Hauppauge HD-PVR & Colossus Support (2 Viewers)

[SteveC-MM]

I have now disabled the MP TV Service, installed Argus based on a tip, and again, my hardware is not detected. I tried different combinations of having StreamEez not/running when I started up Argus, still nothing being detected.

I also dug into the Registry and looked for the Hauppauge device drivers and set their startup state to "Automatic" (2) in the hopes that something positive would happen. No luck there either. It appears that there is some kind of software-hiney-kick that the Hauppauge software is doing that is not happening when TV Server (or Argus) starts up, so the device is just not detected.

This is making me crazy. Can someone with experience tell me what I am missing?


Thanks.

 

[SteveC-MM]

?

 

[sjevtic]

I have now disabled the MP TV Service, installed Argus based on a tip, and again, my hardware is not detected. I tried different combinations of having StreamEez not/running when I started up Argus, still nothing being detected.

I also dug into the Registry and looked for the Hauppauge device drivers and set their startup state to "Automatic" (2) in the hopes that something positive would happen. No luck there either. It appears that there is some kind of software-hiney-kick that the Hauppauge software is doing that is not happening when TV Server (or Argus) starts up, so the device is just not detected.

This is making me crazy. Can someone with experience tell me what I am missing?


Thanks.

Can you see the hardware in Device Manager? I've really had no issues with hardware being detected on machines that don't have any of the Hauppauge junk (e.g., WinTV) installed. I'd suggest removing the cards, drivers, and WinTV, and also running hcwclear.exe (http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/software/utils/hcwclear.exe) to remove any remnants that might be sticking around. Also uninstall Argus, and TV-Server. Once you're done.

Then, reboot, install your hardware and ONLY the Colossus (or HD-PVR) drivers you need. You can install ArcSoft ShowBiz; it is useful for testing your hardware. Generally speaking, if ShowBiz can communicate with your hardware, TV-Server will be able to as well. Finally, once you're sure the devices are recognized within Windows and working, install TV-Server and go on your way. I don't think using Argus as a scheduler will in any way improve your ability to have TV-Server detect your cards.

Sasha

 

[SteveC-MM]

Just to let you (all) know I am still in this... I have uninstalled everything I could find, did some Registry purges, used hwclear, everything.
I have installed the HD PVR2 Gaming Edition driver again, it detected the device fine and it shows in Windows Device Manager.

Currently installing MediaPortal 1.2.3 "full simple installation" )ie I did not choose any Advanced options).

For what it is worth, I emailed Hauppauge asking for help weeks ago, got no answer (shocker).[DOUBLEPOST=1358050270][/DOUBLEPOST]Failure.

Once again, TV Server config only lists the following cards:

1. DvbIP
2. Radio WebStream

I am at a loss on this. Completely.

 

[sjevtic]

JI have installed the HD PVR2 Gaming Edition driver again, it detected the device fine and it shows in Windows Device Manager.

My apologies here--I didn't realize you had a HD-PVR2, as opposed to the original HD-PVR. I am not sure that device is supported at this point, as it isn't even mentioned in the TV Cards Wiki. Where did you see that it is supported? Can anyone else comment on the state of HD-PVR2 support?

Sasha

 

[SteveC-MM]

Hmmm. I shopped for "hd pvr hauppauge" on Amazon, and got the pvr2, I thought they were the same thing, especially since it looks like the pvr (without the "2") has been deprecated. Just some Google searched for that same keyword-combo also delivers results for the "2" and not the previous external USB model.

I wonder what the difference is between the hardware then, since the Arcsoft and other 3rd party systems seem to be able to use both.

 

[sjevtic]

Hmmm. I shopped for "hd pvr hauppauge" on Amazon, and got the pvr2, I thought they were the same thing, especially since it looks like the pvr (without the "2") has been deprecated. Just some Google searched for that same keyword-combo also delivers results for the "2" and not the previous external USB model.

I wonder what the difference is between the hardware then, since the Arcsoft and other 3rd party systems seem to be able to use both.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that the HD-PVR and HD-PVR2 are different pieces of hardware, with the latter having notably improved specs. The Wiki documentation that both of us have referenced is discussing the first generation device, not the one that you have. TV-Server historically has supported a wide array of tuner devices, but far fewer capture devices. If I recall correctly, the HD-PVR and Colossus were the first non-tuner devices supported by TV-Server, which was obviously a huge victory for those of us that have to use some sort of cable or satellite set top box for our TV reception. I suspect part of the challenge in supporting these devices involved creating an abstraction that looked like a tuner to the rest of the TV-Server software rather than a capture device, something that TV-Server wasn't originally designed to support.

