Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[spacecadet]

Originally Posted by phareous

Yes, I had the exact same problem. I reported it to Sage and they are adamant it is a problem with Hauppauge's drivers. I wrote Hauppauge, they asked if I used WinTV or Showbiz, and thats it... haven't responded back to me since then. I'm a little disappointed in their support.

Ditto here. Logged an issue with them last weekend and have heard nothing but crickets in response.

Very disappointing.

[jalyst]

Originally Posted by SHS

Far I know of there are no other longer-term plans other then possable of get to MPEG2 Recoding and Transcoder support.

Lame... thanks for letting me know.

[sleonard]

I'm wondering if it would be possible for Sage to use the transcoder for things like Placeshifter? If so, probably not at the same time as a recording. Could make scheduling difficult.

S

[bits]

I am thinking of going from component to component + SPDIF on my Colosuss but I am not sure it is worth the effort; so my question is what would be gained by making this change?

As I recall from installing the Colosuss I would need to delete it as a source, stop Sage, install the SPDIF, restart Sage and add the Colosuss back in. My concern is that I will have difficulty getting the Colosuss to be as stable as it currently is and that I may get the audio hum back. The audio hum is not related to Colosuss but a ground loop insulator on the analog audio is currently doing a very nice job of eliminating audio hum in my recordings.

I am still looking at the replies to my questions in an earlier post and one thing is clear and that is no one thing is true in all cases. Either the data is confounded or I did not ask the right questions.

[jptheripper]

spdif is digital, audio hum is impossible.

[Wakecrash]

1. Are you using a Sage exteneder? Yes HD300 and HD200, see sig

2. What is your typical java heap size when using your extenders? Around 500

3. Do you run Sage server as a Service only? Yes

4. How often do you stop/start the Sager server software? When required for upgrades / plugins

5. Cable or dish? Directv

6. USBUIRT? no, ethernet and serial

7. How many shows do you record per day using the Colosuss? Installed for 24 hours via HDMI, recorded band of brothers marathon without an issue.

8. How many hours per day do you view live tv using the Colosuss? less than 1.

9. Do you channel surf live tv using the Colosuss? No

10. OS? Windows 7 32 bit.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by sleonard

I'm wondering if it would be possible for Sage to use the transcoder for things like Placeshifter? If so, probably not at the same time as a recording. Could make scheduling difficult.

S

XCode 3100 Series dose list support for
MPEG4 up to D1 (with PSP, iPOD, DivXTM remux) ASP (L0 – L5), SP (L0 – L3) how ever 4100 Series has even more option that the one I was hoping that Hauppauge would go for but they didn't most likely due to cost per chip.
Dual Multi-stream I think you need XCodeHD 3300 Series or 4100 Series other then that you need more then one Colossus card

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by SHS

XCode 3100 Series dose list support for
MPEG4 up to D1 (with PSP, iPOD, DivXTM remux) ASP (L0 – L5), SP (L0 – L3) how ever 4100 Series has even more option that the one I was hoping that Hauppauge would go for but they didn't most likely due to cost per chip.
Dual Multi-stream I think you need XCodeHD 3300 Series or 4100 Series other then that you need more then one Colossus card

So, with the current chip it is theoretically possible but format support is limited and if Sage were to use the Colossus as a Xcoder it could not simultaneously record from the same Colossus?

OTOH, if there ever were to be a Colossus II that used the 4100 chip not only would the format support be expanded but a single Colossus II could record one thing while Xcoding another?

Of course, this all supposes that the Hauppauge drivers support this as well as Sage writing the code to take advantage of it.

The current SW Xcode is a serious load on my Q9550 and I avoid any placeshifting at all due to that and limited upstream bandwidth. It would be really nice to have some sort of hardware Xcoder that Sage could use.

S

[Fuzzy]

I think sage would get much better returns looking for a way to utilize GPU acceleration for transcoding instead (OpenCL, for instance). No worry about conflicts, tuners in use, etc.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by sleonard

So, with the current chip it is theoretically possible but format support is limited and if Sage were to use the Colossus as a Xcoder it could not simultaneously record from the same Colossus?

That Rigth

Originally Posted by sleonard

OTOH, if there ever were to be a Colossus II that used the 4100 chip not only would the format support be expanded but a single Colossus II could record one thing while Xcoding another?

That Rigth

Originally Posted by sleonard

Of course, this all supposes that the Hauppauge drivers support this as well as Sage writing the code to take advantage of it.

Ture

Originally Posted by sleonard

The current SW Xcode is a serious load on my Q9550 and I avoid any placeshifting at all due to that and limited upstream bandwidth. It would be really nice to have some sort of hardware Xcoder that Sage could use.

Don't fell bad that why I being trying for years to get Hauppauge to look at valve of transcoder becuase there are lot of advantage, There are other option but my guest is it will be real pain in rear or boat load of work to program nvidia cuda and ati steam to take advantage gpu acceleration but rigth back where we started Cuda vs Steam vs OpenCL vs DirectCompute carp.

