is my hauppage 350 a 15 or 16

[jman]

Hello,


I'd like to buy a 250 from frey but I need to match it with my 350. My 350 has a heat sink ( but no fan )...I think this means its a 15, right?

Frey is now selling 250 with "IVAC016" chip -- I guess this means 16, right?

Any advice on finding a 250 -- 15?


Thanks!

[jman]

According to this:

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...light=350+heat

All 350's are 15s.

Is Frey selling only 250 '16s' or is there some way to get a 15?

[Narflex]

Why do you need to match it with your 350? The 250 with the 16 chip on it should work fine alongside the 350. I've run that many times without problems.

[metropole]

I'm reading about the 15/16 version and its issues on this forum.
Can soemone explain what the difference is?
Different chip? If so what is the difference?
What abou the cooling. Does one run cooler or has a fan?

[fidget]

Originally posted by metropole
I'm reading about the 15/16 version and its issues on this forum.
Can soemone explain what the difference is?
Different chip? If so what is the difference?
What abou the cooling. Does one run cooler or has a fan?

My experience is that my PVR-350 (rev 15) did not play well with my -250 (rev 16). When I had both installed, the PVR cards would record crappy signals. The video was, at best, MPEG-1 quality and it looked as if it were getting confused between PAL and NTSC formatted input (i.e., the lower scan lines were noise). I have since moved my PVR-350 into its own chassis and haven't tried it with the latest drivers from Hauppauge.

The rev 16 chips definitely run cooler, so they don't come with a heat sink.

[jman]

Narflex,

Hmmm...I've seen at least three people posting on this problem...but I guess you'd know, right Maybe ( as suggested in one of the threads ) is a PVR+mobo issue?

I guess I'll give it a try...

BTW, Here's some posts discussing the problem:

------------
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...hlight=250+350

" so I tried to install and configure the 250 with my 350 and after a reboot windows locks up hard."

"but as long as they have the same model # on the sticker I would think you'd be just fine."
---------

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...hlight=250+350

" have verified that a 250 (encoder-16) and a 350 (encoder/decoder) do not work with any combination of drivers that I have come up with. However I replaced my 250 (encoder-16, no heatsink) with a 250 (encoder, with heatsink) and I have both cards working fine in Windows XP Home."

"When I ended up with a -15 and a -16 and suffered "the problem", I called Hauppauge and arranged a trade-in, specifically requesting that they send me a -16 to replace the -15 I was returning. They put up no fight did just that for me."

[Beelzebub]

You can use the same drivers, you just have to manually install them.

This is assuming your starting frrom a fresh install of windows, if not you will have to remove all Hauppauge drivers.


Follow these steps.
1. Install the Latest drivers for the PVR-250 encoder 16. The windows add new hardware wizard will work fine for this.
2. When windows detects the PVR-250 or 350 with the 15 encoder. Click on cancel.
3. Go into device manager, you should have a multimedia video device under other devices. Select it and open its properties
4. Under the Driver tab, select update driver
5. Select Install from a list or specify location
6. Select Don't search I will choose the driver to install
7. Select Sound Video and Game Controls
8. Select Hauppauge, in the list on the left. Then Hauppauge WinTV PCI II (Encoder/Decoder) for the PVR-350 or Hauppauge WinTV PCI II (Encoder) for the PVR-250 encoder 15 card.


This how I installed my OEM and retail card, it works fine with no problems.

[jman]

Very cool! thanks a lot Beelzebub!!!

[dvsing]

FWIW, I just recently purchased a 350 card. I had ordered it over a month ago, but it was on back order and arrived only a couple weeks ago. The card had no heatsink. I assume this means that the newer 350 cards have the -16 chip.

-Dan

[Beelzebub]

Originally posted by fidget
My experience is that my PVR-350 (rev 15) did not play well with my -250 (rev 16). When I had both installed, the PVR cards would record crappy signals. The video was, at best, MPEG-1 quality and it looked as if it were getting confused between PAL and NTSC formatted input (i.e., the lower scan lines were noise). I have since moved my PVR-350 into its own chassis and haven't tried it with the latest drivers from Hauppauge.

The rev 16 chips definitely run cooler, so they don't come with a heat sink.

I've noticed that too, espically when changing channels fast. I just go into Device manager and disable the card with the 15 chipset then reboot. I then go into sageTV and goto liveTV, it will default to the 16. The video is clear again, then I just re-enable the 15 encoder.

[metropole]

Is there a way to find out if a v16 350 is in a box based on its serial, label,..?

[sudipto]

Originally posted by dvsing
FWIW, I just recently purchased a 350 card. I had ordered it over a month ago, but it was on back order and arrived only a couple weeks ago. The card had no heatsink. I assume this means that the newer 350 cards have the -16 chip.

