Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[metzz71]

Not sure it matters much, but were those the motorola or cisco boxes?

[uberpixel]

Well... It had been going well for me and my new colossus...

But tonight while watching a recorded basketball game on ESPNHD, I started to notice audio sync issues about halfway through. Then about 3/4 of the way through the video would do a weird stutter every 2 or 3 seconds. Restarting the HD200 didn't help. Now that I think of it, this is the second time I've seen this.

Checked CPU usage during the recording/playback and found that it was not even close to being pegged.

I'm wondering if this is a cumulative issue of some sort since I only noticed it on a longer recording.

The colossus is set to component/SPDIF capturing comcast through a dch3200.

Has anyone else seen this?

-uberpixel

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by metzz71

Not sure it matters much, but were those the motorola or cisco boxes?

Neither it was a scientific atlana (SA) box, Aldo keep in mind my stupid cable company COX here feels the need to mark everything with drm on cable card.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Well... It had been going well for me and my new colossus...

But tonight while watching a recorded basketball game on ESPNHD, I started to notice audio sync issues about halfway through. Then about 3/4 of the way through the video would do a weird stutter every 2 or 3 seconds. Restarting the HD200 didn't help. Now that I think of it, this is the second time I've seen this.

Checked CPU usage during the recording/playback and found that it was not even close to being pegged.

I'm wondering if this is a cumulative issue of some sort since I only noticed it on a longer recording.

The colossus is set to component/SPDIF capturing comcast through a dch3200.

Has anyone else seen this?

-uberpixel

It happens to me also on my test system. My Colossus is set to component/SPDIF capturing Brighthouse through a DCX3200.

It also happens on both my HD200 and HD300. I have not upgraded either of them to the most recent beta, maybe I'll try that and see if it helps.

This is the only thing that is preventing me from upgrading my main system to 7.x. I'm still running 6.6.2.

[Savage1701]

Just curious - are people seeing more reliability with the Colossus if just using Component for the video and old-fashioned analog stereo?

I only ask because at first read it seems as though people are having a lot of the same issues as the HD-PVR had/had. That will probably improve over time with driver updates and Sage updates.

I have not taken the plunge yet. If I do, it would be with a Dish receiver, USB-UIRT, component video and analog stereo audio. But I would do it with an eye to improved stability and such.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Just curious - are people seeing more reliability with the Colossus if just using Component for the video and old-fashioned analog stereo?

I only ask because at first read it seems as though people are having a lot of the same issues as the HD-PVR had/had. That will probably improve over time with driver updates and Sage updates.

I have not taken the plunge yet. If I do, it would be with a Dish receiver, USB-UIRT, component video and analog stereo audio. But I would do it with an eye to improved stability and such.

What dish reciever? If it is a 211 or 211k it my be worth it for the benefit of hdmi as well. I ran mine all day saturday and sunday and finally hit one glitch last night (although I think it had to do with my server more than the tuner).

[spacecadet]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Just curious - are people seeing more reliability with the Colossus if just using Component for the video and old-fashioned analog stereo?

Nope. I'm using the analog audio and am having problems. It's possible that my problems are related to running Colossus + HDPVR side by side, but I have no clue.

[bits]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Just curious - are people seeing more reliability with the Colossus if just using Component for the video and old-fashioned analog stereo?

I only ask because at first read it seems as though people are having a lot of the same issues as the HD-PVR had/had. That will probably improve over time with driver updates and Sage updates.

I have not taken the plunge yet. If I do, it would be with a Dish receiver, USB-UIRT, component video and analog stereo audio. But I would do it with an eye to improved stability and such.

So far no audio issues running component, no SPDIF, no HDPVR ever, CableTV STB. I have checked 7-8 files so far ranging from 30 mins to 120mins in size.

[jptheripper]

Mine recorded various favorites all night, plus playback. All good

Component SPDIF, Comcast/Cisco RNG150 source(locked at 720p).
No HDPVR.

looks like that hdpvr magic unsupported option is required for HDPVR and a death knell for Colossus.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

What dish reciever? If it is a 211 or 211k it my be worth it for the benefit of hdmi as well. I ran mine all day saturday and sunday and finally hit one glitch last night (although I think it had to do with my server more than the tuner).

211K. HDMI works fine on my non-compliant monitor, but I can't order HD 1080P PPV, only SD or HD via component. So, apparently, for the most part my HDMI HDCP is active.

My bigger concern, honestly, is all the keep alive things one has to do through with Dish and what that signal loss can do to the Colossus. It's pretty hard on the HD-PVR so I don't really want to trade up for a newer set of problems. One of those "the devil you know" things...

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

It happens to me also on my test system. My Colossus is set to component/SPDIF capturing Brighthouse through a DCX3200.

It also happens on both my HD200 and HD300. I have not upgraded either of them to the most recent beta, maybe I'll try that and see if it helps.

This is the only thing that is preventing me from upgrading my main system to 7.x. I'm still running 6.6.2.

Interesting... I've since noticed that a restart of SageTV (not a system restart) seems to clear up the problem for the time being.

It appears that somewhere during a long recording, something happens that causes this issue. Once the error occurs, it shows up on everything that is tuned or recorded by the Colossus - "live" programs as well. After the SageTV restart, new recordings appear okay, but the audio offset and video stutter still shows up if I playback the recording that was made while this error was occuring.

I'm playing back the recording on Placeshifter right now and it still has the audio offset and video stutter.

Where's the best place to report this bug?

-uberpixel

[jptheripper]

report it in the beta, since colossus support is still only in beta.

and please please dont delete the recording with the error, it might be needed.

