GB-PVR & Hauppage WinTV Problems: Live TV Video Out, Recording issues

[geekdout]

Hi!

I first installed the Hauppage software, played a little, then installed GB-PVR and told it to optimize the remote.

1. Am I supposed to still be able to use WinTV functions as-is without GB-PVR disrupting it's functionality, or are there known problems?

2. Whenever I try to watch Hauppage's WinTV Live, I see it on my PC monitor - but I get a GB-PVR menu display on the TV Out that overlays and obscures the WinTV output - even though GB-PVR isn't running in the foreground on my PC, or even in the systray. How do I get GB-PVR to stop doing this? I looked for a process to kill in Windows, but didn't see anything that looked like GB-PVR.

3. Can GB-PVR output simultaneously to the PC monitor AND TV Out, like WinTV? If so, how do you do that? Whenever I try to run Live TV video out from GB-PVR I get a black screen on my PC that says it's outputting to TV, hit Home to end and bring video back to PC.

4. Can I schedule recordings with either Titan TV (using Hauppage WinTV), or use GB-PVR manual schedule recording functions - or must I now just use GB-PVR? As both are installed, they seem to be runing in the background/sleep, and try to pop out to do the job. I had a failure on WinTV where the recording was scheduled using TitanTV, but the manual GB-PVR recording schedule ran successfully.

5. I later had a failure with a GB-PVR scheduled recording, but thought maybe I had set quality and bitrate too high (select high then modified it to max all parameters). Will this cause a recording to fail, and how do you troubleshoot failed recordings?

6. How do you kill a GB-PVR recording in progress?

Thanks!

[sub]

I assume you're talking about the tv out on a PVR350? If so, GB-PVR hasnt support that in over two years. I dont recommend you try to use, even though it kind of still works for some people with the old GBPVR.exe interface. The new user interface (PVRX2.exe) contains no support for the PVR350 tv out. The old GBPVR.exe will only be distributed with release for the next couple of months - after that it'll be gone for good.

1. Am I supposed to still be able to use WinTV functions as-is without GB-PVR disrupting it's functionality, or are there known problems?

In theory can be installed and used independently, though obviously only one application can use the card at a time, so you'll need to be careful to only use one at a time.

2. Whenever I try to watch Hauppage's WinTV Live, I see it on my PC monitor - but I get a GB-PVR menu display on the TV Out that overlays and obscures the WinTV output - even though GB-PVR isn't running in the foreground on my PC, or even in the systray. How do I get GB-PVR to stop doing this? I looked for a process to kill in Windows, but didn't see anything that looked like GB-PVR.

This have to come under the "PVR350 tv out is no longer supported" category of reply. Set the hardware decoder option in the config app to 'none - use software decoding', then reboot. This is stop GB-PVR from interfering with the PVR350 tv out features of the WinTV app.

3. Can GB-PVR output simultaneously to the PC monitor AND TV Out, like WinTV? If so, how do you do that? Whenever I try to run Live TV video out from GB-PVR I get a black screen on my PC that says it's outputting to TV, hit Home to end and bring video back to PC.

No it cant. You note though, when the WinTV app does this only the PVR350 tv out is using the hardware decoder - the display on the PC monitor is having to do software decoding.

4. Can I schedule recordings with either Titan TV (using Hauppage WinTV), or use GB-PVR manual schedule recording functions - or must I now just use GB-PVR? As both are installed, they seem to be runing in the background/sleep, and try to pop out to do the job. I had a failure on WinTV where the recording was scheduled using TitanTV, but the manual GB-PVR recording schedule ran successfully.

Only one application can use the device at a time, so you'll have problems if you try to schedule a recording for an overlapping time in these two separate apps.

You'd be better of picking one app and sticking with it so that it knows about all the recordings the device will be performing. (BTW, there is a built in web server in GB-PVR, give you TV Guide, scheduling recordings etc)

5. I later had a failure with a GB-PVR scheduled recording, but thought maybe I had set quality and bitrate too high (select high then modified it to max all parameters). Will this cause a recording to fail, and how do you troubleshoot failed recordings?

That wont cause it to fail.

6. How do you kill a GB-PVR recording in progress?

You can cancel an in-progress recording in the Recordings screen.

