fragile sagetv installation using 500mce

[dfunk]

I can't figure it out. Ever since I replaced a Hauppauge PVR250 with a Hauppauge 500MCE, I have an intermittent problem with Sagetv recording at 720x576 instead of 720x480 (I have NTSC cable). When recording at 720x576, the bottom 20% of the picture is just noise in the form of horizontal bars. Nasty, nasty picture.

When the problem goes away (and I'm not sure how it does), it stays away unless my PC has a crash (power outtage, lockup, whatever), then the problem comes back. Twice I've been able to fix the problem by upgrading to a new beta or released version (I'm currently running 2.2.7). Twice it just seemed to go away on it's own.

So anyway, today the household was rearranging furniture for Easter dinner and someone pulled the plug on my system, and it's hosed again. I tried reinstalling 2.2.7 but no joy. Even though SageTV is hosed, the Hauppauge WinTV2000 application doesn't have this problem, so the drivers are ok.

Here are my system details.

Shuttle SB51G, Celeron 2.0, Radeon Vivo, Hauppauge 500MCE, Snapstream remote, running Window 2000 SP4, SageTV 2.2.7.

I don't have a clue at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
dfunk

[Opus4]

It sounds like your video format is not set correctly for some reason... Is your mmc/video_format_code property set correctly for your location? See here for more info on that.

When you tried reinstalling SageTV, did you [at least] delete the sage.properties file & its autobackup? See this FAQ entry about reinstallation.

Edit: changed "at least" to "delete"... can't figure out if I forgot to add the word 'delete' or typed 'at least' instead. That's a big misspelling.

- Andy

[dfunk]

Andy,
Thanks for your help!

mmc/video_format_code was set to 1, which seemed to be ok (< 8 = NTSC). But, just to check it out, I set it to 2 and the problem has gone away. Great! But I still don't understand the values for video_format_code. Here's what the manual says.

1 AnalogVideo_NTSC_M
2 AnalogVideo_NTSC_M_J
4 AnalogVideo_NTSC_433
...
The M vs M_J doesn't ring any bells. Can you explain why 2 works and 1 doesn't?

I do follow the procedure for saving the sage.properties files when reinstalling. I also tried removing the sage.properties file, but it didn't fix the problem.

Thanks again.
dfunk

Originally Posted by Opus4

It sounds like your video format is not set correctly for some reason... Is your mmc/video_format_code property set correctly for your location? See here for more info on that.

When you tried reinstalling SageTV, did you at least the sage.properties file & its autobackup? See this FAQ entry about reinstallation.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by dfunk

mmc/video_format_code was set to 1, which seemed to be ok (< 8 = NTSC). But, just to check it out, I set it to 2 and the problem has gone away. Great! But I still don't understand the values for video_format_code. Here's what the manual says.

1 AnalogVideo_NTSC_M
2 AnalogVideo_NTSC_M_J
4 AnalogVideo_NTSC_433
...
The M vs M_J doesn't ring any bells. Can you explain why 2 works and 1 doesn't?

I have nooooo idear. If the property was wrong, I was expecting you to say it got set to PAL for some reason. Did you say where you are located? Maybe there is something different about NTSC at your location or with the card itself.

- Andy

[dfunk]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I have nooooo idear. If the property was wrong, I was expecting you to say it got set to PAL for some reason. Did you say where you are located? Maybe there is something different about NTSC at your location or with the card itself.

- Andy

I'm in Seattle with Comcast Cable, nothing special. The card was a whitebox version from a California company. Don't imagine they sell many PAL versions. When I realized the problem was recording at 720x576, I briefly considered it might be a PAL version, but if it was, it probably wouldn't record anything. Plus, since WinTV2000 was always ok, it would seem to be a problem with SageTV.

I'm not convinced that setting mmc/video_format_code to 2 will permanently fix the problem. It could be that changing the setting to any valid value corrects the problem (until the next crash). But, I'm not going to pull the plug to test it out. I'll report back next time it crashes. It is windows, after all.

cheers, dfunk

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by dfunk

Andy,
.

1 AnalogVideo_NTSC_M
2 AnalogVideo_NTSC_M_J
4 AnalogVideo_NTSC_433
...
The M vs M_J doesn't ring any bells. Can you explain why 2 works and 1 doesn't?

The J refers to the Japanese version of NTSC, a slight variation of the normal NTSC. They are very close, only a slight brightness difference between the two.

"Only Japan's variant "NTSC-J" is very slightly different: in Japan, black level and blanking level of the signal are identical, as they are in PAL, while in American NTSC, black level is slightly higher than blanking level. Since the difference is quite small, a slight turn of the brightness knob is all that is required to enjoy the "other" variant of NTSC on any set as it is supposed to be; most watchers might not even notice the difference in the first place."

Other than that, I dunno

Jack

[k1114]

I had this problem when I switched from two e-home wonders to the pvr-500. You MUST re-install sage from scratch. I tried a variety of things, but only this fixed it.