Hauppage Quad TV with Freeview

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DMCM

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Topic # 223654 10-Oct-2017 20:04

Hi,

I have recently picked up a Hauppage Quad TV card:

https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?itemID=442390

Which I'm running in a windows 64 bit win 10 PC. The issue I'm facing is that the Tuner Setup only picks up 12 channels. I am basically unplugging the aerial cable from my Tivo (which can get almost all the Freeview channels) and plugging it into the Hauppage card.

Has anyone else used one of these cards before, and can offer any advice on the setup? If I can get all the channels I will look to something like MediaPortal to use it for Live TV.

Many thanks.

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Reply # 1880642 10-Oct-2017 21:52

(which can get almost all the Freeview channels)

I think you answered your own question. Not enough signal strength?

DMCM

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Reply # 1880643 10-Oct-2017 22:04

B1GGLZ:
(which can get almost all the Freeview channels)

I think you answered your own question. Not enough signal strength?

OK, humour me, how many should I get with a correct aerial etc?

fe31nz

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Reply # 1880654 10-Oct-2017 22:46

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As best I recall, the Tivo only has two tuners, and as it is an older box, it probably has an internal spiltter so if it has only one aerial connection, each tuner will get slightly less than half the signal from the aerial.

The new Quad card has four tuners, and only one aerial input. If it is using an older chipset, then it will have an internal four-way splitter and each tuner will be getting slightly less than one quarter of the signal from the aerial. However, as it does DVB-T2 and DVB-C, it is likely to be using one of the new chipsets that does not need a splitter and supplies a full signal to each tuner (I have no idea how they do that magic). If so, the each tuner will be getting the full aerial signal strength.

So you are comparing apples and oranges - the Tivo tuners and the Quad card tuners are getting different signal levels - the Quad card tuners are either getting half the signal level of the Tivo tuners, or double the signal level of the Tivo tuners. Either could prevent correct reception if your aerial has a fairly low or very high signal level respectively.

However, I think it is more likely that you have a software setup problem. What software are you using with the tuner? What settings are you using?

DMCM

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Reply # 1880695 11-Oct-2017 02:41

That's interesting! I'm using the WinTV software that come with the card, v8.5. All settings are default, selecting NZ as the country and "all regions".... If I select my specific antenna (mt Campbell), it finds nothing at all.

fe31nz

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Reply # 1880697 11-Oct-2017 03:15

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Here is the table of all the transmitter frequencies for NZ:

https://www.rsm.govt.nz/online-services-resources/pdf-and-documents-library/publications-and-guides/broadcasting/digital-television-channel-usage/table-of-digital-television-channel-useage

For Mt Campbell it looks like you should be getting:

Channel 27 522 MHz - Local channels of some sort

Channel 29 532 MHz - Misc channels - probably Al Jazeera, HGTV, ...

Channel 32 563 MHz - Mediaworks channels: Three, Bravo, ThreePlus1, Bravo PLUS 1, The Edge TV

Channel 35 586 MHz - TVNZ: TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2, DUKE, TVNZ 1 +1, TVNZ 2 +2

Channel 37 602 MHz - Misc channels - probably PRIME, Choice TV, Parliament, ...

Channel 39 618 MHz - Maori channels: Maori Television, Te Reo

DMCM

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Reply # 1880722 11-Oct-2017 07:57

That's excellent, thank you. I will have another play tonight and see what the frequency range it is actually scanning. A new antenna might not be a bad idea anyhow as it's an old pre-digital setup that just worked with freeview when we plugged it in.

KiwiTim

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Reply # 1880728 11-Oct-2017 08:09

The last time I used WinTV I was not very impressed. Perhaps you need better software. I use DVBViewer which is very versatile and highly configurable. I recommend you give it a try and ditch WinTV. You might get better results.

http://www.dvbviewer.com/en/index.php

DMCM

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Reply # 1880739 11-Oct-2017 08:21

Great suggestion, I was not blown away by WinTV either. It seems to be really slow.

I'm running an i7 with 8GB of memory, you'd think it would fly, I'm not exactly running anything else....

