Bizarre issue with HD-PVR

[sdsean]

So I'm having trouble figuring this one out. . .
I have 3 HD-PVRs setup, connected to 3 DirecTV STBs, all with Serial Tuning.

Other than some minor setup issues in the past, I have never had much of a problem.

One of my STBs was an older H20. Recently, whenever I started watching recording from that particular STB, the HD-PVR it was connected to would keep starting/stopping (lights blinking on / off etc). I tried resetting the STB, restarting sage, the HD-PVR, etc but nothing would stop this from happening.

Then I realized that the STB must of have gone bad as it wasn't getting a proper signal, always seemed to be "searching for signal".

Plugging into the TV all by itself did the same thing, so . . .I got myself another H21-200 STB (like my other 2).

After plugging everything in. . .it all works fine, however now any time that I watch / record TV from the same HD-PVR connected to this new STB, the SageTV client slows to a crawl. . . menu animations disappear, everything is really slow to respond, and the EVR overlay on the picture blinks in / out.

However. . .none of the other HD-PVRs have this problem. . .
I did also try using analog audio rather than digital, but still same thing. . .

The only think I can think of would be a bandwidth issue on the USB. . .but I find that hard to believe that it would just start happening now. . . i also suppose it's possible that whatever nuked my old STB also did something to the HD-PVR in question. . . I did try reseating all the cables, making sure everything was clean etc. . . when this is going on. . .my memory usage is normal, and processor is not spiked at all. . .and like i said everything else plays back fine so I'm positive its not just a play back issue. . .

Thoughts?

[jerryt]

I would re-install the HDPVR driver and be sure that it writes the HDPVR firmware on your problematic HDPVR.

[sdsean]

Nope that didn't work either. . .all 3 HD-PVRs definitely got updated with firmware properly.
2 of them work just fine, but the one in the middle with the new STB does not.

I also tried moving where on the PC that HD-PVR is plugged into USB wise, and still didn't work, and I haven't added any new usb devices anyway.

The only think I can figure now is a bad HD-PVR. . .its so weird though b/c its the Sage software that starts freaking out but nothing else on the system is taxed. . .

So now what. . ?
Well one thing I can think of is to check the SageTV properties file and see if the bit rate is set waaay to high or something. . if someone can remind me what settings I can check in there.

I'm not really wanting to uninstall/reinstall sage, and I'm not sure that would solve my problem.

The only other thing I can think of besides checking the properties file that might give me some clues would be to plugin the component cables from this STB into a different HD-PVR, and see if the problem happens. . . don't see why that would matter either though.

Help always appreciated. . .

[jorton]

Try swapping power supplies and see if one has gone bad. There is an issue with the power supplies going (capacitors), can't hurt to test them at this point.

[jerryt]

After ruling out the power supply,

Can't you just swap the problematic HDPVR to another STB position and see if the problem stay with the setting for the New STB or moves to where you put the problematic HDPVR?

[sdsean]

Yeah its not power supply.

Sure enough, when I plugged in one of the HD-PVRs that I know is fine, into the new STB, I get the same problem even when its the only HD-PVR on etc.

Now. . . what to do about it. . . I know the STB itself is fine. . .I plugged it into the TV directly to set it up and it worked great, granted that was through HDMI though. Its and H21-200 rather than an H21-100 like I had before. . .but I know all the settings on it are setup the same (non-native, stretch format, 720p res only).

Maybe my component cables that are hooked to it are bad? Or maybe the outputs on that machine itself are bad?

I'm also gonna try shutting down all the other STBs and see if that improves it. . .something is making me think that maybe that STB is just getting a weak satellite signal. . .

[sdsean]

Well I tried shutting off all the other STBs. . .but that didn't help.

I know that when I used HDMI to hook it up directly to the TV it worked just fine.
I also tried a different set of component cables, and still the same issue.

So. . .either the component outs on this brand new STB don't work right. . .or I'm just having a lot of trouble getting component cables to stay seated properly.

