Any advice with issues with Hauppauge HVR-1600

[Ralphjb]

I searched the forums for an answer, but must not have worded my search correctly.

I recently purchased an HVR-1600, which installed in one of my PC's - it is a P4 3.0ghz machine. I am strictly using this PC for recording, not playback. I also have an HDPVR hooked to this machine, which works fine.

The issue I am having with recordings (and live streaming) made with the HVR-1600 is terrible stuttering and pixelization. I am recording over the air. This only happens with the HiDef channels. On the SD channels (you know, the -2, -3, etc) I have not issues. So I am thinking this has something to do with the encoding of the stream. When recording, the CPU usage never gets above 15%, so it is not obvious that that is an issue.

For playback, I use the HD200 from Sage.

Any suggestions on settings changes? Seems like all the advice I could find related to playback, not recording.

Thanks!

[goatboy22382]

I have the exact opposite problem. The QAMchannelsrecord flawlessly but the analog channels come in pixelated and studdering. It will be interesting to see if anyone has had a good experience with this card.

[Savage1701]

OK, just my thoughts - I don't have much info about your MB, network, etc. but I will take a stab at this.

You say you only have problems with pixelation on playback of OTA ATSC recordings made by your 1600? Not analog cable, right? The 1600 allows one of each if memory serves.

You have no pixelation issues with anything done by your HD-PVR, correct?

You are having these issues over your network, if you are watching on your HD200 extender, rght?

Do you have pixelation at the server if you try to watch there?

You are using at least 100Mb/s Fast Ethernet or hopefully 1000Mb/s (Gigabit ethernet), right? Not wireless, even as point to point, right?

Good terminaton on your ethernet and your antenna cable, right? I use quad-shield RG6 for all my antenna runs and commercial-grade connectors, not those crappy 8-sided ones they sell at the shack.

OK, smart to have an HD200 as that takes care of a mess of client-side issues. That helps.

I use Gigabit ethernet over 5e and never have had issues but even 100mb/s ethernet ought be fast enough for a single HD stream. Others complain they don't. Try to have a better ethernet switch than the $50 8-port Linksys one you can buy at Staples. You will absolutely get what you pay for, and no way does a $50 switch have the same quality or capacity of switching fabric as a $200 8-port smart switch (you don't need layer 2 or anything like that).

So, here are my thoughts:

1. Weak signal on ATSC. Bad weather on ATSC. I have an antenna that's overkill for one of the markets I can tap. My installer made me promise not to tune that market as it was so close it could overload a tuner. But it will punch through anything. My smaller antenna for that market can't. Rain and clouds and even leaves in the summer matter.

2. Contention on the PCI bus - It is highly possible your NIC, tuner card, and HD-PVR are competing for bandwidth. 32-bit PCI does not have that much, and it is divided amongst everything, often including onboard NIC's and USB ports. Especially prevalent on older machines. If your NIC is gigabit it could burn most of your PCI bandwidth.

3. Contention on the hard drive to try and keep up with more than one stream. Even though a couple should not present a problem, an older machine may have issues, especially if playing back. Try not to use the system drive to record to as well. Get a second drive and format it in 64k blocks. I don't know your system specs so I am guessing here.

4. If this is ONLY ATSC OTA recordings, I am guessing weak signal. An inline amp MAY help, but as the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Try and see if you get pixelation on the strongest HD channel in your area during a clear day/night. That fact that you do NOT have issues with an HD-PVR makes me guess that. Most people fight with their HD-PVR, not the other way around like you are.

5. Decoder issue. I've had this with HD-PVR stuff, but not nearly so much with OTA ATSC, which is really just a bitstream stripped of its carrier wave and dumped onto the hard drive. Your HD200 will then take care of the heavy lifting to decode properly.

6. If you are using a second hard drive, it's not external on a USB connection is it?

Several rough guesses - Bad OTA ATSC signal or your hard drive can't handle simultaneous read/write demands. You don't have any preview windows activated on your server do you? You may be asking your CPU to decode an H.264 recording and play it in a window. That would leave nothing much for even streaming the OTA ATSC HD stuff out to your HD200. I doubt a single core P4 and AGP bus combo could decode H.264, record another H.264, record an OTA ATSC, and stream correctly.


I'd go with process of elimination. Maybe temporarily removing the HD-PVR and making sure no preview or background windows were running. Then making sure you have a solid ATSC signal. I think you have done a lot to minimize and narrow your issues down if you are watching on an HD200. That helps narrow the field a lot in my mind. I think you may be asking a lot of your Pentium 4 in this context but for standard HD maybe not. I used to use old P4's for Beyond TV and they could handle OTA HD content pretty darn well.

And by the way, I think you are smart for NOT using ATSC OTA USB tuner sticks such as the Hauppauge 950q. I would use a slot card any day over an USB tuner stick if I could choose between the two. You have eliminated another issues there as well, even though you have no choice with the HD-PVR.

I see by your rating your are no dummy at this, so please don't think I am talking down to you if you already know all this. It's more stream of consciousness and saying what I think could be doing this.

[Ralphjb]

Savage1701,

Thank you for thorough reply. In short, most of my answers are in the affirmative. I do record to NAS drive over gigabit. I have a R5000 modded Dish box, 2 HD-PVR's and now this card. Installation is on 2 pc's. Everything works fine except for the new 1600 card. Signal strength indicator shows 100%. The fact that I can record flawlessly the SD digital channel, but the HD channel is pixelated (along with the rest of the conditions) indicates to me that it is related to the recording. Given that this is only a P4, perhaps it is the CPU, but as I mentioned, demand on the CPU is less than 15%. So was hoping there was some registry setting that would improve performance.

You mentioned not getting the USB stick. Kind of thought that might be an issue. Curious about the external box from Hauppauge - the 1950. Any experience with that?

Thanks!