[mythtv] OT: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv.

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Wed, 2006-11-15 at 00:54 -0800, Mark Frey wrote:

> Myself and a friend also experienced these problems (and I to some extent 
> still do) and it was only solved by using a different power supply. I tried 
> messing with BIOS settings, changing slots, changing PCI latency, trying a 
> pci-based IDE controller. Nothing worked. Tried an old 250W power supply, 
> problem completely gone. Five different Antec power supplies exhibited this 
> problem (pcHDTV 3000 stream errors under high system load). Two different 
> Seasonics exhibited the problem but to a lesser extent (I am using one of 
> these currently and my only problem now is with live TV). All these power 
> supplies were 400W or greater. The only power supply to work without issue 
> is a no-name 250W canibalized from an HP box. One of the motherboards is a 
> cheap ECI, the other an expensive ASUS. I assume that the power regulation 
> circuitry is poor on the pcHDTV 3000 and that some combinations of 
> motherboards and power supplies are just going to exhibit this problem.
> 
> Even if this sounds nuts, try another power supply.

This isn't so nuts. The pcHDTV and most PCI HDTV cards require a good
+5V supply. Most modern PCI cards do not use the +5V supply so many
modern power-supplies do not allocate a lot of amps to the +5V supply
to the motherboard. Video output cards have added a molex connector
to their cards to get either the 5V or 12V intended for the drives
to work around this problem; or in the case of nVidia, they have
started designated powersupplies as "SLI ready" when they supply
enough power to they video card (which I think uses 12V so it's not
so useful for the pvHDTV card, but I may be wrong). It would make
sense that a power supply designed for when most PCI cards used +5V
rather than +3.3V would supply the required power to the card. If
you are proficient with a soldering iron you could add a molex
connector to the pcHDTV card. If not, switching to a power supply
that supplies a good +5V supply to the motherboard might work as well.

But this is way off-topic now. This conversation should move to the
pcHDTV forums. It looks like the next pcHDTV card should either use
the +3.3V supply and/or add a molex connector so that it can function
with modern power supplies and motherboards. If you discuss this
problem on the pcHDTV forums 1/ they will learn about the problem,
or more likely, the extent of the problem. 2/ the collective wisdom
of the pcHDTV users with this problem might come up with a simpler
solution than adding a power connector or changing the power supply.

-- Daniel