Input required on PVR Card please!

[Advantus]

Hey Everyone.

Just bought a Hauppage 2250 yesterday and besides the hardware quirks with it the included Win 7.2 software leaves a lot to be desired.

I have Rogers cable in Brampton and I was looking for input on if this is a good card to keep and how it works with the Sage software which I am looking to buy.

PC runs XP 32bit SP3 with NO Media Centre, 4GB RAM. Ati Radeon 1650xt.
(PLanning on upgrading to an ATI 5770 in the spring).

Any and all input is appreciated. Thanks!

[KeithAbbott]

I think you'll find a lot of 2250 supporters on this forum. I have several of them, connected to cable for analog and ClearQAM stations. Although many cable companies are dropping support for both, and requiring a set-top box to access their channels. If your cable company were to head down that path, a 2250 would no longer work, and you would need to move to something along the lines of a HD-PVR, which connects to a cable box via component cables.

That all said, I love my 2250s, almost as much as I love my HDHomeRuns. It works very well with the SageTV software. Not sure what hardware quirks you are referring to, the only thing that comes to mind is the single TV coax input, although for me it is more of a benefit than a disadvantage.

[Advantus]

Thanks for the info on the 2250 as a good card that works well with Sage. I'm not sure what future plans Rogers has but hopefully it wont affect the card.

The hardware issues I am referring to is the not recognizing the card all the time and having to reseat the card or disconnecting all power from the PC then waiting to restart. I've checked a number of forums including Hauppage and the user reviews from Tigerdirect and it's an issue with some users.

I have an Asus M2N-E MB and I updated the onboard soundcard drivers and the video drivers for my ATI card and still have the issue more often than not.
I checked the Asus Support page and no BIOS updates relating to this issue so my next call will be to ASUS in the US to talk to the techs.

Also the remote hangs the system at times.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by Advantus

The hardware issues I am referring to is the not recognizing the card all the time and having to reseat the card or disconnecting all power from the PC then waiting to restart. I've checked a number of forums including Hauppage and the user reviews from Tigerdirect and it's an issue with some users.

Hmm, haven't run across this myself. Fortunately, it has not been an issue in my system. Then again, I have SageTV running on it's own server, so I don't really restart the computer very often, maybe once every several weeks.

Originally Posted by Advantus

Also the remote hangs the system at times.

Maybe consider getting an HD300 extender ($150), instead of using the Hauppauge remote? It's pretty sweet...

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Maybe consider getting an HD300 extender ($150), instead of using the Hauppauge remote? It's pretty sweet...

The time to do this would be when you buy the sagetv software, as they have a bundle deal of the $150 extender, plus the $80 software, for $200.

[Advantus]

Thanks for the info on the extender. Will look into it.

Was visiting my hardware guru today who has made my systems for the past 6 years and discussed the hardware issue with him and he feels that if there isn't an update for the Asus bios on their site that the issue likely is with Hauppage and to contact them first. Thinking back this is the first piece of hardware I've bought in years that didn't work right away.

If anyone could offer any advice for the initial scan settings for the card for Rogers would appreciate it.

[Advantus]

Well the hardware problems continue to plague me. I had to disconnect everything to change a fan that had stopped working and after 6 restart tries decided to leave it till the morning to try and reseat the card and get it somewhat working again.

Feeling more like its something dirt simple but can't put my finger on it.

[KeithAbbott]

Not that it should make a difference, but have you tried the 2250 plugged into each of the various PCIe (x1, x4, x16) slots on your motherboard? If it really is a problem with the card seating properly into the motherboard, maybe one of the other slot types would work.

Another thing that I would verify is that your power supply is sized appropriately, although I would think your hardware guru would have you covered there...

[Advantus]

After a few more tries I got it rocking in the same port.

I wasn't aware I could take a PCI x1 card and place it in another slot.

The other available slots are the full length PCI.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by Advantus

I wasn't aware I could take a PCI x1 card and place it in another slot.

The other available slots are the full length PCI.

PCI slots and PCIe slots are very different, and are not interchangable.

However, the variations of PCIe slots (x1, x4, x16) are upwardly compatible; an x1 card can also be used in an x4 or x16 slot, and an x4 card can be used in an x16 slot.

My motherboard has two x1 slots, and two x16 slots. I have a total of four 2250 cards for use in it, although I actually only have three of the cards installed. Combined with my HDHomeRun, that gives me plenty of available tuners.

Speaking of HDHomeRun, you can pick up a dual-tuner version at Newegg right now for under $100, and connect it to cable and get any ClearQAM stations. Since it connects to SageTV over ethernet, you could avoid the problems that you have been having with the 2250. Of course, if the analog cable channels are important to you, you would still need the 2250 to receive those channels, as the HDHomeRun is digital only.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Speaking of HDHomeRun, you can pick up a dual-tuner version at Newegg right now for under $100, and connect it to cable and get any ClearQAM stations.

Unfortunately Rogers cable does not deliver any channels unencrypted via QAM (unless you count music stations). In Canada the CRTC does not have any regulations regarding encryption so most of the major cable companies encrypt all channels.

Canadian cable companies also have no obligation to give you a CableCard, so none of them do, and they don't have to provide you with a box with a firewire port and there are no rules regarding 5C protection. However the HD Rogers cable boxes generally do have active firewire ports but you cannot reliable get video out of them. But channel changing works fine via firewire.

[dgbruce]

Advantus: You are running a 32-bit version of Windows XP with 4GB of memory. 32-bit versions of XP are known to have problems with hardware drivers when more than 3GB of memory is installed. Removing a stick of memory may be all that is needed to resolve your issues, and 2GB of memory is plenty for use with SageTV. (I run 3 x PVR500, 2 x HVR-2250 and 2 x Firewire recordings on a system with 2GB of memory with no issues at all).

[wayner]

Originally Posted by dgbruce

Advantus: You are running a 32-bit version of Windows XP with 4GB of memory. 32-bit versions of XP are known to have problems with hardware drivers when more than 3GB of memory is installed. Removing a stick of memory may be all that is needed to resolve your issues, and 2GB of memory is plenty for use with SageTV. (I run 3 x PVR500, 2 x HVR-2250 and 2 x Firewire recordings on a system with 2GB of memory with no issues at all).

This is very tue of older Hauppauge cards, I know as I had this problem with the PVR-150, but I don't believe it is true with the newer models like the 2250.