Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[bits]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I've seen some improvements since scheduling a daily SageTV restart (not a full system restart).

I have only had the slo-mo choppy video once in over a hundred recordings.

That said, I am still having audio sync issues with Component+SPDIF. It seems to be a cumulative problem where the audio is pretty close in the beginning of the recording but after an hour or more, it can be off by more than a second. I have also had some recordings that were out of sync from the very beginning as well, but that is less frequent.

I've switched to Component (w/ stereo audio) to see if the problem is specific to SPDIF as others are reporting.

Not sure who's at fault here, but I wish Sage and Hauppauge could get together and come up with a fix for some of these issues.

-uberpixel

Have you tried different recording quality settings? A number of folks are reporting audio sync issues with component+optical SPDIF but there are also a good many folks like me that are not having the issue.

I am and have been using the best quality setting available without modifying the properties file.

Most of my Colosuss recorded files look like this: (Recorded from cableTV Motorola DCT6416III)

ID : 0
Complete name : D:\recorded tv\Fringe-LysergicAcidDiethylamide-3245642-0.ts
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 3.66 GiB
Duration : 59mn 50s
Overall bit rate : 8 758 Kbps

Video
ID : 4112 (0x1010)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Duration : 59mn 50s
Bit rate : 7 702 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : MBAFF
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.124
Stream size : 3.22 GiB (88%)

Audio
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 59mn 49s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Video delay : -23ms
Stream size : 192 MiB (5%)

IMHO opinion I think there is more to it than Component+Optical SPDIF=audio sync problems. Is it possible to try another STB? Do all Colosuss recordings have the audio sync issue? Over the years I have had numerous instances of certain channels, programs that were consistently broadcast with audio sync problems.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by babgvant

It's Hauppauge's issue. The device filters output premixed TS packets, all Sage has to do is write the packets to disk.

How does that explain that the whole system becomes (almost) unresponsive and restarting the Sage service fixes the issue? It's not the way it was with the HD PVR, where the device would lockup and you needed to restart it. I don't need to restart the Colossus device now (actually I did, but only twice as I recall), whereas restarting the Sage service becomes a constant task.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Rico66

How does that explain that the whole system becomes (almost) unresponsive and restarting the Sage service fixes the issue? It's not the way it was with the HD PVR, where the device would lockup and you needed to restart it. I don't need to restart the Colossus device now (actually I did, but only twice as I recall), whereas restarting the Sage service becomes a constant task.

It's truly amazing, as a comparison, that thousands of iPhone apps hit the market and pretty much work right out of the box with their target hardware, yet these two companies (Sage/Hauppauge), who products are used in concert almost exclusively with each other, have so many mysterious compatibility problems. I say mysterious because some people never have problems.

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by Rico66

How does that explain that the whole system becomes (almost) unresponsive and restarting the Sage service fixes the issue? It's not the way it was with the HD PVR, where the device would lockup and you needed to restart it. I don't need to restart the Colossus device now (actually I did, but only twice as I recall), whereas restarting the Sage service becomes a constant task.

(It's) "due to Windows threading restrictions; the calls into capture devices must be done from the main application thread, so when they hang; it's basically fatal" (to the entire application). Quote from Narflex, text in () is mine.

S

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

It's truly amazing, as a comparison, that thousands of iPhone apps hit the market and pretty much work right out of the box with their target hardware,

All those apps only run on (basically) one set of hardware and one OS, and don't interact with anything 3rd party.

In contrast, The HD PVR (either) has to have drivers that work across multiple OS's, on countless hardware combinations, numerous STBs and input devices, and with many software packages. It's many orders of magnitude more stuff to test than an iOS app.

...yet these two companies (Sage/Hauppauge), who products are used in concert almost exclusively with each other,

No offense but I think you're rather off base here. I think Sage accounts for a rather small subset of Hauppauge's market. Just look on AVS forum and I don't think Sage is mentioned that often and beyond that I think the largest market for the HD PVR devices isn't PVR users at all, it's people recording video game footage.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Rico66

How does that explain that the whole system becomes (almost) unresponsive and restarting the Sage service fixes the issue? It's not the way it was with the HD PVR, where the device would lockup and you needed to restart it. I don't need to restart the Colossus device now (actually I did, but only twice as I recall), whereas restarting the Sage service becomes a constant task.

If you take a look at the capture graph required to make it work (screenshot in the review on AT), the only 3rd party component in it is the sink - which takes pre-muxed TS packets and writes them to the hard drive.

