HAUPPAUGE 150 WINPVR --Almost Perfect

[asdf]

got this card for my system. Picks up all channels beautifully
except for two that i watch the most. One is being displayed in
black and white and there is no sound, just static noise. The weird
thing is that the chanel is displayed on my TV just fine. Cable goes from
outside through the splitter to my TV and Video Card. I tried beta
drivers but they blue screen my PC. Any suggestions?

Thank you

 

[John]

got this card for my system. Picks up all channels beautifully
except for two that i watch the most. One is being displayed in
black and white and there is no sound, just static noise. The weird
thing is that the chanel is displayed on my TV just fine. Cable goes from
outside through the splitter to my TV and Video Card. I tried beta
drivers but they blue screen my PC. Any suggestions?

Start WinTV2000. Click on Menu/Configure/Channels/Suite Manager.
Click once on each channel that you're having problems with, and click
Edit. Try fine tuning the channel and see if you can receive it in color,
and with sound.

Hauppauge did release an updated driver to address the no-sound-on-
some-channels problem, so you may have to keep trying different
versions until you find one that runs properly. As good as the Conexant
codec is on the PVR-150, Hauppauge's drivers and tech support are
about the worst I've come across in 20+ years of working with PCs.
I don't believe they even develop their own drivers, but rely on some
guy sitting in a garage somewhere in Denmark with a TV and bong.

 

[Bob]

I don't believe they even develop their own drivers, but rely on some
guy sitting in a garage somewhere in Denmark with a TV and bong.

That's after they fired the buck-toothed Banghi sitting in a cave in
the Himalayas, because he was too busy providing tech support for HP.

 

[J. Clarke]

got this card for my system. Picks up all channels beautifully
except for two that i watch the most. One is being displayed in
black and white and there is no sound, just static noise. The weird
thing is that the chanel is displayed on my TV just fine. Cable goes from
outside through the splitter to my TV and Video Card. I tried beta
drivers but they blue screen my PC. Any suggestions?

Try an attenuator--what you're describing sounds like the signal is
overloading the front end on the Haupauge. Radio Shack has a variable
model for about 30 bucks or you can get a handful of fixed-value

 

[V Green]

got this card for my system. Picks up all channels beautifully
except for two that i watch the most. One is being displayed in
black and white and there is no sound, just static noise. The weird
thing is that the chanel is displayed on my TV just fine. Cable goes from
outside through the splitter to my TV and Video Card. I tried beta
drivers but they blue screen my PC. Any suggestions?

Take out the splitter.

Go direct to the card with NOTHING ELSE attached.

Let us know what happens.

(most splitters are cheap pieces of crap with intermittent
guts)

 

[asdf]

i tried that. one of the channels that had problem did come out better. The
other one
still had no sound.

 

[asdf]

Start WinTV2000. Click on Menu/Configure/Channels/Suite Manager.
Click once on each channel that you're having problems with, and click
Edit. Try fine tuning the channel and see if you can receive it in color,
and with sound.

Worked!!! Picture is perfect now and sound is there too. Thank you so much

 

[asdf]

sorry to be such a bother but i have another issue here. I was under the
impression that this card
will do all the work during the recording so that my cpu can run at full
power.
However during recording now i can see that wintc2k takes about at least 20%
of CPU
time and sometimes more--upto 40%. Is ther any setting that i need to change
so that TV card
does all the work.

Thank you very much for your help

 

[Alpha]

sorry to be such a bother but i have another issue here. I was under the
impression that this card
will do all the work during the recording so that my cpu can run at full
power.

Not true. There is overhead in data transfer and hard disc operations.

 

[Alpha]

PS

On my system it ranges from 10-25% CPU use during capture.

3 gHz with l gig RAM.

 

[John]

sorry to be such a bother but i have another issue here. I was under the
impression that this card
will do all the work during the recording so that my cpu can run at full
power.
However during recording now i can see that wintc2k takes about at least 20%
of CPU
time and sometimes more--upto 40%. Is ther any setting that i need to change
so that TV card
does all the work.

Thank you very much for your help

Alpha's answers are correct. A certain amount of cpu time will be taken
by a video capture card, regardless of which card (or capture program)
you use.

There are a few tweaks for the Hauppauge card that can reduce the
amount of cpu time it takes, during both display and capture. If you
want a list of these I'll post them here.

 

[Bob]

There are a few tweaks for the Hauppauge card that can reduce the
amount of cpu time it takes, during both display and capture. If you
want a list of these I'll post them here.

Can the card be used to record 2 different TV programs at the same
time from the same conventional TV antenna feed?

 

[John]

Can the card be used to record 2 different TV programs at the same
time from the same conventional TV antenna feed?

The PVR-500 has dual tuners and can do that.

 

[Bob]

The PVR-500 has dual tuners and can do that.

Why doesn't it say so explicitly?

"Watch one channel while recording another with the WinTV-PVR-500MCE"

I do not need a TV card to watch a show - all I have to do is pass the
antenna signal on to the TV set and let it do the tuning for the show
I want to watch.

I want to be able to record 2 different TV programs at the same time
independent of whatever I am watching on TV.

 

[the pilgrim]

The PVR-500 has dual tuners and can do that.

How about installing a second PVR150 card and using a splitter on the
TV antenna feed in order to connect the TV antenna to both cards?

 

[Alpha]

Why doesn't it say so explicitly?

"Watch one channel while recording another with the WinTV-PVR-500MCE"

I do not need a TV card to watch a show - all I have to do is pass the
antenna signal on to the TV set and let it do the tuning for the show
I want to watch.

I want to be able to record 2 different TV programs at the same time
independent of whatever I am watching on TV.


--

"A politician's neck should always have a noose around it.
It keeps him upright."
-Robert Heinlein

There is a third party program for PVR using the 500 MCE that does exactly
what you want...in fact you can install several cards and record 4-6
channels at once. Try a Goggle.

 

[JAD]

There is a third party program for PVR using the 500 MCE that does exactly
what you want...in fact you can install several cards and record 4-6
channels at once. Try a Goggle.

whooo hoo 6 channels of utter nonsence to record...............and watch
later.. does it have a commercial editor?

 

[John]

How about installing a second PVR150 card and using a splitter on the
TV antenna feed in order to connect the TV antenna to both cards?

Either will work. The PVR-500 is just two PVR-150's on one card.

 

[asdf]

sure that would be great. Also noticed that sometimes there is a two second
delay that occurs between audio and video. Any way of fixing that?
Have the latest drivers installed from happauge website. Can't install beta
versions as they blue screen my system.

 

[asdf]

i think you can get a second card and that will let you record two programs
at once.