HP USB Digital/Analog TV Tuner (Adding analog support)

[Awol]

I've been trying to get nextPVR recognize my Hp digital/analog hybrid for hours with no success so I've decided to ask for help. I want to use nextPvr for backend analog and xbmc for front end and im using windows 7 64bit.

Under Devices i have currently listed.
ATSC HP ATSC tuner
QAM HP ATSC tuner

I have followed the instructions as best i can for adding a analog tuner, this included trying to install WinTv 7.2 which would not install as i don't have the correct hardware installed, i also attemted the batch file SoftPVR_64bit method which didnt seem to work either.

I then followed the adding analog devise documentation and ran the FilterCheck utility.

then attempted to edit and add a devise in AnalogDevices.xml

Adding
<Device filter="HP Analog Capture">
<Name>HP Analog Capture</Name>
<Type>SOFT_ENCODE</Type>
</Device>

This has not worked and im wondering what i might be doing wrong, or if this card even supports analog on nextPvr,however i am able to tune to analog signals with windows media center, and the Hp preinstalled software..

Here is my log.. Thanks in advance for any help.


19:35:42.955 INFO Log started
19:35:42.956 INFO Filter Check v1.0
19:35:42.956 INFO
19:35:42.956 INFO
19:35:42.956 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_CAPTURE filters
19:35:42.976 INFO found: MicIn
19:35:42.983 INFO - (input) ADC
19:35:42.983 INFO - (output) Recording Control
19:35:42.983 INFO
19:35:42.984 INFO found: MuxedIn1
19:35:42.986 INFO - (input) ADC
19:35:42.986 INFO - (output) Recording Control
19:35:42.986 INFO
19:35:42.986 INFO found: HP Analog Capture
19:35:42.995 INFO - (output) Capture
19:35:42.995 INFO - (output) VBI
19:35:42.995 INFO - (output) Audio
19:35:42.995 INFO - (input) Analog Video In
19:35:42.995 INFO - (input) Analog Audioinput
19:35:42.995 INFO
19:35:42.996 INFO found: HP Webcam
19:35:42.999 INFO - (output) Capture
19:35:42.999 INFO - (input) Video Camera Terminal
19:35:42.999 INFO - (output) Still
19:35:42.999 INFO
19:35:42.999 INFO
19:35:42.999 INFO
19:35:42.999 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_ENCODER filters
19:35:43.000 INFO
19:35:43.000 INFO
19:35:43.000 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_MULTIPLEXER filters
19:35:43.001 INFO
19:35:43.001 INFO
19:35:43.001 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_CROSSBAR filters
19:35:43.003 INFO found: HP Analog Xbar
19:35:43.158 INFO - (input) 0: Video Tuner In
19:35:43.238 INFO - (input) 1: Audio Tuner In
19:35:43.238 INFO - (output) 0: Video Decoder Out
19:35:43.238 INFO - (output) 1: Audio Decoder Out
19:35:43.238 INFO
19:35:43.238 INFO
19:35:43.238 INFO
19:35:43.238 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_TVTUNER filters
19:35:43.240 INFO found: HP Analog TV Tuner
19:35:43.242 INFO - (output) Analog Video
19:35:43.242 INFO - (output) Analog Audio
19:35:43.242 INFO
19:35:43.242 INFO
19:35:43.242 INFO
19:35:43.242 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_TVAUDIO filters
19:35:43.244 INFO found: HP Analog TV Audio
19:35:43.245 INFO - (input) TVAudio In
19:35:43.245 INFO - (output) TVAudio Out
19:35:43.245 INFO
19:35:43.245 INFO
19:35:43.245 INFO
19:35:43.245 INFO Checking AM_KSCATEGORY_VBICODEC filters
19:35:43.246 INFO
19:35:43.246 INFO
19:35:43.246 INFO Checking KSCATEGORY_BDA_NETWORK_TUNER filters
19:35:43.248 INFO found: HP ATSC Tuner
19:35:43.250 INFO - (input) Input0
19:35:43.250 INFO - (output) MPEG2 Transport
19:35:43.250 INFO
19:35:43.250 INFO
19:35:43.250 INFO
19:35:43.250 INFO Checking KSCATEGORY_BDA_RECEIVER_COMPONENT filters
19:35:43.253 INFO found: HP Digital Capture
19:35:43.254 INFO - (input) MPEG2 Transport
19:35:43.254 INFO - (output) MPEG2 Transport
19:35:43.254 INFO

[johnsonx42]

Your AnalogDevices.xml entry looks right. However, no analog functionality will work until you get SoftPVR installed. In fact, when NextPVR doesn't find SoftPVR, it actually disables all analog support, so you won't even see the device in the list. You will see a line to this effect in either NextPVR.log or NRecord.log.

Note that the batch file posted in the wiki needs to be edited to match the exact filename of your WinTV download; the version it was written for no longer exists. All the batch file does is extract the WinTV download, then extracts another file within it, then copies out and registers the Hauppauge/Mainconcept mux, video encoder and audio encoder. You can do it all manually if you follow what the batch file does.

Once you've successfully installed SoftPVR, if your analog device still doesn't show up then post your logs and we'll take a look.