[geekdout]

1. (NEW) As far as GBPVR.exe being deprecated in favor of PVRX2.exe, I'm new to the product and had no idea. My download came with both, and I've been trying to figure out the differences between the two. GBPBR menu has more options (YouTube, FM Radio, Net Radio, and Search Guide - more questions later). GBPVR will output to the PVR-350's RF connectors and seems more optimized to provide an on-screen TV display for use with the IR remote. PVRX2 has fewer options and only outputs to the PC monitor. If GBPVR is going away and we're only going to have PVRX2, then how are you supposed to use the program to watched recorded video on your TV from the PVR-350? The WinTV app only plays back recorded video using a player (default Windows Media Player), but I haven't checked to see if that goes to the PVR-350's RF output or not yet. Regardless, for that to be useful the IR Remote would need to work with WMP as well - and I haven't tried that either. The cool thing about using GBPVR's video out on the PVR-350 was the menu system that you could control with the remote.

2. (ORIGINAL) OK, when using GBPVR (going to be non-supported now I know) what does the "Turn off start on 2nd monitor" do?

5. (ORIGINAL) I still don't know what caused the failed recording. I had set it using GBPVR instead of PVRX2. Maybe it wouldn't have failed if I'd used PVRX2 to schedule the recording? Is there a way to troubleshoot this?

7. Using either PVRX2 or GBPVR, is there any way to pick and choose a select few recordings from all listed in the library to playback in a particular sequence? I saw an option to select one or all, but not just two or three.

8. I know now that GBPVR is no longer going to be supported, but did the YouTube function ever work, and if so, how do you configure it?

9. Can you listen to Net Radio using PVRX2's music library (I haven't tried yet)?

10. Seeing as how yapi2xml isn't working right now and I haven't got TitanTV to interface properly yet (have a TitanTV logon, but think I still need the Hauppauge PartnerID code that I can't find anywhere), the TV Guide function is worthless unless I go for the EPG paid subscription. What is the GBPVR Search Guide supposed to do in addition to it's TV Guide, and has that functionality been incorporated into PVRX2's TV Guide?

11. There are ways to pad your recording times before and after, but... I'm assuming that GBPVR/PVRX2 uses the PC system time for operation - so if you don't match the cable provider very closely you could be screwed, right? I set my PC time using my cel phone, but I could use an NTP server. You'd think the provider (or Cingular) would match NTP, but maybe not. Is there a way for the program to get it's time/sync PC using the cable provider's clock? I have a TV/DVD/VCR combo that actually does this. Time is provided on a channel or two (PBS), and the TV can get the signal (config'd in setup) and keep it's clock sync'd - very handy in the event of power outages.

Thanks a million for your answers and attention to detail - sorry I'm such a noob, but it doesn't take me too long to get up to speed.

[sub]

1. (NEW) As far as GBPVR.exe being deprecated in favor of PVRX2.exe, I'm new to the product and had no idea. My download came with both, and I've been trying to figure out the differences between the two. GBPBR menu has more options (YouTube, FM Radio, Net Radio, and Search Guide - more questions later).

The old GBPVR.exe interface was hardcoded to 720x480, which looked like crap when scaled up on the every growing number of flat panel LCD/plasma/HDTV setups. This old user interface was really starting to show it's age and was always identified as a shortcoming of GB-PVR in reviews. It had to go. The new PVRX2 interface does away with these limitions and gives crisp clean text rendering, high quality graphics etc, regardless of resolution, and also handles widescreen displays nicely.

Why does it have less features? It took me several months to write this new user interface. I started with the most important features (TV stuff), and worked my way towards the less important features (radio etc). The initial releases contained all the important TV stuff, but lacks some of the lower priority stuff like radio. These other features will be added back in soon. (net radio is now done, FM radio is still on the to do list)

BTW, the Search Guide is there. Press the F1 key when you're in the config app.

GBPVR will output to the PVR-350's RF connectors and seems more optimized to provide an on-screen TV display for use with the IR remote. PVRX2 has fewer options and only outputs to the PC monitor. If GBPVR is going away and we're only going to have PVRX2, then how are you supposed to use the program to watched recorded video on your TV from the PVR-350? The WinTV app only plays back recorded video using a player (default Windows Media Player), but I haven't checked to see if that goes to the PVR-350's RF output or not yet. Regardless, for that to be useful the IR Remote would need to work with WMP as well - and I haven't tried that either. The cool thing about using GBPVR's video out on the PVR-350 was the menu system that you could control with the remote.