B1GGLZ

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Reply # 1881842 11-Oct-2017 11:23

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DMCM:

Great suggestion, I was not blown away by WinTV either. It seems to be really slow.

I'm running an i7 with 8GB of memory, you'd think it would fly, I'm not exactly running anything else....

I found WinTV was pretty bad too. One of the upgrades completely killed/corrupted the installation and I had to start over. They never ever updated it to cope with the re-stack of our channelsin NZ either which meant having to scan for all of NZ and delete unwanted channels. The EPG never worked either. Only ever loaded a few slots up to a few hours ahead.

I dumped it and installed NextPVR. Works much better but a bit of a hassle loading the EPG which has to be done manually and is very slow.

elpenguino

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Reply # 1882024 11-Oct-2017 17:04

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I've got one of these and I got close to 30 channels , but once i removed the religious and 'ethnic' channels it was more like 12-15.

As mentioned, if you don't install Win TV you'll be better off by going straight for NextPVR (or your choice of PVR SW). You will still need drivers installed though - can't remember but I think the card was picked up by windows and it all just happened. (also W10 for me).

With NextPVR go into 'devices' and your device list should show about 10 devices for that card , including 4 x DVB-T .

You will have to tune and set up channels for each of those 4 DVBT devices.

Highlight each of the DVBT devices in turn and click 'device setup'. Select your local tower ('region') and click 'scan'.

As far as signal strength goes, i can't see the option to show current SS. As you would expect, more is better, You normally get a show of strength and quality. I would suggest quality needs to be 60-70% or better and strength at least 50%. Obv your readings will vary depending on your distance and sight line.

If your tivo gets all the channels you should also get them on this card, unless your signal strength is marginal. If you have a little more than the minimum SS you should be able to split the signal and run both.

andrewNZ

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Reply # 1882047 11-Oct-2017 19:32

Try the hauppauge signal strength monitor

Location: Dunedin

sbiddle

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Reply # 1882233 12-Oct-2017 08:15

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B1GGLZ:

I dumped it and installed NextPVR. Works much better but a bit of a hassle loading the EPG which has to be done manually and is very slow.

How do you have this configured?

NextPVR has fully supported the EIT EPG since it came into play probably 18 months ago. You don't have to do anything other than have the source set to the DVB source to have the full EPG on all DVB-T channels.

sbiddle

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Reply # 1882234 12-Oct-2017 08:16

DMCM:

That's excellent, thank you. I will have another play tonight and see what the frequency range it is actually scanning. A new antenna might not be a bad idea anyhow as it's an old pre-digital setup that just worked with freeview when we plugged it in.

If you've never been able to pick up all the Freeview MUX's and receive all channels then it's pretty clear your old antenna is the issue. Do you actually have a UHF antenna?

B1GGLZ

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Reply # 1882279 12-Oct-2017 09:04

sbiddle:

How do you have this configured?

NextPVR has fully supported the EIT EPG since it came into play probably 18 months ago. You don't have to do anything other than have the source set to the DVB source to have the full EPG on all DVB-T channels.

I haven't used it for ages so couldn't say. All I know is that to obtain the over-the-air EPG it needs manually updating at least once a week or it runs out of info.

DMCM

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Reply # 1882284 12-Oct-2017 09:07

sbiddle:

DMCM:

That's excellent, thank you. I will have another play tonight and see what the frequency range it is actually scanning. A new antenna might not be a bad idea anyhow as it's an old pre-digital setup that just worked with freeview when we plugged it in.

If you've never been able to pick up all the Freeview MUX's and receive all channels then it's pretty clear your old antenna is the issue. Do you actually have a UHF antenna?

Yup, so last night I did 2 things:

Firstly I spoke to a local freeview guy who is coming to check the aerial setup - as this is likely the main culprit. I honestly have no idea what the aerials are but the ole Tivo could get HD freeview so it must be working to some degree.

Secondly I fired up NextPVR and scanned for channels, and only picked up about 12 (all h.264) and these were Maori, Al Jazeera etc, no TV1/2/3 or prime, duke.

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