Two HVR-950's

[bigbill]

Anyone have issues keeping two HVR-950's working in the new Sagetv? After lots of trial and error I got both of them talking and recording, then two days later I noticed one of them was no longer recording. And when I remove and re-add it as soon as I pick Digital TV source the sage service dies and has to be restarted, either manually or via the restart process.
I had done the hwclear app multiple times. I have checked the properties files but have not found where those sources are listed so I can remove them first.

I am using the newest HVR-950 4.6 drivers.

Anyone else having the same issue with two of those USB tuners? I have no issues using them with BTV. I am on my second week of the STV trial so I want to get this worked out. I am liking some of the STV interface better than BTV, it does need some features to make other parts as good, but it has potential. I am not sure BTV is focusing on the consumer version anymore so that is why I am looking at STV. -Bill

[cditty]

Hi Bill. Another BTV guy here. I am currently working with support on getting my 950s working. You actually made it further than I did. I couldn't even get my cable signal detected in STV when BTV worked fine.

[bigbill]

One of them is working just fine. Its making two work that is baffling..

[shorthound]

I ran into the same problem with Hauppauge version 4.6A. Even H's own WinTV had a problem with the second 950.

So I reinstalled my copy of version 3.4b and everything is back to normal. I just do the hwclear, reboot, then execute hcwDriverInstall.exe.

I usually don't run 2 950's simultaneously (I have an HDhomerun which is down now waiting for a power supply replacement) because I've had problems with one failing after waking up from a standby - required a reboot to correct it. So there may be an issue there with STV, although I think it's more likely a Hauppauge problem. They market the 950 for laptops after all.

I don't recall running into the wakeup problem with BTV myself, but it's been awhile and I set up the 950's as low priority tuners.

[dcardellini]

I have four HVR-950's running on my server 24/7 flawlessly for past 12 months. Live 35 miles from HD stations, and get as good reception as my older Dvico Fusion internal cards. Love these things.

The Hauppauge installation may be killing you......you JUST want the driver....no middleware....

see....

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...7&postcount=10

Once too much stuff installed, you really need to clear out EVERYTHING and start over. I use Acronis Backup before adding things like this so that I can take system back to a virgin state for these situations. I think Hauppauge has a
'clear" utility, but I would not 100% trust this.

p.s. running XP Pro SP2

[fabiotv]

@dcardellini

Sorry to step in but your name makes me guess you are Italian.

I am. And I'm having troubles setting up an HVR 900 HD (not sure it's the same as the 950 though).

When I scan, I can't tune any DVB-T channels, here in Italy.

Can you help me please?

Thanks for listening.

[dcardellini]

fabiotv:

yep...100% Italian, first-gen American, recent transplant to Houston.

Don't think I can help you there. Have you verified that you can pick up DVB channels with your feed via another source (like a tv with digital tuner)?

Have you tried the application packaged with the Hauppauge usb tuner?

Have you selected the correct channel line-up in Sagetv?

....just some thoughts.....

[fabiotv]

Have you tried the application packaged with the Hauppauge usb tuner?

Yes. WinTV and MediaPortal automatically found the channels with no problems and are both showing them.

Have you selected the correct channel line-up in Sagetv?

I think this is the point I'm missing.
SageTV does not promp me with any lineup to choose from, here in Italy. I tried with tvtv.it guide but I got all the satellite channel list.
I tried to manually insert RaiUno (national first channel) but I found out I don't really know how should I answer to the requests of SageTV:
which is the correct name?
which is the correct station ID?
if I don't give a frequency how can sage tune into it?

It's frustrating, and being blocked ad the start it's not the best impression when evaluating an app. And I'm also wasting days of the evaluating period (and my time too).

Hope to find a solution quickly otherwise I'll have to switch to BTV, I think.

Thanks for your answer. I opened a thread in the hardware forum but nobody answered by now.
I also checked that my tuner was listed in the requirement list and it is, but I think it is listed in the wrong section (hardware decoding) being an external USB dongle.

Cheers from a rainy northern Italy.

Ciao.

[dcardellini]

Have you made a clean install as I suggested? Again, you ONLY want to point to the "drivers" directory of the Hauppauge download when New Hardware Wizard starts up. If you installed for their software, you installed way too much.

Short of this, you probably need to speak to a European SageTV user for setting up guide data....can't help you there....and this may be the main problem.

Like all good things, patience...(something we Italians struggle with!). You would be giving up prematurely over a small hurdle.

Heavy SageTV user for past 1.5 year. Big XP MCE user for a long time before that. SageTV is pretty amazing......server with 7 tuners (4 ATSC), 8TB Raid5, HD100 client, (2) PC Clients w/DLP's, laptops, remote PlaceShifter. My only gripe is on music side, but I understand that BeyondTV is far worse in this area (MCE real good there, though).

p.s. family from Marches.

[fabiotv]

Thanks again for your answer.

I talked with the Sage support and, to my surprise, they told me my capture card is NOT listed and not supported.

In the list there is an HVR 900 and mine is an HVR 900 HD so I thought it was jus a marketing difference. It seems it is not.

Unfortunately, I'm using a PC with a G450 Millennium Matrox card that does not support Dx9 so both Media portal and, I think, Beyond TV won't work. Sage seems to not complain about it.

Anyway, now let's be positive.

I bought this USB tuner to make some testing because I was quite scheptic about TV on PC and wanted to check by myself how well things would work.
In the end, my real target is to have at least 2 DVB-T tuners and 2 DVB-Ss on the same machine and to go for a server/clients setting.
As I mentioned, I tried Media portal (on a brand new Dell laptop) and it seems to work. About TV watching and recording I can't compare it with Sage because the last is not working by now. I will go on testing Sage on the video playback and organizing side.

With your experience, what double tuner DVB-T card should I buy? And for the DVB-S one?

On the music side, maybe I can help you to find the best tool. I've been working on this for many months and I think I have a pretty good settings now (at least for my family needs). But you should tell me which functionalities are the most important for you.
(I think it would be better if you PM me because we would go OT, otherwise)

Thanks again and... Viva il Brodetto!
(eaten in whichever place picked up at random between Porto S.Giorgio and S.Benedetto del Tronto: lovely food and friendly people. Nice feelings)

Bye.

[bigbill]

Just to complete this thread... I downgraded the drivers to the v3.4d1 version and both have been working for a few weeks. Whats up with hauppauge drivers..