Nova 500 TD Windows 7 Ultimate Pixelation and colouring

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BrickMan

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#40151 25-Aug-2009 23:13

Hi all,

When Prime became available on Freeview and Windows 7 was released I decided to bite the bullet and replace my trusty old analog 500MCE with a nice shiny Nova T 500 HD.

I spent some time reading about other peoples' experiences and from the forums it looked like a straight forwardish process...

I reformatted the OS drive so I had a nice clean setup.

I installed Windows 7 but it didn't find the tuner card drivers so I had to provide them manually.(88x_2_124_27191_SIGNED). I stuck with the latest Nvidia drivers from Windows Update.

I setup MCE and it found 16 channels (in Christchurch) and things were still looking good.

But, when I looked at the video it was highly pixelated and sometimes had a bit of a green tint. One odd thing though was the Freeview demo/channel 100 seemed to be not to bad.

My machine is no slug, does anyone have any suggestions?

Did I miss the "Don't pixelate and green tint the broadcast video checkbox"?

Cheers

Bryn

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meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#250583 26-Aug-2009 08:41

I had this problem when I had a dodgy codec doing the decoding, are you sure you're using the built-in W7 h264 codec?

Did you get the TD-500 drivers from the UK Hauppauge site? I'd also probably install the latest drivers from the nvidia site, the ones on Windows update are usually a bit old, and with W7 being still relatively new both ATI and nvidia are both playing catch-up at the moment.

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freitasm

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#250592 26-Aug-2009 09:13

If you haven't installed any third party h.264 decoders (you shouldn't) then this sounds like a bad video driver. You should really install the latest nVidia driver from their website.

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browned

636 posts

Ultimate Geek

#250595 26-Aug-2009 09:17

The 500 drivers should have been found by Windows Update when Windows first booted as long as it was connected to the internet. I haven't changed these drivers and have no issues.

Nvidia have just released a new driver yesterday as well.

cheers
db

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rhysb

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Ultimate Geek

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#250599 26-Aug-2009 09:33

Are you sure you are using the right drivers? Those drivers are for the 88x series cards, ie Nova-S Plus/HVR-x000. The Nova-T 500 uses these drivers
http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/drivers/Nova-T-500_4_3_26168_WHQL.zip

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#250659 26-Aug-2009 13:18

BrickMan: When Prime became available on Freeview and Windows 7 was released ...

It may be a pedantic point, but Windows 7 hasn't been released yet. Microsoft may well be happy that Windows 7 is fit for release, but it's never a surprise that third party software (drivers in particular) have some compatibility issues in the early days - particularly in the pre-release period.

It's part of the pain that early adopters have to accept.

Regs

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Snowflake

#250878 27-Aug-2009 00:19

Deev8:
BrickMan: When Prime became available on Freeview and Windows 7 was released ...

It may be a pedantic point, but Windows 7 hasn't been released yet. Microsoft may well be happy that Windows 7 is fit for release, but it's never a surprise that third party software (drivers in particular) have some compatibility issues in the early days - particularly in the pre-release period.

To be pedantic'er Windows 7 has indeed been released. Just not to retail customers in the form of a boxed product. Volume License, Microsoft Partners, MSDN and Technet subscribers all have access to the released versions of Windows 7 (i.e. the RTM versions).

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Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#250943 27-Aug-2009 10:50

Regs: To be pedantic'er Windows 7 has indeed been released. Just not to retail customers in the form of a boxed product.

Yes there are several ways to obtain Windows 7 in advance of its official release date, and in a form that is identical to that which will be available after the official release date. However the official release of Windows 7 is still almost two months away. From the "horses mouth" (the Microsoft Windows 7 wsite) - "Windows 7 is on its way to manufacturers, and will be available on October 22".

The point isn't how easy or difficult it is to get your hands on Windows 7, but how ready third parties are. And it this stage it shouldn't be a huge surprise that some third party drivers have compatibility issues. We clearly will not be facing widespread compatibility issues as we did for some time after the official release of Vista, but early adopters have to be prepared for the possibility of issues with third party software - especially those who choose to use Windows 7 in advance of its official release date.

Regs

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Snowflake

#251030 27-Aug-2009 16:08

Deev8:
Regs: To be pedantic'er Windows 7 has indeed been released. Just not to retail customers in the form of a boxed product.

Yes there are several ways to obtain Windows 7 in advance of its official release date, and in a form that is identical to that which will be available after the official release date. However the official release of Windows 7 is still almost two months away. From the "horses mouth" (the Microsoft Windows 7 wsite) - "Windows 7 is on its way to manufacturers, and will be available on October 22".

on its way to general availability on october 22nd. the official release is already in the hands of partners, subscribers and volume license corporates. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-22windows7rtmpr.mspx

as to your point about early adopters and driver issues - some of the hardware manufacturers still havent sorted out their drivers for windows vista - just how long is it before you're no longer an early adopter and now just a pissed off consumer?

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Ragnor

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#251057 27-Aug-2009 17:50

Either way it's still a new version of an OS and will have many quirks until well after SP1, that's life.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#251069 27-Aug-2009 18:35

Regs: as to your point about early adopters and driver issues - some of the hardware manufacturers still havent sorted out their drivers for windows vista - just how long is it before you're no longer an early adopter and now just a pissed off consumer?

Good point - some hardware manufacturers never achieved Vista compatibility (and some used it as an excuse to drive sales of new hardware which had compatible drivers available). The majority, however, did produce Vista-compatible drivers eventually. The people who didn't have a compelling reason to adopt Vista early had an easier ride.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#251071 27-Aug-2009 18:38

Ragnor: Either way it's still a new version of an OS and will have many quirks until well after SP1, that's life.

Quite right - the later someone moves to a new OS the fewer compatibility issues they will experience, but of course they miss out on new and improved features. It's a metter of finding the right balance.

FreddyK

84 posts

Master Geek

#251108 27-Aug-2009 21:14

Credit, where credits due though. Windows7 is an excellent OS, of course much of that is due to how poor Vista is. I've always been an early adopter with any software, but I gotta say Windows7 has been exceptional right from beta.

Back on topic though, BrickMan's problem is certainly driver related. Why windows update didnt pickup the Nova T500 to start with is the cause for concern. Actually, the only issue I've ever had with windows7 has related to this card ... or more specifically, the VIA host controller on the card.