HD-PVR Setup Stories

[bialio]

Here's a thread for telling us all about what it took to get your HD-PVR working!

here's my story
_____________________

Got everything installed and working - took about 1 hour as of course there were some hicups along the way!

I had two other Hauppauge cards in my server - PVR500 and HVR1600. The 1600 I was only using for it's included IR blaster, which is on a Dish VIP211. This Dish VIP211 is my only STB, and I retasked it to be used with the HD-PVR.

After plugging everything in, first thing I did was install the beta drivers. This immediately broke the existing IR blaster setup that I had going (ie the old IRBlaster config program could no longer find a blaster).

Then I installed all the software that came with the HD-PVR - except for the drivers. The new IR blaster config program couldn't find any IR Blaster hardware either.

At this point it donned on me that I was going to have to remove all the existing Hauppauge stuff and start from scratch.

So I ran HWClear, then rebooted. While it was down I removed the HVR1600 - hoping that the HD-PVR would work out for IRBlasting duties (which it did eventually).

Once we were back up, I installed everything again - beta drivers, and Hauppauge software on the included CD. IR Blaster is now found! I zeroed in on the codes needed using the Blaster Config program. At this point I figured we were ready for Sage. But first I fired up Arcsoft (installed way back at the beginning) to see if we were operational at all. It captured video nicely, so that was a good sign.

One last thing I did at this point (which came back to bite me later) was to install the drivers for the PVR500.

So I launched the Sage GUI - and none of the Hauppauge cards were listed in the video sources. Realized that the sage service was running while I was installing all the Hauppage drivers, so I restarted Sage Service and voila! There was the HD-PVR.

So I configured it up (Component+SPDIF), set up the channel lineup, and exited source setup.

Now I moved over to the STX-HD100. Tried to tune in an HD channel from the STB. Video worked great - spectacular picture. But I didn't get any audio, and the channel wasn't what I selected. Switched to another channel - same thing - no audio and the video was still on CNNHD. At this point I began to suspect IR Blaster issues. Went back to the server, and sure enough - no IR BLaster hardware detected!

Installing the PVR500 drivers after installing the HD-PVR drivers is what messed this up. So I re-installed the HD-PVR beta drivers, rebooted, and tested the IR again - now it was working! While I was there I switched the audio output of the STB to PCM only.

Went back to the HD Extender, rebooted it (it had locked up when I reinstalled the HD-PVR drivers), and everything pretty much works! Audio was there, and channel changing works.

------------------
Impressions : video is great. I'm using the "Great" setting - 3.9 GB / Hour.

Channel changing takes about 15 seconds for me - from the time I hit enter to the time the new channel is locked in with audio.

The HD-PVR itself has been rock solid. I turned it on and haven't touched it since. No reboots or unexpected shutdowns.

Haven't messed with the full client yet - probably won't for a while. I've got an HD extender on all 3 of my TV's - so no reason to mess with that can of worms.

[SHS]

keep in mind that if you have more one Hauppauge hardware device the IR Blaster may not want to work

[appelm]

My HD-PVR was waiting for me when I got home last night. In between putting my daughter to bed and having a bite to eat, I hooked it up and had HD playing on my HD-100 extender within an hour! I was shocked it worked the first time. Nice job Sage getting ready for this.

I had two small hiccups. Adding the new source to sage produced the "loading preview window" message that wouldn't go away. I finally realized I could just hit Escape to skip that part. Still it took me several tries to realize that.. Would be nice if Sage said "Esc to cancel" in that message.

I had trouble installing the HD-PVR software. The setup.exe on the disc would only give the option to install the IR blaster software (which I actually didn't want since I'm using USB-UIRT). I had to navigate the disc to find the Arcsoft folder and install that manually. Kind of strange behavior but I guess its caused by the fact I already have Hauppauge software installed for my old PVR-250's. I installed the beta driver rather than the driver on the cd.

Video quality is superb with no stuttering or skipping at all except very briefly during channel changing. Channel changing using my USB-UIRT was fine, about 5 seconds or so (same as my pvr-250). Audio was ok but I did notice some channels had a bit more lip-syncing problems than others.. Will have to spend some more time narrowing down which channels have problems tonight.

