Watching Freeview TV using Avermedia TV Tuners

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Redwood

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#21097 15-Apr-2008 17:15

Hi all I found this link for AVermedia cards:
http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?p=663616#post663616

"Hi guys:

I managed to get Freeview TV working with my Avermedia "AVerTV Hybrid+FM PCI" Tuner Card.
http://freeviewnz.tv

All you need is to download the latest AverMedia AP & Driver here:
(Version AVerTV: 6.0.12 Beta)
http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Supp...spx?FDFId=1392

No other third party programs or special codecs are needed. Just install and away you go. The video (MPEG4) and sound (AC3) should work

Please note that your computer needs at least a intel core2duo 2.4Ghz or better to watch Freeview "HiDef" channels. At the moment the AverTV program can only use hardware acceleration for MPEG2. Because Freeview uses MPEG4 you will need to rely on your CPU for doing most of the processing.

Cheers
Psyche"

HybridE506r

59 posts

Master Geek

#123773 15-Apr-2008 19:15

Thanks for that info,

i wrote to avermedia in march regarding the dvb-t in nz, they replied:

"Thank you for choosing AVerMedia.If the audio streams in the DVB-T broadcast in New Zealand AAC or AC3, then our current application version, 6.0.11, won't be able to hear any audio. However, we have our engineers are currently working to solve this issue. According to our engineers, this issue should be solved in our next software release, AVerTV 6.0.12.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to let us know.
Sorry to cause your inconvenience! "

great to see the beta available, will give it a go and see if its stable

:)

Wise

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HybridE506r

59 posts

Master Geek

#123817 15-Apr-2008 20:53

Confirmed. The 6.012 beta tv software does work on the avermedia
e506r hybrid cardbus tuner, audio works fine so now no need for other decoding programs.:)

the clearest channel is parliament lol followed by the HD test channel( cpu(duo t5500) ~70 to 80% - some occassional video jitter (nvidia go7300) but all in all ok)
and the 2 maori tv channels received clear
no other channelss can be viewed here yet might have to get another aerial maybe?

Redwood

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#124314 17-Apr-2008 10:34

Great to see that it works for you. Seems all the channel's audio works now :)

"

I asked AVerMedia for more information about the drivers:

(Version AVerTV: 6.0.12 Beta)
http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Supp...spx?FDFId=1392

They said it "supports both AC-3 and AAC."
So all the NZ Freeview TV channels should receive audio now.

Cheers

Psyche"

I was having a look at this channel http://www.stratostv.co.nz/
Seems you need to use a DVB-S (Satellite) card to receive these channels.
And I think you don't need to have a powerful computer to process the channels.
But I heard some DVB-S cards can have a MPEG2 chipset.

My question is if I bought a DVB-S card without a MPEG2 chipset, can the AVermedia Application
use my graphics card to accelerate it? All the latest graphics card say it can accelerate
MPEG2.

aether22

53 posts

Master Geek

#124356 17-Apr-2008 11:57

I just got one of these (AverTV Hybrid+FM pci, $120ish) and it was a snap once i figured I had to copy both folders on the updated CD to C: drive.

But not happy at all with the lack of hardware decoding support, so I may need to use another option until they get their act totally sorted, still better than most I think.

mike872c

28 posts

Geek

#125923 23-Apr-2008 17:11

I have Avermedia Hybrid + FM cardbus (E506R) and have tried installing V 6.0.12 software under win2k. I receive an error something like 'Bad DLL entry point' - would I be correct in assuming that I need to upgrade to XP?

HybridE506r

59 posts

Master Geek

#128861 6-May-2008 17:50

avermedia have released the 6.012 avertv software for the AVerTV Hybrid+FM CardBus

on their site at:

http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=8&tab=APDriver

Version

AVerTV: 6.0.12

Date: 2008/04/28

Win2000, WinXP, WinMCE2005, WinXP x64, Vista x86, Vista x64

Download

26.19 MB

Version

AVerTV: 6.0.12

Date: 2008/04/28

Win2000, WinXP, WinMCE2005, WinXP x64, Vista x86, Vista x64

Download

35.91 MB

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#128864 6-May-2008 17:53

I've got one of the Avermedia cards at home at present for testing. Using Vista and 6.0.12 I get a picture and audio but it's ovbiously not capable of hardware acceleration for H.264/MPEG4 - only MPEG2 as mentioned above.

