Where can I find the Hauppauge 1.7.21177 drivers for 250/350 ?

[sudipto]

I posted this question in my other thread "Problem using 350+250 with SageTV", but thought I would post this under a more explicit title so someone who knows the answer can help me.

I am using a version 16 WinTV PVR 250 alongwith a version 15 WinTV PVR 350 card in my system, and in this combination the 250 card output is very blocky (it is fine if I remove the 350).

One of the possible solutions that was suggested was to try the version 21177 of Hauppauge drivers. Does anyone know where I can find these drivers ?

I went to SHSPVR and picked the drivers from here (direct link to 21177 drivers), but after installing, when I checked the driver versions thru Windows XP device manager, they showed up as version 1.7.390.2183.

If anyone has a copy of the CORRECT 21177 drivers that they can e-mail me, I would HIGHLY appreciate the help !

[mlbdude]

You do know that Windows never reports the same driver version as the file name, right? I would look in the driver package for a readme or something that reports the driver version.

[sudipto]

No, I didn't know that !

But I am not going by the file name exactly, here is what I am doing --

1. Open "Device Manager" (My Computer->right click ->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager)
2. Expand the group "Sound, Video and game controllers"
3. Select the WinTV PVR device and right click on it, then "properties"
4. Click on the "Driver" tab in the window that comes up.

This driver windows lists the provider, driver date, version etc. The driver version in this window is listed as 1.7.390.2183 ... which I would have expected to be 1.7.21177.xx

Am I doing something wrong here ?

If anyone else is successfully using a ver 16 250 along with a ver 15 350, could you please let me know which driver version you are using, and what it shows up as in the device manager driver window ?

[mlbdude]

Yeah that version is the version of the .sys file (the actual driver) but never seems to match the filenames we throw around here.

I am lucky to have two 15's so I have not had that issue (but other issues since Hauppauges drivers are so bad). A friend with a 16 and a 15 version just spent the weekend trying to get it to work with many different versions of drivers. No luck. He did have it working with 1.6b for months but has not been able to get it back. Seems some people have luck with some versions and others don't. There must be some specific combination of driver install / card install method. Heck, maybe you need to install two different versions like you have to do with the MCE version!

If anyone can find a repeatable solution to this, let us know!

[sudipto]

Thanks for trying to help, mlbdude !

If anyone else knows a solution to this, I am all ears.

[carlgar]

Originally posted by sudipto
I went to SHSPVR and picked the drivers from here (direct link to 21177 drivers), but after installing, when I checked the driver versions thru Windows XP device manager, they showed up as version 1.7.390.2183.

I could not find the location you mention above for getting the drivers, but I did not look very hard. For the drivers I am using with a "15" PVR350 and 2 "16" PVR250 Cards goto http://www.shspvr.com/ Click on Download, click on WinTV-PRV 250/350. Then under Drivers in the second paragraph a line reads Click Here to Download CDROM Release 1.7.21177 12 MB size. Click on Download in that line. That will give you a file named hcw1_7_21177_pp2.zip

step by step installation instructions are near the bottom of the driver page. After proper Installation the Driver version should be 1.17.270.21176 with a date of 6/25/2003.

I can record on all 3 cards but cannot get tv out to work on the 350 cards. I would like to know if your TV out works after installation. I would also like to know if your 250 cards records properly after a cold boot. If not see my thread "Possible initialization problem with multi-turner cards".
You may also see a reboot after installing the 250 drivers and during the 350 driver install, if so just install the 350 driver after the system reboots. Other than the above problems it is as solid as sandstone .

[sudipto]

carlgar: Thanks very much for the info ! The location you pointed me to is exactly where I got the drivers from, however, after installation I got the 1.70.390.2183 drivers with a date or 8/8/03 or 10/08/03 or something like that ... definitely not 6/25/03

So it sounds like I need to clean the original Hauppauge drivers completely out of my system and then try the SHS drivers again.

Thanks for confirming that the 250/350 combination does work though. I am not using the output from 350 (I am using a separate video card), but I can easily try it out and will let you know.

Out of curiosity, which motherboard are you using ? And which PCI slots are being used by what cards ?

If you could please post your detailed system configuration, that will be very helpful as well.

Thanks very much once again !

