System freezes

[tchef]

Hello !

First of all I would like to say that the program looks superb. If I could get this program to work properly, it would be great. One program that handles all my needs for my htpc.

Though I have one major problem. When watching live TV or a recorded program, and have enabled my PVR-350 TV-Out, the system freezes compleatly, just to hit the power-button.

My system:
VIA EPIA-M 1GHz nemiaha
Hauppauge PVR-350
Win XP Home SP1 (Swedish)
Hauppauge driver :1.8.22020
Hauppauge Software MPEG Decoder 4.0.21154
VIA Drivers: 4in1_v_443.zip

/ Thomas

[sub]

I hate to say it, but alot of PVR350 users have freezes with certain motherboards (VIA being one of the problem chipsets). This seems to be driver related and also affects SageTV. Hopefully Hauppauge will release updated drivers that will cure the problem.

[tchef]

Outch, not a reply I wanted to read, but suspected. The VIA mini-itx mainboard seamed like a good choice at the time, but now after a while my feelings has changed, also for the poor quality of the drivers delivered from Hauppauge.

Could it be that some combination of VIA 4in1 drivers and Hauppauge drivers work better togheter. ´The problem would be to find out which ones. Do you have contact with other users with the same combination of M/B and 350-card ?

[sub]

Yes, it definitely worth trying different combinations of drivers (Hauppauge and VIA).

There has been a few people report locks up here with their PVR350. Locks up definitely happening within the driver, but I dont know why and dont have many avenues for investigation.

There has also been several posts on the sagetv forums, and also some on the shspvr.com forums. A recent one on this subject on the sage forums is http://forums.freytechnologies.com/forums....set+VIA

But there is hope, because some people dont have this problem. I dont think anyone clearly understand the problem, or can spot the pattern.

PS - I actually have VIA ME6000 and PVR350, but they're not connected as the PVR350 is in my development machine.

[tchef]

I have found new drivers: VIA's 4in1 4.51 (have 4.43 today) and see if it makes any difference.

I read your link, and it seems like the same problem that i have. One very interseting thing is that WinTV2K works perfectly, I have never had any problems with it. And it uses the same drivers. But with one difference: no OSD. On the forum, thay brought up the same issue, that is is the OSD in SageTV that maker 350's TV-Out to crash.

But when I tried Go-TV it also hanged when I enabled TV-OUT, and it doesn't use any OSD, but it could be a compleatly different problem.

Is it possible to turn off OSD in GB-PVR ?

[Dai]

Out of interest, how often do you get these freezes because I use a VIA ME6000 and PVR350 and don't have much problem with it in terms of locking up.

Dai

[sub]

tchef, unfortunately its not possible with the current software to turn off the OSD. Remember the OSD is more than just images over the playing video. Its also the menus screens with the PVR350.

[tchef]

I tried the new drivers yesterday, but it didn't help.

Dai: The system freezes only when I have enabled PVR-350 Output, and it happens after a few minutes. Often when changing channel, or pressing pause or something which causes some action from the OSD.

What drivers, os are you using ? I think our mainboards have the same chipsets, so they should behaive the same ?

Everything would be much easier if the EPIA-board would have a better TV-Out. But after you have seen the output from the 350, there is hard to face the fact that you must use the VIA TV-Out.

Sub: Yes, I understand that it's hard to turn of OSD when in TV-mode, thats it's the same machanism when in the menues. But I have never seen it crash when flibbering in the menues ?

[sub]

Quote[/b] ]Everything would be much easier if the EPIA-board would have a better TV-Out. But after you have seen the output from the 350, there is hard to face the fact that you must use the VIA TV-Out.

Yes, I'd have to agree with that.

Quote[/b] ]Sub: Yes, I understand that it's hard to turn of OSD when in TV-mode, thats it's the same machanism when in the menues. But I have never seen it crash when flibbering in the menues ?

I suspect its not causing as much stress on the chipset/decoder/DMA/driver/etc while showing menus, because the movie (black.mpg) playing in the background is paused - so only the relatively small data transfers for the menu images are being transferred to the device.

[tommo]

Hi - don't meant to throw a spanner in the works... but I'm getting the same system freezes with a Compaq SFF machine (Intel 810 chipset, not VIA).

First I wanna totally agree with Tchef:

Quote[/b] ] I would like to say that the program looks superb. If I could get this program to work properly, it would be great. One program that handles all my needs for my htpc.

I'm guessing it's a Hauppauge driver issue. I am also using 1.8.22020 as i had some troubles with 1.8.22037.

Only really occurs when changing channels in Live TV or using the mini-browser (which I love! - watching back recordings are ok.