IR receiver

[dcentury]

Picked up new PC yesterday (Xtreme GTS Quad). Seems to be working well so far. Have a few small software issues which I might post about later on once I've had a go at solving them myself.

Quick question now though:

There were two IR receivers that came with to use with the Media Centre Remote -
1) A small thing (about 1.5 cm long) with a 3.5 jack, which I have plugged in to the "remote" socket on the TV card.
2) A huge box (about 10cm across) with a USB connection

When I just had the small one plugged in, it lit up but the remote didn't work. I then plugged in the big one, and the remote worked fine.

Obviously I would prefer to save on the USB socket. Is there any way to get the small one working? Is it in fact what I think it is?!

David

[neil217]

the small reciever can not work on its own, but you plug it into the usb reciever. Then, you place the small reciever on yourset top box, so the answer is basically: The USB reciever hass to be used

[Nick]

Hi dcentury,

What you have there is an IR send/receive unit.

This is used to let you control your media PC remotely.

The big box with the USB connection is the remote sensor. You place this near your TV set-up if you are going to use the PC as a media system.

The smaller sensor is actually a 'sender' and you attach this to the front of the device you wish to control through your media PC... it's like a pass-through for the IR signal and you plug that into the back of the USB box.

If, for example, you're running a satellite box output into your PC, you can use the remote sender to control the satellite box THROUGH the PC. Or you can opt to just use different remotes, one for the PC and one for the satellite box.

So, to just control the PC you need the USB connected box and to control another device through the PC you need the smaller IR sender.

Hope this helps!

[dcentury]

Thanks to both of you. I'll have to economise a bit more on USB sockets then!

[DrATty]

As said above, you need the USB receiver to operate Media Centre remotely. When I first saw your post I wondered if the little receiver was for your TV card when used without MC but it's probably a sender if you don't have a second remote.
Use a USB hub if you need more ports. Just make sure that you don't mix USB 1 and USB 2 devices on the same connection. Everything will drop to slower, USB 1 speeds if you do. The remote receiver might be USB 1.

[Don't be temped to install a stand-alone TV applicaton to 'save' a USB port. Media Centre won't work with TV if you do. MC is a great application and it can be tricky to get it working again once you've installed other TV software.]

[dcentury]

The one thing that Media Center doesn't do is digital text and interactive services, which I used to have on my old analog card + digital box setup and wouldn't mind having back. MC seems in no rush to support this - is there really no other software solution that wouldn't result in me killing MC?

[DrATty]

That I don't know. I've installed K-World and Hauppauge stand-alone TV software and found that Media Centre in XP didn't work. Getting TV in Media Centre back was complicated. It might be different with other software, cards and with Vista.
I still use a set top box through an analogue TV connection to do what you want. It means using an extra remote.
What TV card do you have?

[dcentury]

I've got a K-World card as well.

I'd rather not reconnect the digibox back up if there is a software solution, as the box is rather bulky (old On-Digital box) and also would lose/restrict all the PVR functionality.

[dcentury]

More important than the digital text issue is the picture quality.

Both TV and DVD picture qualities are terrible, and worse than on my (very) old system.

Does anyone else find this? Is it something to do with the decoder - and if so can this be changed?

[DrATty]

My KWorld TV tuner is connected via USB. I like Media Centre so I use my external box for text. To be honest, I don't use that much now. I just use the internet but I know what you mean.
The quality of TV and DVD are as good as they've ever been on my other systems. I still use the same CRT monitor at 1600x1200 so the comparison is fair.
Are you using the same monitor as before or are you using a TV? High definition monitors can show up the shortcomings of normal TV and DVD resolutions. Comparing 1080 HD video alongside a DVD makes me wonder how we coped with DVD, but DVD is fine on its own. If you are using a TV, it could be because your connecting wire is too long. Some older graphics cards were happy with very long SVHS cables where newer ones often aren't. The same applies with some digital connections. They don't work well with long cables.
It could be a codec problem but these days you'd have to look long and hard for a bad one. If you haven't installed a codec pack from the Web you should be OK there.
If everything else looks fine you should be able to rule out your monitor. If you're using a TV, check the cables and cable lengths as well as what your card is actually sending to the TV. It might be the configured incorrectly.
As far as 3rd party media applications go, Media Portal is the best I've found. If you like a challenge, have a look at http://www.team-mediaportal.com/. It takes some a while to get it up and running but it's worth the effort. I wouldn't recommend it to someone new to computers but as long as everything is backed up, it's worth checking out.