[carlgar]

If you following the 1-8 steps near the bottom of the driver page it should clean out all of the current drivers.

I don't know which motherboard I have, I am a software person and bought the system already build to my requirements. Here is my system summary:

Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name 3265414-0001
System Manufacturer micronpc.com
System Model D845EBTN
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2400 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. BT84510A.86A.0004.P03.0205240928, 5/24/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)"
User Name 3265414-0001\Carl
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 212.10 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.72 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.07 GB
Page File Space 1.22 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys



I haved tried every combination of slots and not seen any difference. Currently I have the following:

Slot 1 PVR250 Hauppauge Win TV-PVR PCI II (Encoder-16)
Slot 2 PVR250 Hauppauge Win TV-PVR PCI II (Encoder-16)
Slot 3 PVR350 Hauppauge Win TV-PVR PCI II (Encoder/Decoder)
Slot 4 WinXP Promise Ultra 100 TX2(tm) IDE Controller
Slot 5 Lucent Win Modem

[sudipto]

Thanks carlgar ! That helps.

[sudipto]

Okay, I followed the driver removal instructions at SHSPVR and have now successfully installed the 21177 drivers (device manager reports driver version 1.17.270.21176 dated 6/25/2003).

However, my main problem is still not solved As long as the 350 is present in the system, the output of 250 is EXTREMELY blocky and the bottom part of the screen shows green noise

If I remove the 350 from the system, the 250 works just fine. I have tried various combinations of PCI slots and nothing helps.

Now, I must mention that this is NOT the fault of SageTV in anyway. I see the exact same problem if I run the Hauppauge WinTV2000 application as well.

carlgar: quick question for you - are you using the same driver version for both your 250 and 350 cards ? Or different drivers for each one ? If different, what is the other driver you are using ?

[carlgar]

Originally posted by sudipto
However, my main problem is still not solved As long as the 350 is present in the system, the output of 250 is EXTREMELY blocky and the bottom part of the screen shows green noise

This sounds like the same thing I see on my 250 cards when I first start. Have you tried the work around I describe in the first post of the "Possible initialization problem with multi-tuner cards"?

Once the cards are initialized they work fine 99% of time. I have only once seen 1 of 250 cards go back into that state during use and I was able to reinitialize it. You will have to do this whenever you reboot your system.

If you move the 350 card to a slot in front of the 250 it will probably correct the WinTV2000 application but will have no effect on SageTV. I believe WinTV2000 inputs from the first card it finds and therefore will input from the 350 which shows no problems.

I use the same drivers for all 3 cards.

[mlbdude]

This all sounds disconcerting. So far it sounds like there is really no way to get a 15 and a 16 version card to work together properly - except with work arounds. No wonder Hauppauge always replies with "dual cards are not supported" when I ask them about issues .

[carlgar]

I would agree that with the current version of SageTV PVR350 and the new PVR 250 should not be mixed. It really depends on how you define work properly. After I do the manual initialization the cards are quite stable for recording only. Since I can manually correct the PVR250 problem, a software patch should be provided unless they are prepared to announce a date for the version 2 which is just deamware at this point from what I have read. I purchased the two 250 cards based upon the following post.

Originally posted by Narflex
Why do you need to match it with your 350? The 250 with the 16 chip on it should work fine alongside the 350. I've run that many times without problems.

In addition to the 250 initialization issue there is the matter of getting the 350 TV out to work properly which I believe may also be an initialization related issue.

I would like like to see some comments from Narflex as to whether they can duplicate these problems or not. It could be an issue related to the speed of the system bus.

[mlbdude]

I think that quote is incorrect. I believe that the 350's are based on the 15 version.

The problems we are experiencing seem to be Hauppauge driver related. I don't think version 2 of Sage will fix any of these 15 and 16 compatibility problems. It will hopefully fix the 350 issues but again only if it is something they can fix.

About the release date they announced that awhile ago in the interview at HTPCNews. I don't see any reason why they should repeat it every week. We just need to be patient.

[sudipto]

carlgar: I tried the initialization workaround you suggested in your post "Possible initialization problem with multi-tuner cards" and amazingly it works and after changing the recording quality to 0.75GB and then back to 5.6GB, the 250 card shows the output properly !

