PVR-350 Problems

[nealf]

Hi Guys,
Please help me, I just purchased a Wintv PVR-350 to record my VHS tapes to PC.
I have two problems:
1. The videos are playing only in black & white, I cannot get them to play in colour.
2. When I make a recording of the VHS tapes I cannot get any sound. I connected the VCR sound cables to my PC's onboard soundcard. Is this correct? I get the audio perfectly during playback but the recording does not capture any audio. If I try to connect the RCA sound cable directly to the PVR-350 sound input I get no sound during playback.

I work wth computers for a career but after 3 hours of fiddling around I am totally lost!!! I keep calling Haupp Tech Support but no one answers. Really frustrated with this card.

[jagabo]

I connected the VCR sound cables to my PC's onboard soundcard. Is this correct?

No. Connect the audio cables to the PVR-350. I think you'll need a stereo pin plug to dual RCA adapter or cable.

[hech54]

Hi Guys,
Please help me, I just purchased a Wintv PVR-350 to record my VHS tapes to PC.
I have two problems:
1. The videos are playing only in black & white, I cannot get them to play in colour.

Did you buy the PAL or NTSC version of the PVR-350?

[jman98]

I have had a PVR-350 for some years. Your video problem sounds like a PAL/NTSC issue. WHERE did you buy this card? Did you buy it on Ebay from some guy in Europe? This really should not be happening if you bought a card from a reputable dealer in North America. If you are sure that you got the NTSC version, and that's all that will be sold officially in North America, maybe your VCR has a problem or the card is defective.

As far as the audio goes, you MUST use the audio connector on the card. It has a single hole for audio with a weird tiny plug. I don't remember the name of this kind of connector, but Radio Shack sells a connector for it that can take 2 RCA cables as input and connect those to the hole on the card. That's the only way to record sound with this card.

[hech54]

Did you buy it on Ebay from some guy in Europe? This really should not be happening if you bought a card from a reputable dealer in North America.

I bought my PAL format PVR-350 from a reputable seller on Ebay.

[jman98]

Not really all that funny or helpful, hech54.

[hech54]

Not really all that funny or helpful, hech54.

It wasn't meant to be funny. It was meant to point out condescending, knee-jerk Ebay bashing.

Now THAT was funny......

[jman98]

Not really all that funny or helpful, hech54.

It wasn't meant to be funny. It was meant to point out condescending, knee-jerk Ebay bashing.

Now THAT was funny......

Look MORON - Yes, hech54, I mean YOU, you idiot...
I was talking about the original poster, from Canada, buying a PAL based PVR-350 from a European seller. Did I any way address my comments to you? Did I say that ALL people should not do so? No. Stop reading things I didn't say into what I said, dumbass.

Your comment is pretty typical of your "help" around here. Loser.

[The_Doman]

1. The videos are playing only in black & white, I cannot get them to play in colour.

Possible you are using a composite (CVBS) signal on the S-Video input of the PVR350 card?
This will result in a black and white picture.
The PVR350 comes with a special adapter/cable to make the needed connections.
Also you need to make sure to select the right input source with the card (S-Video or Composite/CVBS) because if i remember well the composite and S-Video use the same input connections.

[hech54]

Your comment is pretty typical of your "help" around here. Loser.

My "help" doesn't come with a condescending, arrogant price tag attached to it.

[nealf]

Hi Guys,
Wow, Thanks for the amazingly helpful responses.
Your suggestions worked and helped resolve almost all the issues:

1. I purchased the card from NCIX which is a reputable Canadian company. So I'm sure I got the NTSC version.

2. I purchased the RCA to 1/8" adapter today. Tried it and got the sound!!

3. I am using the special adapter that came with the card to connect my video cable to the card via S-video. So I jump around in the channels (not knowing what I am doing) and surprisingly on channel C2 I see a colour pic!! Pretty sure this wasn't there earlier.

4. PROBLEM: Audio Sync issues - on the test recording I made the audio and video is out of sync. Makes the video conversion all but useless.

5. QUESTION: TO make a regular DVD I selected "DVD Standard Play as the output ... does this sound right? I don't want to trust Haupps pathetic documentation.

Note:
1. To anyone considering buying this card my advice is don't. The documentation is useless, the tech support is non-existent and the software is eons old. Without you guys I would have been up a creek!!

