Hauppauge HD-PVR & Colossus Support (4 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

It looks like it is saving Bitrate settings in the regsitry, so maybe the Arcsoft software will now save the selected video & audio connections as well?

Unless it is the driver reading those registry settings I would have thought it would have no effect whatsoever. The crossbar input selection code in the TVCardHDPVR class (SetupCrossBar()) would probably have the desired effect though. The appropriate video/audio inputs for each channel should be set by choosing the sources in TV Server configuration:

1. Open TV Server config.
2. Go to TV Channels.
2. Select an HDPVR/Colossus/analog channel.
3. Click "edit".
4. Select the tuning detail and click "edit".
5. Choose the "audio source".
6. Click "okay".

Awkward to have to set it for each channel, but it does give fine-grained control. You could write a DB script to update all your channels at once...

 

[sjeffrey]

I promised to look at my codec settings and audio drift this weekend.
So for LiveTV I'm on Microsoft-DTV (is that the right name?) for video, FFDShow for audio. The audio render is default which is HDMI out on my ATI 4850 in my case.
The mpeg2 is what ever default is and for me it doesn't matter as I only have HD live tv.
The audio drift is non existant, at least for the Colossus. I was happy when my wife told me she is using the HTPC when watching live TV all the time now and she hasn't noticed any drift at all. The only glitch we have is when the timeshift starts, about 30 seconds in there is a slight stutter but this only happens once and then it's all good.

I haven't installed 1.2 beta since I pretty much have all the code from the svn build anyways and I custom built some of the plugins to work with the svn version.
After a few weeks and once I know all the plugins are updated to 1.2 then I'll do the real upgrade.

I also haven't tried AC3 as well yet, I will soon... I am using SPDIF though but I think that doesn't really make a difference if STB is not set to use DD.

 

[WileECoyote]

Unless it is the driver reading those registry settings I would have thought it would have no effect whatsoever. The crossbar input selection code in the TVCardHDPVR class (SetupCrossBar()) would probably have the desired effect though. The appropriate video/audio inputs for each channel should be set by choosing the sources in TV Server configuration:

1. Open TV Server config.
2. Go to TV Channels.
2. Select an HDPVR/Colossus/analog channel.
3. Click "edit".
4. Select the tuning detail and click "edit".
5. Choose the "audio source".
6. Click "okay".

Awkward to have to set it for each channel, but it does give fine-grained control. You could write a DB script to update all your channels at once...

True, but the HD-PVR would 'remember' settings set in the Arcsoft software. For example, if I physically changed the audio from RCA to SPDIF, went into the Arcsoft software and changed it from RCA to SPDIF, restart the TV Server it would 'pick up' the change even though the setting was Auto for all the Channels. For some reason the Colossus, although the audio setting in the Channel config is set to Auto, does not automatically pick up the change. Again, this is what I & SJeffrey are going to research this weekend...

Also, when we import our channels with the SchedulesDirect plugin, we select the Component (I think its 'YBRBGB' or something like that) so it picks up the component input. It only make sense that selecting the correct audio input would work as well. But like you said, it could be a little cumbersome for 210 channels

 

[WileECoyote]

I haven't installed 1.2 beta since I pretty much have all the code from the svn build anyways and I custom built some of the plugins to work with the svn version.
After a few weeks and once I know all the plugins are updated to 1.2 then I'll do the real upgrade.

I also haven't tried AC3 as well yet, I will soon... I am using SPDIF though but I think that doesn't really make a difference if STB is not set to use DD.

LOL, Im in the same boat... I am still running my build & plugins from three or four weeks ago. All the Colossus code is the same so I think we're good

Cool, so at least you have the SPDIF working correctly. Did you change your audio setting in the Channel settings?

 

[sjeffrey]

I usually use rcGraphBuilder from ARogan at ARogan: Hauppauge HD PVR (model 1212)
It works for HD-PVR only though. I never install Arcsoft, I don't want it on my PC... So with graphbuilder I would configure the component input and audio input once and forget it.
If you use rcGraphBuilder there's no need to actually save the graph, the settings get applied right away. The save graph feature is if you want to use the command line recorder that ARogan had created.
For Colossus, I think I just use graphstudio and added the crossbar codec and changed the properties there. At the very beginning I remember it switched from SPDIF back to line-in on me once but after I changed it again it never wen't back to line-in. It might be because I haven't played around with codecs for a while so they never got reset.

