initial support for Hauppuage HD-PVR (2 Viewers)

[ixian]

Hell you are more creative than me, I just use the internal blaster for one STB then used electrical tape to tap the external blaster to my other STB, which also blocks the sensor and insures the only IR signals it receives are from the blaster. Quick and dirty but hey, it works

I wanted to share something else - Inspired by Chesh, I went on a quest this weekend to get the PowerDVD 8 (not 9) mpeg and h.264 codecs installed and correctly configured on my system. Upon doing so (it was a bit of a pain) I discovered that not only could I now use them in Media Portal for TV (confirmed with GraphEdit) but they A) Did not have lip sync issues like CoreAVC and B) Look a whole lot better than the default Arcsoft codecs do with hardware acceleration turned on. I mean, an order of magnitude better, even my wife noticed. Also, the Arcsoft codec even with hardware acceleration tended to use about 25-35% CPU on my smaller system (4850e). The PDVD8 codec(s) have it at 10-15%, a very significant drop.

So now my PC's run cooler, and in one case quieter - I have an AOpen MP45 (think Mac Mini) PC in my bedroom that would kick in it's loud CPU fan on high every few minutes with the Arcsoft codecs, with or without hardware enabled. The PowerDVD 8 codec not only looks better, but the fan never kicks on, telling me what I confirmed externally - it uses much less CPU power.

So if you aren't doing it already I highly recommend you try the PowerDVD 8 codec (version 9 appears to have an issue with live TV in MP). It's far better than the Arcsoft one. Hell, I'm going to try 1080i now and see if it works.

 

[ajp8164]

Any special instructions or is pretty much install PD8, select and go? (e.g., don't have to register codecs or drivers?)

 

[sjeffrey]

I also tried the PDVD8 trick and got it to work.
The only thing that seems wrong is that I have extra directshow codecs when I look at the graph. They aren't connected to anything, just there. Does it do the same for you ixian?

 

[chesh]

I think MP loads all codecs that could possibly be used and only connects to them when needed. I have about 3-4 codecs that sit on the sidelines that aren't activated until MP needs them. Glad to hear the PDVD8 worked for both of you! Are you both on 1.0.2 now?

P.S. I started to install the USB-UIRT yesterday. Do any of you that are using it, using a logitech harmony too? Are you using the UIRT as a receiver? If the answer is yes to both of those, what remote control are you emulating on the harmony?

 

[ixian]

Yes, I haven't figured that out yet (extra codecs). It's something PDVD8 does during it's install; I end up with like 4 choices for Mpeg2 video alone after installing it. I haven't done it yet on one PC; on that one I'm going to try manually installing again.

ajp8164, to answer your question there's the easy way and the hard way. The easy way is to just install the PDVD8 demo (actually this isn't that easy anymore since they don't have it up, you may have to google around a bit; I already had it). The fact that it is a demo that will expire is of little concern since the codecs don't, they will work regardless. The only problem with this approach is it clutters up your hard drive (assuming, of course, you don't actually just buy and use PDVD for what it's intended) and it installs a lot of extra codec crap.

The harder way is to register the codecs manually. This isn't as easy as just extracting the file and running regsvr32 for some reason I haven't nailed down yet. Also, for PowerDVD, you have to register CLVd.ax and CLV264.ax - Mpeg and H.264 respectively. If, for example, you install via SAF, keep in mind the instructions Hoborg gives only installs the Mpeg2 decoder, not h.264, so you'll need to do it manually.

Also, I haven't tried again with PowerDVD 9. Last time I did, the h.264 codec wouldn't show as an option for the TV client even though the codec was installed (it works for Videos). I don't quite know why that is, but obviously there's something different between the two. Something is obviously different between the two that may be related to the tsreader bug that's scheduled to be fixed in Media Portal 1.1.

I think MP loads all codecs that could possibly be used and only connects to them when needed. I have about 3-4 codecs that sit on the sidelines that aren't activated until MP needs them. Glad to hear the PDVD8 worked for both of you! Are you both on 1.0.2 now?

P.S. I started to install the USB-UIRT yesterday. Do any of you that are using it, using a logitech harmony too? Are you using the UIRT as a receiver? If the answer is yes to both of those, what remote control are you emulating on the harmony?

I am on 1.02; next time I will be more cautious upgrading. When you are using a lot of addons like MPTvSeries, MovingPictures, 4TR, etc there are lots of tiny little details that can get out of wack. For example, 1.02 and 4TR 1.4RC1 had a bug where the MCE remote's backspace key didn't work right - you couldn't use it to back all the way out of menus. It got fixed over the weekend in 4TR 1.4RC2 but it's stuff like that that can really get frustrating. Next time I'm going to delay upgrading for a week or two.

My USB-UIRT doesn't have the 56khz receiver, it is blaster-only. I have an iMon receiver on one PC that emulates MCE and an actual MCE receiver on my clients so for my Harmony remote I just use it. I'd be surprised if the UIRT wasn't in the Harmony's database somewhere already, have you searched it?

 

[chesh]

One thing I've noticed about the UIRT is it detects remote codes from just about every one of my remote controls. So, really it doesn't matter what remote I set it up for, as I can program any of it's buttons as whatever I want. Test if you have this functionality too ixian. Take any of your remote controls and aim it at the UIRT and press a button. If the red light flashes, it means it detected a code. I didn't purchase the 56khz receiver, yet my UIRT does this. I tested with my surround sound, TV, MCE, and iMon Pad, and it detected the button pushes of all of them.

P.S. ajp8164 - I have heard you can find just the codecs from the .torrent sites by searching for dxva.rar either in google or on your favorite public tracker. Deal is, you still have to register them by hand with regsrv32. I haven't tried this myself, but if you're feeling saucy, you can always give it a shot.

 

[sjeffrey]

I'm also on 1.0.2, I still a few kinks to work out.

Ixian, are you sure you don't have IR receive on your USB-UIRT? Unless your old model is different all the models have IR receive capabilities. The 56khz is just an addon for special range that hardly any remotes use.

 

[WileECoyote]

ixian, Chesh & sjeffrey,
I see you guys have the PDVD 8 H.264 video codec working, which audio codec are you guys using?

 

[ixian]

I'm also on 1.0.2, I still a few kinks to work out.

Ixian, are you sure you don't have IR receive on your USB-UIRT? Unless your old model is different all the models have IR receive capabilities. The 56khz is just an addon for special range that hardly any remotes use.

Huh, well maybe I do then. Since I have the iMon on that PC anyway (Antec 430, comes with it) I never bothered to look in to it. Nice to know if I ever need it.

@Ixian, Chesh & sjeffrey,
I see you guys have the PDVD 8 H.264 video codec working, which audio codec are you guys using?

I have gotten good results, and perfect lip sync, using the Arcsoft Audio HD codec. I switched back to using 5.1 since I got video issues sorted (it's unbelievable how many petty little issues like the occasional stutter, pause issues, etc got solved for me by moving to the PDVD8 codec for video, God I hate Arcsoft right now) and that one seems to work best in my surround sound setup.

Though admittedly I haven't done serious testing with other codecs for audio. I will note that for me, at least, the actual PDVD8 audio codec doesn't work with the HDPVR, only the h.264 video codec.

 

[sjeffrey]

wilee, I'm using MPC MPA decoder, but stutter seems worse. I usually had good results with AC3filter and will probably switch back to it. I'm using SPDIF.

ixian, I have the same case and never cared for the iMon IR receiver. Since you have the USB-UIRT you should do yourself a favor and use that to receive IR.