Stumbled on a great solution for using Colossus HDMI input?

[Beefcake550]

Slight update:
I was having problems with my HD-PVR after installing the new Colossus drivers. So, I reinstalled the Colossus drivers followed by an immediate reinstall of the HD-PVR drivers. Then I reboot and Sage started up.

Since then, things appear OK. I have noticed that my normal problem channels (switching to/from ESPN to something else) - seems better. I can see the stuttering start sometimes, but the card fixes it within 5-10 seconds. Reasonable, but not perfect. It's better than the whole recording getting messed up.

So, I will give this combo a few more days and if the HD-PVR starts acting up again, I will first attack that by getting another Colossus card and seeing if that fixes the problem. I'd rather record from all HDMI anyway...

[Beefcake550]

Seems better, but ESPN got borked this morning and had to restart sagetv. Oh well..... ;(\

[dcardellini]

thanks for update.

[Beefcake550]

I retract my statement. After a week of using the new drivers from SHS, i foudn them to be overall worse. Mainly, it takes longer for the initial video to show up and sometimes when it does, it takes another few seconds to "lock in" the audio and video sync. Annoying to say the least. I've gone back to the released driver on hauppage's site.

[uberpixel]

I can report that this is working as previously described on a Comca$t provided Motorola STB.

HDMI would not work without the Monoprice box.

I had been using component, but I had a ground loop or something that was causing a faint horizontal line to track vertically up the screen.

I noticed some audio sync issues when I first hooked this up, but I couldn't reproduce the issue.

So far so good.

-uberpixel

[sumrtym]

So, anybody order one of these boxes lately? Is this still a working solution for those who have protection enabled on STB HDMI outputs to work with Colossus HDMI input?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

So, anybody order one of these boxes lately? Is this still a working solution for those who have protection enabled on STB HDMI outputs to work with Colossus HDMI input?

If you don't want to spend the money, component+optical works just fine.

[Beefcake550]

Read my OP. Yes, the component will work, but some boxes downres the outout of premium channels. I am currently using this setup and continues to work great.

[sumrtym]

Here's a question for you. I just finished building my first server and with component / optical with the colossus, I'm getting some interference issues present in output (slightly darker slow scrolling upward bands. It's not horrible, and for all I gain with SageTV, I can ignore it, but I wonder...

I have TWC so connecting to HDMI is not an option (copy protection on every channel). However, if I ordered and used this box, could I circumvent that and still get my 5.1 sound? I'd only do this IF it also meant a strong chance it would eliminate the interference lines.

[wbarber69]

possibly. Do this first though. Hook the tv up directly to the stb, first using component then using hdmi. If you notice the band in either case then you can start making assumptions. if it appears in component and not hdmi, then hdmi > DVI >HDMI could help. If it shows up in both cases then you have a bad box, easy fix. If you don't see any problems at all on screen then you might have some power related issues with your pc that could need to be addressed.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

Here's a question for you. I just finished building my first server and with component / optical with the colossus, I'm getting some interference issues present in output (slightly darker slow scrolling upward bands. It's not horrible, and for all I gain with SageTV, I can ignore it, but I wonder...

I have TWC so connecting to HDMI is not an option (copy protection on every channel). However, if I ordered and used this box, could I circumvent that and still get my 5.1 sound? I'd only do this IF it also meant a strong chance it would eliminate the interference lines.

Are your Server and STB plugged into the same outlets? Is one on a UPS? Are your component video cables run paralel with power cables? A slowly rising black band indicates a power based issue. That slow rise is the result of the 60Hz electrical interference and the 59.94Hz video signal. The black bars end up cycling through the display around every 16 seconds (or harmonics thereof). It might be a simple change to get the picture cleaned up with component.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Are your Server and STB plugged into the same outlets? Is one on a UPS? Are your component video cables run paralel with power cables? A slowly rising black band indicates a power based issue. That slow rise is the result of the 60Hz electrical interference and the 59.94Hz video signal. The black bars end up cycling through the display around every 16 seconds (or harmonics thereof). It might be a simple change to get the picture cleaned up with component.