 

[WileECoyote]

For Colossus, I think I just use graphstudio and added the crossbar codec and changed the properties there. At the very beginning I remember it switched from SPDIF back to line-in on me once but after I changed it again it never wen't back to line-in. It might be because I haven't played around with codecs for a while so they never got reset.

Interesting... This may be a stupid question, but after you make the change to the crossbar, do you leave graphstudio open? What happens after you reboot, does it remember the change?

 

[ajp8164]

On the audio/video sync issue... still have it. The new video card works great and I do notice an improvement in the reduction of the number of dropped frames (still get some but very low numbers).

Setup like this:

• Directv DD off
• Directv component video out routed to the HDPVR
• Directv rca audio out routed to the HDPVR
• USB between HDPVR and pc (duh ;-)
• Line out audio (stereo mini) from the pc to a powered stereo sound system
• VGA out from pc to tv
• 1.5.7 HDPVR driver (latest I think)

Drift is noticeable after only a hour or so; get's worse as time passes. The video is behind the audio (people start talking and then you see their lips move). I'll need to double check but I think I also get rift when watching a movie (or recorded tv) -- so it may not be a HDPVR issue. If this is case (I'll verify) what causes this playback issue?

 

[kilik360]

On the audio/video sync issue... still have it. The new video card works great and I do notice an improvement in the reduction of the number of dropped frames (still get some but very low numbers).

Does your sync issue is only with HD-PVR ? or with 24p source too ? Maybe you can give https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...renderer-better-video-playback-quality-84441/ a try !
Just my two cents.

 

[sjeffrey]

On the audio/video sync issue... still have it. The new video card works great and I do notice an improvement in the reduction of the number of dropped frames (still get some but very low numbers).

Setup like this:

• Directv DD off
• Directv component video out routed to the HDPVR
• Directv rca audio out routed to the HDPVR
• USB between HDPVR and pc (duh ;-)
• Line out audio (stereo mini) from the pc to a powered stereo sound system
• VGA out from pc to tv
• 1.5.7 HDPVR driver (latest I think)

Drift is noticeable after only a hour or so; get's worse as time passes. The video is behind the audio (people start talking and then you see their lips move). I'll need to double check but I think I also get rift when watching a movie (or recorded tv) -- so it may not be a HDPVR issue. If this is case (I'll verify) what causes this playback issue?

I whish I knew... Do you get drift on recordings too? At first when I had 2 HD-PVRs I would only use them to record because LiveTV wasn't working "enough" to be usable. Now since I only have 1 client, the main tv, I set the priority so that the Colossus is my LiveTV card and the HD-PVR is more often my recorder card.

The unscientific way that I see what happens for it to stutter is that when you watch live TV you are following then end of the stream (the timeshift file). When a broadcast switches over to commercial then no audio/black screen could cause the HD-PVR to stop send data in the buffer momentarily. Since you are playing back the live stream then you kind of go over the end of the stream which has no data and the decoders don't know what to do, until finally you get more packets from the PVR. This causes stutter and/or audio drift. With DD on this is even more noticable because most broadcasters switch to stereo during commercial breaks and back to DD after the commercials. The PVR seems to handshake everytime the stream changes and again this is enough to break the continuity of the data stream read by the decoders.
Again, this is mostly speculations as I don't really know the internal workings of timeshift files and codecs.

On the audio/video sync issue... still have it. The new video card works great and I do notice an improvement in the reduction of the number of dropped frames (still get some but very low numbers).

Does your sync issue is only with HD-PVR ? or with 24p source too ? Maybe you can give https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...renderer-better-video-playback-quality-84441/ a try !
Just my two cents.

I've been meaning to try this codec but I think one of the downsides is you lose pass-through audio correct?
I guess since we can't really use DD now we wouldn't loosing a whole lot...
Anyone tried MP audio rendered yet?

 

[kilik360]

I've been meaning to try this codec but I think one of the downsides is you lose pass-through audio correct?
I guess since we can't really use DD now we wouldn't loosing a whole lot...
Anyone tried MP audio rendered yet?

True, no pass-through
When I had my old Sharp screen Mediaportal audio renderer helped me playing 24p source without audio/video sync issue on my ( 60hz only ) TV.