HD-PVR SPDIF no longer working

[sdsean]

So yesterday I was having an issue where the sound was not getting picked up in recordings. Basically one of my audio cables from an STB had come unhooked (no idea why).

I took the opportunity to unhook everything clean up my pc and stbs and hd-pvrs from dust etc. This also allowed me to re-organize so that I could
get to the backs of all the hardware easier.

When I hooked everything back up, I have both the analog RCA audio and the optical / SPDIF audio attached to my HD-PVRs.

Then in SageTV (because I rewired everything), I removed all my HD-PVR tuners, and re-added them.

At this point when re-adding, if I selected SPDIF, the preview would never work and the HD-PVRs basically acted as if they are non-functional (which I know is of course not the case).

So I switched them to use just analog audio and everything is working fine.

I also took the opportunity to test 5.1/SPDIF audio in Arcsoft Total Media Extreme, just to see if it was working there (after shutting down Sage and the service of course).

Sure enough 5.1 seemed to work (although the audio level seemed low).

Any thoughts? Could something be wrong with the AC3 decoder Sage is using? Other ideas I could test / try?

I should note that I'm using 3 DirecTV stbs all serial tuned, 2 of which are H21-100s and 1 is an H21-200. All of them have optical and/or coax digital audio out, as well as component and rca/analog audio out.

[dstanley]

Sean,
As far as I know - you CANNOT have both the analog and digital connectors hooked up or the digital will not work!
Remove the Analog sound connectors and just have the SPDIF hooked up - reset the power on the box and try it again!?

Dwight

[waynedunham]

Also check to be sure you have the Spdif plugged into the *IN* and not the "OUT* on the HD-PVR.
I made that mistake when I was moving things around and the HD-PVR exhibited similar DOA symptoms to the ones you describe until I put the SPDIF into the correct port on the HD-PVR. Of course checking the SPDIF port was about the 87th thing I tried.

I have never tried having both the RCA's and SPDIF plugged in at the same time so that might also be something to check. You already know from past experience that those work so I'd just unplug the RCA's while you troubleshoot the SPDIF.

[sdsean]

thats odd i always have had both sets plugged in in the past without issue but its certainly easy enough for me to just use the one so ill try that

and yeah i definitely have them plugged into "in" but indeed i have made that mistake before :-)

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by sdsean

thats odd i always have had both sets plugged in in the past without issue but its certainly easy enough for me to just use the one so ill try that

and yeah i definitely have them plugged into "in" but indeed i have made that mistake before :-)

I've never tried having both hooked up, but maybe it is a one way thing. Both plugged in is fine as long as you have the RCA's selected, but not if you try to use SPDIF?

[Clift]

I had a hard lock up witht he HD PVR once and I was reccomended by Hauppuage to choose a completely different set of inputs in the TME software. In my case I selected the RCA inputs (front) and that got it going again. You might try that.

[sdsean]

yeah ill try both. . .heading out for vacation this week so it will have to wait till i get back

[Evil_Attorney]

Originally Posted by sdsean

thats odd i always have had both sets plugged in in the past without issue but its certainly easy enough for me to just use the one so ill try that

and yeah i definitely have them plugged into "in" but indeed i have made that mistake before :-)

I have always had both analog and SPDIF plugged in and never had problems. Did you try skipping the preview and trying with SPDIF anyway? I find the preview to flaky sometimes and usually skip it to do a real test with the guide.