Roslyn users: Contrast/Brightness issues

[sleight42]

Let's hear what other people have experienced.

[sleight42]

<bump> So people see the poll

[sleight42]

No comments from folks voting? Not only does it keep the thread up higher but it would be nice to know precisely what sort of problems people are experiencing.

[cmaffia]

Auto-Brightness/ fuzzy picture/contrast problems.
I've messed with the registry with some positive results
I will post when I am 100% sure.

[cmaffia]

Go to my other thread and try this ppl.
Let me know if this fixes it for you

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=6190

[codecasting]

It basically looks like someone keeps randomly shaking a big piece of smoked glass in front of my projector lens. It's worse on some shows than others, and worse on some channels than others, but it's a major problem that makes the affected shows pretty much unwatchable.

Tech support has been unable to help. This has gotten so bad with my dual-Roslyn setup, along with the fact that I still occasionally lose audio completely even when using the newest drivers and version of sage, that I'm giving up on them.

Two request for an RMA over the past week though, and I've still received no response....

[sleight42]

That's about the best description of the symptoms that I've witnessed. That and terribly grainy pictures on some stations.

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by codecasting
It basically looks like someone keeps randomly shaking a big piece of smoked glass in front of my projector lens. It's worse on some shows than others, and worse on some channels than others, but it's a major problem that makes the affected shows pretty much unwatchable.

Tech support has been unable to help. This has gotten so bad with my dual-Roslyn setup, along with the fact that I still occasionally lose audio completely even when using the newest drivers and version of sage, that I'm giving up on them.

Two request for an RMA over the past week though, and I've still received no response....

Tech Support has ignored me as well...twice now...All I asked for was the status on new Roslyn drivers and asked when will http://sage.tv provide a support page specifically for Roslyn.
Why isn't there a Roslyn driver/related files link on their site yet?
It's kind of messed up that they sell this card but yet you have to beg for a support. If Frey Tech is that busy and short staffed... heck...give me an application for employment

[sleight42]

Granted that Frey supports it but, if you recall one of my earlier posts on a related topic, Hauppage (sp) is servicing the driver. Frey may be branding it "Roslyn" (and SnapStream as something else completely different) but it's Hauppage's product.

[codecasting]

True, but Sage is specifically telling people to contact them for support, specifically telling people NOT to contact Hauppage.

http://www.sage.tv/support.html

I purchased the bundle from Frey because I figured that if any configuration was bound to worrk correctly, it was they one they were selling as their own.

I've been in software development for over a decade, so I know what it's like when something unexpected happens after a product ships. Mistakes are acceptable, but in this case its the poor service after the sale that has soured me on the product.

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by sleight42
Granted that Frey supports it but, if you recall one of my earlier posts on a related topic, Hauppage (sp) is servicing the driver. Frey may be branding it "Roslyn" (and SnapStream as something else completely different) but it's Hauppage's product.

Hauppage does not support the card directly

[sleight42]

Originally posted by cmaffia
Hauppage does not support the card directly

I realize that. But Frey told me that Hauppage "is aware of the problem."

I'm not defending them. I'm as unhappy as everyone else here. For that matter, I agree that Frey hasn't been handling the Roslyn very well at all. As I posted somewhere else, when 7 of 9 folks say it doesn't work for them, it's a big hint that a product isn't ready to ship.

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by sleight42
I realize that. But Frey told me that Hauppage "is aware of the problem."

I'm not defending them. I'm as unhappy as everyone else here. For that matter, I agree that Frey hasn't been handling the Roslyn very well at all. As I posted somewhere else, when 7 of 9 folks say it doesn't work for them, it's a big hint that a product isn't ready to ship.

Gee...I am so glad that they told you to tell the rest of us! :-)

I know we aren't the only ones with these problems.
In the meantime I am using the old drivers that I outlined
in my other thread. Although I realize these old drivers don't help the multiple Roslyn users, it at least makes single card users
like myself happy till the driver issue is resolved

[JUC]

if hooked up by VGA--no problems what-so-ever.
If hooked up by S-Video to TV--its way too light and I need to adjust the TV options (contrast/color) way up to get it to a satisfactory lever. No washiness though.
juc

[justme]

For anyone who isn't aware of the other thread. Please see this post byt Dan Kardatzke. There are also some other values above this post that some users have had succes with, but I'd try Dan's suggestion first.

[BergoniaC]

I was told that the company comprises of 2 people, brothers. If that is true, there hands are buisness working on all their programs to fix bugs. Then they have to fix bugs on the roslyn drivers too. Its going to be a while people.

BTW I have the roslyn card with no problems. Luck I guess. But then again my TV was meant to have RGB/DVI plug right into it. Everything (Contrast, Brightness, etc) is automatical set.

[sleight42]

Berg, the TV monitor isn't the issue. The issue is that the Roslyn is doing crazy things to the contrast on the recorded stream itself. If your configuration was having issues, it wouldn't matter what type of television you were watching it on.

[justme]

So any feedback(regarding the registry setting) from those who have the brightness issue? The more feedback that is given the sooner a fix can be made to the drivers. Hauppauge obviously gave this info to Frey with the intention of getting user feedback. Without feedback on changes it will be almost impossible for Hauppauge to totally correct this issue in future drivers.

