bad pvr-500?

[rnewman]

I have purchased 3 pvr-500 from newegg so far.

1st one shorted pci bus
2nd one worked fine except for heavy snow
3rd no snow but pixelated and stopped in sagetv
and picture/sound stops for long periods of time in simple pvr install below.

HAUPPAUGE WINTV-PVR 1081 RT (pvr-500)
MB ASROCK 939Dual-VSTA M1695 939
CPU AMD|A64 3800+ 2.4G 939 512K R
MEM 1G|WINTEC 3AMD1400-1GB1-R R
nvidia gefource 6800gs
120gig hard drive

(pvr-350 works fine)

So #3 I decided to start all over again
testing using the following:
brand new install of winxp home
pvr150_500_basedriver_2043_24103.exe
pvr150_22_23257.exe
wintv2k411_23347.exe
hcwsmd05_23290.exe

Is there any chance of getting a good pvr500 (I want two)
Thanks,
Ray

[ke6guj]

You're probably using the analog coax tuners. There is a lot of info on the 'new' style PVR-500's having major analog tuner issues. If you use the s-video or composite connectors, you'll probably have a perfect picture.

I had a perfectly working dual PVR-500 system with the older cards. I ordered 2 new PVR-500's for a Sage box for my parents. Total crap picture. Swapped in my tuners, and their system was now perfect. NO other changes in drivers or anything, just swapped tuners. My tuners in their box, they have good picture. Their tuners in my box, crap picture (with any driver version, even the beta drivers in the snaptream thread).

If you want good PVR-500's you need to get the older version. I called pcalchemy.com and they only have the new ones, so I couldn't swap them out with them. Snapstream.com says that they have the old style, and that they will only accept the old style ones from Hauppauge.

Here is a thread all about the new/old PVR-500s, http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=33675

[rnewman]

The 1st two 500 where type B
BUT the last one was type A
So I have no clue.
Anybody else have a good solution to 4 tuners?
USB too slow for that many tuners?
four single tuner cards?
Thanks,
Ray

[carlgar]

I have 2 pvr500 cards working fine. The first one was a type A card that worked fine until I attempted to update to the lastest posted drivers. Those drivers gave me a very poor picture. I contacted Hauppauge support and they provided me with new 2.0.48.24205 drivers dated 7/24/2006 which worked fine. I then ordered another pvr500 card and it was a type B. I decided to you the latest drivers that I got from hauppauge support and they worked fine. So if you do not have the 24205 drivers, I suggest you contact Hauppauge support.
I do not understand why hauppauge has not posted the newest drivers on their web site.

[ke6guj]

Just got my delivery of 2 new type-A PVR-500 tuner cards from Snapstream today. Yanked out my 2 type-B cards, popped in the type-A's, and back to good SDTV


edit: I am using the 24205 drivers and the LNA app, it helped a little bit, but still not acceptable. So the type-b's get boxed up and sent back in the morning.

[rnewman]

All three of my PVR500 were bad.
1st Shorting pci bus
2nd snow both tuners
3rd pixelation/stops with sagetv (stutter/stops with mfg test software)

sent all back and tried AVerTV Purity-3D MCE 500
downloaded drivers from website
worked right away with no problems
Now I will order a 2nd dual and see how that goes.
Ray

[paulbeers]

I find my PVR500 is almost worthless. It has been moved to only capturing OTA channels (my local channels are crap on my cable, but I am only 5 miles from the towers so my OTA reception is awesome). I have moved to a Purity 500 for capturing my cable and it is much better. I think the PVR500 just degrades the signal too much when it splits the signal internally. I love Avermedia. I have owned M150's, PVR 150 plus's, and now the Purity 500. I have been happy with all of them. They are generally cheaper than Hauppauge, and the Purity 500 compared to my PVR500 is sooo much better.

[rnewman]

changed to two dul tuners
AVerMedia Purity 3D MCE 500 ok
Hauppauge PVR-500 (used but tested)
motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-VSTA Socket
cpu: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice
ram: 1gb
got stuttering, pixelation on Hauppauge PVR-500
(just like 2nd of 3 boards I got from Newegg)
SO....................
I changed motherboard/cpu/ram
MOTHER BOARD: gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
ram:1gb

Now both dual tuners work fine.
Now I got some work to do.
Ray