BTV to NextPVR by way of WMC

[gobo]

Hello Everyone,

I've been a LONG time Snapstream BTV user and actually love the program. I recently decided to switch away from BTV (my wife is not happy) because while I love it's simplicity, I have literally lost some of my sanity trying to get it stable using two of the original Hauppauge HDPVRs. I tried all the driver, power supply, cooling fan, cable box setting and USB port tricks out there to no avail. When BTV, via forum members, acquired cable card use I was happy and switched to that but the setup is a pain and it wont work with premium channels. I finally decided to leave our beloved BTV for good and switch to 100% cablecard and Windows Media Center 7. While it does work and looks pretty, I just don't like the interface and it's missing some of the DVR features of BTV. I also don't like having to use WTV files by default and being shackled by all of the DRM. So now I discovered NextPVR and am going to give it a try. After all of my blabbing I guess my main question is: How well does it work with the HDPVR2 and also does the HDPVR2 continue to have the same stability problems that the HDPVR1 had?

Thanks Alot

[sub]

There is quite a few people here using HDPVR/HDPVR2 devices. I'm not aware of any significant issues, so hopefully it'll go smoothly for you.

[gobo]

There is quite a few people here using HDPVR/HDPVR2 devices. I'm not aware of any significant issues, so hopefully it'll go smoothly for you.

Wow, you mean even the original Hauppauge HDPVR1 works well! If that's so it's makes things much easier. I always thought it was some sort of hardware issue with the Hauppauge device itself. Does NextPVR handle that somehow? I always had to physically power cycle it and BTV would just start working again.

[sub]

There is quite a few users here successfully using HDPVR's for recording. I don't personally use one myself, but I'm not seeing reports of any serious issue.

If you had problems that would require you to power cycle the device, and restarting the software wasn't enough, then that's likely to still be there. I no idea what the cause of that would be. Could come down to USB chipset or all sorts of other things. I know some of the very early HDPVRs had problems with locking up after overheating etc, but I think Hauppauge solved those problems early on in their manufacturing.

I guess you'd probably have to try it and see how you get on.

[gobo]

There is quite a few users here successfully using HDPVR's for recording. I don't personally use one myself, but I'm not seeing reports of any serious issue.

If you had problems that would require you to power cycle the device, and restarting the software wasn't enough, then that's likely to still be there. I no idea what the cause of that would be. Could come down to USB chipset or all sorts of other things. I know some of the very early HDPVRs had problems with locking up after overheating etc, but I think Hauppauge solved those problems early on in their manufacturing.

I guess you'd probably have to try it and see how you get on.

Thanks for the help! I think I will probably try the HDPVR2 anyway just because of my horrible history with the HDPVR1's. It wasn't just my machine. I also built two other family members HTPCs with them and they both had the same problems. The systems all used different motherboards with different USB Chipsets and various revisions of the HDPVRs. Things were so much simpler when life was all SD!!

[mvallevand]

Thanks for the help! I think I will probably try the HDPVR2 anyway just because of my horrible history with the HDPVR1's. It wasn't just my machine. I also built two other family members HTPCs with them and they both had the same problems. The systems all used different motherboards with different USB Chipsets and various revisions of the HDPVRs. Things were so much simpler when life was all SD!!

I have an HDPVR 1 and the orginal HDPVR 2 (no AC3 pass though). The original has been almost perfect in NextPVR. I use fixed 720p though, an maybe running fixed helps. I don't like the 2 as much, it has a really healthy lag on recording the HDMI pass through is a joke too, since the USB has to be connected to a running PC. I also consider the worst purchase I ever made, but that is because Hauppauge literally released an updated version weeks after the launch and didn't offer an upgrade path so maybe I am bitter.

Martin

[gobo]

I have an HDPVR 1 and the orginal HDPVR 2 (no AC3 pass though). The original has been almost perfect in NextPVR. I use fixed 720p though, an maybe running fixed helps. I don't like the 2 as much, it has a really healthy lag on recording the HDMI pass through is a joke too, since the USB has to be connected to a running PC. I also consider the worst purchase I ever made, but that is because Hauppauge literally released an updated version weeks after the launch and didn't offer an upgrade path so maybe I am bitter.

Martin

Thanks for the help! I'm so weary with the HDPVR1, it's almost like I can't even imagine them working reliably but I will give them a try now. Would the problems you mentioned happen even if I used component cables for both audio and video on it the HDPVR2. Does anyone know if the problems with the first revision HDPVR2 have been resolved with the newer updated ones? Sorry for so many questions.

Thanks

[gobo]

I'm not sure if I should have started a new thread for this last question but is there any way to import Beyond TV's recorded shows metadata info into NextPVR?

[sub]

There is nothing built in for importing recordings from BeyondTV, and unfortunately I don't remember having seen any utility created by others for this.

[mvallevand]

There is nothing built in for importing recordings from BeyondTV, and unfortunately I don't remember having seen any utility created by others for this.

I wrote recording import utilities for SageTV and Argus which I might be able to get updated for BTV. Send me the btv.xml file explained here http://www.geektonic.com/2008/01/how-to-...-into.html an I'll have a look.

Martin