PVR-250 tuner is .... dead?

[Stuntman]

I have a system with 2 PVR-250's running in it.. until a week ago it worked perfectly! Suddenly one of the tuners stopped tuning.. I still see the channel video feed, but it is scrambled beyond being able to watch it.. I've tried new cables (cable TV), a signal amplifier and the newest drivers.. the problem doesn't go away and it seems to follow a single card...

I'm not sure what Hauppauge's repair policy is.. I'm wondering is it cheaper to find a replacement card?

Can anybody suggest the CHEAPEST replacement to this card? I don't need the whole package, just that card.. or any other card that Sage plays well with when put in Tandem with another PVR-250 card.

Thanks!!!!!

This server records only, I use the client to watch...

[edmc]

I've had a similar failure. It appears to me to be the MPEG-2 Encoder going out to lunch. I attributed the failure to an overtemp condition as I also had a failure of an ATI eHome card as well. Indeed, I've had two of those eHome cards fail - so I'd be hard pressed to recommend the ATI alternative despite it's $70 cost...

Me, I'm looking forward to both the dual-tuner PVR-500 card from Hauppauge coming sometime in the next month or so as well as for eventual support for the Sasem HD box :-). For standard def, the Sasem box ($250 or so) is an expensive but effective option with the added benefit of Cable/QAM-capable HD tuning as well...

[Stuntman]

Well, I have little to no budget on this system.. if the encoder is truly dead, then I guess I'll have to replace the card..

Does Sage behave itself with two DIFFERENT cards? Say one from Hauppauge and one from another vendor?

Or does anybody know of a cheap place to get another PVR-250 card?

Thanks!

[edmc]

> Does Sage behave itself with two DIFFERENT cards?

In my maximal configuration, I had both a -15 and a -16 PVR-250 as well as two ATI eHome w/FM cards in my HTPC while also connected (via USB-2) to a Sasem OnAir box. The Sasem has an MPEG-2 Encoder for SD/Analog and this aspect of the OnAir box is useable in SageTV as well. So I've had 5 devices from 3 different vendors with one of those vendors having distinct variants (the -15 and -16 reference of the PVR-250).