Sound but no video

[seezar]

Originally posted by jrapps
Well we have sort of figured out a workaround for this over on the snapstream users board. A registry hack putting in the proper freq's for the cable tuner under the "antenna" listing in the registry allows the card to work.

Check out this thread:

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/show...t=17956&page=2

Jason

Jason, thanks so much for posting that, when I get home tonight I'll be trying the reg file you created to see if it works for me. I'll post my results after attempting.

[supernoob]

Originally posted by seezar
Jason, thanks so much for posting that, when I get home tonight I'll be trying the reg file you created to see if it works for me. I'll post my results after attempting.

Didn't help here...still the same old crap

[fsinapi]

I've got the same problem, bought the WinTV-PVR250 yesterday specifically because it was supported by Sage, all I get is black bars and static while WinTV2000 works flawlessly. Just tried the registry hack with no effect, maybe it only works with BTV. Guess I'll download BTV and try that...

[seezar]

Everyone that is having this problem please make sure to let Hauppauge know about it as the problem definately appears to be on their end. Verify the version of the card you have and what model and revision is listed on the tuner card and give them that info. The more reports they get would hopefully get them moving faster on this issue.

techsupport@hauppauge.com

[slantpass]

I have the same problem.

This is the kind of problem that can drive a newbie batty!!! I'm just lucky I found the right thread in this forum. Personally it's not going to be worth it to me to figure out how to edit a zillion registry entries with frequencies etc. etc., as ingenious a solution as it is. There's got to be a better way (i.e., company created patch), considering this might be a universal problem with every PVR-250/Sage/BeyondTV combo from now on?

I can see how Hauppauge wouldn't care too much, in fact maybe they don't like 3rd party software getting in on their Wintv2000 action. But it seems Sage should care since their software NEEDS a capture card, and the PVR-250 is possibly the most popular one.

Seems the easiest solution for us beginners is return the PVR-250 and see if there's another compatible card out there?

[fsinapi]

I agree with slantpass, Sage should work with Hauppauge and come up with a fix, it's the Sage software which doesn't work and regardless of who's fault they will lose sales. I downloaded the BTV eval and after hacking the registry it works fine. I'd like to be able to eval both before buying one, but unless a fix for Sage comes up soon my money will be going to BTV.

[Ryokurin]

Hahah. this is just great for me!

I had an older pvr-250 that suddenly died a few weeks back and after dealing with Hauppauge support and getting nowhere I finally was successful ingetting CompUSSR to exchange it. Now this, and im quite sure they are all new tuners too. This totally blows.

[alverprise]

Originally posted by slantpass

I can see how Hauppauge wouldn't care too much, in fact maybe they don't like 3rd party software getting in on their Wintv2000 action.

Sorry, I disagree. Its clear from other posts that Hauppauge changed the card somehow. Hauppauge themselves promote both STV and BTV on their page, and my bet is that they *love* both, as both will clearly increase their sales.

Originally posted by fsinapi
I agree with slantpass, Sage should work with Hauppauge and come up with a fix, it's the Sage software which doesn't work and regardless of who's fault they will lose sales. [...] unless a fix for Sage comes up soon my money will be going to BTV.

Neither Frey nor Snapstream have had enough time as yet to have come up with a fix that they would want to support. OK, so a bunch of us BTV users came up with a workaround that gets us most of the way there - I'm sorry that it doesn't work for you STV guys too. However it is only a workaround, not a fix. I shouldn't have to hack my registry or use the wrong tuning space, just because the hardware vendor broke something between card revisions.

However, IMHO its not the best idea make your decision to purchase one or the other product based on your experience with user forums. Both communities of users are knowledgable, but it is pot luck whether you'll get a fix or not for any specific issue in either forum.

What we should all (STV and BTV users - including those with hacked registries) do in this case is press Hauppauge for a real fix, then with that installed, go ahead and evaluate both products based on their merits.

Gary (BTV user)

[seezar]

Originally posted by alverprise
What we should all (STV and BTV users - including those with hacked registries) do in this case is press Hauppauge for a real fix, then with that installed, go ahead and evaluate both products based on their merits.

Gary (BTV user)

I completely agree. It is unfair to bash SageTV and/or BTV because of a problem that has come about because of a hardware change.

Thats why I feel everyone having the problem needs to address it with Hauppauge so they understand the extent of the issue and make it a top priority.

I know its frustrating, I'm in the same boat as alot of those posting and am a HTPC newbie. This was the last thing I wanted to happen but I'm putting my efforts into notifying who needs to work on a fix and that is Hauppauge. I sure hope others will do the same.

[slantpass]

Sorry, didn't mean to bash anyone. Well, no, when I said Hauppauge wouldn't care, I did mean to bash Hauppauge. I bought their bloody card without them telling anyone they changed it.

I agree Sage is the victim here-- but it might be more effective to ask them to fix it (nicely, without blame, sorry), since they have clear incentive, and Hauppauge doesn't seem that helpful at least from early posts. Clearly Hauppauge did not care enough to test their new tuner with Sage. Just a thought.

In any case, for new buyers it would be helpful to put this bug on the front page of the website- this is a big, catastrophic kind of bug, not a "the color temperature is off by .4% on Fridays under a full moon" kind of bug.

[dkardatzke]

First of all, I would like to apologize for all the problems people are experiencing with the latest revision of the 250 cards. Hauppauge has changed out tuners in the past and there have been no issues. We are currently working with them on a fix right now. I don't believe this is affecting the cards we are currently selling, but some cards that are in retail and from resellers. Please confirm if you are having the problems from a card you purchased directly from us. We'll keep you posted here when we get more information.

