What are the best drivers for the Hauppage WinTV PVR 500 MCE

[perfessor101]

Hello,

I just did a reinstall of windows and sagetv 5 (up to 5.0.2 now) two weeks ago. Bare minimal software on the machine.

The system in this configuration did fairly well for quite a while and I think it was after a first tuesday of the month I started having audio errors cropping up in recordings (even when I switch to recording media files locally to the sage server).

The Sage Server system is an Abit An7 motherboard with 1 GB ram, a 2600XP+ processor and two Hauppage WinTV PVR 500MCE capture cards.

Recordings are to a Gentoo Linux Box with 5 x 250 GB drives in Raid-5. (Abit At7Max motherboard with 1 GB ram and a 2400XP+ processor) and I am in the process of switching everything to Gigabit cards and a Gigabit switch, just in case I may have been maxing out my bandwidth.

I reinstalled because I was having to run almost all my recordings through Videoredo Quick Stream Fix (so many it was easier to run them all through) so SageTV could play past audio errors that were creeping into the recordings. (SageTV would think it hit the end of the file when it hit the audio error and if I managed to skip past it SageTV would seem to randomly jump around the recording whenever I fast forwarded or rewound)

Now I've found that SageTV doesn't like the VideoRedo'd files and deletes them en mase the next day after the Quick Stream Fix.

Once again I am looking for smoothly working WinTV PVR 500 MCE drivers that play nice with Windows XP MCE 2005 and SageTV.

Any votes on which driver set is the least problematic?

Thanks for your time,

Bobby

[wbarber69]

I haven't really noticed any problems like that and I believe I have the latest drivers installed, if not the second to latest at least

[perfessor101]

I found where the mass deletions were comming from

Sat 6/3 4:48:41.124 VF GetFileDuration:\\thorpe\sagetv\JerseyGirl-8654709-0.mpg
Sat 6/3 4:48:41.126 Removing MediaFile because it failed verification:MediaFile[id=8719878 A[8654709,6553069,"Jersey Girl",25447@0603.03:00,120] host=an72 encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture #3 DVD Long Play \\thorpe\sagetv\JerseyGirl-8654709-0.mpg, Seg0[Sat 6/3 3:00:01.224-Wed 12/31 16:00:00.000]]
Sat 6/3 4:48:41.130 Deleted media segment file \\thorpe\sagetv\JerseyGirl-8654709-0.mpg dtime=4 len=11

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by perfessor101

I started having audio errors cropping up in recordings ...

... I reinstalled because I was having to run almost all my recordings through Videoredo Quick Stream Fix (so many it was easier to run them all through) so SageTV could play past audio errors that were creeping into the recordings.

... Any votes on which driver set is the least problematic?

Bobby,

Can't tell you which of the Hauppauge 150/500 drivers is the best, but you might want to check out this thread and see if this Registry Entry helps correct your future recordings timecode.

- Rich

[perfessor101]

"SageTV would think it hit the end of the file when it hits the audio error and if I managed to skip past it SageTV would seem to randomly jump around the recording whenever I fast forwarded or rewound"

This only happens in the files with the "hard" audio error. During the recording process something seems to be dropping in an audio error that only iTunes seems to be able to play past without intervention, all other media players stop (Winamp, Windows Media Player, PowerDVD, ATI Media Center) at the audio error thinking it's the end of the file, If I fast forward at just the right point I can skip past the 'hard' audio error, but then the jumps are seemingly random.

I will try these registry fixes ... but SageTV is deleting 90 percent of recordings within minutes of the file finishing and the rest before the next day hits.
On the driver issues I have gotten an email from Hauppage asking me to remove all drivers and install driver 23258 then using WinTV 2000 confirm why both of my WinTV 500 MCE cards are giving me fuzzy recordings on the second tuners of both cards.
I don't have a recording less than 14 days old. I started noticing recordings going missing around wednesday last week (4 days ago) since then the problem has accelerated and all recordings are being deleted by SageTV.
I went from having 625 GB's used to 125 GB's used. I've had these random deletions happen in the past but wasn't sure what program was doing it and it was much more prolific than I imagined. Now I know it appears to be SageTV:

Sat 6/3 14:05:05.150 NOTHING TO RECORD FOR NOW...
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.150 RootFile=\\thorpe\sagetv fstype=null fileLength=206737344
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.151 VF processing job null nPlayin=false
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.151 VF thread is now waiting for 0:00:00.000
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.364 Removing MediaFile because it failed verification:MediaFile[id=8724055 A[8654199,7655563,"Ray",25446@0603.11:15,165] host=an72 encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture #3 DVD Long Play \\thorpe\sagetv\Ray-8654199-0.mpg, Seg0[Sat 6/3 11:15:00.009-Sat 6/3 14:00:00.001]]
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.368 Deleted media segment file \\thorpe\sagetv\Ray-8654199-0.mpg dtime=4 len=11
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.371 Seeker clearing unwanted and partial files...
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.374 needFreeSize = 0.612 GB currFreeSize=681.412041216 GB
Sat 6/3 14:05:05.374 Seeker waiting for 47 mins.

The file finished recording at 2pm or 14:00 SageTV gave me 5 minutes and 5 seconds before it razed it. "Speed watching ignites on the scene." I Love SageTV ... I can't do SageTV Russian Roulette with my favorite recordings or TV shows and Movies though.

I formated the hard disk and did a complete reinstall from Windows XP 2005 MCE OEM on up installing on the bare minimum software on the SageTV server on May 19th , 2006. After numerous other issues that seemed to be windows XP related.


Thanks for your time,
Bobby

[perfessor101]

For the fuzzy/snowy tuners issue ...