Yes, they were both on a UPS. I tried unplugging the STB from the UPS and into a different wall outlet, but that didn't correct. I noticed last night it's actually a faintly dark line in two places but between them it's distorting color as well (Star Trek Generations where Kirk dies turned a greenish tint within this wide scrolling band). Some images / colors interaction it's worse than others, that was the worst I had seen as sometimes it's not that noticeable and you don't see a color shift much other than slight darkening maybe.

I tried a different component cable, and bringing the cable out away from the others / higher from back of entertainment center where the cords exit to add some space between it and the STB / VCR (yes I still have one) power cords. Didn't seem to help.

I ended up ordering a 6' with ferrite cores HDMI to DVI cable and the monoprice box. I'm already running Toslink from the cable box to colossus so it's a simple unplug from colossus and attach to the Monoprice box instead. Probably will be here end of the week or maybe by next Tuesday (they seem kind of slow to me sometimes). I'll report back if that fixes the issue which I hope. I thought the lines / large band were kind of annoying, but the fact it has a tint to it interacting with the image will drive me nuts!

I also watched about 3 hours of LiveTV last night and had no lip sync issues on the Colossus card (stuttering video that corrected a few times, just some little glitching). Ran pretty solid though so if I end up getting a lip sync problem I'll know it's because of the Monoprice box, but I have high hopes!

[wbarber69]

There might be a grounding issue within your computer or power supply. Make sure everything is tightened down and all the screws are actually there holding the video cards and tuner cards in place. I had some serious issues way back when a pvr-500 was a thing and I had accidentally stripped the screw out that holds it in and almost instantly the audio tracks of its recordings started to get EM interference. I ended up having to tap a screw to the psu case and the card and run a ground wire to kill it off. Later found out it was a bad fan causing all the trouble.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by wbarber69

There might be a grounding issue within your computer or power supply. Make sure everything is tightened down and all the screws are actually there holding the video cards and tuner cards in place. I had some serious issues way back when a pvr-500 was a thing and I had accidentally stripped the screw out that holds it in and almost instantly the audio tracks of its recordings started to get EM interference. I ended up having to tap a screw to the psu case and the card and run a ground wire to kill it off. Later found out it was a bad fan causing all the trouble.

I've got the Colossus screwed down well. Everything else is tightened down good. Now, this is a GD05B case so the front panel really isn't grounded (plastic) to the rest of the body. I remember people saying when I bought they'd touch the front panel and a static charge would reset it because it jumped right into the mobo. Basically, the front panel USB and power/reset switches aren't grounded. I can't imagine that though would be causing this issue.

Anyway, we'll see if the Monoprice box doesn't resolve it without driving me (further) crazy. I'm assuming that's going to work so I'm living with the bad video quality from the colored interference at the moment (was horrible on that new Continuum or whatever it's called show on Scifi tonight. However, now I have to figure out why SageTV crashed after finishing the first song playing an album in flac. I've had a few weird why did it crash things lately. Also why my first MKV rip from blu-ray when you hit play from the video menu sits there black and at 0:00 with play showing. But if you move the slider ahead at all, then it starts. Or why choosing Arcsoft for DVD in the DVD menu with EVR doesn't show menu buttons on the DVD (every response on the forums I've seen said EVR fixed that issue), so for now I'm running it as Microsoft. Or why my Colossus has no problems with audio shifts on channels, nor adjusting to different resolutions without locking the STB output, nor sync issues even after 3 hours continuous use, but does glitch every 10-13 minutes or so (though not always, and sometimes sooner) to freeze video, not audio, then jump to another freeze video shot over the course of a few seconds, then play on fine. Or the audio glitches a second without the video glitching thought that is far less often. And did I mention I still need to program a remote so I can quit having to grab the touchpad/keyboard I have plugged into the front USB?