It is not a pretty solution, but at least it provides a way to utilize both my cards for recording simultaneously, which was one of the main reasons for me to go with SageTV.

I have been talking with SHS (of SHSPVR fame) regarding this issue and he suggested me to try out the new 21272 drivers from his page. I tried it out and it didn't solve the problem ... so now he is going to send me a custom INF file to try and see if it solves the problem.

BTW, SHS is a great guy and is extremely helpful ! He is really trying very hard to work out this problem for me and replies to e-mails very promptly !

[mlbdude]

SHS solved my problems by providing a custom inf (no sound second tuner). I don't know why Hauppauge can't seem to get done what he does.

[carlgar]

Originally posted by mlbdude

About the release date they announced that awhile ago in the interview at HTPCNews. I don't see any reason why they should repeat it every week. We just need to be patient.

I just re-read the interview and I do not see a date given, what I did see is an estimated time line. Here is the section I am referring too:

Now to the question everyone wants answered, what's the Timeline for release?
Our timeline is probably (we're in private beta testing for version two now), it will probably be at least another month before we make it a public beta. I don't know if you know or not but we always make our betas public. If you are a licensed customer you'll have access to it. If your running a trial, you'll have access to it for the remainder of your trial period. I would say we can get you something to review in a month or so. I don't think we'll release version 2.0 until early 2004. To actually make that start replacing version 1.4. The public beta will cover a decent span of time, however when we make it a public beta everyone has access to it anyway it makes it almost like a release but there could still be bugs in there.

I have been holding off on many posts concerning the product because I thought most if not all of issues would be addressed in version 2 beta. I think I have been very patient, but I think Frey got ahead of itself with so many comments about version 2 before they were ready to make a public beta. They should have limited their comments to requests for features to be included. When a beta is ready for general use is the time to start talking about features and showing screenshots. Even at that point it is unlikely that they could announce a release date. They should wait for feedback concerning any problems and issues raised by the public beta to determine the official release date for the product.

Just my thoughts and why I currently refer to version 2 as dreamware.

[mlbdude]

Well I agree that they should have held back a little before a public beta. I feel that way about SnapStream too. I don't participate in their closed beta program so I really don't want to get excited about something when no estimated release date is given. Just drop it on us folks! Hype does seem to work against the products.

However, I have no problem with them telling me something will come to "beta" in at least a month. I would rather them tell me that than nothing at all. Besides, you can kind of tell when something is coming to fruition here. No replies from Narflex for quite some time.

Again, I don't believe that any of the multi-tuner problems related to drivers will be fixed in 2.0. That is something Hauppauge will need to resolve. However, companies like Frey and soon SnapStream should be able to exert some pressure on Hauppauge to get them to change their line of "multiple tuner cards installed is not supported" since they drive users to their products. Having to get another user to modify the Hauppauge installer for me to get it to work is simply not acceptable.

[sudipto]

I tried the custom INF file sent by SHS and unfortunately that didn't fix this problem ! I still see the blocky video and noise at the bottom of the screen from the 250 output

However, the initialization method suggested by carlgar still works; so if I first set the recording quality to 0.75GB/hr and then restart SageTV and set the recordong quality back to 5.6GB/hr, then the output from both 250 and 350 are fine ... until the reboot of the machine.

Guess I'll have to live with this until Sage works this out with Hauppauge and comes out with a solution

[Gendalia]

We just got a 250 to add to our 350. In the machine where the 350 works fine, adding the 250 causes it to not ever successfully complete booting win2k. This machine is a VIA chipset motherboard, with a celeron 766.

We borrowed my desktop box to put the 250 & 350 in to see what happens, and we see the initialization problems carlgar reports, with the 250's bottom third or so being blocky and the whole picture being awful. The 350's picture is perfect, but tvout fails in sage, although it works fine with wintv2000. Following carlgar's instructions for initialization makes the picture better with the 250. With both boards enabled, tvout will never work with sage, but tvout works fine with wintv2000, which I would agree makes that part a sage problem rather than a hauppauge problem. Disabling the 250 in hardware properties makes the 350 work just as it normally would in the current sage box.

My desktop box is an nVidia nforce2 board with an athlon 2100+, and since it normally does not run windows (until sage, none of our machines regularly ran windows) it isn't my first choice for a sagetv box.