[johnsonx42]

Also, make SURE you run that batch file as Administrator. That batch file sticks stuff in c:\Program Files(x86)\NPVR.... I'm not a fan of that, but it will work fine as long as you're an administrator when you do it.

edit: I see the wiki also instructs you to manually create C:\Program Files(x86)\NPVR\SoftPVR. You may need to be an administrator when you create that folder, AND when you copy the WinTV7 download into that folder. Maybe you just have UAC turned off, so none of that matters? I know I'm not supposed to gripe about the wiki instructions when I've been unwilling to contribute to it, but good grief that's awful. Couldn't we just use C:\SoftPVR?

[Awol]

Thank you very much for your quick response, i have now edited the batch file and manged to move on and install support for analog, it now displays Hp analog in devises
Currently doing a full scan and seems to be working, now to set up the xbmc plugin, and again thanks for the help..god knows how long id have been up if i didnt ask questions, I will probably be asking more in the future.

[Awol]

Ok after a full scan, i have a few channels found but when i try and play them it says unable to communicate with recording service, iv tried disabling my firewall and allowed nextpvr to be accessed. How can i resolve this issue/?

[mikeh49]

Does the recording service problem occur within NPVR? I'd recommend getting everything working within NPVR before moving on to XBMC. Make sure the recording service is running, run services.msc and restart if needed. Also, the NPVR group on the start menu includes items to stop and start the recording service. You will also need to allow nrecord.exe and ndigitalhost.exe through the firewall. However, the firewall should not be an issue if npvr and the tuner is on the same machine. It might be worthwhile to reboot after installing and configuring to ensure a clean start.

NPVR (the user interface program) communicates with the recording service (the program that produces recordings or live TV via the tuner) using TCP, so they can be on separate machines. It's best to get it all working in one machine before moving on to more complex arrangements. I don't think the firewall applies if your on one machine.

The standard response will be to post logs, see the getting started sticky for their location. Just zip all the files in the logs folder.

[Awol]

I seem to have fixed the recording service issue, the service itself did not seem to be starting as i was looking for it in task manager and it said stopped. So i right clicked and started it and it seemed to have worked, however i have noticed that sometimes i do need to manually, start this service in task manager rather than it being started automatically.

Setting up Xbmc and the plugin was pretty easy and it worked first time for me although has crashed a few times, i had to install a patch to enable pausing and the seeking feature, which is now working, however i was wondering if it was possible to change the buffering size to slightly higher as what seems to cause a crash sometimes is to little cache, i am not sure if that is a xmbc related issue, i know in the older builds of xbmc it did allow you to change the cache buffering size, but feature seems to have been taken out.

An issue i have noticed is in recording, in that once a recording is started everything seems to work well, however when stopping the record and even exiting xbmc the recording continues until such time as the service is killed, i am not sure how to solve this?

Another question, Is i have xbmc installed on multiple machines including a android devise and i can get each of them to tune into the Tv tuner but only one can tune in at a time, i am wondering if it is possible to host and connect to multiple connections and multiple machines at the same time? As that would be awesome.

Otherwise using this backend Live TV on xbmc has improved my media experience.

[sub]

Another question, Is i have xbmc installed on multiple machines including a android devise and i can get each of them to tune into the Tv tuner but only one can tune in at a time, i am wondering if it is possible to host and connect to multiple connections and multiple machines at the same time? As that would be awesome.

You can already have multiple clients connected at the same time. Analog tuners can only be doing one thing at a time though, so if you wanted to watch analog live tv on three clients, then you'd need three tuners.

Digital tuners work differently, and you can have multiple clients all watching the same channel, or other channels on the same frequency, all sharing the same tuner.

[Awol]

Oh right thanks that explains that then, I am currently have to tune into analog which would explain why i get the msg, tuner busy. It is nice to know that this has been solved for digital viewing which i will likely be using in the future. it would be nice to stream to multiple analog but i guess that not possible due to hardware limitations?

i guess i just need to find out why my recording doesn't stop recording and id have a pretty stable analog PVR system.

[steeb]

Also, make SURE you run that batch file as Administrator. That batch file sticks stuff in c:\Program Files(x86)\NPVR.... I'm not a fan of that, but it will work fine as long as you're an administrator when you do it.

edit: I see the wiki also instructs you to manually create C:\Program Files(x86)\NPVR\SoftPVR. You may need to be an administrator when you create that folder, AND when you copy the WinTV7 download into that folder. Maybe you just have UAC turned off, so none of that matters? I know I'm not supposed to gripe about the wiki instructions when I've been unwilling to contribute to it, but good grief that's awful. Couldn't we just use C:\SoftPVR?

Oooh oooh,

I've been keeping my hands off replying to this post since I saw it a few days ago

But then I had to delve!

You are not griping about the wiki Dav.... uhhhm Mr Johnson. Some part's of it are not truly clear!

I offer the wiki fingerless glove to you. There are many improvements that could be made

Just not many wiki author's out there at the moment :eek:

I feel well responsible for this page as I even wrote a script that ignored the WinTV7 version but there were complications with how sub feels about how SoftPVR is implemented within NextPVR?

Please give guidance. I would love to make this wiki page more explanatory.

And while I have the chance thanks again, as usual for all the patch threads, that is hard work!

cheers

steeb