tuner selection hangs sagetv

[snoopy]

I just purchased a new HP desktop and SageTV is hanging on tuner selection:

-Installed (from scratch) Windows Vista Ultimate (w/sp1 integrated, got updates)
-It came with 2GB of RAM
-Installed NVidia 7200 series PCI Express card
-transfered an older Happauge PVR-500 dual-tuner card
-transfered a newer WinTV Digital Analog tuner card
-added USB-UIRT and latest drivers

The plan was to upgrade SageTV a little because I was having some trouble running on an old Athlon. I made sure to update the Hauppauge PVR-500 drivers since that is to be my primary card.

The screenshot of where it hangs is attached. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mayamaniac]

what version of SageTV and Java? Tried the latest of each if you haven't already. You are running 32bit Vista right?

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

what version of SageTV and Java? Tried the latest of each if you haven't already. You are running 32bit Vista right?

I downloaded the latest SageTV beta 6.4.7 and the latest Java v6 update 7. It is 32bit Vista Ultimate (sp1 integrated and all the updates).

[Conejo]

Does the WinTV application successfully use the PVR-500 card? or the HVR-1x00 card for Analog, then Digital? This would verify that the drivers were installed properly and working.

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by Conejo

Does the WinTV application successfully use the PVR-500 card? or the HVR-1x00 card for Analog, then Digital? This would verify that the drivers were installed properly and working.

It scanned for channels and played both analog channels and digital ones. The tuner is HVR 1600 and is made to tune via an antenna to either analog or digital channels. WinTV installs by default with the drivers for the HVR 1600 found here . I'm trying to figure out how to get the WinTV application to tune using the PVR 500 instead.

[Conejo]

1. When adding a capture/tuner/encoder source, it's common for sage to 'appear' unresponsive and not display any images (especially with yet-to-be-scanned digital cards). Try selecting the "Device Input to Use: TV Tuner" button to continue the setup process.

2. The PVR-500 is actually two PVR-150s sandwiched on the same board with a special PCI-bridge circuit. Some motherboards chipsets don't work well with the bridge. Try removing the PVR-500 card from your system and see if you can successfully install the HVR-1600.

3. You may need remove both boards, run HWCLEAR, reboot, install the HVR1600 with drivers, reboot, then install the PVR-500 with drivers -- then setup SageTV.

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by Conejo

1. When adding a capture/tuner/encoder source, it's common for sage to 'appear' unresponsive and not display any images (especially with yet-to-be-scanned digital cards). Try selecting the "Device Input to Use: TV Tuner" button to continue the setup process.

2. The PVR-500 is actually two PVR-150s sandwiched on the same board with a special PCI-bridge circuit. Some motherboards chipsets don't work well with the bridge. Try removing the PVR-500 card from your system and see if you can successfully install the HVR-1600.

3. You may need remove both boards, run HWCLEAR, reboot, install the HVR1600 with drivers, reboot, then install the PVR-500 with drivers -- then setup SageTV.

Excellent! Thanks for that explanation. Are you saying to run hwclear from the windows run line?

[Conejo]

Sorry, it's HCWCLEAR is a Hauppauge windows application that clears any and all hauppauge elements like drivers, ini and registry entries from your system.

Just double click it, then follow the prompts.

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by Conejo

Sorry, it's HCWCLEAR is a Hauppauge windows application that clears any and all hauppauge elements like drivers, ini and registry entries from your system.

Just double click it, then follow the prompts.

I just gave that a go and did not have any luck. Uninstalled the PVR500 software, removed card, performed hwclear. Installed the latest chipset drivers along with another update found for the system and restarted. I am now using the next latest copy of SageTV beta and have even tried reverting to the most current 'stable' release. It still hangs on recognizing the HVR 1600 tuner as well.

WinTV has no issues with it.

?

[mayamaniac]

When you uninstalled, did you manually delete the SageTV directory? If not, try doing that just to make sure you are starting with a clean start. Also disable Vista's UAC in the control panel (Control Panel > User Accounts > Turn User Account Control On or Off), otherwise it'll send the sage.properties to a different location. You can re-enable it after you have everything working.

[Conejo]

If this were my machine I would try just a couple more things, then put in a support request so they could take a look at the logs.

