WinTV PVR-150

[wwjd]

According to the shipping tracking information I should get my card back this Friday. No other information is available however, Hauppauge has not said what they did.

[Loudmouse]

Hi Gang, I spent the last 5 days trying to get my Hauppauge pvr 150 mce to work correctly. It has the audio problem that causes distorted sound. Anybody found a fix for this yet? I did discover that the composite (L/R) sound inputs have some sort of automatic level control. If you hook up a mixing board to the composite input and try to lower the volume sent to it to cut the distortion, the PVR will bring the level back up by itself. Very frustrating. I think this also causes problems when there is a quiet part in the audio, the card increases the input volume level. Then if there is a sudden loud part, the card doesn't turn the audio down fast enough and you get distortion. Anybody know of a way to disable the level control in the registry settings? As for the rest of it, I get excellent video quality, better than my ATI Rage Fury Pro and recording cable t.v. from the tuner works good. Unfortunately, if I hook my VCR up to the tuner I only get a mono audio signal through the coaxial cable, useless for the 200 concert videotapes I want to capture in stereo. Anybody have any ideas? I only have regular Windows XP Pro. Would using a program other than Wintv2000 help? Thanks and I look forward to wwjd's report.

[wwjd]

I recieved my PVR-150 back from Hauppauge on Friday. The net is that the audio is still way too loud! They have not responded to my request for information regarding what they did or what they found.

I have spent the better part of today re-trying everything I tried before plus few other free wheeling ideas. No luck!

Is there a software app that I can use to reduce the volume of the demuxed audio file? It is an *.mpa.

Also, is there a way to take the demuxed audio into GraphEdit and reduce the volume and re-write the file. I do not really want to do this because it adds steps and it opens the door for audio sync issues.

Anyone else have any ideas on what to do about the loud audio?

[EAO]

That sucks.

I am really sorry that the RMA didn't work out for you, but considering I'm waiting on a call from a Hauppauge Service Manager for over a month ( after leaving two messages) I'm not surprised at their quality tech support.

Looks like the card is hit or miss. With a lot of misses. Certainly enough of a common problem that Hauppauge should step up and do the right thing. It's not like the card is under $50.00! A lot of people are throwing away good money.

My advise to anyone considering this card is to only buy it from a location with a guaranteed return policy, test it (fingers crossed), and consider yourself lucky if it works.

Hauppauge should give everyone with this problem either a refund or a functioning 250.

If Hauppauge doesn't do something proper soon, I think I'm going to call CompUSA and MicroCenter purchasing and direct them to this thread.

[Loudmouse]

Hi wwjd, Sorry to hear that your audio is still to loud, but did Hauppauge fix the distortion problem or is it EXACTLY the same? If they got rid of the distortion, try controlling the audio level before it reaches your PVR card using a mixing board or even the headphone jack on a stereo. That way the PVR can encode the audio and video together.
I got an email from Jerry Fox at Hauppauge tech support that said "Currently we are working on this issue. I have no workaround yet." I'm still thinking I should return mine before my 30 day refund period ends.

[The_Doman]

"Currently we are working on this issue. I have no workaround yet."

"No workaround yet"
This sounds really no good, I don't expect a solution anymore at all from hauppauge.
Unbelievable how they have messed up a great product with this audio problem.

[BSR]

Watch...
The fix will be a redesign of the hardware.
Therefore no firmware updates will be able to fix it.
I hope not.. But I just have this bad feeling..

My audio is loud, but not distorted, so to me it's acceptable. I'm going to want my final work in AC3 so I'll have to fool with the levels in a conversion to see if I can lower it if necassary.

[Loudmouse]

Got another email from Hauppauge from a Steve Finnegan in tech support and all it says is "I have heard of this problem and our engineers are working to fix the problem. I have only seen this problem once before. Our engineers should be able to fix this problem very soon."
I would think that if they arent getting tons of complaints about this, and there are only a few of us, then they should at least let us exchange for a WORKING card!

[junkmalle]

I have only seen this problem once before. Our engineers should be able to fix this problem very soon."

That's code for "I can't believe we sold a zillion cards with this hardware bug! We're gonna be USC if anyone finds out!"

[EAO]

Let's see...

They heard from wwjd.

That must make me the 'one other' I know they created a file, but with no resolution I was (am)waiting on a call back from a tech supervisor going on a couple months .

So does this mean no one else posting or reading here has contacted Hauppauge? How likely is that?

Hopefully my 250 card doesn't die, because if it does I'm not even testing rma.

[BSR]

What other programs have you guys tried to use to capture with the PVR-150?

I tried that Ulead MovieFactory 3 that came with the card, tried capture and even that direct to DVD option it has.

"I get this error that MPEG capture does not accept HCW2 codec, change to suitable codec."
Well HCW2 is the only one available, WTF, this is the program that came with the card, LOL.

Has anyone tried it and got it to work?

[junkmalle]

None of the hardware MPEG2 and MPEG4 capture cards support the usual VFW and DirectShow capture interaces. Those APIs are desinged for "raw" video capture, not hardware MPEG.

