I know its stupid but when I play media files from my computer the server disconnects everytime my screensaver comes on. :mad:
This doesn't happen on my flatmates computer and have tried to play with the settings but nothing so far has succeeded. :confused:
Could someone please point out the source of my stupidity? :eek:
Thanking you in advance

J.

Hi,

I have been using the TV out on a PVR 350 but want to try and find some alternatives for when support for this is dropped. I have tried multiple combinations of decoders and inputs on my TV but can't get near the quality of the 350. The picture is always a little soft and is especially noticeable with sport.

I have a 20" LCD TV that has VGA (native at 640 x 480), SVideo, Component and SCART (I currently use this for my set top box) so I can be quite flexible with inputs.

The PC is a 3Ghz P4 with a Gig of RAM.

I have tried Intervideo, Intervideo NonCSS, Dscaler MPEG2 and Purevideo NVIDIA codecs.

My current graphics card is an old Matrox G400 and I have experimented with VGA and SVIDEO out with various dual head settings and also tried custom resolutions with PowerStrip.

To be honest, I have tried so many combinations that it's difficult to say which was the best but what I can definitely say is that none of them are as good as the 350.

I guess the weak point in my system is the graphics card so what would people suggest? Any other suggestions to get the best quality?

Many thanks
Simon

This is a problem that has just cropped up with 0.97.07 , I never had this issue previously. Whenever I reboot the computer the recording service doesn't start. It is set to automatic and even to restart if it fails but no go. I tried a reinstall using the repair option, that didn't help. Then I even uninstalled and reinstalled the service using the net2.0 version of installutil.exe but that didn't help either. The system event log errors are:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7009
Date: 5/30/2006
Time: 2:38:05 AM
User: N/A
Computer: PVR
Description:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the GB-PVR Recording Service service to connect.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

and:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date: 5/30/2006
Time: 2:38:05 AM
User: N/A
Computer: PVR
Description:
The GB-PVR Recording Service service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I have upgraded to the sql database and had to use your revised changedatabase.exe (might want to add that to the surviving ... thread).

Everything works as long as I start the recording service but if the computer reboots I have to manually start it again.

There is nothing in the logs since they are not written until it starts. Every log I have from the recording service jsut starts with the normal starting service and there are no error entries.

Any ideas appreciated.

First of all, thank you for the descent work sub!
Very stable and impressive.

My Suggestion/Question.

Sometimes it happens to me that i watch a movie and fall asleep and the TV keeps on running the whole night. Yes I know there are TV´s with a sleeptimer, but I always forget to activate this feature.

A lot of TV´s power off after a perion of time, when they receive no signal.

My question is. Do you see any possibility that the screensaver disables the PVR-350´s output?

Chris.

I just installed version 0.97.7 and my ATI HDTV recorder isn't working any more. =\

I tried the Map digital channels to EPG channels button, but I get:

"GBPVR was unable to start the BDA device you have configured. Check the device is configured properly and not already in use."

also when I go into GBPVR to watch live tv I get:

"failed to locate configured capture device"

I checked the ati program, and it is still able to view HD, but it seems that GBPVR isn't.

I also tried shutting it down and restarting but that didn't work either.

Any thoughts? I attached my config and GBPVR logs. Maybe something will jump out at ya. Thanks!

Hi all

I currently have 1 hauppauge pvr 150 with remote and was wondering if i should get a pvr 500 to replace my current card or get a second pvr 150 - but if i was to get a pvr 150 i wouldnt want a second remote - so my question is how does gbpvr work with 2x 150's ? the recording of 2 channels and live tv watching of the other ? does anyone have a setup with 2 pvr 150s with only 1 remote and how do you find it ??

cheers
Skip

I am new to GBPVR and are trying to do the initial install. I have downloaded the .msi file, but when I run it I get error "This installation package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package." I have tried running the .msi from the local hard drive, from a network share, and to an external hard drive; each giving me this same error message.
I am using a user that is a member of the Administrators group, so security shouldn't be an issue.
I am not getting any events written to the Windows Event Viewer, so that is of no help.
I have uninstalled all anti-virus and firewalls that are local to this machine.

I can download and run the install from my work, so I know that the issue is with my machine and not the install. I was just wondering if this is a known issue that has a workaround? I have done extensive googling on the problem, but to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am running:
WinXP Pro SP2
Hauppauge 150

Great program. So far, it works well with two exceptions, and I'm hoping someone can help me address these:

1. I'm using the Hauppauge 34 button remote. Using the up and down volume works when playing back music (except as noted in number 2, below), but it doesn't work during video playback. I have a wireless PVR keyboard with volume multimedia buttons at the top, and those work, but the volume on the remote does nothing during video playback. Any ideas?

