Hauppauge HD-PVR beta driver v1.5.6

[toricred]

I just added my 4th D2 HD-PVR today. All are running this driver and have been incredibly stable as long as I don't muck with the H21 receivers they're pulling from.

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by toricred

I just added my 4th D2 HD-PVR today. All are running this driver and have been incredibly stable as long as I don't muck with the H21 receivers they're pulling from.

Are you running DD5.1 on the HD PVRs? Do you have the H21s audio output set to stereo or Digital?

[babgvant]

The newest driver is better, but I'm still getting lockups w/ spdif recording every week or so. Analog audio is perfect so I went back to that...

[Taddeusz]

I have zero issue with using SPDIF when my STB is set to output PCM stereo. I just have to make sure the volume on my STB is turned all the way up or else I get very low volume on my recordings.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I have zero issue with using SPDIF when my STB is set to output PCM stereo. I just have to make sure the volume on my STB is turned all the way up or else I get very low volume on my recordings.

I should have said AC3 bitstreamed over SPDIF, if I configure my STB to output PCM over SPDIF I have the same result as using the analog inputs.

[Taddeusz]

My opinion is that either the hardware in the HD PVR or the driver/firmware is very poor at recovering from a break in the AC3 stream. I think the CATV signal quality at my current house isn't that great. I notice breaks in the signal when I'm watching live TV on the STB directly connected to the TV. Happens a lot. I'm not too worried about it right now. We're in the process of buying a house. Hoping that signal quality there is much better or at least manageable.

Not sure what the average error rate of QAM video is but a while back I was playing around with firewire capture of video from my STB. I can only get the locals, everything else is 5C'd. But, one thing I was noticing was that the video from the firewire port had a lot of blockiness in it that doesn't show up when the STB itself is decoding the signal. It seems to me that, while I seem to have a decent signal strength, I show -5dbmv on my STB, that the signal quality isn't that great. The STB seems to be able to error correct better than VLC.

Crossing my fingers that after we move that my signal strength and quality is good.

[babgvant]

Forced to speculate, I think the problem is probably caused by the audio format changing midstream (number of channels for e.g.).

[Taddeusz]

Yea, I know mine has a bit of speculation. Just from acute observation of posts on the forum and from my own experiences there's a pretty strong indication that the HDPVR doesn't handle AC3 stream breaks very well. Whether the breaks are due to signal errors or from commercial transitions doesn't seem to matter. Although, if the error rate is high it seems that it tends to exacerbate the situation and the HDPVR tends to fail more often.

By using the analog inputs or by setting your STB to output PCM audio effectively works around the issue because then the STB is required to decode the AC3 audio to stereo. The only caveat there is that you're depending on the STB to hopefully produce a matrixed Dolby Prologic compatible signal so that surround sound can still be heard.

[Rico66]

But it still seems that not every unit behaves the same as another one. I've a C2 set to bitstream AC3 output over SPDIF, which can handle audio format changes without locking up. Sometimes it might stop for a second when the signal changes from 5.1 to 2.0 (e.g. due to commerical breaks), but it will recover from that.

[Taddeusz]

My unit is a C2 and it requires power cycling every few days if I set my STB to output AC3 audio.

Conversely, if my STB is set to PCM audio the only problems I ever have are with the STB itself.

[Steve52]

Well I would still like to hear from Toricred on this because he seems to have a very similar setup as mine, but from what I read here the HD PVR with the 1.5.6.0 driver is still not ready for DD5.1 audio. I guess I will have to stay with stereo only on my existing unit and the new one I have on order as well. If anyone gets lockup free usage for a Directv H21 set to Digital output connected to the Hd PVR set to DD5.1 audio please post here and let all of us know. I can't take the chance of lockups in my house, because I am too dependent on my sage system. Thanks for all the replies!

[phelme]

I'm using the drivers from last October (v1.0.5.1!), because things are more or less stable; I may get a lock up once a month. Do any of the later drivers fix the AC3 high pitched noise/tone I'm getting at the beginning of 5.1 recordings? If so, I may just risk an upgrade.

[Chriscic]

I haven't heard the popping or screeching in a long while. This may be because of the tuning delay now standard I think with Sage and the HD-PVR.

[toricred]

Originally Posted by Steve52

Are you running DD5.1 on the HD PVRs? Do you have the H21s audio output set to stereo or Digital?

Yes they are DD5.1 and the output is set to Digital. I had been running this way with 3 of the units for several months. Yesterday I finally got rid of my last analog tuner.

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by toricred

Yes they are DD5.1 and the output is set to Digital. I had been running this way with 3 of the units for several months. Yesterday I finally got rid of my last analog tuner.

And you don't have any lockups on the HD PVR?

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Steve52

And you don't have any lockups on the HD PVR?

It might be STB dependent.

[toricred]

The only time I have lockups anymore are when I pull the power on the STB. I've had to do that every once in a while due to the new firmware on the H21 receivers messing up my serial control. That has only been happening on one of the HDPVRs, but the others have been up and running for a couple of months now. Even on the one that has locked up it only does it once in a great while. I think it is dependent on the timing and what is happening with the audio in.

[Chriscic]

I'm running two HD-PVRs with Dish and 5.1 sound now and shockingly I don't seem to be getting any lock-ups. Knock on large piece of wood... I haven't been watching much TV lately or even recording a lot so maybe it will bite me when I start watching more (therefore more channel changes), but right now things are stunningly smooth considering the 9 months of pain and suffering I went through with all the lock-ups back when I was running only one unit (that D2 was RMAed and is now an E1).

I was still getting lock-ups when I initially switched to Dish from Comcast so I don't think that's it. And my 2nd unit (still a D2) also used to lock-up when I used it by itself, so I'm not really sure what changed along the way and fixed things such that both units are now working fine. I am using the USB-UIRT now, although the IR blaster had worked with no problems...who knows, maybe the IR blaster was contributing to the lock-up problems somehow. Or maybe just some tweaking Sage did. It takes a real long time to change channels now, but I can certainly live with that for stability.

[cord]

I just built a whole new server, with a new HD PVR, SageTV 6.6.2, and the 1.5.6.0 drivers. I'm recording surround sound via the optical input, and I have had absolutely zero stability problems, but it seems like the audio gets further and further out of sync, the longer a program runs. The out of sync audio seems to be in the recording itself, rather than in the playback.

Earlier in this thread, somebody mentioned a property that could be adjusted. Can anybody provide me with more info on that, or link to a thread about it?

I'll switch back to stereo if I have to, but I'd obviously rather stick with fancy-schmancy sound, if possible.

[Chriscic]

I haven't noticed this (although I'm still on the latest RC before final 6.6).

I do sometimes get audio out of sync, but usually skipping back or forward (or even changing the channel then changing it back) fixes it. I haven't noticed it getting more out of sync as times goes on.