Hauppauge HD-PVR support

[lsrracer]

Originally Posted by CDogg

I purchased sometime ago some battery cases for AA AAA C and D batteries. Each case held 4 batteries at a time and was allready wired. I used them for a class D amp experiment to prove how efficient yet powerful they are. I was hard pressed for yet another idea to throw into the mix and I did try other power supplies, even a computer power supplies 5v line. What I noticed there is that it REALLY taxes the the 5v line pretty bad. So I thought maybe the PVR just needs the cleanest DC possible, and whats cleaner than batteries!? I picked up 4 energizer NiMH, becasue they're better than NiCd and I know I can't use lithium or anything like that due to heat and explosive possibilities. I put 4 in one of my battery pack things and hooked up inline with the powersupply. Also, it had to be NiMH because of the 1.2v, 6v with any other rechargeables or configurations would just be too risky. Before hooking up to the PVR I tested the voltage of the batteries and they read 5.2 and the power supply is also 5.2 and together they of course are 5.2, how sweet is that!? Then hooked it up to the PVR and haven't needed to touch it or the computer or the BTV service since.

Sum up, 4 1.2v batteries in parallel with the powersupply, meaning positive of battery to positive of the powersupply and negative to the negative. The batteries of course haven't gotten warm or anything either. I also don't get any weird skips, those that have experienced it know what it is, it's subtle but some ppl are really picky.

I love getting to watch LiveTV again!!

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing. More confirmation that there's a connection between clean power and reliable operation.

I'm still running fine since upgrading to the 5A power brick I bought off Ebay. I did get one lock-up but it was self-induced, I power cycled my satellite receiver, which is what feeds into the HD-PVR, while watching a show. That locked the box. But in normal operation, I have yet to lock it since going to this supply.

If the lock-up problem comes back, though, I'll definitely try your idea, thanks.

[CDogg]

Like you, still not a single lock up. Almost everytime I look at this time igts always recording something. I think we've both proven that there is most certainly a strong need for clean power. I hope your idea works as well, the batteries should eventually die being in charge mode forever, even if it takes a year. Not sure if I tried any power supplies past 3A.

[Terminal]

Originally Posted by Zogg

Thanks again, Terminal!

Your welcome.

[TunerQs]

I've searched and searched but have not been able to locate any trouble shooting threads for setting up an HD-PVR with BTV 4.9.3.

Using the TotalMedia Extreme app, I have no problems seeing the output from the HD-PVR. I'm able to add the HD-PVR using the BTV web admin. When I then attempt to view any channel using BTV: first the IR blaster tunes the cable STB, the lights on the HD-PVR (red front and blue surrounding the top) come on, then within a few seconds I get the message, "Sorry, but we were unable to start viewing live TV..." If I try to record a channel using the HD-PVR the red light on the front comes on but the blue light around the top does not. If I try to play the resulting file while recording I get, "This file is corrupt or the path ..." After I stop the recording I get, "This file is still corrupt..." I am able to view the file with no problem using the ArcSoft app so it seems to be a BTV issue with the resulting HD-PVR output file.

What am I missing?

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by TunerQs

I've searched and searched but have not been able to locate any trouble shooting threads for setting up an HD-PVR with BTV 4.9.3.

Using the TotalMedia Extreme app, I have no problems seeing the output from the HD-PVR. I'm able to add the HD-PVR using the BTV web admin. When I then attempt to view any channel using BTV: first the IR blaster tunes the cable STB, the lights on the HD-PVR (red front and blue surrounding the top) come on, then within a few seconds I get the message, "Sorry, but we were unable to start viewing live TV..." If I try to record a channel using the HD-PVR the red light on the front comes on but the blue light around the top does not. If I try to play the resulting file while recording I get, "This file is corrupt or the path ..." After I stop the recording I get, "This file is still corrupt..." I am able to view the file with no problem using the ArcSoft app so it seems to be a BTV issue with the resulting HD-PVR output file.

What am I missing?

First, some of us have had trouble with 4.9.3 so we run 4.9.2. YMMV.

Make sure your H.264 playback decoder is set to the Arcsoft Video Decoder in Playback settings. I also use it for MPEG2 as I think it works a bit better.

Also, run the BTV Setup Wizard and delete the HDPVR setup, then redo it. I have seen in the past issues using tuners that I added in the Web Admin that were fixed by adding the tuner in the Setup wizard. It's been a while so I don't remember for sure, but I think you should see some video from the HDPVR during setup. Don't worry about channel changing, but if it works then fine. Once you've gone through Setup and restarted BTV then go to the Web Admin and tweak the settings if you need to.

[ZetaVu]

Ok, reboot, computer and HD PVR. Which driver are you using? I use 1.0.5.3, anything less than that was unstable, and since this worked I did not want to risk getting a new version (if firmware is changed you can't roll back) . Likewise, your TME software must match your driver, it sounds like it does since you can get that to work.

Reinstall with BTV setup, make sure you have a picture in BTV during setup (so you chose the inputs correctly). Some stb's don't play well with the HD PVR, but they should affect TME as well as BTV. Make sure you close TME before you use BTV. After that, all instructions in this thread were to improve stability, fixed output on stb, tape over ir, etc.

