Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[uberpixel]

Seems like there are fewer complaints about the colossus lately...

Is this due to an improvement in performance or fatigue?

I thought I was seeing some improvement in my audio sync issues, but lately it's been just as bad as ever.

Additionally I've been having server lockups and failure to load capture card issues after my server wakes from sleep.

I have no idea if these are SageTV issues or Hauppauge issues, but I hope someone is still working out the kinks...

I'm just sick of complaining.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Seems like there are fewer complaints about the colossus lately...

Is this due to an improvement in performance or fatigue?

I thought I was seeing some improvement in my audio sync issues, but lately it's been just as bad as ever.

Additionally I've been having server lockups and failure to load capture card issues after my server wakes from sleep.

I have no idea if these are SageTV issues or Hauppauge issues, but I hope someone is still working out the kinks...

I'm just sick of complaining.

That really sucks. I've had a few (4 out of 200) have issues with incorrect audio flags, but that's about it (knock on wood).

What driver version are you using?

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

That really sucks. I've had a few (4 out of 200) have issues with incorrect audio flags, but that's about it (knock on wood).

What driver version are you using?

Can't remember off the top of my head (at work), but I'm pretty sure it's the newest.

I thought the latest driver improved the audio but seemed to be causing the lockups and capture load issues. I could tolerate those as long as the audio was better.

Maybe I should revert?

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Seems like there are fewer complaints about the colossus lately...

Is this due to an improvement in performance or fatigue?

My Colossus, running as the secondary capture device (primary is usb HD PVR), has been stable w/ rca analog audio, on the latest drivers. Optical audio is still a no-go on the Colossus, unless it is the sole capture device in my system.

[sleonard]

The slowness is likely due to lack of driver releases. Other than updating the driver there is little else one can do at this point.

S

[gsfitz]

I've been reading this thread since purchasing my Colossus about 2 weeks ago. My intent for this device was to pull recordings off my Directv PVR, so I've been using the Arc Soft program to do just that. However it's been a struggle to get decent recordings that are viewable afterwards.

At first Arc Soft would just freeze each time I tried to record anything. I switched to Component + Optical and the same. I switched to Component + RCA and still no luck. Then I discovered I had to un-check the "use hardware acceleration" in the Capture screen and the freezing stopped. If anyone can explain this I would appreciate it.

Now I can at least make a recording, so I made a few in each format. When I tried to play the MP4 recordings in Sage, the video was slow motion, but the audio was normal. Any other recording format and Sage would simply freeze and stop responding to any commands. I had to then force a shutdown of Sage.

Some of these recordings would play OK in Power DVD 7 or VLC media player, but any recorded by HDMI and the video would skip forward a second or two continuously as if skipping, but the audio sounded OK. Recordings by Component + Optical have been the best in any program except Sage.

Colossus drivers have been updated to latest versions (confirmed in device manager). Arc Soft program updated to latest version.

My setup:
WXP
2GB RAM
Sage 7.1.9
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Nvidia GEForce 9500GT
Java 1024
Recordings to separate 1TB drive
CPU load 80 - 90% during recording


Note: Tried to add Colossus to Sage as tuner but Sage freezes and locks up every time. No idea what is causing that. When importing files created by Arc Soft to any editing program such as Vegas, it will simply lock up as if the file is corrupt.

I would appreciate any advice from this forum. You guys have done a lot of leg work here and you have no idea how much I appreciate this. Sage only exists at my house because of this forum.

Thanks in advance,
Greg

[SHS]

Make install the latest DirectX 9 drivers
Make sure your using VMR or VMR9 Mode and not Overlay Mode in SageTV under Setup | Detailed Setup | Video / Audio | under Video Renderer
All so you need H264 codec.

Then I discovered I had to un-check the "use hardware acceleration" in the Capture screen and the freezing stopped. If anyone can explain this I would appreciate it.

By check the "use hardware acceleration" you enable VMR mode and make use of the video card hardware acceleration so if had much newer video card it will decode more of the video in real time with out using your CPU that why see high CPU usage.

[texneus]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Seems like there are fewer complaints about the colossus lately...

Is this due to an improvement in performance or fatigue?

Fatigue . Actually my system is working well other than the audio sync issue. I went to analog audio a while back because of that...

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Additionally I've been having server lockups and failure to load capture card issues after my server wakes from sleep..

The newest drivers absolutely are not stable when resumed from S3, you seem to have had better luck than I did however...see here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...postcount=1542

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I thought I was seeing some improvement in my audio sync issues, but lately it's been just as bad as ever.

Speaking of, been meaning to try, but have not had time yet. Has anyone thought of trying making a graph in Graphstudio to see if the sync issue persists? If it does not, could we use Sgraphrecorder to solve this issue?

[uberpixel]

I've reverted to the 29111 driver and given up on digital audio for the time being. The audio sync issue was tolerable with short recordings, but with football season starting I've already noticed that the audio sync is going to be unbearable over a longer recording.

What isn't tolerable is an unstable server... I'm pretty sure it was stable with one of the earlier drivers. Sounds like maybe 29111 is the one. Here's hoping for no more resume from standby issues or random server crashes!

-uberpixel

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Seems like there are fewer complaints about the colossus lately...

Is this due to an improvement in performance or fatigue?

I thought I was seeing some improvement in my audio sync issues, but lately it's been just as bad as ever.

Additionally I've been having server lockups and failure to load capture card issues after my server wakes from sleep.

I have no idea if these are SageTV issues or Hauppauge issues, but I hope someone is still working out the kinks...

I'm just sick of complaining.

