happauge colossus recordings

[abuzein]

yea my stb is set to 1080i, but for some reason it was not using the 1080i reoslutions.... another thing to figure out ... stupid STB

[mikeh49]

I seem to recall some folks saying that setting the box output to 720p was preferred for HD-PVR or Colossus. Don't remember why. I'm pretty sure you won't notice any difference in the TV or recordings.

[mvallevand]

I use 720p because the file size is smaller and I don't mind my stb's built-in de-interlacing of 1080i so less .impact on playback.

Martin

[abuzein]

alright i set it to 720p, auto power down was already disabled and no screen saver so the issue of recordings was not from this.
i have modified ModeSD to have the same bitrate as mode720p because for some reason my stupid STB or colossus keeps setting the sd bitrates although my channels are hd and my STB was set for 1080i which i know have set to 720p.

I have also removed the hdmi cable off the stb and now i am just using nextpvr for live tv and for recordings.

so in a nutshell

HDMI removed ( I had HDMI going to TV and component going to PVR.... Now i just have component going to PVR)
Auto Poweroff is and was disabled
Screen Saver was already disabled
resolution changed to 720p from 1080i

fingers crossed that things finally work.

[abuzein]

I don't understand this....

if I go to view live tv I get the following line
2013-04-09 23:49:48.549 [DEBUG][6] Device reports resolution: 1280x720 (fps:60) (aspect:2) (progressive:1) (videoIdCode:4)

but if I go to record a tv show I get the following line
2013-04-09 23:59:04.051 [DEBUG][7] Device reports resolution: 0x0 (fps:0) (aspect:0) (progressive:0) (videoIdCode:0)

why is it that everytime I go to record something the device doesn't report the 720p resolution? should this matter?

the STB as mentioned before is set for 720p resolution.

[Graham]

why is it that everytime I go to record something the device doesn't report the 720p resolution? should this matter?

A shot in the dark. Apologies if it's a miss. The Live TV and Recording examples appear to be for two different channels. Do you get the same result (i.e. 1280x720 versus 0x0) if you attempt Live TV versus a Recording on the same channel? Is it possible that the tuning info stored by NextPVR has gone haywire and NextPVR is sending blaster commands to the STB requesting the wrong frequency/channel?

[abuzein]

sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

the channels that I am going on the STB are supposedly HD channels as per the cable company. I am forcing SD to use 720p bitrates but other than setting my STB to use 720p on Component connection is there something else spectacular i should be doing?

NPVR was a fresh install, but how can I check the tuning to see, i tried a MC2HD channel which should be HD and it went to 0x0 for both live tv and a recording.

I am attempting by HBOHD channel and seeing the results

[abuzein]

if you look at this log [attached],

both HBOHD and MC2HD are defaulting to 0x0 instead of 720p...... I know for a fact that the device itself is set to 720p because I made sure I did that last night, so I set the bitrate for SD to that of 720p in the config file and it seems to be holding up alright but if someone can explain to me what I am still doing wrong I would be very thankful.

I also use schedules direct if that makes any difference.... I am still kinda new to all this so thanks for all the help.

[mikeh49]

Since you now have the TV on the component out of the STB as well as the Colossus, could you see if the TV is getting a picture when the Colossus is reporting 0x0 etc.? If the TV works, then it should be safe to assume that the same signal should be available to the Colossus, hence the problem may be there, i.e., a defective Colossus. Are the connections all good? There is quite a mass of connectors/cables hanging on the Colossus dongle, right?

[abuzein]

well if I record a tv show or use live tv even if it reports 0x0 it still "works" and by works I mean I can record shows etc........ for sure I can see it on the TV if you think its a faulty colossus i'll just return it since its only a few days old.

I tried changing the setting from SPDIF to RCA IN, sound and picture on live tv are just fine, recording again if I change ModeSD to the bitrate of 720p works just fine.... so maybe your right... maybe its a faulty card. and yes there is a whole bunch of cables sticking out the back of the colossus.