initial support for Hauppuage HD-PVR (1 Viewer)

[WileECoyote]

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.

Very interesting...I am going to have to try this tonight. I dont think I have ever tried the Arcsoft Audio HD codec for the DD 5.1... The issue I usually have is on the machines I use the speakers and do not have an audio receiver. Whenever I turn on the DD 5.1 on my Directv receivers the lip sync issue shows up almost immediately.

 

[ixian]

As sjeffrey says I think AC3Filter works well too, but I haven't tried it recently - I'm at the point where hey, it's actually working, I can hardly believe it, I don't want to touch anything now. Although I probably will

You will be doing yourself a real favor using the PDVD8 h.264 video codec though. I can't say it enough - now that I've seen the difference I can't believe just how utterly crappy the Arcsoft codec is. The picture is far better and I just don't see the occasional stutter, judder, glitch, what have you anymore.

Granted, there are a lot of DIY moving parts to this setup - for example, the last 4TR RC, in addition to having remote issues, also had some sort of keep alive bug where every 25 seconds or so the video would pause for .10ms which was driving me *nuts* until they fixed it - but I'm starting to find out that the Arcsoft h.264 codec was my biggest issue. The only other one I ever got to work was CoreAVC, but I had massive lip sync issues with it no matter what audio codec I used. PDVD8 has been perfect so far.

 

[chesh]

I'm using the Arcsoft Audio Decoder HD as the sound was much more normalized over SPDIF even though it's only coming through as 2 channel stereo and then upgraded to a Logic 7 by my surround sound. I just hate having 5.1 turned on and continuously having to adjust the volume when I switch channels. Maybe I'll play with the audio codecs another day, but for now that one works the best for me.

ixian: I have the iMon too as it came with my Thermaltake case. Do you use a Harmony with your setup? I always seem to have issues with it sending double commands that freak out MP sometimes. I know you can sit there with the Harmony software and send all the commands as RAW from one remote to the other, but what a hassle. I did this with all the buttons I was really having an issue with, but still have some that I should probably fix.

sjeffrey: When I was testing the UIRT yesterday with the original Hauppauge MCE remote, the UIRT seemed really slow to respond. Have you experienced this? Blasting was 10000x better to my STB, but receiving button presses seemed laggy. Could have just been the remote, and I'm going to do some further testing with other remotes. What remote did you setup in the IRSS plugin MP side, or did you just leave the defaults and grab a handy dandy MCE remote and just go with it?

I'm glad the PDVD8 codec is working so well for everyone. I knew I wasn't the only one having issues with the Arcsoft codecs after 1.0.1! Really, I just spent 3-4 hours doing trial and error on every h.264 codec mixed with audio codecs till I found the setup I'm currently using. For awhile there, I thought I was the only one having issues!

ixian: Are you getting a true 5.1 output from the Arcsoft Audio HD codec or an converted 2ch Stereo to fake Dolby? As you can't change any of the settings in the Arcsoft Audio HD codec, I've never seen a place to force anything different. Given, I haven't really noticed if it switches between Logic 7 and Dolby 5.1 when I change to a channel with actual 5.1. Also, are you using RCA's or optical for your audio input to the HD-PVR?

 

[sjeffrey]

chesh, did you "teach" all the IR codes to UIRT? The hauppauge remote sends 2 different codes for each button. So when you teach "play" for instance it will send code A, then code B, then code A...

 

[ixian]

I'm using the Arcsoft Audio Decoder HD as the sound was much more normalized over SPDIF even though it's only coming through as 2 channel stereo and then upgraded to a Logic 7 by my surround sound. I just hate having 5.1 turned on and continuously having to adjust the volume when I switch channels. Maybe I'll play with the audio codecs another day, but for now that one works the best for me.

ixian: I have the iMon too as it came with my Thermaltake case. Do you use a Harmony with your setup? I always seem to have issues with it sending double commands that freak out MP sometimes. I know you can sit there with the Harmony software and send all the commands as RAW from one remote to the other, but what a hassle. I did this with all the buttons I was really having an issue with, but still have some that I should probably fix.


ixian: Are you getting a true 5.1 output from the Arcsoft Audio HD codec or an converted 2ch Stereo to fake Dolby? As you can't change any of the settings in the Arcsoft Audio HD codec, I've never seen a place to force anything different. Given, I haven't really noticed if it switches between Logic 7 and Dolby 5.1 when I change to a channel with actual 5.1. Also, are you using RCA's or optical for your audio input to the HD-PVR?

Good question. Upstairs, on my main media/TV server, my PC feeds audio over HDMI to my receiver, and I do get the DD 5.1 symbol to light up when I hit channels that are broadcast with it, and Dolby Pro Logic for the rest.

Downstairs I am using a MSI Diva Media board in the living room, which is an AMD 780g board paired with a unique and proprietary amplifier card. The whole setup has it's issues (believe me) but after working them out it's turned in to a very decent all in one solution. I appear to be getting 5.1 out of it too, but I can't be sure. I should look in to that.

