A number of questions in general and for HVR-1600

[sun4384]

I recently installed HVR-1600 and done setting it up for QAM (I think), and have a number of unresolved issues for which I need help.

1. Does version 1.1.5 require extra patch for HVR-1600? There seems to be several dll files that need to be updated, or not?

2. What is the necessary signal strength to watch a clear QAM channel? Using the WinTV Digital Signal Strength Indicator, I get around 31dB. Is this sufficient, or weak to cause other types of problems?

3. On a few channels I see green bars on top of the screen, which apparently looks like noise from corrupted digital signal. Does this have something to do with the not-good-enough signal, the faulty tuner, or something else?

4. When tuning a QAM channel by selecting it from TV Guide, GBPVR always tells me no signal is detected, showing 0% quality and 100% strength. Then it takes about 2~3 seconds for the quality to increase (to about 80%) and tune that channel. When changing channels from one to the other by using arrow keys, there is no delay. What can be the cause? Signal strength, or the driver?

5. My system (2GHz dual core, 2GB RAM, NVidia 6150 On-board graphic) doesn't seem to render HD channels smoothly, looking a bit choppy. Strangely, CPU usage remains very low below 20%. How can that happen? Does this mean the on-board graphic is the weak link? If so, can ATI eXpress 1250 on-board graphic chip (AMD 690G chip) handle HD channels without stuttering?

6. Any chance to tweak GBPVR just to watch TV without recording? Specifically when a channel is selected in the TV Guide, is it possible to directly tune that channel without showing a popup window? Will it be possible to change the font size and/or increase the number of rows (channels) in the TV Guide?

7. When closing PVRX2, sometimes the program exits but the screen is not refreshed, leaving the capture of blue theme on the screen. I'm using WMR9 Full Screen renderer. Can this be fixed somehow?

Ahhhh, a long list of questions....... I'll really appreciate any kind of advice.

[toboR]

6. Any chance to tweak GBPVR just to watch TV without recording? Specifically when a channel is selected in the TV Guide, is it possible to directly tune that channel without showing a popup window? Will it be possible to change the font size and/or increase the number of rows (channels) in the TV Guide?

To watch a channel that is selected in the guide, simply press the "Play" button (or ctrl-P).

The font size and number of rows can only be changed by editing the skin files. Most work in this area has been to reduce the number of lines and increase the font size, for better visibility on small screens.

toboR

[sub]

4. When tuning a QAM channel by selecting it from TV Guide, GBPVR always tells me no signal is detected, showing 0% quality and 100% strength. Then it takes about 2~3 seconds for the quality to increase (to about 80%) and tune that channel. When changing channels from one to the other by using arrow keys, there is no delay. What can be the cause? Signal strength, or the driver?

Try increasing the <NoSignalPopupDelay> setting in config.xml. Add a few seconds to it.

5. My system (2GHz dual core, 2GB RAM, NVidia 6150 On-board graphic) doesn't seem to render HD channels smoothly, looking a bit choppy. Strangely, CPU usage remains very low below 20%. How can that happen? Does this mean the on-board graphic is the weak link?

An nvidia 6600 or higher is generally recommended for HD channels.

7. When closing PVRX2, sometimes the program exits but the screen is not refreshed, leaving the capture of blue theme on the screen. I'm using WMR9 Full Screen renderer. Can this be fixed somehow?

Some users get this on XP with the Fullscreen Exclusive renderer. Sorry I dont have a fix for it.

[elbryyan]

I recently installed HVR-1600 and done setting it up for QAM (I think), and have a number of unresolved issues for which I need help.

5. My system (2GHz dual core, 2GB RAM, NVidia 6150 On-board graphic) doesn't seem to render HD channels smoothly, looking a bit choppy. Strangely, CPU usage remains very low below 20%. How can that happen? Does this mean the on-board graphic is the weak link? If so, can ATI eXpress 1250 on-board graphic chip (AMD 690G chip) handle HD channels without stuttering?

I've actually used the 6150 onboard graphics to display at least over the air HD/digital signals with relatively smooth playback. I'm not sure what motherboard you are using but I found that adding at least 128MB to the video shared memory in the bios seemed to give the best performance. I only had 1GB of system memory so if I added more than that it seemd to effect performance in other areas. It may also depend on the video decoder that you are using. I used Nvidia Purevideo with the hardware acceleration turned off, again when I had it on it did not perform as well. Hope that helps.

[sun4384]

I'm using MSI-K8NGM2-FID (a popular 939 socket micro-atx board). Yes, I allocated 128MB, which is the maximum, for the video memory. For the video decoder, I didn't see Purevideo in the list. Should that be manually installed? BTW, I installed the most recent NVidia video driver.

[sun4384]

Try increasing the <NoSignalPopupDelay> setting in config.xml. Add a few seconds to it.

Increase the setting? Actually my question was how to decrease or eliminate that tuning delay...

[sub]

The delay isnt GB-PVRs fault and it has no way to control how long it takes your device to startup. You can change how quickly it'll display the no signal popup though, so it wont popup the 'no signal' popup each time you start live tv.

[elbryyan]

I'm using MSI-K8NGM2-FID (a popular 939 socket micro-atx board). Yes, I allocated 128MB, which is the maximum, for the video memory. For the video decoder, I didn't see Purevideo in the list. Should that be manually installed? BTW, I installed the most recent NVidia video driver.

You have to purchase it and install it seperately from Nvidia. There is a 15 or 30 day trial so you can give it a try first to see if it helps.

[sun4384]

Does the PureVideo decoder use any GPU-specific features? So far, I wasn't able to watch HD channels without stuttering, but with GBPVR.exe (Overlay, not WMR9) and PureVideo codec, I can see HD channels smoothly. I'm surprised with the result...

Well the only problem is that GBPVR.exe is not supported anymore... I hope the bugs I found so far with GBPVR.exe are something that can be fixed with the dll update.

1. EPG update is not working well (not getting 4 days of update, manual update doesn't retrieve data)
2. Mouse Scroll does not work with Mini Guide (It works with TV Guide though).
3. Pressing Ctrl-Q in Live TV Mode does not actually pause the program.

[sub]

Does the PureVideo decoder use any GPU-specific features?

There is no reason why not.

Well the only problem is that GBPVR.exe is not supported anymore... I hope the bugs I found so far with GBPVR.exe are something that can be fixed with the dll update.

1. EPG update is not working well (not getting 4 days of update, manual update doesn't retrieve data)
2. Mouse Scroll does not work with Mini Guide (It works with TV Guide though).
3. Pressing Ctrl-Q in Live TV Mode does not actually pause the program.

Sorry - as you already know, GBPVR.exe is no longer supported.

If you hit the 'update epg' button in the config app, wait for it to complete, then post the config.exe.log and config.exe-native.log then I'll take a look. This should definitely be working.

The mouse doesnt scroll in the mini-guide. This was a feature that was never requested.