Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[jarredduq]

Originally Posted by texneus

Just had a bad thought. My PCI express slot is in line with the memory slots. If I scale my motherboard to match the Colossus...yip, you got it.

And before you suggest it, the x16 slot contains a video card, so that's not an option either.

Looks like it's time for a new MB. Is this going to be a common problem with microATX boards?

You can use a x16 slot with one of these? If that is the case then I may try one of these.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by wayner

I think so - I posted above that I think this will push people towards full ATX boards and they seem less prevalent today than in the past.

I agree that it might require new motherboards due to a lack of pcix slots, but I won't say it necessarily means going atx unless you still require pci slots. Many newer boards (especially on the Intel side) contain at least 3 pcix slots these days. That gives you 3 slots, if you use onboard graphics. And there boards with 4 slots as well.
So yes, you need to look around a bit, but there are options on the matx side as well.

[texneus]

@Clift - my board is old tech, DDR2, which I guess due to scarcity seems to have not fallen in price in line with DDR3. For the price of one 4GB DDR2 stick I can replace the entire motherboard and still have enough left over to cover about 25% of DDR3 RAM.

@jarredduq - in theory yes, in reality it depends on how the motherboard implements the x16 slot. In many cases nothing other than a video card will work there.

@Rico66/@Wayner - ATX is not an option. If I stick with socket 775 and shoot for maximum reuse of my existing hardware, the choices are pretty slim. In general, it looks like Intel was smart enough to push the memory slots out of the way of the leftmost PCIx slot on their boards, so all their slots should be usable with longer cards. I've owned two Intel boards in the past for HTPC use, and they both failed leaving me high and dry. Another Intel board would be a last resort, I'm afraid.

[Clift]

Originally Posted by texneus

@Clift - my board is old tech, DDR2, which I guess due to scarcity seems to have not fallen in price in line with DDR3. For the price of one 4GB DDR2 stick I can replace the entire motherboard and still have enough left over to cover about 25% of DDR3 RAM.

@jarredduq - in theory yes, in reality it depends on how the motherboard implements the x16 slot. In many cases nothing other than a video card will work there.

@Rico66/@Wayner - ATX is not an option. If I stick with socket 775 and shoot for maximum reuse of my existing hardware, the choices are pretty slim. In general, it looks like Intel was smart enough to push the memory slots out of the way of the leftmost PCIx slot on their boards, so all their slots should be usable with longer cards. I've owned two Intel boards in the past for HTPC use, and they both failed leaving me high and dry. Another Intel board would be a last resort, I'm afraid.

My board has 2 x16 slots and 1 x1 slot. The x1 slot is situated in such a way that any board that is an inch or more longer than the connector will hit the northbridge heatsink. Right now I have my HVR-2250 in one x16 slot and it has been working well for over a year. I plan on putting the Colossus on the other x16 slot. But I've never heard of an x1 card not working in an x16 slot. Citation needed [/wikipedia]

[jptheripper]

I guess I got really luck with my gigabyte atx board (ga-ma770-ds3)

2- pci, 4- pcie 1x, 1- pcie 16x with lots of space.

is it true they are shipping next week?

[TallMomof2]

In for one!

[texneus]

On rethinking the situation, I will go with a single memory slot, much less hassle than a full system rebuild! I will nurse this board along, which is relatively new, until it doesn't do what I need it to anymore, and I doubt dual channel RAM is critical for an HTPC.

The only reason I was thinking 4GB was because as part of the Colossus upgrade I was going to up the RAM too. 2GB sticks are much more reasonable, and adequate for my needs.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on the matter...

[texneus]

Originally Posted by Clift

But I've never heard of an x1 card not working in an x16 slot. Citation needed [/wikipedia]

Most of the time you can indeed insert a x1 card in a x16 slot without issue, but I am aware there are boards that will not initialize correctly if anything other than a video card is in the x16 slot. Likely a shortcoming of the BIOS.

Something more solid: Many others will disable some or all internal graphics capability, so while the new x1 card may work, you won't have a viable means of display. A specific example: The Intel G41/43/45 chipset multiplexes PCIx lanes with the IGP display outputs. You can have the digital outputs OR the x16 slot, but not both at the same time.

See here, section 1.6.1.4-1.6.1.5 (page 21): http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1780...chProdSpec.pdf

[Taddeusz]

I have an Intel DG43NB and put a card in the x16 slot and everything worked fine.

[STEVON]

Reading this post I can see where the Colossus card full height is a problem. I have a mini-ITX setup and this new card will be a real headache for me. Shoehorned the CPU and fan along with a AverTV MTVHDDVRR half height card and that didn't even fit! If you check the pictures you'll see that I had to order a special flat cable PCI-E extender adapter to mount the card inside the case. The provided PCI-E extender was too short and I found the right cable and connectors to extend the length. After that it was still too wide and had to knotch the CPU cooling fan to let it stick over heatsink 1/4". After all that work find out that the AverMedia software only allows SD capture unless you are using their MediaCenter program! The card is useless for HD recording with other programs! AverMedia should be more honest with their advertising and the lack of support for Windows Media Center and other programs like MythTV and Sage. New case? See my setup below:

OS stripped down custom 2K3 server tweaked to act like XP (2K3 required to use GUID disk array)
Zotac GeForce 9300 GF9300-G-E Rev 03
Avertv HD DVR High Definition / Analog Video Capture Card MTVHDDVRR
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Quad-Core Processor, 2.66 GHz, 12M L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB 95W
Centon CMP800PC2048.01 2Gb PC2 6400 800hz 1.8V x 2 sticks = 4gig 5-5-5-18
Athena Power's 320W FlexATX (AP-MFATX32) power supply
Hitachi 7200, 320 GB SATA system partition (MBR)
2.7 TB RAID 0 (1.5 TB + 1.5 TB drives) partition for video storage (GPT)

[davephan]

Welcome to the SageTV forum!

