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There seems to be a lot of ambiguity over which cards do work and which do not.
I'm looking for a MCE compatible TV card which will support both a freeview signal and that which comes from my Virgin Media box, and that is fully supported in Vista Ultimate x64.
If anyone has such a thing can they point me in the right direction please, thanks!
I'm using a Compro DVB-T200 in vista x64 and it works flawlessly, far better than it does in XP! It doesn't have an analogue input, but it's big brother the T300 does. Give it a look!
Hi RavenKnight
Thanks for the reply. Do you use it with Vista MCE?
I can't find the Compro DVB-T300 in any UK retail stores - where did you get yours from?
Yes, I use it in Vista Ultimate x64. It works flawlessly in Media Centre, far better than the bundled software. I got mine from Scan:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=196756
But the T300 seems to have been replaced, this looks like it's replacement:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=510714
Much obliged, that looks absolutely blummin ideal. It's:
- cheaper than the Hauppauge stuff
- supports HDTV apparently whereas the 80 quid HVR3000 does not
- dual tuner compatible whereas neither of the other more expensive Hauppauge cards are
- certified for Vista on the website
- only £48!
What's the catch?!
The catch is that the bundled software (not the driver, that's fine) is appalling, it regularly crashes and only picks up a handful of channels. However, in Media Centre it works perfectly!
just wondering if there is an adequate pci-e version - i brought el-cheapo kworld dvb-t300u (little brown box) for £15 and its been doing an adequate job, but now i see no vista drivers, so its only really £15 lost, but i dont want to spend hideous amounts on a PCI version as mobo's these days have limited slots, and i dont think i could be without a dedicated sound card.
any ides?
Not helping you much if you're set on a PCIe card, but now's the time to buy PCI cards imo as they will only get rarer and by that time you won't have filled up all your PCIe slots! Also I've heard that the PCI cards are less problematic than PCIe.
ok, so which of the compro ones is good? t200? t220 - cant tell the difference between these two.
Checked out that link and that looks a really good deal. I built a shuttle based system last month but as yet havent got a TV card. i was holding out for the Hauppauge PCE nova-T 500 but they seem to have a lot of problems with Vista Media Centre, related to drivers.
So let me get this right, this has Dual Freeview tuners, so that I can set it up in VMC to record one channel and watch another. And you seem to have no problems with drivers or anything? I guess the reception of freeview channels is a bit subjective but you do state that it picks up most of the channels.
This could be a good little buy... Thanks for the tip
JP
I've got that card in my Vista MCE - what are the problems of which you speak? Works fine for me as far as I can tell..Quote:
Originally Posted by jonathan_phang
i got a pinnacle card with my new system which worked via pci, and my pc would fail to even boot up with it plugged in. it kept making a loud continous beep.
sent it back to scan and they said it was working perfectly........?? btw i have vista home premium 64 bit
i think it was this one http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=501241
although im looking to get a new one:
i thort maybe between these 2:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=243628
or
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=291718
i like em both because i can use them anywhere and i dont need an antenna source....
anyone had any experiences with either of them??
many thanks
As has been mentioned elsewhere on these forums don't expect any signal with the bundled aerial. You'll need to plug them into your houses main aerial.
oh rite... didnt no that.
how bad is the signal with bundled aerials?
Well, I really want that card, as its meant to have a very good, sensitive tuner for freeview, but I went over to the official hauppauge forums and there seem to be a lot of people on there who are having problems with tuned channels dissapearing, when a media PC is resumed from sleep. This seems to be backed up with admins admitting the problem (unless its been fixed since I last looked at it).Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel
If there is no problem then I would rather get the Nova, but what are your experiences driver wise? PM me if you dont want to hijact this thread.
JP
I haven't had too many problems with it really - aside from the god-awful bundled apps which I don't use anyway. I haven't had sleep mode working due to the rubbish nVidia drivers so it's possible i've just not seen the problem (yet) that you mention. I need to update various drivers and give sleep another go really. I know there's a new set of drivers in beta atm (for the Nova-T) with a full release due soon. I've seen some updated USB drivers from them indicating fixes for S3 mode too.
If I could get the box to succesfully wake I could easily write a small program to reboot the system just after it resumed to get round and initialisation problems - atm the nvidia card doesn't come back from sleep (black screen) so i can't see anything lol!
well my search is over - i just installed the windows XP drivers for my kworld DVB-T300U in HomePremium x32, and windows media centre is doing the rest - got more channels by some odd turn of events too.
great!!
How sure are you that it's the NVidia causing the problem? I narrowed my won't-wake-from-sleep problems down to overclocking the memory a single MHz above it's stock 400 MHz, and there are many other possible causes such as low 5V rail on the PSU. Vista x64 btw.Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel
Pretty darn sure - it's a known nVidia issue (black screen on resume) for the drivers i'm using (Vista32). Everything is running at stock, everything is brand new and i've got a good quality PSU :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie G
I need to spend some time playing with newer drivers and using the event viewer to diagnose things (Vista's event viewer is stunningly good) further. ATM it's just on all the time which is isn't ideal but it's reliable.
I have the T-500 with Vistax64 too - it works flawlessly - it even installed itself without any need to use CD's etc.
Highly recommended.
RavenNight - you say yours works better in Media Centre than with the bundled software. Mine works fine with the bundled software but it's a pain so I want to get it working in MC. However it asks me to select my provider from about 5 including one that says "unlinked" or similar, and firstly I don't know which to select, secondly it doesn't have the one that the freeview website says would be strongest in my area, and thirdly it doesn't find any channels. Am I doing something wrong as I'd far prefer to use MC for the TV than this Compro stuff?