A good HD PVR experience.

[Big Jeff]

I picked up an HDPVR from dell at a killer 165 bux and my experience of setting it up with windows 7, sage .16 beta, has been pleasant to say the least. I thought I was in for more of a fight. Which is a good thing as I faithfully read these forums, and there are a lot of peeps struggling with getting it to work right. I consider myself lucky in that respect.

I DO have some quirks, and they are entirely livable with, but I am curious if anyone else has had and if they are fixable.

- Slow hauppauge remote control through the front panel of the HD PVR, blaster seems fine. Basically it doesn't register some of the button presses if I press to fast. Just seems real sluggish comparing it to my cable box guide. IS there a setting I can Would an MCE remote work better? If it does, can I use an MCE remote with the HD PVR's built in ir blaster.

-1/2 hour channel change (To the same channel) makes for an interesting time. I understand the channel change will be slow, but the looping sound I here is rather annoying through the 5 or so second change. Wife is not very fond of it either. Any way to improve this?

Outside of these couple things I finally, after many years of experimentation with various cards and versions of Sage, have an almost near perfect PVR setup. I am completely happy about that since I barely watch any Standard Def tv programs anymore. I limit myself to those channels that are HD. To me Std Def tv doesn't look right on my 52" LCD. Weird I know. If the cable company had an HD only option I would pick it and loose all my other channels. The only real station now I want to go to HD is Cartoon Network.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Big Jeff

- Slow hauppauge remote control through the front panel of the HD PVR, blaster seems fine. Basically it doesn't register some of the button presses if I press to fast. Just seems real sluggish comparing it to my cable box guide. IS there a setting I can Would an MCE remote work better? If it does, can I use an MCE remote with the HD PVR's built in ir blaster.

if you're refferring to using the HDPVR to drive the STB.... i would skip that and set up firewire channel changing... my channel changes are rocksolid and never miss a beat.... there's a thread somewhere on here that details the steps.... took me a couple hours but well worth it

-1/2 hour channel change (To the same channel) makes for an interesting time. I understand the channel change will be slow, but the looping sound I here is rather annoying through the 5 or so second change. Wife is not very fond of it either. Any way to improve this?

no idea... sorry...dont know if ive ever experienced that although cant say ive gone looking for it either...

I am completely happy about that since I barely watch any Standard Def tv programs anymore. I limit myself to those channels that are HD. To me Std Def tv doesn't look right on my 52" LCD. Weird I know. If the cable company had an HD only option I would pick it and loose all my other channels. The only real station now I want to go to HD is Cartoon Network.

totally 100% agree. and not weird at all sd looks like @*!&$# on my 50" plasma

on a side note i too have very few problems with my HDPVR... it needs to be rebooted about once a month and i record in 5.1 spdif fixed 1080i from the stb but other than the rebooting its been rock solid... just upgraded to the latest drivers (1.5.6.0)... lets hope voodooo juice keeps flowing

[Big Jeff]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

if you're refferring to using the HDPVR to drive the STB.... i would skip that and set up firewire channel changing... my channel changes are rocksolid and never miss a beat.... there's a thread somewhere on here that details the steps.... took me a couple hours but well worth it

no idea... sorry...dont know if ive ever experienced that although cant say ive gone looking for it either...

totally 100% agree. and not weird at all sd looks like @*!&$# on my 50" plasma

on a side note i too have very few problems with my HDPVR... it needs to be rebooted about once a month and i record in 5.1 spdif fixed 1080i from the stb but other than the rebooting its been rock solid... just upgraded to the latest drivers (1.5.6.0)... lets hope voodooo juice keeps flowing

firewire channel changing on Win7 x64 is a no go. Driver that are out for the STB's won't work with it. Anyone know of any STB x64 drivers?

Blaster seems to work fine. Its in a channel change where the video kinda stops and loops while its changing the channel. Its weird. It goes back to normal after the channel change. Anyone else see this?

[razrsharpe]

ahhh... didnt realize you were x64... i thought i read somewhere on here or over at avs... that someone is working x64 stb drivers

[gibsonpa]

I bought mine about 2-3 weeks ago from dell. It was rev D2.

Vista found the drivers and installed (1.0.5.301), and Sage found it no problem.

Was expecting lots of issues...but it has been recording 6-10 hours a day for the last 5-6 weeks with no lockups. Has been rock solid. Quite surprised actually.

I did not attempt to fiber audio, using RCA jacks. Also taped the ir sensor, plugged into USB on motherboard (no hub).

I was hoping to get the E revision...but after seeing how stable the D2 is for me, no big deal.