Where did you order the cable, what was the part number and cost? This would be a handy cable to have for PCI Express X1 slots that are too close to heat sinks, where the heat sink is blocking the card.

Dave

[Fuzzy]

Something like this might be of use to a lot of people around here (who've got boards with not much more than the x16 slot on them).

http://www.amfeltec.com/products/x4pcie-splitter4.php

[Skirge01]

I've seen that mentioned on here before, but no mention of price. With a "request a quote" button on that site, I suspect it's quite expensive (I'm thinking hundreds). Does anyone know what it costs?

[Fuzzy]

There are other splitter type boards out there. I've seen and Advantech x4 to 3x1 riser (AIMB-R4301-03A1E) mentioned for about $35.

EDIT: Just checked, and Advantech lists that at $27 on their web site.

[STEVON]

The riser is from E-ITX.com as a seperate part of the GA620 / GA630 cases they sell. Their prices are very competitve. The adapter was too short for my needs so I found a 15" same wire size cable I pulled out of a scanner. The cable was too long and corrupted signals so bad it killed use of the card. There was a local cable manufacturer here in San Diego who had the tools and expertise to cut and reterminate for use with the adapter. All of that work and ingenuity won't help me with the Colossus card. No way that is going inside of my sardine can Mini ITX case! Invoice listing below:

PCI-E X1 Riser Card for CAS-GA-630-PCIE-X1 $13.95 GA620 / GA630

Originally Posted by davephan

Welcome to the SageTV forum!

Where did you order the cable, what was the part number and cost? This would be a handy cable to have for PCI Express X1 slots that are too close to heat sinks, where the heat sink is blocking the card.

Dave

[davephan]

Originally Posted by STEVON

If you check the pictures you'll see that I had to order a special flat cable PCI-E extender adapter to mount the card inside the case. The provided PCI-E extender was too short and I found the right cable and connectors to extend the length.

Where did you find the longer cable to extend the Single PCIe X1 Riser Card? The cable for the Single PCIe X1 Riser Card looks very short.

http://www.e-itx.com/a-alantic-singl...-x1-riser.html

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Something like this might be of use to a lot of people around here (who've got boards with not much more than the x16 slot on them).

http://www.amfeltec.com/products/x4pcie-splitter4.php

That splitter looks like it be very useful if you needed more PCI-E X1 slots.


Dave

[STEVON]

uberpixel,

Bought the Colossus for $129, hope it ships soon!
I'm running Tiny2003 that has more than 200 registry tweaks to make the Windows Server 2003 behave like Windows XP. I had to use that to access my 2.7 TB RAID 0 array (MBR only supports 2 TB max) They have a full tweak to get programs to run on Tiny2003 as full XP. I had to do that for AverMedia Center to work. Now system boots up and thinks it's XP but has full access to GUID partitions! (Windows supports 256TB GPT max) If you are running Vista (God forbid) or Windows 7 they have built in support for seperate GUID partitions. Currently no Windows software will boot off of a GPT partition unless you have an Intel Itanium CPU and special Windows 64bit OS for it. You can't even install Windows OS if a GPT partition is detected during setup! A seperate MBR based system drive and partition is needed to load OS.
Stephen

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I'm in for one... I can't wait to let Sage play with my full cable lineup instead of just the QAM I get with the HDHR.

In my zeal to lock up this deal I sent off my credit card info without checking to see if it will work with WHS v1. I don't see driver support listed for Server 2003, but the Hauppauge site says that it will work with XP. Does this mean it will work with Windows Home Server v1?

I hope so, otherwise I'm going to have to cancel my order...

-uberpixel

[STEVON]

Dave,
My extra cable came from a demolished scanner from work, remember the printer scene in Office Space? I have been hoarding computer stuff for years and haven't thrown everything out yet. At first I tried to use the 15 inch cable as is but it didn't work.The company that cut and reterminated my adapter is TNT Cable Industries, 7979 Vickers St, San Diego, CA Ph 858-874-0372. They did me a favor because I used to work for a company called "Rackslaver" back in 2003. They have the cable, don't know about the ends. This is not a proprietary cable, just regular computer flat ribbon standard in the industry worldwide. Should be relatively easy to google and find somewhere.
Stephen

Originally Posted by davephan

Where did you find the longer cable to extend the Single PCIe X1 Riser Card? The cable for the Single PCIe X1 Riser Card looks very short.

http://www.e-itx.com/a-alantic-singl...-x1-riser.html




That splitter looks like it be very useful if you needed more PCI-E X1 slots.


Dave

[tvmaster2]

so, other than the fact that mpg2 files take up lots more disc space, which seems like the only negative I can find about the Colossus, can anyone think of any other bad things from what they've seen in the spec sheets?

[stanger89]

It encodes in H.264 just like the HD PVR. It's still unclear if/when the MPEG-2 capability will be available.