WinTV-PVR-150 Troubleshooting notes

What Operating Systems are supported by the WinTV-PVR-150?

The WinTV PVR 150 will function under Windows2000, WindowsXP, Windows MediaCenterEdition and WindowsVista (32bit and 64bit*)

It will not function under Windows95, Windows98SE, WindowsME, NT 4.0, or Embedded and is not currently supported under Windows Server2003.

*Vista 64bit compatible drivers are available for the PVR150 here, however, we do not have a WinTV application that will run on 64bit. You must use the MediaCenter interface.

Error Code 10: This device cannot start.

Look in the Device Manager to verify that the drivers have been installed and configured correctly. To do this, simply Right-Click on the "My Computer" icon and click on "Properties". Then click on the "Hardware" tab and the "Device Manager" button. In the Dev. Mgr, look for "Sound, video and game controllers" Click on the small (+)plus sign next to this category to see its list of installed devices. You should see the Hauppauge WinTV listed here.
If it is not listed here, the drivers have not been installed correctly and would require re-installing them.

Try moving the WinTV card to a different PCI slot in the system. If there are any resource issues with the WinTV card and any other device in the system, this would reassign the resources for the WinTV.

Open the Control Panel - System - Advanced. In the Performance section click on the Settings button, then the Advanced tab. In the Memory Usage section located here, choose Programs instead of System Cache.

Make sure that the latest drivers for your VGA card are installed as well.

Black screen issues

The following information is ONLY a workaround for video cards that do not support Overlay.

• Black screens when channels have been scanned
• Lockups after channel scan or adding a channel
• Errors when changing MPEG quality level
• Can only display video in MPEG1 setting

You can set the WinTV to run in Primary display mode to get the video in the WinTV2000. You must have the latest version of the Hauppauge Software decoders and the latest version of the PVR150 drivers.

Open the Primary applet located in the Start - Programs - Hauppauge WinTV program group. Select Force Primary and close the Primary program out. Open WinTV and try adding a channel and see if the video and audio play. Also verify that you can change the MPEG quality settings in the Pref - Movies - MPEG settings.

Remember, this is just a workaround; the PVR 150 is designed and meant to work in Overlay. You may need to upgrade the video card drivers or change your video display adapter.

Also make sure that the Hauppauge Software decoders have been installed. These will be listed as Intervideo Filter SDK for Hauppauge in the Add Remove Programs section of Control Panel. If they are not listed here, please reinstall from the SMD folder of the WinTV Installation CD or you can download them from here.

The drivers for your Sound card should also be updated and installed properly.

Also, you can try recording a short MPEG1 VCD file and play it back to see if the decoder is working properly. If you can record and playback a VCD file, then the problem would indicate a Conflict with pre-installed decoders.

Decoder Issues - Conflicts with DVD playback software

The PVR-150 is a hardware based encoder so the MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoding is done right on the WinTV board itself. The PVR-150 does not do hardware-based playback (decoding). It installs a software-based decoder to play back the captured MPEG files. An example of a software MPEG decoder is DVD playback software such as WinDVD or PowerDVD.

Occasionally, the software decoder that the WinTV PVR-150 requires may conflict with a preinstalled decoder (ie. WinDVD or PowerDVD)  and cause problems on your system. Some examples of these problems:

• Fatal errors or blue screens when launching WinTV2000
• WinTV2000 will function for a short amount of time and then lock or crash
• You receive audio but no video (black screen)
• You have no audio or video but all your channels scanned in properly
• “Stream Operation” errors when clicking on Record or Pause
• “Pin” errors when changing from one MPEG format to another
• “Dshow” errors when launching the application, or when recording or playing back files
• “Kernal 32.dll" crash on shutdown of WinTV2000

In all these cases, the cause is usually a problem with the software decoder the WinTV is trying to use. Either the decoders are not installed properly or they are conflicting with a decoder already installed in the system.

A company called InterVideo writes the decoders used by the PVR-150. They also produce very popular DVD playback software called WinDVD, which very often conflicts with our decoders. However, this problem is not limited to WinDVD.

The easiest way to troubleshoot a decoder problem is to first uninstall any DVD playback software on your computer and then reinstalling the WinTV decoders by browsing the WinTV installation CD and going into the folder called SMD and running the executable located there. These decoders are also available for download from our website.

NOTE: The WinTV decoders cannot be used to playback DVDs. If your WinDVD software is in conflict with the WinTV decoders and you would still like to use your playback software, install the WinTV decoders first then reinstall the DVD playback software.

Does the WinTV-PVR-150 do MPEG decoding as well as encoding?

The WinTV PVR-150 has MPEG encoding hardware only. It will use software decoding for the playback and pause functions.

Only, the WinTV PVR-350 has hardware decoding, and this is only on the video output. Local playback (on the PC monitor) is still software decoding.

WinTV works fine until I restart my computer

Initial installation went in fine without any problems. WinTV and all of its functions work fine until the system is rebooted. When windows comes up again, it recognizes the card as a new device and must be reinstalled in order to work again.

Under XP, a possible workaround would be to delete all the Prefetch files located in the "C:\Windows\Prefetch" This could also be caused by resource conflicts. Try moving the WinTV card to a different PCI slot. Windows will redetect the card when you reboot and should reassign the resources for it.

Can I record one show while watching another with the WinTV-PVR-150?

The WinTV PVR 150 will only be able to record the program that is being viewed using the supplied software.

If you use an application that supports multiple TV tuners, such as SageTV, BeyondTV or MCE, you can use 2 cards in the system which will then give you the ability to watch one channel while recording another.

The "audio is distorted" or "I get no audio" on some channels

Please make sure that you have the latest version of the WinTV PVR150 drivers and software installed on your system. These latest drivers have been updated to correct some audio issues with the PVR 150. If the drivers do not correct the issue, there may be a hardware problem on the card that would require repair.

