Freeview Shudder On Powercinema With Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T-500 Tuner Card

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gperkinson

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#26636 28-Sep-2008 23:18

Hi,

I have just recently purchased the Hauppauge Nova-T-500 Tuner Card to pickup Freeview in New Zealand so I can watch it on my new 52 inch Samsung Series 6 TV!!

My PC Spec's are as follows:

Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4G 8MB
Coolermaster CPU cooler
ASUS P5K-E WiFi Motherboard4GB memory
GIGABYTE RX3855 Radeon HD video cardHAUPPAUGE WinTV PVR500MCE Dual Tuner CardSeagate Barracuda 11 3.5 500GB driveSeagate Barracuda 11 3.5 1 TB drive x 2 (2 terabytes) setup as RAID zero
Zalman 850 watt power supply
Cooler master Centurion box

I currently have a dual Analogue card which is working great with Vista Media Centre (running on Vista Home Premium) and I know that MCE will not work with the Nova-T-500 card as it's in MPG2 format and Freeview is MPG4 format, but that's OK - I just want to view Freeview through my PC!! I'm happy to wait until there is a fix for MCE (which I understand is at the end of this year??? I'm also happy to use any free software to get Freeview if anybody has any suggestions.

The Powercinema software loaded OK and I can pickup the Analogue Channels (exactly the same as Media Centre) however the Freeview channels appear to be shuddering? I have looked everywhere to see if someone has experianced the same problem, but there does not seem be any posts anywhere. PLEASE HELP!!!!

I would appreciate any pointers.

Thanks

Graham

sbiddle

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#167654 29-Sep-2008 06:50

H.264 support for VMC isn't coming at the end of the year any longer, it was expected but was canned by Microsoft. There are hacked copies of a file that is required to get this to go available but it doesn't work properly without some serious fiddling.

Your shudder problems are more than likely because you're not using H.264 hardware acceleration. Read the following thread for some tips.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=22139

H.264 hardware acceleration is essential if you want a decent picture, particularly on TV3's 1080i feed. Unfortunately ATI's drivers have been broken for a long time and don't work properly with any interlaced H.264 content and will cause numerous issues. There are some reports that they are finally fixed in the latest release but are still reports from other people that they aren't.

gperkinson

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Geek

#167665 29-Sep-2008 08:44

Hi Steve,

Wow, thanks for your quick post on my problem - much appreciated!!

I will take a look at this tonight and let you know how I go.

Thanks also for your comment on the Media Centre fix - that's a bummer as I love the Media Centre interface (as does my wife which is also important of course) Do you think my new card will work fine with whatever fix they come up with?

Thanks again.

Regards

Graham

sbiddle

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#167673 29-Sep-2008 09:08

gperkinson: Hi Steve,

Wow, thanks for your quick post on my problem - much appreciated!!

I will take a look at this tonight and let you know how I go.

Thanks also for your comment on the Media Centre fix - that's a bummer as I love the Media Centre interface (as does my wife which is also important of course) Do you think my new card will work fine with whatever fix they come up with?

Thanks again.

Regards

Graham

Read this forum here it'll tell you what does work and what doesn't

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=26356

It isn't really a viable solution for NZ and potentially may never be. There is certainly no way to get an EPG at present unless you have a DVB-S card to get the EIT EPG from.

If you do want want to stick with VMC when your only option is to use a DVB-S card which will give you a setup that works slightly better but is still not without issues.

VMC unfortunately a bit of a dead loss if you're looking for a rock solid platform for digital TV in NZ which is a shame. GB-PVR, Media Portal or DVBViewer really are your best options.

gperkinson

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#167736 29-Sep-2008 12:42

Hi Again Steve,

In regard to your comment about an EPG on VMC, there is a site reven.co.nz which gives instructions on how to set this up, but I'm struggling with this - got up to step 14 out of 17.

I have been told about the other products you mentioned. Which is the closest one to VMC? What is important to me is the following:

- everything below is contained in the one software package
- scheduling TV recordings (Freeview)
- repository for music
- repository for photos
- repository for ripped DVD's (converted into a format that is still good quality for my 52 inch TV and saves space)
- repositories above can be kept in folders

What I loved about Media Centre was it's ease of use and look, especially with all the thumbnails of movies etc and that is a big seller for me - it had everything except getting the EPG working and Freeview.

What would be the closest thing to give me the above? What is everybody going for? What is the cost?

Once again, your help would be appreciated.

Regards

Graham

sbiddle

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#167740 29-Sep-2008 13:10

The EPG will work with XMLTVNZ and Bladerunner/Bladerunner Pro but it's not an easy task - as you have realised. This method will not work however once TV Pack has been installed which for some reason I assumed you had installed.

GB-PVR and Media Portal will both do what you want to do. I use GB-PVR myself primarily because I find it rock solid as a TV solution. It doesn't have the flashest interface for viewing pictures or music but there are additional plugins available. For DVD's the easiest method is to rip them as an .ISO which GB-PVR can play back but this won't save you space, if you want to do that you need to convert the movie to another format such as divx/xvid but you then lose the menu structure.

Many people like Media Portal and it does have a huge community developing plugins for it, it's really just a matter of personal choice. There is a new version of GB-PVR which is in testing at present which delivers some significant new features.