Freeview HD computer basics

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njb

12 posts

Geek

#30645 16-Feb-2009 16:22

Hi

I have some basic questions concerning getting freeview HD on my PC. I have picked up some ideas from these forums but need a simple guide to get my mind straight.

I think I have the gear needed
Roof top UHF aerial
Hauppauge hrv-1200 card
Intel Q9400 quad processor
Dual 9800GT video cards
4Gb ram
Vista home premium

Media Center will tune the analogue VHF channels but as expected will not tune the digital freeview channels.

Hauppauge WinTV will tune all of the freeview channels, no problem. But when I go to one of those channels I get no picture or sound.

As I understand from the forums I need to install either the H.264 codec (for WinTV?), or a player, or both. Do I have that correctly.

What players or codec options do I have.

I do have Nero which comes with an H.264 codec but I think that this is propriety to Nero and other applications may have issues using it.

Can you add a mpeg4 codec to Windows Media Play and watch TV using that, or do you need a player specificly designed for TV.

Cheers

sbiddle

30853 posts

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Biddle Corp

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#196084 16-Feb-2009 17:05

Neither Vista Media Center or WinTV will work. You need to use GB-PVR, Media Portal, DVBViewer or Cyberlink Power Cinema which ships with some Hauppauge cards. You will also need the Cyberlink H.264 codec that comes as part of PowerDVD7 or PowerDVD8 the Arcsoft H.264 codec. None of these are free but are available as part of other download packages if you hunt around.

Read the forums on here and you'll find everything you need to know.

njb

12 posts

Geek

#196524 18-Feb-2009 15:25

Thanks for your reply sbiddle. I should be able to experiment soon. My problem is that there is too much information here and much of it assumes prior knowledge.

Finding a codec was a bit of a problem. I have read that the new release of DivX 7.0 includes a h.264 codec that works well with MediaPortal. However someone else said that because it uses software decoding it was not suited to live HD TV. Has anyone used this codec. Does it work with GB-PVR.

How do you link the player to the codec.

What is the difference between software and hardware decoding. Is it only the demand software decoding puts on the CPU. I assume my Q9400 quad core will handle it. Do 9800GT video card do hardware decoding.

Sorry about the basic questions but hoping someone can help.

KrazyKid

1238 posts

Uber Geek

#196582 18-Feb-2009 19:01

Having been in your shoes 6mths ago I can relate.

I video card should be Nivida for Hardware Video Decoding. I dont think ATI does this properly yet (I may be wrong here)I have a 8600GT and it does fine. Not sure if the 9800 supports hardware decoding. Saying that the Quad core will do fine and you can probably get away without hardware decoding.

My CPU usgae on my Dual core 2.3Ghz only just coped with TV3 broadcasts 1080i (about 80% usage and the occasional flicker) It was about 10% with the cardware encoding enabled.

Check if the TV card comes with power cinema. If it does (and you said you had it) that will give you the Win TV H.264 codec. FF-Show Tryouts (free) or K-Lite code pack will give you the rest. Some people like the codec pack, others (myself included) just use FF-show. You will also want the Haali media splitter installed for those MKV files (either from K-Lite pack install or as a seperate install). I found power cinema hard to get Freeview working on so just left it unused, and I am just using the remote driver and the H.264 codec. I think the general rule of thumb is only install the bare minimum of codecs.

Buying a Blue-ray Drive will give you a copy of PowerDVD if you buy the right one. Otherwise you can find powerDVD if you look hard enough on the web. I recommend powerDVD over the other options as it allow the hardware accel. to be enabled. If you are not using hardware accel you don't need powerDVD. Windows7 probably hardware accel. out of the box but that is 12 mnths away.

Vista home Premium is what I use as an OS but having tried GB-PVR, Mediportal power cinema and VMC. Never tried win TV or Nero. I liked best and happily use Media Portal

If you got a Happengue remote with your TV card Mediaportal supports this. A remote is nice and I could not get my cheapo MCE remote to work with anything but VMC.

I advise turning off UAC before installing media portal as when I installed MediaPortal with UAC on nothing ever worked right.

Depending where you are you may not even need the UHF aerial - I get away without on in Dunedin, I have line of site to the tranmitter and all is sweet.

All the best with your set-up. It will take awhile and be prepared to reinstall windows several times. Worth it in the end though