"Device failed to lock a signal"

[Joram]

My STB/Hauppauge HDPVR/NextPVR setup ran smooth as a cat's fur until this weekend when the MLB Division Series began. Throughout the baseball regular season, it worked so reliably that when it came time for the playoffs there was no thought of verifying the new recordings.

But when I looked this morning out of curiosity, I discovered that the weekend's playoff games had not recorded. The error message given in Web NPVR goes as follows:

[Failed: No errors, but no data delivered. This is usually because the device failed to lock a signal."]

When I try to tune a channel, the NPVR GUI displays either "please wait" (usually) or "Unable to find capture device" (once or twice).

Curiously, with the TV set to the TV's HDMI input for the STB, when I change channels via NPVR the new channel is displayed on the TV itself, but not on the laptop screen, where the NPVR GUI shows one of the above messages.

Hoping for a simple solution, I've taken the following steps:

• Closing and relaunching NPVR.
  
• Power-cycling the PC.
  
• Power-cycling the HDPVR 2 1512.
  
• Power-cycling the STB to which the HDPVR is connected.
  

None of this has helped.

Something seems to have happened somewhere along the device chain between October 1 (the date of the last successful recording) and October 3 (when the ALDS and NLDS started). I'm attaching the log file, in the hope that they will help someone knowledgeable about these things to pinpoint the cause of the problem.

Thank you in advance for any insights or suggestions.

[mvallevand]

Check with the Hauppauge software that you can record from the device. Maybe check cables to the splitter.

Your rules are messed up too, you tried to record it twice.

2026-10-04 19:58:00.132 [DEBUG][10] About to start recording (2555 on 21): D:\MediaPVR Public Videos\MLB Baseball\MLB Baseball_20261004_20002300.ts
2026-10-04 19:58:06.114 [DEBUG][10] About to start recording (2560 on 21): D:\MediaPVR Public Videos\MLB Baseball\MLB Baseball_20261004_20002300-0.ts

To tell you the truth I don't know if that does something to the drivers but I would definitely power off and wait after that.

Martin

[Joram]

Thank you greatly, Martin. I've tried most of the suggestions and here are the notes:

The Hauppauge Capture software isn't working, either. Last week I could use it to view a recorded game from the DVR on the NPVR laptop, but this week it, too, is not working. Nor is WinTV managing to tune to a channel.

Checked all the HDMI cable connections starting from the STB, through the splitter, to the Hauppauge. Everything seems to be securely connected. Maybe disconnect and reconnect?

It looks like I might have set to record that October 4 game twice (whoops!). But then I'm not sure why recordings made prior to it might also fail.

Am currently installing Windows updates for the laptop, will try to tune a channel after it restarts.

Thanks again!

[mvallevand]

You need to get the Hauppauge software working again so focus on that.

The double recordings wouldn't have caused a serious problem, just put things into an unknown state.

Martin

[Joram]

OK, I downloaded the latest version of Hauppauge Capture and installed it. (FWIW, did not see a download link for WinTV, although to be fair I was in a bit of a rush.)

After rebooting, there has been no improvement. WinTV gets "No signal," and Capture keeps claiming that it's detected the audio source has changed (??) and asks to reboot (for the umpteenth time).

The HDPVR2 itself appears to be working, as it lights up blue.

[mvallevand]

Take the HDPVR out of the equation and plug the HDMI out into your TV and make sure that still works.

Certainly yesterday and today there where issues where the HDPVR didn't see video

2026-10-04 19:58:01.873 [DEBUG][4] Device reports resolution(2): 0x0 (fps:0) (aspect:0) (progressive:1) (videoIdCode:0)

But Live TV appears to have worked after the reboot.

Martin

[sub]

Yeah, try that HDMI into a TV. If it works, they may have turned on HDCP on the set top box. ie content protection. A way around that is using one of the HDMI splitters that conveniently also remove HDCP.