System freezes while recording DVD-T

[gabier]

Hi,

I record movies from DVB-T TV with a Hauppauge Nova-T-USB2 and DVBViewer. It works well but my problem is that at random, I would say "sometimes" (in the preceding weeks it would be best qualified as "fairly often"), I experience system freezes (more rarely Blue Screens) while recording. The only action possible then is system power off and restart.

Of course this always happen in the middle of a movie I would indeed love to have in my DVD collection. I moved from the native Hauppauge software WinTV2000 because there were Blue Screens VERY often. And indeed DVDViewer is definitly better in that respect. But the crashes are still there.

As I disable all network connexions and all outside peripherals while recording and there is no other application running while recording, the freezes should not be caused by applications or drivers conflicts. I would rather suspect wrong handling of faulty DVD-T data by the Hauppauge driver.

So my question is : how could I reach a really secure recording scheme?
Any opinion an such freezes or Blue screens ?
Any opinion on best reliable and efficient components for DVB-T capturing (tuner, driver, recording application) ?

Thanks for all advices

Gabier

[Bjs]

A: Make sure you download the latest drivers for motherboard , and your video card before moving on .
B: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/archive/index.php?t-9166.html
C: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/archive/index.php?t-8985.html
D: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/archive/index.php?t-9148.html

No issues using belkin powered hubs , they work flawlessly with usb capture devices .

Next time , choose avermedia products , no hassles , ever .

----

Type of drive setup : Are you using sata ?

[gabier]

A: Make sure you download the latest drivers for motherboard , and your video card before moving on .

Thanks, Bjs, to remind good practices to me; I tend to think that my Dell computer is a new one and up to date, but when looking at its age, I discover that it is already 18 month old. Thus I went to search for updates. This is quite easy with Dell computers (on their site you give your serial number and they list all the updates for components and bundled applications) I have no excuse. I installed 1 Chipset, 1 Bios, and 2 SATA updates. Maybe it helps... 8)

B: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/archive/index.php?t-9166.html
C: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/archive/index.php?t-8985.html
D: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/archive/index.php?t-9148.html

The B issue was corrected in SP2, I have SP3
The C issue is a problem of garbled image, not of system hang up.
The D contains many different cases, most of them are not my case. One is remaining "Lockup while running application". They advise to run AMCAP and look if hangs up happen too. I do not know AMCAP, I will look at it. But this aims at detecting conflicts. I have checked that there are no IRQ or E/S conflicts.
They also advise to try to run in Primary mode, but I do not know what that means and I suspect it is a WinTV2K option and not a DVBViewer one.

No issues using belkin powered hubs , they work flawlessly with usb capture devices .

I have no hub. All USB devices are connected directly.

Next time , choose avermedia products , no hassles , ever .

I have not heard of Avermedia making a leading product for DVB-T capturing

Type of drive setup : Are you using sata ?

Yes, I have a generic SATA drive 250 Go 7200 rpm


Gabier

[Bjs]

A: Avermedia - http://www.avermedia.com/cgi-bin/products_digitvtuner_dvbtstb3.asp

Noting you have said - "All USB devices are connected directly"

Try these .

1: Remove all other usb devices before capture (if this means you need a ps2 mouse / keyboard , do it) .

Any activity caused via a usb mouse interaction by the user during the capture , can trigger such events under any condition , as not all usb mice / keyboards are made of high quality / standards .

Been there , seen it in action .

Recommend test capture to asses if other previously connected usb devices were initial cause of issue ?

2: When 1 done , launch capture program , do not start capturing .
3: Press Ctrl + Alt + Del (brings up task manager) .
4: Click on "process tab" , select the capture program in list .
5: Right click on program name > set priority > low .
6: Hit the X to close task manager .
7: Try capture .

----

Video capture process do rely heavily on other system components , with the major players being video overlay , and hard drives for receival storage .

It is a known fact , that while you may have the very latest drivers for your particular video chipset , they may not provide the "essential" stability required for video capture , that a previously released driver update package would have provided .

Been there numerous times .

Manufacturers also like to point fingers at others rather than themselves when issues appear .

Questionable :

If you have nero , check if incd is installed and running , uninstalling incd may help (reboot pc after uninstall of incd) , its been questioned in relation to systems using sata installed units , esspecially late p4 systems .

I'll try that one myself as dvdshrink bsods after 4 minutes unless I set in low priority mode .

[TimA-C]

I also have a Nova-T USB2 and have also had similar problems in the past. One question, have you had it running reliably in the past or has it always been flaky?

I go along with what the other posters here have already said. I would also add;-

1. Decent power supply. Can't stress this enough!!

2. Turn off all your power saving settings. (Including the 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' setting in the 'USB Root Hub Properties' entries in Device manager.

3. Unplug or de-activate any memory card readers in your system. (If you have a built-in one, use the 'Safely remove hardware' icon in your task bar near the time.) This was a major pain in the butt until I diagnosed the problem. Now, if I'm transferring from my Humax 9200t or any other extenal USB device then I disable the card reader first and everything is back to normal again.

5. The chipset of the USB port did seem to make a difference. When I first got my Nova-T I had problems with the on-board nVidia nForce2 USB ports. Eventually I bought a PCI USB card with a NEC chipset which got me up and running reliably. (Later drivers for the nForce2 motherboard sorted out the problems and I was able to remove the NEC USB card from my system.)