2. A bigger and more vexing problem is that during playback from my music library, the WAV/MP3 control on my system's volume resets to the lowest (inaudible) level (not mute, the volume level just drops to the bottom) during the playback of each new song. The master volume is unaffected. So if I open up my volume by double clicking on the icon in the lower right corner of the system tray, I can drag the level back to the top, and the song plays normally. As soon as a new song plays, the same thing happens. This issue does not occur if I play the songs in WMP. If I play with the remote during the music playback (hitting mute or raising and lowering the volume), the master volume control follows the command appropriately (regardless of the setting for the WAV/MP3 level). I thought that altering the audio renderer in the config program might make a difference, but it doesn't. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Just upgraded to 0.97.7 today.
After upgrade, found my capture source was missing.
Added back the source (Hauppauge PVR150) using config.exe.
After adding the source, updated EPG via zap2it ok.

Saved config and exited config.exe.
When I re-run config.exe, there's no capture source!

Bottom line, capture source not saving.

Tried several times, no joy.

Previous upgrades have been flawless on this system.
I have .Net framework v2.0 installed.
Using old database.

log files attached.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Hey Sub, thought I'd share some ideas for features and improvements I've accumulated over a few months. Right now GBPVR works great for me and I'm very impressed with how consistently (both in terms of quality and stylistically) you have implemented your vision for it. It's simple but to the point, looks great and just works.

But here's some ideas anyway :

Features:

1) Auto detect cable box aspect ratio from special markers in the image.

I have a 4:3 screen but a cable box that can be set to output 16:9 when broadcast, and 4:3 otherwise. That way you get the best quality widescreen shows, but it means I'm always switching aspect ratios manually. There is a marker in the frame that signals which aspect is being sent. I don't know if this is UK/Europe specific, but Dscaler4 can detect this and automatically switches aspect ratios to suit.

It requires a small area of the decoded frame to be examined, I guess this could be done with a DShow filter? (I've dabbled in DShow briefly a while back for video->3D texture work).

Any chance you might look into this? I can get you specifics if you're interested, and obviously the DScaler4 code is available. The Dscaler guy(s) were planning to integrate the DScaler4 features into the DScaler5 DShow-based code (which at the moment is only an mpeg2 codec), but movement there seems very slow. You could argue this should be done in the decoder, but then if GBPVR did it it would work with all of them.

2) I'd also like to see on-screen volume displays. It's frustrating never knowing when max is reached (especially when like me you sometimes change the system volume accidentally when GPBVR doesn't have focus, and then wonder why you hit a volume ceiling inside GB).

3) ... and a clear indicator that the app is recording, visible on all screens. Just a little red circle (ideally flashing slowly) would be enough. You could also extend this to represent various states: a yellow circle could mean a recording is imminent (within say 5 minutes), green would be idle etc. When you're navigating this can be useful info, or serve as a warning that you should change channels on your box for the next recording (my PVR150 blaster doesn't support my box and I don't always have time to program it manually - it's godawful slow).

4) ... and following on, I'd like to see a dedicated line of text on the front screen that always shows the currently recording show (rather than cycling through future schedules), ie. something you can see in one glance. I realise this is probably just a skin issue but it would be handy in the default skin. In fact, maybe show the circle and just the name of the show being processed below it (small font) somewhere on all screens. It's just good to know what the machine is up to at any given moment.

5) when skipping during playback (mpeg2), the frames here don't update at all. I can hear snippets of sound, but the frame is stuck until I stop skipping. It would be great to see occasional updates.

6) option to hide the overlay (show details, progress bar etc) during pause, + the ability to single-step frames in pause mode. I often pause to examine something, but of course half the frame is obsured by the overlay.

Improvements:

1) The Manual Recording 'Stop' time entry would be better as 'duration in minutes'. If you're recording something that's many hours away, you have to scroll the start time a lot - and then the end time too, which takes twice as long. Setting eg. '30mins' from start instead is much faster. Of course you could still show the resulting end time too.

2) Show a recording's actual start time and duration, instead of (or in addition to) the times the show was listed as. If I record just a 10 minute subsection a show, or cancelled a recording early, that info is much more relevant to me than the scheduled times.

3) Avoid buffering remote buttons-repeats.

I've set my remote to button-repeat quite quickly which is great generally, except in places where the app can't keep up and then buffers a lot of repeats and then insists on carrying them out (slowly). For example when setting manual recording times, which frequently overshoot for me and I'm bouncing forwards and backwards. Perhaps the easiest solution is to ignore repeats specifically if they are already some buffered (that way you can still buffer other buttons).

4) One tiny but suprisingly irritating thing: can you change the remote button handling so that Play gets you out of Pause? Right now only Pause can cancel Pause, which intuitively doesn't work for me - I keep hitting Play and wondering why nothing happens. After all I want it to play again .

In fact, why not use Play to resume, and Pause to single-step?

5) Speaking of buttons, how about using Play to instantly play a recording from a list without having to go through any menus (resume etc)? Maybe use another button to instantly Resume (Stop? Pause?).


(Well, I remembered more than I thought I would...)