Pinnacle USB TV/Freeview Tuner 73e

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woadism

13 posts

Geek

#42571 7-Oct-2009 11:22

Hi - I've been doing my best to get this TV tuner dongle up and running and not having much luck - I've trawled the forums a little and found they had this to say:

"nb. For anyone getting this tuner: before you scan for channels, set the country to united kingdom not NZ in the wizard."
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=21940

In this one they seemed to have similar problems:
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=24932
...which suggested codec, so I downloaded an H.264 codec...
...and someone based in Wellington CBD, as I am, got good reception even on the basic antenna supplied...
...but suggest trying 3rd party software?

This posting talks about types of aerials and again software...
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=31852

OK so what has happened so far is this:

I've installed and had COMODO jumping up and down, but went ahead and gave it a shot with the supplied aerial. It was unable to pick up even a flicker of a signal during scan.

Tried setting it as UK... no luck.

Tried moving my room around to stick the aerial out of a window... no luck.

Read that antivirus/firewall problems can cause a faulty installation, so uninstalled, reinstalled with COMODO turned off, scanned as NZ, scanned as UK - still nothing showing up.

Tried plugging in the buildings TV aerial (normal channels, standard aerial not sky or anything) and it comes up blank as UK and NZ.

Tried plugging in some rabbit ears of my flatmates, scanned as UK and NZ, nothing showing up.

I've downloaded an H.264 codec but that hasn't changed anything.

I'm not the flashest with TV stuff, but figured it wouldn't be THIS hard - and thought if my flatmate can get perfect reception on her TV with rabbit ears, and I can get perfect reception in the lounge-room with the buildings TV aerial... this would at least get a flicker of something so I'm assuming I'm getting something terribly wrong somewhere else.

Or is it that I need a specific kind of aerial? I wondered maybe FREEVIEW requires a special aerial but then if people have had luck with the standard, in the same location as me... (http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=24932)

I'm in the Wellington CBD.
My system's a Vista PC to the latest updates.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
3GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Plenty of space spare

Any suggestions? Thanks :)

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#262013 7-Oct-2009 12:37

I am using this tuner and getting good results with the supplied aerial*. I am running Win7 RC but did have it going with the Pinnacale supplied software on an older XP Pro desktop (P4 2.4c) and laptop (Core 2 duo P8400 - 2.26GHz). I'm pretty sure I set it to NZ when I had it working with the Pinnacle software. With Win7 it was set to NZ during the setup process.

The * is becuase the aerial has to be in a certain angle and direction for it to work. It can be tricky getting it right. Have a look at your neighbours UHF antennas and check the direction in which their anntenna arrays are in and then match it with the mini one.

I thought since the bunny ears are bigger it would work better, but I have had better luck with the mini aerial than with the bunny ears.

woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262024 7-Oct-2009 12:57

Ah OK - when you have trouble getting signal do you get, say, poor reception, or just no channels being picked up at all? Because mine, even plugged into the aerial on top of the building (maybe it's the wrong kind?) gets nothing at all, and I get a blue sad face in the scanner haha.

tanivula

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#262027 7-Oct-2009 13:08

From memory, when I first plugged it in I had the aerial pointing up (vertically) and got no channels - in the Pinnacle software there is a quick scan and a thorough scan, neither worked. For some reason I tried it in the horizontal plane and picked up a few channels, then after a bit of trial and error moving the aerial in the horizontal plane got everything working. When the signal started to get bad I think it would pixelise and then cut out.

pedrogarcia

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#262030 7-Oct-2009 13:18

Mine works fine set to NZ in setup, but I get no channels with any indoor aerial, either bunny ears or supplied. And i'm really close to the Kaukau TV transmitter.

woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262032 7-Oct-2009 13:19

Interesting - I'll give it a shot doing scans in the horizontal, and pointing in different directions...

With the building aerial not getting any signal does that mean I need a specific kind?

Also - I got a free H.264 codec off a reputable codec website. Seeing on a slip with my product that I can go to the settings program > information and push 'launch' to get free codecs, I tried that and all that they're offering me is a 5 euro AAC codec...

tanivula

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#262033 7-Oct-2009 13:20

pedrogarcia: Mine works fine set to NZ in setup, but I get no channels with any indoor aerial, either bunny ears or supplied. And i'm really close to the Kaukau TV transmitter.

That's interesting, I'm in Churton Park and don't have line of sight to Kaukau but it's working for me!

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woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262034 7-Oct-2009 13:21

@ pedrogarcia - what kind of external aerial? Do I need to get onto the bodycorporate manager about replacing my buildings aerial with something better? At the moment it's just a normal television, ie 1,2,3,C4 and scratchy reception of prime and maori TV?

sbiddle

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#262036 7-Oct-2009 13:24

Do you actually have a UHF aerial or just VHF?
Downloading a H.264 codec is no real use if the software doesn't support H.264 or isn't compatible with the codec you downloaded. IMHO you're wasting your time with any included software and should stick to Windows7, GB-PVR, Media Portal or DVB Viewer.

woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262040 7-Oct-2009 13:37

I had Windows 7 for a wee bit but it wasn't happy with a lot of the design and graphics software I was running for school.

I'll give GB-PVR a shot...

As for the aerial - I don't know it's a shared one with the whole building and I don't have access to it... if it's standard television channels then that's probably VHF?

tanivula

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#262042 7-Oct-2009 13:42

If your Prime reception is dodgy then it'll more than likely be a VHF one.

woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262044 7-Oct-2009 13:44

Ahhh OK - I'll talk to the body corp. manager + see if I can do something at that end, although it'd be a bit lame of me if it gets work done up top + I still can't get it going! Hah.

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woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262047 7-Oct-2009 14:01

Now - this might get me boo'd off the stage for my lack of geek-awesomeness (but I do have StarWars Lego... that gives me SOME credit right?) but can rabbit ears be UHF/VHF specific?

woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262054 7-Oct-2009 14:11

( + have now installed GB-PVR - it is nicer and picked up the PCTV dongle slick as ya like - it also could not find any channels though - have e-mailed building manager to find out about the aerials up top... now it's a waiting game )

( + tried scanning horizontally with the supplied aerial, out the window - no dice )

woadism

13 posts

Geek

#262056 7-Oct-2009 14:15

Just looked up Kau Kau - don't have direct line of sight... so if my rooftop aerial's VHF and I don't have LOS then I wouldn't have any chance in picking up signal, even if the rabbit ears/aerial pick up the channels for regular TV?

pedrogarcia

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#262060 7-Oct-2009 14:34

I don't have line of sight either (tall building in the way), but our rooftop aerial is a UHF.

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