VistaView 2020 problems

[armyb77]

I'm still having problems with my VistaView saber 2020 card. It has problems with the second tuner, and causes random reboots and frozen picture. I am using the latest drivers from vistaview (1033.4.3). I did some editing of the direct.ini, and the config.xml. I was able to pretty much fix the frozen picture problem by changing the VistaView Saber 2020 (device #2)'s filter encoder to the following FILTER_ENCODER=7162 BDA MPEG PS Encoder0. I changed the encoder to the same as device #1 because I just figured that the vixs can encode up to 4 streams at once, however I don't know if all 4 streams enter the chip using the same pin or not, this did allow me to get a picture though instead of a frozen frame.

The other problem with the random restarts seems to happen when either both tuners are doing a back to back recording, or when tuner 2 is doing a back to back. I was able to somewhat limit it by changing the config.xml so that pre and post show padding were set to 0 mins. However the restarts do still seem to happen, and sometimes when my wife is watching a recorded show while tuner 2 is recording the computer will either restart or the second tuner will record without audio. (i'm not sure how that is related but that is what is happening)

My knowledge of XML is very limited so all I did was go for the common since things here to see if I could fix the problem, however the problem is still there (except now at least when I hit record on the second tuner I can at least get a picture instead of a frozen frame).

Anyways, my wife loves GB-PVR over SageTV now, because it is the best PQ that we have seen using this card. I was just wondering if someone with more skills then I can tell me if the changes I made really did anything, or was it just coincidence. If they did make a difference then can someone tell me what to change next, or try next? Or maybe someone knows exactly what I should put in my direct.ini so that I can use pre and post show padding.

Thanks
Armyb77

[armyb77]

I forgot to mention my specs:
Nvidia 6150 on board video (latest drivers)
1GB of DDR2 5400 RAM
500GB SATA 3.0/s
Windows XP Pro
GB-PVR v99.5 (plugins Community WS, Showburner, and weather)
VistaView Saber 2020 (driver 1033.4.3

Thanks
Armyb77

[sub]

If you're getting reboots, then this is likely a sign of buggy drivers. There are no GB-PVR settings that would help this. Your best bet is try and isolate which component is causing the reboot and go from there. The Windows Event Viewer may give you a bit more info.

[sub]

I was just wondering if someone with more skills then I can tell me if the changes I made really did anything, or was it just coincidence.

Unfortunately I dont have on of these card, so I know very little about them and I'm not in a good position to answer your question. I try to ask VistaView if they wanted to supply a sample device, but they never came back to me.

[armyb77]

Normally I would agree with you that it's a driver problem, however I recently was able to test VistaViews new drivers, and they work perfect in SageTV v6.1.3RC, but GB-PVR is still having the restart issue, and random freezing issues, So I think that is the configuration in the direct.ini or the config.xml file may be wrong.

Thanks
Armyb77

[sub]

Sorry, I dont really have any recommendations for you. VistaView didnt want to talk to me, so I dont really care if their device works with GB-PVR or not.

(that said, reboots or random freezing will absolutely be a device or its drivers issue, not GB-PVR).

[Ted the Penguin]

just guessing at a reason sage would work while GB-PVR doesnt, might they go through different interfaces in the drivers to access the card?

on that note, does it do this on all settings for the card? have you tried changing the quality, or anything else like that?

[armyb77]

Yes all settings result in this. I know that SageTV is different (java Based). But one would think that if a driver is stable in one it would also be stable in the other, unless the mapping for GB-PVR is wrong with it.

Thanks
Armyb77

[armyb77]

Sub,
I understand what your saying and your right. You can only be as helpful with this card as the company is with supplying you with a test card, or other means for testing. If they aren't supporting you, then there isn't much that can be done. Regardless GB-PVR has come a long way, maybe someday I will be able to use it.

Thanks
Armyb77