HD PVR driver version 1.7.1.30059

[bikesquid]

Anybody have any experience with the 'current' version driver for the HD PVR? I tried the 1.6.whatever and it just made my life complicated... I'm back at the 1.5.7 which works fine but try to keep reasonably in step with the drivers.

[gdippel]

I have been using the latest driver since it came out. Works fine. BTW, I'm using SPDIF for 5.1 sound.

[Wirenut]

Me too. The latest driver plays nice with the Sage stuff. My HD200's play the stream fine, as well as the clients.

[Dargason]

The only thing about the new drivers is that you may have to adjust some stuff in the sage.properties to set the brightness and contrast properly.

[bikesquid]

Originally Posted by Dargason

The only thing about the new drivers is that you may have to adjust some stuff in the sage.properties to set the brightness and contrast properly.

Do you know those settings? I remember having to adjust that stuff with the previous version, but nobody at that time had it quite figured out and I couldn't get it sorted on my own either.... so I flushed and went back to the .5 version.

[Dargason]

The settings are in this thread:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...t=49290&page=2

In summary, you need to change

brightness = 128;
contrast = 64;
hue = 128;
saturation = 64;
sharpness = 128;

in 2 or three different locations within the file. If the value currently in the file is -1, you leave it alone, otherwise you put in the value from the table above. You can adjust the values for your tastes -- these are a good starting point.

The main problem people seem to have is that they forget to STOP THE SAGE SERVICE before editing the .properties file. If you don't do this, the changes won't 'stick'.

Hope that helps. Post back if you run into problems.

[bikesquid]

Originally Posted by Dargason

brightness = 128;
contrast = 64;
hue = 128;
saturation = 64;
sharpness = 128;

in 2 or three different locations within the file. If the value currently in the file is -1, you leave it alone, otherwise you put in the value from the table above. You can adjust the values for your tastes -- these are a good starting point.

Thx. I did that with the .6 version and it just didn't look quite right,... but I can't tell my contrast from my brightness and starting and stopping the entire service to make a small adjustment is way too fussy, wish there was a simple adjust while looking at the screen way of doing this.... you know like we used to do with a TV years and years ago....
updated the driver and looks good enough to me, the biggest bang for the buck was upping the recording quality to the full HD PVR capable... beyond sage's "best" setting... that was really noticable! Cheers.

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by bikesquid

T
updated the driver and looks good enough to me, the biggest bang for the buck was upping the recording quality to the full HD PVR capable... beyond sage's "best" setting... that was really noticable! Cheers.

I'm not aware of that. How do you up the recording quality? Are you saying the newest drivers do that automatically or is there someone one needs to go in the properties file of somewhere else?

Thanks much!

[bikesquid]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

I'm not aware of that. How do you up the recording quality? Are you saying the newest drivers do that automatically or is there someone one needs to go in the properties file of somewhere else?

Thanks much!

Closed down sagetv (and the SERVICE as well)
add this line to the sage.properties file in the mmc section (I did alphabetica order but suspect it doesn't matter):
mmc/python2_encoding/HDPVRMax=videobitrate\=13500000|vbr\=0|outputstreamtype\=1

start sagetv

goto setup/detailed setup/multimedia - clicked on record quality, chose the HDPVR, you'll see a new option called HDPVRMAX, at 6.9GB/HR. It's more gooder than the 5.x sage uses as the default 'best', noticeably clearer recordings.

See thread:http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...HD+PVR+quality

[Chriscic]

Thanks bikesquid!

I tested it out, and I can see via mediainfo as well that the bitrate is higher with the HDPVRmax setting. That's a good thing.

Have to say though I can't tell a lick of difference on my 120" screen when going back between the Best and HDPVR max recordings (few minutes of the same program).

Perhaps this is because I've only got my Dish boxes outputting 720p to begin with (because way back when my HDPVR's crashed it seemed like it might be more stable with those settings). Maybe I'll try bumping up to 1080i when I get the chance.

Can't believe I never knew this BTW...

[AJ Bertelson]

I applied the changes but now I have a green tint, especially the skin tones. Any ideas on how to rid the green?

[Dargason]

Originally Posted by AJ Bertelson

I applied the changes but now I have a green tint, especially the skin tones. Any ideas on how to rid the green?

Make sure your cables are secure. Other than that, start adjusting the 'hue' value until it looks like you want. Make sure to stop/restart the sage service if you want the value to stick.