Setting NPVR up

[saitoh183]

Hi everyone,

So this is my first step into the PVR world and i have been trying stuff out but nothing seems to be working and all the reading i have done on the forum is not helping much because i just dont know where to start. Here is my setup and what i have done.

Setup:
Location: Montreal, Canada
STB: HD8300 (with Videotron)
Card: Hauppauge Colossus (connected with Component + SPIDF to HD8300)
Unplugged HDMI from HD8300
Remove old Shark007 codec pack
Windows: 7x64
Media Center: XBMC

What i have done so far:
Installed Colossus with latest drivers (rebooted PC)
Installed NPVR
Signed up to Schedule Direct for EPG and added Videotron as Lineup
Added a channel 19 (602 19 45867 CBFTDT CBFTDT (CBFT-DT) ) or should it be 602 Logical Channel?
Associated the Channel to SD and was able to see it in TV guide

Problems:
Live TV is a black screen(Must be a decoder issue)
SPIDF doesnt stay for device setting.Always falls back to RGB.


Questions:
Do i need a codec pack, if so, which do you recommend?
How do i get SPIDF to stay in settings under Devices?
How should i setup my decoder section to get video and sound?
Since my goal is to use XBMC as frontend, do i need to configure the IRBlaster if im already using a IR (HA-IR01SV) for my Harmony Remote
Do i need to install the software that comes with the Colossus (Win7TV..i think its called)


Thanks in advance for the help

[mvallevand]

The IR Blaster is needed to tune channels on the STB. I have the 8300 to and tune it with firewire but you can't because you run 64bit.

You should nstall all the patches generally, but especially true with the Colossus.

I like k-lite codec pack and use ffdshow for audio and video from my hdpvr.

Martin

[mikeh49]

I deviate from Martin a bit with my recommendation to use the Microsoft DTV/DVD video decoder that comes with Win7 and AC3 filter audio decoder for the MPEG1 and AC3 decoders. This works very well for me in the US. You can move to ffdshow later if you want/need the additional features. I'm not a big fan of codec packs, especially if you just want recorded TV.

If you install WinTV 7, it will add the blaster program that NPVR can use to tune the STB. You'll need the blaster that plugs into the Colossus card (I don't know if one comes with every version of the Colossus).

There seem to be some issues with setting up SPDIF on the Colossus that need a specific sequencing in the setup. Search the NPVR support forum for Colossus and SPDIF. I think sub provided the guidance to sort it out recently.

[johnsonx42]

I believe you'll need the R1 patch, plus patches 15, 16 & 34. 34 is actually the same file as 15, so you can skip that one (but you may wish to read the comments for those patches). If you wish, there will be an R2 patch update within a day or so that will have all the latest files.

[saitoh183]

I believe you'll need the R1 patch, plus patches 15, 16 & 34. 34 is actually the same file as 15, so you can skip that one (but you may wish to read the comments for those patches). If you wish, there will be an R2 patch update within a day or so that will have all the latest files.

Question, NShared.dll..do we need only the latest one. Like Patch #35 seems to have been from yesterday, so does that mean it contains all fixes done in all the previous patches that have to do with NShared.dll?

Also I have finally got this working (not really sure how) but i installed SAF codec pack then installed AC3filter and patch 22,34 and 16. Video was very choppy but i think that was due to the audio being used (ACC). Once i was able to get it to use AC3Filter, video was smooth using EVD in NPVR. Now to test XBMC...

[johnsonx42]

yes, only the latest nshared.dll is needed; the files aren't really patches in the usual sense, they're just replacement program & .dll files; I'm not sure exactly how we got started calling them patches... I guess sub is 'patching' his code? as long as I've been here sub has called them patches, so that's what I call them.

Glad to hear you got things working.

[saitoh183]

XBMC addon seems to work, but Pausing Live or recorded TV seems to be a issue..For recorded TV, i need to press lots of times to get it to un-pause or pause. If i FF, it pauses once i hit play to stop. As for image quality, its not the greatest but i guess i cant get it any better. STB says 1080i so im guessing its showing at 1080i...wonder if 720p would be nicer (still dont know how i could change that). I still have to figure out how to use the IRblaster in conjuction with my current USB one.

[mvallevand]

You are using SD analog so you need to make sure that you enable deinterlacing in XBMC.. That should make the 480i look better.

Timeshifting in XBMC is work in progress and there isn't much sub can do about it.

Martin

[saitoh183]

For some reason audio stop working and its back to
audio renderer now AAC

How can i change it to AC3Filter?

I didnt change anthing since last night...woke up turned on TV started live TV and no sound...

Here is my log and config.xml

[mvallevand]

The audio source file is AAC, so configuring it to AC3 wouldn't help. You have to make sure that you have all the patches installed and you might need to red channels to get AC3 input working.

Martin