PVR-350 and Problems...

[dynamix]

Howdy,

I recently purchased SageTV and a PVR-350 to replace my Tivos. I do like SageTV... while everything works...

Like many others I have several problems. They are:

1. TV-Out dies several times per day
2. SageTV application will freeze
3. Everything locks hard and I have to hit reset button.
4. While fast forwarding through shows, Sage sometimes produces a very loud high-pitch squeak sound.

So I've spent many hours working on suggested solutions... I have:

1. Switched the system from a VIA KT266 chipset with an Athlon 2000+ to a 440BX chipset with a PIII866.
2. Put a slot fan right next to the PVR-350 card. It is very cool inside the case.
3. installed beta drivers/software for the PVR-350.

All my changes have done nothing. I still have the repeating problems. I have to constantly remote desktop into the machine to fix things.

Any possible final solutions? I'm about ready to return the PVR-350. Is there maybe another card that can produce TV-Out of the same quality to my TV over svideo? I need good tv out, or it really isn't a replacement for my Tivo.

I've had Tivo for years and it has never crashed on me. I've never wasted hours of time trying to fix my Tivo. The $13/month fee is starting to look more attractive...

The Athlon 2000+ PC had 512megs of ram and was running Windows XP.

The P3-866 PC has 256megs of ram and is running Windows XP.

I've run memtest86 on both machines and the memory is free of defects.

Many thanks for reading, and I hope someone can suggest something that will fix my issues.

-d

ps, I've also experienced that 20second delay bug, but only once or twice.

[carlgar]

for number 2 if it is a soft freeze you can try putting SageTv to sleep amd then try again. This usually works for me, sometimes it takes up to 3 attemps to correct the problem. After the first attempt I usually get a "Direct show" error, but the problem does correct itsef after a couple more tries.

[dynamix]

hrm nope... does nothing for me. and the computer just locked up hard while watching Fear Factor... again. and whatever it was recording is gonna be incomplete.

[jphhughes]

I have found that the 22162 driver has proved the most stable for me. However I have also found that if you have problems even after installing them that reinstalling them will sometimes help. Make sure to usee the HcWclear program before re-installing . Also as odd as it may seem when I install these drives and get the color bars after installation it generally means everything will work ok. The color bars go away after a reboot. Good luck.

[dynamix]

well, I do have an update for my problems. I eventually just completely disabled tv out for the PVR350 and bought a scan converter. AMAZING! Absolutely no bugs, no crashing, and no problems with tv-out freezing. The machine has been running flawlessly for weeks straight.

But of course I've now invested in an expensive PVR-350 for which I cannot use the key feature of. I can't quite see how anyone could recommend the use of this hardware with Sagetv. Loss of time and money. Why is it even offered bundled with Sagetv? Has ANYONE been able to use the PVR-350 out of the box without error?

Just an update and my 2 cents...

[shatter]

I built a P4-2.4 machine with an Asus motherboard and got the PVR-350 to work without error except for one issue. Most of the time when I finish watching an already recorded show, the computer reboots. The only remedy to this is to stop the show playback before it runs out on its own.

I am using the beta PVR-350 drivers as without them I had problems with the s-video output locking up. SO I guess it didn't exactly work 100% out of the box but I got it to work without too much time invested.

[Crowdx42]

Originally Posted by shatter

I built a P4-2.4 machine with an Asus motherboard and got the PVR-350 to work without error except for one issue. Most of the time when I finish watching an already recorded show, the computer reboots. The only remedy to this is to stop the show playback before it runs out on its own.

I am using the beta PVR-350 drivers as without them I had problems with the s-video output locking up. SO I guess it didn't exactly work 100% out of the box but I got it to work without too much time invested.

I have a 350 on my client and it works about 95% of the time, I do not record with it, I just use it as a decoder for my files from my main server which has 3 PVR 250s in it. I think that the PVR 350s only thing going for it is the UI output, I am presently reassesing my PVR and playing more with an XCard setup which is working MUCH better and has full DVD playback with AC3 audio, MUCH better card than 350 and at nearly half the price.
Patrick

[Hector]

I've had a Tivo since day one almost and a Sage/PVR-350 for 8-10 months I guess.

My tivo is on my satellite box and my Sage on cable. I use them both side by side every single day.

The best thing about Sage is that it's a lot more open environment. With the custom STV's and now user created stuff it moves forward in leaps and bounds. Tivo is proprietary and moves like a dinosaur. I can extract video from tivo and even play it on my sage box as a .ty file but what a pain. Sage is SO much more versatile.

What Sage does it does pretty well esp considering it's a small company trying to support a wide variety of disparate hardware.

With stuff like weather, DVD's, newsfeeds and stuff appearing for Sage I'd love to make it my box of choice. In a way it is because I do enjoy its functionality a LOT more. I've used a lot of PVR's and Nielm's STV (which is an elegant combination of other STV functionality with his slick front end) is probably the best PVR interface I've ever used.

But here's the rub, as you know Tivo just works so much better. It never crashes, it never misses or deletes recordings it shouldn't and it NEVER locks up or crashes. Never.

Another big thing for me since I like a lot of sports is the smoothness of the Tivo transport controls. You can step frames or watch in slow motion. Tivo is just so much better than Sage in this area. Plus it has closed captioning in real time and AC3 audio (which the pvr350 doesn't support and that's necessary because software decoding doesn't even come close to the Tivo output IMHO).

But the biggest thing is dependability. You hear people talking about Sage dependability in terms of days whereas Tivo's just run forever. Just read through the Sage forum compared to the Tivo community forum and compare the types of messages/issues. No crashes, missed recordings, lockups, shows deleted types of messages on the Tivo forum. Overall Sage is the best windows based PVR solution by far but it's still to a large extent a hackers box and not a consumer device like Tivo. I'd never in a million years set up a Sage box for my parents in FL and walk away but a Tivo was for them (and me) painless.

The bottom line for me is that I prefer to use Sage but its just not dependable enough to ditch Tivo for. I'd hate to have to choose between them and since I don't I just use them both. I regret to say that if I want to record something that I dare not miss or watch something that I want to be SURE is not interupted by a technical glitch I use the Tivo.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by dynamix

Howdy,

I recently purchased SageTV and a PVR-350 to replace my Tivos. I do like SageTV... while everything works...

(snip)