BTV 4.5 and Hauppauge HVR-1600

[aphid]

I have been using an ATI HDTV Wonder with BTV 4.5 for quite a while and everything works great. The card tunes all the OTA digital (HD) channels available in my area. However, the HDTV Wonder does not have a hardware encoder for recording my cable channels. So I jumped on the new Hauppauge HVR-1600, even though it was not (yet?) listed as supported by BTV. I was thinking to replace the HDTV Wonder, but I have run into a problem that I have not been able to solve. BTV recognizes the HVR-1600 just fine, but it will not tune all of the OTA channels, only 3 or 4 of the 12 available, even thought the HDTV Wonder tunes them all perfectly (in the same machine). Right now I have both cards installed with the HDTV Wonder supplying the OTA channels and the HVR-1600 supplying the cable channels. This setup works very well, but I am into problem solving when it comes to video.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the HVR-1600 is not tuning the OTA channels correctly? Might it be a BTV problem or a poor tuner in the HVR-1600?

[Jakesty]

Hardware encoding is not possible for HDTV programs, that's why the ATI Wonder doesn't have one. The HVR1600 has the hardware encoder only for the analog SD recordings.
BTV 4.5 can only record on the SD or HD at one time. 4.6 is supposed to fix this and allow you to use the 1600 as a dual tuner unit.
Possibly get on the beta team to test 4.6 or wait for the release which should be soon.
Jake

[tscales]

I suspect a signal problem. What does antennaweb.com say about your signal?

[aphid]

Thanks for the responses.

Jakesty, you might have misunderstood my post. I know that HDTV comes over as a pure transport stream. I wanted the HVR-1600 for the hardware encoder to record my cable channels - SDTV. My problem is with the HVR-1600 not tuning the OTA channels when the HDTV Wonder grabs them all. I will look into the beta of BTV 4.6

tscales, Antennaweb reports all of the OTA channels are less than 12 miles away. Tuning the channels with the HDTV Wonder reveals that the signal strength is 98-100. So, I don't think its a signal problem.

[myktek]

It might be a driver issue, try uninstalling both cards and then the Hauppauge HVR-1600 by itself and see how it works first then install the ATI HDTV Wonder card.

[aphid]

For reasons other than the BTV/HVR-1600 problem, I installed a clean copy of Windows XP SP2 to a reformatted hard drive. Afterward, I did not install the HDTV Wonder, but installed the HVR-1600 alone with the latest drivers from Hauppauge. Running the BTV setup wizard resulted in all the OTA channels being detected EXCEPT channel 2 (1021). Prior to reinstalling Windows, the HDTV Wonder detected channel 2 at 100% strength.

I also tried the HVR-1600 with BTV 4.6 RC1 and it made no difference. It looks like this may be related to the drivers for the HVR-1600. Maybe the next update will get me channel 2. I contacted Hauppauge support, but they have apparently decided not to respond to this problem.

Thanks for the input everyone.

[tscales]

Is Channel 2 by chance your only VHF channel?

[av2]

Originally Posted by aphid

For reasons other than the BTV/HVR-1600 problem, I installed a clean copy of Windows XP SP2 to a reformatted hard drive. Afterward, I did not install the HDTV Wonder, but installed the HVR-1600 alone with the latest drivers from Hauppauge. Running the BTV setup wizard resulted in all the OTA channels being detected EXCEPT channel 2 (1021). Prior to reinstalling Windows, the HDTV Wonder detected channel 2 at 100% strength.

I also tried the HVR-1600 with BTV 4.6 RC1 and it made no difference. It looks like this may be related to the drivers for the HVR-1600. Maybe the next update will get me channel 2. I contacted Hauppauge support, but they have apparently decided not to respond to this problem.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Using the setup wizard, use the available "preset" OTA HD channels that BTV's EPG offers for your area (i.e. don't scan for stations), then delete all of the weak stations - that was the best way for me to tune in all local OTA HD stations.

[aphid]

tscales, I was hoping that too, but channel 2.1 is UHF. I have two VHF channels, 9.1 and 12.1, and both tune just fine. It's annoying because 2.1 is CBS and it tunes great on the HDTV Wonder and my HD TV.


av2, I tried that approach. It just leaves channels 2.1 with a zero signal.