Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[jptheripper]

And just to be clear, this is a hauppauge limitation, not a sage one. I (and others) have been begging hauppauge for years to support mutiple blasters. They just wont do it right now.

[The Truth]

Originally Posted by gplasky

HDCP is a encryption mechanism per device. It is not a per channel encryption like 5c or flag based or QAM.



Gerry

Guess I got confused with HDCP and 5c. my bad.

[traker1001]

Currently Im using the Component input, I would like to use the HDMI, Can anyone tell me if it actually works with H23 boxes? And do you get the surround?

[davephan]

You'll be better off using a USB-UIRT instead and forget about the Hauppauge IR blaster. I gave up on Hauppauge IR blasters many years ago. A USB-UIRT will control 3 set top boxes. Many more set top boxes could be controlled if the set top boxes can be set to different IR codes. The USB-UIRT will also give you more flexibility to choose different content providers that may not have firewire. The USB-UIRT also will allow you to use a 64-bit OS, since there isn't a firewire 64-bit driver.

Dave

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by The Truth

Guess I got confused with HDCP and 5c. my bad.

It's really 3 thing that get conflated togehter, because they do interact with each other.

CCI, Copy Control Information, which is a flag in broadcast (cable/sat) which says how the current program is allowed to be copied, Always/Freely, Once, or Never.

DTCP, Digital Transmission Content Protection (aka "5C"), which is the copy protection system for Firewire. In theory it should only be applied when CCI is Once or Never, but some cable boxes/providers have it permanently on.

HDCP, High Definition Content Protection, which is the copy protection system for HDMI/DVI. I'm not actually sure what actually triggers this, perhaps by CCI on Cable.

[jphipps]

Originally Posted by traker1001

Currently Im using the Component input, I would like to use the HDMI, Can anyone tell me if it actually works with H23 boxes? And do you get the surround?

It should work, I have it connected to an H24 and before that a H21 and it worked fine with HDMI ( Fine is relative, as good as the card is working right now.. )

Also, using the Ethernet HTTP tuning...

Thanks,
Jeff

[The Truth]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It's really 3 thing that get conflated togehter, because they do interact with each other.

CCI, Copy Control Information, which is a flag in broadcast (cable/sat) which says how the current program is allowed to be copied, Always/Freely, Once, or Never.

DTCP, Digital Transmission Content Protection (aka "5C"), which is the copy protection system for Firewire. In theory it should only be applied when CCI is Once or Never, but some cable boxes/providers have it permanently on.

HDCP, High Definition Content Protection, which is the copy protection system for HDMI/DVI. I'm not actually sure what actually triggers this, perhaps by CCI on Cable.

I guess when I was messing around with Firewire I read a lot about 5c and just thought HDCP was similar. Thanks for the info though.

[mistergq]

With component and optical audio, I have noticed an audio delay between the video and audio. Is anyone having this problem with HDMI?

[bits]

Originally Posted by mistergq

With component and optical audio, I have noticed an audio delay between the video and audio. Is anyone having this problem with HDMI?

I can not use HDMI because I am using cable but I have not seen an audio sync issue using component+SPDIF (optical). Are others seeing this?

[makutaku]

I am moving away from a firewire capture to a Colossus card that just arrived. Comcast is my service provider.

Based on the messages in this thread, it seems I will have to use component+SPDIF (optical), correct?

Is there any installation guide or is it trivial (plug card, install drivers, add device in Sage) ?

[bits]

Originally Posted by makutaku

I am moving away from a firewire capture to a Colossus card that just arrived. Comcast is my service provider.

Based on the messages in this thread, it seems I will have to use component+SPDIF (optical), correct?

Is there any installation guide or is it trivial (plug card, install drivers, add device in Sage) ?

This thread is about the best source of information for installing the Colosuss. If I remember correctly the first few pages of this thread provide all of the necessary information.

My installation went as follows:

* Installed SageTV beta 7.12. You must have this version or 7.15 installed for the Colosuss to work. Do not install 7.13 or 7.14
* Downloaded the latest Colosuss driver, just the driver and nothing else. Unzipped it to a folder that I could easily find.
* Deleted my PVR150 from Sage
* Closed down Sage
* Shut down my PC, remove the PVR150 and installed the Colosuss. Initially I went with component + analog audio from my cable STB
* Fired up my PC and manually pointed to the Colosuss driver
* Fired up Sage and went through the steps to add the Colosuss. In the first or second page of this thread you will find more details regarding this.
* I use USBURIT to change channels on my STB

It all basically worked right off but after a few days recordings from the Colosuss were choppy and had audio drop outs. While troubleshooting this issue my PC BSOD'd. After a reboot the recordings were back to normal. I noticed that my Java heap was maxed out just prior to the BSOD so I stopped using Desktop mode and went to service mode. I then implemented a scheduled daily stop/start of SageTVService. It has been almost a month since then I have not had a single issue.

