Xcard doesn't get along with Sage

[mediahome]

I have an XCard in my system and would like to use the XMP software with the XCard to play DVD's and SageTV with the XCard to play back PVR content. Unfortunately the two don't seem to get along. It appears that either one will grab the XCard driver and won't share it with the other.

I know that I could use SageTV to play back DVD's but I have yet to get that to work. Besides, it appears that the XMP/XCard combination is far more capable and certainly easier to use.

Is this the nature of the beast or is there some magic setting to get the two to get along?

Has anyone tried to install two XCards in a system? One for XMP and one for Sage?

[Opus4]

I installed the xcard on my system recently... and (so far) don't seem to have a problem w/using XMP and SageTV. Of course, they can't _both_ access the xcard at the same time, but I was able to watch a dvd on XMP, close XMP, and then wake-up SageTV and watch TV through the xcard. Essentially, I make sure only one is trying to use the xcard for output. I have no reason to keep XMP open when not watching a DVD, so there usually isn't a conflict. (I just tried this again to double check.)

Using JovePlayer, however, was another story. It wanted to grab my Hauppauge 250 in addition to the xcard & wouldn't seem to release it, even after closing the program. I had to reboot after running JovePlayer before SageTV could record anything, or else I would get audio but no video. (And it was a conflict using the 250, since there was no video in the mpeg file that SageTV saved.) I uninstalled JovePlayer.

- Andy

[mediahome]

Thanks Andy, I had not tried putting Sage into sleep mode. That should allow Sage to keep recording yet it frees up the XCard so that XMP can use it.

I guess that I just need to set Girder up so that it puts Sage to sleep and launches XMP when I switch to "DVD". Then when I switch back to "TV" it would kill XMP and wake Sage up.

Thanks for the tip.

Matt

[riekl]

mediahome --

Can you provide any assistance for getting an xcard to work with sagetv ? how to do a graphedit or whatever is needed to get the output onto the xcard ?

And my understanding is that with the xcard no osd can be used ? so i can't see when i've paused the show where its at etc , correct ?

[mediahome]

All you have to do is select the XCard as the video decoder on the video setup page.

That is right, no OSD at this time. We are all hoping that Jeff can squeeze that in with the PVR350 OSD in ver 2.0. In the meatime you use a remote of one sort or another to control it "blindly" - the old fashioned way.

[riekl]

Now .. if only i can get sage to change channels on my rca435rh (uses the "new" command set not the one sage has built in i might just switch products ..

[riekl]

Media,

Ok got the xcard working .. sort of

It is displaying the picture in a very blue/purple color , i remember i had this problem initial with jove and had to change the output "type" cp/yb whatever that type of thing in order to get the right colors .. where is this setting in sage ?

[Xleon]

I remember having problems getting my XCard to be seen using SageRecorder. If you update a driver, sometimes the XCard dissappears from the list of available decoders in Sage.
I then found, if I selected 'Default' that was now the XCard!

The only issue with using the XCard with Sage Recorder is there is no volume control and the volume is set to maximum

Dan has reliably told us a fix is in the works, but this was put to one side as far as I know due to Sage TV Studio being released soon.

Personally, JovePlayer does _almost_ everything I require with the XCard. It's shortly going to support my ProVideo 256T for timeshifting and TV Schedule recording (with XMLTV etc.) and then we're laughing.

[riekl]

Yea i had to dump the xcard anyway since it doesnt even display the guide, i figured no OSD meant just that the overlays but that guide info would still be avail on the xcard. Thats to much to sacrafice ..

[Xleon]

Dan has said that the OSD will be on the XCard soon. I've sent him details of how to use the XCard output so fingers crossed!

[mlbdude]

I am waiting to buy one of the hardware decoders (XCard, 350). Not sure which to get. The 350 OSD will be done first, but the XCard decodes more formats. But the 350 will give me a third tuner. Darn .

[Xleon]

What are your other two tuners? If they are 350s then you'd be OK with either card. If they are 250s then the 350 might not work alongside them from what I've seen here from previous posts.

I personally really like my XCard. It also has the bonus that it can output RGB and YUV which is fantastic. If only I could find the SCART cable add-on? Looks like I'll have to make my own

[Opus4]

I'll have to say that I really like my XCard too, even w/o the OSD for the time being.

Of course, I don't have the 350 to compare the image output, but I do like the fact that I can play DVDs through the XCard, which is not possible on the 350. Also, as Xleon mentions, the XCard can do component output, not just svideo or composite.

If you fill all your PCI slots, you could always add the Hauppauge USB2 tuner... and get FM in addition. (Which the 350 has too.)

Oh well, I'm sure they both have great output... comes down to the most important features, as usual.

- Andy