Tuner setup in Windows 7 and SageTV

[QuasiInsomniac]

I've spent the last 72 hours on a new Sage build based off of a HP Proliant ML350 G6. I originally started with Server 2008 R2 but found that there was not analog tuners listed for my 1800 and 2250 in Sage on a fresh install (I did find a website just last night that had an update that allowed native tuner support in R2, but it was too late). I did a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit thinking I would have more luck. I'm finding that the analog tuners are working fine under the latest version of Sage (6.6.2?). And while the 1800 works 99% of the time (there is a QAM channel or two that flake out), my 2250 still goes unsupported in the QAM arena. Both digital tuners do not turn up any channels on the channel scans, where as the 1800 does.

Edit: Recordings done with the 1800 are all F-ed up. You can't skip ahead without it either freezing or going back to the beginning of the recording.

All that to say this, I went through every post of the "Native Recording Patch" released by Qian. Let me say that Qian deserves major props for working literally for months on helping people with Windows 7 deployments. Unfortunately, his updates seem to stop after 10 due to some files not being available for public release yet.

Which brings me to the main reason for this post. I suspect the side-support on his part was superceded by a new version of Sage, titled Sage 7, that will be released shortly and have the following features: Official Windows 7 support and all the 2250 (and other tuners I'm sure) problems people have with Sage under Windows 7 will magically go away. I'd like to know from people on the forums if this lines up with what they have read, heard, or thought to themselves, in the hopes of estimating a time line for my issues to be resolved officially (yes, I'm selfish).

I really only blame myself for a new deployment on Windows 7 and the problems I have. I just assumed since it's been out for nine months that it would be a sure thing. I still like Sage, I still find it superior to everything else out there, including ATT u-whatever. But if I have to live without two QAM tuners, I'd just like to know for how long.

[MitchSchaft]

Have you tried a 32 bit windows install instead?

[Tiki]

I can tell you that I am also running Win7 64-bit and Sage 6.6.2 with all latest released updates and the last of the "Native" patches installed.

My system has the following tuners:
- 2 PVR-150 cards capturing SD-Composite from 2 cable STBs.
- 1 HDHomerun (dual tuner) both tuners capturing from cable clear QAM
and last week I added:
- 1 HVR-2250 (dual tuner) both tuners capturing from cable clear QAM

I did not install the whole v1.3 CD-ROM that came with the HVR-2250, but instead downloaded and installed just the latest driver (22xxdrv_27323 Nov 2009) from the Hauppauge website.

Mine seems to work just fine. Signal Strength is reported as very good and recordings look and play perfectly.

Having said that, there are some channels that the HDHR picks up that the HVR-2250 just doesn't seem to get (either the scan doesn't see them at all, or they show up in the scan, but when you try to preview the channel, it just sits there and never shows anything). I don't know why yet. Thankfully, they are channels I don't really watch, but I would like to get to the bottom of it. Next weekend I plan to install the WinTV application and see if it sees the missing channels.

Based on some of the posts in the Native recording patch thread, I get the feeling that these patch files can affect Sage's ability to record and render certain video formats (though I would expect that if they are capturing the same content on the same channel via clear QAM, files created by the HDHR and HVR2250 should be the same and play back the same way in Sage).

[QuasiInsomniac]

thanks for the reply.

I have not tried 32-bit Windows. My intention was to combine two servers so this server comes with 8GB of RAM. the 32bit OS would affect my ability to use the unused resources in the future.

I am disappointed the 2250 doesn't work for me but happy it works for you. I am also using that same driver from the website.

[QuasiInsomniac]

I did a full channel scan on the 2250 and select to copy the EPG from the 1800. Miraculously, I seem to have QAM channels on the 2250. Still the same problem of the black screen and no audio though on QAM recordings.