VistaView Saber 2020

[ARMYB77]

VistaView pulled the drivers and firmware to prevent multiple configurations of the card, so when the thier new firmware comes out they don't have to deal with 3 or more different card configurations. The newest version of drivers and firmware should be out soon accourding to Shimon. I don't want to creat a bigger probelm for VistaView so I wiil not post it here on the forum. You will have to contact vistaview directly for help.

Sorry Armyb77

[ARMYB77]

Update:
Sagetv v6.1 is messed up. You really can not be on sage when it's recording. I recorded something earlier today and I was searching for other shows and when I went back to watch it no audio. I recorded "Everybody Hates Chris" today and after 5 minutes into the recording it locked up and said no signal. Once I canceled the recording and watched it through sage the signal came back. I wasn't taping anything else, by the way. It also locked up again when the show was over. Overall Its hard to tell if the problem is the RC SageTV or the Drivers (firmware) from VistaView, so I thought I would post it here, and see if anyone else is having these problems.

[ARMYB77]

Update:
New Beta Drivers from VistaView fixed all problems! Only problem now is that the PQ using SageTv is still horrible. It's almost like they are using the hardware encoder on the card, but are by passing the 3dcomb filter. I know that the PQ is excellent because I've seen the PQ using GB-PVR. I wonder if any other cards are being effected in this manner and the drivers are getting blamed for it?

Thanks
Armyb77

[jmiddleton]

Vistaview have released the new 1035.4.0 drivers and they appear to be working well with Sage 6.1.14 and Vista Business 32 bit.

[manfell@shaw.ca]

After adjusting record quality to Great and changing Saturation to 90 PQ looks as good as my ATI 650 Wonder Card.

One quirk is when changing channels when using Saber 2020 tuners must press stop twice to stop play back then select channel, this happens on original Sage or SageMC. Does anyone else have this problem?

Sage 6.1.4.128
SageMC STV Version 6.3.2
AMD Athalon 64 3000+
1 GB of memory
Windows XP Pro

[jmiddleton]

Try changing

seeker/fast_mux_switch=false

in the properties file. That fixed my channel changing problems in Vista

[bjterry62]

Originally Posted by manfell@shaw.ca

After adjusting record quality to Great and changing Saturation to 90 PQ looks as good as my ATI 650 Wonder Card.

One quirk is when changing channels when using Saber 2020 tuners must press stop twice to stop play back then select channel, this happens on original Sage or SageMC. Does anyone else have this problem?

Sage 6.1.4.128
SageMC STV Version 6.3.2
AMD Athalon 64 3000+
1 GB of memory
Windows XP Pro

I have this same issue. If I don't stop playback, I get the "No Signal" box in the middle of the screen.

Is Sage seeing both of your tuners? For some reason, after I did the newest upgrade and driver install, I only see one tuner. I had 2 before. BTV see both, but only one gives a picture. Currently working with VV support on these issues.

BT

[manfell@shaw.ca]

Originally Posted by bjterry62

I have this same issue. If I don't stop playback, I get the "No Signal" box in the middle of the screen.

Is Sage seeing both of your tuners? For some reason, after I did the newest upgrade and driver install, I only see one tuner. I had 2 before. BTV see both, but only one gives a picture. Currently working with VV support on these issues.

BT

I see both tuners, I also started with a clean install.

Originally Posted by jmiddleton

Try changing

seeker/fast_mux_switch=false

in the properties file. That fixed my channel changing problems in Vista

I'll try it tonite and let you know. Thanks for the tip

[bjterry62]

UPDATE!!

Tried new driver/firmware directly from VV Support last night and all issues with Saber are resolved. Both tuners are recognized and PQ is the best I've seen from this card (it still has an issue with weak stations). Comparable to the ATI 550 I believe. I'll have to pull a 550 and install beside the Saber to tell for sure, but it looks close. No channel changing problems and audio is good. This driver/firmware update has not been released yet, so don't ask me for it. My recommendation is that if you have any issues, conntact VV Support directly and they will work with you on it. I have only checked this update with SageTV 6.1.4. CPU usage is 50% with both tuners recording on a lowly Sempron system with 512mb memory and integrated graphics.
BT

[manfell@shaw.ca]

Originally Posted by manfell@shaw.ca

I see both tuners, I also started with a clean install.



I'll try it tonite and let you know. Thanks for the tip

I made the change and it works properly now.

[manfell@shaw.ca]

Originally Posted by bjterry62

UPDATE!!

Tried new driver/firmware directly from VV Support last night and all issues with Saber are resolved. Both tuners are recognized and PQ is the best I've seen from this card (it still has an issue with weak stations). Comparable to the ATI 550 I believe. I'll have to pull a 550 and install beside the Saber to tell for sure, but it looks close. No channel changing problems and audio is good. This driver/firmware update has not been released yet, so don't ask me for it. My recommendation is that if you have any issues, conntact VV Support directly and they will work with you on it. I have only checked this update with SageTV 6.1.4. CPU usage is 50% with both tuners recording on a lowly Sempron system with 512mb memory and integrated graphics.
BT

Thanks for the tip, I'll contact VV.