Without H.264 acceleration it isn't really a viable option for Freeview|HD at present using their AVerTV software. There shouldn't be any issues using this card with either Media Portal or GB-PVR however but I have tried yet I haven't had time to try it myself yet.

mike872c

28 posts

Geek

#129022 7-May-2008 08:39

To further update my progress with Freeview reception and AverMedia E506R cardbus, I can now receive both video and audio and both are crystal clear. Here was the route taken.
Began with Win2K, installed Avermedia App & drivers 6.0.11 only, and was able to scan and store all digital channels from Te Aroha. Got good pics but no audio.
Installed Vista Home Premium to my notebook, then SP1. Nearly 9GB for this install - wow. Installed 6.0.12 ver software and got pics and audio. Notebook was unable to handle the Vista bloatware, displaying a new frame about every 1 sec on Freeview HD channel. Turned off as many services as I could, but to no avail. Finally the whole thing crashed.
Re-intalled Win2k, SP4 etc. Installed XP version of Avermedia app and driver. Lo and behold, video and audio, but I've now lost my remote control (Aver Quick). Frame rate is good - no stalling or jerkiness, audio is good. Now lets try to record the HD channel - oops, seizure.
I intend to install XP shortly and try with that - I'll post opinion when done.
It does seen however that if one intends to set up a HT box, look for.....
tuner cards with twin tuners (DVB-T)
    the H.264 AVC video and HE-AAC audio codecs in hardware on board
    terrabyte hard discs
..amongst othe things.

Oh well, I think I'll just go out and get a Freeview STB.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#129031 7-May-2008 08:57

mike872c: To further update my progress with Freeview reception and AverMedia E506R cardbus, I can now receive both video and audio and both are crystal clear. Here was the route taken.
Began with Win2K, installed Avermedia App & drivers 6.0.11 only, and was able to scan and store all digital channels from Te Aroha. Got good pics but no audio.
Installed Vista Home Premium to my notebook, then SP1. Nearly 9GB for this install - wow. Installed 6.0.12 ver software and got pics and audio. Notebook was unable to handle the Vista bloatware, displaying a new frame about every 1 sec on Freeview HD channel. Turned off as many services as I could, but to no avail. Finally the whole thing crashed.
Re-intalled Win2k, SP4 etc. Installed XP version of Avermedia app and driver. Lo and behold, video and audio, but I've now lost my remote control (Aver Quick). Frame rate is good - no stalling or jerkiness, audio is good. Now lets try to record the HD channel - oops, seizure.
I intend to install XP shortly and try with that - I'll post opinion when done.
It does seen however that if one intends to set up a HT box, look for.....
tuner cards with twin tuners (DVB-T)
    the H.264 AVC video and HE-AAC audio codecs in hardware on board
    terrabyte hard discs
..amongst othe things.

Oh well, I think I'll just go out and get a Freeview STB.

After having another play last night I'm getting terrible results under Vista as well, I'll try a XP install over the weekend.

The real problem at present is that H.264 broadcasts are fairly new, as they become more common we will see a lot more software that can take advantage of this and it would be safe to say that most of our troubles will be solved once Microsoft (finally) release their Vista Media Center update which should have a half decent H.264 codec in it that can take advantage of hardware acceleration.

The AVerTV software does definately seem to be a problem at present but the great thing about digital TV is that in many cases you're not tied to the software that comes with the TV card and applications such as Media Portal and GB-PVR will work with most cards that have BDA drivers. Since the TV card is simply passing the DVB video stream and doing no onboard decoding there also aren't great differences in performance between different cards.

Give it a few months and I think we'll in a far better position. At present both Media Portal and GB-PVR are the most complete with it it comes to viewing Freeview but both still have minor issues. sub (author of GB-PVR) has mentioned that he has been testing a new unreleased H.264 codec which seems to perform well and solve many of the audio and video problems that people have been having as well as solving the timeshift issue and aydio sync problems that have plagued the Monogram AAC decoder and Cyberlink H.264 decoder combination.

denet

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#130497 13-May-2008 09:49

Hi, i have the AverTV Duo Hybrid PCI-E card. It looked like a good hybrid card, having dual hybrid tuners and a remote, plus software that is supposed to work here in NZ.

Unfortunately, when I scan for digital channels it doesn't find any. I've tried both scans but still get nothing. I've downloaded and istalled the latest software and driver but still get nothing.

I then installed dvbviewer, which was able to tune to the digital channels, but playback was horrendous (1 frame per second, but good quality picture) on the channels one and two and then the application crashes if I tune to channel 3.

I have 2GB of ram, a dual core processor (AMD 5200+) which is hardly working and an ATI HD 2400XT video card, so in terms of hardware my system should be easily capable. I'm running XP Pro.

I've tried selecting both the ATI H.264 codec and the Avermedia H.264 codec in dvbviewer, but still no improvement. I've downloaded and installed a demo version of Powercinema 8, which I thought would include an H.264 codec, but I can't select this codec from dvbviewer. What is the best way to get / install the powercinema H.264 codec? Surely it would have shipped with the demo version right?

I'm pretty much running out of ideas (besides buying another card and more software), so any help getting Aver MediaCenter to detect my channels or getting DVBViewer to play back properly would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

mike872c

28 posts

Geek

#132802 23-May-2008 14:36

Just a thought denet,

I had a similar problem with my E506R cardbus version when using Avermedia Centre. I remove that app (which in my opinion is junk anyway), and installed the AverTV app suitable for my card (which also installed the driver), then installed the vista driver over the top of. In my case the driver was "InstallDriver_E506R_3.5.0.65_Encoder_3.2.1.62_Vista_x86.exe" which is about a 1meg download. Have fun.