Fixing reported recording time

[groston]

All,

I have a number of recorded programs for which the reported program duration (bar at the bottom showing SmartSkip stuff) is significantly shorter than the actual program duration. Because of this, playback is quite challenging - BTV wants to stop playing back when the time has elapsed, even though the rest of the program exists (verified by looking at file size and viewing the .mpeg with another program).

The SnapSteam folks tell me that to avoid this problem, I need to update my MCE 500 driver. OK - I'll get to that when I'm feeling brave (last time, I wound up reformatting and starting from scratch...) More immediately, what can I do to fix these existing recordings? I have tried rerunning SmartSkip, but that didn't help. I also looked in the .xml file, but they seemed to be OK (though I could be wrong). I also tried VideoReDo (trial version) and it exited early, i.e., before the entire file had been processed.

Looking forward to your suggestions. Thx.

[merrypig]

The new mce driver installed painlessly for me.

If the 500mce is the only card(s) you have in the system; just run the hauppauge hwclear program to flush all the registry settings, then install the new driver.

I do understand the hesitation, but compared to the other issue you're trying to fix, I really would update the driver.

[ZetaVu]

Videoredo has fixed every short file problem I used to have (no longer get those, knock on wood) but mine never came from a pvr500, it was on my pvr250.

[HomeyFour]

Ahh, the wonderful "timestamp issue". Feel safe in upgrading the drivers... it works out OK.

[groston]

Thank you all for allowing me to totally f**k my system. I followed your suggestions, and Hauppauge's install notes, exactly; and now my system is totally hosed. When I try to access video from the PVR 500, I get decent audio and garbage video. Any suggestions for fixing this problem? Working with Hauppauge is a total waste of time - their support is slower than the federal government.

[Fonceur]

Try different versions of the Hauppage drivers... They changed the tuners, which resulted in crappy video with some version of the drivers...

[ZetaVu]

Have you tried accessing from the wintv application? Which driver did you use? Have you gone to the two Hauppauge forums and searched your card and drivers? Have you rerun btv setup after upgrading the drivers (you might be better off uninstalling and reinstalling btv.) Did you use the hwclear utility to remove the old drivers completely first?

Here are the two forums for Hauppauge, they are pretty good for hunting info.

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/

And this site is also useful.
http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_reg.html

I'd hunt around for latest recommended drivers, then hwclear, unisntall btv, then install drivers, then btv, then btv setup.

Sorry your having such a hard time with it, most of us have been there and empathize.

[groston]

OK - I spent 83 minutes on the phone with Hauppauge tech support and we got the problem resolved. (My previous comment was with regard to getting support via email - that was a non starter. Today, I worked with Pedro - who stayed late to complete the call - and we got the problem resolved. Kudos to him.)

Anyway, something is really screwed up with my Win PVR500. Neither the current driver nor the beta release worked. We finally reloaded the driver from the installation CD, along with support programs from the current release, and things are working again. Pedro informed me that my board was an older one, but is still under warranty. I am thinking about yanking it and sending it in for 'repair'. What a bother.