Tried trial, ready to buy...but a problem

[Steve2112]

Hello all,

I just entered the world of PVR/DVR with my recent purchase of a Hauppage WinTV 350.

I have been using the 15 day trial, and the software is awesome.

I'm ready to buy, but my problem is with constant freezing of the program. Usually happens at the end of a show, or sometimes when fast forwarding, and sometimes just randomly.

I have a fresh install of WinXP SP1, and downloaded the latest drivers for the 350 card, use the "clear" program provided by Hauppauge, and installed the drivers.

I still continue to have this lock up problem - requiring a reboot to recover.

I'd spend my money in an instant for this great software if I could get around this lock up problem.

Has anyone else had this same problem with constant lock ups? Is there anything else I can do other than the latest drivers and latest Java?

Thanks in advance!


Steve

[carlgar]

This seems to be common issue, you should see the Calling all Hauppauge 350 users for satisfaction poll thread for more info. It would also be useful to know what type of hardware you are running on.

[mls]

Just my 2 cents worth... I've never really understood why so many people actually even want a 350. Sure, have built in hardware decoding is nice and reduces the load on the computer... but, the 350 can not play encrypted DVD's out and can only output to a TV.

I've gone a diff route. For both my computers I deliberately chose video cards that had dual outputs (at least one DVI for future projector, others for monitor or S-video for temp usage till then).

Looking thru the forums there just seem to be way to many problems with the 350's (and also Blackbird/Roslyn's) at the moment. I'm sure someday those will all get fixed, but for me the dual output video cards seem like a far better option.

Takes a bit if figureing out all the settings for the video cards, but just as an example... I'm currently typing this to you on my 19" monitor while at the same time watching a previousely recorded TV show going out to my 20" TV (via S-video) from the my main SageTV box while it is recording 2 other shows.

Of course, I would see no logic to try and be doing any photo editing or trying to play any 3D game with this set up, but then again those things are to demanding of a computer to be running them on the same computer being a PVR in the first place (would be just asking for problems doing so).

For the moment, if ya want reliability, I'd have to say stick with the Hauppauge 250's (maybe a USB2) and a good video card for the output until they resolve the other problems with the 350's and Blackbird/Roslyn cards.

System I'm using right now is a GigaByte GA-800IPE-1000-L with 512Meg RAM, Celeron 2.6GHz CPU, ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 (don't use the video capture on it, really bad) with 2- PVR 250's and a USB2.

Can't remember when or if it has ever locked up running SageTV v1.4 or v2.0. Seems to work nicely for me recording 3 new shows while playing a previous recording (plus playing another out to a Client) and I can still surf the web too.

Anyway, that's what works for me. Others have varying results (or as they say "you're milage may vary" lol).

[kny3twalker]

ALSO THERE ARE NEW DRIVERS LISTED HERE THAT ARE NOT ON HAUPPAUGE'S SITE THAT YOU MAY WANT TO TRY
THEY ARE STICKIED IN THE HARDWARE SECTION

[nielm]

MLS: If you are not using HDTV, the output of the 350 is perfectly interlaced and scanline-matched to the TV.

The output via the Windows desktop is deinterlaced, scaled to desktop resolution, re-scaled to TV resolution and re-interlaced. All of this adds artifacts to the image which can make it blurry and add combing/jagged edges, and can change the color depth (especially if using VMR9).

So basically, with an SDTV, the 350 out is normally far better than the video card out, as well as unloading the CPU and leaving the desktop free for doing something else.

[srothwell]

Mls.....

Maybe you can help me.

I've got almost the same scenerio as you. I'm using the Hauppague USB2 and it's working great. I also have a ATI Radeon 9500 (with DVI/VGA and S-Video Out). Also works great.

..... Until I try to get the S-Video Output to play on a TV. The field order seems to be reversed, so everything looks jerky.

What am I doing wrong?

The Sage system is SO FAR advanced of the Sanpstream system.... but I need to get something working and the Snapstream doesn't have the jerkiness problem on the TV side, only the Sage does. This has GOT to be some kind of setting I have wrong.

