Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500 MCE

[Joe The Dude]

Aparently, the tuners on a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500 MCE card comes in two flavors:



I currently have a "Type A" card (the one with the bigger tuners) and it works okay in my setup.

However, I've been having severe picture quality issues on all channels with the "Type B" card, and I've RMA'd it twice already @ newegg.com.

I just got the second replacement of the "Type B" card, and PQ still looks awful.

So, I sent off the following E-Mail to Hauppauge's customer support:
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I've attached a 2-second video clip (that I recorded in Beyond TV 4.3) that shows what my problem is with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE (very grainy).

I had the Cable Guy come out and test the line.
He said that my signal strength is 18 dB.

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Specs:
Model: 1081.
Large Barcode (On Box): 7 85428 01081 6.
Small Barcode (On Box): 15-116-328(821570).
Barcode (On Back of TV Card): 1906 8898629.
Tuner Type: NTSC / NTSC-J (23552).
TV Tuner Revision: D857.
Etched in each tuner's metal: CEA 3001.

BTV 4.3 Recording Profile:
Best (DVD Ready)
Video: MPEG-2, 720x480, 29.97 fps, 8000 kbps.
Audio: MPEG-1 Audio Layer-2, 48000 Hz, 384 kbps.

PC Specs:
Motherboard: EPoX EP-8RDA3+Pro (Rev 1x). [nForce2 Ultra 400+ Gigabit MCP Chipset]
CPU: (Retail) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2167 MHz) Socket A (462).
RAM: 1 GB (2x 512), DDR 333 in Dual Channel mode.
Sound Card: Onboard RealTek ALC850 AC'97 v2.3.
OS: Windows XP Home (with Service Pack 2).
Power Supply: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W.

I have an older Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE that works fine, as well as a PVR-150 that works fine too.

Things that I have tried (none of which improved picture quality):
A) Different PCI Slots.
B) Different Motherboards (AMD & Intel).
C) Different Drivers.
D) Different Recording Qualities.
E) Different Coaxial Cables (I use RG-6 Quad-Shield cables with Compression Conectors).
F) I even tried my Sister's place witch is across town.
G) No Splitter.
H) Different Splitter.
I) 3 dB Signal Attenuators (started with one, tested, added another one, tested, and so on until was at 3dB.
J) Electroline EDA 2200 2-port (+11 dB) Drop Amp.
K) Tried different Monitor Refresh Rates.
L) Exchanged for another one (I did this twice) from NewEgg.com.

I don't know what to do next.

[My Name]
[My Street Address]
[My City, State & Zip]
[My Phone Number]
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Here's a link to the clip I sent them:
http://www.jtdsoftware.com/Grainy_Clip.mpg

I'll let you all know how this goes, of course, but I was curious if my issue was also experienced by others, and if it depends on which tuner type we have.

[RenegadeELEN]

I'm actually having the same problem right now(I think). I just purchased a second PVR-500 and installed it and have since then had problems with static on almost all channels. I will look at my setup when I get back to it later today and check if I have one Type A and one Type B.

[draven]

I'm going through a problem with 2 PVR 500s. I spoke with hauppauge tech support, and this is what I learned:

not to long ago, they changed from Philips tuners (type A) to Samsung tuners (type B) the tech I talked to said that there have been a lot of headaches with the samsung tuners. I sent him one of my 500s that he is having the engineering dept look very close at. He was convinced that the Samsung tuners are the problem, but evidently the engineers are not convinced yet (hence asking for my card)

by the way, it's the D857 build that is the issue.

My suggestion is to call hauppauge tech support if you have this build and are experiencing static in your picture or sound. Let them get so tired of hearing about it that they fix it.

oh, and you can read about my probelms here and here

[MagnumRT]

Maybe the 150 I bought and took back also had a new samsung tuner? Because the quality was inferior to my 350 and I was very disappointed.

[RenegadeELEN]

Definitely the same problem. Just checked it out and the Type B is the culprit.

[nmirza]

Wow! Looks like this is a systemic problem of the new design. I just ordered one from Snapstream, and tuner 1 looks good, tuner 2 is horrible. I picked up another one locally, and I had the opposite problem (tuner 1 horrible, tuner 2 great). I contacted Hauppauge Tech Support, and they sent me an experimental driver and a system tray utility. The utility allows you to activate "LNA" mode on either of the tuners. It also tells you what tuners are on the card. Funny thing is that the second card has: Tuner 1 = Samsung, Tuner 2 = Phillips). Who wants to bet that the other card has those flipped?

Also, putting that new driver in has helped a bit. I put the bad tuner in "LNA" mode, and instead of static, I get a descent picture with a lot of wavy lines. Does anyone wonder if they tested the new tuners before they started putting them in cards?

[draven]

Did they happen to send a link to download from that you could share?

[nmirza]

No, it was emailed to me. If anyone has this problem, I highly recommend that you contact Hauppauge Tech Support and ask them if you can test that driver. I got the impression that they would like to have more people testing.