[NoodleNT]

Originally Posted by bits

* Shut down my PC, remove the PVR150 and installed the Colosuss. Initially I went with component + analog audio from my cable STB

So are you using HDMI now? If so are you trouble free?

[BobbyDing]

You'll be better off using a USB-UIRT instead and forget about the Hauppauge IR blaster.

Quick question... How many USB-UIRT's would I need for two Colossus cards connected to two STB's (cable boxes)?

Thanks,

Bobby

[sleonard]

One USB-UIRT can control up to three boxes.

S

[NoodleNT]

You will only need one USB-UIRT and will need to build a stereo IR Bug emitter. You can get the stereo plug at RadeoShack. Then it is just a mater of connecting two mono emitters to the left and right channel leads.


Tip: if your USB-UIRT is mounting inside your case, run a 1/4" Stereo pigtail to the outside of th case so you can plug\unplug your IR-buds if you need to get into the case. I found the thin cables of the IR-buds can break easy.


Z1 = Emitter Left
Z2 = Emitter Right
Z3 = USB-UIRT main Emitter

[traker1001]

Hey folks, Im still playing with my Colossus cards and even just purchased a 3rd for my system. It seems there are a lot of little suggestions floating around in the forums on how we can tweak the Colossus cards with Sage. IE, I saw something about making it record through mpeg in one of the thread. Saw something about Tweaking bitrates for the Colossus, The HDMI seems to work well with directv and the Colossus along with 5.1.
And I'm sure a lot of you folks who know a lot more than I about sage and HiDef than I, have alot of small tips and tricks that would help with video and audio quality, stability, and server load and even compatibility.

One question I have off the bat, Is encoding 1080i any more of a load on sage with extenders than 720p? I ask because through the HDMI 1080i seems to produce a better picture than 720p on my TV.

Another question, Both sage and the directv boxes have a setting for "Native resolution" Can someone explain what the best setting for these settings are?

Another question, I have HDMI into Colossus with 5.1 enabled on the directv boxes, The audio shows as recorded 5.1, However I can't use 5.1 with the HD200 extenders. Will the HD300 pass the DD thru hdmi?

Thanks folks.

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by mistergq

With component and optical audio, I have noticed an audio delay between the video and audio. Is anyone having this problem with HDMI?

I see audio delay/sync issues on about 30% of my recordings.

I'm capturing Comcast cable via component and spdif.

I also occasionally see a recording (or live tv) that has a stutter every 3 or 4 seconds.

I was told by SageTV that the stutter was probably a driver issue from Hauppauge, but if I restart the SageTV service it seems to correct itself. That could still be a driver issue I guess, but it also seems to point at SageTV as well.

In addition to the capture issues, I have had a handful of server crashes since installing the Colossus. This was a rock solid WHS v1 server until I installed the card.

Hopefully these issues will get sorted out soon. My WAF is plummeting.

-uberpixel

[bits]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

So are you using HDMI now? If so are you trouble free?

No. As I understand it HDMI will not work on encrypted channels. My cable provider encrypts so HDMI is useless. I currently am using component + SPDIF(optical) and am quite happy with it.

[bits]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I see audio delay/sync issues on about 30% of my recordings.

I'm capturing Comcast cable via component and spdif.

I also occasionally see a recording (or live tv) that has a stutter every 3 or 4 seconds.

I was told by SageTV that the stutter was probably a driver issue from Hauppauge, but if I restart the SageTV service it seems to correct itself. That could still be a driver issue I guess, but it also seems to point at SageTV as well.

In addition to the capture issues, I have had a handful of server crashes since installing the Colossus. This was a rock solid WHS v1 server until I installed the card.

Hopefully these issues will get sorted out soon. My WAF is plummeting.

-uberpixel

Are you stopping and restarting Sage Service daily? If not, I suggest you give that a try. I know it is a work around and not a fix but until or if this issue is fixed it may help.

I am not seeing any more audio sync issues with the Colosuss than I have historically seen with any of my capture devices. In most cases the audio sync issue was not with the recording but with the broadcast or with codecs. I use extenders exclusively.

WAF in my household has gone up since installing and figuring out how to run the Colosuss. The vast majority of what my SO watches is broadcast in HD but was recorded in SD by my PVR150. It was quite watchable but now that it is recorded in HD and full screen I have gotten several cudos from the SO.

[makutaku]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I see audio delay/sync issues on about 30% of my recordings.

I'm capturing Comcast cable via component and spdif.

I also occasionally see a recording (or live tv) that has a stutter every 3 or 4 seconds.

I installed last night and I also see stutter every few seconds.
However, that's only happening with the video - audio is fine with no stutter nor clearly noticeable sync issues.

I'm capturing Comcast cable via component only - NO SPDIF.