Had no success paying videos on SageTVClient pcs. My PCs are all non-dual core. I was surprised I couldn't even get the videos to stutter play. Instead they play with a multicolored pixelated image and only for a couple of seconds. I suppose that's a codec problem as well even though I installed K-lite codec pack. So I ordered another hd-100 figuring its a lot easier to just buy one of those than completely upgrade my HTPC. I may have to buy some more. The fact that it works so seamlessly with the HD-PVR h264 format is very appealing.

My server machine is an Intel socket 478 P2.8 processor running XP Pro. There seemed to be no particular added load on the machine. It seamlessly handled moving between HD-PVR source, PVR-250, and HDHR sources. Recording on HD-PVR while watching HDHR source seemed to work fine.

So happy to finally have the long-awaited ability to watch all my HD channels through Sage!!!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by appelm

...So I ordered another hd-100 figuring its a lot easier to just buy one of those than completely upgrade my HTPC. I may have to buy some more. The fact that it works so seamlessly with the HD-PVR h264 format is very appealing.

Thanks for the report.

While I do expect to get my client PC working with the HD-PVR, I agree that the HD-PVR will sell many HD100's for SageTV as it is about as good and as easy as it gets.

[deria]

I think that at this point I can say my installation is "working". It isn't complete (becasue I now have only one tuner instead of four) but the HD-PVR is functional.

The real bright spot in the installation was SageTV itself; it did its job exactly the way I would have expected it to. If you look at all of the problems I had, which are listed below, none of them were with SageTV. The SageTV software worked perfectly. If only the rest of my system was that reliable I would be a happy man.

The hardware setup was easy enough; connecting everything was very straight-forward. The only real issue I had with that is that because I operate a headless machine with no CD drive it was necessary for me to copy the contents of the CD over the network to a folder on the PVR and run setup.exe manually. Since it has no monitor, I had to use RDP to connect to the system for all the administration stuff (go vista ultimate!).

I did run into some problems making things work, though;

1) first, my cable signal was too weak. The STB wasn't even able to output the HD channels at all (just garbage). At first I thought it was the HD-PVR but connecting the set-top-box to a stronger cable resolved that issue.

2) second, firewire; my cable provider seems to disable display of certain channels if there is a firewire connection present -- even if its not being used. I had to physically disconnect the firewire cable and power-cycle the set-top box to get it to display the detroit channels

3) third, I had no audio; my set-top box (Motorala 6200) has no option that I can find to output L-PCM. Since I have no audio when connecting using an optical cable, I assume that it instead defaults to bitstream which the HD-PVR doesn't support ("yet"). I switched the output to stereo, connected the left/right RCA connectors and called it a day on the sound issue. I don't much care if I get 5.1 sound or not.

4) fourth, I had a little trouble initially figuring out where to place the IR blaster head on my set-top box. The faceplate on the Motorola 6200 is extremely dark, so I couldn't see where the receiver was. A little trial and error with the blastcfg program's send button showed me where it was (top left corner of the faceplate, for the curious).

5) fifth, I couldn't change channels with the IR blaster. There were no errors, but it wouldn't change the channels. It turns out that on Vista you need to run in non-service mode with SageTV for the IR blaster to actually work. As soon as I switched to service mode, it started working fine.

6) sixth, I had to remove all other Hauppauge hardware from that system; I'm not sure if this was strictly necessary -- it was something I did while trying to troubleshoot the IR blaster issue. I'm not in any rush to add the old tuners back, though -- I think I'll just put them in my spare system and setup a network encoding solution.

So, all in all, not smooth sailing but its working. I was able to record a show in HD last night and the picture was great. Since I can now use the timeshifted HD channels, having only one tuner doesn't seemt o be that big of a problem (at least, not yet). I have another set-top box (without HD, maybe I can get an HD one from the cable company) -- I might just get another HD-PVR and set it up on one of the other PCs and make a network encoding solution so that I can have two HD tuners. We'll have to see about that. For now, though, my system is working and I'm happy about it.

