Installation problem of HVR-1250 in Vista x64

[PatatiPatata]

My computer is running Vista Home Premium x64 SP1 with an i7 CPU and 8GB of RAM. It has a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 (Model 79xxx, Hybrid ATSC/QAM) tuner card. The tuner works fine with Windows Media Center and WinTV. I know that analog reception is not supported by GB-PVR with this tuner card, so I'm only trying to use it for ATSC over an antenna.

I can successfully receive HD television broadcast using WinTV, and I'm now trying to configure GB-PVR. However, I'm running into various types of problems.

The first and most visible problem to me is that after I configure everything (EPG, channel mapping, etc), I open PVRX2 and hit "Live TV". There is barely a blink and nothing else happens; the cursor goes back to "Live TV". The logs indicate that no channel mapping has been done (but I know I dit it, or tried to do it). The logs also include errors about not findings skin images (.png).



Before configuring the capture source, I found a post that included settings to use in BDA.ini and I'm using them:
[Hauppauge HVR-1250MCE (ATSC)]
TUNING_TYPE=ATSC
FILTER_TUNER=Hauppauge WinTV 885 BDA Tuner/Demod
FILTER_CAPTURE=Hauppauge WinTV 885 TS Capture
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport

[Hauppauge HVR-1250MCE (QAM)]
TUNING_TYPE=ATSC
TUNING_SPECIAL=2
FILTER_TUNER=Hauppauge WinTV 885 BDA Tuner/Demod
FILTER_CAPTURE=Hauppauge WinTV 885 TS Capture
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport




After multiple tries to see Live TV without success, I noticed that I cannot even change the default skin. The PVRX2 background is always Blue. Any attempt to change it will not work. From PVRX2, it will crash the program.


Just as a test, I also tried to add a new location for Video files; after adding it in the configuration program, it does not show up in PVRX2.


In the Digital Channel Mapping window, there is a black square in the top right where I expect to see a miniature TV image. Even if it successfully found many digital channels during scans, there is never an image in that area.

During my various tests, I was able to see jpeg images and stored videos using PVRX2.


Finally, I have done previous attempts and it did not work. To start a fresh installation, I uninstalled/reinstalled everything (two times) and, to my surprise, it looks like some settings that I have previously made are already reselected. What can I do to remove all traces of a previous uninstall? Are there some preferences saved in the registry?


I am very experienced with computers, new to Vista, new to TV tuners in computers. The wide range of issues that I experience make me believe that Vista restrictions are causing some of it. Sometimes, it looks like the selections I make in the configuration program are not seen by PVRX2.

I deleted all old logs, then ran the configuration utility, scanned for channels, and performed all configuration. I closed it and ran PVRX2 without success. Logs for this sequence of events are attached.

(Note: if it makes a difference, the first installation was NOT using the default path. Since then, I uninstalled everything, deleted some leftover folders, rebooted and reinstalled everything using default paths and default options. I also remember that at one occasion, the tray icon was not responding and I was not able to kill its thread, and maybe this had some side effects in Vista? I have administrator rights on the computer)


Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[sub]

2009-03-18 22:19:06.168 VERBOSE [1] GBPVR.Backend.Common.GbpvrException: No channels have been set up. Please run the Configuration utility and setup the EPG source. Use the 'Update EPG' button to force the system to import the latest set of channel and programme information.

You dont have any mapped and enabled channels setup in your capture source.

[PatatiPatata]

Here is the "Edit Recording Source" setup screen, where I think everything is normal.

[sub]

Could be vista getting in the way.

Try deleting the "C:\Users\<your account>\appdata\virtual\localstore\program files\devnz" directory, then try running pvrx2.exe again.

[PatatiPatata]

Yep! Big improvement. Not all the way there, but better.

For the first time, I see something when I hit "Live TV"...
I see a large black screen, with overlay about EPG which tracks if I change channel. However, there is no audio nor video.

Since there was a big progress, I can do my homework and search for answers to this new problem in the forum/FAQ. Or if you have easy suggestions, you are welcome.

Thanks.

[sub]

If you post the pvrx2.exe.log and pvrx2.exe-native.log, I'll take a look.

[PatatiPatata]

My guess is that this problem now has nothing to do with PVRX2 because when I configured the capture source and scanned for channels, and during the mapping to the EPG channels, the box in the top right corner always remains black. I was expecting a mini television image instead of the black box. In all my attempts, there was never anything there but a black box. I would suspect more something to do with decoding options. Therefore, I attached the log files as well as the BDA.ini, from which I selected the [Hauppauge HVR-1250MCE (ATSC)] entry.

Is there some specific reason why my tuner was not supported initially? Are tere some known limitation or workarounds that I have to pay special attention to?

As a side note, something that might explain why Vista has conflict could be the use of the tray icon, going back&forth from the configuration program to the PVRX2 program. Maybe it still protects some files for one application while the other one is trying to access them.

You seem to be very active to support people! Thanks a lot!

[sub]

My guess is that this problem now has nothing to do with PVRX2 because when I configured the capture source and scanned for channels, and during the mapping to the EPG channels, the box in the top right corner always remains black. I was expecting a mini television image instead of the black box. In all my attempts, there was never anything there but a black box. I would suspect more something to do with decoding options

Yeah, I suspect it'll just relate to the audio/video decoders being used. You might need to install other decoders like ffdshow.

[PatatiPatata]

Are those external decoders used by the configuration program while the scan is in progress and at the channel mapping configuration screen? Can you recommend how to proceed? I have no clue of the further details and they are most likely tightly linked to the inner working of the program!

[sub]

Are those external decoders used by the configuration program while the scan is in progress and at the channel mapping configuration screen?

I have the sneaking suspicion they're not. I'm not able to check at the moment, but you might always get the defaults in the scan, which is why I suggested ffdshow (I think it overrides the defaults).