Calling all Hauppauge 350 users for satisfaction poll?

[carlgar]

I am still not happy with the current status of 350 issues. I still have not been able to use the 350 TVout and keep my system up for more than 24 hours yet. I want to see if I am an isolated case or there are just not many 350 users. I am using the latest 350 drivers that I am aware of posted by SHS on 6/11/04.

[fidget]

From reading the message boards, it seems as if the PVR-350 problems are chipset related. My PVR-350 setup uses a VIA EPIA-M motherboard and WindowsXP Home. It runs like a champ in that configuration.

My preference, however, would be to use a MediaMVP. I suppose that I will just have to wait for that interface.

[ckron]

Most 350 problems seem to occur when you are using an Intel chipset. 845's and newer have the worst problems. I am currently running on a 440BX and the only problem I have is the 'end of file bug'.

[zz5]

fidget, when you say it runs like a champ, what exactly do you mean? How often does it lock up? Does it every lock up? Is it just as stable as using video card output? Are you using your EPIA-M as a client? If your using it as a client, is it always on? I can keep my 350 up for 3 days. But it eventually always will lock up. Without 350 output, I have no problems at all with lockups.

[fidget]

Originally posted by zz5
fidget, when you say it runs like a champ, what exactly do you mean? How often does it lock up? Does it every lock up? Is it just as stable as using video card output? Are you using your EPIA-M as a client? If your using it as a client, is it always on? I can keep my 350 up for 3 days. But it eventually always will lock up. Without 350 output, I have no problems at all with lockups.

I am running both SageTV Recorder and SageTV Client on the EPIA-M, but I primaily use the SageTV Client. The only times I have had the output lockup (and it has just been the output, not the computer), I have been jumping around a video (short attention span ). Doing a disable of the output and UI, then enabling it again fixed the problem.

When do you have your PVR-350 lockup on the EPIA?

[zz5]

fidget, thanks for the quick response. I'm using at VIA KT600 chipset. I have the same problem as you. The output will lockup sometimes when jumping around in a video. Usually, I can disable/re-enable without rebooting the computer, but other times, the computer will lockup. And even if I don't have to reboot, it can cause whatever is recording to break up into multiple files. I think we're having the same problem.

I was thinking of starting a thread like this one. I think carlgar and I want to find out the same thing. Is the 350 inherently an unstable device? Does anyone actually have it running with the same stability that you'd get with a vcr? What I'm wondering is, do the people who have it running stable just have a different definition of stability than me? Does anyone actually have it up 2 weeks or so without it locking up or having any problem? I consider a 350 output lockup that doesn't cause a total lockup a stability problem because it will often ultimately result in a total lockup.

[rhsmcc]

I voted as a satisfied 350 user with no problems. I should clarify however that on rare occasions the 350 card seems to lose the video feed and shows as a frozen picture. Now this happens maybe once every 4-5 weeks. It almost always occurs as I’m fast forwarding. Sage is not locked or frozen. I have a Panasonic 50 inch LCD HDTV and have both a svideo 350 hookup and the VGA input. When I switch to the VGA input I just go to setup and disable TV out for the 350 and play a short segment and the enable TV out again and all is well. Even with a DVI or VGA direct connection I find he 350 svideo output a richer and sharper image. I have an ASUS A7N266-VM with a 1.2 Duron, 512meg PC2100, using onboard video, 250 Hauppauge OEM Gateway + 350 Hauppauge and 2 160 Gig WD drives.

[carlgar]

I refer to the minor freezes that fidget described to as a "soft" freeze. I would be quite happy if that was all that I got. However, I also get a "hard" freeze that requires a reboot to correct. If I do not reboot to correct, my recordings seem to have problems such as poor recording quality. Since it takes about 5 minutes for me to determine if it is a hard or soft freeze and reboot if needed, it causes havoc with up to 3 recordings going.

[Alex0230]

I have problems with the 350 and have attributed them mostly to a driver issue rather than a Sage thing....

1) Video out loss when resuming from hibernation/standby (can be fixed by disabling/enabling the device)

2) I experience random Sage/Computer lockups when doing FFWD/RWD, it seems that if I do too many in a row or do it when Sage starts recording a new show while I'm watching another....there is a high tendency to lockup.

