PVR-500 Setup problem

[mayamaniac]

Update: Nevermind, was using the wrong driver for the PVR-500MCE. Windows installed the 150 driver into the 500, and causing the problems. Pointing to the correct driver 2.0.30.23074 fixed the problems. Now coaxial option shows up in both tuners of the 500. I configured tuner #1 to use coaxial and tuner #2 to use composite from the STB box and all is good. The 500MCE I purchased comes with the add-on source adapter, which I use for the STB. Finally, I successfully getting SageTV setup to run under Windows 2003 Server as a Service.

Original Post:

Just installed PVR-500MCE under Win2003 Server and running SageTV 2.2.8. Here's the problem, when I connect the coaxial cable from STB into the PVR-500MCE, I get no signal in SageTV Setup, just snow. But when I connect RCA/Composite cable from STB into composite inputs of the PVR-500MCE, I get picture in SageTV after setting it up to use composite source. Why doesn't it work with coaxial source? What could be the problem?

Another problem, I read that the PVR-500MCE is a dual tuner with one single coaxial source and an internal splitter, but when I go into SageTV Setup, it does lists two tuners, yet only one tuner has coaxial option, the other tuner only show composite and s-video, no coaxial. How is one to setup both tuners to use coaxial when the option is not in both tuners?

I also have a PVR-150MCE. And its working well. The 500 is the problem.

The 150 and 500 are using driver 2.0.18.22280. Any help appreciated.

[bluenote]

Maya,

What drivers are you using , I am having the same problem (Tuner source not showing up on a 500, just composite and svideo for both).

I have a 350 in the mix, and its so late that Im getting confused about what I've tried, but basically I was trying to install the 500 as two 150's .. is that not correct?

any help appreciated, thx

Cory

[bluenote]

I got them working using SHS's drivers.. for the sake of my sanity, anyone feel like telling me what driver versions they are using for 350 and 500MCE though?
thx

Cory

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by cnovak

I got them working using SHS's drivers.. for the sake of my sanity, anyone feel like telling me what driver versions they are using for 350 and 500MCE though?
thx

Cory

If you read carefully, you'd noticed in my first above that I'm using the driver 2.0.30.23074 for the 500MCE, and driver 2.0.18.22280 for the 150MCE. I also have the 350, although its in a different machine, and its using driver 1.18.21.22301. I'm only using the 350 for TV-out in the client machine, its currently not used as a tuner. All drivers are official ones from hauppauge.com.

[bluenote]

I eventually figured out that the MCE driver was different, and that did solve my problem. Unfortunately Im still getting some crashes and odd behaviour here and there, and I suspect that its related to the drivers. Thanks for the other numbers.

Cory

[mayamaniac]

the PVR-500MCE is an odd PCI board, my motherboard fail to boot up with it installed. I had to do a BIOS upgrade to get it to boot up with the 500MCE. But so far its been stable, there are no problems, crashes, or odd behaviors. My motherboard is an Asus K8V SE Deluxe. Try updating your motherboard bios if you think it will help the stability problems.

[bluenote]

Unfortunately I've already flashed my BIOS ... I've been working on this thing for the better part of 2 days, mainly messing with drivers.
Seems like I've got a handle on it --

I have PVR 350, and a 500MCE. I have the latest drivers configured for both, and things seem to work. My problem is that when I begin playback, the CPU jumps to 100% and stays there in sageservice. I believe behaviour was similar but not as pronounced when not running as a service, but Im going to have to go back and reconfirm that.

I've gone through pretty much every scenario (it's the EPG data/db, it's the wiz.bin, it's the drivers...) and the only thing I've been able to prove, is that if I disable ONE of the 500 devices in device manager, it doesn't seem to happen.

Right now Im just finishing a GBPVR configuration, to see if it performs properly (and eliminate my hardware / drivers from the mix).

Anyone else have any thoughts? I'm about to throw the whole darn thing out the window, and follow it with the damn hauppage drivers

Cory

[bluenote]

Update on my situation: I finished a GBPVR install last night (man, downloading EPG data with two lineups X 4 sources takes a long time).
Anyways, the long and the short of it is that GBPVR gave me exactly the same behaviour (actually, it performed a little worse). In any case, pegging the cpu at 100% in the GBPVR service.

After that, I went back to sage and played with disabling / enabling various combinations but I didnt make much progress. I then moved on to changing the order, and PCI slot of the two cards. No initial luck there either, but I'll continue this evening.

Thanks for any ideas all

Cory

[mayamaniac]

Here are some of my guesses:

- try updating java to latest or uninstall and reinstall it.
- try moving the sage.properties or/and sageclient.properties file out of the SageTV folder and run SageTV again, it will create new ones. You'll lose some settings, but at least try it to see if its the problem. If it isn't, then just move the files back.
-try disabling the 350 and see if it'll work with just the 500 MCE.

