Anyone using the Creative DVCR with 1.4.10?

[spectre]

I recently started using SageTV with my DVCR and I have a few questions:

I am having audio - sync problems with my recorded files. The recordings normally start out ok but steadily get worse - by about 45mins into a recoding, audio is usually off by 325msec. Live TV is fine and some of my recordings seem to be ok as well. At the moment I am using the DVD standard play quality option. These files were recorded out of sync so no changes I make to the video or audio decoding have any effect. This is a P4 2.4GHZ system with a dedicated 80GB video drive. Sage is the only application running.

Any ideas (besides switching to a Hauppauge card)?

What drivers are you guys using for the DVCR? - the Creative drivers or Demo's enhanced drivers?

Spectre

[Lester Jacobs]

The Creative DVCR card is problematic from an A/V sync standpoint. I have one of these cards, spent a ton of hours trying to get the sync working, then gave up and bought the Hauppauge PVR 250 which worked perfectly from the get go.

The sync problem stems from the fact that the Creative card only encodes video; SageTV has to do the audio encoding separately (the PVR 250 encodes both audio and video) which basically almost guarantees A/V sync issues. The reason that the native Creative app does not exhibit these sync problems is due to the fact that it is using some internal undocumented interfaces which Creative has decided not to make pulic. Hence SageTV has no guaranteed way to ensure A/V sync.

Your best bet? Save yourself a lot of troble and pick up a PVR 250.

Cheers
Lester

[jglev]

Originally posted by Lester Jacobs


Your best bet? Save yourself a lot of troble and pick up a PVR 250.

Cheers
Lester

I second that. I had the DVCR and the sync problem drove me crazy. I finally gave up and got the PVR-250. Not only is there no sync problem, but the quality of the video is in a different league compared to the DVCR.

Bite the bullet and get one. You will be very happy you did.

[spectre]

Thanks for the advice, but I know a Hauppauge will solve the problems. I just wanted to see if there was anyway I could salvage my DVCR card - I wanted to at least use it as a secondary recorder in the future.

I know there are a few DVCR users out there. I was just curious if any of them have been successful in their efforts with the latest version of Sage.

Thanks

Spectre

[Crazedz]

Originally posted by spectre
Thanks for the advice, but I know a Hauppauge will solve the problems. I just wanted to see if there was anyway I could salvage my DVCR card - I wanted to at least use it as a secondary recorder in the future.

I know there are a few DVCR users out there. I was just curious if any of them have been successful in their efforts with the latest version of Sage.

Thanks

Spectre

Nope even i gave up tonight after seeing my latest recording on the DVCR. I finally removed it from the sage list it's just not able to work well their and it's not that Narflex hasn't tried to get it fixed and keep it fixed. He has through several beta attempts but without knowing the device hooks for the card it's proven impossible. I know that's not what you want to hear but without at least some co-operation from creative it just isn't going to work. So i belive Narflex has given up on trying to at least for now so it's not going to get any better for now.

[jglev]

I think you will find that most (if not all) of us gave up on the DVCR and switched to the PVR-250.

[shodge]

Yep...

I have have the hacked _DEMO_ driver for 740x480 capture. But the audio capture with the DVCR card in Sage is a real problem. I think the biggest issue is CPU interrupts. Each time the CPU has to do something significant you loose a bit of sync. SageTV agrivates the problem by ALWAYS recording. The sound is re-synced on changing of channels so if SageTV does not change channels, it will get further and further our of sync. [Jeff has also done much work attempting to re-sync between programs and etc]

I have SageRecorder and have found that for 1/2 - 1hr it does pretty well. I use it for captureing and like it better than the Creative Software.

I too would love to be able to use this card as a second tuner card. However, after using a PVR-250 and seeing that it just simply works, I would like to see Jeff spend his time developing the product in future directions rather than trying to support a card without manufacture support...

just my 2 cents...

-Stan

[spectre]

Thanks for the info. I am planning on buying the Hauppauge 250 or 350. It is too bad Creative really dropped the ball on this one but it comes as no suprise to me. I actually worked for Creative Labs for 3 years in college!

Other than the sync issues I have had, I am very pleased with SageTV and I can't wait until version 2.


Spectre