Idea for improving reliability of HD-PVR

[timg11]

Like many others, I have consistent, regular failures of the HD-PVR.

I thought regular power-cycling would be helpful. I considered putting some sort of timer on it's power supply, but I thought of another way that works well for me.

I built a custom cable with a 4 pin molex connector (salvaged from a dead hard drive) on one end, and a coaxial power connector on the other. This cable replaces the power supply for the HD-PVR. Since the HD-PVR runs over USB (which has a 15 foot length limit) the HD-PVR has to be close to the computer it is connected to. Mine is about 10 feet away. I used 18 gauge wire to minimize voltage drop. The Molex connector plugs into a spare disk drive connector on the computer power supply inside the case. (Use the pin going to the Red wire for +5 and a Black wire for Ground. On the coaxial connector, +5 goes to the center contact.) I cut a notch in one of the unused slot covers to route the cable out of the computer case.

Whenever the HTPC computer hibernates, the power to the HD-PVR is turned off. This seems to increase reliability, and also saves some electricity. I don't have to worry about the HD-PVR getting turned off when it is in use, since the computer won't hibernate if SageTV is active. If your computer never hibernates, then this would not be a workable system.

The only downside is that power is not cycled when the computer is re-started. I'm looking for a way to detect a reboot and cycle the power early enough so the HD-PVR is back on-line when Windows loads.

[Striker:WG]

Can you set a boot schedule in the BIOS? Some support this, not all though. If you can, then schedule a daily shutdown routine in Windows Scheduler and a boot schedule in the BIOS. Then just figure out how much downtime you want inbetween

-Striker-

[HelenWeathers]

I have been using Win Off to shut down my computer each day at 4:15 AM. I also have a digital appliance timer that plugs into my UPS and shuts power off to a power strip (that my STBs, HD-PVRs and all other equipment attached to my SageTV server are plugged into) 15 minutes later at 4:30 AM.

I set the timer to turn on power to the system at 10:00 AM on weekends and 4:00 PM on weekdays.

I have not missed a single recording in over 7 months.

Win Off is available here:
http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/WinOFF.php

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

I have been using Win Off to shut down my computer each day at 4:15 AM.

I haven't used WinOff and have nothing to say either for or against it. However it's also worth pointing out that Windows comes with a utility called Shutdown.exe that can shut down and/or restart the local machine or a remote Windows machine from the command line. Used with Scheduled Tasks, this gives you the ability to do scheduled shutdowns without any third-party software.

[aflat]

I use

shutdown /r /t 0

To restart my machine. Shutdown comes installed on all versions of windows since window 2000 I think, I know Win2k3 and up have it.

/r means restart, /t is the time before it shuts down, to allow it to ask to shutdown a task or whatnot, you don't have to supply the /t 0, and it will default to 30 seconds, or /t 30.

[timg11]

I am seeing a frequent (most but not all scheduled recordings) problem where SageTV thinks the HD-PVR is working (showing REC as the status), but the HD-PVR is not functioning. SageTV creates 0-byte TS files that are eventually deleted. Attempting to watch the program as it records in SageTV results in the "No Signal" display. The bright blue light in the top of the HD-PVR is off, but the small blue LED on the front panel is on.

In the log, I find a lines like
Tue 4/14 17:05:11.051 SEEKER HAS DETECTED A HALT IN THE ENCODER...TRYING TO RESET IT

It keeps trying every 5 minutes but never succeeds. I have to power cycle the HD-PVR to get it to work.
I have the HD-PVR connected to power from the PC so it is turned off when the PC is hibernating. So it is already getting powered off at least once a day. But it is still failing to record.

* merged *

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by timg11

It keeps trying every 5 minutes but never succeeds. I have to power cycle the HD-PVR to get it to work.
I have the HD-PVR connected to power from the PC so it is turned off when the PC is hibernating. So it is already getting powered off at least once a day. But it is still failing to record.

* merged *

I was never able to get my HD-PVRs to come up properly after hibernation and after many attempts at a solution that utilized hibernation, I abandoned my solid state switch that connected to a hard drive power connector and went with the timer as mentioned above. It's archaic - but it works.

[timg11]

So the HD-PVR is OK with having its power yanked out while drivers are loaded and Windows is running, but it has problems when it is powered off while Windows is in hibernation? That's really strange. Maybe Windows thinks it has a "state" when it goes into hibernation, and if the HD-PVR loses the state, then it fails. Of course that is a horribly bad design, since you don't know how long the system has been in hibernation. Every peripheral should be re-initialized when coming out of hibernation.

There is a free program called Hibernate Trigger that lets you run a batch file when entering hibernation, and another batch file when exiting. I have a legacy LPT port on the system so I can toggle a bit there to cut the HD-PVR power via a relay. Maybe if I cut the power before entering hibernation, Windows will "know" and will reset the HD-PVR when coming out of hibernation?

Or maybe I should just put in a daily reboot batch, with the same LPT function to cut HD-PVR power during the reboot?

It's a shame Hauppauge can't make their product work reliably....

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by timg11

So the HD-PVR is OK with having its power yanked out while drivers are loaded and Windows is running, but it has problems when it is powered off while Windows is in hibernation?....

Well, I don't recommend yanking the power. I run a shutdown utility to do a controlled shutdown before the timer cuts off.

It's a shame Hauppauge can't make their product work reliably....

I agree completely. Hauppauge is one of the few companies that punish you for trying to use more than one of their tuning devices in a single computer (thinking IR Blaster). What's that all about?

[gplasky]

[QUOTE=timg11;352795]So the HD-PVR is OK with having its power yanked out while drivers are loaded and Windows is running, but it has problems when it is powered off while Windows is in hibernation? That's really strange. /QUOTE]

One of the fixes with the latest beta is:

In addition, this release includes changes to fix flash memory corruption problems.

Yanking that powering is the quickest way to possibly corrupting that flash memory and rendering the unit useless if you're not running the latest beta.

Gerry

[BrianDC]

[QUOTE=gplasky;352855]

Originally Posted by timg11

So the HD-PVR is OK with having its power yanked out while drivers are loaded and Windows is running, but it has problems when it is powered off while Windows is in hibernation? That's really strange. /QUOTE]

One of the fixes with the latest beta is:

Yanking that powering is the quickest way to possibly corrupting that flash memory and rendering the unit useless if you're not running the latest beta.

Gerry

Gerrry, the flash corruption bug was also fixed in the latest release as well. (not just the latest beta)

HD PVR version 1.0.5.301

Note: This driver fixes a rare but potential problem with flash memory being corrupted during the power down cycle of the unit.