Also, maybe we should informally try to keep track of who has bad tuners, and if they are samsung or not. If anyone calls Hauppauge, you may also want to point them to this thread.

[Joe The Dude]

Originally Posted by nmirza

Wow! Looks like this is a systemic problem of the new design. I just ordered one from Snapstream, and tuner 1 looks good, tuner 2 is horrible. I picked up another one locally, and I had the opposite problem (tuner 1 horrible, tuner 2 great). I contacted Hauppauge Tech Support, and they sent me an experimental driver and a system tray utility. The utility allows you to activate "LNA" mode on either of the tuners. It also tells you what tuners are on the card. Funny thing is that the second card has: Tuner 1 = Samsung, Tuner 2 = Phillips). Who wants to bet that the other card has those flipped?

Also, putting that new driver in has helped a bit. I put the bad tuner in "LNA" mode, and instead of static, I get a descent picture with a lot of wavy lines. Does anyone wonder if they tested the new tuners before they started putting them in cards?

They sent me the same program.
Here's what the system tray program they sent me had to say about the tuners on the troublesome card [Type B] that I have:

Originally Posted by System Tray Program

Tuner[1]: Model 87 (Samsung TCPN_2221P30A)
Tuner[2]: Model 101 (Philips TEA5768HL) (With Radio)

When I turned on the "Tuner LNA Mode", like you, I did get a sharper picture As Well As a bunch
of wavy lines that, in effect, made it worse overall [Card Type B]:



Unfortunately, both tuners [Card Type B] on that card exbited this effect with the "Tuner LNA Mode" set to on,
but if it's off, it looke like this (Snowy):



However....
My older [Card Type A] Hauppauge PVR-500MCE has a nice picture:



I've replied to Hauppauge via e-mail and sent them 2 more video clips (Wavy bad one and smooth old one).

Thanks for all of the relpies and the lowdown on the Samsung Tuner Issues.

I'll let ya know what happens next.

[draven]

My tuners give ma an image that is complete static, you can't make out the picture at all. Wavy lines would be an improvement. Incidentally, I found that 2 tuners connected to the same cable splitter both show static, but if I disconnect one of the cards, the picure clears up on one of my four tuners, reconnect to both, and it's snow again. I think that they are generating some feedback somehow.

[nmirza]

Joe,
The instructions I got said to set LNA for only the bad tuner. It was a day/night difference on the bad tuner. I think its all a driver issue, that will eventually be sorted out. Looks like Hauppauge is working it...

[Joe The Dude]

Here's a link to the file:
http://www.JTDSoftware.com/LNA_Tray_App_Install.zip
If any of you can, please set up some mirrors for it, as I
don't have a lot of bandwith remaining for the rest of the month.

Also, please set a Restore Point in XP before you go messing around with this thing.

Here's the instructions:

Download the enclosed file and unzip.
Go to the folder labeled "060724amity2204824205 Prerelease"
and run the file "HCWDRIVERINSTALL"
This will update the driver.

Then go to the folder labeled "V2"
Copy hcwTVS.ax to C:\Windows\system32 and register the file.
(Click "Start" then "Run" and on the run line type: regsvr32 hcwTVS.ax and click O.K.)

You should get a message "DLLRegisterServer in hcwTVS.ax succeeded.

Copy hcwTVSApplet from the V2 folder to where you want to keep it.

Run the hcwTVSApplet and it will put a wintv icon on you're system tray.

Right click it and go to device properties page.

Select the top for tuner 1 or bottom for tuner 2 and just check LNA mode on.

[Joe The Dude]

Originally Posted by nmirza

Joe,
The instructions I got said to set LNA for only the bad tuner. It was a day/night difference on the bad tuner. I think its all a driver issue, that will eventually be sorted out. Looks like Hauppauge is working it...

Unfortunately for me, both of them are messed up.
However, I will try the selective LNA (one tuner at a time) method and see what happens.

Oddly enough, my cable went out at 6pm, and TWC can't have anyone come out till Thursday (Aug 31'st) so the test'll have to wait until then.

Originally Posted by draven

My tuners give ma an image that is complete static, you can't make out the picture at all. Wavy lines would be an improvement. Incidentally, I found that 2 tuners connected to the same cable splitter both show static, but if I disconnect one of the cards, the picure clears up on one of my four tuners, reconnect to both, and it's snow again. I think that they are generating some feedback somehow.

That's the same issue I had with the first "Second PVR-500 Card" that I got @ Newegg that prompted me to exchane it for the current one that I'm trying to troubleshoot with Hauppague Tech support (and all of you helpfull dudes).

[draven]

Originally Posted by Joe The Dude

Here's a link to the file:

Thanks for that link!!

unfortuanately, I can't mirror though, I'm on my laptop in a hotel room right now.

[LegendaryLemon]

Originally Posted by Joe The Dude

Here's a link to the file:
If any of you can, please set up some mirrors for it, as I
don't have a lot of bandwith remaining for the rest of the month.

www.ninjayeti.com/LNA_Tray_App_Install.zip

There you go, 500 GB monthly transfer thats been basically untouched by my friends website. Enjoy.