Which exact model did you get?
From the websites for those two vendors, it appears that you must have gotten model 1199, with built-in IR port and IR blaster, and an IR remote.

Good.

There may be a trick or two getting it to work. The HVR-1600 hardware or driver has a bug, whereby the very first time after boot that analog is used, the video timing is badly off.

So most people have a startup script to simply read a second's worth of data from the card, tossing it all to /dev/null, before MythTV starts up.

Eg. dd if=/dev/video0 of=/dev/null bs=128k count=1

Cheers

From the websites for those two vendors, it appears that you must have gotten model 1199, with built-in IR port and IR blaster, and an IR remote.

Actually it is the 1181 with NSTC/ATSC/QAM support, on-board IR receiver and blaster, and French/Englsh manual.

There may be a trick or two getting it to work. The HVR-1600 hardware or driver has a bug, whereby the very first time after boot that analog is used, the video timing is badly off.

So most people have a startup script to simply read a second's worth of data from the card, tossing it all to /dev/null, before MythTV starts up.

Eg. dd if=/dev/video0 of=/dev/null bs=128k count=1

Thanks. I read something about that. I hope to play with it on the weekend, but may not get the chance.

Yeah, 1181 is simply 1199, except with French translations on the packaging and instructions. Both normally include an IR remote control, as well as the other stuff you listed.

I have an older 1101 here, which has an FM tuner, different A/V connectors, and no I/R stuff. And supposedly no QAM support, though apparently that's just a firmware/driver thing so it probably really does have that as well.

just dropping in on this discussion - I want to start playing with Mythbuntu! Is the HVR1600 the best way to go for Ottawa OTA stations? I want to buy just one card that will do the most.

just dropping in on this discussion - I want to start playing with Mythbuntu! Is the HVR1600 the best way to go for Ottawa OTA stations?
It's a good "starter card", because it is one of the very few PCI cards that can do both analog and digital TV (simultaneously, too!) under Linux / MythTV / Mythbuntu. And the fact that many of us nabbed them on sale for $25 last year didn't hurt, either!

It's a *good* analog tuner card, and a medium quality digital tuner. The HVR-950Q USB stick beats it for digital, but the HVR-1600 beats some other devices for digital, such as the HDHomeRun.

I think the HVR-1800 is also now a decent choice, though it is very fussy about having the bleeding edge of everything to support it. The HVR-1600, on the other hand, works just fine "out of the box" with current/older distros.

Cheers

The HVR-1600, on the other hand, works just fine "out of the box" with current/older distros.

According to the MythTV Wiki (http://mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HVR-1600#Options_for_Linux_Drivers), the drivers included in recent kernels may contain a bug which causes stuttering in TV playback, but I gather the latest driver fixes the problem.

According to the MythTV Wiki (http://mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HVR-1600#Options_for_Linux_Drivers), the drivers included in recent kernels may contain a bug which causes stuttering in TV playback, but I gather the latest driver fixes the problem.

See my earlier post #541 above for the easy solution to that trivial issue.

Cheers

Does anyone have extended the wire of the IR receiver on a tuner card?
Can I just cut the wire and add a lenght of regular copper wire? Is it limited in lenght?

I am guessing that there is no limit - I actually use the 2nd pair on my internal phone wiring to get the IR transmitter function to a different room in my house and that works fine. What is the type of plug - many of these use the small headphone jacks or USB. You could possibly even use a headphone extension cord if it was that type.

No, smaller then headpnone! Hauppage card use a 2 or 2.5 mm to prevent messing up with the audio input, I guess.

Wize guy to use the phone wiring!!! Thanks

Extended my remote cable on the week end and it is working. I tough it was a simple wire but it is a three wires cable. I did not test if the 3 wires are in use just used a similar cable that was in one of my bins.


As PPL4GOLF has already said: the Hauppauge HVR-1250 is much, much, much more good at receiving both locals and distants stations than the HVR-1600.
The 1250 is now connect directly to the antenna and receive all locals and distants station, while 1600 is using the preamp just to get locals without cliffs.

Anyone ever experience this sort of issue? I've been using a 1600 with my Win 7 MCE for quite some time. I have two CM 4221's set up with a CM 7778 Pre-Amp. When run directly into my LG tv, I get everything, absolutely everything I should based on my TVFool report.
My results with the 1600 are considerably less encouraging. In an effort to improve my MCE results, I purchased a 2250. For the most part, this worked, except for the following strange result.