[lamanmi]

I am having similar issues:

1) Installed HDPVR to Time Warner Scientific Atlanta 4350 STB
2) Installred beta drivers initially
3) Tried through Sage and only a few secs play before it locks up
4) Uninstalled and reinstalled drivers off of Hauppuage's site, same thing
5) Could not get the IR Blaster to work at all (says hardware not found).

I also have a PVR-250 and PVR-500 in the same box, so suspect that could be part of the problem. I opened up a ticket with Haupaugge and here is their response:

Hello, there seems to be an issue with a small amount of units with recording HD signals. If you could fill out the questions below we can then provide our engineers more information on the systems being used with the units. We working as fast as possible to figure out the problem to see whether it's a software issue or the units need replacement. On question 14 we would like to know if you connect a composite or svideo source, does it have the same problem?

1) OS
2) Service Pack #
3) CPU
4) Graphics card
5) Cable provider
6) STB model
7) Which inputs are being used for capture?
8) Are any other inputs connected but not active?
9) Is the device connected via a USB hub?
10) Any other USB devices other than mouse/keyboard?
11) Any other A/V hardware installed on PC
12) Any other A/V software installed on PC
13) Is there good audio and video before failure
14) Does the failure occur at all resolutions
15) Does it fail in both capture and preview
16) Must the unit be reset to recover?
17) Must the PC be reset to recover?
18) Any LED activity after failure
19) Is device listed in device manager when failed

I'll post an update when I have one.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by lamanmi

I am having similar issues:

1) Installed HDPVR to Time Warner Scientific Atlanta 4350 STB
2) Installred beta drivers initially
3) Tried through Sage and only a few secs play before it locks up
4) Uninstalled and reinstalled drivers off of Hauppuage's site, same thing
5) Could not get the IR Blaster to work at all (says hardware not found).

I also have a PVR-250 and PVR-500 in the same box, so suspect that could be part of the problem. I opened up a ticket with Haupaugge and here is their response:



I'll post an update when I have one.

I am having the same problem, but mine captures HD for about 5-10 minutes, then just stops responding completely. I have to power cycle the box and restart sage to get it to capture again.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by lamanmi

I am having similar issues:

1) Installed HDPVR to Time Warner Scientific Atlanta 4350 STB
2) Installred beta drivers initially
3) Tried through Sage and only a few secs play before it locks up
4) Uninstalled and reinstalled drivers off of Hauppuage's site, same thing
5) Could not get the IR Blaster to work at all (says hardware not found).

I also have a PVR-250 and PVR-500 in the same box, so suspect that could be part of the problem. I opened up a ticket with Haupaugge and here is their response:



I'll post an update when I have one.

You're probably going to need to run the hwclear program from the CD. Then reinstall all the software for the HD-PVR including the blaster and everything else. Then the drivers for your 250 and 500. (Just the drivers) Then reboot.

Gerry

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You're probably going to need to run the hwclear program from the CD. Then reinstall all the software for the HD-PVR including the blaster and everything else. Then the drivers for your 250 and 500. (Just the drivers) Then reboot.

Gerry

That is the procedure that I last took. I will try it again just to make sure.

[wado1971]

Oh good - a thread where I can ramble on about my setup woes

First let me say I've got this working on both my server & client and the PQ looks fantastic. Excluding my stupidity, I'd say the set-up was simple, works great with SageTV, and a highly recommended purchase. It's worlds away from my frustrations with qam & channel searching issues I had with the pvr-1600 (also firewire about 1yr ago). This thing finally fills that one annoying hole when comparing a cable co. supplied dvr and the HTPC - completely & successfully.

The server: Just built Quad6600, intel board, 2GB, XP-pro, lots of drives, nvidia 6600, no special codecs, 2x pvr-150's (only occasionally used for viewing)
I started by running hwclear.exe and then installed the SageTV beta, HD-PVR drivers (only) and fired it up. Recorded fine but playback issued a sagetv audio error dialog box. I immediately started tinkering with overlay,vmr9,encoder,renderers,etc...... stopped, took a deep breath and installed the supplied software on the HD-PVR disc. Presto - everything plays back fine & looks great. At first glance the PQ actually looked better than my TV cablecard but I'm sure it was only the color settings.

