help setting up colossus

[i3c]

Hello,
I've gone through all the docs & guides I can find but I'm obviously not getting something.
I've installed a Colossus card in my Windows 8 PC & have it connected to a Directv box.
The colossus is listed in the "devices" section of settings as present and enabled.
The input sources are set to component and RCA audio input.
My channel changer is set to Haupblast. I've configured and tested blastcfg.
I've set up just one channel for testing purposes.
When I go to livetv, I see the blaster flashing but there is no image on the screen and no sound.
What have I missed?
Thanks,
I.

[sub]

Do you have your H.264 video decoder and AAC & AC3 audio decoders set on the Settings->Decoders screen?

[i3c]

That's it. Thanks!

[i3c]

I have one more question, if I could. Is there a recommended h.264 decoder?
The reason I ask is, I currently have two choices - arcsoft and lav.
When I select lav, I get no video at all. And when I select arcsoft I get a picture but it is noticeably inferior to the image quality of the Hauppauge WinTV app. The settings in the arcsoft and lav settings are a complete mystery to me.
Any recommendations?
Thanks,
I.

[sub]

The lav video decoder doesn't work with the Microsoft MPEG2 Demultiplexer, which is used by NextPVR, so that's out.

I usually use either the ArcSoft video decoder, or the Microsoft DTV-DVD video decoder.

And when I select arcsoft I get a picture but it is noticeably inferior to the image quality of the Hauppauge WinTV app.

Given the same source material, plus same video renderer, you'll get exactly the same image quality from the ArcSoft video decoder in NextPVR vs WinTV.

[Zeb]

I've installed a Colossus card in my Windows 8 PC

If you want to try the Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder, you'll need to apply Current Patch 2. There's a link to it in the top sticky thread, "NPVR 2.6.2 - Current Patches and Getting Started info." Be sure to read the Installation Notes. If you're running an older version of NPVR, you should update to 2.6.2 before applying the patch.

When you open Settings, do you see a warning about DirectX? Some Windows 8 users have reported that they needed the full version of DirectX end-user runtimes rather than the smaller version called for in the Wiki. There's a link to "Full DirectX Runtime" in post #2 of the "Current Patches and Getting Started" sticky.

[Edit] If possible, set the STB to deliver a fixed output of 720p for all channels.

[i3c]

Great, , I'll check out that out.
In playing around with the Arcsoft ShowBiz software I noticed the same artifacty image quality I was seeing in NextPVR.
However, If I bumped up the bit rate from the default 3mb to 9 it got dramatically better.
If I could keep that bit rate I'd be set. However, every time I start NextPVR, the bit rate goes back to 3.
Is there a way to set the bit rate in NextPVR? or at least keep it from being rest?

Thanks again,
I.

[Zeb]

Is there a way to set the bit rate in NextPVR?

Yes. In the data directory (usually C:\Users\Pubic\NPVR) is the file Config.xml. It can be edited with Notepad, being careful to save as .xml rather than defaulting to .txt. Near the bottom under heading <HDPVR> are the default bitrate settings, generally agreed to be rather low. You should probably restart NPVR Service after editing.

[i3c]

That did it. The image quality looks great now. Thanks!

[i3c]

Can I use spdif input in the colossus setup? I keep changing to spdif and it keeps reverting to rca.