choppy video and audio using Media Center

B

bennbama

New Member
Last week I recieved a new Dell Studio Slim 540s Desktop factory equipped with a Hauppauge 1250 TV tuner. The computer is running Vista SP1 Ultimate 64 bit operating system. I went through the set up instructions and found that the Live TV video and audio being feed to my 47" LCD screen TV by Windows Media Center was choppy. BlueRay disc, DVD and music file playback are all fine. I uninstalled the ATI Radeon HD 3450 video card and connected the HDMI cable directly to the HDMI cable outlet on the motherboard and I still had choppy video and audio. While the video card was uninstalled I attached a 20' flat panel LCD monitor to the motherboards VGA port using the monitors VGA cable and still had the problem. Only Live TV through Windows Media Center is problematic. I have spent 3 hours online with Dell tech support and after they had tried all they could think to try they suggested I reset the computer operating perameters to the factory settings and told me they would call within 48 hours to ensure the problem was fixed. I did as they suggested and the problem was not fixed. After 72 hours and no call from Dell I called Dell tech support and spent another 2 hours without any positive results. The call resulted in the Dell support technition sugesting that I have my local cable system operator check the cable signal and connections. I had the local cable operator send out a couple of technitions to check the signal going to my system and they found no issues. They did notice that the static that was displayed on the monitor when the cable was disconnected from the tv tuner still appeared to be choppy. My TV works great with the cable connected direct. I have replaced the TV tuner with a new tuner exactly like the tuner that was installed from the factory, remember this is a new computer, and still had choppy video and audio. As you can tell I have systematically eliminated the systems additional components as the source of the problem. I am now left with 2 options; 1) The Vista operating system is the problem or 2) The processor is the problem. Maybe there is something I am overlooking. I am open to any suggestions.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio Slim 540s
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad (2.66GHz, 1333Mhz FSB) w/6MB cache
    Memory
    8GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4X2GB
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3450 256 MB supporting HDMI
    Sound Card
    Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    47" Vizio LCD
    Hard Drives
    750 GB Serial ATA 2 @ 7200rpm
    Mouse
    Dell wireless optical
    Keyboard
    Dell wireless desktop
    Internet Speed
    High speed cable
    Other Info
    Happauge 1250 TV tuner with remote
For what this is worth, I had a similar problem with Vista Ultimate 32 bit, on a home built system - quad core with 4 gig ram etc etc
After 3 months of struggling to get live TV to function, a friend who works for a software company suggested that I try increasing the size of my virtual memory.
He suggested tripling it - since i have a 320 gig HD I increased the size to 16 gig.
Now the live TV functions perfectly.
It's worth a try - you have nothing to lose.
 

My Computer

System One

I have the same problem, also on Studio Slim 540s. I am looking for a solution. It is good to know that you have gone through all these options to no avail because Dell support is trying to get me through the same process. They simply have no clue.
 

My Computer

System One

I am running into the same problem using Media Center, the video is choppy with Live TV, the computer is a HP m8120n Media Center, Vista Premuim Home 32 Bit. When it was new the Tv worked fine, but after 6 months reception became choppy and Curuit City stated there was nothing wrong with it, that this is a common thing and to deal with it. (even though it was under warrenty) Im currently playing email tag with a Microsoft support tech trying to figure out the problem. Problem is only when playing live TV and recored TV using WMC, Media PLayer it works fine to watch recorded TV. I'll post more if ever get any info from microsoft.
 

My Computer

System One

I think I've solve my problem for now. I went to Support for WinTV-HVR-1250

download and installed the WinTV software from the site. The package comes with a newer driver for hauppauge 1250 TV tuner. I also have the impression that installing WinTV software did something to the tuner too. So installing both the driver and the software did the trick. I am not sure if updating the driver alone is sufficient.

Hope this helps.
 

My Computer

System One

Thanks x9wu1!

I was having this problem with a straight-out-of-the-box Dell with Vista Home Premium x64 and the Hauppauge 1250 tuner.

I didn't have to install the software, just the drivers. Now all is well!
 

