150 & 150mce: one records fine, one doesn't

[BC1]

I started with a pvr150 and the recordings were fine. I added a pvr150mce and when I record two shows, one records fine and the other is very fuzzy but has audio (sort of like cable hrc mode). While recording one show and watching the other, live tv looks fine and recording is fine. I tried driver updates, original cd drivers, tuning assistant, and hair pulling. I'm on version 0.96.8 (a bit hesitant to go to .net v2 versions of gbpvr since it works otherwise and wife loves it). Any hints at a solution are appreciated. In the US with analog cable. Thanks for the great software sub.

[sub]

Maybe weak signal after adding a cable splitter?

Can you post a screenshot? Its usually pretty obvious if it looks like bad reception.

[BC1]

I actually hooked up a tv to both cables and the reception is fine, so that rules out the splitter or cables.

I'm not sure if these details relate but:
--Capture Card #1 is set to 150; Capture Card #2 set to 150MCE.
--Unplugging cable tv wire from 150 with 150MCE plugged in and live TV via GBPVR is fine but doesn't work through WinTV2000 (so gbpvr is using the 150MCE apparently); unplugging 150MCE with 150 plugged in and live TV doesn't work through GBPVR but does through WinTV2000 (which apparently is using the 150.
--both cards are using the same driver.
--are there config parameters for the 150/150mce cards that might need to be set in the registry or elsewhere?
--cable channel 38 works through WinTV2000 but not through GBPVR. All the other channels seem to work fine in both (at least the channels I'd be recording).
--could it be my system can't encode and save 2 shows at once? (athlon 2900+, 1gig ram; 2-250 gig hd)
--screen image attached; recorded 2 shows at once and one was fine, this one wasn't.

Thanks sub. My wife is guaranteeing a $50 contribution if I can get this working (pregnant with kid 2, so I do as I'm told).

[sub]

Yeah, that picture looks like bad reception. (ie, doesnt look like a decoder issue etc) That may not be because of bad signal quality though. It could be a bug in the Hauppauge drivers causing the it to not lock the correct frequency, or some other reason the hardware is not locking on.

Sorry, I dont really have a suggestion on what exactly you should do to resolve this.

I actually hooked up a tv to both cables and the reception is fine, so that rules out the splitter or cables.

No, not necessarily. Not all tuners are created equal. Some tuners are better at locking onto a weak signal.

--cable channel 38 works through WinTV2000 but not through GBPVR. All the other channels seem to work fine in both (at least the channels I'd be recording).

That could be a sign that you've run some TV software that has a adjusted the Microsoft tuning override registry settings? This would affect directshow apps like GB-PVR, but not WinTV2000, since it doesnt use the normal directshow tuning.

[BC1]

Thanks for the ideas Sub.

The strange thing is that the 150mce works fine in recording and both cards are using the same driver. So, I removed the 150 and put in my main computer. My main computer has a different software set and I encountered the same problem: the tuner works in wintv2000 but not in GBPVR. I really don't have any other video software installed beyond the base xp install. Also, I tried the tuning assistant and it locks in on fuzzy channels -- the same that GBPVR picks up on.

It still seems strange that the 150mce works great and the 150 doesn't. At a loss and appreciate any comments from the forum.

[rob_z11]

I do have the similar problem, but my viewing TV is fuzzy with WinTV or GBPVR. I changed the spliter, cables and redid the cable connection, but still the same fuzzy picture.

I did the driver update with Hauppauge using new Beta driver, and still did not fix the problem.

I have two PVR-150 card which I bought at two different time. 1st one I bought developed Audio Problem in which some cable channel, I loose the audio, so I ended up doing the RMA, and that is the newest card I have now.

2nd Card I bought after the 1st one now is having problem. If I remove this card from my PC, everything works fine with one card in the PC. No fuzzyness, or no poor picture, and recording and watching TV works great with WinTV, GBPVR and also with MVP.

I am thinking that 2nd card I bought has developed some sort of problem, and I have received RMA number to fix the issues I am having.

Eversince I have removed this card, I have not missed any recordings, and my TV viewing works awsome without any degradation in picture quality.

Once I get the card back, I will put it back in to see if the probelm was due to bad card. I could not even get the WinTV Remote Control to work when I had this card in my PC.

HOpe this helps. I am going to wait until I get the replacement.

[TuckerTFT]

I have just started experiencing the same problem with my PVR-150 card within GBPVR. Some channels will record and play in LiveTV fine, but most show a very fuzzy picture and have no sound. Some have complete snow and play white noise (as if the cable is removed).

The PVR-150 MCE works perfectly though.

So, in testing this by disabling (via Device Manager) each device alternatively I have positively determined that both cards play TV flawlessly through WinTV 2000. So, I know its not the cards nor the drivers, so I'm thinking that all of a sudden the decoder being used by GBPVR is somehow not working with respect to the PVR-150.

Any ideas as to what to do to test this theory.

This is a very frustrating problem as everything was working great this past weekend and somehow on Tuesday the use of teh PVR-150 in GBPVR went south.

Additional Notes:

(1) When I try a similar test as stated above within GBPVR, by removing cards (capture devices) from the config alternately, I am able further able to verify that the PVR-150 MCE works fine and the PVR-150 has the same issues.

(2) I did try restoring the entire GBPVR folder from a time that I know all was good. Same issues.

(3) There have been no changes to my system since the last time both cards were receiving successfully (last weekedn) ... not even Windows Update.

[levy01]

I've been experiencing the same situation for a few months now but haven't had the time to play with it until now.

In hopes to get it fixed, I removed all PVR150 and PVR150MCE drivers, removed GBPVR, rebooted, installed the PVR drivers for the PVR150, with direct Analog cable from the wall to the PVR150 and installed GBPVR 99.5

Same problem ! Live TV plays just fine through WinTV2000 but not on GBPVR, UNLESS I leave WinTV2000 open the whole time and minimizing it.

Any ideas ?

[jvcleave]

I am having similar issues. The system has worked fine using a 150 and PVR usb2 but recently certain channels (30-54 Time warner Cincinnati analog) are fuzzy/no audio when recording/viewing on the 150. The PVR USB2 is fine.

So far i have:

• installed a cable amplifier.
  
• plugged the cable from the wall directly into the 150
  
• updated the 150 drivers
  

Whats weird is in flipping channels in LiveTV mode that for a split second the 150 looks ok but quickly goes to the fuzziness which sounds like the 150 is not locking into the signal.

I am going to try a friends 150 soon but would love any insight if anyone has solved this through software

Status Update: I shut the machine down as I wrote this. Rebooted and the signal is looking good on the 150. Today is the day i added the cable amplifier so i don't know whether it was some of that and the shutdown time but it is looking better.

[flyswatta]

What happens if you record both at the same time (ie. don't watch live tv)? Do both recordings look good? Also, I had reception issues when I had analog cable - sometimes the picture was great, and sometimes it sucked). This problem started when I added my second 150MCE. Eventually I found an inline splice outside the house that was corroded in the threads. I replaced the splice and that solved my problem.

It's probably not that issue since so many are having this problem, but it's something easy to check.