Hauppauge WinTV HD PVR. Is it working?

[Fluffdaddy]

Hi guys

My HD PVR is still in its shipping box unopened. After reading the problems "some" are having with the HD PVR both here and AVS forums, I'm not sure I want to open the box or run not walk to the UPS store and ship it back. I just don't have the time to install and uninstall my system .................I just don't wish to deal with it.

But maybe the peeps posting with problems are a drop in the bucket and everyone else is happily recording HD...............Problem is I just don't know

SO IT'S POLL TIME


Edit:Sorry about the poor wording on the first poll question. The family mutt needed to be let out (bad) and I did not proof read.

Mod fix if you can.
"I'm happy with the Hauppauge WinTV HD PVR"
thanks

[Brent]

I vote "happy". Here's some clarifying comments on that vote:

• I'm seeing reports of overheating - I've not experienced those at all thus far. I'm stress testing the HD-PVR today while I'm at work and will do more this weekend.
• I now have my HD100 extender and my client PC (with dual-core processor) working just fine with the HD-PVR. Client PC required that I use the Arcsoft decoder for h.264 to work perfectly.
• I'm using the USBUIRT for IR blasting. The blaster that comes with the HD-PVR requires that you clear all Hauppauge drivers and stuff out, install the HD-PVR and then install the driver-only for other Hauppauge devices on your server - I'm not ready to tackle that since my USBUIRT is working fine. Eventually I'll move on to firewire for channel changing when I have more time to mess with it.

I'm expecting to see more bugs and problems because I know the HD-PVR driver is in its infance as well as the SageTV support of this device. That being said, I think it's working fine in my situation - I'll let you know if that changes for me

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Brent

I vote "happy".

That being said, I think it's working fine in my situation - I'll let you know if that changes for me

Please do. I'm in need of all the user reviews I can read.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm seeing reports of overheating - I've not experienced those at all thus far. I'm stress testing the HD-PVR today while I'm at work and will do more this weekend.

Stress test today (over 8 consecutive hours straight of 1080i recordings) went well. Not a single glitch and the box stayed fairly cool other then a little heat on the bottom (not hot, just warm). So, I'm getting optimistic that I don't have a bad HD-PVR... I'm going to run the same test now starting now until tomorrow morning and see how it goes.

I'm starting to think that what this guy is saying might be right. And if it is, there might actually be a chance to fix this for those having the overheating issue with a firmware update. Cross your fingers

[othy]

Just thought I'd chip in with my experience. No problems setting it up in WHS and using the Hauppauge IR Blaster. I have an unused USB-UIRT that I was ready to try, and I was eventually planning on going with Firewire channel changing, but the Hauppauge blaster has been great.

I haven't done a lot of recording with it yet, but so far no sign of heat related issues and aside from some minor stuttering when recording begins, my HD extender is having no trouble with playback.

Complete specs in my sig.

Tim

[Fluffdaddy]

What a nightmare that was, four hours of trial and error. Reboot this uninstall/reinstall that, trying beta then retrying the software on the cd.........ahhhhh. With zero helpful direction from their support site or manual if things go wrong. Thank god for Sage forum.

This is not ready for the living room.........plug an play it ain't. But I finally got it working.

btw: no heat issues with this unit............. 3 hours of HD recording

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Brent

I vote "happy". Here's some clarifying comments on that vote:
[LIST][*]I'm seeing reports of overheating - I've not experienced those at all thus far. I'm stress testing the HD-PVR today while I'm at work and will do more this weekend.[*]I now have my HD100 extender and my client PC (with dual-core processor) working just fine with the HD-PVR. Client PC required that I use the Arcsoft decoder for h.264 to work perfectly.

Thank you, helpful info like this should be somewhere on the Hauppauge support site.

I now have HD goodness every where in the house. HD100 Extender and PC client source........ one R5000 mod ird and a WinTV HD PVR on my other HD ird at more then half the price of a R5000HD

DD 5.1 support is all I need at this point :

[pat_smith1969]

The install went fine for me, took a total of about an hour. Of course I read this forum first and followed the advice of those that went before me. I think the major thing that helped me is that I did the HWClear.exe prior to doing anything else. I updated to 6.4.3 before attempting the install too.

I have a few bugs that I will report, but for the most part It went well.

