Pinnacle Nanostick 73e Problems

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gehenna

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Topic # 25973 8-Sep-2008 11:48

Hi there

My father in law bought a usb Pinnacle Nanostick 73e for some reason. He's tried to install and set it up on his HP notebook (good specs) but has had no luck scanning for channels. He's using the aerial that came with it, not an actual rooftop aerial. Testing has been done in all areas of the house which are free from obstruction. He lives in deepest darkest karori though so I figure there is no signal there.

Still, I've just tried this on my notebook at work and I get the same results. I'm in the CBD so i'd expect to see something when scanning. Have tried all sorts of variations of the software settings (TVCenter Pro) to no avail.

Any advice? should I forego the out of the box software and give DVBViewer a go?

kniederberger

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Reply # 163246 9-Sep-2008 10:20

It's best to connect the Nanostick to a good external UHF aerial (pointed in the right direction) to do the channel scan. Once it picks up and stores the channels you can go back and try the supplied aerial. The supplied aerial is only good if you have a real strong signal. Also, the Nanostick software does not support Vista very well so you should be using XP until they update the software.
Once it's going though it gets a good picture, although it thrashes your CPU.

gehenna

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Reply # 163248 9-Sep-2008 10:30

I'm using XP on my laptop at work, and in a very strong signal area. But no matter, I'm going to try it out on my HTPC at home tonight too. Thanks for the advice

sbiddle

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Reply # 163253 9-Sep-2008 10:49

Have you installed the latest software and registered that so you can downloaded the required codec updates for the program?

I bet there are 100's of unhappy people out there who have purchased DVB-T cards for Freeview|HD. The reality is that the software included with most cards (even those claiming H.264 compatability) is terrible. The reality is unless you have a codec and video card capable of H.264 hardware acceleration you simply won't get a satisfactory picture.

gehenna

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Reply # 163259 9-Sep-2008 11:09

sbiddle, that's a given...but i'm not even picking up channels at all let alone channels that are playing poorly. I'm sure it's a signal issue along the lines of what kniederberger mentioned. Will try it with an actual on-the-roof aerial at some stage and see how that goes. Yes the software has been registered, yes its the latest version, and yes i have adequate hardware and codecs. Thanks for the advice tho!