I think I may try to see if i can use a HDfury or whatever converter. . . but other than that I'm at a loss. . .

[jerryt]

Swap the problematic STB to one of the working positions.

Then one set of cable

Then another set of cables...

[sdsean]

Yeah did all that too (sweatily I might add. . .ugh unwinding everything that has been setup for years).

Totally bizarre. . . i'm pretty convinced in the end that the new H21-200's component connection is bad news. . . i even saw weirdness in the signal when plugged in raw to the TV.

So. . .in the end I used an HDMI->VGA/Component converter to just go straight from the HDMI rather than from the component out, and worked like a charm. . .although I did have to spend another $100. . .ugh.

[ccsmoke]

Glad you appear to have it working.

Was wondering your signal strength and line quaility read off the STB, should be under settings or troubleshooting...been 15 years since I had dish heh. I always went by anything above 90 is great anything below 80 needs an adjustment.

Bad splitter, loose connection off LMB, bad line, etc.

I just bring this up because the HD PVR doesnt overcome a bad signal well.

If you get alot of macro blocking on your recordings from that zone might also be because of this.

Just was going to throw this out there as a possiblity.

[sdsean]

Yeah I was kinda thinking that could be it as well. . .rather than just bad component connection. . .

I actually have physically separate lines coming into the house from the dish. I do have a multi-switch up there, to allow for more than 4 lines.

I suppose it's possible that the signal is so low on the one line, that it's showing itself in the analog outputs (I'll check the settings), but I would think that the other STBs would show similar issues then and that it would be more intermittent and not straight up off the entire time. I suppose I could get on the roof and play around. . . I don't even really need the multi-switch right now anyway. . .

What's bizarre then is the fact that for that one STB, I'm using HDMI, with a SIIG converter of HDMI back to Component (which btw, HDCP is laughable so many of these things out that learn the EDID, but anyway). Why does the digital out then not show the same or similar issue, or something like constant pixelation and such. . .

Actually, while I have no need to mess with it atm, I'm tempted to move to HDMI->Component converters on all 3 stbs.

[ccsmoke]

Before climbing on the roof, I would check the signal strenth off the STB in dish pointing area setting screen. Again been a while since I had dish/directv. I think you can set different transponders to the individual STBs. Maybe the middle zone is set to a different transponder than the other zones if the strenth is low.

Assuming this is a slimline dish with 5 LNBs. (1 arm with 3 LNB off of it...2 being dual channel)

[sdsean]

Grr. . . seems to have come back now with a vengence. . . .not sure how this all the sudden became a problem even after I got it working via HDMI->Component conversion.

Guess I'm gonna have to rip out all the wiring and start again. . . such a darn pain. . .

[sdsean]

Hmmm. . .so this issue is back where playback from my 3rd HD-PVR when setting up the source slows everything down to a crawl making it unusable.

As noted in the previous replies, I have tried everything from swapping STBs, swapping cables, etc.

Last night I loaded up this HD-PVR in ArcSoft TME just to see if it showed any issues.

Sure enough in ArcSoft, this particular HD-PVR records/previews video just fine, however I can't seem to get any audio to play from it. But it does not stutter or slow down the machine or anything.

I also checked the signal strength from the STB in question and it was fine as well (high 80s to mid 90s).

So it seems clear that something is going on within SageTV with this 3rd HD-PVR. This particular HD-PVR is brand new, as I got a new one when i also got the new STB, when the problem first reared its ugly head.

At the moment I'm at a loss. . . one thing I can think of is perhaps the audio signal is bad coming out of the STB. I have tried both digital and analog, but still same issue.

Like I said I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to rip everything apart . . .but anyone else have any thoughts?

[wbarber69]

run the hwclear tool from hauppauge, restart and then install the latest hdpvr drivers from hauppauge.com. if you have other hauppauge tuners in your system get the wintv7 cd 2.6c cd from the drivers page for hvr-2250. there is probably a firmware mismatch between hdpvrs sibce you say this one is new. thats immediately what I gravitate to as the problem.