two tuners problem

[phillyjim]

I had pvr-150 installed and running great with comskip working almost to perfection. We could watch while another recording was going. We were very happy. Then I guess I got greedy. I added 512MB ram to bring it to 2G.
I installed hvr-1600 hoping to get 3 recordings. Problems ever since.

Now I would be happy with 2 working--I gave up on the digital side of hvr 1600. But, I am even thinking of going back to the pvr-150.

I am having difficulty getting two good recordings. Comskip doesn't work smoothly all the time so most of the 2nd recordings (when they come thru) are not worth watching. If we are recording even one we can't watch any ready recordings because they "surge." Not sure if that is "stuttering" or not, but, we get a second or two of action, a pause, then another second or two of action, another pause, etc,

Running filtercheck shows Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture and Hauppauge winTV 418 Capture

I just ran DeviceTypeCheck to see the device numbers and the report says INFO Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture model 26132. Then VERBOSE failed to locate filter: Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture
Failed to find requested device: Hauppage PVR150 (instance 2)

Help

[zehd]

I had pvr-150 installed and running great with comskip working almost to perfection. We could watch while another recording was going. We were very happy. Then I guess I got greedy. I added 512MB ram to bring it to 2G.
I installed hvr-1600 hoping to get 3 recordings. Problems ever since.

Now I would be happy with 2 working--I gave up on the digital side of hvr 1600. But, I am even thinking of going back to the pvr-150.

I am having difficulty getting two good recordings. Comskip doesn't work smoothly all the time so most of the 2nd recordings (when they come thru) are not worth watching. If we are recording even one we can't watch any ready recordings because they "surge." Not sure if that is "stuttering" or not, but, we get a second or two of action, a pause, then another second or two of action, another pause, etc,

Running filtercheck shows Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture and Hauppauge winTV 418 Capture

I just ran DeviceTypeCheck to see the device numbers and the report says INFO Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture model 26132. Then VERBOSE failed to locate filter: Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture
Failed to find requested device: Hauppage PVR150 (instance 2)

Help

try and retime the recordings. If you get a playable video then you probably have the Timestamp issue. That could have been becuase of the similarities to the analog 1600 and the 150s driver, something could have messed the driver...

You might set comskip to run after the recording rather than in parallel, and see if that works. Also, you might try not running comskip at all, and see if two recordings record ok

[sub]

Did you set the device numbers correctly? Both the PVR150 and HVR1600 would be device #1.

[phillyjim]

I thought about running comskip manually sometime after the recording. That way I could run each program individually. I have it set to run ASAP now and I assume it does all (or try to do all) at the same time.

If I don't get a good "timeline" I will rerun comskip manually after deleting the comskip files in the recording directory. Sometimes I end up with a watchable recording and other times not. No consistency.

Are you suggesting program recording manually instead of using the TV Guide?

Both devices are set to #1. I thought that might be a problem but if I tried to change to other numbers, I got a message that I didn't have device drivers loaded.

[sub]

Try using the devices, then zip and attach the logs and I'll take a look.

[zehd]

I thought about running comskip manually sometime after the recording. That way I could run each program individually. I have it set to run ASAP now and I assume it does all (or try to do all) at the same time.

If I don't get a good "timeline" I will rerun comskip manually after deleting the comskip files in the recording directory. Sometimes I end up with a watchable recording and other times not. No consistency.

Are you suggesting program recording manually instead of using the TV Guide?

Both devices are set to #1. I thought that might be a problem but if I tried to change to other numbers, I got a message that I didn't have device drivers loaded.

first of all if you have comskip running post recording, and there are two shows ending at the same time, gbpvr will run them sequentially

And comski will not be affecting whether you have a timestamp issue (if that's what it is.

It could be Hard drive fregmentation, but I don't think so.

I had suggested, setting your recordings as usual (with the TV Guide or whatever), but set it so comskip does not run at all, whether it be parallel or Post

And when I said retime, I meant using a retime tool (as in on the wiki)

A retime tool is like tearing the sprokets off a strip of film, and then punching new sprockets

Personally I like Video Redo as my retime, but mencoder and ffmpeg work OK

[phillyjim]

I took the automatic comskip off. I have it set to record two half hour shows in a few minutes so I should (hopefully) have something soon. I will zip the logs and forward them along with a report of what I see.

After getting the stuttering or surging or whathaveyou, I did a defrag the othre day but that didn't solve that problem. Only about 25% of the hd is used.

I just tried to watch live tv from the main menu and also from tv guide and it just popped back to main menu each time.

WinTV opens live tv but not on the channels recording. Hopefully that doesn't mess up the logs. Let me know if I should set up another record session that I don't interfere with.

[HarryH3]

As I recall, comskip has a "playnice" switch that you can set which will force comskip to run slower and not use up all your system resources. Setting that may help as comskip really bangs on the disk i/o channel as well as the CPU.

[phillyjim]

Well, neither recording worked at 5:30 one directory was empty and the other had a couple of text files.

I went thru the config again and set two more programs for 6:30. This time when I checked live tv on GBPVR, it was there.

If (when) I get this recording issue resolved, I will check comskp switches. Maybe just set it to do it overnite.

With only one card I didn't notice Comskip hogging resources, but with two cards it is noticeable. Should GBPVR use a lot of resources?

[zehd]

Well, neither recording worked at 5:30 one directory was empty and the other had a couple of text files.

I went thru the config again and set two more programs for 6:30. This time when I checked live tv on GBPVR, it was there.

If (when) I get this recording issue resolved, I will check comskp switches. Maybe just set it to do it overnite.

With only one card I didn't notice Comskip hogging resources, but with two cards it is noticeable. Should GBPVR use a lot of resources?

If I read right, you have two 150s and one 1600

If you have both 150s, then you would have them set to different device numbers number 1 and 2.

For the sole 1600 it would be device 1