v7 Not Saving HDPVR USB Port Info?

[Diego Garcia]

I'm working on getting my HDPVR to work reliably with v7 (unfortunately, I haven't seen much, if any, improvement in reliability since upgrading from v6). I've been in contact with Hauppauge tech support, and they suggested trying:

1) a different USB cable
2) a different USB port
3) installing a separate USB port card

I'm in the process of trying the first two ideas.

When I switched the HDPVR to a different USB port, Sage was unable to recognize it. The system recognizes it, and Hauppauge's BlastCfg program recognizes it. By unable to recognize it, I mean channel setup preview threw an error about not being able to access the device (that also locked up the Sage UI for a while). I also noticed that the HDPVR's IR blaster was not flickering -- Sage wasn't able to send commands to it.

Moving the HDPVR back to its "original" USB port enabled Sage to recognize it...but not to display any video in the channel setup preview. The HDPVR's IR blaster did flicker, however, when Sage issued the change channel command.

I'm confused as to why Sage didn't recognize the new USB port. My experience has been that when you move USB devices around, programs just continue to work -- meaning, I presume, that they search for the USB device by name or ID or something, not port address.

Do I need to uninstall and reinstall the HDPVR from within Sage when I change ports? I could do that, although it'll be tedious, since I also have an HDHomeRun, and that means I'll have to uninstall it and reinstall it after reinstalling the HDPVR.

Thoughts?

p.s. BTW, I always shut down the Sage UI, and the Sage service, before doing any of these hardware changes/shifts.

[jerryt]

A reboot is enough after changing USB ports for my system.

[Diego Garcia]

I'm pretty sure I rebooted the system at some point after making the change, but maybe not. Thanks for the tip, I'll try it.

BTW, I filed a bug report with Sage about this and got the following reply:

SageTV doesn't deal with the USB port address specifically or anything like that; it's all abstracted through the Hauppauge capture drivers. So if you're having issues using different ports, then Hauppauge would be the right place to get support from. If it works fine with their software, but not ours, then let me know.

So this sounds like Yet Another Hauppauge Problem. I think I'll make that an acronym, YAHP .

[madpoet]

Somewhere around here is the very detailed troubleshooting sticky for things to try on your HPDVR. One of the suggestions I know is a dedicated USB.

[jerryt]

I have (Had) two HDPVR's connected as sources in Sage. They are set to different remote codes.

HDPVR #1 used USB UIRT remote code file VIP211
HDPVR #2 used a different USB UIRT file VIP211K (The other remote code)

If I unplugged HDPVR #1 and then rebooted, Sage now accepts HDPVR #2 as the HDPVR #1, and then uses the incorrect USB UIRT remote codes and there are no channel changes.

So I know that a particular HDPVR is not specifically tried to a source or port.

[Diego Garcia]

Interesting. I'm pretty sure in my situation there is some kind of linkage, because I was only able to get Sage to send IR codes to the HDPVR by uninstalling and reinstalling the HDPVR software.

[paulbeers]

I have two HDPVR's and have moved them around with no issues. I have always had Sage shut down before I moved them (not completely sure this is necessary, but it seems logical) but they were always paired correctly to the right IR codes when I plugged them back in and they worked just fine. This is on an AMD 785G motherboard (and previously on an AMD 780G motherboard).

[Diego Garcia]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I have two HDPVR's and have moved them around with no issues.

If I ever manage to get my HDPVR to work reliably (read: don't crash for at least a week) I'd like to buy a second one so I can jettison some of the cable boxes I have scattered around the house and just watch live TV via Sage.

I've read reports that getting two HDPVRs to work with Sage can be challenging. Did you have to do anything odd?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Diego Garcia

If I ever manage to get my HDPVR to work reliably (read: don't crash for at least a week) I'd like to buy a second one so I can jettison some of the cable boxes I have scattered around the house and just watch live TV via Sage.

I've read reports that getting two HDPVRs to work with Sage can be challenging. Did you have to do anything odd?

Nope. I didn't even run hwclear.exe either. Just updated the drivers (since I was running old drivers) to the current release and Sage found it.

[Diego Garcia]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Nope. I didn't even run hwclear.exe either. Just updated the drivers (since I was running old drivers) to the current release and Sage found it.

Wow! You must live a charmed life. Got any stock tips you'd like to share ?

In all seriousness, thanks for the feedback. Maybe I'll be able to get my dream system built yet.

[toricred]

I'm running 4 HD-PVRs and all I did was plug them in, restart Sage, and configure them in Sage. No tricks of any kind.

[sdsean]

Ok 1st off we should note that the problems you are experiencing are most likely due to the motherboard controller of your USB ports.

I was having a similar problem when trying to go to 3 HD-PVRs instead of 2. Everytime I plugged the 3rd one in. . .2 of the devices were reporting the same USB Hub/Port in windows no matter how I arranged them.

So. . I got myself a Inland 4 port USB card that goes into a PCI slot (which has an NEC USB controller that is reported to be very very good). Then I plugged all HD-PVRs into that guy, and voila, problem solved.

You may also be able to work around it by trying to make sure that your HD-PVRs are at least all on seperate USB Hubs (for instance usually a mobo with 8-10 ports actually only has 2 internal hubs, and the ports are split between). But again, windows, the mobo usb controller, and the HDPVR drivers may not work quite right. . .it just depends. . .

[sdsean]

I should also note, those USB cards come in PCI and PCIe flavors and are quite cheap. So its probably worth picking up anyway, especially if you are worried about expansion later. . .

[Diego Garcia]

Originally Posted by sdsean

So. . I got myself a Inland 4 port USB card that goes into a PCI slot (which has an NEC USB controller that is reported to be very very good). Then I plugged all HD-PVRs into that guy, and voila, problem solved.

You may also be able to work around it by trying to make sure that your HD-PVRs are at least all on seperate USB Hubs (for instance usually a mobo with 8-10 ports actually only has 2 internal hubs, and the ports are split between). But again, windows, the mobo usb controller, and the HDPVR drivers may not work quite right. . .it just depends. . .

In an earlier stage of experimentation I did swap stuff around so that the HDPVR was the only thing on its USB hub. That actually improved the reliability from "crashing every day w/5 - 10 glitches per hour of recorded show" to "crashing every three days w/1 or 2 glitches per hour of recorded show".

My latest test uses an add-on USB PCI card with 4 external ports and one internal one. It, too, uses an NEC chip. So far (36 hours), the HDPVR hasn't crashed once...but only time will tell.

I am encouraged, though, to hear you were able to plug multiple HDPVRs into a single USB card and have them work.

[sdsean]

Yeah that setup has yet to fail me save for a couple instances where my STB was rebooted by a download, and I needed to actually reboot the HD-PVR as well. Glad to hear its working out. ..