Too many issues / questions at the moment.

/rant over

[wbarber69]

Oh man I just bought 3 of those coax to optical converters from monoprice. And boy do they work great. 5.1 sound working with my HDPVR's, not bad at all.

[sumrtym]

Ok, I'm deep in testing, and maybe I should just make a thread in hardware. But this is related to this Monoprice box.

When connected to component / optical, I have some minor interference in the signal but it's pretty clear / audio. I have a few freezes every so often in video only, but not audio, but it resumes after a few seconds ea time. Hooking up with HDMI to DVI and optical on the Monoprice and then HDMI out to the Colossus results in slow-motion video and EITHER static that cuts in and out, OR some chipmunk sounding superfast audio that cuts in and out. However, if I load the Arcsoft Showbiz software and go to capture, with HDMI for video and audio checked it's clear as can be, no noticeable issues. HOWEVER....I will note that in Showbiz it shows audio as AAC 2 channels and confirmed by the optical out of the computer showing Dolby Prologic. Interestingly, I know the source is DD 5.1 and is passed as such to the receiver when hooked up Component / Optical. Showbiz correctly identifies the same channel / show through component / optical as 5.1.

QUESTIONS:

1. For those of you with this Monoprice box, are you getting AAC audio or getting DD 5.1 on your HDMI recordings? To me, it looks like this box downmixes DD 5.1 to AAC 2 channel when encoding back to an HDMI signal. That's a fair negative to this box if true I haven't seen mentioned.

2. Given those details, anybody have any suggestions for how to get the HDMI recording properly in SageTV with the Colossus and this box given my symptoms? Like I said, it works fine if you load Arcsoft Showbiz so the problem is within SageTV somewhere. Remember, component / optical doesn't exhibit this problem but choosing HDMI in SageTV does.

[VCAT]

just adding my experience. I had 2 colossus cards via component to two shawdirect dsr-605 boxes. My main problems were very poor audio quality and this ground loop in the image. I decided trying this solution was worth the price. So far everything works perfectly. When I play back live TV or recordings the audio and video is perfect and I had no issues.

If I run into any major problems I will report back, but so far am very happy with this "hack".

[VCAT]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

QUESTIONS:

1. For those of you with this Monoprice box, are you getting AAC audio or getting DD 5.1 on your HDMI recordings? To me, it looks like this box downmixes DD 5.1 to AAC 2 channel when encoding back to an HDMI signal. That's a fair negative to this box if true I haven't seen mentioned.

2. Given those details, anybody have any suggestions for how to get the HDMI recording properly in SageTV with the Colossus and this box given my symptoms? Like I said, it works fine if you load Arcsoft Showbiz so the problem is within SageTV somewhere. Remember, component / optical doesn't exhibit this problem but choosing HDMI in SageTV does.

That's really weird. I can confirm that via recording using this monoprice box, and being played back via the HD200 extender...that DD5.1 does in fact show correctly on my receiver. Other channels it will show 2 channel and prologic. I did not analyze the actual recordings to see the stream composition. Could results be STB dependent? I'm on shawdirect using their DSR-605 receivers.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by VCAT

That's really weird. I can confirm that via recording using this monoprice box, and being played back via the HD200 extender...that DD5.1 does in fact show correctly on my receiver. Other channels it will show 2 channel and prologic. I did not analyze the actual recordings to see the stream composition. Could results be STB dependent? I'm on shawdirect using their DSR-605 receivers.

I'd be pretty certain it's STB dependant - the colossus will only really do two things with HDMI audio - if it receives AC3, it will record it as such - if it receives stereo PCM, it will encode it to AAC. If you are getting AAC in the output, then the STB is outputting only stereo PCM.

[sflamm]

Why not just use an HDMI splitter like this one ($20):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270641169821?afsrc=1

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