HD-PVR

[HuMan321]

I have had an HD PVR with DD output working very well on my system for the last month when I first installed it. I am using the latest "non beta" drivers.
After reading posts of the difficulties with these units I considered myself very fortunate.

Recently I have been getting "playback exceptions" on Sage and they appear to be when the HD-PVR is about to record a program or change a channel. Of course the message stays up on the screen and ruins all recording from my HD Homerun also.


I have been reading posts of problems with the HD-PVR and they all refer to "lockups" which seems different than what is happening to me.

Does anyone have any ideas for me to try? Is this something others are seeing?
I am using Sage 6.5.16. P4 3.0, 3.5Gb of RAM, Java Heap at 768.
Please help

[Chriscic]

Don't believe this has anything to do with the HD-PVR hardware.

You don't mention if you're viewing from PC or HD100/200 extender. I can only answer in terms of the latter... there have been a few times where for no rhyme or reason I've started getting playback exception errors, and those times unplugging and then replugging the power to the extender solved the problem. This hasn't happened in a while so assume a bug was fixed along the way.

If you're on the PC then not sure.

[HuMan321]

I have 3 extenders installed and this was visible on two of them the first time I saw it. (did not check 3rd)
This morning it was on the Sage Server itself. I forgot to mention that it said something about "drivers" in the exception error.
This morning it happened as Sage was set to record from the HD-PVR. I would click on the error (at the server) to make it go away and it kept coming back until i turned the PVR off and then back on. After that it did not come back.

[vikingisson]

Actually it sounds like the infamous lockup. You said it went away after re-powering the unit. I call that a lockup even if it wasn't completely frozen. What they were calling beta drivers is now the latest stable 1.5.6. Are you at least using that version?

[HuMan321]

I am using driver 1.0.5_13. This has worked perfectly with DD output for the entire month it has been online. I can update if that is what I need to do. I don't think Sage was frozen as the first time it happened you could still watch live tv on another extender, but the exception error box was blocking most of the screen.

Also, my server has a Java update available. I am at 1.6.0_13. It says _14 is available. I hesitate to update as sometimes this causes issues also. Any feedback on hte Java update as well?

While we are on the subject... I am still on IE 7. Any thoughts on IE 8 update?
TIA

[vikingisson]

It isn't sage that locks up, it is the HD-PVR which is exactly what it sounds like happened. I would suggest the newer drivers or just wait for the next time it freezes and then reboot it again.

Best way to update java is to shut down all java apps which includes sage (service too if running).

IE8? dunno but "friends don't let friends use Windows".

[HuMan321]

Originally Posted by vikingisson

It isn't sage that locks up, it is the HD-PVR which is exactly what it sounds like happened. I would suggest the newer drivers or just wait for the next time it freezes and then reboot it again.

Best way to update java is to shut down all java apps which includes sage (service too if running).

IE8? dunno but "friends don't let friends use Windows".

Thanks, I think I will update Java. I wonder if my heap settings will stay? I will wait until more feedback on IE8.

Here are a couple of recent quotes about the newer beta driver that has me nervous about upgrading.

Originally Posted by simonen

I'm not sure why I messed with a good setup, but after upgrading to these drivers, I started getting lockups after 5-10 minutes. Rolled back to the 1.0.3.53 beta drivers I was using before. Everything is back to normal, no more lockups.

Originally Posted by ToxMox

I'm still using 1.0.3.46 which I think may be the original drivers and I never have lockups. I just keep the covers off my HDPVRs. I won't even attempt any newer drivers until much testing has been done. Especially since newer drivers don't seem to work at all on Vista x64. I am kind of amazed with Hauppauge on the lack of stable drivers for the HDPVR.

These are from early May.

The kicker is that i will be leaving on vacation soon for a little over a week and now have less trust that the system will be functional.

[vikingisson]

Well if you're happy with it other than the lockup then leave it until you get back. Don't be surprised if it locked up though. I can't say that upgrades would make things better. Mine works better on the latest versions but has locked up twice.

[thomaszoo]

I am using the latest drivers without any problems. But what I ALWAYS try to do before I "test an upgrade" is to take an image of my system. That way if things don't work out I can immediately revert back to my previous image.

[Taddeusz]

BTW, the 1.5.6 driver has now been made an official release.

[HuMan321]

Well I think I will upgrade the HD PVR driver then. Does anyone feel generous enough to list the steps?
Sage Offline
HD-PVR Offline
Extract to?
Reboot PC?
Turn HD-PVR on while PC is coming up?
Done?

Thanks

[Taddeusz]

It's not the first time they've done this but they didn't even bother renaming the file. The zip file still has "beta" in the name. It's the exact same driver. I suppose they decided it was stable enough on its own to make it final.

[HuMan321]

Well I ended up updating my HD-PVR drivers to 1.5.6 and left for vacation. I logged into the server remotely after arriving at my destination with fingers crossed and found the same error message in the middle of the screen.

The message says as usual:
"There was a capture error in playback (-4,8007001f) There was a problem using the capture device" and something about the drivers.

Since I am remote I could not power cycle the HD-PVR and because it is on a UPS I could not even pray for a power bump at home.

This unit worked to perfection for 1 month solid and now keeps getting this error every time it goes to record something. Is there a fix or do I need to send it back? If so, will they cross ship it? Or do I need to wait until I get home, ship it back, wait for them to ship a new and "improved" one?

