Lost an HD-PVR, have question on Colossus

[Beefcake550]

Hey all, rather than reading the mounds of info on these two, I'd like to know if anyone out there now is successfully running an HD-PVR with a Colossus in the same system. I remember reading bad things and good things about it.

I had 2 HD-PVRs (a C2 and F1 rev). The power supply on the C1 died a few months back and recently, the entire thing just doesn't want to work in SageTV, so I have declared it dead. The F1 rev is working great, but it's lonely and needs a companion.

I was thinking of getting a Colossus since they are cheaper. Also, I have DirecTV with no premium channels, so I am hoping I can use the HDMI setup to reduce cables, but using components+SPDIF is no trouble for me.

Any ideas/thoughts?

[twollman]

I have a Colossus and HD-PVR in the same system and haven't had any issues. I'm using component and standard RCA for sound since stereo is good enough for regular TV. I tried using optical but had sync issues which pissed the wife off. I haven't tried HDMI since component and RCA works so well. Not that it should matter, but I have Dish Network.

[Beefcake550]

Thanks for the info.

I am pretty much sold on getting a Colossus. I am also looking at upgrade paths for whenever SageTV becomes unusable (hopefully over a year from now). It looks like you can also use the HD-PVR and Colossus combo in WMC. That looks interesting if you consider that Ceton mentions a new WMC extender called Echo? and it works well.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

using components+SPDIF is no trouble for me.

HD PVR & colossus both on optical audio was horribly unstable for me. Moving the colossus to rca audio was mostly stable, but required a limited channel lineup on the colossus, defeating the purpose of having two tuners.

I'm on two HD PVRs now, both on optical audio w/ identical lineup, and 99% stability.

[Beefcake550]

Just curious, but how did the limited channel lineup have anything to do with the choice of audio inputs?

I plan on using the HDMI input of the Colossus from the HDMI output of my DirecTV box. I know about the HDCP on premium channels. Thankfully, I don't have any.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

Just curious, but how did the limited channel lineup have anything to do with the choice of audio inputs?

I plan on using the HDMI input of the Colossus from the HDMI output of my DirecTV box. I know about the HDCP on premium channels. Thankfully, I don't have any.

My colossus with directv and hdmi worked wonderfully. Never had any issues with it. In the beginning there were some bad recordings, but once I figured that out it has been solid since.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

Just curious, but how did the limited channel lineup have anything to do with the choice of audio inputs?

I plan on using the HDMI input of the Colossus from the HDMI output of my DirecTV box. I know about the HDCP on premium channels. Thankfully, I don't have any.

Time Warner has HDCP on for my 4250HDC on *every* channel. So HDMI wasn't an option unfortunately.

For anything I want to keep long term - mostly movies - I want those recorded with the AC3 5.1 stream. But the colossus couldn't handle it. I reported it several times to Hauppauge. Most likely just a driver incompatibility between the HD PVR and it, but never got fixed.