Incindentally, the Sage looks GREAT on PC Monitors (becuase of no interlacing). It's just the TV that's messed up.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Stacy

[Watter]

Originally posted by mls
Just my 2 cents worth... I've never really understood why so many people actually even want a 350. Sure, have built in hardware decoding is nice and reduces the load on the computer... but, the 350 can not play encrypted DVD's out and can only output to a TV.

On a non-HDTV I was never able to get a picture from my video card to my TV that even came CLOSE to the quality that I got from the 350's hardware decoder.

I now use an HDTV and am able, with some decoder tweaking, to get a decent picture that comes close, but I'd still say it's not quite as good as what I got from the 350. I live with it though, so that I don't have to deal with eh 350's quirks and annoyances.

DVD's are another matter altogether.

-Watter

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by srothwell
Mls.....

Maybe you can help me.

I've got almost the same scenerio as you. I'm using the Hauppague USB2 and it's working great. I also have a ATI Radeon 9500 (with DVI/VGA and S-Video Out). Also works great.

..... Until I try to get the S-Video Output to play on a TV. The field order seems to be reversed, so everything looks jerky.

What am I doing wrong?

The Sage system is SO FAR advanced of the Sanpstream system.... but I need to get something working and the Snapstream doesn't have the jerkiness problem on the TV side, only the Sage does. This has GOT to be some kind of setting I have wrong.

Incindentally, the Sage looks GREAT on PC Monitors (becuase of no interlacing). It's just the TV that's messed up.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Stacy

What decoder and deinterlacing methods are you using? Do you have DXVA enabled in the decoder?

[srothwell]

mlbdude.....

In my detailed setup it is as follows:

Video Renderer ... VMR9 (have tried them all only VMR9 will show video on the TV output. Others will not)

MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter (Default - This is only choice)

DXVA MPEG Mode ..... Default. Have tried A-D but it doesn't seem to do anything

DXVA DeInterlacing .... Default (Tried the others and nothing seems to change)

DScaler Deinterlacing Filter .... I can't even get the menu to show me any other options other than DISABLED.


Also..... I don't see the "Reload Media Player" at all on the screen. I've seen it once, but no matter what I select I can't see Reload Media Player.


In a nutshell.... I just want to turn off De-Interlacing. I just want to see this on a TV, I really don't care about a PC.

Also..... I am using the Hauppague Win-TV USB2, which works great.

In fact, to check to make sure my problems weren't coming from the encoding process, I burned the MPG files that Sage recorded directly to DVD. It plays great. No field order problems.

I'm about at my wits end here. I'm ready to pull the trigger on a whole system for this, but don't want to spend the money on a PC to run it until I actually see it work.

Thanks for any help!

Best regards,

Stacy

[mlbdude]

You need to find out what decoder you have installed and are using. You should not be using "Default" from the decoder section.

I would suggest installing the Hauppauge Intervideo decoder since you can get that for free.

Also, as I mentioned in your other thread you have to deinterlace with that video card.

[mls]

srothwell...

I'll PM you later with more details about how I set up my ATI for S-video output to my TV.

One quick question first though... Are you in Europe or the U.S.?

Others have had problems with PAL output and SageTV and maybe that is what you are experiencing. The differences between PAL and NTSC video seem to cause many problems since most things (video cards, drivers, SageTV, etc.) seem to be primarily designed with for the U.S. market with NTSC in mind.

Also, make sure you have installed the Intervideo non CSS MPEG Decoder (should be on the Hauppauge install/setup CD) and then set Sage to use it for both video and audio. That alone might solve your problem since we have no idea what your "default" decoder might be.

[srothwell]

Yes, please PM me with what you did.

I have installed the decoder. That was my mistake. That was why the field order seemed to be revered, probably becuase default was something very bad :-)

I am in USA, so NTSC it is.

Now my only complaint is that everything seems to look like film. Even video-based stuff. I'm told in another thread that this is becuase my PC is a progressive-based display and no matter how hard I try, it really has no choice but to make the video progressive then the ATI (or any video card) has to re-interlace it to go to the TV set. The result is something that looks like 30p instead of 60i.

I guess maybe that's what I have to live with the have all the functionality that Sage offers.

I'm also considering just buying the PVR-350 cards that will supposedly solve the problem becuase the video comes from the card rather than the windows desktop.

However, if it's still convenient, I would like to still see what you did with your ATI.

Best regards,

Stacy