[bluenote]

I've been mulling over the java option, although I dont think GBPVR uses java.
In any case, a little more info --

I've now confirmed, with a clear head and rested, that the mark is at 3 devices. I can disable the 350, and run both tuners on the 500MCE fine, and I can run either one of the 500 tuners and the 350 fine in Sage. As soon as I enable the 3rd tuner though, and go into the guide, or try and play something, the CPU pegs to 100% for sageservice, and thats pretty much all she wrote, although things WILL proceed, but unusably slow.

I dont know what the hell to do at this point, aside from the java. The only thing I can think of is that the drivers (for some reason) are misaddressing somehow in a 3 card situation, such that there is some kind of jabbering going back and forth between the cards and the CPU. I dunno.. conjecture. I've just mailed support here at Sage, and I mailed hauppage yesterday.. crosses fingers. I'll try the java as soon as I have the energy again (i AM using 5.0......) but if you or anyone else has any other ideas, I would LOVE to hear them..

thanks guys

Cory

[mayamaniac]

how about the sage.properties method, did you tried removing it? Also, if it doesn't have any affect, try to also remove the wiz.bin file. Oh and move the .bak files too for both sage.properties.bak and wiz.bak.

[bluenote]

Heh heh, thanks maya. Yes, I have gone down the path of "its my properties, its my database, its my digicasa data, etc". I went back to java 1.4 last night, no love. I went back to 5.0 (1.5) and no change.

At that point, I became a little reckless, and started playing around with updating more than one thing at a time, mainly around USB because in a previous incarnation I had some crashes related to USB on this machine.
Anyways, to make a long story short, the problem is finally solved. (Actually, I think I was experiencing a combination of a couple of problems throughout the experience). In any case, for anyone else that has high CPU when you go into the guide, or try playback, (OR... revealingly, when selecting 'usbuirt' for your channel changer)..

It turns out that if you want to run a 500MCE and a 350, you have to give up access to the 350's IR port. Since I have a USBUIRT, that was no problem, however, Sage and the UIRT have a problem when you run as a service and the service is run under a different username than the frontend of Sage, AND, you are using the USB uirt both to change channels and to receive remote signals. The final change for me was changing the credentials for the sage service. Now I'm happily recording on 3 devices and able to play on my tv-out perfectly. !!!!!

(Its the next morning, and I can't remember who had the ONE post I found on this particular problem, but THANK YOU) Hopefully my post can help someone before they get into this sort of thing to the 50- hour mark

Thanks for sticking with me on this maya

ttul

Cory

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by cnovak

Hopefully my post can help someone before they get into this sort of thing to the 50- hour mark

Thanks for sticking with me on this maya

On the link in my signature about my SageTV experience, I mentioned the frustrations of setting up a PVR system:

First of all, SageTV, along with other PVR softwares, is a complicated computer software. So to use it, you have to know computers well, technologically. There are a lot of things that SageTV needs to work with besides the common hardware on your computer such as the motherboard, cpu, sound card, video card, memory, harddrives, etc. SageTV also requires many not so common hardware such as TV tuners, a method to control your cable or satellite box (infrared or serial cable), a way for it to be control by a remote control (infrared or radio frequency), and several ways for it to output its interface to a TV such as video card outputs, hardware decoders, media set top boxes, etc. You need to know what hardware to get and how to get all these hardware to work with SageTV. So you have to dig into this forum and find the info you need before you start.

And then there's the software side of SageTV, you need to know how to configure all your softwares and operating systems to make everything work like it should. And this is easier said than done. You have to realize that both software and hardware setups takes a huge amount of time to understand and put to use. Depending on your setup and needs, the more complicated, the more you'll find yourself spending a lot of time in this forum looking for answers. ...

.... I wish it wouldn't take so much time and effort just to make SageTV run the way it should, but for the people out there who are thinking about doing it, you are warned. But if you have the time and patient, it can be fun although at times you feel like this

[x[corwyn]]

I had the same issue after installing the PVR-500. I wound up upgrading the hardware to a cheap P4 system using a SIS chipset and running. After I did that no stability issues to speak of.

[hubelau]

UGH - so i just installed a new 500 and upgraded to the 2.0.30.23074 driver. But when I go into SageTV's settings, it still only lists the Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture once.

Is there no way to get this card to do dual tuning from one singal coaxial cable input?

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by hubelau

UGH - so i just installed a new 500 and upgraded to the 2.0.30.23074 driver. But when I go into SageTV's settings, it still only lists the Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture once.

Is there no way to get this card to do dual tuning from one singal coaxial cable input?

it is suppose to show two tuners, not one. Which 500 model do you have, the 500 or the 500MCE? As the one user a few posts above said, they use different drivers. I have the 500MCE and use driver 2.0.30.23074.

[bluenote]

Hubelau,

If it is not showing up, I would hazard a guess that it is not installed correctly (wrong driver). Make sure you use the MCE drivers, and the latest ones. Hauppauge is a crappy company for that, having several different versions on their various web sites, but either should work for you.

It's worth a look to see if device manager is complaining also, but I recall having an issue with the wrong driver and device manager didnt squeak a peep.

thx

Cory

[x[corwyn]]

Look under control panel, system, hardware, device manager. You will see that you need to load the driver on a 2nd card. Even though they are on one PCI card its seen as 2 devices.