I ended up shutting Sage down remotely, deleting the HD-PVR in device manager (XP Pro) and rebooting the server. XP reloaded the drivers automatically, but the HD-PVR did not show up as a source in Sage (only my HD Homerun tuners are showing up in Sage) I think this is a good thing and will leave it like this so at least the Homerun can record without this stupid playback exception message plastered on the recorded stream.

If anyone has some ideas I would be willing to try that also as I am missing alot of HD movie recordings from my Dish receiver on the HD-PVR.

I guess I have become a member of the HD-PVR problem club...

[jarredduq]

Originally Posted by HuMan321

Since I am remote I could not power cycle the HD-PVR and because it is on a UPS I could not even pray for a power bump at home.

You need to get one of these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...:WNAFP:US:1348

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by HuMan321

Well I ended up updating my HD-PVR drivers to 1.5.6 and left for vacation. I logged into the server remotely after arriving at my destination with fingers crossed and found the same error message in the middle of the screen.

Oh man... why'd you go and change something so major just prior to leaving?

The message says as usual:
"There was a capture error in playback (-4,8007001f) There was a problem using the capture device" and something about the drivers.

I just started seeing this on the 1.0.5.6 beta drivers and today I reverted back to the .301 version to see if that stops it from happening. Ironically, BOTH my HD-PVRs are now locking up. I think when one has an issue, it may effect the driver itself and lock up the other one.

Since I am remote I could not power cycle the HD-PVR and because it is on a UPS I could not even pray for a power bump at home.

This unit worked to perfection for 1 month solid and now keeps getting this error every time it goes to record something. Is there a fix or do I need to send it back? If so, will they cross ship it? Or do I need to wait until I get home, ship it back, wait for them to ship a new and "improved" one?

I ended up shutting Sage down remotely, deleting the HD-PVR in device manager (XP Pro) and rebooting the server. XP reloaded the drivers automatically, but the HD-PVR did not show up as a source in Sage (only my HD Homerun tuners are showing up in Sage) I think this is a good thing and will leave it like this so at least the Homerun can record without this stupid playback exception message plastered on the recorded stream.

If anyone has some ideas I would be willing to try that also as I am missing alot of HD movie recordings from my Dish receiver on the HD-PVR.

I guess I have become a member of the HD-PVR problem club...

If you deleted it from device manager, you may need to add it back as a source and possibly even redo your channel mappings. If that isn't the case, you may need to run HCWCLEAR.exe and remove all remnants of the HD-PVR software installation before re-adding it and installing the software again.

[HuMan321]

I did it because I was consistently getting the same exception error on 1.0.5_13. I thought I had nothing to lose except you mention I may have lost my channel mapping. I hope not as my Dish Network load hundreds and hundreds of channels I need to manually filter out

[HuMan321]

When you are constantly receiving these exception errors is it time to send it back for a new one? Or is there hope that it may start to function with driver roll backs and updates etc.? I bought mine from the Sage store. Has anyone exchanged their HD-PVR from them? If so, did they cross ship a new one to you?

I know most of these reg scans are spam or scams, but also wondered if something in the windows registry could be contributing to these exception errors. Here is a link to one of the cleaners.

http://www.dcclifecare.com/hrsearch/0x8007001F.html

Has anyone experimented with the registry or did a new windows load and had success with their HD-PVR working better after?

[Taddeusz]

Saturday night I was watching something on Scifi that I had actually set as a manual recording. Because I ended up watching it semi-live it continued recording after the movie was over. For whatever reason at about 10:10PM the STB that is connected to my HD-PVR decided to shut itself off. Whatever the cause for that initiated my HD-PVR to also barf. I ended up needing to power my STB back on and cycle power on my HD-PVR. I think if I'd caught it soon enough I wouldn't have needed to cycle the HD-PVR.

Recently all of my HD-PVR problems have been caused by flakiness in my STB, an SA 3250HD. I think only once that I can think of in the last couple months has an HD-PVR problem actually been caused by the HD-PVR.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by HuMan321

When you are constantly receiving these exception errors is it time to send it back for a new one? Or is there hope that it may start to function with driver roll backs and updates etc.? I bought mine from the Sage store. Has anyone exchanged their HD-PVR from them? If so, did they cross ship a new one to you?

If you're constantly getting them, ensure you've ruled every other possibility out. Try another PC if you can. It might even be your STB itself. Have you done all the other "theoretical" fixes mentioned around these forums for the HD-PVR (USB channels, IR window, channel delay, STB lock, etc.)? I put "theoretical" in quotes because many of them aren't "proven" to fix anything, but I've done them all anyway.

I've exchanged my HD-PVRs a couple of times. I can't recall if I had one cross-shipped, but I may have. If I did, I'm sure they required a credit card to secure the cost.

I know most of these reg scans are spam or scams, but also wondered if something in the windows registry could be contributing to these exception errors. Here is a link to one of the cleaners.

http://www.dcclifecare.com/hrsearch/0x8007001F.html

Has anyone experimented with the registry or did a new windows load and had success with their HD-PVR working better after?

Haven't done any registry cleanups, since I'm using WHS on my server. Personally, I'd steer clear of them. I respect Maximum PC immensely, so here's what they wrote about RegCure. It's not definitive, but there are enough "red flags" for me to steer clear.

[briands]

HuMan321 - did you ever get this sorted out?