HAUPPAUGE 150 WINPVR --Almost Perfect

[John]

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?

Can you be more specific about when it's happening? Is the video
skipping first, and then the lag starts? Is the problem always on some
channels but not others?

As far as CPU usage, I've copied the tweak file I've been compiling for
my PVR-150 into this message. Scroll to the bottom and you'll see a
few things that might help.

--------------------------------------------
Hauppauge Driver versions:

It is recommended that you use the drivers that came on your product's
CD. If you want to install the most current drivers (as of 4/20/06) then
follow this procedure:

1. Download and run HCWCLEAR.EXE (to completely remove old drivers).

2. Reboot. Cancel the "Add Hardware Wizard" in Windows when it appears.

3. Run PVR150_23348_WHQL\HcwDriverInstall.exe (Base driver)

4. Run pvr150_22_23257.exe (Middleware driver)

5. Run wintv2K411_23347.exe (WinTV2000 application)

6. Run hcwsmd05_23290.exe (Hauppauge MPEG video/audio decoders)

7. Run ir32_245_22350.exe (Infrared remote control utility)

8. Run sched21_23102.exe (Scheduled capture utility)

9. Run pvr150_500_basedriver_2043_24103.exe (Yes, that's correct --
install this updated "base driver" LAST.)

----

Basic Hauppauge Tweaks and Fixes

Fix no-audio and/or no-color on some channels:

1. Start WinTV2000. Click on Menu/Configure/Channels/Suite Manager.
Click once on each channel that you're having problems with, and
click Edit. Turn off AFT and manually fine tune the channel until
it is received properly.

Improve TV display quality (registry edit)

1. Start WinTV2000. Click on Pref/Movies and set the Quality Level
to "DVD Standard Play". Click OK to exit. Exit WinTV2000.

2. Run REGEDIT, navigate to:
HKLM\Software\Hauppauge\HcwTVWnd\SagHarbor.
Set Use_LiveTVConfig to 0 (zero). Exit REGEDIT. Restart WinTV2000.
After this change is made, WinTV2000 will display TV in whichever
Display Quality is selected. For most cableTV and satellite systems,
anything better than "DVD Standard Play" is overkill and will not
result in improved display quality.

Speed up channel changes in WinTV2000 (registry edit)

1. Run REGEDIT, navigate to HKLM\Software\Hauppauge\HcwTVWnd. Set
LivePreview to 1. Exit REGEDIT and start or restart WinTV2000.

NOTE: This change causes WinTV2000 to display the TV signal
before it hits the PVR-150's Conexant MPEG2 encoder. Because
of interlacing, this may result in slight display quality degradation when
output is viewed on PC monitors (e.g. lines being seen around objects
during fast moving scenes. To avoid this issue, instead of applying this
registry edit, use another TV display/capture program (such as the
excellent DScaler), which will give you both faster channel changes
AND a clear picture. The tradeoff is, you won't be able to record
direct to MPEG format using Hauppauge's MPEG encoder with these
other programs. If FFDSHOW is installed, you can use DScaler,
TMPGEnc etc. with the PVR-150 to capture to uncompressed AVI
format. This takes a lot of PC horsepower as well as lots of disk space.

Reduce CPU usage during display and capture

WinTV2000:

-- Insure WinTV2000 is running in Overlay mode and not Primary mode.
In WinTV2000, go to Menu/Help/About WinTV/Status. It should say,
"Surface: Overlay". If it says "Surface: Primary", the overlay window of
your graphics card is not working properly. Try updating your video card
drivers and/or motherboard chipset drivers.

-- Setting LivePreview to 1 as explained above will reduce CPU usage
by half or more on many systems.

-- If you're running antivirus software (Norton, McAfee etc.), add
WinTV2000's record directory (default is C:\MyVideos) to the Excluded
Folders or Exlusions list in your antivirus software options.

-- If FFDSHOW is installed, try uninstalling it. FFDSHOW may cause
WinTV2000 (and other capture software) to use DirectShow filters
instead of Hauppauge's built-in filters, which can cause increased
CPU usage.

