then uninstall?

C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\

ASAudio.ax & ASVid.ax

P

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Could someone tell me if the Satellite receiver (VIP211) is outputing video with Closed Captions, Does the HD PVR record the captions?

My HD PVR has not arrived yet, but I was hoping that it would record whatever was being displayed by the receiver.

Well my HD PVR arrived today, and Closed Captions outputed from the receiver are showing in Sage just fine.

Now, How do I fix the Stuttering?

[bcjenkins]

Force output of your receiver to 1080i.

B

[johnyc]

Hey should I set my cable box (DCT6200) to 720p or 1080i?
I haven't read enough about 720p vs. 1080i but isn't it better for sport/ motion recordings?
I'm recording the olympics and I want the best picture possible..
Thanks for any help

[sleonard]

Sports and action stuff tends to do better in progressive video so 720p is the better choice for that.

S

[johnyc]

apparently most of the HD channels sent to my box are sent as 1080i. I'm with Shaw Cable, in Vancouver BC. So setting the box to 720p is not a good idea?
No matter what I do, I can't get the apparent smoothness of 720p?

[TallMomof2]

If 720p works for you use that. I was having a lot of problems with 1080i but most were solved with 720p AND running the beta software.

[johnyc]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

If 720p works for you use that. I was having a lot of problems with 1080i but most were solved with 720p AND running the beta software.

what kinda probs did u have? I would think the setup listed in ur sig would be plenty fine..
I have no prob recording 720p or 1080i. I'm just wondering what I should be recording @ for best quality for the olymips. Apparently 720p is smoother. But my cable co sends the HD signals @ 1080i, so is there no point recording at 720p? In fact wouldn't it be worse recording a 1080i source to 720p?

[TallMomof2]

I had horrible stuttering no matter how I set up for 1080i. Even at 720p tickers aren't 100% smooth but aren't too annoying. I find that using the ArcSoft HD codec with Overlay and no hardware acceleration gives me the best results with SageTV.

Tried out BeyondTV and I could run either 1080i or 720p with no stuttering but I had terrible audio video sync on the HD channels. Even trying the Beta made no difference. SD channels are fine but HD is what I want.

[BigMac]

My question first, I've changed the values of brightness and contrast in both SageTV and in ArchSoft TME to change brightness and contrast to better match the HDPVR to my other HDHomeRun tuners but nothing seems to affect the picture.

-------

My general feelings on the HDPVR are positive. It's reliable and has not failed to record what I wanted when I wanted it. Changing the STB to 720P seemed to help smooth out the slight jerks in ticker tapes and strobing in vertical movement (not perfect but livable).

As for picture quality it's pretty good. I've calibrated my 50" plasma so that HD (clear QAM) content from the TV tuner looks the same as that thru SageTV or thru the STB connected via component. (I just need to tweak the brightness and contrast for the HDPVR to get closer to bliss)

I did notice the sound was a little lower thru the HDPVR and played with the AC3Filter and changed my Motorola DCT6200 audio setup to heavy compression to boost it's audio. But in the end I had to connect one of my (old) DJ mixing boards (Numark DM1650) to boost the audio.

My last (mystery) nit is that occasionally my SageClient (v6.4.6) loses focus, closes the window and disapears from the task bar only to be seen in the task manager as a process that has to be terminated to get it to launch again.

Bottom line: Good. If I could get some knobs (brightness and contrast) to work I would move toward happy. If I could get rock solid smooth play on 1080i that would move me to bliss.

Background: SageTV(v6.4.6) server running as a service. XP Pro, 1GB RAM, 2.40 GHz Pentium. 2 HDHomeRun units, 1 HDPVR and 4 Hauppauge analog tuners and 3Tbytes of storage.

The Sageclient was tested on dual boot Vista and XP running an Intel 2.66Ghz Quad Core and NVidia 8600GT. Picture was smoother but fuzzy on Vista so I stayed on XP.

[thenuma]

My hdpvr worked great, for 2 days, I had clients working, I had extender working, it was AWESOME, 720p worked badass. And then, inexplicably, it quit. It says no signal now on all channels no matter what. The arcsoft total media extreme is just blank, never shows anything. Is my hdpvr busted?

[gplasky]

Try rebooting the SageTV server but before doing that power off and power on the HD-PVR. Also look in the channel guide to see if you lost all the HD-PVR channels. That usually means Sage can't see the HD-PVR.

Gerry

[thenuma]

been there, done ALL that. rebooted a bunch, rebooted, power cycled hd-pvr, and all various permutations., etc, switch USB ports for the hd-pvr, blah blah blah. uninstalling sage on that machine now am gonna try the hd-pvr on another machine I have.

[thenuma]

OK an update, I ran the hwclear deal, resetup everything and amazingly the hdpvr works. For a minute, until it locks, ok, so I put an enormous fan on it, all the time, and it works, for 20minutes, starts flickering, locks up, and that's it. I gotta say this is the MOST frustrated I have EVER been at sage. I've contacted sage support, hopefully I can exchange this turd for one that works.

Oh yeah, when it locks the sequence to make it work is shutoff computer server (sageserver), unplug hdpvr, start server, stop service, plug hdpvr in, start service, and it works, for 20 minutes.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by thenuma

OK an update, I ran the hwclear deal, resetup everything and amazingly the hdpvr works. For a minute, until it locks, ok, so I put an enormous fan on it, all the time, and it works, for 20minutes, starts flickering, locks up, and that's it. I gotta say this is the MOST frustrated I have EVER been at sage. I've contacted sage support, hopefully I can exchange this turd for one that works.

Oh yeah, when it locks the sequence to make it work is shutoff computer server (sageserver), unplug hdpvr, start server, stop service, plug hdpvr in, start service, and it works, for 20 minutes.

Time to RMA.