Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600 Incompatability?

[Pochrist]

First off Please see my Sig for the System specs if there is any questions about the system.

To avoid repeating myself, anyone responding please take your time and read my post entirely, I really hate to answer questions when they were already put in the original post.

Also I have the Latest Drivers for windows and for my hardware, also none of the items in question share IRQ's or other vital resources.

Now that were past the basics, here is my problem....

I have both the Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600 and the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 installed. Both cards installed are using the coaxial Analog side and both are using GB-PVR for the recordings.

For about 1 month (ever since I installed the Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600)
I've had a strange problem when I set up all my scheduled recordings, the 1st recording of the day (typically between 9am-10am) is mislabled and put in the wrong directory or are all distorted - like bad reception.

Sometimes both happen, but they are always distorted - like bad reception.
Remember I did say the "1st recording of the day" all recordings after that are fine.

This has occurred on different channels ranging from week days to week ends.

I have done the following procedures to try to fix this problem...

I made New shorter lengths of coaxial cable.

I put an in-line amp.

Made sure all my Drivers for windows and for my hardware are up to date.

Checked all system resources, IRQ's and the Event viewer for signs of problems.

Being that it is not possible specify which Analog Capture source is being used on a "Per Recording" Basis,

I finally I decided to remove the 1600 from GB-PVR configuration and set all the recordings up using only the Wintv 250, and for 3 days had no problems.

I then removed the 250 and reinstalled the 1600 and there was the culprit, the 1st recording was screwed up and the rest were fine.

So I called up Hauppauge and they informed me "we've never tested any of our hardware with GB-PVR. so we can't tell you why there is a problem".
They told me that unless I can reproduce it on Wintv 2000 or another Acceptable application they can't conclude its the hardware.

So I then Disabled the WinTV 250 in the Device manager and set up the Wintv 1600 on WinTV 2000 for 2 more days (same times and same channels). But the problems did not appear.

I gave GB-PVR another test and up jumped the problem again.

I tested it the last 4 days on SageTV 6 and again no problem.

So that leaves GB-PVR.... I honestly don't think the problem is caused by GB-PVR.

Here what I think:

Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600 and the Wintv 250 are from the same company and will undoubtedly share some driver files - its possible that the 1600 is using one or some of the 250's files (which would probably be older or of an earlier design) and this is the result.

But speculation does nothing for me when I'm stuck with a New Capture Card that malfunctions in the only Application I'm happy with (I really shouldn't have to buy another software package because the hardware doesn't like my current choice.

I need help, preferably from someone running these 2 Happauge Cards (or perhaps the 150 or 350 with the 1600) and any one else familiar with GB-PVR to sift the the log files and any other info that will point to a valid reason for this problem and a Fix.

I'm almost at the point where I'm going to pull the card and stick it on the shelf or sell it on Ebay. I can't use a less the reliable capture card - what's the point?

Thanks in Advance.

[Zeus]

I have the HVR 1600 running with a PVR 500, but I used to have a PVR 350 running with it. I didn't experience any of the first recording issues that you are, but I did have problems getting the remote to work consistently on the HVR.

First off, I do remember in my troubleshooting that changing the PCI slot for the HVR made a difference to me. I don't think I have a bad PCI slot, but for some reason changing the slot changed the behavior. I can only assume the IRQ change did something.

Secondly, install in a sequence. I had to physically install the HVR last so that it would be the last Hauppauge driver set loaded.

My setup is with one OTA connection and the rest being analog cable, but you are using digital cable, so I'll have to assume you have an STB involved. I don't know why that would cause a bad recording, but that is a difference.

At times the playback on the HD side gets jerky, but all in all it plays well. I've noticed that my OTA recordings get stuck on sometimes, but I haven't captured that in logs yet.

Good Luck...

[Pochrist]

Thanks for the input.

You mentioned the install order, that I remember because the PC would only install the drivers for the 1600 AFTER I put in the Drivers for the 250.

As for the Digital cable this really means my cable provider is "capable" of digital, but I don't use the STB at all for recordings. I have a splitter before the STB and split off to the 1600, 250 and STB. For HD records I use the HDhomerun with unencrypted QAM channels.

[sub]

I've had a strange problem when I set up all my scheduled recordings, the 1st recording of the day (typically between 9am-10am) is mislabled and put in the wrong directory

Reproduce this and post the logs and I'll take a look.

Sometimes both happen, but they are always distorted - like bad reception.
Remember I did say the "1st recording of the day" all recordings after that are fine

This smells of drivers not correctly initialising themselves.

[Pochrist]

Here are the logs I also included the Event viewer logs for Applications and System.

This is the time and program Go! diego Go! 9-9:30 4/18/07

Note the date is last week. I pulled the logs then during my trouble shooting trials so I wouldn't have to "Reproduce" it again in the event that this is the route I'd have to go. Thanks

[sub]

Can you give me a bit more details about what went wrong in this example?

From the logs its creating a file called "E:\Todays TV Capture\Go, Diego, Go!\Go, Diego, Go!_20070418_09000930.mpg". In what way is it mislabled and in the wrong directory?

[Pochrist]

In this case Dora the Explorer was on from 9am-9:30 not Go Diego

Go diego is on from 9:30-10am, Hence the listing you see is wrong.

But the mislabeling appears ONLY on week days, while its the distortions that happen everytime I test in the 9AM-10am range (first recording).

[sub]

In this case Dora the Explorer was on from 9am-9:30 not Go Diego

Go diego is on from 9:30-10am, Hence the listing you see is wrong.

But the mislabeling appears ONLY on week days, while its the distortions that happen everytime I test in the 9AM-10am range (first recording).

Ok, so I'm guessing this is just a case of zap2it supplying incorrect listings? I cant see this being a GB-PVR bug, or we'd be hearing a hell of a lot more about it. I'm sure if I looked in your database 'Go, Diego, Go!' would be listed as running 9:00 - 9:30, and 'Dora the Explorer' would be listed as running 9:30 - 10:00.

[Pochrist]

Well It may be zaptoit, But then why would it only happen the days when I tested the 1600 and not on the days I tested the 250?

And what do you make of the Distortions?

Prior to introducing the 1600 into my PVR these problems never occured.

Like I said I don't believe this is being caused BY GB-PVR but is the only program that has experianced the problem, between you and me (and the rest of the world) I think its a driver issue. But since you know the deep inner working of the program I figure you can shed some light as to what the 1600 is doing that the 250 is not. Thanks

[sub]

Well It may be zaptoit, But then why would it only happen the days when I tested the 1600 and not on the days I tested the 250?

I'm sure that was just bad luck, but if you're not so sure then I'm happy to look into it further to confirm - just zip and email your gbpvr.db3 file over to me at support@devnz.com and I'll take a look.

And what do you make of the Distortions?

Can you post a screenshot so I can see what sort of thing you mean?

Prior to introducing the 1600 into my PVR these problems never occured.

Weaker signals after splitting cable input? or just some problem in PVR1600 drivers would be my guess. Post the screenshot though, and hopefully it'll give me more of an idea.