Hauppauge HDPVR-1212 Owner's Thread - Page 2

How are you capturing? What method are you using?

The bundled software.
Michael

It is well-known that it generally does not work. Short test clips have fooled a lot of users at first, because it often produces a few minutes of playable output. Hauppauge tech support replied to my email about 6+ weeks ago with "we are aware of problems with MP4 Creator and are working on them".

A few users have reported some kind of success. For instance I seem to recall MichaelLax describing a process where he uses MP4 Creator first, then uses other tools to reprocess the output from that, eventually getting files he can play on Mac.

You're using the Record program in the TME?

I'm impressed then, I've got an AMD 6000+ @3.0GHz and an ATI Radeon HD 3450 video card and I don't think I've seen a capture under 20%, normally it seems to run from 35% to 50%. Using the Recorder program that comes with the HD-PVR bundled software.

Doesn't the 3450 have hardware h.264 decoding? The capture module must not be recognizing it (maybe you need to update the graphics card's drivers?). You should be getting just a few percent CPU usage. I get 1 percent with a Q6600 CPU and a NVIDIA 8600 GT.

Yeah, it's got HW accel on all the formats, I always thought it was kind of strange, I can capture through the graphedit program and use next to nothing in CPU and I can play back and use next to nothing in CPU(no more than 10% if I combined the two), but when I record with the TME software, the one that turns on the Blue(Bling) LEDS and the record light on the HD-PVR, then I almost always use 20% to 50% CPU.

Note you can easily calculate file size in constant bitrate mode:

file size = bitrate * running time

9 Megabits per second * 60 seconds per minute * 60 minutes per hour = 32,400 Megabits

Divide by 8 to get MegaBytes = 4,050 MegaBytes. Of course, there's audio too, and a little overhead for the TS container.

I haven't verified this, but the Peak value probably isn't even used in constant bitrate mode.

According to the display on the PS3, even the Constant bit rate 9.0 average, 13.5 peak has quite a range. I've seen as low as 5.3 on a mostly black screen, to as high as 11.5. It does stay right around 9.0 most of the time though.

I havn't tried variable bit rate yet.

Michael

I've always wanted to be able to see what decoders were in use when playing back or viewing video files, graphedit will pretty much tell you what the defaults are going to be for opening the file, but when you play a file in a particular app, is there anyway to actually determine which codecs are being used?

KMPlayer, Media Player Classic, MPlayer2.exe (old Windows Media Player 6.4 that still comes with WMP) can all show you what filters are in use. In KMPlayer and MPC right click on the video and select Filters. In MPlayer2 right click on the video and select Properties then go to the Advanced tab.

Right, but I still have no way to determine what the Arcsoft Record program is using, so I can try to determine why I have such a high CPU usage compared to you guys.

The regular version of Media Player Classic doesn't support DXVA which is required for hardware video decoding. The Home Cinema version does support DXVA but you may have to enable the feature.

They would have to have coded a special function call to register the running graph, if they did that you could attach it with graphedit. but you can't, implying that they don't. But anyway I think there's no trouble guessing that they are using their own filters.

For some reason, when I first used Arcsoft capture on my E8400/8800GT it was eating 50% of cpu, but weeks later when I tried it again (to document exactly how lame it was) its cpu usage had plunged to around 10%; somehow it seemed to have discovered that there was hw decoding available. How exactly that happened remains a mystery to me.

Beats me, I just checked again and it's 25 to 50% on the Record program, I popped in the Fifth Element Blu-ray in and with PowerDVD it was around 15 to 22% CPU usage, tried it in ArcSoft and it doesn't even reach 10%.

My comments were lost, later archived, when this thread died. The short version is ...

I sometimes get the glitches. Other times, I'm OK. They don't seem related to my motherboard, encoder box (C2) overheating, bit rate settings, or video format. When I get them, shutting down arc soft, turning off the box, and restarting everything usually solves the problem.

David

I haven't had the time yet. I've been busy looking for a new job the last couple of weeks. I found out this afternoon I'm going to get an offer, so things will settle down soon and I can better deal with this problem.

David

anyone have a suggestion on a new video card for my pc? i currently have a geforce 8500gt that locks up when it wants to and i can't figure out why. i think the card i defective cause it's done it on two pc's. wondering if i should try the same card or a different one.

yes and with sage tv on my current system, i'm not capturing with this one just watching. it would lock up on the other one also but i didn't use Arcsoft or Sage on that one it would happen with the screen saver or just idling.

has development on h264ts_cutter stopped? I've tried to read their message board, but I don't speak German too well.

I bought the 1212 via Amazon.com. Back ordered. Received two weeks ago. Easy install, excellent captures of 1080i from Motorola DCT3416 HD-DVR, mostly HDNTM movies.

Within minutes the adhesive holding the IR blaster emitter to the face of the DVR fell off and would not re-stick. As I wasn't planning to use it immediately to tune the box, I ignored this.

I was slightly irritated that the 1212 must be ON in order to view the DVR output on the TV, but chose to ignore that as well - not that I had a choice!

The only problem I had was that the component cable connectors did not fit firmly into the 1212 connectors. Since I was using the 1212 power switch to power down over-night, the small movement this caused to the box would often dislodge one of the video connectors - to be discovered when the screen remained black after power on.

While the unit runs hot, it was in a fairly well ventilated, under-the-set cabinet. After 8 days of use, rather continuous since the Olympics began during that period, the 1212 began to frequently drop video to the TV - screen goes black for 2 or more seconds, sometimes long enough for auto shutdown of the TV - and in between these signal losses the picture would often break up. I spent quite a bit of time reverifying, each time, that the connectors were still firmly seated. After cooling, the unit would behave better, but the symptoms soon returned.

Since I was playing video from the DVR, I could re-cable and watch the same material to be assured that there was nothing wrong with the source picture.

I exchanged the 1212 with Amazon for new. This was a very simple procedure. Exactly the same problem arose with the replacement unit in less than 24 hours. I've now returned it for a refund.

The component cables used were a 6' set which came with the DVR from the cableco and the 6' cable delivered with the 1212. Alternatively, I tried a pair of 3' cables I'd ordered from Monoprice.com to avoid using 6 footers.

I've used several Hauppauge devices in the past, external and internal. All have been problem free and long running, so I expect to be able to reorder a 1212 when some of these issues have been attended to by their engineering group.

BTW, H264TC Cutter 111 does an OK job cutting commercials, etc., as long as there is some fade in/out, as it is not frame accurate. Hopefully its author will have time to enhance the nav controls.

Yes, if you use Google translate it becomes clear that the author stopped development quite a while ago to work on some commercial product. Probably an expanded TS editor which is why the program is no longer available on his web page.

I've been using an ASUS EN8600GT Silent. It's fanless, has hardware h.264 decoding (~1 percent CPU usage when capturing or playing with Arcsoft's software), and has never locked up with the HD PVR.

That's the impression I got from what I could read, I think I used babelfish(yahoo's translator), but I couldn't follow threads with more than one page, I wonder what project that he's working on. h264ts_cutter is a pretty slick program, I just wish it would show the frame type, I totally understand only cutting on I-Frames and IDR frames. I just wish there was a wee bit more documentation.

I have mine plugged into the switched power outlet of my PVR. So it powers up whenever the PVR is turned on.

fan was working on the card not sure if it's spinning at the correct speed or not though if that's even possible...i picked up a ati hd3450 and it has a heat sink and better yet a hdmi port i'm about to install it now.