The client: socket 939, Athlon64 3200, XP-pro, 1GB, no special codec, nvidia 8600GT**
I was real nervous about the CPU on the client. I've had overheating issues from day one (should have RMA'd something) and have the lowly 3200 UNderclocked to compensate (9x, 1.25V). I was hoping the 8600GT would take most of the load and after banging my head into the wall for awhile it proved true . Since this machine was my previous all-in-one-htpc I recently did a complete OS reinstall of XP-pro so I was starting with a clean slate (too clean come to find out). I brought this one to the same status as the server but the playback was pegging the cpu and playback was horrible. Because of my starting apprehension as to the horsepower of this machine I immediately starting searching for a new MB & CPU (of course hiding this fact from the wife by telling her I needed a new cable). After sleeping on it I came back to the problem to realize the client would also peg the CPU while playing back anything from the HD-PVR including SD shows - simply anything .ts. Long story short, I installed new nvidia video card drivers, WMP 10, directX, and set sage to overlay and it kicked the 8600GT in the rear (I think enabling the hardware acceleration). Playback is smooth with about 10-15% cpu on the underclocked 3200. I didn't expect such a low cpu usage on this one - not complaining!

BTW - using firewire & extuner plugin to channel change which has been rock solid for me for well over a year (s-video with a pvr-150). I remember bumbling thru some non-specific sagetv docs to get it up and running when I was attempting firewire capture. I don't know if a more sagetv-specific doc exists now for firewire channel change?....... if not, it might be time to put a 'how-to' together.

Good luck with your install. If you don't have one yet... GO BUY ONE!!!

[foolio]

Bialio:

What code did you end up using for the dish 211? My IR blaster is detected but I'm having a hard time finding the correct dish code.

thanks

[canadaneedsmusi]

Hey everyone,

I could really use some help here. I'm having some problems with getting the HD-PVR to work in Sage, but there are a few issues making it more confusing. First of all, I just got my HD STB two days ago, so I'm new to it (not HD, just this STB at my new place). Secondly, I'm new to Sage, just bought it to use with the HD-PVR. And thirdly I'm new to the HD-PVR obviously. And really I'm new to the whole HTPC thing, I just started doing it a few weeks ago on VMC while waiting for the HDPVR to show up.

That said, here is my problem. I installed everything just as the instructions said, including everything off of the disk. Using the Arcsoft program I seemed to get a picture no problem. I didnt try recording, but viewing seemed fine, no stuttering, etc. I didn't try this for a long period of time however, so maybe an issue would arise after awhile?

I went to setup SageTV, I installed the new beta version that supports the HD-PVR, and went forward with the setup. It found the tuner no problem, guide info, etc, etc, everything went smoothly. Then I got to the part where it tests what kind of picture quality should be used.... freeze. I tried every level, and everyone froze Sage. And I had to crtl+alt+delete to close it. So after a few tries I just accepted one of them without testing, went into Sage, and it kind of worked, then froze Sage, then blue screen of death.

For some reason the video is completely screwing up Sage, and I'm not sure why. On the other program it seemed fine, on Sage, crash.

Any suggestions? Would the codec matter? Like I said I've never used Sage before, so maybe there's a setting I'm missing somewhere?

FYI, I have a AMD Quad-Core, 4Gb's RAM, Gigabyte 780G MB, and Windows Vista Home Premium. So the machine shouldnt have any issues running this program. Plus I've watched 1080P on it without even a hint of stutter.

Help!

Thanks in advance!

[gplasky]

Skip the picture quality test and just pick advanced. (It will warn you-just accept it and it will skip.) After you finish setup and before you try to record anything go to the Detailed setup and configure the video and audio to use the Arcsoft decoder.

