Need a Lot of Help

[Cyberrico]

For those of you kind enough to reply to this post with assistance, please try to relate to me like I am a small child (almost). I feel like I got way in over my head with this $1000 project.

Here are some specs of my environment:

New low end PC
1GB RAM
On board Intel video
WinTV-HVR 1600 internal card
PC to TV by KWorld (external converter for VGA to SVIDEO)
SageTV Media Center for Windows Version 6.5

1) The Hauppauge remote isn't working. I've seen all of the posts where people suggest a modified ini file and I tried that. It doesn't even work with WinTV. The red light is on the IR receiver but nothing happens with any buttons in seemingly any environment.

2) The screen is blurry. I have a Sony 53" projection TV, so I am not expecting crystal clarity but it is quite blurry. It looks perfectly fine on my monitor. It's blurry when I watch a video, on the desktop, etc. The only time that it is not blurry is when I bring up the TV menu. That's crystal clear, so I know I didn't break something squeezing behind the TV.

3) The display of SageTV on my TV is off. Sometimes it is shifted to the right. Right now it is down about 2 inches. Rebooting didn't change that.

4) Sage only tunes channel 3. I go to program guide and pick something else and it only shows hockey. This wasn't the case this morning. I have no idea what caused it.

I'm betting that some of you will blame the PC to TV device as a possible problem for the blurriness and/or offset picture. If that is the case, what should I do differently? I can't put a new graphics card in this computer because it only has one slot. So if I were to junk the PC to TV converter, I would have to return it and the 1600, get an external USB tuner card and put a new graphics card in the computer. I will do this if I absolutely must. I looked briefly (at Fry's) at some USB external graphic cards but I didn't see any with SVIDEO. I'm sure they probably exist though.

The TV does not show up in Windows XP as a second monitor. Should it?

Thanks in advance.

[viperdiablo]

Sorry I am not much help here to your problems, but I would highly recommend the HD 200 extender. This would most likely eliminate all your problems.:-)

[alfi33]

1) The Hauppauge remote isn't working. I've seen all of the posts where people suggest a modified ini file and I tried that. It doesn't even work with WinTV. The red light is on the IR receiver but nothing happens with any buttons in seemingly any environment

Make sure the ir.exe process is running. If not, you need to install the remote control software from the Hauppauge CD.

2) The screen is blurry. I have a Sony 53" projection TV, so I am not expecting crystal clarity but it is quite blurry. It looks perfectly fine on my monitor. It's blurry when I watch a video, on the desktop, etc. The only time that it is not blurry is when I bring up the TV menu. That's crystal clear, so I know I didn't break something squeezing behind the TV.

Sure sounds like it is your svideo converter thingy causing this. So your PC has only 1 PCI slot? No AGP or anything else? One thing you could do is replace the HVR-1600 with an HDHomerun which is a network tuner. Then you'd have room for a PCI video card.

If you want to make it real easy on your self, just get an HD200 extender. That will most certainly take care of your video quality playback and quality problems.

3) The display of SageTV on my TV is off. Sometimes it is shifted to the right. Right now it is down about 2 inches. Rebooting didn't change that.

In Detailed Setup > Multimedia....Adjust the Overscan Settings.

4) Sage only tunes channel 3. I go to program guide and pick something else and it only shows hockey. This wasn't the case this morning. I have no idea what caused it.

What's your source? You might need to rescan your channels. The switch to digital today might have moved some channels around.

[Cyberrico]

So wait, I could have done all of this without buying a new computer?

[alfi33]

Originally Posted by Cyberrico

So wait, I could have done all of this without buying a new computer?

Well, you still need a computer to be your Sage server but it doesn't need to be connected to your TV. The HD200 extender just takes care of the playback. When using an HD200, it's much easier to get away with running the server on a low end PC.

[Cyberrico]

Originally Posted by alfi33

Well, you still need a computer to be your Sage server but it doesn't need to be connected to your TV. The HD200 extender just takes care of the playback. When using an HD200, it's much easier to get away with running the server on a low end PC.

Outstanding. Thanks a bunch guys. I'm sending Christmas cards to everyone!

[Lucas]

Cyberrico,

I remember having most if not all of your problems when I first started using SageTV.

If you still want to persevere you need to make sure that:

1. enable dxva processing.
2.you display output is set to 720x480 if you have NTSC video or 720x576 for PAL.
3. the refresh rate is 60Hz for NTSC or 50Hz for PAL.

When you get tired of the above get the HD200 like others have said.