[phareous]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

211K. HDMI works fine on my non-compliant monitor, but I can't order HD 1080P PPV, only SD or HD via component. So, apparently, for the most part my HDMI HDCP is active.

My bigger concern, honestly, is all the keep alive things one has to do through with Dish and what that signal loss can do to the Colossus. It's pretty hard on the HD-PVR so I don't really want to trade up for a newer set of problems. One of those "the devil you know" things...

Not trying to get offtopic but what kind of keep alive issues have you had? I set mine to always send Select before changing channel and everything works fine - whether the receiver is on or off. The only issue might be if I was recording something at 3 am when it updates the guide...but I never am

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

211K. HDMI works fine on my non-compliant monitor, but I can't order HD 1080P PPV, only SD or HD via component. So, apparently, for the most part my HDMI HDCP is active.

My bigger concern, honestly, is all the keep alive things one has to do through with Dish and what that signal loss can do to the Colossus. It's pretty hard on the HD-PVR so I don't really want to trade up for a newer set of problems. One of those "the devil you know" things...

From what I read over the weekend you can't order 1080ppv because the box isn't capable of 1080p or hdcp. So yours should work fine via hdmi.

I don't know what you mean by keep alive like others have said enter before and make the box tune to something at 3:00 am (in the box settings) has worked flawless for me over the last year plus that won't change.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by jalyst

So have you guys tried it with sources other than your STB, where in-theory it shouldn't work?

Would you say....
It's definitive that the HDMI capturer is limited to 2ch PCM* & can't even grab compressed 'SD' audio formats? i.e. DD/DTS 5.1

*irrespective of source

If sage updates to allow us to select optical as audio on hdmi inputs then we should be able to get 5.1 sound from that although I haven't tried that in wt7 yet either but it should work the same.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jalyst

Yes ideally "HD" audio via HDMI, but I suspect the HDMI capture side is limited to 2ch PCM only.

I'm trying to figure out a source of HDAudio that you would need a collossus to record from. Currently, the only source of HD Audio is BluRay and HD-DVD, and you'd be much better off ripping them, than capturing them.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jalyst

I don't suppose you have some time to verify that there's no option to dump 2ch PCM captured via HDMI, or DD5.1 captured via toslink?
I'd be ever so grateful if you could, of course no super urgency, only when suits you!

I wouldn't hold your breath the only HBR source is a Blu-ray player so that's a nogo due to HDCP. I'd be very surprised if it did anything better than 2ch stereo.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by phareous

Not trying to get offtopic but what kind of keep alive issues have you had? I set mine to always send Select before changing channel and everything works fine - whether the receiver is on or off. The only issue might be if I was recording something at 3 am when it updates the guide...but I never am

Actually Phareous, that's it - it frequently happens with mine no matter what time I set the updates to happen. And then sometimes it does not. And I do have mine sent to send "Select" before changing channels. And a lot of time I have it set to record old movies that play at 2:00 AM since the tuner is tied up early evenings with stuff for our son or family.

I'd get a second HD-PVR but I think I'd just be multiplying my problems by 2. Seems like the Colossus is, at this early stage of the game, and not unexpectedly, a little hit or miss as well.

I'm just guessing it's got to be something where these sorts of encoders are just so finicky unless the signal is perfect quality, never changes a resolution (think commercial), etc. I don't think its a conspiracy or anything goofy like that, but I do think its sort of too bad that Hauppauge is the only game in town, realistically speaking, for this sort of thing, and that it's so stinkin' hard to nail down the issues.

As with many things, intermittent issues are the hardest to track down, like that rattle in your car that vanishes the moment you drive it to your dealer's garage !

[phareous]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

From what I read over the weekend you can't order 1080ppv because the box isn't capable of 1080p or hdcp. So yours should work fine via hdmi.

I don't know what you mean by keep alive like others have said enter before and make the box tune to something at 3:00 am (in the box settings) has worked flawless for me over the last year plus that won't change.

So you can use HDMI on the VIP211k but not if you want to watch PPV? We rarely do PPV but have gotten a few free ones lately (for doing autopay)

[phareous]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Actually Phareous, that's it - it frequently happens with mine no matter what time I set the updates to happen. And then sometimes it does not. And I do have mine sent to send "Select" before changing channels. And a lot of time I have it set to record old movies that play at 2:00 AM since the tuner is tied up early evenings with stuff for our son or family.

I'd get a second HD-PVR but I think I'd just be multiplying my problems by 2. Seems like the Colossus is, at this early stage of the game, and not unexpectedly, a little hit or miss as well.

I'm just guessing it's got to be something where these sorts of encoders are just so finicky unless the signal is perfect quality, never changes a resolution (think commercial), etc. I don't think its a conspiracy or anything goofy like that, but I do think its sort of too bad that Hauppauge is the only game in town, realistically speaking, for this sort of thing, and that it's so stinkin' hard to nail down the issues.

As with many things, intermittent issues are the hardest to track down, like that rattle in your car that vanishes the moment you drive it to your dealer's garage !

You might verify it is sending Select properly... ie turn off the receiver and then tell sage to change the channel. I found mine wasn't doing it even though it was configured to and I had to fight for a while with the .ir file to get it working. You could maybe also set the update to happen at 5 am or something... I'm surprised you say it happens anytime... I've only had mine for a few days (upgraded from old dish receivers) so i guess we'll see if I run into that problem. I wished the updates could be turned off like the old receivers. I'll be using two colossus cards with my dish receivers so hopefully I will be in the hit crowd and not the miss crowd