How's your HD PVR working?

[toricred]

95%+ 4xHD-PVR
Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
HD PVR Rev(s): D2 (all 4)
HD PVR Drivers: 1.5.6
Source/settings (native switching, 1080i, etc): 720p fixed
Analog or S/PDIF: SPDIF
IR Blaster: N/A (Serial Tuning)
Sage Version: 6.6.2
OS: XP Pro
Onboard USB

[pedz25]

* 95%+
* Motherboard: Dell Asus M2N61-AX
* Chip: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+, 2.8GHz
* HD PVR Rev: D2
* HD PVR Drivers: 1.5.6
* Source: Scientific Atlanta 4250HDC, 1080i constant output
* Audio: S/PDIF
* IR Blaster: USB-UIRT
* Sage Version: 6.5.9
* OS: Vista 32 bit

I had issues with lockups until I put the device on its own USB header.
I also had channel changing issues with the default blaster where it would miss a digit or two when entering the channel. Since moving to the USB-UIRT, channel changing is perfect. The only issue I have now is the occasional automatic reseting of the cable box, which causes the PVR not to respond. Restarting Sage, PVR, and the cable box will usually fix this.

[Skirge01]

* 95%
* Motherboard: Supermicro X7DWE w/Supermicro 4 port USB header (one connected to mobo, one connected to 4 port header)
* HD PVR Rev: D1 & E1
* HD PVR Driver: 1.0.5.301
* Source: DirecTV H21-100 & H23-600, locked 1080i
* Blaster: USB UIRT
* Audio: S/PDIF
* SageTV: 6.6.2.218
* OS: WHS
* Serial STB control

It took a long time for me to get to this reliability, though. As little as 6 months ago, I would have said 60%. Ever since doing those final tweaks, these 2 puppies have been as solid as a rock, even with audio changes and bad weather.

[pawn]

I gave 95% but it's a qualified 95%. I had to work hard to get there, and only one out of my 4 machines can host my HD-PVR's, the rest freeze up all the time. So really, I could have answered less than 25% and the response would have been just as valid. And no combination of software/drivers could change that. I personally believe the HD-PVR simply won't work with some hardware, probably mostly a little older hardware.

* 95%
* Motherboard: Dunno, no interest in cracking it open.
* HD PVR Rev: 2 x E1.
* HD PVR Driver: 1.0.5.3
* Source: 2 x Bell TV 6200
* Blaster: USB UIRT on 1, Hauppage blaster on other.
* Audio: RCA (not digital)
* SageTV: 6.4.8.184
* OS: WinXP SP! (all machines)
* STB's locked to 720p

[mr_lore]

95%
Motherboard: Gigabyte 690G
HD PVR Rev(s): 2 x D2
HD PVR Drivers: 1.5.6
Source/settings: DirecTV H21/H23 both native resolution(720p) and DD5.1
Audio: S/PDIF
IR Blaster: USB to Serial to USB control
Sage Version: 6.6.2
OS : Vista SP2

[DOS64K]

* 95%++
* Motherboard: Asus A8N5X, NVidia 4 NB, 2.1 GHz Athlon 64 X2, 1GB RAM
* HD PVR Rev: C2
* HD PVR Driver: 1.0.5.1
* Source: Moto DCH 3200
* Blaster: N/A
* Audio: S/PDIF
* SageTV: 6.5.18
* OS: WHS
* Firewire control of STB

Other than returning a first gen C1 unit for the well known overheating issue, this unit has been rock solid.

[trini0]

• 95%
• Motherboard: ASUS P5BV-C/4L
• HD PVR: Rev E1
• HD PVR Driver: 1.5.6
• Source: DirecTV H21 720p
• Analog
• Serial Tuning
• SageTV 6.6.2
• Vista Business sp2

For the past 1.5 months or so, I've been having an excellent experience with the HD-PVR. I rebuilt my server with newer hardware. I'm currently running it with no time delay between channel changes, and it just seem to work (knock on wood). But time will be the real test.