I haven't looked into the matter in depth, but I am reasonably confident that changes to the TV-Server code will be necessary to make it work with the HD-PVR2. The changes might be actually be minor, but I won't have time to dig through the code and investigate for at least a month, as life is unfortunately cutting into my hobby time right now. I also don't have a HD-PVR2 to work with. Perhaps the developers that worked on the HD-PVR/Colossus support (@garry, @WileECoyote) can comment on this matter.

By the way, installing other software isn't going to help your HD-PVR2 be recognized by TV-Server. It will only create more clutter that you'll eventually have to deal with.

For what it's worth, in my early days of experimenting with MP and TV-Server, I had a Colossus and a stack of HD-PVRs that I was experimenting with on my media center PC. What I quickly found was that the HD-PVRs were large and not so in charge: they were an ugly addition to my living room, and frequently became unresponsive, requiring almost daily removal and re-application of power to operate normally again. I suspect part of this was a thermal consequence of stacking them in my cabinet, but it was a problem nonetheless. I also had lots of discontinuities in my TV streams. So, I ultimately returned the HD-PVRs, exchanged them for an equal number of Colossus cards, and built a dedicated TV-Server machine in a Micro-ATX case since I didn't have enough card slots in my media center PC. It was absolutely the right decision on multiple levels. The result is reliable, aesthetically pleasing, performs well for the most part, and allows me to record TV even when my large and power hungry media center PC is off. Additionally, it gives me the option to easily put my TV-Server machine and DirecTV receivers in a closet somewhere rather than having them occupy prime living room real estate.

Sasha

 

[SteveC-MM]

Sasha, thanks for the detailed information. I understand what you mean about external boxes, but that is the form factor that I have. My media center PC is an "ultra small form factor" and even its power supply is outside of the case, so it runs cool and quiet. It and the HD-PVR and everything else are inside a special media cabinet. Having stuff visible has a very very low WAF and is generally unacceptable.

Anyway, I am more than willing to look into the source with you, whenever you are ready. I am a .NET developer "in real life" however my area is WCF and SQL Server in BI scenarios, nothing near devices/drivers. But since I tend to keep 2-3 VS 2012 IDEs open on any given day, I can probably follow direction on what to look/tweak/test in terms of the source.

I really need to haev the HD-PVR2 working, so anything/anyone that can get me moving is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[sjevtic]

Sasha, thanks for the detailed information. I understand what you mean about external boxes, but that is the form factor that I have. My media center PC is an "ultra small form factor" and even its power supply is outside of the case, so it runs cool and quiet. It and the HD-PVR and everything else are inside a special media cabinet. Having stuff visible has a very very low WAF and is generally unacceptable.

Steve,

Sorry for the sluggishness. Life is still getting in the way of hobbies.

WAF? What's that?

Anyway, I am more than willing to look into the source with you, whenever you are ready. I am a .NET developer "in real life" however my area is WCF and SQL Server in BI scenarios, nothing near devices/drivers. But since I tend to keep 2-3 VS 2012 IDEs open on any given day, I can probably follow direction on what to look/tweak/test in terms of the source.

I really need to haev the HD-PVR2 working, so anything/anyone that can get me moving is appreciated.

Thanks.

I do my share of driver work on a regular basis, but honestly I think you're probably going to be even more qualified for the task at hand, as I doubt there will be much low level work to do here since I expect we will be re-using most of the work done for the Colossus and original HD-PVR. One of the first things to look at is how TV-Server enumerates cards and filters out the ones it doesn't like, which at the moment obviously includes the HD-PVR2. Have you built TV-Server and/or poked around in the code?

Sasha

 

[SteveC-MM]

The smiley tells me that you know what the WAF is, but for others, it is "Wife Acceptance Factor", a metric used to determine how much tech stuff, and the complexity of that stuff that is visible, will annoy a spouse. It can be offset slightly by the usefulness of the tech. It is kind of a complicated equation.

Anyway,

I have not downloaded or tried to build the source. I will take a stab at the "card enumeration" buts when I get a chance, probably later in the month at the rate I am going. Thanks!