I found the drivers from the http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/suppo...rt_pvr150.html page seem to work much much better than the drivers from the 500MCE page.
With the current 500MCE drivers half the tuners are snowy / fuzzy, but with the 150 drivers I only have one slightly snowy tuner.

now on to finding the source of the 'hard' audio error

Bobby

[perfessor101]

I guess I'll be uninstalling SageTV saving my wiz.bin and reinstalling.
What ever is wrong I only have 305 seconds to find out before SageTV (5.0.4) removes any recorded media file from the system.

Now my system has no files recorded after May 21st .... it keeps on going back further and further through my recordings ... removing files that have been ok for a few weeks now ...

Sun 6/4 3:20:04.308 Removing MediaFile because it failed verification:MediaFile[id=8792478 A[8770132,7514726,"Mean Girls",25447@0604.01:30,105] host=an72 encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture #2 DVD Standard Play \\thorpe\sagetv\MeanGirls-8770132-0.mpg, Seg0[Sun 6/4 1:30:00.032-Sun 6/4 3:15:00.097]]
Sun 6/4 3:20:04.330 Deleted media segment file \\thorpe\sagetv\MeanGirls-8770132-0.mpg dtime=22 len=11


Arrrggghhhhh .... I promise I'll stop my whining for a few months once I can watch a show again ... any show ....


Bobby

[Opus4]

Existing recoridngs are now getting detected as corrupt? You might want to download your hard drive manufacturer's drive testing utilities & see if there is a problem with the drive.

- Andy

[perfessor101]

All recordings past May 19th, 2006 are being detected as corrupt and the latest mass deletion started to happen last week on wednesday with more and more files being detected as invalid each day. Thursday I lost Wednesdays recordings, Friday I lost the recordings back further and by Sunday morning I have nothing staying on my drive past May19th except manual records.

Even files with no audio or video errors were being detected as invalid and deleted although they would play and scan ok until they were deleted. (305 seconds after playback stops the file deletes or if I'm not watching 305 seconds after it records.

I have found if I go through my Scheduled recordings list and mark them as a manual record SageTV does not seem to delete them (none as yet) and they play without error. I may have fixed the 'hard' audio error, but any favorites recordings are still being deleted whether recorded locally or to the samba share.

I have tried torture testing the samba share (nic and drives) but nothing I can through at it (500GB's of windows files videos and downloads from my main machine) would even cause it to stutter (I didn't compare all the files but some of the larger ones definately matched). (anyone know of some good gentoo harddisk and system burnin software)

Monday morning PST I will be uninstalling and deleting the SageTV directory and then trying a reinstall. Probably of the last version 4 rc or beta, because with version 4 it was only a periodic problem not chronic or I may just go through and mark my definate must watch favorites as manual record every other day if that continues to work.

It may as someone suggested elsewhere be a problem with the harddisks ... but I've never had 5 drives on two machines from three different batches become a problem at the same time. Can you say RMA nightmare?

I guess I'm gonna finally get spinrite just because the smart test long and short are reporting there are no problems (does anyone know of a good gentoo or linux utility for a complete bad block scan?)

Hey every one thanks for your time and sorry for my whining ...

Bobby

[SHS]

In your favorite profile for each show turn off Auto del

[perfessor101]

Sorry about that SageTV went back and deleted 90 % of recordings from the last 36 hours while I was making lunch (manual records and favorite recordings), just after I sent an email to tech support saying that I hadn't had any new deletions since Sunday afternoon, ooopppss.

I know it's a hacker and he's hacked my webcam so he can delete it all as soon as I leave the room.

Could it be a power supply? Could it be a hacker? Could it be a Virus? a Java Virus? Windows XP? Motherboard? Capture Cards? Drivers? I've tried new nics, new cables ... scanned drives, tried burnin testing, this week a new switch will be arriving.

I'm starting to scan the 4th of 5 drives with SpinRite on my Gentoo Linux Samba server and other than the boot drive having some seek errors the other drives appear in excellent condition. (now to prep and move SageTV to another system while I take the server down to SpinRite that)

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

[Opus4]

I don't remember if this was covered: you aren't editing the files in some program, are you?

- Andy

[perfessor101]

Many moons ago I would ShowAnalyzer them, confirm the cuts and then cut them in VideoRedo to save space on the hard disks using the InPlace file replacement method. Worked great except for the occasional glitch.

Then a few months ago the files started getting a 'hard' audio error in the recordings (would reset the timeline and all decoders / players except ITunes would think it was prematurely the end of file and stop).

I modified the script I was using to commercial cut so it would VideoRedo QuickStream Fix.

I stopped all editing and QuickStream Fixing except for the ocassional test on June 1st. I have tried testing the VRD QSF 4 or 5 times to see if it would help, it didn't SageTV would delete them 305 seconds after the QSF. If I watch it while it is recording (file open) it won't delete until I am done watching it (file closed) and 305 seconds have passed.

Since Sunday morning I didn't even have Dirmon2 (0.5.5.15) and ShowAnalyzer (0.7.4.242) running against the files. Which I restarted this morning.
I have since disabled (1 pm tuesday) even Dirmon2 and ShowAnalyzer (on a different machine).

I am not currently using the SageRecorder or SageClient.

I also realized I have not installed the ATI DVD decoders, the Hauppage mpeg decoders or PowerDVD, although Nero 7 Burning Rom is installed with all of it's
troublsome decoders. Maybe I don't have enough decoders installed (just SageTV).

Bobby

[perfessor101]

I reinstalled Windows XP 2005 MCE OEM June 10th and it would seem I haven't lost any great numbers of video files since then (none that I've noticed anyway).
I am still running the 150pvr drivers and the video quality has definately seemed better than what i was experiencing with the 500mce drivers.

Thanks for your time,
Bobby