[cartervt2k]

So after procrastinating for months, I rebuilt my server from scratch - new vista build, new btv install and configured from scratch, not restored. This time I rebuilt with 4.9.3, but I first had the problem on 4.9.2, but I still get usage related freezes while watching live TV on the hdpvr when another recording kicks off on one of my HVR-1600 tuners. If have no recordings or after hours processing jobs set to run, it will go on and on with no problems. But, if a recording on one of my other tuners goes off while watching live tv, the buffer will still fill but the screen is stuck. Occasionally I can hit skip forward and it will resume playing but without sound. In all cases, if I back back out to the guide and then jump back into the show it works just fine (until the next job goes off). But, I never have this problem if I am watching from a link client.

I'm at about my wits end. I only really use the hdpvr for watching live sports, since I prefer to have smartskip for my recordings. I think I'm going to use composite y-splitters to run the HD direct box both into the hdpvr and into my TV so that I can bypass BTV when I don't feel like dealing with the hassle.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. I've tried arcsoft and coreavc 2.5 codecs. If there is a better codec, I'm amenable to try that. I'm wiling to buy more hardware too, if that's necessary. I haven't considered disconnecting my TV server from the main TV and situating a link client next to it for that purpose (I know that will work) but that seems excessive and annoying that I would have to have two computers running next to each other for a job that one should be able to do on its own (not to mention the additional noise).

[cartervt2k]

Got it pegged: it was the vista sp2 service pack sound card issue. I once applied the fix on my last build a year or two ago, but I'm wondering if some of the updates I applied afterwards undid it.

I think my previous installation was still kind of screwed up, so I'm glad I reinstalled Windows. I took Ghost images every step of the way and now that I have a perfectly working build now, I'm going to image it and take periodic images from now on in case something else goes wrong. Very happy right now!

[TunerQs]

Thanks for the prompt replies and suggestions. I finally had some time to experiment. Rather than try and fix something that is mostly working (I always seem to suffer self inflicted gunshot wounds when I do) I instead tried installing the HD PVR as a recording device on one of my laptops. With BTV 4.9.3 installed and no other inputs, I was able to immediately see input from the HD PVR. Problem one: viewing live TV or recorded input works fine until I attempt to quit/exit viewing at which point the BTV3Dshell hangs and I have to kill it. Problem two: after manually registering the ArcSfof video codec and selecting it as the H.264 decoder I encountered the same error I have on my main DVR platform - "Sorry, but we were unable to start viewing..." Trying to view a recording I get the same, "This file is corrupt..."

My main machine is running 64-bit Win7, my laptop Vista SP2.

Is it possible the audio Codec is causing a problem? I manually registered the ArcSoft ASAudio.ax but it does not show up as an option in the web admin.

All indications point to the ArcSoft codec as the culprit.

[CDogg]

So after about 3 weeks of working flawlessly, it's back again. Other ideas have tried really do work for sometime then it just comes back as if it gets used to it? This is one flakey device, but still not giving up.

[Wolfie351]

Originally Posted by CDogg

So after about 3 weeks of working flawlessly, it's back again. Other ideas have tried really do work for sometime then it just comes back as if it gets used to it? This is one flakey device, but still not giving up.

Yeah, same here. I started having the "could not terminate" issue regularly then upgraded to a 3A. It was fine for a couple months without a single lockup. Then it started up again and I'd get one or two a errors a day. I upgraded to the 5A unit listed previously in this thread and, again, it worked for about a month without a single issue. Then, a couple days ago, it started locking up regularly. The only difference is that, now, the recording will actually play. Previously, the file would corrupt.

[ijourneaux]

I upgraded to the 5amp power supply listed earlier in the thread. WOrked fine for a while. My problems seem to occur when there are many recording tasks being kicked off at once (HDHomeRun and HD-PVR).

I can reproduce it but setting up recordings where I have 2 HDHomeRUn and 1 HDPVR recordings for 2 or 3 hours in a row.

BY the third hour, the HD-PVR will have failed and for some reason, this also kills the HD-HomeRun recordings and I end up with a qazillion (slight exageration)BTVRecording tasks in Task Manager. If I power cycle the HD-PVR, usually the extra BTV recording tasks disappear but the threads (listed under system\threads in Process Explorer) usually remain consuming up significant CPU cycles and I have to restart my computer.

[tscales]

The new power supply did nothing for me. The HD PVR is on a server by itself, as I didn't want to risk other recordings. Since I moved to FIOS, I can't get more than 1-2 recording before it locks up.

I have THREE HDPVRs. They all are doing this.

Arghh.

[ijourneaux]

Originally Posted by tscales

The new power supply did nothing for me. The HD PVR is on a server by itself, as I didn't want to risk other recordings. Since I moved to FIOS, I can't get more than 1-2 recording before it locks up.

I have THREE HDPVRs. They all are doing this.

Arghh.

What version of the drivers are you using? I tried to go back to an older version of the drivers but the install package for 1.0.5.3 could not locate any devices. I am using version 1.7???

I don't know what else to try. The problem is that this is now killing my other records. It use to be that the problem only affected the HD-PVR. Now it is killing the HDHomeRun Recordings as well.

[tscales]

I've tried every driver version imaginable. Doesn't matter. Love the results. Implementation is lousy.