There are two stations out of Toronto that are causing me fits. CTV and CITY TV. CTV has never been a reception issue for me...came in perfectly with the 1600. CITY has always been just a little too weak with the 1600. Now, with the 2250, I get CITY very well, only problem is, it parks itself in place of CTV. CITY should be 57.1 and CTV should be 9.1, but CITY keeps taking 9.1 leaving me without CTV.

I've contacted Hauppauge support about this, but they say it's a problem with the header being broadcast by CITY and to contact them. This of course isn't the case, since I can tune both channels properly through my tv.

My question is (finally, I know), is there something going on in the registry or somewhere else that might be causing this? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

@wizzinator,

You problem has nothing to do with cards. The MCE guide probably got all screwed in the first place with the crappy scan from the HVR-1600.

I'll recommend entering US ZIP 14201, 14301 or 14072 and use the default channel listing. AFAIK, 14201 is the best and everything is there.

I am interested in knowing if the HVR-2250 is as good as an LG tuner.

I have the 1600 and it tunes one way and the 1250 is able to tune in another way whereas the one card get one station strong it is that the other card is different.
I emailed the manufacturer about the difference between the 1250 and 2250 cards the said.....
Yes, both the WinTV-HVR-1250 and the WinTV-HVR-2250 use the NXP 18271 TV
tuner.

The 1250 is for me better than the 1600 it is less effected to the signal variations I seem to get at my location.

PPL4GOLF:

What you are saying semi makes sense, because I'm now back to using the 1600 and if I scan enough times I can get City TV, but it ends up in the CTV slot (9.1) I'm using the 1600 so that I can get CTV for the olympics (I guess you can say the 1600 is sufficiently poor enough that it doesn't always pick up City).

When setting up my guide, I used Peter Near's batch file for Toronto listings along with the scheduled Digital guide update. How would this factor into what you are saying? Would you recommend just using the US zip instead of Peter's solutions?

Thanks for the reply.

I am not sure if you're exclusively OTA or not.

I am OTA exclusively and 14201, 14301 or 14072 all worked but I recall 14072 actually missed 57.1 at some point when I was using the HVR-950Q because it did not pick up CityHD well for some reason.

I reworked it a little and used 14201 and ba all came it on the guide. I just delete the Hamilton channels and a couple of other channels that I don't get.

If you combine OTA and carrier, use Pete's tip here :

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1063136&postcount=4

That is awesome...perfect answer! I'll give it a shot tonight. I am exclusively OTA so I'll enter the zip...up until a couple weeks ago I was using cable and ota, so Peter's solution was what I needed. Now that you point it out, I realize I don't need to worry about the cable listings any longer and as such, can enter the zip.

Thanks again!

I'm trying to figure out if the Hauppauge HVR-2250 will do what I need for my soon-to-be-upgraded HTPC. I've been using the PVR-150 for 3 years now without incident, but I'm keen to move from SD to HD, and want to get opinion on my setup (which is complicated by the fact I'm with videotron). So my questions:

1. The HVR-2250 has dual tuners, but as I'm with Videotron illico, which has no real clearQAM channels, the tuners won't even be used. I have to go through a STB right?

2. Therefore, in order to record two channels, I'll need two STBs, and probably two tuners, given that the 2250 only has one input, which is split internally?

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Karl

Hi!

I'm trying to figure out if the Hauppauge HVR-2250 will do what I need for my soon-to-be-upgraded HTPC. I've been using the PVR-150 for 3 years now without incident, but I'm keen to move from SD to HD, and want to get opinion on my setup (which is complicated by the fact I'm with videotron). So my questions:

You won't get HD from cable if you use the signal that comes from STBs, only SD...

To get HD you would need an Hauppauge HD PVR which can capture up to 1080i.

1. The HVR-2250 has dual tuners, but as I'm with Videotron illico, which has no real clearQAM channels, the tuners won't even be used. I have to go through a STB right?

AFAIK, yes (but I don't use cable...).

2. Therefore, in order to record two channels, I'll need two STBs, and probably two tuners, given that the 2250 only has one input, which is split internally?

No, I believe you would only need one HVR-2250 since it has two sets of A/V inputs (the second set is on another bracket and does come with it AFAIK).

Have a nice day!

Nick

You won't get HD from cable if you use the signal that comes from STBs, only SD...

Correct, the HVR-2250 will only record HD from clear QAM or ATSC (with an antenna).

To get HD you would need an Hauppauge HD PVR which can capture up to 1080i.

Correct. Firewire might be another posibility, but many have had dificulties getting it to work properly.

No, I believe you would only need one HVR-2250 since it has two sets of A/V inputs (the second set is on another bracket and does come with it AFAIK).

Correct, the HVR-2250 has only 1 RF input but has separate A/V inputs for connecting to cable boxes, but they will only record in SD.