2. Can anyone recommend a better alternative (hardware) to convert my VHS tapes to digital ..... I'm at my wits end with this thing and might just junk it and get a different card that real users have reco'd.

and THANKS AGAIN to all of you who took the time to respond. Greatly appreciated!! This board and its members rock!!

[The_Doman]

3. I am using the special adapter that came with the card to connect my video cable to the card via S-video. So I jump around in the channels (not knowing what I am doing) and surprisingly on channel C2 I see a colour pic!! Pretty sure this wasn't there earlier.

Probably you had selected the S-Video input instead of the Composite(CVBS) one.

4. PROBLEM: Audio Sync issues - on the test recording I made the audio and video is out of sync. Makes the video conversion all but useless.

Digitizing VHS without a form of TBC in the proces is always problematic and the results will often disappoint.
For testing you can try to record from a clean (stable) videosource like the tuner signal of your VHS machine or a cable box signal to see if the recording keeps in sync this way.

5. QUESTION: TO make a regular DVD I selected "DVD Standard Play as the output ... does this sound right? I don't want to trust Haupps pathetic documentation.

"DVD Standard Play" should be a good profile to start with.

2. Can anyone recommend a better alternative (hardware) to convert my VHS tapes to digital ..... I'm at my wits end with this thing and might just junk it and get a different card that real users have reco'd.

As said, digitizing VHS stuff properly is not such a easy task at all.
Best results I pesonally had with digitizing VHS is by using the analog input of my Sony D8 DCRTRV120 camcorder which has some form of TBC build in.
Ofcourse the software encoding to DVD/MPEG2 (with some noise reduction/cleanup) is time consuming.

Recently I also aquired for free a old DVD-Recorder with a very good TBC funtion, a broken Panasonic DMR-E55 with the well known power supply problem which I was able to fix. This machine also gave me very good results digitizing VHS tapes. The built in TBC/stabilizing funtion really works wonders for VHS.

Intrestingly I also have here a few of the newer Hauppauge PVR150 cards. I use them only for direct TV recording, for VHS they are not good unless I feed them a stabilized/TBC signal by looping it first through that Panasonic DVD recorder.

[hech54]

I don't have that adapter cable....my used PVR-350 didn't come with one....but I use straight S-video out from my VCR into my PVR-350....and the RCA/Cinch to 1/8" stereo mini out from my VCR to the PVR-350 and have not had any problems whatsoever.....I love this thing.
There are two sets of drivers/software for the card as I recall. When I reinstalled the card on this new computer I forgot one of the drivers/softwares and noticed right away that something was wrong.
Here is a list of my "arsenal" I keep to get my PVR-350 up and running. There might be a duplicate
in there....an uncompressed ZIP file maybe:
pvr350_driver_118_23257
hcwsmd05_23290.exe
pvr350_22_23070.exe
pvr350_driver_118_23257.zip
radio32ver152_20311.exe
sched21_23054.exe
wintv2k_413_24088.exe

[DarrellS]

What player are you using to play the files? If the 350 is anything like the HVR1800, it captures in MPEG2-PS which only plays correctly for me in Nero Showtime 3. If I try and play the files in Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic, the files are all out of sync and I can't seek. Now, I change the extension from MPG to MPEG and set Nero Showtime to play the MPEG file type and Nero plays them with no problems.

This MPEG2-PS is also a PITA to edit, needing special programs to edit the files. Not sure why Hauppauge can't just use a normal MPEG2 compression (or AVI) instead of these program streams.

[hech54]

I have no idea what MPEG2-PS is.....never seen that as a capturing option on the list on my PVR-350. Everything I capture plays in anything I have....and they edit beautifully in VDub, AviDemux and TMPGEnc DVD Author(taking out commercials and stuff then going to DVD form). Here is my list of capture options....there is one more not shown called SVCD Standard Play.




You can also customize the audio capture bitrate...but only mpeg audio is available on mine.

[DarrellS]

Can you post a Mediainfo screenshot or texr file of one of your captured files?

Here's mine...

General
Complete name : F:\_Cbl-15_20081122_175950.mpg
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 11.6 GiB
Duration : 3h 53mn
Overall bit rate : 7 112 Kbps

Video
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, Matrix : Standard
Duration : 3h 53mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 235 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 8 000 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.772

Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 3h 53mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Video delay : -211ms

and a screenshot from WinTV...

