A major headache..

[centurian420]

First of all here's the specs:

AMD AthlonXp 1.66GHZ CPU
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9550
Hauppauge HVR 1600

Windows XP SP3
SageTV (newest trial version)*
PowerDVD

*thinking about buying the full version :P

All drivers are up to date.

First things first, everything is working as far as LiveTV and recording. I have had the most success thus far with SageTV as far as getting things to work. I tried GBPVR and BeyondTV before Sage and have had no success with either. On to the problems.

First problem that has absolutely been driving me nuts. I can view channels up to about 70 and then I have nothing but fuzz or no signal for all the rest of the channels. I have Comcast cable with one of those box things (the box is a Motorola). Using the comcast box, say I punch in channel 110, it pops up the Science channel. If I do it in SageTV, it will bring the channel up, but as stated before its nothing but fuzz. I had this same problem with GBPVR but no one on there forums seemed to not know what the issue was.

Here's what I have set up for my video source:

Hauppauge WinTV 418 Video Capture
Functioning - True
Network Encoder - False
Input - TV Tuner
RF Channel - N/A
Cable/Antenna - Cable
EPG Lineup - Comcast Digital <mycityname>
Tuner Control - N/A

I've went as far as practically replacing all cable lines and splitters in the house, and tried a signal booster and still have the same result.

This brings me to my second issue, poor quality all around. The channels that I am fortunate enough look like they've been tuned off of old school antenna. I get this funny impression that my two issues I am having are all tied together some how. This thing just has me so frustrated at the moment I have to be over looking some things.

Anyone have any ideas or can you point me in the right direction to figure this stuff out?

[GKusnick]

How are you getting the TV signal into your PC? Do you have the cable connected directly from the wall to your capture card? If so, then Sage will most likely get only the lowest-tier analog cable channels. You will not get any digital channels that are encrypted by the cable provider (which is usually all of them except your local broadcast channels). Your capture card cannot decrypt those channels; only your set-top box can do that. So to tune those channels in Sage, you'll need an S-Video or composite video connector from your STB to your capture card, and an IR blaster that Sage can use to change channels on the STB.

This means you'll need to hide your STB's remote and do all your TV watching through Sage, because if you change channels on the STB manually, you're likely to confuse Sage and screw up a recording. (Or else get a second STB for Sage to use.)

[davephan]

The first step is testing your setup with the Hauppauge software, such as WinTV32 or WinTV2000 with the SageTV software shut down. After you get it working with the crude Hauppauge software, then you can try using SageTV. If you have trouble tuning in the cable TV channels directly, maybe you could use a set top box, if you have one. With the set top cable box, try recording with a S-video connection if it is available.

When I had cable TV, initially, I tried connecting the tuner to the Motorola DCT 2000 cable TV coax. I had a very poor picture quality and snow. I then connected to a set top cable box with S-video from the cable TV set top box to the tuner's S-video input. The cable box did not have a S-video output, so I bought a small RCA to S-video adapter. I setup the tuner to only record from S-video.

If you record from the set top box, you will need a USB-UIRT so that the computer can change the channels on the cable TV box.

Your computer is pretty low-end for good results. I used to have an Athlon XP 2800, which was barely enough. The system board went bad, and I had to use an older and slower Althlon XP 2100 for awhile while I waited for dual-cores to take a big price drop. An Althlon XP 2100 stuttered and was pretty unusable, since it was just too weak.

512 MB memory is too low. I started with 512 MB, and what happened was that the computer was drawing a bit over 512 MB continuously. So, the computer was continuously caching to disk for virtual memory, which slowed down everything. I increased memory to 1 gig, and it made a huge improvement.

Dave

[centurian420]

Thanks for all the responses.

To answer GKusnick's question.

I have the main line going to my STB then out to a splitter which feeds the TV and the PC. It looks like I may have went about that the wrong way? My STB does have regular composite connectors on it and I'm pretty sure I have an adapter that will allow me to plug it in to the PC via S-video. I have a remote that came with the card that I just got working. I think I know how to set it up to take over the STB, might be some trial and error stuff but I should be good.

To davephan.

I have another stick of 512 laying around somewhere I'm sure, I'll drop that in tonight and see. I figured this PC would be a bit on the low end to try this and hopefully if I get everything going the wife will give me approval to buy more toys

And to bomberman411.

I think wiping out everything and starting fresh again is a good idea. Who knows what all things I have messed up trying to get this to work

[planetc]

Originally Posted by bomberman411

Hello Centurian420,

Your setup is pretty close to mine:
AMDX2 Athlon64 4600+
2GB DDR
Hauppage HVR-1800
WinXP Pro (SP3)
etc...

Not that close though eh?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by centurian420

I have the main line going to my STB then out to a splitter which feeds the TV and the PC.

So you leave your TV tuned to channel 3 or 4 and use the STB's remote to change channels? In that case what you're getting in Sage is just whatever unencrypted channels the STB passes through to the coax out. To get channels beyond that, you would have to tune the STB to that channel and leave Sage tuned to channel 3 or 4. This is a workable configuration, but a composite or S-Video connection would give better image quality (on your TV as well as in Sage).

You'll still have the problem of trying to share the STB between two conflicting uses: scheduled recordings in Sage and live viewing direct from the STB to your TV. If you ever want to be able to record one show while watching another, you'll need a second STB (or use your TV's built-in tuner and limit your live TV watching to channels that don't require the STB).

[centurian420]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

So you leave your TV tuned to channel 3 or 4 and use the STB's remote to change channels? In that case what you're getting in Sage is just whatever unencrypted channels the STB passes through to the coax out. To get channels beyond that, you would have to tune the STB to that channel and leave Sage tuned to channel 3 or 4. This is a workable configuration, but a composite or S-Video connection would give better image quality (on your TV as well as in Sage).

You'll still have the problem of trying to share the STB between two conflicting uses: scheduled recordings in Sage and live viewing direct from the STB to your TV. If you ever want to be able to record one show while watching another, you'll need a second STB (or use your TV's built-in tuner and limit your live TV watching to channels that don't require the STB).

Ok I got it set up the way you described above. I can go that route and use the IR blaster to control the STB. I have somewhat better quality now that I tune it using S-video but it's still not where I'd like it to be - which I think it's a hardware issue (age of the computer).

I am curious about your second paragraph. I have a second STB, so I could tie the second box into my PC and use that for recording purposes and continue to use my original STB like I normally do?

*Update*
I have the best quality I have seen with the crappy WinTV program.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by centurian420

I am curious about your second paragraph. I have a second STB, so I could tie the second box into my PC and use that for recording purposes and continue to use my original STB like I normally do?

Yes, definitely give Sage an STB of its own if you possibly can. That way it can change the channel whenever it needs to without interfering with your live TV wathcing on the other STB.

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by centurian420

First of all here's the specs:
AMD AthlonXp 1.66GHZ CPU
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9550
Hauppauge HVR 1600

Originally Posted by bomberman411

Hello Centurian420,
Your setup is pretty close to mine:
AMDX2 Athlon64 4600+
2GB DDR
Hauppage HVR-1800
WinXP Pro (SP3)
etc...

Originally Posted by planetc

Not that close though eh?

About as close as a moped is to a Harley. They both have wheels.

[centurian420]

Thanks for the help GKusnick. I think I have a better understanding of what I'm doing and what I want this thing to do. I also figured out my quality issue, set everything to run off the SageTV stuff and it worked like a charm.

-Cent