HDPVR Glitches

[Diego Garcia]

Like a lot of people I run into frequent problems with my Hauppauge HDPVR under Sage. I generally have to unplug it and replug it at least once every four or five days to maintain its accessibility under Sage.

But recently I've noticed a different kind of glitchy behavior: the HDPVR will shut down recording, and then Sage will restart it, during a show. This usually happens four or five times during a recorded show, if it happens at all. You can tell where the glitches are because during playback the recording jumps ahead by 30 seconds or so.

Has anyone else seen this? I'm curious as to what might be causing it. Other than keeping up with Microsoft updates the only other software updates I've done on my Sage system involve DivX (which I ended up rolling back) and (possibly) Java.

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by Diego Garcia

Like a lot of people I run into frequent problems with my Hauppauge HDPVR under Sage. I generally have to unplug it and replug it at least once every four or five days to maintain its accessibility under Sage.

But recently I've noticed a different kind of glitchy behavior: the HDPVR will shut down recording, and then Sage will restart it, during a show. This usually happens four or five times during a recorded show, if it happens at all. You can tell where the glitches are because during playback the recording jumps ahead by 30 seconds or so.

Has anyone else seen this? I'm curious as to what might be causing it. Other than keeping up with Microsoft updates the only other software updates I've done on my Sage system involve DivX (which I ended up rolling back) and (possibly) Java.

This plagued me until I RMA'd my HDPVR and the new one has been much better. Here are just a few threads on the topic of the HDPVR and lockups/dropouts...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44927
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50616
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50398
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49985
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49878

[Diego Garcia]

The RMA route may be difficult since I've had the beast for almost a year now ...

[ThePaladinTech]

I had problems with mine till I gave up on the SPDIF or Optical and just use stereo. Since then I very rarely have a problem with it.

I am curious if others are in the same boat, or if:
1. I should try digital audio again
2. There is a minimum firmware that works

My HD-PVR is 2 or 3 years old (was purchased when they first came out, but despite the fact that I pre-ordered I didn't get one of the first run models.)

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

I had problems with mine till I gave up on the SPDIF or Optical and just use stereo. Since then I very rarely have a problem with it.

I am curious if others are in the same boat, or if:
1. I should try digital audio again
2. There is a minimum firmware that works

My HD-PVR is 2 or 3 years old (was purchased when they first came out, but despite the fact that I pre-ordered I didn't get one of the first run models.)

I've only had mine for about 5 weeks, but I have never had a problem with mine (knock on wood). Here is my setup:

• Unit is Rev E3 (according to sticker on the bottom).
• Running with the drivers that came on the CD (CD v2.4; Driver version 1.5.6.1)
• SageTV is at Version 6.6.2; running in Service Mode
• O/S is Windows 7, 64-bit
• Not using IR receiver or Blaster on HD-PVR
• Using USBUIRT as blaster. Using IR receiver on HVR-2250 card for remote.
• Not using SPDIF - just using Stereo RCA jacks.
• No modifications to the HD-PVR unit.
• HD-PVR, Cable Boxes, and Sage PC all plugged into a UPS, so never cycling power on the HD-PVR.
• Cable box is locked to 720p output (but also worked locked to 1080i output). STB doesn't appear to have a pass-through mode.

I have missed a couple of recordings because the USBUIRT tuned the wrong channel, and I had some trouble getting smooth playback at first until I got the decoders sorted out. But, the HDPVR itself has worked flawlessly (at least so far).

[darcilicious]

I have missed a couple of recordings because the USBUIRT tuned the wrong channel

Now that's interesting. I'm running SageTV v7, have only had a few "halt detected" messages but no actual recording lock-ups for weeks after getting all other USB devices off the system.

However, I'm using using the Hauppauge IR blaster and my remaining problem is the occassional wrong channel. SageTV support recommended the USBUIRT to solve that issue but I'm not going to plunk out another $50+ if it's not going to solve that problem. Much easier to put up with the occassional wrong recording...

[Tiki]

I can't say that the missed recordings were necessarily the fault of the USBUIRT. I had been using the USBUIRT successfully to control 2 SD cable boxes (Connected to PVR-150 cards) for some time (maybe 2 or 3 years). In fact it had probably been over a year since it tuned an incorrect channel. Then I upgraded one of by boxes to HD and bought an HD-PVR.

The new HD box uses the same remote codes as the old box (Motorola 6200 and Motorola 2500 series from Comcast). So at first I attached the IR emitter in the same place and used the same remote codes and it appeared to work at first, but then I missed several recordings over the next few days. Then, I tried adjusting the repeat count, and the delay between digits. It seemed to be working better, but I still missed several recordings over the next several days. Then I looked more closely at the cable box and determined that the IR Receiver on the HD box was not in the same location as it was on the SD box (one was to the right of the clock display, the other was to the right). I moved the emitter to the correct spot on the box, and things dramatically improved (I still missed one recording out of about 20 during the next week). Finally, I made one more attempt at tweaking the repeat count and delay between digits settings. I don't think I've missed a recording since then. It's been about 10 days and probably 20 or 30 recordings so far without a glitch.

Oh and in case it matters, when I say it tuned the wrong channel, I mean it either missed one of the digits or there was too long of a delay between digits. So, If I wanted to tune channel 201, it might tune 20, 21, 01, or 20 followed by 1.

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Now that's interesting. I'm running SageTV v7, have only had a few "halt detected" messages but no actual recording lock-ups for weeks after getting all other USB devices off the system.

However, I'm using using the Hauppauge IR blaster and my remaining problem is the occassional wrong channel. SageTV support recommended the USBUIRT to solve that issue but I'm not going to plunk out another $50+ if it's not going to solve that problem. Much easier to put up with the occassional wrong recording...

The IR blaster on the HDPVR was giving me fits so I switched to the USB-UIRT. I've only had one missed recording in the month+ that I have been running the USB-UIRT that was not my fault (if you are using the IR LEDs in the USB-UIRT to change channels make sure the unit is pointed AT the cable box lol) and I saw it happen. The whole system stuttered before the channel change was supposed to happen and hadn't caught up when the time rolled over and the USB-UIRT started blasting. I got channel 10 instead of 410 and ended up with an hour of Public Access. Not sure what happened to cause the stutter but I was "messing with" the computer at the time so I take full responsibility

All in all I think the USB-UIRT is the most solid way of changing channels on an external device after firewire/serial.

On another note, I think Darcilicous and I end up in just about every HDPVR thread on the board these days; maybe we should write a book and do a tour

[darcilicious]

LOL!

[wayner]

@Diego - what OS are you using? I was having similar problems for a while running Sage on WHS. I thought that my system drive was having problems so I reinstalled WHS to a new system drive. After a few months I started having problems again so now I have switched to XP. I have a theory that WHS may cause problems for some folks with Sage - but it is just a theory.

But I have never had to power cycle my HD-PVRs and I have had two of them running for a total of 44 months (24 months for one and 20 for the other).