3) With the new beta driver (haven't experienced it yet since rolling back), my machine was rebooting when I would close files.

Overall I'm happy with the 350...I get a little nervous ever 30 minutes when a new show is going to start recording and I'm currently watching a recording. There's always the fear of, is this going to lock up...but for the most part I'm happy with how the system works despite the card's issues.

[GrayGh0st]

I have the 350 and have problems w/ the tv-out. Same as everyone else. During fast forwards and rewinds, sometimes, the tv-out freezes. It's fixed by disabling/re-enabling the device w/o reboot. This is kind of a pain b/c I'm using the 350's tv out as the sole output from my pvr. So if I want to disable/re-enable the output, I have to switch the s-video cable from the 350 to my video card. Not that this is a lenghty process (15 seconds), it's just annoying, and happens more often than I'd like.

I've read some threads here that seem to indicate the 350 lock ups could be due to an overheating problem w/ the card. Any truth to this? I just ordered another case fan, so maybe (fingers crossed), this might help.

Also, as this seems to be a very common problem, I working on compiling a new section for the FAQ to give to the moderators that discuss this problem, and possible solutions.

My setup in case anyone wanted to know:

Biostar mobo - NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra chipset
80 gig WD HD
512 DDR 3200 (I think) RAM
On-board sound
Cheap PNY GeForce4 MX 440 64MB
1.3 ghz AMD Athlon
Hauppauge PVR350

[zz5]

I should have mentioned that when I have the soft lockup, as carlgar describes, and I disable/re-enable, I still have a problem. After I begin to play the recording again, and then go back to the Sage menu, the output locks up again. Does anyone else have this problem? I always reboot as soon as I can after as soft lockup. I will wait if I happen to have something recording before I reboot. When you disable/re-enable, can you keep everything running normally without having to eventually do a reboot? How long have you been able to keep your system up after disable/re-enabling? Does anyone get their recordings interrupted during a soft lockup like I do?

[pcuoco]

I'm using the 350 successfully, but do suffer from "soft" lock ups with the same symptoms (caused lots of fast forwarding or rewinding) from time to time. I'm using an Intel 440BX chipset.

[spanky]

Carlgar,

I notice that you have a hyper-threaded machine, have you tried disabling hyper-threading to see if that makes any difference in the issues you are having. I know of someone with a dual CPU machine that was only able to run his 350 reliably when he removed a CPU. He contacted Hauppauge about this and was informed that many of their capture cards (both PVR and regular) have issues running in dual CPU and hyper-threaded systems. He was told that Microsoft knows about this issue and that they (M$) have a fix incorporated into service pack 2 for XP. He downloaded the release candidate of SP2 and lo and behold he was able to put the second CPU back in the system and has not run into any problems since. Since HT is similiar to dual CPUs maybe this is a course of action to be investigated.

[spanky]

BTW - Hauppauge is not the only manufacturer to which this holds true, ATI and Pinnacle, among others, also have issues.

[jphhughes]

Ever since I installed the beta Drivers from SHS the 350 TV-out problems have essentially gone away. I guess its been about three weeks and I have had one lockup while watching livetv. I do have a situation which I believe is peculiar to my configuration where I will get a solid lockup coming out of standby when Sage is being booted from a batch file. When it locks up it is always at the same point where is says something like" initializing direct show graph". When it does lock up I have to power down and restart. But again I don't think this is related to the 350 issue

[carlgar]

Originally posted by spanky
Carlgar,

I notice that you have a hyper-threaded machine, have you tried disabling hyper-threading to see if that makes any difference in the issues you are having. I know of someone with a dual CPU machine that was only able to run his 350 reliably when he removed a CPU. He contacted Hauppauge about this and was informed that many of their capture cards (both PVR and regular) have issues running in dual CPU and hyper-threaded systems. He was told that Microsoft knows about this issue and that they (M$) have a fix incorporated into service pack 2 for XP. He downloaded the release candidate of SP2 and lo and behold he was able to put the second CPU back in the system and has not run into any problems since. Since HT is similiar to dual CPUs maybe this is a course of action to be investigated.

