Freeview DVB-S on MCE PC

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r33ks

74 posts

Master Geek

Topic # 13287 2-May-2007 08:59

Hi there,

I have a Windows MCE 2005 PC that I built when I was living in Australia. I am just wondering how many other people out there are running a MCE PC (Vista or 2005) with a DVB-S card, and how successful they are.

I am struggling a little bit to get my Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus working. I did borrow the hauppauge registry hack setting from Regs listed in this post. But this only seems to give what I am thinking is the SKY broadcast of TV1 & TV2, and not much else.

Anyone been able to get the Hauppauge working with MCE and picking up the freeview broadcast? I'd be interested to see how others went. MCE not supporting DVB-S is obviously not ideal, but I'm not a big fan of the software that comes with the card either.

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Reply # 69190 2-May-2007 09:27

Your best solution may be to look at something like MythTV or GB-PVR. Both work very well with Freeview and DVB-S cards.

Regs

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Reply # 69193 2-May-2007 09:34

r33ks:
I am struggling a little bit to get my Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus working. I did borrow the hauppauge registry hack setting from Regs listed in this post. But this only seems to give what I am thinking is the SKY broadcast of TV1 & TV2, and not much else.

Yeah, it would seem that the dish I was connected to had a V pol signal only. I've just moved house and am waiting for a dish to arrive and once I have it installed i'll get the file updated with the H pol settings instead.

the frequencies for freeview are listed on lyngsat: http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd1.html

you could try using the following file but I havent tested it yet:

---cut here---
dvbs_freq,dvbs_polarity,dvbs_srate,nit_onid,nit_tsid,nit_nid,DiSEqC_Port, dvbs_LowOsc, dvbs_HighOsc, dvbs_SwitchFreq
12456000,            1,     22500,     169,     4,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12483000,            1,     22500,     169,     9,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12519000,            1,     22500,     169,     9,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
---cut here---

12456 is the freq that TV3, C4 are on
12483 is the freq that TVNZ and Maori are on
12519 is the freq that the RNZ are on (i think)

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r33ks

74 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 69200 2-May-2007 10:25

Thanks for the posts.

I would like to try and avoid a MCE alternative, as I have invested quite a bit of time in MCE, but maybe I will have to go there *sigh*

Thanks for the setting Regs, I did use something similar last night, but without much success. I suspect that the problem is the crappy dish on the side of the house, maybe it needs a LNB replacement, or a complete repalcement.

Regs

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Reply # 69204 2-May-2007 11:12

r33ks: Thanks for the posts.

I would like to try and avoid a MCE alternative, as I have invested quite a bit of time in MCE, but maybe I will have to go there *sigh*

Thanks for the setting Regs, I did use something similar last night, but without much success. I suspect that the problem is the crappy dish on the side of the house, maybe it needs a LNB replacement, or a complete repalcement.

Perhaps an LNB replacement... they are selling $22 LNBs at www.freetv.co.nz i have one in the mail right now hopefully...

If you can get the channels on Myth or GBPVR or WinTV then you should be able to get them on MCE. I've tried a couple of other PVR programs and i still find I prefer the MCE interface look and feel. Some of the options out there just look tacky and are not as easy to use (important if you have a wife to please..) Perhaps one day MCE will support multiple tuner types and DVB-S natively - when that happens I expect the Vista MCE will have a good chance of taking over the world :p

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Regs

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Reply # 69225 2-May-2007 13:22

Perhaps an LNB replacement...

I wonder if rotating your current LNB through 90 deg will switch the polarity?

Now I might be talking utter crap here, perhaps someone else can shoot me down if this is so :)

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judadeach

22 posts

Geek

Reply # 69270 2-May-2007 18:48

Hi

I would love to know if any of you guys have figured out how to get TV3 and C4 using MCE and the Nova S.

I can get TV1, TV2, TVNZ Widescreen and Maori TV. I just can't figure out what needs to be done in the reg hack file to get TV3 and C4 to show.

If anyone manages to get all the nee Freeview channels onto this setup can they please post how they did it.

I do know the TV3 and C4 are on Freq 12456 and also that they a on Horizontal Pol. If i can already get 1,2, widescreen and Maori is it likely i will need a new LNB or is it prob just the reg hack file being done correctly?

Thanks in advance

r33ks

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Reply # 69282 2-May-2007 19:56

what have you done to get where you are so far?

What was the reg hack file you used?

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Reply # 69291 2-May-2007 20:28

I do know the TV3 and C4 are on Freq 12456 and also that they a on Horizontal Pol. If i can already get 1,2, widescreen and Maori is it likely i will need a new LNB or is it prob just the reg hack file being done correctly?

If you are getting the TVNZ widescreen then i think you are getting the HPol signals and likely just need the correct reg file.

I just can't figure out what needs to be done in the reg hack file to get TV3 and C4 to show.

