Freeview DVB-T test channels now available in Wellington

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Freeview DVB-T test channels now available in Wellington

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#96817 25-Nov-2007 12:29

lchiu7: Hmm - that didn't play too well on my dual core AMD (3600). A bit jerky. That does not augur well for trying to receive HD transmissions OTA with my PVR and Hauppauge 3000 card unless I upgrade the video card.

As an aside, how good does your UHF reception have to be? I just connected an aerial to my TV and tuned into Prime. The picture has decent sound but quite a snowy picture (from Kau Kau). I wonder how forgiving H.264 broadcasts will be?

I'm in Naenae with a slightly obscured view of Kaukau and only a VHF aerial and pick up 2 of the 3 MUX's perfectly.

From what's happened overseas DVB-T broadcasts are a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to reception. Large numbers of people can often get far better reception than that did previously, especially in marginal areas where signal may be OK but ghosting is an issue. There are also people who have things worse than previously. Until the infill is complete we're not really going to know. Wellington in particular is very hilly with a lot of translators that will be obsolete.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#96818 25-Nov-2007 12:35

You should be right, the antiquated wide band AM modulation that analog tv uses means you need so much signal you virtually need a dedicated power station to run the transmitters. digital is much more efficient.

Richard rich.ms

lchiu7

6470 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#96952 26-Nov-2007 13:14

Sounds like the problem I have won't be the UHF signal, but the power of the PC to decode it :-(

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#97006 26-Nov-2007 20:39

Yeah I know the feeling :-( I've got an AMD xp2500, with an AGP 8x motherboard. any chance of getting a card that will decode x.264 on a PC this old? Or do I now need to folk out a grand for a system rebuild :-(

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

lchiu7

6470 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#97010 26-Nov-2007 20:55

No - see sub's posting earlier. He said his AMD X2 4600 was ground to its knees with H.264 decoding but once he got a video card that had hardware support plus the right drivers and Vista of course, the CPU was running around 5%. There's hope for us yet in our older machines.

Now Sony have promised a sort of PVR device for the PS3. The PS3 has enough grunt to decode H.264 without breaking a sweat. Having HD support in that would be real cool!

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#97015 26-Nov-2007 21:32

So no way to do it under XP? Vista would choke my poor little AMD :-(

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

lchiu7

6470 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#97021 26-Nov-2007 21:53

Not XP. You need DVXA 2.0 which is only available under Vista. I think you might be CPU challenged! I upgraded my PVR from a Athlon XP2000 to a AMD64 3600 and even then I have some doubts. But will suck it and see I guess but I need to get a different video card and install Vista. A lot of trouble I think.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

#97087 27-Nov-2007 09:38

I'm not sure that is correct. I think there is some confusion here.

Vista is required to be able to use DVXA 2.0, but that does not preclude the use of XP using other renderers.

Simply put, unless you have a video card capable of hardware H.264 decode, then you will need something approaching E6600 or the like.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#97092 27-Nov-2007 10:03

Yeah I totaly get that I won't be able to decode on the CPU!! No Way!

But I guess I'm wondering is: are the new video cards that do onbaord hardware decoding of h.264 going to work on my system (AGP) Did I read that NVIDIA cards even though they do have h.264 HW Decoing, the AGP versions don't support h.264 decdoing (only the PCIe) Is there an ATI card that will do it on my old box of bones :-(? It's sad because it copes fine with EVERY other PVR task I thow at it. But I guess that's the way it goes.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

lchiu7

6470 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#97093 27-Nov-2007 10:03

Could be right. I just reflected sub's comments. If there is a way to use a video card with a hardware h.264 decoder under XP I would be interested

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

#97240 27-Nov-2007 20:48

Would someone from Welly be able to upload a short raw TS of what they are pulling down - so that those of us further north can start testing our rigs ...

TIA.

rhysb

435 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#97479 29-Nov-2007 09:30

The Nvidia cards only support HD acceleration under Vista, not XP. The ATI cards however support HD under both Vista & XP.

I don't think either ATI or Nvidia are supporting HD on any AGP card unfortunately.

Tom's has a good article on the HD stuff
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/26/avivo_hd_vs_purevideo/

walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

#97484 29-Nov-2007 10:04

Latest driver release XP 163.75 adds HD support for 8600/8500/8400 GPU's.

See release notes pg 8.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/163.75/163.75_WinXP_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf

Although it was slow coming, there is no way NVidia was never going to support that given the huge installed base of XP.

lchiu7

6470 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#97499 29-Nov-2007 10:56

If that's the case then perhaps I don't have to upgrade to Vista which will be good

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Fossie

1240 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#97513 29-Nov-2007 12:35

The AGP version on the x1600 does AVIVO.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7