If you have tested both boards and verified you can successfully select and view their tuners with WinTV, I would guess this isn't a Hardware/Firmware/Driver issue... at least no conflicts with WinTV.
So I would guess this is an issue between the Driver/Software Agent/Dependancy and Vista 32 and SageTV.

Last things to try:
1. Reinstall Direct-X v10, the Vista version.

2. Could be a Audio/Video codec/decoder/renderer issue: The default SageTV selection should work, but I might try preselect

3. Try installing just the one board then test with WinTV, SageTV. Hcwclear between tests: a. only HVR-1600 b. only PVR-500

3c. Try changing the install slot. This is a long shot since it works with WinTV.

4. Wipe SageTV and reinstall as a fresh new build, using 6.4.8rc (although some may say only to install only non-beta). For testing only, so no previous wiz.bin

5. Contact SageTV. They will give you instructions to furnish them logs to help diagnose the issue.

[snoopy]

How do I obtain the logs? Which ones are relavent?

[MeInMaui]

Hi Snoop,

Make sure you do all of your source setup with the default STV. You will also want to make sure you have switched back to the default STV and verified that the problems still exist before you open a support ticket.

Aloha,
Mike

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by snoopy

How do I obtain the logs? Which ones are relavent?

Sage support will email you back with specific instructions. Sorry I wasn't clear on that.

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Hi Snoop,

Make sure you do all of your source setup with the default STV. You will also want to make sure you have switched back to the default STV and verified that the problems still exist before you open a support ticket.

Aloha,
Mike

Hey Mike, Love your stuff man!
It's good to see all the familiar old faces around here. Yes, I am on the standard STV. I can't get far enough to load it for the first time, prior to customizations.

[snoopy]

I have tested and tested per the recommendation in this thread and I am still having trouble. I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate with 2GB of RAM, nice Nvidia card, etc and I can't get past the setup in SageTV

no issues in wintv or windows media center for either hvr-1600 or pvr-500.

I have sent two emails to Sage TV via the web form with no response requesting any log files from me or assistance.

I am beginning to think that SageT just isn't going to work anymore. Windows Media Center doesn't have some of the bells and whistles I have grown accustomed to but other than that, seems to work pretty well. I'm sure it doesn't deal with commercials either.

I really want to get this working and I've tried everything I know, even two fresh loads of the OS, hwclear, etc per the previous post. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

[Conejo]

Hey Snoop,

SageTV typically doesn't respond over the weekend. Also, if you have any sort junk filter on your email that's where their responses tend to go. If you haven't heard back from them by Tuesday then you might want to try again with an alternate email address.

Does this VISTA box have any special bells or whistles, extra hardware or software included? It just seems odd to me that a generic Vista box would cause you so much grief.

1. Is the setup process failing for BOTH the HVR-1600 and the PVR-500?

2. Could you verify the following build process:

-Bare box, no capture boards installed
-Load MS VISTA-32 Ultimate OS to formatted drive (or using Vista recovery DVD that overwrites partition)
-Latest driver for NVidia 7200 series PCI Express card
-Update JAVA
-Download and install SageTV (fresh install, default wiz.bin, STV)
-Download Hauppauge installer (Installation CD Version 3.4D1 with WinTV version 6) for the latest HVR-1600 and PVR-500 Vista Drivers
-Shutdown
-Insert ONLY the HVR-1600
-Boot and install drivers/WinTV application
-Quick test with WinTV
-Launch SageTV and setup for HVR-1600, select TV Tuner
*When adding a capture/tuner/encoder source, it's common for sage to 'appear' unresponsive and not display any images (especially with yet-to-be-scanned digital cards). Using the MOUSE, select the "Device Input to Use: TV Tuner" button at the bottom of the screen to continue the setup process. This process could take a couple of minutes to time-out and complete.
>>> Can you get past this step on the HVR-1600?

[snoopy]

Thanks for the suggestion. Still no luck. I sent the logs to SageTV. I thought about posting them here as well. Do they contain any software codes or personal info?

[mayamaniac]

Only personal things I can think of are your computer name, all the recording and media paths. SageTV sometime also scans and logs the shows you recorded, media library which includes imported videos, photos, and music. You can use notepad and remove those entries if you don't want them to be seen.

[Conejo]

Well, there IS the embarrassment factor of having your scheduled favorites made public:
Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Matlock, The Young and the Restless ...you might want to edit them out too.