DSTV PVR on Hauppage PVR-150 setup

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TheYak

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Hi guys.

So, I finally got all my goodies and I it's all connected, but I have two problems:

The first problem is that I can't get the Hauppage software to pick up the signal from my decoder. I am running svideo from the decoder to the capture card, but I'm not sure how to tell the thing to use that as the source. I messed around in the source window, but I am not having any luck. It doesn't pick the signal up. Can someone walk me through how to set it up to see the decoder, please?

The second problem is with Windows Media Centre (on Windows 7). I tried to run the TV setup there, but it didn't pick up the Hauppage tuner card on it. Basically told me that there are no tuner cards attached to the machine. I have installed the drivers and the WinTV card itself doesn't moan about anything, but Media Centre doesn't seem to find the card?

I'm at wit's end. I've been looking forward to this setup for two weeks now, and I just can't seem to get the darn thing to work.


Please help! :(

Thanks.
 
Looks like there's specifically 3 different PVR-150 models, the 2 that exclude the remote do mention they are media centre editions.

HAUPPAUGE WinTV-PVR 150, PVR, 125 channel, Stereo, MPEG2 Decoder - no remote (Media Centre Edition, OEM)
 
Heya Drake.

It's the one with the remote, the Media Centre edition, says "WinTV PVR-150MCE" on the box and the model number is 99035.

Now that I've given it up as a bad job for the night, I can elaborate a little:

I have a PVR 1 decoder connected via composite cable to a Hauppauge PVR-150MCE tuner card on a machine running Windows 7 Media Centre. The PC in turn is connected to a BenQ projector via svideo cable.

I have installed the latest drivers (downloaded from the Hauppauge's site) as well as all the WinTV applications.

The problem that I'm sitting with now, is trying to get the WinTV application to pick up the signal via the composite cable from the decoder and to get Windows Media Centre to pick up the Hauppauge tuner card.

At this point in time, I'm willing to PAY someone to just come in, get all of that set up and to do the wiring for my speakers, because I'm so sick of struggling with computers that I can scream! *headdesk*
 
32 bit or 64bit?
more than 4gb of ram?

also, post #1 says svideo, post #2 says composite...both should work, but which one is it you are actually using?
 
I think we're doing almost exactly the same work: I've got (access to) 2 *different* PVR-150 cards but getting signal into either of them has been a real swine of a problem ..and, well, I've been thinking I must be some kinda idjit to have struggled with it the way I have, ta for the company! :D

TheYak said:
The first problem is that I can't get the Hauppage software to pick up the signal from my decoder. I am running svideo from the decoder to the capture card, but I'm not sure how to tell the thing to use that as the source. I messed around in the source window, but I am not having any luck. It doesn't pick the signal up. Can someone walk me through how to set it up to see the decoder, please?
Click to expand...
OK, details: OS, which Hauppauge app you running, what *specifically* are you connecting to what ..and related: you know that s-vid carries only the video component, you have to run sound via a separate cable - you doing that (and to where)?

The second problem is with Windows Media Centre (on Windows 7). I tried to run the TV setup there, but it didn't pick up the Hauppage tuner card on it. Basically told me that there are no tuner cards attached to the machine. I have installed the drivers and the WinTV card itself doesn't moan about anything, but Media Centre doesn't seem to find the card?
Click to expand...
This all on the same box - IOW do both questions refer to Win7? If so, you doing this 32- or 64-bit? Are you using their Vista/64 driver?

As to their app: I've also had, well, no joy. So, necessity being what it is and all, some solid GOOGing unearthed ChrisTV which promises to be a panacea for all things TV-card, as well as specifically having Win7 support. I'm currently between machine setups (I have one 7100/64 box with a correctly detected/setup/visible-to-ChrisTV Philips SAA713x-chipset card in it, but haven't gotten the second one with the PVR-150 going yet) that are meant to be fed from the DStv PVR and haven't had time to get further than I have now. Maybe give this a whirl and report back? :p Also, have you considered using the composite connectors?
 
I have the hauppauge 150 mce and it runs fine in windows 7 64 bit and vista 32 bit on a normal dstv decoder via rca connection to the tuner card. Didn't install the wintv software though. media center picks up the signal straight away.
 
okay I just checked my setup again and to me it sounds like your drivers for the tv tuner aren't installed correctly. When you go into device manager in the control panel for windows, do you see the hauppauge card under sound, video and game controllers?
 
Morning guys. Another day, another war with my Media Centre :)

Okay, to answer some of the questions here:

I'm running Windows7 32bit with 2 gigs of memory.

