initial support for Hauppuage HD-PVR (1 Viewer)

[sjeffrey]

sheish, have you tried the tv client from 4therecord? If you go in management console you'll see a menu called Live TV or something like that.
"No tuners found' is a wierd error. I had a lot of different errors and never got this one. If you can get 4therecord to work then it completly replaces MP's tv client (and it's better for scheduling)

I installed it myself this weeks, as per ixian's suggestion once again, and it's great. Like he said it takes a day or two to wrap your head around it, but onces you do it's pretty slick.

For log posting I think you have to use the Reply button on the left side of this page, not the quick reply or the reply in each user's post. I can't confirm right now because I'm in quick reply and it's not here.

On another note, I tried disabling RTSP to fix the stuttering problem (only when Dolby) but can't seem to figure it out. I found the post that says to add the entry "usertsp" and set to no in the mediaportal.xml but when I check TVServer logs it's not disabled. Is this normal? did I forget something?

I was trying to find the info in this thread but couldn't.
My questions is, has it been confirmed now that 2 HD-PVRs will work on the same tvserver?
With my setup finally working closer to what I want it's almost time to replace Bell's PVR with 2 HD tuners and 2 HD-PVRs

 

[ixian]

I am pretty sure WilieE actually uses 4 HDPVR's with his setup, and there's at least one other using two (and myself, starting next week). The trick there isn't supporting the capture devices, it's getting the blasting working right to all the channels.

 

[ajp8164]

Try it first with 2 channel audio in to the HDPVR if you aren't already.

Make sure you are using the Arcsoft Audio and Video codecs in TV Client configuration. Not Arcsoft Audio HD, just regular Arcsoft Audio.

For the 10 second wait for the PMT - search back a bit for WileE's 1.01 tvlibrary.dll. That enables you to reduces the wait. Use that dll and then go in to TV Server config, general settings, and set wait for PMT to something like 2 seconds. It will now start almost instantly.

I do have AAC audio selected in TME. I am using ArcSoft Audio Decoder in the MP config. In re-checking my settings I noticed that when I go to MP config -> TV Post Processing and try to pull up the property sheet for the ArcSoft Audio Decoder I get a windows dialog stating that MagCore.dll could not be found and that I should try reinstalling the application. This did not happen on my previous system and I recall seeing something somewhere about MagCore.dll but I can't find it now. I tried reinstalling MP (from a clean uninstall of both MP and TS).

Still not working.

-Andy

 

[ixian]

I use AC3, even for 2 channel audio. There's a option to change it in TME.

Magcore.dll is part of Arcsoft TME, not MediaPortal. Sounds like you may have a problem there - are you using the version of TME that came with the HDPVR? Have you updated it online by using Check for Updates in it's start menu folder?

 

[ajp8164]

I use AC3, even for 2 channel audio. There's a option to change it in TME.

Magcore.dll is part of Arcsoft TME, not MediaPortal. Sounds like you may have a problem there - are you using the version of TME that came with the HDPVR? Have you updated it online by using Check for Updates in it's start menu folder?

I fixed the problem related to MagCore.dll... You need to put the TME and TME codec directories in the windows environment path - I had forgotten to do that on the new system.

I have tried both AAC and AC3 audio.

So, still have the same problem though - I get that MP dialog with the unable to play message and the words "Audio codec:". Just to recap - this is a brand new system - I just installed the OS (winXP sp3 + all updates) and I have very little other software installed; really only MP, TME and VLC. MP asked me to install windows media player 11 during installation (I assume there are some codecs in that install).

Don't know what could be wrong. Running out of things to try. It's weird how everything seems to work except the MyTv in MP - these work: TME, TV config preview, timeshift, and record.

I suppose I could search through the source to see what it expects... ugh!

-Andy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay - seems to be something to do with the install/config of WMP11 - perhaps some dlls are not registered properly? It could also be my graphics drivers for the HD3200, or my version of DX...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FIXED: I updated/reinstalled my motherboard drivers from the manufacturers site and that seems to have done the trick! I am not sure if the drivers were newer but they certainly were re-installed. Yeah!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next problem: Stuttering video...

 

[ajp8164]

I feel like I've read every post in these forums on stuttering tv video and I have tried a number of things but I just can't get the 1080i stream from the HDPVR to play without stutter.

