Successful SageTV Install on Via Epia System with Hauppauge 350

[gazer]

After a few years of accepting limitations of Sage & Hauppauge, and spurred by a power surge induced reinstall, I finally have SageTV and the Hauppauge 350 card working together on my Via Epia M10000-based system.

Here's a rundown of my past problems:
* SageTV v4.0 would not work (I was sticking with v2.2.8)
* Color bars when trying to use the UI over the 350's s-video out - v2.2.8 didn't have this problem until the power surge, and then it did...
* Complete Hauppauge remote failure after the power surge
* EOF crashes and other possibly-related instability annoyances.

The color bars and remote failure weren't a problem until this power surge (at least with SageTV v2.2.8), but it took some working to get rid of them with the reinstall.

So, here are my system specs (definitely a dedicated PVR box...):
* Via Epia M10000 with C3 Nehemiah Processor (1 GHz)
* 512MB Kingston Value RAM
* Hauppauge 350 Win-TV PVR PCI Card
* Win XP Pro SP2 (Build 2600)
* DirectX 9.0c
* Java v1.4.2_06 (version that is included w/ SageTV v4.1.3)
* SageTV v4.1.3.67
* RealVNC Server v4.0 (for not going blind and trying to do configuration while squinting at the TV).

I started with a fresh install of WinXP Pro SP2 (after re-formatting my system partition).

Via Drivers (http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/ma.../downloads.jsp):
* BIOS: v1.16
* 4in1 Driver: v4.43
* Audio: v3.40b
* LAN: v3.1 (Windows Update replaces this one)
* Integrated VGA: v6.14.1.6 **The most current WOULD NOT WORK with WinTV - this was off of the original VIA driver disk that came with the MB
* USB 2.0: v2.54

Hauppauge Drivers (http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=9027.0):
* WinTV PVR 250/350 v1.18.21.23257

Installtion Procedure:
* Install WinXP and all VIA Drivers. Run Windows Update until it stops upgrading stuff.
* Reboot
* Install WinTV Drivers and Applications (instructions per SHSPVR, but if you're doing a fresh install you don't need to worry about the hpwclear stuff - just update the driver from the Device Manager and choose the directory where you've dropped the drivers).
* Reboot
* Install newest version of DirectX (http://ww.microsoft.com/directx).
* Run dxdiag.exe to ensure that things are working correctly.
* ENSURE THAT WINTV works. Let it run for a while. Change channels. Change volume. If it's crashing on you (due to video drivers in my case), Sage will NOT work. Check out Hauppauge's "Primary" application - I have mine set to "Force Primary" but I don't really know if this matters.
* Install SageTV. I installed it first and then copied my old Wiz.bin and Wiz.bak in after confirming a successful install. Don't bother bringing over your old sage.properties file.
* Enable TV out and UI on the 350-PVR and REBOOT (per the SageTV manual). You'll get color bars instead of the UI if you don't reboot or if there are problems with your video driver.
* If you can, re-format your TV drives with 64K block size. A quick-format should do after moving off the files you'd like to keep.
* Drop a good version of Irremote.ini into your Windows directory. Keep a back-up of this as Hauppauge and Sage like to overwrite your perfectly tuned .ini file with crappy ones. My version works pretty well for maintaining focus on Sage and sending Sage to "sleep" with the Green Power button. (Attached as a text file).
* Run Hauppauge's "Restart IR" to use the updated Irremote.ini file.

SageTV Configuration
* Video Renderer: Overlay
* MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter: SageTV MPEG Video Decoder
* Audio Renderer: Default
* MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter: SageTV MPEG Audio Decoder
* Remote Control Configuration: None Selected or External Setup
* 3D Acceleration: Disabled
* TV Out for PVR-350: Enabled
* Enable UI on TV Out of PVR-350: Enabled
* Hardware Decoding Only: Enabled
* Screen Saver on Sleep: Disabled

This solved the color bar issue, which was my main deterrent from upgrading from v2.2.8 to v4.

I have not yet had an EOF system hang, even though I've been letting files go to the end. This system has only been up for a day though, so the jury is still out...

I don't know what happened with my remote (the power surge really messed things up), but it works fine now. The .ini file is crucial.

If you're having color bar or EOF issues, consider a complete system re-install using the above-referenced drivers. I'm not too confident with Hauppauge's hcwclear, as I think it still leaves things in the registry, and deleting things from the registry could be pretty painful. If you have an epia-based system, you're probably (hopefully) not running anything else on it anyway...

Best o' luck!
-gazer