I think its fatigue and being sick of complaining. I opened a ticket with Hauppauge regarding the audio out sync with FIOS STB and Colossus. It appeared from that E-mail they were not aware of the problem. I have not heard back from them since I gave them my results that I taped a show with WinTV and same issue. I am going to follow up this week after the holiday.

They did say that there is a new driver coming out in September, but that was before they knew of the problem.

They did not have me doing much trouble shooting, so anyone that is having this problem, please open a ticket. It is the only way this issue is going to get fixed!

[sleonard]

Now that SageTV is dead we can't rely on them to report and work driver bugs with Hauppauge anymore. We are on our own now. That makes it doubly hard since Hauppauge requires that the bugs be reproduced in ShowBiz or WinTV. If you mention Sage they say it's not our fault contact Sage support. Jeff did a lot of work reproducing the issues in WinTV for us and had a direct line to Hauppauge devs.

I've never had any audio sync issues with my Colossus but still have the occasional recording that turns out with solid blue video and even more I still have the original memory leak issue where the driver causes Sage to eat more and more memory until it crashes. This one is easier to work around as a nightly SageTVService restart usually keeps it at bay.

S

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Now that SageTV is dead we can't rely on them to report and work driver bugs with Hauppauge anymore. We are on our own now. That makes it doubly hard since Hauppauge requires that the bugs be reproduced in ShowBiz or WinTV. If you mention Sage they say it's not our fault contact Sage support. Jeff did a lot of work reproducing the issues in WinTV for us and had a direct line to Hauppauge devs.

I've never had any audio sync issues with my Colossus but still have the occasional recording that turns out with solid blue video and even more I still have the original memory leak issue where the driver causes Sage to eat more and more memory until it crashes. This one is easier to work around as a nightly SageTVService restart usually keeps it at bay.

S

They seemed to be pretty responsive, until the last email. That might have been I sent the E-mail on a Friday night. During the summer, the STBs are used a lot at night to record cable. Also, installation of WInTV required a reboot so its hard for me to do it during the week. I am going to seen them a follow up on Tuesday or Wednesday. They also didn't blame it on STV just asked if I could recreate in Wintv or ShowBiz.

The audio issue seems to be STB specific.

[jptheripper]

Originally Posted by mistergq

They seemed to be pretty responsive, until the last email. That might have been I sent the E-mail on a Friday night. During the summer, the STBs are used a lot at night to record cable. Also, installation of WInTV required a reboot so its hard for me to do it during the week. I am going to seen them a follow up on Tuesday or Wednesday. They also didn't blame it on STV just asked if I could recreate in Wintv or ShowBiz.

The audio issue seems to be STB specific.

I agree settop specific. I have an RNG150, locked at 720p with dd and its pretty much flawless on the newest driver. Just a reboot of the service once a week or so, which i usually do anyway for other reasons.

[parkimar]

I have a Comcast box (Motorola dct6200) using component out to colossus with rca audio.

I don't seem to be able to lock the output to 720p - I checked the user manual.
Does anyone else have this box running with the colossus ?
If so how do you avoid the destabilizing that occurs when you switch between HD and SD channels. (I've disabled most SD channels - but sometimes commercials seem to change Res).

Any input appreciated.

Cheers

Mark

[michelkenny]

Originally Posted by parkimar

I have a Comcast box (Motorola dct6200) using component out to colossus with rca audio.

I don't seem to be able to lock the output to 720p - I checked the user manual.
Does anyone else have this box running with the colossus ?
If so how do you avoid the destabilizing that occurs when you switch between HD and SD channels. (I've disabled most SD channels - but sometimes commercials seem to change Res).

Any input appreciated.

Cheers

Mark

With the STB powered on, press the power button to turn it off and immediately press the menu button on the remote. There should be a special menu on the screen where you can lock it.

[parkimar]

Thx ! - I thought I had set that already - but I had left the 4:3 override active - once I switched that off - it looks to be locked at 720P - I'll test it out and feedback.

Cheers

Mark

[uberpixel]

Since I switched to 29111 and component + stereo, my system seems to be running more stable and so far the audio seems to be properly synced.

But, now I'm having trouble with the EPG...

For some reason after I added the Colossus to the tuner pool, my EPG shows "No Data" for 3 or 4 channels still. It's been 5 days now and still "No Data". These same channels had no trouble with the EPG prior to changing my driver. It doesn't seem like it should have anything to do with the driver, but I'm not sure what else could be causing this. I double checked the call sign (ESPNHD) and it matches the zap2it description.

Any ideas?

-uberpixel

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Since I switched to 29111 and component + stereo, my system seems to be running more stable and so far the audio seems to be properly synced.

But, now I'm having trouble with the EPG...

For some reason after I added the Colossus to the tuner pool, my EPG shows "No Data" for 3 or 4 channels still. It's been 5 days now and still "No Data". These same channels had no trouble with the EPG prior to changing my driver. It doesn't seem like it should have anything to do with the driver, but I'm not sure what else could be causing this. I double checked the call sign (ESPNHD) and it matches the zap2it description.

Any ideas?

-uberpixel

Try removing the channel then readding it again. Then force an epg update.

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Try removing the channel then readding it again. Then force an epg update.

Tried that but it didn't work...

I ended up removing the tuner and re-adding it in Sage.

For whatever reason, that worked.

-uberpixel

[heffneil]

Just checking in on how people's colossus are running? I am not sure just how reliable the product is. I actually have two in the box but haven't put them in to production because - well I am scared. Whats the feedback / thoughts on the product and the best way to run it (i.e. which drivers and connections, hdmi or component)- Using DirecTV boxes.

Neil