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questforknowledge

31 posts

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#26271 16-Sep-2008 21:00

I've been looking to make the leap into HTPC for a while and done a fair bit of research. I've decided to go with MediaPortal on a new platform with Vista as the OS, I got talked into Vista :) I have a Hauppage 2200, aimed to pull DVB T and a PCI II to feed my SKY through. I'm really struggling to tune anything of use on either of the tuners. I had a "man" come round to check my UHF signal and he said it was OK but not too sure whether to believe him. I'm based in AKL with a pretty average UHF signal PRIME's poor but my "man" said the HD UHF is a much stronger signal and I should be ok. But....when I "scan" channels it doesn't pick anything up, it doesn't display any signal strength. I've been tracking some really helpful info on geek zone, and hoping someone can point me to a good Mediaportal help thread or had a similar experince trying to tune cards. thanks

LC 16 - Gigabyte MA78G-DS3H 780G - AMD 9550 4Q2.2 - 4GB Supertalent DDR2 800 - Onboard ATI3200 video & Realtek Audio - HVR2200 - PVR150 - Seagate 500GB *2 - Thermatake PSU - VISTA - Mediaportal TV Server - Powercinema - FFDshow - Realplayer - Imon - Avast

eXDee

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#164965 16-Sep-2008 22:56

This guide is useful:
http://cranznz.googlepages.com/

I had to select to scan the whole of NZ because the Te Aroha ones were wrong.

kiwijunglist

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#165015 17-Sep-2008 09:12

+1 on cranz's guide

you could try reboot then rescan

if that fails reinstall hvr2200 driver (you can just install it ontop of the old driver), then reboot, then rescan. i found this fixed problems for me in the past.

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Dingbatt

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#165025 17-Sep-2008 09:56

eXDee: This guide is useful:
http://cranznz.googlepages.com/

I had to select to scan the whole of NZ because the Te Aroha ones were wrong.

This website is useful to get the correct frequencies

http://www.lincrad.co.nz/transmittersites.html

Just knock the .25 off the freqs and use them to edit the dvb-t file in Team MediaPortal\TVServer\tuning parameters directory

Additionally I found a reboot caused my computer to lose the HVR-2200. A full shutdown and restart brought it back.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

kiwijunglist

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#165037 17-Sep-2008 10:52

why do you need to knock 0.25 off the frequencies?

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Dingbatt

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#165094 17-Sep-2008 14:36

kiwijunglist: why do you need to knock 0.25 off the frequencies?

The .25 MHz offset quoted on the lincrad site is not required on the TV-Server setup. (comparing known Waiatarua freqs with the lincrad site)

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

questforknowledge

31 posts

Geek

#165148 17-Sep-2008 18:46

Just a quick short thanks to all before I plant myself in front of the PC. I have checked the drivers on the cards and attempted to update from the Hauppage site but get the message "up to date drivers already installed". I had found the Cranz stuff and found real helpful, that's what got me past the SQL password. Looking at the Cranz screen dumps for tuning I don't see anything in the "signal level" or "quality" indicators, should these show if you are picking up a UHF signal?

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kiwijunglist

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#165165 17-Sep-2008 20:18

you should see the bars but they are not necessarily green all the time.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

questforknowledge

31 posts

Geek

#165192 17-Sep-2008 21:26

another couple of hours of frustration passes by......and I'm starting to suspect that my aerial specialist isn't that much of a specialist! Thanks for the advise on the indicators. During one of the many tuning attemps the strength bar illuminates to 80% but the quality bar remains at 0 on a couple of freqs but still can't pick any channels up. Trying to elliminate one variable at a time I'm going to try to get a mate to bring around his freeview HD tuner and see if he can tune in. I note within the tuning options you can "import" frequencies, does anyone know the format and where I can pull from? I've checked out the lincrad site and they reference two frequenciesper channel, 1 for video and the other audio?

questforknowledge

31 posts

Geek

#165195 17-Sep-2008 21:32

ps My set up is very similar to yours Kiwijunglist, only difference is AMD Phenom x4 2.2 and 4GB Ram so if you can get yours to work mine should, aghhh! Don't know how to list my setup in my profile

kiwijunglist

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#165275 18-Sep-2008 09:40

Click profile options -> You can add a signiture to the bottom of your messages.

You mate coming around is a good idea. If his tuner works at his house and not as yours then it is a reception problem.

You could also try making sure the tuner card is the only piece of equipment connected to the aerial with no splitters to see if that helps.

Presumably if the aerial guy said you were good, then you should be ok.
Can you pick up analog channels on the tuner card?
You can always try the powercinema software to see if that can tune in.

Note - be prepared to do a lot of work to get everything going smoothly

Someone previously on geekzone talked about some apartments having filters and amplifiers built in to the shared antenna circuit so if its not setup for freeview then that may be the problem

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

questforknowledge

31 posts

Geek

#166041 21-Sep-2008 15:14

Long story short and got past the tuning problems, all Freeview tuned in but no audio! Went to bed grumpy, got up in the morning and low and behold there was audio! But spoke too soon when I told my MythTV mate that I was sorted. I started to tinker with EPG settings to try to get a decent EPG and also tune my Sky into the PVR150 card. Bye bye audio! Vista is now telling me I don't have an "audio output", all drivers for the Realtek are fine and device manager's telling me all's OK. KJ, experienced anything like this and where do you pull your EPG from? Also tracking your thread on the front buttons of the LC16 and will be moving onto that when this is sorted, thanks.