Sorry, but I have no interest in the PVR350 tv out. This aspect of the PVR350 is incredibly flakey and causes unfixable machine locks up or reboots for more than have the people that have tried to use it. I stopped supporting it back in 2005, and while I hadnt removed the feature from GBPVR.exe, I've added no new features or bug fixes for it since then.

The market has moved away from this type of device. Conexant, the chipset manufacturer, no longer supplies this decoder product to device manufactures. Hauppauge did not include the decoder in any of its future products. It's effectively a dead end, with tons of driver bugs, and no longer actively supported by any manufacture. These decoder devices were a good idea back in 2002 when PCs werent fast enough to deliver high quality video. These days the market has moved towards people just using standard videocards for viewing video these days.

The new PVRX2.exe interface contains no functionality for using the PVR350 tv out.

2. (ORIGINAL) OK, when using GBPVR (going to be non-supported now I know) what does the "Turn off start on 2nd monitor" do?

What do you mean? I review the posts above and cant find any point of reference.

For those displaying GB-PVR on a multi-monitor setups, there is an option in the config app to start GB-PVR on the second monitor. (since lots of people have their video card's second output connected to their TV)

5. (ORIGINAL) I still don't know what caused the failed recording. I had set it using GBPVR instead of PVRX2. Maybe it wouldn't have failed if I'd used PVRX2 to schedule the recording? Is there a way to troubleshoot this?

If you zip and attach the logs covering the time period in question, and let me know the name and time of the show, I'm happy to take a look.

7. Using either PVRX2 or GBPVR, is there any way to pick and choose a select few recordings from all listed in the library to playback in a particular sequence? I saw an option to select one or all, but not just two or three.

No, unfortunately not. I think some other plugins may provide this, but I'm not sure.

8. I know now that GBPVR is no longer going to be supported, but did the YouTube function ever work, and if so, how do you configure it?

Yes, the youtube plugin did work up until a couple of months back, when then changed the layout of the youtube website which broke the that function. I've got a new (standalone) Youtube plugin for PVRX2 that'll be included in the next release.

9. Can you listen to Net Radio using PVRX2's music library (I haven't tried yet)?

No, but the next release will include the new PVRX Net Radio.

10. Seeing as how yapi2xml isn't working right now and I haven't got TitanTV to interface properly yet (have a TitanTV logon, but think I still need the Hauppauge PartnerID code that I can't find anywhere), the TV Guide function is worthless unless I go for the EPG paid subscription. What is the GBPVR Search Guide supposed to do in addition to it's TV Guide, and has that functionality been incorporated into PVRX2's TV Guide?

The Search Guide feature is just for searching for shows by title. In PVRX2 you can access the Search Guide by pressing F1 on the TV Guide screen.

11. There are ways to pad your recording times before and after, but... I'm assuming that GBPVR/PVRX2 uses the PC system time for operation - so if you don't match the cable provider very closely you could be screwed, right? I set my PC time using my cel phone, but I could use an NTP server. You'd think the provider (or Cingular) would match NTP, but maybe not. Is there a way for the program to get it's time/sync PC using the cable provider's clock? I have a TV/DVD/VCR combo that actually does this. Time is provided on a channel or two (PBS), and the TV can get the signal (config'd in setup) and keep it's clock sync'd - very handy in the event of power outages.

Yes, it just uses PC time. It never seems to have been a problem for people in the past, so probably not something you need to worry about too much.

[HtV]

I'll try to answer some of your questions:
edit: Deleted because not needed.

cya Hans

edit: Hey sub you were off line, so I thought I'd give it a try. I thought you'd be in a bar somewhere hanging at a bar counter trying to keep standing up and watch the rugby at the same time.

[geekdout]

The old GBPVR.exe interface was hardcoded to 720x480, which looked like crap when scaled up on the every growing number of flat panel LCD/plasma/HDTV setups. This old user interface was really starting to show it's age and was always identified as a shortcoming of GB-PVR in reviews. It had to go. The new PVRX2 interface does away with these limitions and gives crisp clean text rendering, high quality graphics etc, regardless of resolution, and also handles widescreen displays nicely.

