PVR-150MCE not tuning correctly

[spacecadet]

I have a SageTV system that had been running flawlessly for almost a year. I have two tuners in my system, a retail PVR-150 and a PVR-150MCE. I am running an older version of the driver (2.0.18.22280), but that has never been a problem.

However, just recently I discovered that any recordings made by the PVR-150MCE are buggy. For example, on many stations the picture is "jumpy". Audio is fine, but periodically the video will seem to pause slightly and skip. Also, CBS, channel 4, does not tune in at all, I get bad reception with a lot of static. This tuner had been working fine for ages and all of a sudden has been misbehaving.

That said, everything recorded on the retail PVR-150 looks great. No jumpy picture, CBS tunes in just fine, etc.

Specs on my system are:
Intel D865PERLL Motherboard
Pentium 4 3.0GHz (Northwood)
1 x 512 MB PC3200 Crucial RAM
2 x Samsung Spinspoint 160 GB SATA Hard Drives
1 x PVR-150
1 x PVR-150MCE

Not sure what the problem is here, but I am worried that the hardware has gone bad. I have an empty PCI slot between the two PVR cards, so I wouldn't think that heat is a problem. I also haven't installed any new hardware/software recently (other than upgrading to Sage 4 10 days ago or so).

Two things I will try are: upgrading to the latest driver from Hauppauge and testing the faulty card via WinTV.

Does anyone else have other suggestions? I am at a loss.

[Para]

I had a similar issue just last weekend. I have two retail PVR150 cards separated by at least 1 PCI slot and everthing was (as you said) working flawlessly. Then...jumpy recordings started. I soon discovered that only one card was recording that way and decided to try increasing the case airflow..and that solved the problem. I don't know why the heat suddenly became an issue but it did. Now to find a quiter solution.

[spacecadet]

Hmmmm.... I wouldn't think heat would be an issue with the weather cooling down, but I turn up the case fans and see if that helps. Thanks for the input.

For what it's worth I also tried the latest Hauppauge driver and it started causing black screen errors with both of my decoders, so I am rolling back to the driver that worked. Haven't tested against WinTV yet, although I did play the recorded MPG back in WMP and it "jumped" there as well, so it wouldn't seem to be a playback issue with Sage (although it could be a capture problem with Sage, which the WinTV test will prove out).

[Para]

Well I just started to see the jumping problem again. On teh same card as before. Additional cooling seemed to cure the problem before, but The machine is as cool as I can get it and the problem started again after recording about 2 hours. Maybe the cooling "solution" was just coincedent. I seem to be back at square one. I just disabled that card so my scheduled recordings would not be trashed. I'll probably try the WinTV test as well. I had previously tried playing the recordings in another player and saw the jumping there as well.

[spacecadet]

Hmmmm. Sorry about the bad luck with the cooling.

Earlier this evening I did a Windows "System Restore" to a point in time when I knew the 2nd tuner was working and that seemed to work for the moment. I am going to set both tuners to record all night and see if I get any "jumpy" recording out of the 2nd tuner during a prolonged period of use.

[spacecadet]

Para, I should also ask what version of Sage are you on? Like I said, I am now on version 4 (and had never seen a problem with 2.2.8, which I'd had been running fine for several months). Not sure if the two are related, but I'd be interested to know.

[Para]

I am still running 2.2.8 since it was "like a rock". I just confirmed that WinTV showes the same problem. It certainly looks like it is specific to that piece of hardware or slot or interupt etc.

[Para]

I have also emailed Hauppauge and asked for some suggestions. I'll post anything I find.
EDIT - I checked and the driver I am using is also 2.0.18.22280. I can't see how that is the problem, but...

[spacecadet]

Thanks for the update. I let my system record with both tuners overnight and the 2nd tuner was still making good recordings this morning, so I am not sure what to think. If the problem crops up again, I will test in WinTV and contact Hauppauge as well. Let me know what you find out.

[spacecadet]

Interestingly enough, I am also using 2.0.18.22280. But, I agree, I wouldn't imagine it's the driver or both tuners would be likely be screwy. (And I also tried to upgrade the driver, but that broke both tuners).

[Para]

You mentioned doing a system restore to a point prior to the video problem and it seemed to solve the problem. I had done that last time with no apparent effect. I plan on moving the card to a different PCI slot(s) today and checking it out. I might try actually just swapping the two cards' positions as one of the tests. I'll have to wait on my daughters to get through watching a show though....

[spacecadet]

I'm still not 100% convinced that heat isn't the issue. It's gotten cold here recently, which means my heating system has kicked on in the last couple of weeks. The computer sits on a stand about 8 inches from the wall and 1 ft higher than the copper baseboard heat, so if the heat from the copper baseboard is making the computer run hotter than normal, that might explain the problem.

I can't test this theory because the gas company shut off the heat to 1800 houses in my area on Wednesday and it still hasn't been restored yet, so the copper baseboard hasn't been running - and, coincidentally, the tuner card is working just fine.

Of course, this all goes back to my original post, where the tuner ran fine all last winter when the heating system was on, so I'm not sure why it should be different now.

[Para]

How is this for confusing?
OK - I just swapped my two PVR150 cards locations (exchanged their PCI locations). And now there are no symptoms...sigh. I guess a loose card could cause some problems (low voltage, etc.) but it seems a stretch that it is the issue, don't you think? It didn't really seem loose. I'll let it run like this for a while and see if anything happens. If nothing happens tonight, I might exchange them again and see what the results are.

[spacecadet]

I dunno. It's very odd. The heat is back on at my house and the card is still recording fine. So I guess heat is definitely not the issue.

I have no other thoughts. It's clearly something related to hardware, but I don't have any good theories. I suppose it could be loose, but you'd think a problem would have cropped up earlier if that were the case.

[Para]

I contacted Hauppauge and asked if the seating of the card could be the issue and recieved the following: "Yes, it could very well cause such a problem if the card is not properly seated. It may have been only very slightly out where one of the keys was not making 100% contact, or it could also have just been a resource related issue."

I tend to believe resources were not the issue since I just swapped the two cards locations. The applied IRQ's would have been the same (just swapped) for the two cards.

I have not had any further problems with either card since reseating them. Just thought I would give the latest info.

[spacecadet]

That's great info. Thanks very much! I haven't had any troubles since that first incident, so hopefully I've seen the last of this problem.

[Para]

Well one of my two retail PVR150's has jumping video again. It is the same card as before and is now doing it in a different PCI slot (and with a different IRQ).

Recap:
1) A month ago, one of my 150's began to have jumpy video (the other did not).
2) I did a system restore to a *pre-jumpy* point to no effect.
3) I increased the system cooling and it *seemed* to solve the problem for a day or so (maybe I was just looking at the wrong card and thought it was solved - I am not sure).
4) I emailed Hauppauge tech support and reported the problem.
5) I then swapped the two 150's locations (PCI slot locations) to see if I could narrow down the issue. And the swap eliminated the problem. I then had no problem on either card. It seemed as if there was no hardware or resource problem other than a possible card seating issue. I was confused but happy.
6) Hauppauge tech support made contact with me and I reported the steps I had taken and the results.
7) Hauppauge tech support confirmed that a poorly seated card or resource issue could cause the problem as described.
SEVERAL WEEKS PASS
8) The problem shows up again on the same card (in the new location and with the new IRQ).
9) I email Hauppauge with a sample video clip and am awaiting their response.

I really think I have a bad card and hope Hauppauge can help.

Any suggestions or similar experiance that could help?