[manfell@shaw.ca]

Originally Posted by manfell@shaw.ca

Thanks for the tip, I'll contact VV.

VV suport is great.
Just installed their beta drivers and firmware. PQ did improve.

[manfell@shaw.ca]

Originally Posted by bjterry62

UPDATE!!

Tried new driver/firmware directly from VV Support last night and all issues with Saber are resolved. Both tuners are recognized and PQ is the best I've seen from this card (it still has an issue with weak stations). Comparable to the ATI 550 I believe. I'll have to pull a 550 and install beside the Saber to tell for sure, but it looks close. No channel changing problems and audio is good. This driver/firmware update has not been released yet, so don't ask me for it. My recommendation is that if you have any issues, conntact VV Support directly and they will work with you on it. I have only checked this update with SageTV 6.1.4. CPU usage is 50% with both tuners recording on a lowly Sempron system with 512mb memory and integrated graphics.
BT

Could you please tell me what settings you have in the tuner calabration of Sagetv.

I have changed saturation to 90 and now I'm playing with brightness and saturation.

I'm useing an Sencore CP5000 to ISF calabrate my monitors, I'll let you now my final settings.

[manfell@shaw.ca]

Now with the upgrade to 6.1.9 the picture quality has improved.

it's 90% of my ATI650 pq. this is quite acceptable.

The settings in the tuner source setup is at default.

[Naph1337]

Originally Posted by manfell@shaw.ca

VV suport is great.
Just installed their beta drivers and firmware. PQ did improve.

Any chance you could tell me how to get the latest (beta?) drivers for the VistaView 2020? I have an ftp address from previous correspondence with them, but I'm not sure if their most recent drivers are up there (or what their filenames might be). Thanks!

[bjterry62]

Originally Posted by manfell@shaw.ca

Could you please tell me what settings you have in the tuner calabration of Sagetv.

I have changed saturation to 90 and now I'm playing with brightness and saturation.

I'm useing an Sencore CP5000 to ISF calabrate my monitors, I'll let you now my final settings.

Never really messed with the calibration in Sage. Mine looks fine at default. I can check and see what the setting are though, if you need me to.

BT

[Naph1337]

Originally Posted by ARMYB77

Update:
Sagetv v6.1 is messed up. You really can not be on sage when it's recording. I recorded something earlier today and I was searching for other shows and when I went back to watch it no audio. I recorded "Everybody Hates Chris" today and after 5 minutes into the recording it locked up and said no signal. Once I canceled the recording and watched it through sage the signal came back. I wasn't taping anything else, by the way. It also locked up again when the show was over. Overall Its hard to tell if the problem is the RC SageTV or the Drivers (firmware) from VistaView, so I thought I would post it here, and see if anyone else is having these problems.

I'm also discovering these problems, and I have no idea how to fix them! I have what I believe to be the latest drivers (1035.4.0.0) available from the VV web site, but whenever I try watching live TV, if I a change a channel, it'll maybe change the first one, then stutter, then, if I try to change another, I get "No signal" and everything turns to crap.

Has anyone discovered a solution for this? I'm running Sage 6.1 -- and I'm new to it and hoping there's help out there! Thanks!

[jmiddleton]

"No Signal" problem when changing channel can be fixed by editing your sage properties file. Change seeker/fast_mux_switch=false.

The VistaView 1035.4.0 drivers and firmware work quite well with SageTV 6.1 - particularly if you are using S-Video to a set top box. I gather that VV are still working to clear up some RF tuner issues before releasing signed drivers. If you are experiencing this problem contact VV tech support. I'm not sure if they are still accepting guinea pigs for the beta test program.

[Naph1337]

Originally Posted by jmiddleton

"No Signal" problem when changing channel can be fixed by editing your sage properties file. Change seeker/fast_mux_switch=false.

The VistaView 1035.4.0 drivers and firmware work quite well with SageTV 6.1 - particularly if you are using S-Video to a set top box. I gather that VV are still working to clear up some RF tuner issues before releasing signed drivers. If you are experiencing this problem contact VV tech support. I'm not sure if they are still accepting guinea pigs for the beta test program.

I made that change in the properties file -- still getting the "No Signal" error. But I am connecting through the RF connection, not S-video. *Sigh* I guess I'm just screwed for a while...

[jmiddleton]

Place a request for Sage tech support. The Saber 2020 is officially supported in version 6.1 and there may be other tweaks in the properties file that I am not aware of. If you are new to Sage double check to make sure your edit is still there. You must exit Sage completely, including stopping the service before you edit the sage.properties file. If you are running Vista, the properties file isn't in the normal place. You'll find it at C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV

Also place a request for VistaView tech support. The beta drivers are up to version 1037 - maybe more by now - and could solve your problem.

Good luck.