[mistergq]

Okay, after a day, this is what we have noticed. Every once in awhile, the live feed's audio will cut out. I need to stop the recording and restart and it will be fine. If I use the fast forward button, or reverse, it will take back to the beginning of the show before I press stop and restart it.

On recordings, everything seems fine. On today's A&E Criminal Minds recording, the only issue was the audio was out of sync by a second, but I can't tell if that was caused by Colossus or by A&E/FIOS being out of sync.

I did not use Hauppauge Clear program, but when the new driver comes out, I think I am going to run that.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by bits

As I recall from installing the Colosuss I would need to delete it as a source, stop Sage, install the SPDIF, restart Sage and add the Colosuss back in.

Actually it is much easier to switch than you think. Just use the Source Details menu:
Select the InputType button and change to the input (HDMI or Component) that you want:

I just switched back and forth earlier today using this method. I was switching back and forth between HDMI and Component+SPDIF. However in my experiments I have had HDMI, Component, RCA audio and SPDIF all connected at the same time and switched back and forth at will using this method.

[bits]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Actually it is much easier to switch than you think. Just use the Source Details menu:
Select the InputType button and change to the input (HDMI or Component) that you want:

I just switched back and forth earlier today using this method. I was switching back and forth between HDMI and Component+SPDIF. However in my experiments I have had HDMI, Component, RCA audio and SPDIF all connected at the same time and switched back and forth at will using this method.

Thank you!

[phareous]

Originally Posted by spacecadet

Ditto here. Logged an issue with them last weekend and have heard nothing but crickets in response.

Very disappointing.

Well I heard back from Hauppauge...they won't help me unless I install their crappy WinTV and reproduce it in WinTV

[bits]

I recently observed that all of my Colosuss recordings have have faint but noticeable horizontal lines slowly cycling from the bottom of the screen to the top. I have confirmed that it is in the recording. I see them when I play them using my HD extenders and when I play them on my PC. When I watch the same program live using my TV I do not see them. Recordings from my HDHR do not have them. Has anyone else seen this?

I am using Cable STB, component + analog audio (ground loop insulated) and my STB is set to 720p.

[Jeffek]

Originally Posted by bits

I recently observed that all of my Colosuss recordings have have faint but noticeable horizontal lines slowly cycling from the bottom of the screen to the top. I have confirmed that it is in the recording. I see them when I play them using my HD extenders and when I play them on my PC. When I watch the same program live using my TV I do not see them. Recordings from my HDHR do not have them. Has anyone else seen this?

I am using Cable STB, component + analog audio (ground loop insulated) and my STB is set to 720p.

I actually have been experiencing these same horizontal lines (very faint but noticeable). Though I'm experiencing this with the external HD PVR, not the Colossus.

I've had the HD PVR for well over a year now and it's worked flawlessly. These lines just started showing up about 3 or 4 months ago and seem to be sporatic (not on all recordings every day). At first I thought it was a loose connection between the HD PVR and my server or the DTV box, but after resetting all the plugs still no luck. Wonder if the HD PVR is getting over heated or something or if it's reaching it's lifespan, but don't know how this could be related to the same issue on a new Colossus...

[SHS]

Originally Posted by bits

I recently observed that all of my Colosuss recordings have have faint but noticeable horizontal lines slowly cycling from the bottom of the screen to the top. I have confirmed that it is in the recording. I see them when I play them using my HD extenders and when I play them on my PC. When I watch the same program live using my TV I do not see them. Recordings from my HDHR do not have them. Has anyone else seen this?

I am using Cable STB, component + analog audio (ground loop insulated) and my STB is set to 720p.

Have tryed take off your ground loop insulated and see if there still there if so there maybe insulated is starting to bad or maybe a bad splitter some there.
As a rule horizontal lines cycling from the bottom of the screen to the top or other way a round it dosen't matter if it is slow or fast it is still a ground loop problem.

[bits]

Originally Posted by SHS

Have tryed take off your ground loop insulated and see if there still there if so there maybe insulated is starting to bad or maybe a bad splitter some there.
As a rule horizontal lines cycling from the bottom of the screen to the top or other way a round it dosen't matter if it is slow or fast it is still a ground loop problem.

Last night I replaced the component cable, installed optical SPDIF and changed by cable stb from 720p to 1080i. I checked one recording so far and the horizontal lines were not present. I will need to see more Colosuss recordings before declaring a victory.

[phareous]

New drivers released, but I can't find any release notes:

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/suppor..._colossus.html

[babgvant]

Got a few questions for buyers/potential buyers:

1) If you could buy the Colossus without some of the "value-add" bits (ShowBiz, remote, etc) would that make it more appealing?

2) Besides the card and I/O dongles, what would you want included?

3) What should the price be?

Thanks