No more Roslyns???

[Datalux]

After reading the forums here for several weeks, I decided to purchase the Sage/250PVR bundle but noticed that the none of the bundles list the "Blackbird or Roslyn" cards anymore. Seems only the MCE is offered with most bundles and the original PVR250 in one (1) bundle.

What gives??

[TerryMathews]

They're not ready for prime-time.

[Esrsa4]

Originally posted by TerryMathews
They're not ready for prime-time.

Does anyone know what's being done for those that bought dual Roslyn bundles and having problems with them?

[pez]

I'm in that boat.

My system is stable, Sage freezing doesn't bring it down. The weird thing is, I can record without incident but watching causes freezing just about all the time. It practically guaranteed if i try to fast forward.

After spending so much time make sure my system is, I'm kinda burnt out on fiddling with it.

I would like the documentation to be better and explained options completely. I think Frey depends too much on the Forum for documentation.

-pez

[kny3twalker]

try to contact them
I would at least talk with them if you believe the setup is not stable

[x[corwyn]]

That sucks. Mine works just fine. recording or playback.

[pez]

Well I sent them probably just about the longest message they've ever recieved. Almost 300KB of hopefully useful information on my system.

Btw, does sagetv have a conflict with zonealarm or vnc? I'm pretty sure I have a friend who runs these with sagetv without problems.

-pez

[x[corwyn]]

Mine works fine with VNC

[pez]

The only weird thing I can see in my system info is the amount of interrupts sharing irq11.

Resource Device Status
IRQ 11 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 11 ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON OK
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 11 VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM) OK
IRQ 11 Hauppauge WinTV 88x Video (MPEG+Front) OK
IRQ 11 Hauppauge WinTV 88x MPEG Encoder OK
IRQ 11 Hauppauge WinTV 88x Video (MPEG+Front) OK
IRQ 11 Hauppauge WinTV 88x MPEG Encoder OK
IRQ 11 Intel 8255x-based PCI Ethernet Adapter (10/100) OK
IRQ 11 HighPoint HPT3xx ATA RAID Controller OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 9 Hauppauge WinTV 88x Audio OK
IRQ 9 Hauppauge WinTV 88x Audio OK
IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK

That seem like a lot. but I'm not a PC guy so what do I know.

[mls]

I won't get into IRQ sharing here since some machines can do a better job with sharing IRQ's than others (and some simply can not).

However, I will point out the major reason I've never liked the Roslyn (and I doubt the MCE works out any better, but maybe has better drivers than the Roslyn).

A quick look in Device Manager under the Audio devices will show all these for each Roslyn:

Hauppauge WinTV 88x Audio
Hauppauge Crossbar
Hauppauge MPEG Encoder
Hauppauge Tuner
Hauppauge Video (MPEG+Front)

As far as I'm concerned, that's simply waaaay to much extra driver baggage (and extra IRQ use) for things that SageTV does not even use/support. Things like FM radio and AVI video capture. All SageTV needs is a tuner with hardware MPEG encoding.

A PVR-250 will only show this instead:

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR PCI II (Encoder-16)

That's FAR LESS driver baggage and therefor less things to screw up the computer. Clearly the Roslyn is just to overblown in this regard for what little part of it SageTV actually would make use of. That also explains why there are so many more driver problems with a Roslyn.

I suspect the 250MCE is similar, but hopefully the driver issues for the MCE have been cleared up better than they were for the Roslyn (or we're gonna start seeing a mess all over again with them too now).

Oh sure, those cards are less expensive than the PVR-250. Maybe there's a good reason for that. Could it be the higher demand for the ones that actually do work?

For me, the extra 2 months of trying to get a Rolyn to work right simply was not worth the $30 saving in purchase price. Especially since I won't ever being using any of the other extra cababilities of that card to start with.

Sorry to rant on like this, but people do have a right to know what their getting into with these things.

[kny3twalker]

I suspect the 250MCE is similar, but hopefully the driver issues for the MCE have been cleared up better than they were for the Roslyn (or we're gonna start seeing a mess all over again with them too now).

nope they show up the same as a pvr 250
no difference in the device manager or in the IRQs

and actually my PVR 250 MCE is not even sharing an IRQ

but my PVR 250 is with a USB controller or something small

[mls]

Glad to hear that (at least so far) the 250MCE seems to be more compatible. The Roslyn was a bit "way out there" compared to any other devices Hauppauge had marketed before.

The Roslyn MAY someday become a very usefull card in the future if they can get the driver problems fixed.

After all, who would not want a card that can do both MPEG and AVI capture if they were working in that area. And, as a single card, the FM radio would be a plus.

However, for SageTV it was really overkill (unless they had planned on supporting the FM radio somehow?).

[7up]

Whats the difference between the Rosalyn card and the 250 card that Frey is currently bundling with SageTV?

[sleight42]

The Roslyn card is not an actual 250 but has a completely different chipset. The drivers for this card are not mature enough. If you look in the other foums, you may find the poll I posed regarding Roslyn reliability. >50% of respondents have significant unresolvable problems with their Roslyns.