Gerry

[bialio]

Originally Posted by foolio

Bialio:

What code did you end up using for the dish 211? My IR blaster is detected but I'm having a hard time finding the correct dish code.

thanks

136

[foolio]

Originally Posted by bialio

136

Thanks bialio. My blaster plug had to be really jammed into the whole for it to work. At first, I was not getting any flashing emitter signal from the blaster. Fiddled with it and it finally worked.

Thanks

[gtdave]

Fellow masochists, here's my story:

Equipment
- Server (P4 3.4GHz, 1GB RAM, lots-o-300GB hard drives, PVR-500, Avermedia 780, DVico Fusion 5 lite, and the newest addition: HD-POS, I mean, HD-PVR)
- 2 Clients (AMD-based shuttle PCs, plenty of horsepower and fast video cards)
- Capturing DirecTV from 2 D10 STBs and 1 H21, all serially controlled, using Paterson USB TV Translator for the H21. Also capturing HD OTA with antenna in the attic.

I have the server controlling all the boxes and capture cards without any problems.

I'm pretty sure I have this thermal / heat issue everyone's been talking about with the HD PVR. Seems to record fine for a few minutes, then gets choppy and skips. Sometimes the audio is WAAAAAY out of sync as well. I'm not about to take it apart, though...I'll send it back to upstate New York first.

Why oh why can't manufacturers just release something that WORKS?!?

On the server, playback is problematic as well (in overlay, of course). I have the latest CoreAVC decoders installed, and it plays all my h.264 files just fine...except the excerpt of "Ask the Dust" I randomly recorded at 1:30AM last night. Playback in Sage doesn't seem to be using the CoreAVC decoder despite me adding the videoframe line in the properties file, and it plays with a mild amount of skipping / stuttering (still wholly unacceptable). Windows Media Player is even worse with the Matroska splitter and CoreAVC working. Plays fine in graphedit. Live TV through the HD PVR is OK for a few minutes, then gets intermittent. Comes back and plays fine sometimes, then gets jerky again, and finally stays jerky and unwatchable. What a pain in the arse this is!!!!!!!!

The clients are a different story. Won't play anything captured through the HD PVR. Gives me the infamous "There was a Playback Error in playback" error: sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-5,0x8007045a): There was a problem rendering the audio portion of the content for playback. Funny, seems that AC3Filter works just fine on the server.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH

I'll post again when/if I get this working, or when I decide to put all this stuff in a box and sink the entire mess to the bottom of a lake. If anyone has any ideas, they'll be much appreciated.

Happy Debugging!
Dave

P.S. One thing I forgot--when I'm watching something live or recorded through the HD PVR, Sage runs REALLLLLLY slowly. Seems like it's bogged down by the HD PVR or something. Takes 5-10 seconds for the guide or home screen to appear. Painful.

[canadaneedsmusi]

Everyone,

Ok, so my HD-PVR seems to be working ok. I havent had any issues with it not working or recording thus far. Then again I havent done any long recordings either. Althought Euro 2008 has started so some should be coming up soon.

My problem right now is SageTV. For some reason I can not get it to play smoothly! I've tried different setups with the settings, etc, and it is alwasy choppy, SD or HD. I think there are two possible reasons for this, but as I'm new to SageTV and HTPC's I might be wrong. Here's what I think:

1) My settings with the decorders, etc. I'm using the Arcsoft ones for video and audio where it will let me put it in.
2) My hardware acceleration not worrking correctly. I think that my CPU usage is much higher then it should be and this could be causing issues in Sage. Right now my CPU usage is between 34% and 41% and I have an AMD Phenom Quad-Core. My MB is a Gigabyte 780G, which has Radeon 3200 on it.

So, any suggestions? I can't seem to figure out how to make sure that hardware acceleration is working properly. In Sage I DO have 3D hardware Acceleration enabled.

Also, in the Arcsoft recording program, I have no stuttering.

Please help! I'm so close to HD goodness I can smell it! lol. BTW, right now HD movie looks amazing, just choppy and stuttering, haha.

Thanks in advance!

Dave.