[Ender]

• 95+
• ASRock Penryn1600SLI-110dB LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard/Onboard USB is used
• D1 connected by a 15 foot USB cable
• 1.5.6
• Scientific Atlanta 8300HD 1080i fixed output
• Analog
• Firewire
• Sage Version 6.6.2
• OS Vista Ultimate SP2 32bit
• Video Cards used ATI 3650, Nvidia 9600GT

At first I had issues, but after covering IR sensor, and updating to 1.5.6 drivers I have not had a known lockup.

[Djc208]

• 95%
• ASRock 4CoreDualVSTA
• D1 (IIRC)
• Driver: 1.5.1 (IIRC)
• Cable HD-box, fixed 1080i
• S/PDIF
• Hauppage IR blaster
• 6.6.2
• WHS

Mine really did work well right out of the box. I was worried about the IR blaster with the other Hauppage tuners in the box but it was fine.

95% is probably pretty close. Periodically the IR blaster stops working so I'll get a recording that's not what it's supposed to be, but a reboot solves it and it happens maybe once a month.
Similarly, I've gotten it to lock up once or twice from using it for live TV, usually because it doesn't shut down when I'm done watching, but I don't do that often (usually trouble shooting a cable problem) so it's not really a huge issue.

[Clift]

* 95+
* AMD 780G, NVIDIA Nforce 430
* C2
* 1.056
* 1080i, locked output
* Analog audio
* Firewire
* 6.4.8 through 6.6.2
* XP, Vista 32-bit

[LittleJohnny]

* 95+
* ASUS M2N (AMD Dual 4600)
* Rev D2 with DirecTV H20-100 locked 1080i (Analog)
* Rev D2 with DirecTV H20-600 locked 1080i (Analog)
* Both HD-PVRs running 1.0.5.6
* Windows XP Pro
* Sage 6.6.2
* USB/Serial Direct connection with DirecTV driver from this forum
* On board USB

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by pawn

I gave 95% but it's a qualified 95%. I had to work hard to get there, and only one out of my 4 machines can host my HD-PVR's, the rest freeze up all the time. So really, I could have answered less than 25% and the response would have been just as valid. And no combination of software/drivers could change that. I personally believe the HD-PVR simply won't work with some hardware, probably mostly a little older hardware.

Now that would be really valuable information to have documented.... What were the offending hardwares?

[simonen]

Vote: 95%+
Motherboard/Chipset: Asus P5N7A-VM
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83 Ghz)
Graphics: GeForce 9300
HD-PVR Rev: C2
HD-PVR drivers: 1.5.6
Source settings: Variable
Audio: S/PDIF
IR Blaster: Hauppauge
Sage Version: 6.6.2
OS: Windows XP SP3

I never had one single problem with mine until I upgraded to Windows 7. The IR blaster stopped working. Even the blasterconfig didn't recognize it anymore. I have since stopped using my HDPVR, because I dropped digital cable. So I have no use for it at the moment, unless it could be used to watch HuLu.

[Brent]

My Vote: 95%+ (Note it had been a bit lower with earlier versions)

• Motherboard: ABIT IP35 Pro
• HD PVR Rev: 1 X C1 (one of the first available)
• HD PVR Driver: 1.5.6.0
• Source: TimeWarner Motorolla Box
• Blaster: Firewire (the way to go!)
• Audio: 5.1 S/PDIF
• SageTV: 6.6.2
• OS: XP Home 32 w SP3

I would vote 98% if I could. The remaining 2% are because the stinkin cable box has a tendnency to lock up every so often (no more than once per month).

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by Djc208

Periodically the IR blaster stops working so I'll get a recording that's not what it's supposed to be, but a reboot solves it and it happens maybe once a month.
Similarly, I've gotten it to lock up once or twice from using it for live TV, usually because it doesn't shut down when I'm done watching, but I don't do that often (usually trouble shooting a cable problem) so it's not really a huge issue.