Please contact our Tech Support dept for more information an getting you card repaired.

What is the difference between the WinTV-PVR-150 and 250/350 models?

All 3 models will have the same capture and TV functionality.

The PVR 150 includes and IR Blaster which allows you to control your settop cable/satellite box.

The PVR 250 and 350 include a remote control but no IR Blaster.

The PVR 350 adds FM radio, as well as a video output(S-video/Composite video), so you can output captured MPEG videos to an external monitor of VCR.

Can I view Closed Captioning with the WinTV-PVR-150?

Currently, Closed Captioning is not supported with the supplied TV viewing programs. However, if you use Media Center, you will be able to view the closed captioning.

Can I connect Video game systems to the WinTV-PVR-150?

Normally it is not recommended to use a game system through the PVR150 as there is a slight delay in the video processing.

However, you can make a change in the Registry that will attempt to eliminate the delay. This puts the WinTV into a Live Preview mode and does not go through the MPEG processing. To make this change, click on Start - Run and type in regedit. In the Registry editor, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hauppauge\hcwTVWnd

Locate a key called "LivePreview". Open Live Preview key and change it to 1, and close the window and try WinTV2000 again. (1=on, 0=off)

Data Invalid error when installing the WinTV driver on WindowsXP

1.Move the contents of c:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\ to a temporary directory.

2. In the Device manager, install/Update driver. (Point to the card's CD or downloaded drivers).

3. Windows will ask for some extra files that it can't find. Put your windows installation CD in your drive and point to the i386 directory. (if the system is pre-loaded with Windows and you do not have an install CD for Windows, your Windows CAB files will likely be located somewhere on your hard drive, likely in the C:\Windows\Options\Cabs folder).

4. The drivers should install successfully.

5. Now move the content (from step 1.) back into c:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\.

Startencoder no data from encoder 80004005

'Startencoder' error or 'No data from encoder' means that:
- your software was not completely installed. Run HCWClear and reinstall from your Hauppauge CD.
or
- your hardware has a problem and cannot start to run the MPEG-2 hardware encoder. Contact Hauppauge technical support to send your product in for service

"There is no common media type between these pins" HCWSnapshot, Video Renderer.

This error will occur if Overlay is not working properly on your system. Your VGA card MUST support Overlay in order for the WinTV-PVR-150 to work. Make sure your graphics card supports Overlay. Also make sure that there are no other programs running that require overlay. ie. Windows Media Player. These programs will take over the Overlay surface and prevent the WinTV PVR 150 from working.

This error may also come up if the Software Decoders have not been installed. Reinstall the software codecs. You can download them from here.

Also, be sure that the VGA cards hardware acceleration settings are on Full. (control panel/display/settings/advanced).

Third party capture applications not supported

The WinTV-PVR-150 records directly to MPEG using onboard Hardware encoders. Most third party capture applications are looking to attach to a card or driver that supports uncompressed video recordings. Like AVI files. These programs cannot capture video directly using the PVR-150. (ie. MovieMaker, Media Encoder, Pinnacle Studio, Adobe Premiere)

You can, however, capture the video using the WInTV2000 application an then import the MPEG video files into the 3rd party program for editing or recording onto DVD.

NOTE: These 3rd party programs do work: SageTV, BeyondTV and Microsoft's MediaCenter

Hibernate and Power Management options not supported

When the WinTV2000 application is running, any Power Management routines that are configured on the computer will not run. This includes Hibernate and Suspend modes.

Can I create SVCD's as well as VCD's with the PVR-150?

Yes, the PVR-150 has VCD and SVCD settings in the MPEG Capture Preferences. In the WinTV2000 application, click on the PREF button. In here click on the Capture tab and then the MPEG Tab. You can then select the Quality Level desired.

To create an SVCD, simply choose one of the SVCD settings in the list and Record your video. Then in Ulead Movie Factory you can burn it onto a CD using the Authoring options. The same can be done with the VCD files.

Can I edit the captured Videos created with the WinTV-PVR-150?

Yes, you can edit the MPEG files with Ulead's Movie Factory (included). Please refer to Ulead's User Manual for instructions. This is located in the Ulead DVD Movie Factory program group. Click on Start - Programs - Ulead DVD Movie Factory

An MPEG editor called Nano Editor is available directly from Hauppauge. This will allow you to cut out commercials. This is a "cut only" editor, and may be downloaded here.

Approximate file sizes captured with the WinTV-PVR-150?

The WinTV-PVR-150 will be able to capture MPEG1 at 320 X 240(NTSC), 352 X 288(PAL/SECAM) and MPEG2 up to 720 X 480(NTSC), 720 X 576(PAL/SECAM).

Approximate file sizes per minute of capture, depending on the format chosen:

All Bit Rates are VBR (Variable Bit Rate) unless otherwise noted. 

Windows Media Center

The WinTV-PVR-150 is compatible with Windows Media Center for Windows XP. For support on Media Center, contact the providing OEM or Microsoft. For further info on the PVR-150 and Media Center click here.

Can I install multiple PVR cards in a single system?

If you use an program that supports multiple TV tuners, such as SageTV, BeyondTV or MCE, you can use multiple cards in a system.

This is not supported in the WinTV2000 application.

What is the White connector on my PVR150 used for?

This connector will support an optional AV Header that will give you an additioinal set of SVideo and Composite inputs. This gives you the ability to connect multiple input devices to the PVR card and prevents the need to change cables when switching between them. (ie. switching from a VCR to a DVD for your video input)

Will the PVR150 work in a PCI-X slot?

Yes it will, however, there is a hardware change that is needed. Please contact our Tech Support for information on how to get your card PCI-X compatible.