Npvr hdhomerun prime only get black screen

[CORRUPT27]

Good Day Guys,

So i broke down and bought a HDHOMERUN Prime. I was very excited but i cant get the NPVR to access the channels. I am running the latest version on NPVR and WINDOWS XP and FIOS

So i have the devices type hdhr, atsc and qam for the 3 tuners. If i search on atsc and qam it finds nothing, but the hdhr SCAN finds all the channels. But when accessing the live channel i get nothing. No video or audio just a black screen. I searched the forums for help. I changed all the renders and decoders. Exiting out of npvr and restarting to see if the change fixed the issue. No luck =(

The hdhomerun quicktv works and also vlc works but not npvr. Can someone please help me? Is it because i am running XP?

THANK YOU

[Zeb]

You need to allow NextPVR.exe and NRecord.exe through the firewall. You will also need to enable decoders for MPEG2 video and AC3 audio. What choices do you currently have under MPEG2?

[CORRUPT27]

Hi Zeb,

I wish that was the answer. I am not using a firewall. It is disabled. I double checked to make sure. The choices i have to decode MPEG2 are ffdshow, Lav Video, Decoder, pctv systems mpeg 2 decoder and pctv systems mpeg 2/avc multiplexer. Maybe i am missing a decoder?
thanks for the help

[mvallevand]

Is it because i am running XP?

Maybe. I didn't think that XP and CableCard got along.

Martin

[Zeb]

Hello again CORRUPT27. Martin might have a point, but you're getting pretty good results with quicktv and vlc right? Of course not every XP machine was HD-capable in terms of hardware. If you want to give this the old college try (after all it's free), I suggest that you try a short recording with NextPVR - being sure that other applications aren't using the tuner. Any recording larger than 0 bytes would suggest that decoders and/or renderers are the problem.

Some members are using ffdshow for MPEG2, however I'm not one of them. Here's a thread in which a user running XP got ffdshow working several weeks ago:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post457284

LAV Video Decoder might perhaps be simpler, but it is reportedly not very good (although their audio decoder is pretty good). I'm trying NOT to suggest installing the entire SAF6 decoder pack "unlocked" if at all possible. If you can get a picture but no audio, then I would recommend AC3Filter (http://www.ac3filter.net/), a free download that I'm using myself under Vista. I recall an XP user reporting success with it about a month ago. But if you turn around and install SAF6, then you would reportedly have to uninstall AC3Filter.

For video renderer, EVR and VMR9 are both worth a try.

Do the HDHR type devices detect all the channels you subscribe to, or is the number significantly less? I haven't heard whether FIOS is good or bad about flagging channels "copy-once."

[CORRUPT27]

Thanks guys for the help.

Ok i tried the recording but all i get is zero files. I guess its not working. I am not sure.

Correct if i change my application in the hdhomerun setup program to use vlc it works beautifully also quicktv. But nothing from NPVR.

In my device i have the type HDHR and i get 422 channels which sounds correct.

Question when i scan the HDHR channels scan the channels comeup right away. It doesnt seem to look for the channel is this normal?

Ok i am going to test with Argus tv and see how that treats it.

I have a question starting from the beginning

When i ran the HDHOMERUN SETUP I selected the application of NPVR. Then in the hdhomerun setup i clicked on the cable card tab and scanned.

then i went into npvr and sow that i had 3 options per tuner HDHR, atsc and a qam. i ran the scan in the hdhr type and it automaticly filled with the channels.

maybe i did something wrong?

[Zeb]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it sounds like you need to allow NextPVR.exe and NRecord.exe through the firewall. Decoders are not needed to record. This forum is littered with threads in which new users say "the firewall is disabled" when informed that NextPVR needs firewall exceptions in order to communicate with their network device. (Of course typical tuner cards and USB sticks do not require firewall exceptions.) Two or three days later when they finally create firewall rules, problem solved. Granted, there might possibly be another explanation. Can VLC receive every channel? Any channel that VLC cannot receive would not be a good choice for a test recording. Are you certain that no application anywhere on the network was using the tuner when you tried to record? BTW have you set up a client machine?

I'll look for old HDHomerun/XP threads tomorrow to see if I can come up with anything. Of course if you have a Windows 7 machine around the house, you might want to try that one instead.

[Edit] If you had no cablecard, device type QAM could be used to receive unencrypted digital cable channels and type ATSC to receive OTA channels via antenna.

[whurlston]

With the original HDHR, you need to add firewall exceptions for NextPVR.exe, NRecord.exe and NDigitalHost.exe. I'm not sure if NDigitalHost.exe is needed for the Prime or not.

One question, can you see the channel changes working on the Prime (through the webpage) when you change channels in NextPVR?

Also, it might help if you zip and post your logs.

[Zeb]

I'm glad whurlston has seen this thread! According to sub, NDigitalHost.exe is not needed for the Prime (but it couldn't hurt): http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post455885

It occurs to me that if Windows Firewall was disabled long ago, the reason was probably to enable an anti-virus firewall, since two firewalls can conflict with each other.

I never asked if you saw the Wiki page regarding prerequisites: http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...requisites

I especially wonder if you have installed Microsoft.NET Runtime 2.0? I should mention that the next version of NPVR will reportedly use .NET 4.0, and might be available in a few weeks.

And yes, I was remiss in not requesting logs by now. For XP, I believe they should be at C:\documents and settings\all users\application data\npvr\logs. You could send the entire logs folder to a zipped folder by right-clicking, then attach it to a post by pressing "Go Advanced" and then the paperclip button. BTW the data folder isn't automatically deleted when you uninstall.

In case you can get a recording larger than 0 bytes, here's another post about setting up ffdshow: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post458074

[sub]

I'd agree, doing a recording will help narrow down the cause. If you end up with a zero byte file, then it sounds like you've still got some firewall or anti-virus software getting in the way of communication. If you get a valid file size, and can play it in other players like VLC, then it sounds like a decoder setting problem in NextPVR.