Sorry, but I have no interest in the PVR350 tv out. This aspect of the PVR350 is incredibly flakey and causes unfixable machine locks up or reboots for more than have the people that have tried to use it. I stopped supporting it back in 2005, and while I hadnt removed the feature from GBPVR.exe, I've added no new features or bug fixes for it since then.

The market has moved away from this type of device. Conexant, the chipset manufacturer, no longer supplies this decoder product to device manufactures. Hauppauge did not include the decoder in any of its future products. It's effectively a dead end, with tons of driver bugs, and no longer actively supported by any manufacture. These decoder devices were a good idea back in 2002 when PCs werent fast enough to deliver high quality video. These days the market has moved towards people just using standard videocards for viewing video these days. The new PVRX2.exe interface contains no functionality for using the PVR350 tv out.

This sucks. I feel like a dumb-ass for buying the wrong video card. I had researched DVR/PVR's on PC's, and GB-PVR running on the Hauppauge PVR-350 had good reviews. I assumed they were current and not 3 years old. I thought I'd probably be using an older/slower PC and that hardware processing on the card was the way to go - I might would have even tried MythTV on Linux using that box. Even after having to install on a much newer and faster system, it wasn't dedicated to just DVR/PVR work so I still thought processing on the card was a good thing. If I had known what you've told me in this post, I would have probably picked a different card. However, I'm not using large and expensive high def flat panels with DVI connectors. I'm just watching a regular 32" TV that has RCA and coax inputs. Actually, that's about all I have in the entire house - and I'm taking the output of the PVR-350 to an RF converter and backfeeding the signal into my home cable distribution to send DVR output to all of them. So I'm not sure that one of the newer cards you refer to would have fit in my environment anyway - I'd have to research that. Oh well, I have the PVR-350 now and need to try and make the best of it. I thought the price was really good - DOH! - but I have noticed now that I'm trying to set it up that drivers, plugins, 3rd party stuff, forum posts, and almost everything else related to the PVR-350 just about dies out in 2006.

It looks like I can output recorded video using the PVR-350 and an old utility called WinTVOut, but I don't think the remote will work with it. I guess I'll try to use GB-PVR until I update/install something that removes the functionality (making the remote useless for working with a TV display), and then use WinTVOut manually until somebody makes an improvement or I give up and get another card.

I do have one other option, but I'm not sure how it will look and need to try it and see. I have a PC to TV 2.4 GHz wireless converter. I guess I could take the PVRX2 output directly from the VGA display and input it to my TV using the RCA inputs. I've noted though that the video isn't usually very good.

If you zip and attach the logs covering the time period in question, and let me know the name and time of the show, I'm happy to take a look.

I REALLY appreciate this offer, but I've checked and the logs for the time period are all empty (0k). I don't know how often they're written or what causes them to stop/start a new file (please advise), but it looks like the event isn't in them. There are lots of log files with different names. Specifically, which log file would I examine if this happens again?

[sub]

This sucks. I feel like a dumb-ass for buying the wrong video card. I had researched DVR/PVR's on PC's, and GB-PVR running on the Hauppauge PVR-350 had good reviews. I assumed they were current and not 3 years old.

Sorry, but I've been very open with people about why PVR350 tv out support was dropped, and you'll find my posts about it going back a very long time now. I guess you just didnt come across the right posts.

REALLY appreciate this offer, but I've checked and the logs for the time period are all empty (0k). I don't know how often they're written or what causes them to stop/start a new file (please advise), but it looks like the event isn't in them. There are lots of log files with different names.

You may need to enable log flushing to make sure the log entries are flushed to disk.

Specifically, which log file would I examine if this happens again?

To be honest, it'd probably be pretty hard for you to spot what was happening, but it'd be in either GBPVRRecordingService.exe.log or GBPVRRecordingService.exe-native.log.

[remow]

Sub
(my first post) I understand that the TV OUT for the PVR 350 is not supported but will support for the 350 as a capture card be dropped as well?

[sub]

No. The PVR350 will continue to function fine as a capture device.

[geekdout]

I've seen a few posts about video output cards, but it didn't make sense to me until now as to why you'd need one with the PVR-350. If I bought a separate card for TV out to grab input from the PVR-350, would that solve my problem in being able to effectively use PVRX2 to drive TV's instead of GBPVR? Which cards are relatively cheap and preferred? I'm currently using the onboard video for my PC, and have only one PCI slot left in my chassis.