Possible initialization problem with multi-tuner cards

[carlgar]

I now have 1 PVR-350 and 2 PVR-250 cards in a stable mode in my system. However, I have to do some manual initialization whenever I have to reboot my system. On Reboot and restart of SageTV I start 3 recordings to see that all is correct. Two of the turners (I assume the 250,'s since all turners show the same name) show a vertically compressed screen with static in bottom part of screen ( I believe this may be for support of OSD but just speculation). The third card ( assumed 350) always shows a normall screen. I then go into detailed setup and change the "Recording Quality" to "SVCD Extra Long Play ~0.75GB per hr". I then shutdown and restart SageTV and check the recordings and all 3 turners appear to work properly. I then set the "Recording Quality" to the desired "DVD Standard Play ~3.25GB per hr" and again restart SageTV. At this point al 3 card are recording correctly at the desired quality. Anyone seen anything like this? The 250 cards are the new ones just got them from frey about 1 week ago.

One other issue that I will address in a different thread is that I have not been able to get the TV out from the 350 with Sage since adding the 250 cards. WinTV2000 does output to my TV.

[dkardatzke]

What happens if you leave the quality at 3.25GB/hr and reboot your system and then start up SageTV? Do you still have the problem you mentioned or is it only when you use the .75GB/hr setting?

[carlgar]

3.25 GB is my normal quality and what I do reboot at which does show the problem. I assumed that you had your numbers reversed so I set the quality to .75GB/hr and did a cold reboot. the problem changed slightly for the worst, the static area seemed to be twice as big as it was. I then set the quality to 3.25 GB/hr since it was already at the .75 GB/hr quality. This did the expected correction. It seems that the first change in the quality after SageTV starts may correct the problem. I will try more testing of this theory on Fri.

[carlgar]

I finally got around to doing more testing of this today. The bad news is that I could not find any other pattern to determine what the problem is. There are some quality settings that work and some that don't. I did not do as much testing as I had planned.

The good news is that during this testing my TV out from the 350 card started working again. This may have happened before but I would not have known about it because my TV was not on. Today, I happened to be trying several different things without success to get the TV out working. I had given up on that and started testing this issue when the the TV out started working. This now seems to indicate a 350 initialization problem also, just not as obivious as the 250 problems. Anyway I stopped testing because at this point I have a 350 and two 250 cards all working as expected. Not sure, if I will when I have to reboot but will find out then. Will post here if I discover anything new about this issue.

[sudipto]

I have one ver 15 350 and one ver 16 250 card in my system, and I am having the exact same problem with the output of my 250 (the video is very blocky and the bottom portion of the screen shows green noise).

I tried the manual initialization method suggested by carlgar above (changing the recording quality to 0.75GB and then back to 5.6GB) and this seems to fix the problem ... until the next reboot.

I see the same problem with the WinTV 2000 application also, so my guess is that the problem lies within the Hauppauge drivers and this is not SageTV's fault; however, given that a LOT of Sage users are using the Hauppauge cards, it will be really nice if Jeff or someone from Sage can work with Hauppauge to find out a solution to this problem.

[Stuntman]

My devices list:
Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II (Encoder)
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR PCI II (Encoder-16)

Seems I have two different models.. is this going to be a problem forever? I'll try the workaround.. but if that works, seems as if there might be a way to fix it in code..

Keeping my fingers crossed..

[carlgar]

Stuntman, unfortunately I think the answer to your question may be a yes (problem forever), but will not know for sure until someone figures out exactly what the problem is. A lot of users who encounter this problem end up swapping a type 15 250 for a type 16 250 and vice-vesa. Hauppauge is supposed to be working on this issue. However, my opinion is that the Hauppauge software ability is too low to determine what the problem is. I do not know if Hauppauge have been able to duplicate the problem. Frey has stated that they do not see this problem which I believe has caused some delay in treating this as a real problem. I think this is now becoming a more serious issue with more people encountering this issue. Frey has also stated that they think it is a hardware problem, I have doubts because of the above software work around. There is also a thread on the SHS forum site that discussed a conflict in the registry where different cards want to store different values in the same location. I beleive this is at least part of the problem. The registry issue is mostly a problem between a 250 and 350, the 350 should be installed last. This allows the software to see the 350. This does not seem to address the problem between the different types of 250 cards.

BTW: the second fix is too put different type cards in different computers which is what I have now done. However, I hate the idea of all the energy I am wasting when I have to use my second system just to use my 350 card.

[mlbdude]

Based on posts from SHS here and on other boards he has indicated that Hauppauge has been trying to fix the problem for months to no avail.