[Fluffdaddy]

That was my mistake, I read the install manual that came with the box. Then worked my way though 4 or 5 days worth of threads here when nothing worked for me. The posts here got me up and going

[thomaszoo]

I didn't get mine until Thursday evening. I had read the forums and had a pretty good idea that there may be some problems. I did a complete backup prior to starting just in case something went south on me. I downloaded the beta driver, plugged in everything and when I got the new hardware wizard I pointed it to the new driver. Then I went into Sage and added the HD PVR using the firewire tuning I already had working. I selected my lineup (already setup, but I later tweaked for the better) and I was done. I had one program that there was an occasional glitch in, but it may have been the cable signal. Since I watch only with the HD100 I didn't have to deal with any codecs or video driver problems (which is why I bought it).

I am using the analog sound at this time which is a little problematic since the volume is lower than my other sources. But I expect that to be fixed in a future firmware update.

All in all, it was a very easy install for me and I look forward to using it in the future.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

I am using the analog sound at this time which is a little problematic since the volume is lower than my other sources.

Can you turn up the volume on the STB?

[gplasky]

There's an option in the HD-PVR Arcsoft software to boost the analog sound. Make aure to checkmark that box.

Gerry

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by gplasky

There's an option in the HD-PVR Arcsoft software to boost the analog sound. Make aure to checkmark that box.

Gerry

The STB volume is up all the way. I haven't installed the Arcsoft software yet; sounds like I should do that next. Thanks for the advice.

Wayne

[jlindborg]

the recordings all so far (with just a couple small exceptions) look good when viewed with ArcSofts client - however playback on the HD extender has small hitches in it - no sound glitch, it just looks like it drops a frame now and again - given it has no problems with much larger 720p recordings from my HDHR unit, I'm assuming it's a specific problem with the extender handling these .TS files - but I haven't heard of this specific issue. Both my extenders were updated with the latest beta firmware this weekend and both are showing this problem. I've checked all the recordings directly and there are no hitches in playback there.

But other than that - it's working well - no overheating problems or the like - although to be fair I'm recording in 480p.

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by gplasky

There's an option in the HD-PVR Arcsoft software to boost the analog sound. Make aure to checkmark that box.

Gerry

Gerry,

I give up. I looked everywhere (including the help file) and cannot find a box to check to boost the analog sound. Help!

Thanks

Wayne

[gplasky]

Sart up Total Media Extreme. Go to Record video (videocassete icon). Now go to device settings. It should be in there. I can't right now because Sage is running. You can only have one software package access the device at one time.

Gerry

[thomaszoo]

Gerry,

Thanks. I never would have found it because I had SageTV Service running in the background. And for some reason they put it under "Format Settings" instead of "Device Settings". I'm not sure if it made much difference (it is still pretty low), but thanks for the help. Now where is that 5.1 firmware update...

Wayne

[Chriscic]

Mine can only record for a few minutes at a time, so I definitely got a "bad" one. But the recording quality seems good. If they get everything working, it should be a winner.

I think you can return opened product for a full refund with Hauppauge (at least that's the way I read their website), so you may as well go ahead and try it out.

If quick fixes aren't forthcoming I'm going to return mine and repurchase when/if things get better.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

Gerry,

Thanks. I never would have found it because I had SageTV Service running in the background. And for some reason they put it under "Format Settings" instead of "Device Settings". I'm not sure if it made much difference (it is still pretty low), but thanks for the help. Now where is that 5.1 firmware update...

Wayne

Good. I wasn't sure where it was but figured if you get that far you would find it.

Gerry

[jelwood]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

the recordings all so far (with just a couple small exceptions) look good when viewed with ArcSofts client - however playback on the HD extender has small hitches in it - no sound glitch, it just looks like it drops a frame now and again - given it has no problems with much larger 720p recordings from my HDHR unit, I'm assuming it's a specific problem with the extender handling these .TS files - but I haven't heard of this specific issue. Both my extenders were updated with the latest beta firmware this weekend and both are showing this problem. I've checked all the recordings directly and there are no hitches in playback there.

But other than that - it's working well - no overheating problems or the like - although to be fair I'm recording in 480p.

I'm recording in 720p and have the same exact issue with the HD Extender. It looks like the video stream skips every few seconds (or like you said, drops a few frames). Other than that issue, I'm very happy with the HD-PVR.