A Happy Camper

[rickgode]

I finally watched TV through my SageTV box all day today! All it took were 4 days and 6 installs later! I received my pvr500 and all software last Wednesday. Put in everything, and had horrible picture quality see post http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=18988

I guess everything happens for a reason. I took out the pvr500, dropped in a pvr150, and everything was PERFECT! I did that on a Friday, the WAF rose a little bit when she saw that the picture quality was the same if not better than the original TV.

This afternoon I got another pvr150 (still waiting to return my pvr500) and now everything is running like a champ. A Hauppage 45 button remote came with my new 150 card and it is way better than the streamzap remote. For one it has more buttons my favorites are the Guide button, and the Prev. Channel button. I'm sure that these could have been programmed in the streamzap, but remember I've only been running SageTV for 4 days, and three of them were days of frustration and tweaking. Another advantage I've noticed is that the Hauppage remote, where the little IR thingy plugs into the Hauppage pvr150 card is tremendously faster than the streamzap. Just about as fast as I can click the buttons in the guide menu it moves. Maybe these settings could be changed in the streamzap, but I didn't bother.

I'm sure tons of people read these forums to see if this is something they can pull off, (I did for weeks) now with the remote working at 'regular' speed, and dual tuners with great picture quality, and the WAF going up, it's a lot of fun. I have absolutely no experience with any versions of SageTV or Hauppage except the latest versions, but right now everything is working perfectly…

[mayamaniac]

Glad you are happy and that your SageTV setup is running well.

Looking at your other thread about the PVR-500, it looks to me like a weak signal problem. I have a PVR-500 and a PVR-150, they both have the same picture quality. The only difference is I have a signal booster going into the PVR-500, without it the PVR-500 picture quality would be bad also. The 500 has an internal splitter, and my guess is its only sending half the signal strength to each of its two tuners, maybe thats why its weak.

But since you are getting two 150s, then you shouldn't bother with the 500 anyway. And yes, the Hauppauge 45 button remote is great.

[rickgode]

Thanks Mayamaniac, I guess that internal splitter must be faulty in mine, because sometimes it would not tune anything at all. Maybe instead of returning it to SageTV and getting another pvr500 isn't the answer, and a better idea would be to exchange it for a pvr150. Right now nothing is broke, so I really don't want to try and fix anything!

[blade]

Many people are using the PVR500 without issue. It's just two 150s on a single card so there shouldn't be any real difference in quality unless you have a faulty card.

[rickgode]

Thats good to hear blade. Hopefully I'll get a return authorization number soon, and get a new 500 card back in. Oh and what kind of signal amplifier do you recommend. I tried one, first from the wall behind the TV and computer, then from the cable line when it first comes into the house. The signal amp made things worse.

[zoop]

Originally Posted by rickgode

Thats good to hear blade. Hopefully I'll get a return authorization number soon, and get a new 500 card back in. Oh and what kind of signal amplifier do you recommend. I tried one, first from the wall behind the TV and computer, then from the cable line when it first comes into the house. The signal amp made things worse.

i use an electroline 2100 with quite a bit of success... inline and offers significant signal boost.

/jer

[ybrew]

Just ordered a 500 today and will be picking up locally in about 45 minutes. (I'll probably get a 2nd one in a few weeks)

I certainly hope the 500 isn't a faulty card!

I got the card bundle locally with the remote. I assume the remote will work fine with sagetv (hope so).

This system will go into 'production' in a week or so. Can't wait!

[rickgode]

ybrew,

It is fun, especially when it works. I'm sure you've read these forums, but for me the best decoder was the intervideo non css. Everything was bright and cheery. So for me, the TV and Sage have been on for 2 days and no lock ups. I'm running the java that came with my SageTV install, and i also did a registry mod that had me change a couple zeros to ones. My java automatically updated to 1.5 and I noticed that i had frequent freezes. So I uninstalled java and sage and reinstalled, then I disabled java to automatically update, but still got freezes, then I changed the ones back to zeros in the registry and its been running ever since. So far those are the only trials and tribulations that I've dealt with. But its recording lots of shows for me to watch later, not to mention all the educational cartoons that my daughter can watch anytime!

[KorCar1]

Originally Posted by blade

Many people are using the PVR500 without issue. It's just two 150s on a single card so there shouldn't be any real difference in quality unless you have a faulty card.

Or you have 2 home runs of cable going into each 150. If that is your set up, then you would see a loss of signal when you use a 500 since splitting the signal will cause a 3.5db loss.

I've been trying to plan the whole house DVR set up for my new home, and I've been pulling my hair out trying to decide on hardware, wiring, etc based on these forums. Its nice to see someone that has had very few problems. It give me hope.