Hauppauge PVR-350 Alternatives - Fix or Replace?

[SkierHiker]

I have been using SageTV and my PVR-350 for over 4 years now and it looks like it's time to change. I'm recording a lot of home videos that are Dolby Digital (AC3) and the PVR-350 will not play back the sound from these files. I'm trying to mimimize cost so I would appreciate all suggestions. This is my setup.

Dell 1.8ghz P4 with 2 gb RAM
Hauppauge PVR-350
Actisys IR-200L
1.2 TB Raid 0
Comcast Cable (No HD)
SageTV V5.0

I also have a Win2K3 Server available with the following specs:
Dell Poweredge 2650, Dual 2.8 ghz Xeon, 4GB RAM
250 GB Raid 5 SCSI
Gigabit Network to 1.2 TB Raid 0

Here are some options I'm thinking about but don't have a clear idea of which is better if any.

1. Convert all my videos to MPEG-2 Audio. If there was a quick way just to convert the audio portion without touching the video, I would entertain this, however it seems like I have to convert the entire .mpg file even though the video is already MPEG-2 (DVD).

2. Turn off the PVR-350 decoder (in Sage). I tried this but the CPU jumps to nearly 100% when playing back a video. This causes jerking playback and I'm concerned that it will also hinder simulataneous recording. Plus the audio is off since it is coming from the PC and the video is coming out the 350.

3. Move everything to my Win2K3 box. There should be enough horsepower there to run the PVR-350 without the decoder but I'm not sure about the audio sync. Plus I'll have to configure Win2K3 to run Sage and the 350 (a challenge but I'm up for giving it a go).

4. Buy another TV-Out card that supports both MPEG-2 and AC3 audio and use the PVR-350 for TV recording. I'm not real keen on this since it involves spending money but if I have to I will. If I must, what card should I buy? I don't need anything fancy, just the basic decoding (preferably hardware).

5. Upgrade to the latest version of SageTV. If that would fix my problem, I would do it in a heartbeat.

6. Use some kind of a mix bag - my Win2K3 for Sage Server and my XP box for Sage Client? How would that work and what hardware would go where? This one I'm real fuzzy on but kinda like the idea.

7. Use the Hauppauge Media Extender. I don't fully understand this but I'm assuming that it would replace Sage Client? Then I would run Sage Server on either my XP or Win2K3 box and it would pick up the Live and recorded video from there? But then I would have to spend money. Better this than a TV-Out card?

8. Anything else?

Thanks for the help.

Mark.

[davephan]

Mark,

I have also been using the PVR-350 for several years. Many people had problems with the PVR-350, however mine has been working fine.

I solved the non-MPEG2 playback problem by using MVP units to playback video. I started with one MVP, then bought another. After the second MVP, I no longer used the PVR-350 TV out for playback.

The MVP streams the video from the SageTV server through the Eithernet cable. The SageTV GUI is the same on the MVP as seen on the PVR-350 output. The MVP units are not totally trouble-free, since I have to cold boot them every two months or so.

I switched over to the MVP units so I could playback AVI and MOV files, which cannot be played back with the PVR-350. Although, when playing back compressed video with a MVP, it does put some load on a CPU. The on-the-fly transcoding consumes nearly 100% CPU with an Althlon XP 2800. If you have a fast multi-core CPU, the CPU consumption is very low. The new HD extender offloads the CPU processing from the SageTV computer.

The current version of SageTV is quite a bit better than version 5. I started with version 1.4, and overall, SageTV keeps improving. Sometimes I see the spinning symbol in the middle of the screen with the newer versions of SageTV, even with a fast dual-core computer. Maybe slowness is caused by using Java for SageTV instead of programming language that runs much faster at 'run time'.

Today, I would buy the HD extender instead of the MVP extender, since the quality is supposed to be better, and you will need it when you upgrade your TVs from SD to HD.

Dave

[matt91]

Originally Posted by davephan

Today, I would buy the HD extender instead of the MVP extender, since the quality is supposed to be better, and you will need it when you upgrade your TVs from SD to HD.
Dave

And by "today", Dave means "some point in the future, as yet to be determined". The HD extenders sell out as soon as more are stocked. I'd certainly hold out for an HD version, since, as Dave notes, the quality of SD is said to be superior to that of the MVP. However, you might find a second-hand MVP on ebay if you want to give one a try.

Matt

[mayamaniac]

If you are just watching SD shows on an SD TV, the picture quality of the MVP is as good or better than the HD Extender. The real advantage of the HD extender, besides the HD content support, is that it does all the decoding itself, so it doesn't bog down your server computer. The MVP only plays MPEG2, so all other formats (avi, divx, xvid, wmv, etc) has to be transcoded to MPEG2 on the server before it is streamed to the MVP.

But either way, the Extender is the answer for SkierHiker.

[matt91]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

If you are just watching SD shows on an SD TV, the picture quality of the MVP is as good or better than the HD Extender.

I don't have a HD extender to compare, but Andy notes (here) that the HD extender has superior SD output.

Matt

[CollinR]

If you wish to go video card route any nvidia card greater then the MX440 will support their PureVideo decoder, this is about as good as it gets for SDTV from a PC.

I dunno about running an MVP from that machine if you already have problems decoding your video in software. An HD extender probably would be your best bet.

[SkierHiker]

Thanks all for the info. I found the HD Extender interesting and something I will definitely look into when I go HD. I am going to try V6.3 tonight. I tried V6.0 a while ago and didn't think it was worth the $40 upgrade so I went back to V5. So far, for what I'm doing, V5 works just fine.

But here is the GOOD NEWS!!! The solution to my problem was right under my nose. And Dave, this might work for you. I use VideoReDo to cut up my home DVD movies into their respective scenes (Christmas, Vacations, etc.). It's a great product and very fast. While slicing up one of my videos I noticed a feature that allowed me to change the audio. Well, lo and behold, there it was, an option to select MPEG-2 and a bit rate. I selected it with the same bit rate as the Dolby Stereo (384) and let it go. VideoReDo did its thing without any significant time increase and I got my MGEG-2 video and MPEG-2 audio. Now my PVR-350 is good to go again. If anybody else is reading this thread with the same Dolby Stereo (AC3), PVR-350 problem I had, you definitely need to check out VideoReDo. It's also a real good product for joining and cutting video files.

Update on the V6.3. I tried to install it and it told me my trial period has expired. It must be getting confused with when I tried V6.0 a long time ago. I posted a thread about this hoping to get a resolution.