[Nick]

dcentury, what's the problem exactly?

I mean, how is the picture worse? Are you getting blocky sections popping up in fast action scenes? Is the overall quality grainy?

What panel are you outputting to?

Give us a bit more info!

[dcentury]

Sure

Would be good if I could take a screenshot to show you, but that's not going to work.

I'm just outputting via DVI to the monitor (22'' Mirai), not to a TV.

The problems are similar for TV and DVD, but easier to talk about the TV. The quality is constantly bad. It's not the normal DTT problems such as blocky bits if reception is bad or not keeping up with fast moving action.

Rather the screen is overall grainy and not anywhere near as sharp as it should be. It's easiest to see by looking at the logo on BBC News 24. The letters aren't at all in focus, and there are patches of dark red behind them.

I'm comparing this to my previous setup of a DTT settop box running through the S-Video port on an analogue Haupaauge TV card, running on Hauppauge software under Vista on an old P3 500.

Because it is the same problem for DVDs, I thought it might be something to do with decoders rather than anything hardware related. I've updated to the latest NVidia drivers for the graphics card.

Thanks.

[Nick]

Is this the same monitor as you were using before?

I ask because I can see an appreciable difference in quality between recorded TV viewed on one of my 19" monitors through media centre and the same image viewed through my media extender onto my Toshiba TV... the same show looks grainy on the smaller panel whereas my TV, with all it's image processing hardware to smooth and fill etc, gives a better picture.

So I guess the next thing is to narrow down where the problem lies.

So if, using a DVD the playback quality is pants, have you tried using a different DVD playback software kit, such as CyberDVD or something? You must have an old copy lying around somewhere? Give that go and see if it's as bad. If not, it's likely a software/codec problem, if its the same then it *could* be hardware related.

[DrATty]

I'm more inclined to think it's the mis-match between picture sizes now. I'd have a look at DScaler and ffdshow. It sounds as though your problem is associated with the upscaling and interlacing of the picture. Using an SVHS connection from a set top box can avoid some of the problems the above filters are designed to address, though intuitively, the picture shouldn't be as good.

[dcentury]

Quick update on where I'm at with this.

I tried plugging in my old 19" CRT last night, using the second socket on the graphics card. The TV/DVD picture looked fine on it. In fact, I spanned the TV window across the two screens and the difference was noticeable.

So I am binning my decoder theory.

It does seem like some kind of scaling problem. I'll give DScaler a go at the weekend. DrATty (or anyone else) - have you used it, and will it kill Media Center?

[DrATty]

If the image on your LCD is OK in 'normal' use, that should rule out a defective monitor.
You 'shouldn't' have any problems using dScaler with Media Centre but I'd avoid ffDShow to start with. The XP version of dScaler works with Vista. I have used ffDShow with Media Centre in XP but it can cause problems. The usual caveats apply; set a restore point and make a backup before experimenting.
The first thing to do is check out the codecs you already have on your system. There might be a setting there that helps.
I'd suggest downloading codecs individually. They are often supplied in 'packs' but installing a range all at once has drawbacks. I'd stick to dScaler for now. Avoid beta versions. Once you have installed the codecs you want, see what happes with the default settings. Then it's time to play. Some are configured through the 'Start' menu. Sometimes, you'll need to explore 'Program Files' and see if there's a configuration utility there. In XP, codecs are listed in the device manager. Their settings are accessed through the 'properties' of the codec. Note that many codecs can't be configured at all.
I don't have much experience with Vista but check out the 'Vista Media Centre Decoder Utility' in addition to the above.
I'm not using either regularly at the moment. I still use my old 19" CRT monitor. I think you know why now. Good results are possible with tweaking but it can be complicated. I'd advise going to a more specialized forum for detailed advice on using these tools. My experience with codecs has come from experimenting and I'm no expert.
Good luck.