I am using the optical out from my Dish STB to the optical in on the HDPVR.

As for the iMon, it's only on the upstairs PC, which I rarely view direct (it's also my TV Server/Recodings box, but I mostly use my clients for viewing). Downstairs both my clients use regular MCE remotes.

 

[chesh]

I just have to ask, but what is your guy's power bill like a month with 3 computers dedicated to being client/servers??? I've got my bad-boy server with 6 TB in it (I believe it has 8-10 HD's to achieve this as I built most of it before TB HDs were under $100) that's on all the time, my wife's puter that's on all the time, and now my MP server that's on all the time (fricken standby/hibernate never wanted to work for me). My bill went up about $20-40/month since I've started the HTPC project. I can only imagine how much you guys are spending monthly with a server and 2 clients, plus all of your "regular" use computers!

 

[ixian]

All about management I got a couple Kill-a-Watts to help me out.

First, except for my main PC (which goes in to hibernation during the day) my media computers are all 80+ power supplies, low-watt CPU's (AMD 4850e 45w CPU and my MP45 is a P8500, a 25w laptop CPU), and onboard graphics either 780g or Intel 4500HD. Plus my wife's laptop which is low power by design.

All my PC's go in to standby when not in use; 4TR's scheduling will wake up the TV server if needed. I figured out how to get IRSS to send a "select" command to my STB's so they get woken up too.

For storage, I've used a ReadyNAS NV+ for a couple years now; have 1.5tb drives in it currently. It's a great little box and uses very little power; spins the drives down when not in use as well.

The ReadyNas costs me about $3.20 a month according to Kill-a-Watt. My AMD Media client costs about $5.50 and the Media Server $7+ as it's on more and has a bigger drive/power supply. The HDPVR itself is about $4-5, give or take. The MP45 laptop-based mini PC in my bedroom is about $2.80 - I would get more of those if they were more practical.

So that's about $23 or so a month for a TV server PC, two clients, the capture board, and my ReadyNas. I pay around .13 cents a kwh here in Austin, TX so your mileage may vary. Making sure you've got sleep modes configured right and are using power-efficient power supplies and low-wattage CPU's/Video cards goes a long way. The ATI 4890 video card in my main PC alone uses more power than all 3 of the CPU's/motherboards in my media PC's, for example - I cringe when I read about someone using a card like that in an HTPC.

 

[sheish]

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?

Hi ixian,
Have you had a chance to play a 1080i H.264 TS video with the PDVD8/9 H.264 codec? I have a ton of those that I recorded/played fine from GB-PVR before I moved over to MP101. I used CoreAVC codec for playback when I played them in GB-PVR, but the same codec plays the same video a little choppy with audio playing fine in MP101. Other than the choppy part, I never saw the lip sink issue that you mentioned.

Also, how do we extract the CLV264.ax codec out of the PDVD 8/9 installer?

I have one other question which I do not know if it belongs to this forum, but I will ask it anyways . I saw an open issue #2162 which seems to have been targeted for MP 1.1.0. Do we know what this version is? Is this something between 1.0.2 and 2.0?

I really appreciate your and all the other inputs/updates on this forum, it has been quite a ride for me so far .

...sheish...

 

[chesh]

Honestly sheish, your best bet is to find the PDVD8 demo or go spend the $9.95 on an OEM copy and install it. Save you a lot of hassle of having to just extract out the couple of files. Not to mention, if you want Blu-ray support in the future, you'll want an external player that can handle it. As of right now, MP doesn't have a internal player. Just my .02.

chesh, did you "teach" all the IR codes to UIRT? The hauppauge remote sends 2 different codes for each button. So when you teach "play" for instance it will send code A, then code B, then code A...

That's exactly what's freaking out my iMon receiver. The answer I found to fix that, is to program all the codes in RAW mode (when teaching you have to goto Advanced setup and then learn as RAW). When learned in RAW mode, it only captures a single code instead of the double or even triple code that is sent. Keeps the remote from sending too many signals. I'm going to configure a MCE remote into my Harmony hopefully tonight and play with it and the UIRT and see how fast the response times are. I really can't believe how fast that thing blasts though. I got it set to 10ms right now and I barely type it and it's already blasted.

 

[sheish]

Honestly sheish, your best bet is to find the PDVD8 demo or go spend the $9.95 on an OEM copy and install it. Save you a lot of hassle of having to just extract out the couple of files. Not to mention, if you want Blu-ray support in the future, you'll want an external player that can handle it. As of right now, MP doesn't have a internal player. Just my .02.

Thanks Chesh,
I agree on getting the whole PDVD 8 installed, etc. But, I was wondering if I can still play my 1080i H.264 TS videos using the PDVD H.264 codec from the MP 101 player? If it can, I would love to get the PDVD 8 bought/installed on my setup. But, the uncertainty is whats bothering me. Will I be able to try the H.264 codec from the trial version? I thought one couldn't, hence my questions from the previous post .

...sheish...