Things I tried (probably not comprehensive and I did try somethings in combination:

• usertsp=no

• EVR (s/w render was crumby quality and used 90%+ cpu)

• Dynamic refresh rate (including various combinations of available options)

• TsReader Options - Don't drop discontinued packets

• Various bitrate settings in TME (I changed this from 4 up to 13.5 and never saw much of a difference - certainly no worse at 13.5 so throughput does not appear to be an issue)

• Playing around with ATI driver settings

If I lower the resolution of my STB to 720p it looks awesome, as good as the input for sure. So two questions

(1) why can't I get 1080i to perform well? these are some possible reasons:

• Crumby ArcSoft decoder

• Mismatch in frame rates between the output of the HDPVR at 1080i (25Hz) and my chip set (not sure, max is 85Hz) and my TV (60Hz) -> this seems the most likely to me

• Something else goofy in DirectShow?

System throughput does not appear to be the (main) problem because I can play the ts buffer in WMP afterward and it plays without stutter.

Hey - does MP support DX10? Would there be any advantage of DX10 over 9c?

(2) What am I really missing by going from 1080i to 720p (1280x720) when my TV is 1366x768 LCD? The input format is 93% of the native screen resolution - not too much scaling going on here, right?

CROPPING:
Something else I notice too is that sometimes I get noisy video lines at the top and/or bottom - I set MP to crop 10 lines off the top and bottom - anyone else notice this?

EMPTY RECORDING:
When I perform a manual record I get zero byte files. What's up with that?!

Would love to try 4TR - looks like a project though, huh?

Overall I am very happy with the results so far (I don't mind all the tinkering). Thanks to all for sharing your experiences; hopefully we can collect all of this and create a nice wiki entry at some point for this very cool HDPVR...

 

[ixian]

Read my earlier replies via stuttering video. In short:

Use the dynamic refresh rate changer <- this fixed it for me on my 3200HD system.

Use 4 The Record: I've found that with the HDPVR their TV Client is actually a little better, plus you get all the great features of 4 The Record.

Edit: Didn't see your reply at first ajp8164. I have never gotten 1080i to work well; I've stuck with 720p for some time. It's some kind of weird bug in MP (I have no issues with 1080i in TME) that hopefully will one day be magically fixed but at the moment it's hard to track down - there are no errors reported in the logs, no obvious symptoms, it just stutters a heck of a lot no matter what video card, PC, TV, or refresh rate.

In the meantime 720p is fine, though I would like it at 1080i so my 1080p displays don't have to scale it.

 

[ajp8164]

Read my earlier replies via stuttering video. In short:

Use the dynamic refresh rate changer <- this fixed it for me on my 3200HD system.

Use 4 The Record: I've found that with the HDPVR their TV Client is actually a little better, plus you get all the great features of 4 The Record.

Edit: Didn't see your reply at first ajp8164. I have never gotten 1080i to work well; I've stuck with 720p for some time. It's some kind of weird bug in MP (I have no issues with 1080i in TME) that hopefully will one day be magically fixed but at the moment it's hard to track down - there are no errors reported in the logs, no obvious symptoms, it just stutters a heck of a lot no matter what video card, PC, TV, or refresh rate.

In the meantime 720p is fine, though I would like it at 1080i so my 1080p displays don't have to scale it.

Yeah - I really believe it to be something to do with refresh rates. The difference between TME and MP is huge in how the video is rendered. I doubt TME has anything to do with DirectShow; MP depends on it.

The stream coming from the HDPVR is 1920/1080 interlaced at 30 fps. I doubt the TV refresh rate has any impact since it just accepts my VGA output. I suspect that the problem is in the drawing rates in DirectShow as compared to the refresh rates in the HD3200 chipset. If there was a problem at the output then the how MP interface would be stuttering not just the video portion. So this is what I think the chain looks like (feedback encouraged)...

(a) 1920/1080i @30 (HDPVR output) => (b) DirectShow scales and the rate is changed to 50 (I think) => (c) the chipset is scanning at 85 (I think) => (d) whole frame conversions to 60 (VGA compatible) => (e) displayed on TV (which is scanning at 60)

I think the problem is at the (b) / (c) interface.

Perhaps someone who knows more can comment/correct. I'll continue to research this problem.

 

[chesh]

Anyone upgrade to 1.0.2 yet and would care to comment? Does WileE's .dll work with 1.0.2? Any info would be greatly appreciated before I take the plunge if someone already has had good/bad experiences. Thanks guys.

 

[sjeffrey]

I was about to post, I installed it today. It works fine. Just choose to upgrade and you're done.
Obviously we are back at 10 seconds on first tunning, then channel changes are like before.

I'm having different issues but they are directly related to 4TR and schedulesdirect, something with channels not lining up properly.