No, I have not tried to disable the hyper-threading. I have seen a post from someone else with 350 related problems that did try that and saw no difference. While the hyper-threading could be a likely cause, I think it is more likely that the faster computers encounter more problems. This is a fairly common type issue for programers are not exprienced with multitasking programs. I feel that this is a major problem with Hauppauge software. I have a very low opinon of the Hauppauge software department as soon as I started using the 350 supplied software and realized that they were not even smart enought to rename there software from winTV2000. I had planned to use the 350 with the WinTV GO card that I had been using. When programmers make such a basic blunder it is hard to believe they really know how to write a driver.

Faster computers are more likely to show problems because the window of opportunity in critical regions of the code becomes more likely to be hit. I think that most people here are using older and therefore slower systems and may not be seeing a lot of the issues.

BTW: The only reason I have this newer hyper-threading system is because I was not able to combine the 350 with my 250 cards in the same computer. I bought this system so I had a server/client configuration. I have considered trying my older Intel 845 system, but I believe someone in this thread stated they had problems with one.

[justme]

Just a quick note: I'd love to see this FAQ entry when it's ready. For those with soft lockups, you could ask LaurenGlenn to add a auto disable/re-enable of the 350's output to her STV and attach it to a custom command. This would allow you to get SageTV's UI back up with just a push of a remote button.

PS:I'm one of the people who voted have the 350, but not using it. It's in it's box waiting for me.

/justme

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by zz5
I should have mentioned that when I have the soft lockup, as carlgar describes, and I disable/re-enable, I still have a problem. After I begin to play the recording again, and then go back to the Sage menu, the output locks up again. Does anyone else have this problem? I always reboot as soon as I can after as soft lockup. I will wait if I happen to have something recording before I reboot. When you disable/re-enable, can you keep everything running normally without having to eventually do a reboot? How long have you been able to keep your system up after disable/re-enabling? Does anyone get their recordings interrupted during a soft lockup like I do?

Check out my STV in this post:

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...7161#post47161

I used to get STV lockups through software. There was a conditional that I put in that tested the remaining time of a file and would close the file if it was below 5 seconds. For some reason (probably a lingering API bug left over when I used to write my CD player program when NT4 was new), it would always close the file in mid-stream. The error that would always come up in Sage was "Unable to connect with DirectShow" or "filter graph error" or the like. Since that conditional has been firing, the error never pops up. The file just gets closed.

What I did was to have Sage reload the file instead and turn off, then turn on the 350 UI. It seems to be working so far. Let me know if it works for you. FWIW, I don't have SP2 yet, but if it fixes this problem, I'll be one of the first in line when it comes out. But this type of DirectShow/Mplayer type bug has been around since Win98 in some form or another.....

Lauren

[edgley]

Mine *seems* to be okay with the UI turned off.
Will leave it running for a bit longer, then try the new beta drivers

[carlgar]

Originally posted by carlgar
No, I have not tried to disable the hyper-threading. I have seen a post from someone else with 350 related problems that did try that and saw no difference. While the hyper-threading could be a likely cause, I think it is more likely that the faster computers encounter more problems.

Since I was unable to locate the post that I had read stating that turning off hyper-threading made no difference, I decided to go ahead and try it myself. It did solve my problems, I have now been up over 24 hours without either a soft or a hard freeze. My system now appears to be rock solid.

The only issue I saw after disableing the hyper-threading was a studder when viewing on the monitor. I also saw an occasial momentary freeze on the TV, when I believe was caused the the slowness of the software decoding. I was able to eliminate this issue by setting the priority for SageTV to above normal.

This may not solve other users problems because I am still using SageTV 1.4 as oppose to SageTV 2.0. I would strongly recommend that anyone with a hyper-threading CPU to disable it and see if it corrects any problems that were occurring.

While is it too early to know for sure whether the problems were caused by the hyper-threading or the processor speed. I am not sure but I believe the processor now requires twice as many cycles to do the same amount of work. This means I am really running at 1.3 GHz. I do see my CPU usage at 100% a lot more now. Based upon the fact that I have not yet seen any freezes I would lean toward hyper-threading being the cause of my problems. If I do encountered some freezes in the future, I would then lean toward it being speed related.