-Dan

Dan, if you don't mind could you please let me know where you bought your 350 card from ?

I currently have a ver 15 350 card along with a ver 16 250 card in my system, and I am having problem getting them to work together. My 350 card was purchased just recently, so I can still return/exchange it.

If you could also let me know the UPC code and serial number from the box (just a range will suffice, you don't have to give the exact number) and the number of the Connexant chip on the card (the MPEG A/V Encoder chip), that will be VERY helpful too.

Thanks !

[sudipto]

I just got off the phone with Hauppauge tech support and they confirmed that none of the PVR-350 cards are using the IVAC-16 chips yet. He also mentioned that for the foreseeable future the 350 cards will continue to use the IVAC-15 chip.

Dan, could you please double check and see if your 350 card is really using an IVAC-16 chip. If so, and I know this sounds ridiculous but, could you please double check that it is really a PVR-350 and not a PVR-250.

Anyone else here seen a 350 with a ver 16 chip yet ?

[dvsing]

It is most certainly a 350. I'm not sure wether it's -15 or -16... but I assumed that it was -16. If there is a way through software to identify the hardware revision, let me know and I'll verify for you for sure, but based on what you heard from Hauppauge, it's looking like it HAS to be a -15 since there are no -16 350's.

-Dan

[sudipto]

Dan,

Thanks for the quick reply !

It is actually fairly easy to identify the revision of the IVAC Chip onboard ... you don't need any software for that. The IVAC chip is the big black chip on the card, it should have the manufacturer name "Connexant" on it, along with the chip number ... which is either 23415 (i.e. ver 15) or 23416 (i.e. ver 16). The chip may also say "MPEG A/V Encoder" on it.

Sometimes the chip has a black heatsink on it, in which case you won't be able to read the number; however, from what I have heard, all chips with a black heatsink are version 15 chips.

Another way to check this will be thru Device Manager in Windows. The -16 chips have a label something like "Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI-II (Encoder-16)" or "Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI-II (Encoder/Decoder)". See what yours say.

Finally, even though Hauppauge tech support told me that there are no 350 cards with IVAC-16 chips, I am not 100% sure if I should trust them. With all due respect to tech support people everywhere, it has often happened to me that the tech support people don't know what they are talking about and will sometimes give you wrong information ... so if you do indeed report back a 350 with an IVAC-16 chip, I will not be terribly surprised.

Thanks for your help !

[sudipto]

By the way, if you do indeed have a -15 chip without any heatsink on it, you may want to consider putting a chip cooler type heatsink on it (something like this one).

The version 15 chips run much hotter compared to the version 16 chips, and without a heatsink it sure won't last long !

[dvsing]

Okay... my bad. With all of the recent discussion, I forced myself to crack open my sage box (I use an EPIA-M 1Ghz board in a nifty looking black and blue cube-style case). The 350 in my sage box has a heatsink - SORRY for the earlier confusion. Must be a -15. I run a 250 in my desktop machine and run them in a master/slave setup and I guess the 250 I have is the one that doesn't have a heatsink. I will keep in mind that these two don't play well in the same system.

-Dan

[dkardatzke]

All PVR-350s have the IVAC-15 chip. The IVAC-16 chip is an encoder only and isn't capable of decoding so it can't be used on the PVR-350. You can trust the manufacturer on this one.

[sudipto]

Thanks to both Dans for the confirmation

Dan K: What chip on the 350 does the decoding ? Is it the IVAC-15 or is it the Philips chip that sits close to the S-Video socket ?

[SHS]

All PVR-350s have a Conexant CX23415 (iTVC15) chip it is encoder/decoder chip .25 die size, Note some PVR 250 did come with Conexant CX23415 (iTVC15) chip and decoder was disable only becuase the Conexant CX23416 (iTVC16) chip .18 die size was not ready for pime time at the time.
All new PVR 250 and 250MCE now have a Conexant CX23416 (iTVC16) chip .18 die size is an encoder only.
Foreseeable future the 350 cards yes that most likely happing I think work on die size drop down to .18 so that it run cooler and maybe some other small improvement or all new encoder/decoder chip with far better features.
What I like to seeas for improvement
Digital 3D Y/C Separation
Digital 3D Digital Noise Reduction
Digital 3D Frame Synchronizer
Digital Line Time Base Corrector (TBC)
Digital Auto Gain Control (AGC)
12 Tap or better
Full Audio codec support LPCM, MPEG, AC3 (DD2.0) and MP3
AVI (Live Perview), MPEG Video (all stream type)