My Computer

System One

I have a PVR-150 and Ultimate 64 and had LiveTV jitters. I found the link on the Hauppauge site that had just the PVR drivers without all the other software. Ran this driver package and everything works now. Hauppauge really hid the driver file.

Here's the URL I used:

Hauppauge Computer Works : Support

Here's the data on the link:

Media Center drivers in a zip form (complete Hauppauge WinTV for Windows Media Center CD-ROM)

WinTV-PVR Media Center driver CD version 3.2
With support for the MCE versions of the WinTV-PVR and WinTV-HVR series, WinTV-NOVA-S-USB2, WinTV-NOVA-T-Plus, WinTV-NOVA-T-USB2.
New: now supports the WinTV-HVR-1200, WinTV-HVR-1250, WinTV-HVR-1400, WinTV-HVR-1500, WinTV-HVR-1600, WinTV-HVR-1700, WinTV-HVR-1800 and WinTV-HVR-2200.
Note: Currently, the WinTV-PVR-150 and WinTV-PVR-500 receivers used with 64-bit versions of Windows are limited to less than 4GB of memory.
New: now includes an Autorun for easier installation of all drivers and SoftMCE (Hauppauge's MPEG-2 Media Center software encoder).
To install:
  • Download this file.
  • Unzip it to a directory which you will remember (suggestion: wintv).
  • Run Setup.EXE from this CD.
  • Click Install drivers. This will uninstall the old driver, and install the new drivers plus our SoftMCE encoder (used on those WinTV products which use software MPEG encoders).
Note: If this is a new installation, when you boot Windows, you will see the New Hardware Found message. Hit Cancel and then run SETUP.EXE from this CD.
Name: MCE_CD_32.ZIP
Size: 20.1 Mbytes
Version: 3.2
 

My Computer

System One

Spoke too soon. The jitter is certainly less pronounced but not eliminated. Part of the problem is that even during Live TV, video is being buffered to the local hard disk. That was a problem for me along time ago with the ATI product line.

My next step is to try the full Hauppauge software suite.
 

My Computer

System One

mryanaz said:
Spoke too soon. The jitter is certainly less pronounced but not eliminated. Part of the problem is that even during Live TV, video is being buffered to the local hard disk. That was a problem for me along time ago with the ATI product line.

My next step is to try the full Hauppauge software suite.
Click to expand...


Sorry, if I'm being too simply but have you tried a defrag?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Build
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core QX6700 4 X 2.66M
    Motherboard
    ASUS Striker II Extreme
    Memory
    4 GB DDR3 1600
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB PCI-E
    Sound Card
    SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 Flat screen 21" LG displays
    Hard Drives
    5 internal Hard Drives: 2 x WD 500GB (CAVIAR BLACK 500GB 32MB 7200 SATA) 3 x WD 1TB (CAVIAR BLACK 1TB 32MB 7200 SATA) as Raid 5 array
    PSU
    Tagan TG 1100W TURBOJET QUAD SLI
    Case
    Thermaltake EUREKA Case - Black
    Cooling
    ASUS V60 Quiet with additional fans for H/drives
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 Gaming
    Internet Speed
    0.5 Mb - (Benefits of rural location!)
    Other Info
    Teaming 2 GB network connection to Wired 1GB switch. Connected to 22TB (Raid 5) of network storage on a wired 1GB lan. (Mixture of internal hard drives, 1TB, 2TB & 4TB Terastations)
It's working!!! Scraped and loaded the Hauppauge a couple of times. Perfect operation now. Go figure.

I scraped all the Hauppauge software off the drive, re-installed the Hauppauge drivers only and couldn't get a video signal. I installed the drivers again (not practicing insanity but hoping for a different outcome) and viola, I have a clear signal and no jitter.

I cannot tell you why and I cannot tell you how. All I know is that long ago when I had an ATI All-in-Wonder and it had big driver issues. Same kind of multiple install solutions in order to get it to work. Now I have a PVR-150 and it exhibits the same kind of driver behavior.

My specs:

Intel Core Duo 2.4Ghz
4GB RAM
1TB SATA HD
Gforce 8600 GTS
WinTV PVR 150
Vista 64 Ultimate
 

My Computer

System One

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