6. Make sure you haven't got too much cr&p running in the background.

7. I don't know why this should make a difference but it did, try and make sure that your Nova-T is plugged into one of the USB sockets on the back of the motherboard. i.e. NOT one of the front sockets and NOT a socket on a backplate that's connected to a USB header on the motherboard.

BTW I'm running GB-PVR and getting my EPG info from the RadioTimes using Birtles XMLTV GUI Grabber. I really don't know how Hauppauge had the nerve to ship their products with such poor software to begin with, but to still be shipping it nearly two years after I bought my Nova-T is just taking the weewee! Thank the deity of your choice for Sub and his superb GB-PVR software!

Let us know how you get on.

[gabier]

A: Avermedia - http://www.avermedia.com/cgi-bin/products_digitvtuner_dvbtstb3.asp

I surfed to this page but I could not find any recording feature nor any detailed spec of this device

1: Remove all other usb devices before capture (if this means you need a ps2 mouse / keyboard , do it) .

I did that already. I disable the network connexion, and I disable my USB printers. The only one left is the wireless device for my wireless mouse/keyboard. There is no PS2 port on my Dell 9100. I could simply unplug this device, as I do not use the computer when recording. But I doubt this really address the problem because most if not all my system hangs happened at night or when I was not in front of the computer, thus there was no mouse/keyboard activity.

Recommend test capture to asses if other previously connected usb devices were initial cause of issue ?

I am at the moment alternatively viewing and recording for long periods of time, in order to find out if freezes happen only when recording. I already had freezes in the situation described above (i.e. at night without USB devices except mouse), thus I consider other USB devices are not the cause.

set priority > low .

This action seems interesting because if the hangs happen only when recording, the cause could well be a bad sync between the capture driver and the HD driver. I wait a little to establish that the hangs are still there after the few updates I applied already. Then if yes I will try the low priority measure.

If you have nero , check if incd is installed and running , uninstall

I do not use InCD, but I have Nero 7 installed, and it is very hard with Nero products to know if something is running or not. Thus I downloaded the InCD clean uninstaller and ran it.

Thanks for all those advices, other's experience has very high value.

gabier

[gabier]

I also have a Nova-T USB2 and have also had similar problems in the past. One question, have you had it running reliably in the past or has it always been flaky?

Hi Tima,

I am very happy to meet a NOVA-T USB2 user who experienced the same problems as I have.
Now my problems history. At first I used the Hauppauge application WinTV2000. I had frequent BSODs (Blue Screens) while recording. Then I heard that WinTV2000 was not very reliable, and I switched to DVBViewer. I had a long period with no trouble (~1 year), so I was very happy, and concluded that DVBViewer was a good software. Then a few months ago, some hangs reappeared (only one BSOD but mainly system freezes). What change could have caused this re-occurence ? Difficult to say. I did NOT change the hauppauge driver. I installed 2 IDE DVD burners in place of the original ones (Plextor and LiteOn), several video applications : DVDLab, GfD, IrfanView, Kprobe2, a new version of Nero (7), Plextools, PowerDVD, several subtitles editors, several players (TSplayer, VLC media player). Maybe I forget some of them. You see that candidates for troubles are numerous.

1. Decent power supply. Can't stress this enough!!

I am plugged in the regular electricity company plug. What do you mean "decent" ?

2. Turn off all your power saving settings. (Including the 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' setting in the 'USB Root Hub Properties' entries in Device manager.

These options are disabled (grey) in the USB controllers (???)

3. Unplug or de-activate any memory card readers in your system.

I have none

5. The chipset of the USB port did seem to make a difference.

You are right. If I can't eliminate these hangs another way, I will buy a Hauppauge PCI card to rule out this issue.

6. Make sure you haven't got too much cr&p running in the background.

Yes

make sure that your Nova-T is plugged into one of the USB sockets on the back of the motherboard.

It is

BTW I'm running GB-PVR and getting my EPG info from the RadioTimes using Birtles XMLTV GUI Grabber. I really don't know how Hauppauge had the nerve to ship their products with such poor software to begin with, but to still be shipping it nearly two years after I bought my Nova-T is just taking the weewee! Thank the deity of your choice for Sub and his superb GB-PVR software!

I agree. Hauppauge has good hardware but poor software.
But what is your point about SUB and GB-PVR ? I did not understand (my english is not sufficient )

A last question : what hauppauge driver level do you use, and what capturing software ?

Gab

[TimA-C]

Hi gabier, Sorry for the delay in replying. I was actually looking for another thread when I found this one again.

1. I was talking about the power supply unit (PSU) inside your computer (where the cable from the power socket in the wall plugs into your PC). A lot of mass-produced computers don't have very good PSUs that either don't give the right voltages to the components inside your PC or simply can't supply enough power to all the components inside your PC. There are lots of things to consider when choosing a power supply, but, as a very basic guide, it should really have a Max. Power output rating of at least 450W(atts) Preferably 500W or more.

2. Odd! Don't think I've ever seen these greyed out before.

5. It would be cheaper to buy a PCI card with NEC USB 2.0 ports on! Probably cost you around £10


SUB is the name of the guy who wrote the GB-PVR software which does a similar job to your DVB Viewer. You can find the software (free) at www.gbpvr.com and there's loads of help from the forums (SUB is very active there) and also lots of info in the Wiki. Both the forums and the Wiki can be reached from the website.

Hopefully you've already sorted out your problems and I've just wasted the last 10 mins typing all this!