Here is a post of his from the BTV forums...

it not something that Hauppauge can fix.
The reason you can't really mix 48xxx cards and 32xxx cards, since the ivac-15 and ivac-16 need different HW specific settings, but the driver reads them all from the same place.
So you have 6 option
Option 1: Two 350's.
Option 2: One 350 and One 250 with ivac-15 on board.
Option 3: Two 250's with ivac-16 on board.
Option 4: One 350's and WinTV-PVR USB2.
Option 5: One 250's and WinTV-PVR USB2.
Option 6: Two WinTV-PVR USB2's.
Like SageTV yes this will be a whole new nightmare for BeyondTV users when the next version comes out but only with PCI base ivac-15 and ivac-16 chipset.

[Cayars]

Wouldn't you think they could re-write the drivers to read from seperate places in the registry? Seems like it would be an easy fix.

Carlo

[mlbdude]

I think the problem is they get parts of the drivers from the encoder manufacturer. Otherwise you would think it would be easy to fix.

Maybe SHS can explain further?

[ErsatzTom]

As long as they are getting their drivers in source format, they still should be able to modify them...

t

[Stuntman]

Has anybody requested information or support from hauppauge lately on this? I wonder if it is a work in progress, or if they have just given up and want us all to go away. My second 250 is useless to me now.. worse than useless, since it destroys 1/2 of what I record my wife won't let me use Sage to record anything important..

Jeez.. I hope somebody fixes it or finds a permanent workaround!

[carlgar]

I requested very specific information concerning this problem from Frey the other day. The response I got last night was:
Hauppauge is aware of the problem and they are testing a new driver to work with both cards. Check on their site for an update on when it will be released.

[spanky]

I have an in at Hauppauge. I was told that there is a driver being tested which may correct this problem with having a 15 and 16 chipset card in the same system. There was much more to the changes than just the registry settings but it does seem to work. Now, we may not see this driver right away since the driver would need to be fully tested, not just on SageTV, but also in the regular Hauppauge software (on 98, Me, 2K, and XP) and in Media Center (Harmony and Symphony). Hopefully there will be a beta for public release soon. By the way, it pays to decent to the support department, you definitely catch more flies with honey, as it were.

[RBTConsultants]

Well, one of my 15s died and Hauppauge RMA'd me a 16. I installed it and I have this problem. The workaround seems to work for now. I appreciate the effort in finding this and letting us know about it.

Has anyone heard any status on a fix for this?

Thanks,

Bob

[RBTConsultants]

Well, one of my 15s died and Hauppauge RMA'd me a 16. I installed it and I have this problem. The workaround seems to work for now. I appreciate the effort in finding this and letting us know about it.

Has anyone heard any status on a fix for this?

Thanks,

Bob

[mlbdude]

There was a rumor of a driver from Hauppauge that would work with both version but I think it is still in testing.

[RBTConsultants]

It would seem to me that Sage could fix this problem. Whatever occurs during this workaround could be accomplished on Sage startup to correct this problem.

The reason I mention is this is because on SHS forum tyhey referred me to JovePlayer, which apparently handles a 15 and a 16 without problems.

How about it Frey? Could Sage address this issue on startup so this problem could go away?

Thanks,

Bob

[carlgar]

I doubt is there is any hope of Frey correcting this problem. The first issue is that Narflex has stated that he does not see this problem. There are several people that have reported that they are able to combine a type 15 and type 16 board with no problem. It appears that some combination of hardware is able to handle this. I agree with you that since this workaround seems to correct the problem that Frey should be able to provide a work around, but they would have to see the problem first. I really doubt if Frey has any interest in work around since Hauppauge is suppose to have a fix in the works. I have very little faith in Hauppauge be able to solve a software issue like this. Hauppauge is not even able to give their applications different names. They have to name everything WinTV2000. I believe that is the primary reason that I had to remove my WinTV GO card at the time I purchased my PRV-350 card. At the risk of never seeing my PRV-350 ( which was RMA'ed to Hauppage) Card again, I will continue to consider the software department at Hauppauge to be incompetent until I see a fix for this issue.

BTW: How long did it take you to get the replacement 250 from Hauppauge?

[RBTConsultants]

I got a 16 because it was the 2nd time I rma'd a 15. The first went bad and I asked them to send another 15 , then the replacement 15 went bad the same way, with bright pic and slashes and pixellation through the video. I got the 16 because I thought I had seen that the problem was resolved.

In both cases the rma was responded to with a new card to me in less than a week. The first time just a card for a card, 2nd time I sent the card they sent me new retail box with remote , etc.

Has there been investigation into the people that do have it working? Have they installed a specific way? Specific driver version?

Thanks,

Bob