Need advice on upgrade to HD-PVR...

[MeekMaster]

Currently I have an HVR-1600 that worked flawlessy on analog. Recently I upgraded my cable service to comcast HD. HVR-1600 no longer cuts it. Tonight I will be in posession of a brand new HD-PVR. Im looking for advice/guidance in how I should approach changing over without having to do a full system re-install.

From what I gather I should:
1: uninstall the HVR-1600 driver
2: uninstall hauppauge software(ir.exe and wintv included)
3: run hauppauge clear, HCWclear i think its called or something like that
4: reboot with HD-PVR connected
5: skip microsoft driver install wizard
6: install drivers and software(wintv and arcsoft)
7: final reboot, run config utility
8: assign as analog hi def plugin
9: epg is straight forward but this next step is where I get fuzzy

I have a firewire connection from my PC to my STB and it currently changes channels from a command prompt. This is accomplished with Tim Moores fireSTB package described here.

How do I set the channel changer to use firewire instead of a blaster?

Also, are there any steps I missed or other recommendations in this changeover? Any help would be much appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Mike

[zed]

When I installed mine I loaded the drivers (I don't remember if I ran the clear utility first but it probably wouldn't hurt...it'll remove ALL the Hauppauge stuff) and then, in GB-PVR config, just edited the existing capture definition (it was for a PVR-150) to be the analog high def and saved it. That's all I changed...I didn't touch the epg or channel changer stuff. I didn't install the arcsoft or other stuff, you don't need it if you're gonna use GB-PVR. It took about 15 mins and has been working fine ever since. It won't use the blaster unless you tell it to. You're probably better off not using the blaster anyway. Your existing changer should work just fine.

[MeekMaster]

When I installed mine I loaded the drivers (I don't remember if I ran the clear utility first but it probably wouldn't hurt...it'll remove ALL the Hauppauge stuff) and then, in GB-PVR config, just edited the existing capture definition (it was for a PVR-150) to be the analog high def and saved it. That's all I changed...I didn't touch the epg or channel changer stuff. I didn't install the arcsoft or other stuff, you don't need it if you're gonna use GB-PVR. It took about 15 mins and has been working fine ever since. It won't use the blaster unless you tell it to. You're probably better off not using the blaster anyway. Your existing changer should work just fine.

Well see that's the problem. I have FireWire working with command line only. I can't figure out how to set it up within gb-pvr.

[zed]

I don't use Firewire (I use HIP and an MS blaster) but this is how it's set up. I assume your command line will work this way as well. Some other folks in here use Firewire to change channels so maybe they'll weigh in if necessary...

In config, select the Capture Sources tab, highlight your recording source and click Edit. In Channel Changer, select '.exe Changer Plugin', then click Settings. You can enter your command line in the Executable box and any necessary parameters in the Parameters box. Then 'OK' as required to exit. Whenever you change channels for that capture source GB-PVR will run that command line, passing the channel number in the {channel} parameter.

You may also have to set 'Allow service to interact with desktop' in the Log On tab in the GB-PR Recording Service properties.

Just out of curiosity, what make & model STB do you have? I'd be interested in an alternative to HIP if it would work with my Scientific Atlanta 4240HDC box.

[MeekMaster]

I don't use Firewire (I use HIP and an MS blaster) but this is how it's set up. I assume your command line will work this way as well. Some other folks in here use Firewire to change channels so maybe they'll weigh in if necessary...

In config, select the Capture Sources tab, highlight your recording source and click Edit. In Channel Changer, select '.exe Changer Plugin', then click Settings. You can enter your command line in the Executable box and any necessary parameters in the Parameters box. Then 'OK' as required to exit. Whenever you change channels for that capture source GB-PVR will run that command line, passing the channel number in the {channel} parameter.

You may also have to set 'Allow service to interact with desktop' in the Log On tab in the GB-PR Recording Service properties.

Just out of curiosity, what make & model STB do you have? I'd be interested in an alternative to HIP if it would work with my Scientific Atlanta 4240HDC box.

zed, smajor is using a 4250HDC set top box and his is working fine. I was hoping he would chime in at some point and help me out. Maybe I should PM him. I am pretty sure if you have firewire on your stb and it is enabled(by service provider) then it should work as well. I am using a Motorola DCH3200 stb.
________________________________________________________________
My setup looks like this:

Channel changer:
.exe Changer Plugin
________________________________________________________________
and under channel changer settings I have:

executable:
C:\Program Files\Timmmoore\MCE 2005 STB Controller\channel.exe

parameters:
{channel}
________________________________________________________________

It seems like it should work but it doesnt. For the command line to work I can run the line that smajor specified in his post.

