HD-PVR Stops Responding ~Once/Day

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by eric3a

So where do I buy good USB cables? I wouldn't know what a good one looks like!! Any pointers?

Eric

Search for "USB 3.0 cable".

[OldPCGUY]

Hi Eric,

Any cheap new USB2.0 cable will be fine. You can buy them at New Egg.

My case is special becuase my USB cable needed to be >15 feet long and I connected two cables together. Both of them are very old > 8 years.

So if you are using a single cable less than 10 feet I would probably not bother unless the cable is very old and or the connector at either end becomes loose.

Generally a USB 1.1 single cable will support USB 2.0 rates.

What I did was chain two older USB 1.1 cables together that probably exceeds the recommended USB length.

[OldPCGUY]

USB 3.0 may not be compatible

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

"A SuperSpeed (USB 3.0) rate of 4.8 Gbit/s. The written USB 3.0 specification was released by Intel and partners in August 2008. The first USB 3 controller chips were sampled by NEC May 2009 [9] and products using the 3.0 specification are expected to arrive beginning in Q3 2009 and 2010.[10] USB 3.0 connectors are generally backwards compatible, but include new wiring and full duplex operation. There is some incompatibility with older connectors"

[OldPCGUY]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

This changes my analysis. The cable was simply too long!!!

"The maximum length of a standard USB cable (for USB 2.0 or earlier) is 5.0 metres (16.4 ft). The primary reason for this limit is the maximum allowed round-trip delay of about 1,500 ns. If USB host commands are unanswered by the USB device within the allowed time, the host considers the command lost. When adding USB device response time, delays from the maximum number of hubs added to the delays from connecting cables, the maximum acceptable delay per cable amounts to be 26 ns.[27] The USB 2.0 specification requires cable delay to be less than 5.2 ns per meter (192,000 km/s, which is close to the maximum achievable speed for standard copper cable).[28] This allows for a 5 meter cable. The USB 3.0 standard does not directly specify a maximum cable length, requiring only that all cables meet an electrical specification. For copper wire cabling, some calculations have suggested a maximum length of perhaps 3m. No fiber optic cable designs are known to be under development, but they would be likely to have a much longer maximum allowable length, and more complex construction."

[eric3a]

I use the cables provided with the HDPVRs, but if a few dollars can get me something better and eliminate this as a cause for lock-ups, it's worth it.

I'm not sure any cable on newegg or such is any better than the standard Hauppauge ones though.

Eric

[martin]

Originally Posted by OldPCGUY

2. Revert to 1.0.5.301 drivers after using hwclear NO!! I want 5.1

I'm using 1.0.5.301 drivers and I still get AC3 audio. Is this not supposed to work?

[martin]

Originally Posted by rileydogmi

So my lesson is this - only install the driver versions and software you received with your unit.

I have three HD-PVRs, all of them Rev D2. One came with the 1.0.5.1 driver and the other two came with the 1.0.5.301 driver. Because of this it is not possible for me to only install the driver versions and software I received with my unit, so I chose 1.0.5.301.

I noticed a dfference between two of my HD-PVRs despite them both being labeled RevD2 units, which I expected to be identical. During recording the red LED illuminates on one of them and on the other it does not. The blue bling light illuminates on both of them however. This suggests there are hardware differences among HD-PVRs labeled with the same hardware version number. If so, shouldn't each require a different driver if your theory is correct?


I haven't installed the third HD-PVR yet; it's still new in the box so I don't know if the red LED works or not.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by martin

I'm using 1.0.5.301 drivers and I still get AC3 audio. Is this not supposed to work?

AC3 5.1 is supported in 1.0.5.301. I'm still running that driver myself.

[White94Cobra]

I finally made the jump back to the 1.0.5.301 driver (had tried both newer versions) and now have a device that doesn't lock up daily. It's been 5 days since I made the change and it hasn't locked up once. Before, it would lock up daily if I didn't remember to preemptively power-cycle it 2-3 times per day.

Of course, now that I've said this things may change

[Flash69]

Ok, so I am constantly getting capture errors on both of my HD PVRs. Just last night I had 41 errors during 1 recording. I was running 1.5.6.0 drivers on both. I was so mad last night I reverted back to 1.0.5.301. I am still getting lockups like crazy today.

I added my second HD PVR about 4 months ago. My original HD PVR has been running fine for as long as I have had it (I believe it was second batch).

I am using 2 Dish VIP211s. I wonder if Dish has changed some firmware in the box that is causing the HD PVR to have major problems lately. Anyone having major locks in the last month or so?

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by Flash69

I am using 2 Dish VIP211s. I wonder if Dish has changed some firmware in the box that is causing the HD PVR to have major problems lately. Anyone having major locks in the last month or so?

My 2 HD-PVRs were running flawlessly until a little over a month ago when they went to heck. I have the same Dish boxes. I have the same suspicion as you. Others aren't having problems though.

I'm also getting audio out of syncs left and right which I wasn't getting before either.

[Flash69]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

My 2 HD-PVRs were running flawlessly until a little over a month ago when they went to heck. I have the same Dish boxes. I have the same suspicion as you. Others aren't having problems though.

I'm also getting audio out of syncs left and right which I wasn't getting before either.

Oh yea, I forgot about that. My audio sync is 5 seconds off at times. I have to stop the playback and restart playback. Sometimes that does not fix it completely.

[eric3a]

I am using 2 Dish VIP211s. I wonder if Dish has changed some firmware in the box that is causing the HD PVR to have major problems lately. Anyone having major locks in the last month or so?

I'm also running 2 Dish VIP211s.
Things have been running fine and stable for a while.
Only 1 lockup in well over a month now.

Eric

[Chriscic]

Eric remind me are you running RCA audio or 5.1?

[sic0048]

{Knock On Wood} I'm running 1 HD-PVR on the .301 firmware and a Dish VIP211k without regular lockups. It's been at least several weeks since my last.

(Crap, now I've done it, I'm sure to go home today to find the thing locked up).

[OldPCGUY]

Since I changed my cable setup (exceeded 16.4 Foot Max USB 2.0 Spec and now using 3 footUSB Cable+USB 2.0 repeater 10 Feet).

My HDPVR has not locked in the last four days.

I am using Rev 1.5.6.1 for the HDPVR and SAGE 6.6.2

I use a USB UIRT with IR blaster to change channels on a DISH VIP622.

I am also using STKeepAlive to send a select command my Dish Receiver every 2 hours and after program updates through the USB UIRT.

If this works for more than 2 weeks without an HDPVR lockup then I am done.

I will update again next week.

[eric3a]

Eric remind me are you running RCA audio or 5.1?

I am running RCA at the moment.
I will eventually get round to trying 5.1 now that I have a stable system. Earlier test had indicated that 5.1 wasn't a cause for lockups, but I thought I stay on RCA until I knew I was stable.

Eric

[Chriscic]

Can someone tell me where to get the 1.0.5.301 drivers? Thanks.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Can someone tell me where to get the 1.0.5.301 drivers? Thanks.

http://www.shspvr.com/ftp/download/wintv-hdpvr/

[Chriscic]

Thanks Jerry!

I have a notebook cooling pad coming tomorrow, and I'm going to try that first on the theory that these things are super-sensitive to over-heating.

If that doesn't work, then I'll try the older drivers (although I'll probably have to revert regardless because it seems like the latest get way out of audio sync with my Dish receivers... some others have problem as well, although some don't.)