NPVR playback of recordings over MVP severely pixelated

[dongna]

I had been a user of GB-PVR with MVP for several years. The PC on which I was running this died, and I replaced it with a new one running Windows 7 64 bit. I decided to to take this opportunity to "upgrade" to NPVR, and over the course of a week or so appear to have gotten everything set up and running.

However I have (hopefully only) one remaining problem. When I record a show and play it back over the MVP, the playback is severely pixelated and audio is unintelligible. Playback on the PC screen is fine.

Hardware is Hauppauge HVR-2250, signal source is analog cable.

I'm not sure where to look to address this problem. Could someone perhaps point me in the correct direction?

[mvallevand]

If you are using the mvpmc dongle for NPVR post your logs and I will have a look.

Martin

[dongna]

Well, uh, that could be my problem. I don't even know what an mvpmc dongle is. Is this something new that's needed for NPVR? Or did I set up my originally GB-PVR and MVP so long ago that I've forgotten about it?

So after you mentioned this, I noticed the whole forum section on it, and in fact, a thread where another users is experiencing the exact same symptoms as I am.

You asked "if I am using mvpmc dongle", implying that it's an optional thing. Do I need to do this?

[mvallevand]

It is optional only because sub distributes NPVR, with the old Hauppauge dongle which does allow you to play music and possible old mpg videos. If you want to play new NPVR SD mpeg-ts recordings or live tv captured via the analog side of you 2250 you need the mvpmc dongle. There is no guarantee though I don't know if any one is even testing it anymore.

Martin

[dongna]

OK, so it's not optional then.

I downloaded the recommended file (dongle4npvr.7z). I'm unsure what exactly to do with it now. In reading other threads, there seems to be conflicting instruction. One thread I read said to rename the file to mvpmc.bin and put it in a "Dongle" folder off of the main program folder (but I believe it referred to GB-PVR... not sure if the same direction holds true for NPVR). Another said to rename the file to dongle.bin.

I guess I could use some direction on how to get NPVR to actually use this file.

[mvallevand]

There was a bug in early version of NPVR and it ignored a configured name. I don't know myself if this was ever fixed, but it doesn't matter to me since I just got rid of the Hauppauge dongle and rename the mvpmc dongle to dongle.bin and so it's not a concern.

Martin

[dongna]

So I rename the downloaded file dongle4npvr.7z to dongle.bin.

Where do I put this file and do I have to do anything else to have NPVR make use of it?

[BrettB]

So I rename the downloaded file dongle4npvr.7z to dongle.bin.

Note that the .7z file is a compressed file (like a .zip file). You need to extract the dongle.bin file out of that archive first.

[mvallevand]

No, you use 7zip to extract the dongle inside the archive. Then place the dongle in C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Dongle rename and config the name in NPVR and then power off and on the MVP with the plug to load the dongle.

Martin

[dongna]

Thanks to you (and BrettB) for pointing out that this is a compressed file. I had not come across 7-zip until today.

OK, so the uncompressed file is named dongle.npvr.bin. Is the name of the file significant? I believe you said earlier this file should be named dongle.bin?

Then you said "config the name in NPVR"... how exactly do I do this?