[B-Figgy]

Originally Posted by canadaneedsmusi

Everyone,

Ok, so my HD-PVR seems to be working ok. I havent had any issues with it not working or recording thus far. Then again I havent done any long recordings either. Althought Euro 2008 has started so some should be coming up soon.

My problem right now is SageTV. For some reason I can not get it to play smoothly! I've tried different setups with the settings, etc, and it is alwasy choppy, SD or HD. I think there are two possible reasons for this, but as I'm new to SageTV and HTPC's I might be wrong. Here's what I think:

1) My settings with the decorders, etc. I'm using the Arcsoft ones for video and audio where it will let me put it in.
2) My hardware acceleration not worrking correctly. I think that my CPU usage is much higher then it should be and this could be causing issues in Sage. Right now my CPU usage is between 34% and 41% and I have an AMD Phenom Quad-Core. My MB is a Gigabyte 780G, which has Radeon 3200 on it.

So, any suggestions? I can't seem to figure out how to make sure that hardware acceleration is working properly. In Sage I DO have 3D hardware Acceleration enabled.

Also, in the Arcsoft recording program, I have no stuttering.

Please help! I'm so close to HD goodness I can smell it! lol. BTW, right now HD movie looks amazing, just choppy and stuttering, haha.

Thanks in advance!

Dave.

I'm running the Gigabyte 780g board as well and I found that the ATI codecs worked better than the Arcsoft ones in this case. At least I think I'm running my ATI codec instead of the Arcsoft because I had better performance after deleting the videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=ArcSoft Video Decoder line from my Sage.properties.

Also, for anyone running a Motorola DC6200 that's getting poor SD playback: I changed my 4:3 Override setting to upscale SD content to 480p. So far so good.

[canadaneedsmusi]

B-Figgy,

I tried to run just the regular codecs but still no improvement. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

1) Do the ATI codecs have a "name" in sage, or are they just the default? I don't see any that sage ATI in them, maybe I don't have them installed?
2) When watching SD or HD (not recording) what is your CPU usage? As I've mentioned before I'm running between 34% and 41% which seems high. I would just like to know what someone with a 780G is experiencing besides me.

Thanks.

Dave.

[Jesse]

I finally got mine up and running yesterday afternoon. Quite an ordeal, but the problems were by and large related to my STB and user error.

First off were problems with my new D* H20-600. I got it about a month or so ago and had a lot of trouble with it. I did finally get it working and configured. I could not get the Paterson device to work with it, so I took it out of service while waiting for the HD-PVR, figuring I would either get it working later or use IR if necessary.

Fast forward to the arrival of the HD-PVR. Now I can get nothing out of the D* H20-600 but "Searching for Satellite Signal." A few hours of tinkering (in the middle of the night, of course) and I come to find out that the B-Band converter they supplied with the STB was bad. Two days later I have a new B-Band converter and the STB is working perfectly.

The HD-PVR installed without a hitch, but I still get no love at all from the Paterson device, so I set up the USBUIRT to change channels via IR. I know my server is going to have playback issues so I go to my main client and have a look. The picture is beautiful, but I have no sound. After much screwing around I install Arcsoft TME from the Hauppauge driver disc onto the client and I have picture and sound. The reason I did not install it strait away is that I have Arcsoft "Total Media Theater" installed on the client for HDDVD and BD playback and I figured that would include the same decoders. That is what I get for assuming...

So now it all looks good until I try and change channels. The H20-600 is set up for native output and it seems that when I change to a channel that is at a resolution other than the current channel the client locks up hard (task manager to kill sage). A little testing finds that it is only the client that is locking up, the HD-PVR is tuning the new channel just fine and the server is recording just fine. After some more tinkering I discover that at some point in my earlier testing of the audio issue I had set the video renderer to overlay. I set it back to VMR9 and no more problems when changing channels.

I do need to stress the unit some more and see if the overheating issue crops up. The IR channel changes are not 100%, so the issues with the Paterson device will have to be addressed.

If the unit does not overheat I will be very pleased with the whole thing.

Jesse