Wow, that's so similar to my experience (incl. using the Hauppuage IR blaster) that it's kind of amazing I also think that the IR becoming non-functional is somehow related to live tv; the less live tv I watch, the better it all works

[MrVining]

No down time yet after 2.5 months. 95%+

- I'm using Vista 64bit Business as the server (switching to 32bit for more USB tuner support soon).
- 3xHDHomeRun Dual Tuners.
- 80GB Boot/OS Drive, 500GB Sage App (hoping database in on there too, haven't looked into it yet, 1.5TB Recording Drive (will be adding a few soon).
- Gigabyte motherboard.
- Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz (link). I feel it worthy to note that I checked CPU load while recording 3 HD shows and serving 2 streams to HD200's that CPU sits around 3-4%.
- 5x HD200 hooked up to all of our TVs.

I chose not to use a computer for the actual playback because I spent about 2 months trying to get good HD playback using MythTV. Tried my first HD200 and the playback was so so smooth I wasn't going to mess with video off a computer. Made me a Sage'er for life I think.

[bcjenkins]

After a week of running with DirecTV I am very confident in the numbers.

• 95%+
• Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R
• HD PVR Rev E1
• HD PVR Driver from Mercurial
• DirecTV H21NC-200 - Set for 1080i
• SPDIF
• Command IR II using lirc
• SageTV for Linux 6.6.2
• ArchLinux 64-bit 2.6.30-ARCH

[loonsailor]

* 95%
* Mobo: ASUS MB ASUS M3N78-VM GF8200 AM2+ RT
* USB: Nvidia built-in
* CPU/Mem: AMD X4 905e CPU, 4GB
* Firmware: 1.5.6. Not sure about HW rev, but bought in 7/2009
* Driver: linux v4l
* Source: Motorola DCT6200 STB, resolution not locked
* Audio: Analog
* Channel switching: Firewire. Notes on IR below.
* SageTV 6.6.2
* Ubuntu 9.04

Channel switching has been a saga. I started with a USB-UIRT, using lirc. It worked for a couple of weeks, then the USB-UIRT died. While it was being replaced, I switched over to the hdpvr built-in blaster. It worked, but requires a modified driver (see http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=119), and requires the blaster to be VERY close to the sensor - within an inch or so. However, a week later it stopped working as well, though when I put it on my windows sys as requested by hauppage tech support, it unfortunately worked. Sigh. So, I made firewire work, and wrote up a tutorial on how to do it for anybody interested (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=333).

I was missing 1-2 minutes of the beginning of lots of TV shows. The STB would tune, the hdpvr would come on for a second or so, then go off. I'm not sure whether the STB was not delivering video yet, or a resolution switch confused the hdpvr, but sagetv gave me a "video halted" message. Sage would try again 1-2 minutes later, and the second attempt always worked. I changed Sage.properties, adding the property "mmc/encoders/-816678123/delay_to_wait_after_tuning=3000" for the hdpvr, and the problem happened less often, but still happened. I haven't seen the problem since I switched to firewire, so maybe the STB switches more quickly now, but it's only been a few days so maybe I've just been lucky so far. I've seen other posts that mention solving the problem by locking the res of the STB.

[myoung84]

• Voted: 95%+
• Motherboard: Foxconn NVIDIA GeForce 6150
• Chip: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz
• HD PVR Rev: D2 (x2)
• HD PVR Driver: 1.5.6.0
• Source: DirecTV HD H21-200 720p fixed (x2)
• Blaster: USB-UIRT
• Audio: SPDIF
• SageTV: 6.6.2
• OS: Vista Ultimate 32 bit

At first I had nothing but problems when using my old P4 Dell PC. After about a week of constant lockups I decided to move Sage over to my other PC, listed above, and have not had a singe lock up. I am currently at 100% stability. [Knock on wood]

[limiter]

Only recently (last two weeks) 95%+:

Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS3L
HD PVR Rev: E1
HD PVR Driver: 1.5.6
Source: Comcast Motorola DCT-6200, 720p output
Blaster: Firewire Channel Changing
Audio: Analog
SageTV: 6.6.2
OS: WinXP Pro 32bit

I had a Rev D2 and it was locking up randomly, but from what I could tell not from heat. I tried everything including tape over IR sensor, shorter USB cable, check USB root, slaughtered a goat, etc. Finally just returned the damn thing and got rev E1 back and everything has been stable since. I still use shorter USB with Ferrite Choke (who knows if that matters).