[jagabo]

HVR1800, it captures in MPEG2-PS which only plays correctly for me in Nero Showtime 3. If I try and play the files in Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic, the files are all out of sync and I can't seek.

You probably have an MPEG splitter and MPEG decoder compatibility problem. You can use GraphEdit to diagnose this. Then a filter manager to eliminate or deprecate the offending splitter or decoder.

[FulciLives]

It is always a good idea to run the recorded file through either VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR as both have a function to clean up the file in such a way as to get rid of any sync issues. Either one will do (you don't have to use both).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[hech54]

Can you post a Mediainfo screenshot or texr file of one of your captured files?

From television:

General
Complete name : D:\Video\20081107_203334.mpg
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 1.94 GiB
Duration : 39mn 15s
Overall bit rate : 7 072 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Duration : 39mn 15s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 197 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 7 040 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.679

Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 39mn 15s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Video delay : -124ms

Mine says MPEG-PS too....of course I never looked at any of my captures.


_________________________

Here is one of my BIG captures from my VCR via S-Video:
General
Complete name : D:\Video\_S-Video_20080728_123438.mpg
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 7.89 GiB
Duration : 1h 28mn
Overall bit rate : 12.7 Mbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Duration : 1h 28mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 11.5 Mbps
Nominal bit rate : 12.0 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.157

Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 1h 28mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Video delay : -124ms

[DarrellS]

HVR1800, it captures in MPEG2-PS which only plays correctly for me in Nero Showtime 3. If I try and play the files in Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic, the files are all out of sync and I can't seek.

You probably have an MPEG splitter and MPEG decoder compatibility problem. You can use GraphEdit to diagnose this. Then a filter manager to eliminate or deprecate the offending splitter or decoder.

GraphEdit shows the Ligos MPEG Splitter and Decoder.

I just played an analog capture I did on Saturday and it seems to be OK in MPC. The HD captures seem to be the ones that give me all the problems. I still have to use DGIndex to create d2v and AVS file to edit the anolog captures with Virtualdub or or takes over an hour just to open the file.

GSpot shows no problem filters. I can't get CodecSniper to work on my XP machine. Had no problems in Windows 2000 but it won't run on this PC.

[jagabo]

When the HVR 1800 records digital channels it simply remuxes the broadcast transport stream into an MPG container. I have an HVR-1280 that does the same thing. I have no problems playing or seeking those files. I suspect the Ligos splitter and decoder simply don't like those files.

Try using any alternate graphs that Gspot shows you. When you press the "1" button near the bottom left corner Gspot will show you several possible graphs. Right clicking on any of them and selecting "Render This Graph" will use that graph. Pressing the "3" button should then show you the results.

[DarrellS]

When the HVR 1800 records digital channels it simply remuxes the broadcast transport stream into an MPG container. I have an HVR-1280 that does the same thing. I have no problems playing or seeking those files. I suspect the Ligos splitter and decoder simply don't like those files.

Try using any alternate graphs that Gspot shows you. When you press the "1" button near the bottom left corner Gspot will show you several possible graphs. Right clicking on any of them and selecting "Render This Graph" will use that graph. Pressing the "3" button should then show you the results.

GSpot only shows one graph so "render this graph" is grayed out but GSpot plays the file perfect. No sync issues.

MPC-HC is now playing the files in sync but I cannot seek or the file goes all wacky.

EDIT: Looks like I have two copies of MPC-HC and they have different settings. Windows kept picking the one with the wrong settings. Deleted the one with the wrong settings and forced Windows to find the good copy and now it works fine. Doing this has also caused MPC to play the files correctly which I was using as my default mpg player.

I'm thinking I might be able to delete MPC now and just use MPC-HC but I'm afraid to screw up a good thing.

[jagabo]

MPCHC has its own internal MPEG splitter and decoder. Each can be enabled or disabled (if disabled it will fall back on DirectShow filters). You might try playing with those settings via View -> Options -> Internal Filters... You have to exit MPCHC and restart it for the changes to take effect.

[olyteddy]

It is always a good idea to run the recorded file through either VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR as both have a function to clean up the file in such a way as to get rid of any sync issues. Either one will do (you don't have to use both).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

I use PVA Strumento to do that.