DirectShow filters are in-process COM objects, which as you can guess from the name means they are loaded in the host process and therefore effect it (memory usage, stability, etc.). The Windows SDK is a great resource for understanding how COM, DirectShow and many other thing work in Windows.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stanger89

No offense but I think you're rather off base here. I think Sage accounts for a rather small subset of Hauppauge's market. Just look on AVS forum and I don't think Sage is mentioned that often and beyond that I think the largest market for the HD PVR devices isn't PVR users at all, it's people recording video game footage.

ok, look at it the other way - how many Sage users rely on Hauppauge in comparison to other hardware products? A minorty as well?

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by stanger89

No offense but I think you're rather off base here. I think Sage accounts for a rather small subset of Hauppauge's market. Just look on AVS forum and I don't think Sage is mentioned that often and beyond that I think the largest market for the HD PVR devices isn't PVR users at all, it's people recording video game footage.

You could also phrase the question slightly different, how many people on the Sage side have either one or more HD PVR / Colossus? Looking through many posts on this forum, most users have at least one of the Hauppauge HD capture devices. This means that these devices are important for Sage, and until now Sage had the best playback experience. But right now the support question here becomes blurry as neither side seems to move forward fixing the issue.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Rico66

You could also phrase the question slightly different, how many people on the Sage side have either one or more HD PVR / Colossus? Looking through many posts on this forum, most users have at least one of the Hauppauge HD capture devices. This means that these devices are important for Sage, and until now Sage had the best playback experience. But right now the support question here becomes blurry as neither side seems to move forward fixing the issue.

Hauppauge is working on updated drivers for the Colossus.

[The Truth]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Hauppauge is working on updated drivers for the Colossus.

WOOHOOO!!!! YAY!!! IM SOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Hauppauge is working on updated drivers for the Colossus.

that would be good if two Hauppauge products could work together

[rrhorer]

Originally Posted by The Truth

I'm returning my 3 Colossus cards

I'm sorry to hear that; but these early adopter pains are probably to be expected with the introduction of new hardware, especially when it has very complex requirements. I got in early with the HD PVR and went through the driver updtaes, betas, etc. before getting it to work the way it should. However, with my system working very well right now, I decided to wait for Colossus issues to be worked out before diving in (That's why I follow this thread). They will get the issues worked out in time; but, it's easy to understand your frustration. Good luck.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Hauppauge is working on updated drivers for the Colossus.

Yup that ture

There alway adopter pains to be expected with any introduction of any new hardware device, some time it hardware manufacturers that build that card in frist place, some time it software, sometime it a bit of both.

Hauppauge doesn't exactly have a stellar track record for working out the bugs after a product is released

Frist you have find the problem and fine out what cuasing it which is lot harded then you think.
What odd is that about 50% of the user are having problem where other 50% are not having problem and didn't matter on the input there are using, I have been keeping track of user not only the WinTV & Showbiz, Facebook posted + email I perason rev plus also SageTV, NextPVR, DVBLink and MediaPortal posted I read.

[The Truth]

Guys I'm not sure about this, but I read that some people are using the 29046 driver with success. I was going to try it but now I'm going to be getting a different card, and eliminating all my colossus cards.

I am using the 29073 driver and stereo audio and having a 24 hour restart sceduled due to stuttering developing after a certain amount of tuning.

[jptheripper]

Originally Posted by The Truth

The only reason I was using XP was for the firewire Channel Changing. I AM EXCITED to use win7 now I can add more than 4 gigs or ram! and now i will have 4 HD tuners instead of 3, and can get rid of all my STBs. Very Awesome. I will be saving $15 a month I believe.

Um, if you switched to 64bit (for 4+gb ram) there are no firewire drivers.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

ok, look at it the other way - how many Sage users rely on Hauppauge in comparison to other hardware products? A minorty as well?

I'm sure it's a much larger percentage, but even though I'm sure Sage is much more motivated to fix things, it doesn't mean they're able to.

[Clift]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

how is your luck with Colossus and HD PVR? Have you had any long-term audio recording problems with either unit?
What setting do you use: M2TS, TS or MP4, and why?
thanks

I sold my HD PVR USB so I never had a chance to test them side-by-side. Colossus has required one restart to date. Usually pretty stable otherwise.

[korben_dallas]

Please take the non-Colossus discussion to a separate thread. Thanks.


I wonder is SageTV waiting on Hauppauge for new drivers before releasing the next SageTV beta?

[Crunch]

Also waiting on next beta and hope it improves Colossus. Submitted a bug report weeks ago with video etc and SageTV said they were working with Hauppauge to resolve the issues and to wait.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

Please take the non-Colossus discussion to a separate thread. Thanks.

The recent off-topic posts have been removed from this thread.

This topic is long enough... please use other threads for other topics.

- Andy