C:\channel -f -a0 2 300

Should I be entering any of this in the parameters field for channel changer settings? Total noob here, haha.

I installed my HD-PVR btw last night and selected all arcsoft decoders. With liveTV I get video and no sound. With recordings I get sound and no video, seems like I need to mess around with the decoder settings I guess. Im using the newest drivers from the Hauppauge support site.

[zed]

I think you'll need to supply the other parameters in the Parameters box. You should probably have
-f -a0 2 {channel}
in the parmeters box. I'm assuming that the last one is the channel.

You might also need to set the parameter on the GB-PVR Recording Service that I mentioned before.

I'm definitely not an expert on all this, I only know what works for me.

Others have reported similar sound and video problems elsewhere in the forums. You might want to look around to see if there are any solutions.

For me the HD-PVR was basically plug & play and it has worked well. Hopefully you'll have similar results once you get the kinks worked out.

Thanks for the info on the STB & Firewire. I'll see if I can get it working.

[MeekMaster]

I think you'll need to supply the other parameters in the Parameters box. You should probably have
-f -a0 2 {channel}
in the parmeters box. I'm assuming that the last one is the channel.

You might also need to set the parameter on the GB-PVR Recording Service that I mentioned before.

I'm definitely not an expert on all this, I only know what works for me.

Others have reported similar sound and video problems elsewhere in the forums. You might want to look around to see if there are any solutions.

For me the HD-PVR was basically plug & play and it has worked well. Hopefully you'll have similar results once you get the kinks worked out.

Thanks for the info on the STB & Firewire. I'll see if I can get it working.

Thanks zed, Ill try putting that in the parameters as soon as I get home from work. That seems like the missing link for me to get channel changing working. Now if I cold only get the audio and video to work in both livetv and recording.

Just for curiosity's sake, are you using the HDPVR for livetv? If so, which settings do you have for your playback decoders, I guess all of them if you can list them?

Maybe we HDPVR owners can make an official "what works for me" thread that lists decoder combinations, gbpvr version, driver version, component or optical audio, along with our usage(for ex. "livetv+recording" or "recording only"). Thoughts??

[zed]

No, I don't use it for live TV (that's what the TV is for ). I mostly record, watch later, and delete...nothing fancy.

The HD-PVR is connected to an HP box that's used exclusively for a video server, running GB-PVR. It does only capture and lives in a spare bedroom, out of sight. I have a cable STB dedicated to it. It also has an ATSC capture card (Twinhan) that I record stuff off the air with sometimes.

I usually play back using the Popcorn Hour (PCH) box connected to a Mitsubishi 65" HDTV. It works quite well and you don't have to dink around with video card, drivers, codecs, renderers, etc. Highly recommended...

I also have a PC GB-PVR client system connected to a 32" Viewsonic HDTV that I sometimes use (when the wife is watching the big TV). It has an ASUS motherboard (I forget exactly which one...M-78something) running an Athlon 5000+ dual-core cpu with the on-board HDMI output (essentially an ATI 3200) and it works pretty well (after a lot of dinking with codecs, rendereres, drivers, etc.). I run GB-PVR on XP on it with the EVR renderer and the Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8) for video and the ArcSoft Audio Decoder for audio.

[smajor]

Whoops, sorry I'm late to the party, holidays and all!

zed is correct, it was only an example: C:\channel -f -a0 2 300

...would tune to channel 300, I'd recommend making sure this works with your stb via the Command prompt before going with GB-PVR, once that is working, replace 300 with {channel} and GB-PVR will do the rest. I'm successfully using it for Live TV and recording.

Also, of note, the "2" in my example is my 4250's AV/C Panel Device in my device list. If you have OTHER tuners, yours could be 3, 4 or any other number. You can find it at the Command Prompt by typing: channel -v

Look for your device ID in the list and use it's number. If you ever remove/add/rearrange tuners and your channel changing breaks, it's likely it has a new number.

The -f (force) and -a0 flags were important to make the 4250 work for me.

As for AV, make sure you're using the latest Hauppauge drivers and that your audio type matches what GB-PVR is expecting (aac vs. ac3) - there are a bunch of threads around here that discuss that.

[paf077]

I can't even get the firestb package installed. msiexec keeps saying "the installation package could not be opened. verify that the package exist and that you can access it". What am I missing here.? I even put it in the root of C drive.

Thanks
Paul