-- Depending on your system, changing two registry entries may
decrease CPU usage signigicantly with Hauppauge cards. It may also
degrade image quality. In Windows, run REGEDIT and navigate to:
HKLM\Software\IviSDK4Hauppauge\Common\VideoDec
Set both "Dxva" and "Hwmc" to 1 (one). Reboot after making these
changes, and see if it decreases CPU usage in WinTV2000. If it
doesn't, change these two registry entries back to 0 (zero).


MythTV:

-- Turn off motion compensation


DScaler:

-- Turn off Judder Terminator

-- Select "Keep CPU for other applications" in general options

-- Try different deinterlacing modes;

 

[asdf]

Can you be more specific about when it's happening? Is the video
skipping first, and then the lag starts? Is the problem always on some
channels but not others?

yes it's something like that. the video flickers for a fraction of a second
and there is a lag.
Audio comes first and then video catches up in about 2 seconds. Other time
the lag appears
when the application is in the background.

 

[John]

yes it's something like that. the video flickers for a fraction of a second
and there is a lag.
Audio comes first and then video catches up in about 2 seconds. Other time
the lag appears
when the application is in the background.

This is usually caused either by another process that's interfering
with WinTV2000 (wide range of possible culprits), or, far less
likely, by a codec conflict. Later Hauppauge drivers are better
in this regard; if another process interferes with WinTV2000 you
might still get a flicker now and then, but the card will still maintain
sync between video and audio.

What other software is installed on your system? Especially DVD
software: WinDVD, DirectShow filters such as FFDSHOW etc.

 

[johns]

I wish you would. I have the PVR 350 with the classical lag between
video and audio in some programs. I vaguely remember there is a way
to make the card stop sending data to an mpg file for display, and
just send the data direct to the hardware for display. All that cpu
time is the making and displaying of an mpg file, and it doesn't
work too well. Only problem with disabling that, is you can't make
recordings.

johns

 

[J. Clarke]

I wish you would. I have the PVR 350 with the classical lag between
video and audio in some programs. I vaguely remember there is a way
to make the card stop sending data to an mpg file for display, and
just send the data direct to the hardware for display. All that cpu
time is the making and displaying of an mpg file, and it doesn't
work too well. Only problem with disabling that, is you can't make
recordings.

If your PVR-350 is using "all that CPU time" "making and displaying an mpg
file" then you've got something misconfigured. The PVR-350 has hardware on
both ends, compression and decompression.

 

[Bob]

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?

Only if there is software to take care of two cards.

BTW, aren't there TV IN and TV OUT connectors on the card - like on
VCRs and DVDRs? If so, then just multidrop the cards - that is, go IN
one and OUT that same one over to the IN of the second card - the same
way you multidrop the TV antenna signal with multiple devices.

 

[JAD]

just get a n ATI AIW and be done with it.

This is usually caused either by another process that's interfering
with WinTV2000 (wide range of possible culprits), or, far less
likely, by a codec conflict. Later Hauppauge drivers are better
in this regard; if another process interferes with WinTV2000 you
might still get a flicker now and then, but the card will still maintain
sync between video and audio.

What other software is installed on your system? Especially DVD
software: WinDVD, DirectShow filters such as FFDSHOW etc.

 

[johns]

It is not using any cpu time to amount to much. My system
is a rocket. The problem is in creating that mpg file. The
file is created out of sync for reasons nobody seems aware
of .. but is posted all over the net. Everybody with the 350
( or 150 or 250 ) is having this problem, and Hauppauge
simply will not own up to it.

johns

 

[asdf]

This is usually caused either by another process that's interfering
with WinTV2000 (wide range of possible culprits), or, far less
likely, by a codec conflict. Later Hauppauge drivers are better
in this regard; if another process interferes with WinTV2000 you
might still get a flicker now and then, but the card will still maintain
sync between video and audio.

What other software is installed on your system? Especially DVD
software: WinDVD, DirectShow filters such as FFDSHOW etc.

yeah i had k-lite codec pack installed. Uninstalled it and so far so good.
Is there a 'Happauge safe' codec pack? because now i can't play whole
bunch of my video files.

 

[Noozer]

yeah i had k-lite codec pack installed. Uninstalled it and so far so good.
Is there a 'Happauge safe' codec pack? because now i can't play whole
bunch of my video files.

I believe that Cole2k would work. It's installed in my MCE machine without
any problems.

