advice: PVR-250 choppy video

[ToonGal]

I have 3 PVR 250's, one bought early 2004, two late 2004. The oldest one seems to have 'choppy' video nowadays. I have the latest drivers for my mobo (PERLK), video card (ATI 9600), hauppauge PVR 250s, etc., so I'm sure it's not that. I'm running SageTV v2.1.10, cayars16 STV, service mode.

I'm sure that it must be the card as the problem, given the other two record just fine. Happy for any other thoughts / suggestions.

Two issues:
1) Can I prioritize the two newer PVR 250's to record first?
2) What can I do with respect to Hauppauge? Do they have good customer service for RMA's? How do I go about it? Phone number?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[ToonGal]

Bump.

Nobody responded to my original post. Here's an update, and a different request for help with this problem. Cayars17 the only change in hw/sw. I called Hauppauge, they were very helpful, and got an RMA number.

Backed up all my files, so no problems there.

Ironically, my biggest problem was isolating the choppy card. Slots 2, 3, and 4 have PVRs old, new, new. Slot 4/new is the one supporting the IR, when all 3 are plugged in.

I removed slot 2/old, assuming the oldest one was failing. Slots 3 and 4 remaining, SageTV worked fine, but one of the two of them had choppy video.

I removed slot 3/new, put back 2/old, trying to isolate the card. Again, one good and one bad.

Next, I pulled slot 4/new, and had 2/old and 3/new installed. SageTV service was constantly failing (crashing / restarting), video wasn't working, and all sorts of problems.

After this, I tried various combinations of only one card. The service kept failing. I deleted all sage.config and wiz.bin files, assuming a clean install would help me get to which card is choppy quickly. No such luck. More service crashing, even with default .config and wiz.bin files.

After 3 hours, I need to have this up and running again, since I have lawyer meetings all day tomorrow, and can't touch it for at least 24 hours or more. Restoring all original config / wiz files and cards to original slots, all is "well" again (i.e. 2 cards good; 1 choppy).

Anyone have ANY suggestions or comments as to:
a) How to determine if I have a s/w or h/w problem? Can't see how it is s/w, given 2 of 3 PVRs work perfectly.
b) If h/w, how to isolate which card is the problem? (I know which one it is in the SageTV. Can this be used to track which physical card it is?)
c) If it IS slot 4/new, how do I configure SageTV such to have a working system with 2/old and 3/new? Delete the bad card from Sage before turning the computer off?
d) I kept the cards in the original slots. Would moving them around help, or only make things get worse?

Any suggestions welcome. At wits end, especially because Hauppauge sounds like they'll replace my card for the price of shipping. If only I knew which card was 'wrong'...

Thanks in advance!

[ToonGal]

Took forever, and multiple reboots, but matte working now and the black square in preview mode gone. Here's the steps I did for those who care:

- installed ATI CATALYST v5.1 (win2k - wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-09-041221m-020455c)
- installed Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 drivers v2.2.22301 (SHS - hcw2_2_22301_pp2.zip)
- installed ATI DVD Decoders v2.2.0.0
- installed misc other updated drivers.
- SageTV detailed setup
+ Video, Video renderer = VMR9 (had "default")
+ Video, MPEG2 decoder = InterVideo NonCSS (had "default")
+ Advanced, 3D acceleration = Enabled (short term was "Disabled")
+ Advanced, Overlay color keying = Enabled

All's well that ends well. Thanks for all your help, gang. Forum advice was invaluable. Now the next project. No responses from other thread in H/W help. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Problem:
3 PVR 250's. PVR Capture #2 and #3 (per SageTV naming) work just great. #1 is choppy, and must be a H/W problem. Have an RMA from Hauppauge, just can't identify which physical card it is. When I remove what I think is the problem card, SageTVservice became unstable. What process should I go through to solve this? Remove #1 as a source from SageTV, then test physical H/W? Ideas?

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by ToonGal

Problem:
3 PVR 250's. PVR Capture #2 and #3 (per SageTV naming) work just great. #1 is choppy, and must be a H/W problem. Have an RMA from Hauppauge, just can't identify which physical card it is. When I remove what I think is the problem card, SageTVservice became unstable. What process should I go through to solve this? Remove #1 as a source from SageTV, then test physical H/W? Ideas?

Watch Live TV on #1 then one by one unplug the coax cable from the cards waiting a little bit between each until your screen turns to snow. Then you'll know the physical card.

[ToonGal]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Watch Live TV on #1 then one by one unplug the coax cable from the cards waiting a little bit between each until your screen turns to snow. Then you'll know the physical card.

Sigh... Spot the obvious move. Thanks, Tox... Ok, this got me the right physical card. This is the one I initially thought it was.

Now, part 2. After I removed this card from my system, SageTV simply stopped working. This card is the one which was my IR receiver, as well as the #1 "lead" card, if that is significant.

What process do I remove this card and keep SageTV stable? Do I really remove PVR 250 #1 from Sage THEN power down / remove card? Other process? Why did SageTVservice start failing so often after I simply removed the card?

I have about 45 minutes before the boy wakes up. Hoping to nail this ASAP in case he wakes up early. Thanks again for the help, Tox.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by ToonGal

What process do I remove this card and keep SageTV stable? Do I really remove PVR 250 #1 from Sage THEN power down / remove card? Other process? Why did SageTVservice start failing so often after I simply removed the card?

I'm not sure why it is locking up but I definitely recommend removing the encoder in Sage then powering down and yanking the card. I'd actually consider removing all 3 from Sage if you are willing to go through the tuner setups again. Then remove all 3 from the device manager. Then shutdown and remove card and upon bootup reinstall the drivers. Then finally readd the 2 working cards to Sage.
SIDE NOTE: I'm hoping Opus is reading this and could break these few posts into a seperate thread.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Watch Live TV on #1 then one by one unplug the coax cable from the cards waiting a little bit between each until your screen turns to snow. Then you'll know the physical card.

Or just go into setup wizzard and bring up the channel lineup for each devie and use the "VIEW" channel.

No need to disconnect anything and you can do it from a client too.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by Cayars

Or just go into setup wizzard and bring up the channel lineup for each devie and use the "VIEW" channel.

No need to disconnect anything and you can do it from a client too.

I don't understand how this would enable you to figure out which physical card you are watching without unhooking the cable.

[Cayars]

Because the first thing you have to do is select the card before you get to the channel lineup on that card.

It's pretty much just like setting the video calibration for a video card if that helps.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by Cayars

Because the first thing you have to do is select the card before you get to the channel lineup on that card.

It's pretty much just like setting the video calibration for a video card if that helps.

OK but if you have 3 PVR250s how can you tell which actual card in the machine matches up with the #1 2 or 3 card in Sage?
EDIT: She knew which card in Sage was the one she wanted to pull already and was just trying to figure out which physical card it was.

[johandm]

ToonGal, did you ever get to fix that choppy video problem by replacing the card ?
I also get that from time to time one of my cards makes recordings with choppy video (the audio is still allright then) and what I see is that if I reboot my machine, they are all 3 good again... (for a couple of weeks).
I am also using 3 PVR250 cards.
Thanks!