The DSTV decoder is connected to the tuner card with a composite cable for video and rca cables for the sound.

I do see the Tuner card in the hardware list, yes.

I will try ChrisTV and see if that works. Still doesn't sort out the problem of WMC picking up the card though :(
 
mce should detect the card if the driver is installed. I have the exact same card. The only thing that I didn't do was to install the wintv software that came with the cd. how did you install the driver?
 
Morning CF. Yep! I managed to get it working. Not sure what I did, but it's working, heh! :)

I'm not 100% happy with it yet though. The quality is a bit naff - both of DSTV and the Media Centre. The sound is not too hot either, but I have a suspicion that that's because of the crappy amp I'm using. I need to find a soundcard that I can plug the speakers into directly. I phoned a few places yesterday, but they were all useless :(

So, yah. I'm almost there, but the quality is not as good as I thought/hoped it was going to be. Could the picture quality be related to the graphics card? I.e. if I get a better graphics card, would that improve the quality of the graphics? I'm using an svideo cable. The picture just seems fuzzy to me. *shrug*
 
you could perhaps improve the picture quality by means of a different connection to the tv. What other options do you have in this regard? I am using a dvi to hdmi cable from the pc to the tv and it doesn't look bad at all. Did you do the screen setup in mce? What tv are you using?
 
Have you tried and checked the pvr-150 on wintv first? Download wintv 7 from Hauppage.com and just install the entire package. Works very well and check the results. You might have some crappy decoders at the moment.
 
CF, I am using an svideo cable to run from the PC to my projector. It's quite a distance, so I doubt I'll find a DVI cable that's long enough and if I do, it's going to be hellishly expensive and I've already spent SOOO much money on this setup, LOL!.

Also, the projector only has svideo and composite video plugs, so I'm limited to that. Eish... I can see myself buying a new LCD TV before the end of this month. LOL! I was in an AV shop yesterday and looked at some of the sets they have there. Damn!

I noticed something though: if I play a DVD through MCE, the sound and picture quality are both great. But if I play DSTV, it's fuzzy and the sound is muffled. So I think you might be onto something there, Venom. I have, however, already installed the latest version of WinTV and the drivers, but I can't get the DSTV channel to show up on WinTV, so I haven't looked into it any further. I'd really prefer to run it through MCE though, so I can have everything in one place.

I'm 80% there with the whole setup though. I would still like to find a soundcard somewhere that I can plug the speakers directly into the card instead of going through the crappy external "amp" I'm using now, but none of the shops I checked this weekend had anything like that. Do you even GET anything like that? I.e. a soundcard where you can plug unamplified speakers into? I was thinking of something along the lines of the Creative Soundlbaster cards? I'm so out of touch with hardware though, so I have no idea what's going on with the latest tech. It's quite frustrating.

The other thing I'm having an issue with, is getting the MCE remote to control my DSTV PVR. I tried to train the remote, but obviously I'm not a very good remote trainer, 'cos... well, it doesn't work. LOL!

So, I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

PS: Thanks for all the help you guys have been giving me so far. I would've been lost without it. *nod*
 
TheYak said:
The other thing I'm having an issue with, is getting the MCE remote to control my DSTV PVR. I tried to train the remote, but obviously I'm not a very good remote trainer, 'cos... well, it doesn't work. LOL!
Click to expand...

Don't bother trying to train your remote.. if you can set the PVR to accept the old remote and the new remote, then manually choose Multichoice on the list of manufacturers... use the second option on the list. It won't be able to 'learn' anything.
 
How do I set the PVR to use the old and the new remote? And by "old" I take it you mean the actual DSTV remote and "new" you mean the MCE remote?

I chose the Multichoice option from the list, but I wasn't sure which option to choose after that. I actually went through and tried all of them, but none of them worked. I have a PVR 1.
 
after you choose the multichoice option, you will get a list of codes and the dstv decoder should respond if you choose the second option. Make sure the infrared eye from the decoder and the ir cable from the mce remote is lined up properly otherwise it won't work. Shine a flashlight onto the dstv decoder's front panel if you are not sure where the ir eye is.
 
Okay. I redid the TV signal setup and chose the second option under Multichoice. I also stuck the IR transmitter, literally, to the front of the LCD panel on the PRV.

When I press the channel up and down buttons, the PVR stutters for a little bit, almost like a mini-pause, and then carries on playing. Changing channel numbers doesn't work either.

Just to re-iterate: it says Multichoice PVR 1 on the front of the PVR.
 
okay, there is a guide on the www.mceguide.co.za website that should be able to help. On page 27 of the guide it deals with setting up the pvr to work with mce. Hope it helps.
 
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