[Narflex]

ATTENTION: SageTV users there's another step you'll likely have to do for that fix on SS's forums to work.

While SageTV is NOT running open your Sage.properties file and change always_autotune=true to always_autotune=false

Please respond with your results, I think that should allow that fix to work.

[fsinapi]

Sorry if my post was unclear, I was not trying to blame Sage or praise BTV. My experience from working in the software industry is that blaming a hardware vendor is not a luxury a software developer has, your product either works as advertised or not, who's fault it is becomes irrelevant to the end user.

As for my money going to BTV, it's simply a matter of not being able to eval Sage during the brief eval period, nothing to do with the forums or quality of BTV's user community. If a fix doesn't come within a week my eval will expire, and from what I've read the only way to make Sage work again is to buy it, format my drive or install on another machine, none of which I am likely to do with BTV working fine for me now.

dkardatzke - I purchased my card on Sunday 9/5 from Circuit City, not directly from your company. I'm glad to hear you are working on a fix, and look forward to evaluating your product about which I have read many positive things.

FWIW, I have also pursued this with Hauppauge, having sent them a note last night. I made it clear that my expectation was that their card would work with Sage as advertised, and asked if a fix was coming soon or if I should return my card for a refund while I still have that option. So far other than the automated response telling me they received my message I have heard nothing from them.

Ultimately if I'm upset with any party here it's Hauppauge, after all, they have my $150, Sage and BTV have nothing yet

[fsinapi]

Narflex - I made the change you specified and Sage now works fine for me. Thank you for the prompt fix and I look forward to evaluating your package.

[slantpass]

Thanks to the Kardatzkes for responding quickly. It makes a good impression on someone new to this company like me.

So can I assume, from what you are saying, that if I buy a PVR-250 directly from Sage it is the "older" tuner and will not have the same problem? As a beginner, I VASTLY prefer that to hacking my registry.

By the way, just to relate my sob story, I encountered a similar bug with an ATI all-in-wonder card, and after many fruitless hours spread out over several weeks searching the net, talking with salespeople, and reinstalling everything on my system, I never solved it. Just to let you know, when the advice is, "just re-install your OS and update all your drivers", that's a very depressing thing for a beginner to hear. It may be fun for a hacker but it takes hours for a beginner and there's no guarantee that it will work-- in fact it has never worked for me. From the moment this problem came up, my meager instincts told me a reinstall and update would not help. I caution other people from giving this advice indiscriminately.

The ATI was probably a lemon, but i got so fed up i decided to switch to the Hauppauge/Sage combo...

[casper]

Hey Narflex,

Thanks for the post but it dosen't look like it fixed anything over here. It might be because I'm running 2 pvr-250's (one each 32031 & 32032 tuners).

[Linkin_Logs]

Changing the autotune in the registry hasn't worked for me in the past either. Probably going to just sit tight and wait for a patch. I did get an email from Hauppage...it said they know about the tuner and they are working with Sage on a fix.

[casper]

Well, I got it working. Both the new (32032) and the old (32031) tuners are now showing all channels. The trick seems to be to install the new tuner card first. Basically what I did was to uninstall Sage completely, including deleting the Frey Technologies directory. Using the hcwclear.exe file from Hauppauge to completely blow off all of the Hauppauge apps and settings. Went into the registry and deleted everything under the HKLM\SOFTWARE\hauppauge, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies and the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services keys. After that I removed the old tuner card from the system leaving just the new one.

On next boot I installed the pvr250_18a_inf.zip drivers.
Then, in the following order, from the Hauppauge site:
1. pvr250_18_22170.exe
2. hcwsmd04_21154.exe
3. wintv2k43_22033.exe

Next I let the WinTV app scan the channels and verified that they all were working. The next step was to install Sage then setup the new tuner card as a tuner on antenna and using my local cable EPG data. Tried to view any channels, no soap. Applied the registry patch and voila! All channels working on the new card.

Shut down and installed the old tuner card. On next boot installed the same driver file as above. Went into Sage and setup a new cable tuner source. Tried to view any channels and found that no channels on the old card were visible. So the card that used to work fine didn't work at all. What a drag.

Went back into Setup and removed the old card source. Re-added it as a source running off antenna and using the same EPG data as the new card. Only the channels lower than 13 worked. Then I used Narflex's advice and changed the auto tune to false, went back into Sage and all the channels are working on both cards. The quality on the older card is not quite as good as before but that is probably because the frequencies are slightly different. At least it is usable for now.

I'm sure glad that this was so easy! I wouldn't want to have to think or anything

This morning I went to Fry's, CompUSA and Circuit City looking for an older tuner card. No joy, but I did find out that the revision number by the UPC doesn't necessarily tell what tuner is on the card. At Fry's we looked at the card in the 1.4 revision box and it had the 32032 tuner. For what its worth.

Don

[Ryokurin]

ok. For me, I still cannot pick up cable channels initially after the registry and the properties change however antenna does work, this is fine as for the moment im using the DCT2000 plugin so at least it works.

One thing that I did notice that even before I changed the setting in properties after I did the registry change as long as I changed the channel it worked. Sometimes I had to change it 3-4 times but it still worked. After changing the properties file It usually knocked it down to 1-2 changes. Either way, I do eagerly await the real fix for the times when I wont use a cable box to tune... Thanks for trying.

[supernoob]

still no dice with all the hacks and file settings. glad to see things are moving along on this problem though.