HD-PVR -> Dead with a Blinking Blue Light

[stevech]

Someone needs to write a letter to the CEO of Hauppauge and inspire him to find the power supply source selection/QA dept.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by HuMan321

The above power supply did not have the correct tip. I went to Radio Shack and could not find and exact match so I ended up cutting the tip from the broken power supply and slicing it on the $5 Amazon PS. My HD-PVR is now working and recording as well as it ever was.

Congrats on getting it working again. I get mine has a bad power supply, but I couldn't find a compatible one anywhere, except for a $40 one at Radio Shack. So, I sent mine back to Hauppauge (they accepted my RMA after all).

On a somewhat related note (but mostly off topic), I'm curious what constitutes compatible. I have a little travel wifi router that I would like to use in Europe, but the included AC adapter doesn't accept 220v. The included AC adapter is 1w, 5v, 1.2A.

I found a dual voltage AC adapter online with a matching tip and matching polarity. But this one is 5v, 2.0A (and I don't know about the wattage, but I don't think that matters).

My understanding is that as long as you get an AC adapter with matching voltage and a higher amperage rating (but still somewhat close to the original), you're OK. So, I think the 5v 2.0A adapter should be an acceptable substitute. Do you think I'd have any problems with it?

[HuMan321]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Congrats on getting it working again. I get mine has a bad power supply, but I couldn't find a compatible one anywhere, except for a $40 one at Radio Shack. So, I sent mine back to Hauppauge (they accepted my RMA after all).

On a somewhat related note (but mostly off topic), I'm curious what constitutes compatible. I have a little travel wifi router that I would like to use in Europe, but the included AC adapter doesn't accept 220v. The included AC adapter is 1w, 5v, 1.2A.

I found a dual voltage AC adapter online with a matching tip and matching polarity. But this one is 5v, 2.0A (and I don't know about the wattage, but I don't think that matters).

My understanding is that as long as you get an AC adapter with matching voltage and a higher amperage rating (but still somewhat close to the original), you're OK. So, I think the 5v 2.0A adapter should be an acceptable substitute. Do you think I'd have any problems with it?

I am not an expert by any means, but I think you are good with a little higher power as long as output voltage, polarity and meeting the minimum wattage. In DC, wattage equals voltage times amperage

[Flash69]

Both of my HD-PVR power supplies died 2 weeks ago. I was on vacation so I didn't have a chance to figure out what was wrong.

1 box is out of warranty and the other is still in.

So what is the verdict on getting another power supply for out of warranty HD-PVRs? I need 1 and I guess a spare ASAP.

[stevech]

I have an HD-PVR. I may go find/buy a better one than came with the product. Better heat dissipation and more than 2A. Preventative measure.
These things are inexpensive vs. the hassle.
And a power supply failure does have a decent chance of damaging the HD-PVR.

(yes, a power supply at the same 5VDC but rated with more current capacity (more than 2A), would be prudent. FYI: Ohm's law, volts times amps = watts, so the 2A power supply is capable of 10W. Mentally compare the heat radiated by the whole of the HD-PVR vs. a 10W light bulb. One of could measure the actual current consumption of the HD-PVR while recording and see how close to 2A it is. If not close, then the power supply failures are simply poor design/QA.)

[LarryJ]

My Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR recently acted up. Symptoms were that the little blue led near the power push button would blink on and off. Recordings were distorted if you could get a recording at all. Sometimes the blue interior led light would flash briefly (pop!) followed by the orange led near the power push button flashing briefly just once. This sequence, blue flash, orange flash etc continued as long as the unit was plugged in.

Problem: Bad wall wart power supply. Mine showed 5 v when tested externally but was very warm to the touch. Apparently the 5v the wall wart was putting out was very dirty and not pure dc. I cabbaged together a substitute 5 v source from a PC power supply (short pins 16 & 17 to turn the PS on). That fixed the HDPVR temporarily. Then I ordered a nice linear regulated PS from Jameco that is rated for 4 Amps. I paid about $30 including shipping. Problem fixed hopefully!

Thanks for the post.

[davidstoll]

I also had a unit that was blinking (the blue light under the top/hood) every few seconds...very annoying, but eventually it stopped working. It was doing this blinking thing for a couple of weeks and it still worked, but stopped recently. My Windows computer would detect it (in the device manager), but the driver install and the tuner programs could not find it. My Mythbuntu machine would not show it as a /dev, so I thought it was dead.

I just happened to have another 5V 2A power supply, it fit, and happened to be the first one I picked up. Totally fixed the problem. I sent an email to Hauppauge to request a replacement.

[spacey]

After reading this thread, I bought a new power supply from the Hauppauge website (6v 1.6a) for the HD PVR2, then bought a new usb cable and still the flashing blue light. Uninstalled the software, and now the drivers won't install at all due to "cannot detect the device" error message.

The only thing that happened was that my gf moved the device and the cords came out from the back (or at least that's what she claims). Only had it for 2 months, so screenshot of the amazon receipt and emailed it to Hauppauge tech support, I have to pay the shipping there, and they pay to ship it back. Not too bad I guess since the thing costs $150.

I think the device is really fragile.



My Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gaming Edition Settings:

On the main screen, set the video quality to 14 mb/s and select constant bitrate (variable framerates may result in audio and video sync problems). Output format should be M2TS, because MP4 recordings on the Hauppauge can result in audio and video sync issues, especially if the video is longer than 30 minutes. Click the Advanced tab at the lower left of the screen, and under the Video Scaler tab, set input content to 960 30 fps, set the audio encoder to the highest kb/s possible, and set the audio decoder to AAC (not MPEG which is the default setting). If you have a input resolution of 1080i from U-Verse DVR, then keeping the video scaler settings at source/source will result in horizontal lines and video quality that is significantly lower than what you see on your television. If your input can be set to 1080p, then you can record in 720p, otherwise, these settings are the best quality you can get with this PVR.


After recording, use a program called Smart Cutter to edit out the commercials, don’t change any of the default settings. Just use control +O to add the video file after recording, and set new start and ending points, then click on “add batch” and “start batch”. This should only take about 1-2 minutes.

Then use the free program Handbrake to shrink the file down (a 2.5 gig 30 minute file can be shrunk to 300 MB with no loss of video quality). Keep the RF setting at 20, and even though the program states that the video setting “very slow” results in higher quality and smaller file sizes, use the “fast” setting and the video quality is the same. Sometimes the output format will switch to .M4V instead of .MP4, so check it each time because .M4V will not play on most DVD players.

[rickgode]

Just throwing this out there because I just had my power supply fail on my HD-PVR. The light was blue and I could hear a "screaching" sound coming from the fan I installed. This is power supply #2. I received a free power supply from Hauppauge after the first one failed, but this time I didn't use a power supply...

I cut the power supply wire right behind the brick that plugs into the wall. I then soldered bullet connectors and plugged these into the red/black plugs that power HD's/CD-Roms inside the computer. The red/black combo provides 5 volts.

Now instead of usb device not recognized (like it did before) it came on and works perfectly!

Ricky