*Update* Help Setting up SageTV 2.0 with PVR-350

[mayamaniac]

This is an update to my original thread: http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=5414

I toyed with SageTV 2.0 again last night and I think I got everything working. Hope this will help others who owns a PVR-350 also.

-OSD alignment/size is fixed using the Video Overscan adjustment.

-TV video alignment/size is fixed using the "Fill" Video Aspect Ratio

-Audio is now normal after editing the Registry.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hauppauge\hcwTVDlg\AudioControls] Scart1_Volume set to 7F. Funny thing is audio didn't boost until I installed SageTV Client version on another machine and accessed the SageTV server. But whatever, as long as it works.

-Hauppauge PVR-350 Silver Remote is now working with SageTV2.0. I used Opus4's
irremote.ini file which did the trick. One thing no one mentioned is where to put the irremote.ini file. Took me a while to figure it out, had to search my harddrive for it, but it goes into the c:\windows directory, overwrite the old one. I can now power up SageTV as well as waking it from sleep mode with the remote.

-PVR-350 TV-out works well now. Using the latest driver from Hauppauge version 1.8.22037.exe, Colorbars are gone. When SageTV 2.0 starts, you see menus and everything without having to go into Live TV or playing back any video. When you exit SageTV, on the TV, you see the last image that it was playing, no colorbars. Also, I can see OSD when playing Music or viewing pictures. Note about the 350's TV-out that few have mentioned, you can't playback anything else besides the OSD and Mpeg2 videos. When playing an avi file, it only plays on my computer monitor, nothing shows up on the TV. Which is a real bummer, as the 350's TV-out video quality is FANTASTIC. At DVD recording settings, I dare say its 95% identical to my TV's real Live signal . Its much smoother and colors are better than the Video Card (Nvidia) S-Video Out, which I think it is about 85% in quality compared to the TV's picture quality. I hope the Frey Tech people figure out how to get SageTV to play other formats (AVI/WMV/Divx/Xvid/etc) through the 350's TV-out, as its excellent quality.

-SageTV 2.0 and 350 stability. I experienced random lock ups when timeshifting. One time my whole computer locked up and I had to reset it. Most other times, only the SageTV 2.0 app locks up. I hope there will be a new update that will fix these timeshifting bugs. Fix that and make playing AVI/WMV files through the 350's TV Out and I'm a happy camper and gladly pay for it. The SageTV Client is excellent also. But in the meantime, I'll stick with BeyondTV 3.44 and S-Video TV-out method. It doesn't have all the features that SageTV 2.0 does and it does not support the 350's TV-Out, but its pretty damn stable. I hardly ever had an crashes with BTV 3.44. I think SageTV 2.0 has more potential and will await an update.

Happy HTPCing

[Opus4]

Originally posted by mayamaniac
I used Opus4's
irremote.ini file which did the trick. One thing no one mentioned is where to put the irremote.ini file. Took me a while to figure it out, had to search my harddrive for it, but it goes into the c:\windows directory, overwrite the old one.

Almost all of my instructions and posts about that ini file mention that it is found "in your Windows directory". I try not to say "C:\Windows", since not everyone installs Windows there. I guess I figured most people would know where their "Windows" directory is.

- Andy

[mayamaniac]

Thanks for all your efforts, Opus4.

***Another Update***

-SageTV/PVR-350 Crashes/LockUps.
I'm really trying to like SageTV but it seems really unstable. It crashes on a daily basis, often more than once. I have a dedicated HTPC computer (specs below)and BeyondTV runs really well on it. But I really like the PVR-350's TV-Out feature that SageTV supports. The picture quality is tremendous improvement over S-Video-Out of my Nvidia video card. And BTV doesn't support the PVR-350's TV Out.

-SageTV/PVR-350 Audio Out
This audio from the Music JukeBox does not play through the PVR-350's Audio-Out. I only get audio from Live-TV or recorded shows, not from the Music Jukebox. Any ideas on how to fix this? Also, on SageTV's volume control doesn't control the 350's Audio out. Mute button works however... bizarre.

-DVD Playback.
DVD video does not play through the PVR-350's TV-Out. Not sure why, aren't DVD's also Mpeg2 ?

If there are fixes to the above problems I have, please post. Thank you.

[kny3twalker]

you can do a couple things here
if you are connecting your computer to a Stereo use the audio output to the receiver and listen to your mp3s you can do it to a TV as well but there will be no picture
the crashes are usually associated with 2 things chipset problems and heat
the first thing you should look at is cooling it down
if it still does not work try updating the chipset drivers
otherwise turn off the OSD with the TV out
the only working mobos I have heard of are nforce 1 and 2
is yours a nforce3 or a VIA
if VIA good luck on that one

if you want to do DVDs you will have to rip them first to DeCSS them then playback audio from your sound card and video from your 350
since the 350 only does mp2 audio not AC3 and cannot do copy protected video

for the lock up issues email frey and let them know you are having issues with the pvr 350

[mayamaniac]

Thanks for the reply.

-Heat/chipset.
I'm using VIA chipset, not Nforce. I'll check on the heating problem. Maybe using the 350's TV-Out feature makes it run hotter if that's what you are implying. Because in BeyondTV, the 350 does not cause any crashing or lock ups. The only difference between BTV and SageTV is the BTV doesn't use the 350's TV out.

-Audio Out to Stereo
This will work with Mp3's but not Video as there is an audio sync problem between the 350's TV-Out video and the Line Out of the sound card. They don't sync, maybe messing with the SageTV's Audio Delay settings will get them to sync. But I kinda like using the 350's Audio Out since it only recieves TV audio and not other Windows sounds. So you don't distracted went watching TV.

-DVD protection.
No big deal, I don't use SageTV for DVD playback much anyway, although it would be nice to have it work with the 350's TV-Out. I read from another thread that discuss this problem, and so far, there are no workaround.

[kny3twalker]

well I found there are users that have it working with the VIA AMD boards so you could just be having a heat issue
but yes it is the TV out that causes the heat
but the old model pvr 250s used the same chipset and ran hot but probably not hot enough the crash it though
yes would have to the audio delay to get it to work and yes you would have to hear windows sounds unless you went about it like stranger89 said and ran two soundcards
I am sure there are probably programs that can convert the AC 3 sound to mp2 but you loss a lot of quality and takes some time
mp3 though glad you got it down
but if you set up the audio to be from your sound card
the qaulity would be better and you could always use it instead of the pvr 350s