Try the following reg file and see where it gets you (generated by using the previous data with the dvbs_reg program). Remember to back up whatever is already in your registry first though - I havent tested this one yet as i'm waiting for my dish :p

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\Parameters]
"DVBS_as_DVBT"=dword:00000001 ; Enable remapping support

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\DVBS_as_DVBT]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\DVBS_as_DVBT\177500] ; #5
"dvbs_freq"=dword:BE1040 ; 12456000
"dvbs_polarity"=dword:1 ; 1
"dvbs_srate"=dword:57E4 ; 22500
"nit_onid"=dword:A9 ; 169
"nit_tsid"=dword:4 ; 4
"nit_nid"=dword:1 ; 1
"DiSEqC_Port"=dword:0 ; 0
"dvbs_LowOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000
"dvbs_HighOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000
"dvbs_SwitchFreq"=dword:0 ; 0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\DVBS_as_DVBT\184500] ; #6
"dvbs_freq"=dword:BE79B8 ; 12483000
"dvbs_polarity"=dword:1 ; 1
"dvbs_srate"=dword:57E4 ; 22500
"nit_onid"=dword:A9 ; 169
"nit_tsid"=dword:9 ; 9
"nit_nid"=dword:1 ; 1
"DiSEqC_Port"=dword:0 ; 0
"dvbs_LowOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000
"dvbs_HighOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000
"dvbs_SwitchFreq"=dword:0 ; 0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\DVBS_as_DVBT\191500] ; #7
"dvbs_freq"=dword:BF0658 ; 12519000
"dvbs_polarity"=dword:1 ; 1
"dvbs_srate"=dword:57E4 ; 22500
"nit_onid"=dword:A9 ; 169
"nit_tsid"=dword:9 ; 9
"nit_nid"=dword:1 ; 1
"DiSEqC_Port"=dword:0 ; 0
"dvbs_LowOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000
"dvbs_HighOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000
"dvbs_SwitchFreq"=dword:0 ; 0

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judadeach

22 posts

Geek

Reply # 69306 2-May-2007 21:07

Thanks for this.

I have got TV3 and C4 working in WinTV2000. I did a scan with Freq: 12456000, S/R 22500, H Pol and Hi & Lo Osc of 11300000, with switch freq of 0.

So it finds the channels fine in WinTV2000 but just not in MCE. I tried the reg file you have just posted, no luck.

judadeach

22 posts

Geek

Reply # 69309 2-May-2007 21:13

Here is the working reg file to get the TVNZ freeview channels in MCE:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\Parameters]

"DVBS_as_DVBT"=dword:00000001 ; Enable remapping support

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\DVBS_as_DVBT]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HCW88bda\DVBS_as_DVBT\50500] ; #1

"dvbs_freq"=dword:BE1040 ; 12483000

"dvbs_polarity"=dword:1 ; 1

"dvbs_srate"=dword:57E4 ; 22500

"nit_onid"=dword:2F ; 47

"nit_tsid"=dword:16 ; 22

"nit_nid"=dword:1 ; 1

"DiSEqC_Port"=dword:0 ; 0

"dvbs_LowOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000

"dvbs_HighOsc"=dword:AC6CA0 ; 11300000

"dvbs_SwitchFreq"=dword:0 ; 0

Regs

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Reply # 69320 2-May-2007 21:51

judadeach: Thanks for this.

I have got TV3 and C4 working in WinTV2000. I did a scan with Freq: 12456000, S/R 22500, H Pol and Hi & Lo Osc of 11300000, with switch freq of 0.

So it finds the channels fine in WinTV2000 but just not in MCE. I tried the reg file you have just posted, no luck.

Have a look at the tv3 and c4 channels in the WinTV application - the network (nit_onid) and station (nit_tsid) id's are listed in there somewhere (the last tab in the channel suite i think).

then edit the following text file and insert the correct onid tsid. Feed this into the dvbs_reg app http://www.hauppauge.de/files/dvbs-reg.zip to get the reg hack file.

optusd1.txt:

---cut here---
dvbs_freq,dvbs_polarity,dvbs_srate,nit_onid,nit_tsid,nit_nid,DiSEqC_Port, dvbs_LowOsc, dvbs_HighOsc, dvbs_SwitchFreq
12456000,            1,     22500,     ?,     ?,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12483000,            1,     22500,     47,     22,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12519000,            1,     22500,     ?,     ?,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
---cut here---

dvbs command: "dvbs-reg optusd1.txt optusd1.reg /5"

then see if that makes any diff in MCE (should just need to "scan for more services").

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kirjava

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Reply # 69348 3-May-2007 07:16

I know you mentioned that you wish to avoid alternatives to MCE if possible, but you may want to take a look at mediaportal. From what I can tell, it works very similar from a user point of view, and it supports DVB-S natively, along with an MCE remote...

judadeach

22 posts

Geek

Reply # 69357 3-May-2007 08:48

Can confirm to all that I have Vista MCE and Nova S working with all Freeview channels and EPG.

I will put the working reg file up here tonight.

It really just came down to a bit of mucking about. The 'nit_onid' for TV3/C4 is 47 and the 'nit_tsid' is 21. Freq etc as mentioned above in previous posts.

r33ks

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Reply # 69362 3-May-2007 09:05

I look forward to your post Judadeach, and thanks for your help Regs

Regs

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Reply # 69384 3-May-2007 10:52

kirjava: I know you mentioned that you wish to avoid alternatives to MCE if possible, but you may want to take a look at mediaportal. From what I can tell, it works very similar from a user point of view, and it supports DVB-S natively, along with an MCE remote...

I had a look at media portal once and while it was very configurable and supported a lot of devices i found it to be a bit clunky and "cheap" looking... my 2c..

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