HD PVR and "Loading preview. Please wait"

[aclarke]

I have a new this evening Hauppauge HD PVR, and the latest downloaded SageTV (6.6.2) and HD PVR drivers (1.5.6.1). Everything seems to work fine with the HD PVR when I test it in Total Media Extreme. Optical input is hit and miss, so I've switched to component audio.

However, when I set up SageTV, it just sits there displaying "Loading preview. Please wait." when I'm setting up the HD PVR. I've used SageTV a long time, but not for about a year. This is on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

What am I missing? How can I get my HD PVR to work in SageTV?

Thank you for any ideas,
- Andrew.

[sic0048]

Have you tried ignoring the preview? I never wait for the preview screen to appear when I am setting up the tuner in Sage. After a few seconds, the next button will be active and you can move on to the next step of the process.

[aclarke]

Yes I tried that. When I went to watch live tv, all I got was a little icon on the screen, sort of like a piece of film. That was it.

Thanks,
- Andrew.

[SWKerr]

Do you have a h.264 driver selected in the Playback setup? Sage will need to be able to play a h.264 file before playback will work. If you can record in TME try to play back in Sage to see if it is working.

[aclarke]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

Do you have a h.264 driver selected in the Playback setup? Sage will need to be able to play a h.264 file before playback will work. If you can record in TME try to play back in Sage to see if it is working.

I'm not sure if I have an H.264 driver selected or not. I did as you suggested and recorded a 1 minute .mp4 file (XBox or whatever they call it). Nothing I tried in SageTV would get that to play properly. It was horribly jerky and stuttery, and finally just crashed SageTV. So that's definitely a problem...

Thanks again,
- Andrew.

[SWKerr]

Go to:
Detailed Setup
Video\Audio
MPEG4 Playback: Arcsoft Video Recorder

If when you select MPEG4 Playback you do not see the Arcsoft codec you may need to register it manually. The newer versions of TME do not register the Arcsoft codecs. The link below gives some instructions on how to do it.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...75&postcount=4

I would also use the Arcsoft codecs in the MPEG2 Video and Audio sections.

For about $15 you can get the COreAVC codec that will register itself. If you have problems there are also some DVB related codec packs that might make it easier. (Google DVB codec pack)

Sage will record the HD-PVR files as a *.ts file by default.

[aclarke]

Thank you swkerr. Following your link, I installed the Arcsoft codec for mpeg4 playback. I am now able to see a preview window and hear the sound when setting up my HD PVR as a recording source.

However, I'm still getting no luck when I try to view live TV. I just get the little film icon in the top left, and that's it.

Also, I don't have an Arcsoft codec option in the mpeg2 audio playback list. I have Default (selected), AC3Filter, MPEG Audio Decoder, and SageTV MPEG Audio Decoder.

Finally, every time I start my computer SageTV sends me back to the beginning of the setup. This is very very annoying. Sometimes the values are pre-filled, and sometimes they're not. Is this because I had UAC on when I set up SageTV? I think it's off now as something else in this process turned it off, but I'm sort of new to having to think about that. Any ideas?

Thanks again. I'm getting closer!

- Andrew.

[aclarke]

I think I have this working! I figured I'd tackle the UAC problem, and followed the solution found at http://www.mistigrifx.com/tools/meta...vista-security which I'd used before for that programme.

Lo and behold, that solved my problems with always having to restart the setup process. It also seems to have resolved my HD PVR problems, and everything actually seems to be working! Oh joy, oh bliss.

Thank you very much to all of you who were a huge help.
- Andrew.