There are a few programs that can capture from the Hauppauge PVR-250 and PVR-350 series: SageTV, BeyondTV, WinTVCap. I don't know for sure if they support the PVR-150.

SaveTV and BeyondTV are full PVR applications with online programming guides. WinTVCap is a command line app that uses hardly any CPU cycles because it doesn't decode and display the picture and sound while capturing. It simply reads the MPEG data from the card and saves it to a file. It gets about 3 percent CPU usage while capturing.

If you're thinking the audio problems with the PVR-150 could be solved by using some other capture program -- I doubt it. I believe they all use Hauppauge's capture library so they'll get exactly the same data that WinTV2000 does.

[BSR]

Thanks for the info.
That makes me feel better that its not my setup or something I'm doing wrong that is the problem.
But I'm also dissapointed at the same time,

Been using GB-PVR for watching TV. It's pretty good.
Just was wondering what others use to capture, or just using the WinTV2000 for everything. I guess I'll stick with that for capturing.

Have yet to fool around with an mp2 to AC3 conversion and adjusting the levels if audio is too loud, oh well, all in time...

[mats.hogberg]

WinTV2000 or WinTVCap. That's about what gives for the Hauppage hardware mpeg capture/encoder cards. Not that anything more is needed!

/Mats

[Loudmouse]

Gee, I'm starting to worry. I haven't heard anything from Hauppauge about how they are going to fix/exchange my pvr150 for something that works. Maybe god DID answer my prayers and sent them all to a special part of hell. Does Amazon.com refund the full price for open box computer hardware?

[manj]

ive got pvr-150mce pal , use composite in. I use gb-pvr for recording as its got a recording service so it can run without me logging into my user. Basically if need to record unattended , my machine powers up and records and then shuts down.

Im still have problem with sound volume too high .
i have a registry tweaker program . They registry setting from Shspvr site and http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_reg.html . The recording volume , some say it helps , so ive left it on (it does for me).


Of course you do the setting via regedit or .reg files , but im lazy

http://www.hathisoft.com/pvr/pvr.htm

[manj]

Sorry last post , The recording volume , some say it helps , so ive left it on (it DOESNT for me).

[BSR]

Sorry last post , The recording volume , some say it helps , so ive left it on (it DOESNT for me).

It didn't help for me either. I'm using NTSC cable input.
I also didn't notice a difference with the sharpness tweak either.

And I've been using the GP-PVR for watching TV, I like it better for that with the built in onscreen guide and such.

[Loudmouse]

I'm sending my pvr 150 back to get a refund today. I don't think Hauppauge is going to do anything about fixing them. Now my dilemma is do I buy a pvr 250 or just stick with the ATI Rage Fury Pro that has worked great for years?

[hudsonf]

I have the PVR 250 and the PVR USB2 cards from Hauppauge and they both works great. I can record 2 shows at the same time. If the ATI Fury Pro does what you want and you want to save money go with your ATI.

[manj]

see
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7317

The word was they are getting close to release a new version of the WinTV-PVR 150/500 driver which will allow the audio settings to be individually set.
It is a software fix, and does not require new PVR card.
Any way I be out town and the fix should be out sometime next week so just keep out on Hauppauge support page for it see all when I get back around feb 27.

[EAO]

Take it from someone who has experienced the 150 audio issue and returned the card. The 250 works very well.

Get it if you can... and while you can.

[wwjd]

I have finally recieved from Hauppauge a PVR-250 in exchange for my PVR-150 that had the loud audio problem. I have made only one short TV cap using the PVR-250. I played it back on my computer and the audio is NO LONGER WAY TO LOUD!!! I played a file that I recorded with the 150, left the PC playback audio level the same as when I played the file captured using the 250 and it was blairing! had to turn it way down.

Hauppauge did take a very long time to respond but they did. They were friendly and finally did the right thing. The person I dealt with was helpful, honest and usually responded back to my emails within minutes.

Does anyone know if a 'Fix' has been implemented for the PVR-150 loud audio issue?

If none has, I would recommend contacting Hauppauge and requesting an exchange.

[junkmalle]

wwjd, glad to hear the PVR-250 solved your audio problem. Guess it wasn't your imagination, eh? LOL I haven't heard of any fix for the PVR-150 yet.

[The_Doman]

Yeah , Hauppauge said they would release a driver with a fix for the audio problem (This monday???).
Ofcourse nothing yet.

Nice they exchanged the PVR-150 for a 250, but it does not help us with the PVR-150's!!

I am really frustrated with this crap!

[wwjd]

A word of warning for those of you who decide to exchange your Loud PVR150 for a 250, the 250 does not come with IR Blaster! This is not an issue if you do not need the IR Emitter cable to change channels on a cablebox but if you do, it is.

[The_Doman]

Just an update about the latest PVR-150 drivers.
I tried some latest (prerelease) drivers and still no solution (for me) of the too loud audio problem.

You can read more here:
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7317

[manj]

follow this
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7317&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=105