Poor video quality in pvr500 losing tuning?

[rickgode]

My specs:

Optiplex GX240
OS: WinXP Pro
CAPTURE DEVICE: Hauppauge PVR-500MCE
PROCESSOR: P4 1.6 ghz
MEMORY: 512Mb
GRAPHICS CARD: Nvidia FX 5200
SOURCE:CHARTER CABLE
LOCATION: FORT WORTH, TX

I built the system for a dual tuner pvr, that’s all, nothing else. Clean install of XP Pro all up to date, installed pvr500 with latest drivers and wintv, installed SageTV.

As soon as I turned on the system for the first time, and opened up wintv (to see if it worked before I installed SageTV) I did a channel scan and the channels were there, just very snowy, like a poor antenna signal. Some of the lower channels were better, but most of the higher channels were unwatchable, but it worked and it detected the channels, so I chalked it up to poor signal coming from charter.

Installed SageTV, very easy setup and cool program. This is my first DVR, and I was having a blast replaying TV and pausing it. But the WAF (I've been reading these forums doing research) was low. The wifey noticed the horrible snow on the screen, but in my excitement to 'pause live tv' I stopped noticing. I began to set up recordings. When I came back a couple hours later to watch, I noticed all recordings were bad, but some were horrible. The recordings using tuner#1 were 'okay' still a lot of snow, but the recordings with tuner #2 were unwatchable, and I deleted them promptly.

So, back to the forums, I downloaded and messed with the 'tweak tool' I did most of the registry settings mentioned here, but the video seemed to be getting worse. When I would go through the setup again, sometimes tuner2, would have nothing but static, I could hear some audio, but it wasn't very good.

A friend had bought this Gateway media pc and it had a Hauppauge 26552 TV Tuner Card. I don't know what kind of card it is, here is a link to it http://support.gateway.com/s/VIDCARD...103364nv.shtml

He has never used it and I asked him if I could try it in my HTPC. Before putting it in, I changed pci slots, and that didn't help either. I put in the Hauppauge 26552 TV Tuner Card, not knowing what drivers there were for it, my computer recognized it as a Hauppage WinTV PVR II capture card, it automatically installed drivers for it, and when I fired up SageTV, everything was PERFECT!!!!

I have another open pci slot and think I should get another Hauppage 26552, but I just bought the pvr500 bundle with remote here from SageTV. I'm attaching a 'good' screen cap from the pvr500, and a screen cap from Hauppage 26552. I'm about 99% its a bad pvr500 card.

Image from the pvr500


Image from the Hauppage 26552

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by rickgode

The recordings using tuner#1 were 'okay' still a lot of snow, but the recordings with tuner #2 were unwatchable, and I deleted them promptly.

This appears to be what I encountered when I tried to use the drivers from the hauppauge site for the 150. I ended up using the drivers from their site for the 500. The drivers for the 500 appear to be older than the ones under the 150 but work better.

[rickgode]

I am/was/still using? the drivers for the 500. I installed the latest from Hauppage's site. Even viewing in WinTV, the picture was snowy, I figured I just had to "settle" with it being inferior to a tivo or something else. It would do a channel scan and get all my channels, but it wasn't as clear as my regular TV. It is like that in another TV tuner I have in another computer, so I just thought that’s all I could get.

But putting in that Hauppauge 26552 TV Tuner Card seemed to FIX EVERYTHING. I still don't know what model it is. pvr150,250,350? because it shows up in the device manager as a Hauppage WinTV PVR II capture.

When I installed in the Hauppage 26552 card, my machine automatically detected it as new hardware and automatically installed drivers for it.

I wanted to build a dedicated SageTV box, winxp pro all updates, nvidia drivers, hauppage 500 drivers, wintv, sageTV and java are the only things installed.

Right now its flawless (it has frozen a couple of times, but since I downgraded my java from 1.5 to the one from 1.4 it hasn't) I had uninstalled/reinstalled sageTV and java at the beginning to see if that was causing the poor tuning in the pvr500.

I'm pretty sure its a bad card, as I have read on these forums that it quality control might not be the best from these cards. I think another Hauppage WinTV PVR II capture card would give me the same functionality as the PVR500, but taking another pci slot. I've submitted requests in the Sage support, and have tried their suggestions.

I'm a noob to SageTV, but with this different card, the install was painless, the tweaks/suggestions on the forums helped, but for me it seems the tuners in the pvr500 are bad. Those screenshots speak for themselves. With good hardware, and SageTV, this is a powerful DVR setup, and with all the customizations I'm going to try once everything is stable, I think it might be better than tivo and other subscription based services.

[SHS]

Hauppauge 26552 = Hauppage PVR 150 and just so you know the 150 and 500 share the same drivers.
Hook up a VCR if it also dose that then there most liky something wrong on the card.

[Oats]

I have 2 PVR-150 cards and one of my cards does the same thing. I think there is just something wrong with my one tuner card. I am going to contact Hauppauge about it I just havent gotten around to it. For me the issue is only on some channels, lucky for me they are channels I don't watch much.

[rickgode]

Thanks for the info SHS, I'm now 100% sure it is the card. Now, i guess all I need is an RMA number to return the card back to SageTV, because so far with that Hauppauge 26552, its been running for 2 days the the WAF has shot through the roof!

[garyellis]

Exactly the same issues i had with my 500 card..I already had a 150 card installed and when I installed the 500 card, I got bad static on the 500 card...(both tuners)..I tried everything from changing drivers multiple times and changing slots in the computer multiple times...nothing worked..

So, last week I called Hauppauge and got an RMA number and sent the 500 card in...I hope to see a new one this week..I'l let you know if the problem is solved.


Gary

[rickgode]

Thanks Gary,
I went to CompUSA today and got another 150, so now I have two, I'm waiting to hear back from tech support from Sage, since I bought my pvr500 in a bundled kit from them. Two pvr150s and my picture is fine, exactly what I wanted in the first place. The only problem is that now I have a 4 way splitter instead of a two way splitter, and I can tell that the signal is a bit worse than it was before.

[Dekard]

Originally Posted by garyellis

Exactly the same issues i had with my 500 card..I already had a 150 card installed and when I installed the 500 card, I got bad static on the 500 card...(both tuners)..I tried everything from changing drivers multiple times and changing slots in the computer multiple times...nothing worked..

So, last week I called Hauppauge and got an RMA number and sent the 500 card in...I hope to see a new one this week..I'l let you know if the problem is solved.


Gary

did the new one fix the problem?

[rickgode]

Yes the new one fixed the problem. Here is another post with pictures. The difference in the 150's compared to the 500 is night and day. Looking at your other post, I too bought an amp, but it didn't help with the 500. Now my setup has been running strong for months and the wife acceptance facter is up there too!

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ht=size+matter

[jmeeks]

You should get a Drop Amp to distribure your signal. I use a unity gain drop amp made by electroline EDA-UG 2802 (8 port, unity gain) They have a 4 port variation too.

I heard on the net this place is a good place to get them for a good price: http://www.tvcinc.com/Default.htm

Did I understand you correctly that you recieved a new PVR-500 from Hauppauge and the new PVR-500 didn't exhibit the poor quality reception you were experiencing before? Was the new PVR-500 you recieved configured with the Phillips tuners (large tuner) or the Samsung tuners (small tuner)?