Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[Wrx4me]

Is anyone here running Colossus+spdif with an HDPVR or 2 in the mix flawlessly? I just want to know what settings people are using to make it work. Mine has been disabled since I received it because it just makes my entire setup unstable.(stuttering, sound drop outs and freezing on all tuners)

[dhorth]

OK Just got mine, got it installed no problems. Hooked it up to my cable box via HDMI and tested it with the Hauppauge WinTV and was able to see a picture! yea

No I go into Sage and I dont see a selection for the HDMI video input source on the card. I see both composites, svideo, etc but no HDMI. What gives?

[jptheripper]

you should see hdmi, and component/spdif, etc.. if not, are you running the beta?

[jalyst]

BUMP @SHS/anyone for post #712

Thank-you.

[ramakripa]

Hello...I have been building HTPC's with windows media center for a few years now. This is my first attempt at Sage as I was intrigued by the new Sage v7 and the Hd300. Completed my build and installed at a friends place and things are working okay. Everything except TV. I got the Hauppauge colossus last night and I wanted to test it in my box before putting in my friends.

I have a Dishaa 811 receiver connected to an antenna to decrypt OTA. I do not have any other subscription in Dish to see other channels. I use the 811 only for OTA. I hooked up the colossus, installed the drivers and did allt he connections as listed. Installed sage and sage sees the tuner and it also try's to tune to the channel. I left the Dishaa on OTA NBC. (11-1). Sage keeps saying loading preview, but nothing comes on the screen.

Can i do something like this or do I need to have a subscription with Dish or Directtv to some set of channels for even Colossus to pick it up. I thought that colossus would atleast show me the program guide from dish. I can see the program guide, if I connect the Dish 811 directly to another monitor or TV.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jptheripper]

You need an ir blaster to have your computer change the channels on the dish receiver.

You will not use its guide, you have to setup a lineup in sage.

that aside, if your receiver is currently outputting nbc, you should see that in the preview window. Just make sure you box is outputting 720p or 1080i , the colossus cannot tune 1080p.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by bits

jptheripper :

SHS :

Thank you for the suggestions. I am just wondering why I did not have a hum with my PVR150, same audio connection.

I will give one or both of the suggestions a try.

I had an audio hum and a video rolling band of interference on old analog cable tuner when the cable was too close to a power cord, FWIW.

[ramakripa]

Thanks for the IR blaster suggestion. I know I have to do that. But I was trying to take it step by step. Once I get a preview, then I can work on that.

I was under the impression that Sage will scan the channels like the other tuner cards...I have experience adding a Hauppage 2250 in Sage. But according to what you are saying, looks like I have to map every channel. It could be a faulty component cable also...I am using the one that came with the colossus. I will try a different cable today.

I am pretty sure the Disha 811 is outputting in 1080i, because that is the maximum resolution on that box.

Also one other frustrating thing I am facing is, sage keeps going back to the home screen, the moment I touch a key or move my mouse when I am in themiddle of any of the subscreens. I sent an email to Sage support and they asked me to change the ui rendering parameter from true to false, but that does not seem to help. Anyone has this experience and a solution for this?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by ramakripa

Thanks for the IR blaster suggestion. I know I have to do that. But I was trying to take it step by step. Once I get a preview, then I can work on that.

I was under the impression that Sage will scan the channels like the other tuner cards...I have experience adding a Hauppage 2250 in Sage. But according to what you are saying, looks like I have to map every channel. It could be a faulty component cable also...I am using the one that came with the colossus. I will try a different cable today.

The Colossus is not a tuner card. It is a capture card. There is no scanning or mapping of channels. You use your STB (cable box or satellite box) to "tune" the channels. The Colossus just records whatever comes out of the Component (or HDMI) connectors from the STB.

You use either the IR Blaster that comes with the Colussus, or some other tuning device (USBUIRT, Firewire, Serial, Ethernet, etc.) to control your STB and make it tune the channels that you want.

Sage gets the lineup of available channels from the internet (Zap2It.com). You just tell Sage who your provider is when you setup your Colossus and it downloads the list of available channels. Then when you want to watch something, it just uses the IR blaster to change the channel on your STB.

The IR Blaster just mimics your remote control and sends out the same signals as if you were pressing the buttons on your remote. The IR Blaster must be configured to use the right remote codes so it can mimic your specific remote, but this is done outside of Sage.

The Colossus will just record whatever comes out of the box, so if the IR Blaster fails, or your STB fails, Colossus will record the wrong thing.