 

[Mark M]

I believe that Cole2k would work. It's installed in my MCE machine without
any problems.

And I wish someone would do the world a big favor and shoot
the morons who come up with these hacked codec packs.

 

[Martin Heffels]

And I wish someone would do the world a big favor and shoot
the morons who come up with these hacked codec packs.

Is there a law that says that you _have to install them?

cheers

-martin-
--
Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Inviato da X-Privat.Org - Registrazione gratuita http://www.x-privat.org/join.php

 

[John]

Is there a law that says that you _have to install them?

cheers

No one claimed there is a law. Fact still remains, if we had a dollar
for every system that was screwed up by k-lite and other hacked
codec packs, we'd be instant multimillionaires.

 

[Bob]

just get a n ATI AIW and be done with it.

I know nothing about AVI. Is it widely supported?

 

[JAD]

I know nothing about AVI. Is it widely supported?

A T I ALL IN WONDER video cards. make things very simple. maybe you cant
record 10 shows at once, but the sound is always synced and the cards are
very reliable. I actually said it to see how fast the HAUPfanboys would
chime in.

 

[John]

I know nothing about AVI. Is it widely supported?

AVI isn't a codec, it's simply a file format. AVI files can be
uncompressed, or compressed with one of any number of
different codecs.

Capturing to uncompressed AVI is preferable if you want to edit
captured video, add titles etc. Once the edits are complete you
encode the files using your choice of codec.

Hauppauge's PVR cards (at least the current ones) can capture
uncompressed AVI. You need to install FFDSHOW and a third
party capture program (TMPGEnc, DScaler etc). These capture
programs will see the PVR as a video source.

Capturing uncompressed AVI without any dropped frames
requires a fast CPU and lots of disk space.

 

[johns]

So what? It can still make mistakes syncing audio
and video in the mpg file creation. The problem is
all over the web with all of the Hauppauge cards.
Why is it being glossed over? If anybody tries to
make a PVR using the 150, 250, or 350, they are
going to run in to this problem, and Hauppauge
tech support is going to swear they never heard
of it. I've called them a dozen times myself. They've
heard of it.

johns

 

[J. Clarke]

A T I ALL IN WONDER video cards. make things very simple. maybe you
cant record 10 shows at once, but the sound is always synced

Except when it isn't. ATI was having that same problem a while back.

and the cards
are very reliable. I actually said it to see how fast the HAUPfanboys
would chime in.

Yes, they're reliable but there's also no third party support to speak of,
no hardware-based encoding, and the video processor chip is not current
technology.

And before you call me a "HAUPfanboy", I use Dvico.

 

[JAD]

Except when it isn't. ATI was having that same problem a while back.

that had to do with sound cards and WAV along with 'line in' enabled in
recording, resulting in a echo. I personally have never had syncing problems
going back to the 128 rage pro.

Yes, they're reliable but there's also no third party support to speak of,
no hardware-based encoding, and the video processor chip is not current
technology.

however, it works..and I haven't needed third party anything when using
these cards. I like haup cards, but they are like AMD machines, always
needing some kind of tweaking, fiddling, or troubleshooting, at one time I
thought this was a kick, around the same time I was using/installing Linux.
I got over that in a 12 step program.

 

[JM]

that had to do with sound cards and WAV along with 'line in' enabled in
recording, resulting in a echo. I personally have never had syncing problems
going back to the 128 rage pro.


however, it works..and I haven't needed third party anything when using
these cards. I like haup cards, but they are like AMD machines, always
needing some kind of tweaking, fiddling, or troubleshooting, at one time I
thought this was a kick, around the same time I was using/installing Linux.
I got over that in a 12 step program.

Wow, that's about the least informed comment I've ever heard. And I by no
means want to start some bullshit AMD/Intel war. But if you have/had
ongoing trouble with "AMD machines," then you've got bad machines. The cpu
has virtually nothing to do with it, if the components are properly matched
and the computer is correctly built.

I've got in access of 100 AMD cpu-based computers in the field at this very
moment, with not a single one "needing some kind of tweaking, fiddling, or
troubleshooting," at least where the processor is concerned.

I've also got about 1/4 of that number in Intel cpu-based computers. Again,
no problems related to the cpu.

What kind of tweaking, fiddling, and troubleshooting did you experience?

jm