I remember back when I first bought my PVR250(type 15 with a black remote, that means it's old) retail, that I had to go thru 6 monthes of driver updates before I had a set that was acceptable to me. Note this was before Frey even sold SageTV, I was using Hauppuage's lowsy WinTV app. It was hell getting that card to work and without SHS's site I would've returned it and never made it to see this point. So if you want to see changes don't pass up testting any suggestions from Hauppauge. Also this isn't the first time Hauppauge has had driver issue for one of their cards(in other words I can symphatize with you Roslyn users as I was in similiar shoes(as a PVR250 user) almost 2 years ago).

BergoniaC,
Yes, Frey is basically a 2 brother company. But SnapStream(BTV) sells these same cards, they just call them PVR250BTV(which I find a little confusing considering that these cards aren't 250s). The point is that there are at least two companies selling these cards, so this should increase the pressure on Hauppauge to come out with newer/better drivers faster than if it was just Frey. In the past getting anything from Hauppauge was like pulling teeth. They(Hauppauge) basically used SHS's site as technical support/beta testers. Fortunately Frey(and I'm guessing BTV too) seems to be getting better info/feedback from Hauppauge than at any time in the past.

Also you may or may not notice the issue depending on your system's setup, as sleight42 points out. From what I've read the signal source may make a large difference. In other words this issue can make a hiden existing signal inperfection visable and can even make it horribly worse. Different signal conditions are the reasons PVR cards have circuits like this in the first place. It's just that in the case of the Roslyn, the drivers aren't properly setting up the circuit.

/justme

[mls]

Originally posted by justme
So any feedback(regarding the registry setting) from those who have the brightness issue? The more feedback that is given the sooner a fix can be made to the drivers. Hauppauge obviously gave this info to Frey with the intention of getting user feedback. Without feedback on changes it will be almost impossible for Hauppauge to totally correct this issue in future drivers.

Those using only Roslyn cards may be able to give feedback for that specific configuration much faster the those of us using a Roslyn combined with other cards. I would like to give better feedback faster myself, but unfortunately with my setup it will take a rather long time to give any accrurate feedback (you'll see why below).

Originally, I started out with a USB2. For the most part it worked ok, but had a few odd klinkers. There were a couple driver updates (over time) after the ones that came on the CD which did solve some problems, but I do still have an odd problem occasionally with the USB2 (I won't comment on that for now though).

Later, I got a PVR-250 (16). Can't say I actually had any prob with the original drivers supplied on the CD, but here again there were a couple newer upgrades for it (over time).

Added another 250 (with the last set of drivers from previous one I had already set up). In general, the pair of 250's were producing recordings almost identical to what I would see on my TV when directly connected to the cable system here.

The USB2 was VERY close to the 250's in that regard, but not quite exactly identical (I never bothered with trying to alter the brightness, contrast, etc. settings for it simply because it was so close).

Then I added a Roslyn, and EVERYTHING changed! Although the auto-brightness problem was not severe in my case, it was there though.

What bothered me was the Roslyn was producing an overall washed out looking picture compared to the almost perfect results I had been getting with the 250's.

Even worse, after installing the Roslyn drivers, it changed something (possible registry overlap somewhere) for the 250 and USB2 so that all were now producing washed out video.

After adding the registry change for the auto-brightness problem, that not only cured that problem, but also seems to have reduced the washed out effect somewhat. At least things were much closer in line where I might be able to alter the settings for each card under the color correction settings to get them all producing better images.

However, since there are large variations of video quality on any one channel depending on the network feed at the time, and since the channels on my cable system vary greatly in from one to another....

The only way I would actually be able to set up each card, or even tell the differences between them would be to try to set up recording a show that I know has the same network quality each time on the same channel (in otherwords, one I know is consistant).

To do that, I have to set the priority of one card high enough to record that show one day, then edit the properties file again to set another card as the highest, etc. until I actually have seperate recordings from all of them to compare.

As you can, that may take me weeks to do (especially if I try to alter any other video settings to make them all match up).

Plus, I've just got "to many other sticks in the fire" right now to mess with all of it at once. For now, all I can say is that the registry change has at least gotten everything closer to correct (and at least tolerable) for me, but was not an "all in one" complete solution with the other devices I have involved.

Situations (like mine) ARE what slows down progress for Hauppauge (or even Frey) to work on solutions, but they do need the most accurate feedback they can get... and that can take a long time to filter back thru.

Welp, this got way to long, but I think you see my point.

[mls]

Originally posted by justme
But SnapStream(BTV) sells these same cards, they just call them PVR250BTV(which I find a little confusing considering that these cards aren't 250s). The point is that there are at least two companies selling these cards, so this should increase the pressure on Hauppauge to come out with newer/better drivers faster than if it was just Frey.

Is anyone sure the SnapStream(BTV) PVR250BTV is the EXACT same card as Frey's Roslyn?

justme - Remember, we're both involved in another whole thread about variations in cards

I'm not about to say anything is EXACTLY the same, even for "supposedly" the same hardware from the same manufacturer... much less those floating around thru background distributors.

Of course, that adds even more to the confusion doesn't it?