[ramakripa]

Thanks for clarifying that Colossus is not a tuner card. I probably missed that in my anxiety to get it working. I will install the IR blaster, swap out the component cables and give it a shot today.

One thing I wanted to ask was...I downloaded the latest wintv from the hauppauge website. When I tried to install it, it asked for the original CD and damn....I am not able to read that cd. I put it in the DVD drive and it keeps popping it out...It is weird.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by ramakripa

I use the 811 only for OTA.

Then the Colossus is overkill for your needs. What you want is a PC-compatible OTA tuner like the HDHomeRun. This will capture the digital signal directly to your PC, without needing an STB or IR blaster and without decoding the signal to analog video and then re-encoding it again to digital (which is what the STB/Colossus combo does).

The appropriate use for a Colossus would be in a situation where you subscribe to cable or satellite channels that are transmitted in encrypted form and cannot be viewed without an STB to decrypt them. In that case you would use the Colossus to capture the decrypted analog output of the STV and re-digitize it for capture by the PC. You would then also need an IR blaster or serial tuning cable (depending on your STB) to change channels. But none of this Rube Goldberg machinery is needed for unencrypted TV such as digital OTA broadcasts.

[ramakripa]

Greg..thanks for your note. Yes....this is actually for a system that I installed in a friends place last week. I am just testing it out on my machine and i do not have cable or satellite. So I wanted to test the colossus with OTA and SAGETV to make sure everything works and then install at his place. He has directtv with all the HD programming. So this will be put to full use...

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by ramakripa

Greg..thanks for your note. Yes....this is actually for a system that I installed in a friends place last week. I am just testing it out on my machine and i do not have cable or satellite. So I wanted to test the colossus with OTA and SAGETV to make sure everything works and then install at his place. He has directtv with all the HD programming. So this will be put to full use...

If he has DirecTV then you'll want to use HTTP tuning via Ethernet instead of an IR blaster.

I have to say your friend is pretty brave allowing you to set him up with a complex DVR system that neither of you has any expertise with, using beta software and a just-released, bleeding-edge capture device (and so are you for trying it). I hope your friendship is strong enough to withstand this learning experience.

[ramakripa]

Just to point out...I have built and installed multiple HTPC systems over the last 2 years with various hauppauge capture cards ..primarily internal and all of them have been with windows media center. This is my first sagetv experience...as I said in my first post...I am attracted to the sage server and client concept and the ability to give livetv in the second room. One can argue that I can get the same thing accomplished with the Xbox....neah.....as an extender device...the HD300 is awesome...with its small footprint and ability to play anything.

I actually installed a HD300 in my friend's basement along with the Harmony One for all his equipment and it turned out pretty good.

[michaeljones]

I am having audio issues with SPDIF multichannel audio slowly losing sync over time (although SPDIF stereo works) from my U-verse VIP1200 and contacted Hauppauge. This was the response.

“Currently Colossus does not support 60fps, only 59.97. Support for 60fps is a top priority and a fix is in progress. We believe this is what’s causing the issue with UVerse.” Brice, Tech Support

FYI

[dhorth]

I had the colossus card working in WinTV then I installed the Sage beta and now the Colossus Capture Device shows an exclamation point in Device Manager, and I can't see the device in Sage and WinTV show the card as unavailable? Any ideas

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by dhorth

I had the colossus card working in WinTV then I installed the Sage beta and now the Colossus Capture Device shows an exclamation point in Device Manager, and I can't see the device in Sage and WinTV show the card as unavailable? Any ideas

Unistall the driver and do a detect hardware in Device manager again to see if it fixes it



Bill

[dhorth]

Tried that no luck, I tried both the drivers that came on the cd and the link that was posted earlier in this thread. Where can I find the right set of drivers?

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by dhorth

I had the colossus card working in WinTV then I installed the Sage beta and now the Colossus Capture Device shows an exclamation point in Device Manager, and I can't see the device in Sage and WinTV show the card as unavailable? Any ideas

Did you try removing Sage's beta?

Standard exclamation point procedure is; Remove all the drivers, shutdown, remove the card, reboot, shutdown, reinstall the card. reinstall the drivers.

You might try a different PCIe slot. If all this does not work, try another computer and then lastly get a RMA.

[tvmaster2]

Currently installed in my system are a HD PVR and a PVR-150

Given that, does anyone have any advice for a Colossus install that will work?

Win 7 32 bit running Sage 7.0.2

Any harm in installing the factory Hauppauge CD, apps and driver, and then updating to the one on the web site?
Or, should I ignore the included CD and just install the driver.
Does Sage 7.1.2 need to be installed first?

thanks