Added Second Tuner--Stuttering in Playback

[Jesse]

Hello,

I finally hooked up a second DTV receiver to my PVR-500 via the case slot bracket input connector (svid). I also added an edgeport usb/serial adapter for control of the receiver. I have had only one tuner hooked up for several months and have had very few problems.

After setting up the second receiver I get lots of heavy duty stuttering during playback. This occured on both live tv and previously recorded programs. I tried switching decoders (from nvidia to windvd) but it made no difference. I went back into detailed setup and disabled the second tuner and the problem disappeared.

I did recently (several days ago) get an error message about my encoder card so I verified that I had the latest drivers from hauppauge. I decided to reinstall them just to be on the safe side. All worked well until I set up tuner number 2.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jesse

[ToxMox]

The only suggestion I can come up with is to try a different PCI slot.

[Opus4]

I can't remember -- is the Hauppauge software able to use both tuners? If so, have you tried that to make sure both encoders on the 500 are actually working properly?

Also, is the recordings drive using a 64K cluster size? If not, then maybe now that you have another tuner in use, you are running into hard drive throughput issues as it fails to seek in time for multiple recording/playback streams.

- Andy

[Jesse]

Hi Tox,

I wondered about that. I have two sound cards in my machine (m audio D410's), and m audio recommended not using the slot closest to the agp slot. Guess where I put the PVR500.......

I seem to recall reading something that suggested putting the PVR card in the first slot. I will have to check the docs I got with the 500.

I wonder how hot this card gets. I bet that with both tuners going it gets pretty warm. On top of that, the ATI vid card's heatsink almost touches the PVR card. I guess I will try putting it down at the bottom.

Thanks,

Jesse

[Jesse]

Hi Opus,

When I set up the second tuner I had sage record two programs simultaneously, I then switched back and forth from watching one program to the other. The system indicated that it was still recording both programs, and I got no conflict issues. I guess there could still be a problem if sage THINKS that both tuners are working. I will definitely check this out, but I'm guessing that they are working.

The throughput issue is interesting. I do have one drive dedicated to sage recordings, and it is formatted in 64k clusters as recommended. Is it common for one drive to be insufficient for a two tunner system? If I add a second drive is sage smart enough to use it even if there is plenty of space on the first drive (ie: will a second drive definitely cure a throughput issue?)?

Thanks for your help,

Jesse

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Jesse

The throughput issue is interesting. I do have one drive dedicated to sage recordings, and it is formatted in 64k clusters as recommended. Is it common for one drive to be insufficient for a two tunner system? If I add a second drive is sage smart enough to use it even if there is plenty of space on the first drive (ie: will a second drive definitely cure a throughput issue?)?

A single drive using 64K clusters should be fine -- I have multiple drives & 3 tuners, but it very often uses just one drive, since that is where the most available space is. Unless there is some other HD setting issue, then this isn't it. (Someone mentioned checking some DMA setting or something...)

BTW: my first comment about making sure the 2nd encoder is actually working properly sort of goes along with ToxMox's suggestion to try another slot.

- Andy

[Jesse]

Hi Opus,

Gotcha. Thanks again.

I will try switching slots tonight.

Jesse

[ToxMox]

Yeah I have 6 tuners (4 of them being two pvr500s) and sometimes they all record to the same drive at the same time without issue. You may want to update chipset drivers for your motherboard too. If you have a VIA based mobo that could potentially be causing probs as well.