Compro VideoMate E700 = £53.99 Down the drain ! Need scan help ASAP.

[Cornholio]

Quite a while back i bought a compro USB tv stick...did it work ? even with a rooftop aerial i would get 1 or two channels. I binned it, really couldnt be fussed travelling all that way to scan to return something that cost a tenner.

I bought a different USB stick..a Pinacle one from scan a few weeks ago...lovely piece of hardware, works perfectly no hassle what so ever, but one channel wasnt enough so i decided to put that to one side and take a trip to scan yesterday to purchase Videomate E700 - Compro VideoMate E700 PCI-E Dual DVBT Tv Card .

Thought to myself oh this seems like its quite nice, has a remote included which should make my media center experience a little easier, so i bought it, £53.99. I installed all the software today (far too much software) but thought i didnt want to have the same compro experience ive had in the past so ide just install everything and hope for the best.

Hooked it up to my few week old digital aerial on the roof we had installed especially for freeview, it picks up 74 channels ( when it wants to ) and i can watch 2 or 3, the rest simply do not work, i have tried everything i could possibly think of to get this to work ( im a pretty competant IT person ) i have tried for 3 HOURS !!! And have come to the conclusion its the biggest load of crap ive ever spent my money on and i hope scan have it in themselves to let me return it and buy something that ISNT compro, i have shopped at scan for a few years now and in my eyes have spent a small fortune, i wont shop anywhere else as Scan is local to me and have a laugh with of a few of the guys when i go down there, its handy and friendly.

I will be coming down tomorrow so i hope by then i have a reply from somebody at scan so it will make the process easier on myself, the package contents are all there, all leads, discs etc i just DO NOT WANT anything to do with compro, this is my second bad experience now and im writing the company off completley, i dont mind paying extra money for something that is going to work, hopefully something pinnacle produce.

Please please please can somebody get back to me ASAP as now, i recently had an operation and as sad as it seems im off work etc so my HTPC keeps me occupied throughout the day.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, i didnt want to just pop on and say "COMPRO IS CRAP, GIVE ME A REFUND " as that wouldnt get me anywhere, thought it was better to state my case and show i have tried everything i could possibly think of, hopefully it will save us all running round in circles.

On a side note, ive since put my Pinnacle USB stick back in and it works perfect, so it is the compro card that just sux, the pc itself is fine.

Regards Andy

[Cornholio]

Forgot to mention, the bundled remote is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard, it doesnt work with media center, and the bundled software refuses to display any channels also. picks the channels up but will not show them, yet my cheap and chearful pinnacle usb tv stick works perfectly.

[Cornholio]

No scan response on this ?

[DavidM]

Please use the online facility provided on our site - as this takes priority over the forum

[Cornholio]

Doesnt matter now david, i was up til 3.30 am and it seems to be ok now, i think you aught to know that whilst the E700 is branded as Vista compatible its not out of the box, there is a known issue, something to do with the supplied drivers reading on one MUX instead of a few ? if your interested or anybody from scan is interested i can supply the forum link i used to fix the issue.

I also think there should be a side note on the scan website saying the supplied remote only works with the supplied software and doesnt work with Media Center, would only take a few minutes i imagine to edit the product description on the website ?

Andy

[Lee H]

modd1uk,

Please can you PM me this information so we can get it passed to the relevant department

Best Regards,

[Cornholio]

PM sent lee, there is a few pages before a guy releases his own fix on the drivers in .inf format, the way i ended up getting them to work was install the drivers from the CD, then run the latest .exe of the drivers from the website, all this must be done before attempting to run ANY tv software, including media center, i had various results before i did that ^, including 101 channels all called E4 and none would get a signal lol, it seems to be ok now though..

[looney]

Have you tried it with other software? such as progdvb, powercinema etc?

Not all cards work properly with Vista Media centre, i have an old freecom dvbt stick, has vista drives etc, when you use it on VMC it scans all teh channels picks them up alright, but when you go to view them only two channels work, the rest do not work, this is also partly a fault with media center, something to do with the way it programs the frequencies, however the freecom works flawlessly in progdvb and in powercinema, and i use the aerial that was included with, works perfectly! albeit i have to stick in on the metal frame of my bed

[Lee H]

Cheers for the link.

I've passed it to the technical folks for their browsing and had a little look myself

Best Regards,

[blueball]

there is a known issue, something to do with the supplied drivers reading on one MUX instead of a few ? if your interested or anybody from scan is interested i can supply the forum link i used to fix the issue.

Can you please post link as I have had problems with Compro E650 for ages.

[Cornholio]

Have you tried it with other software? such as progdvb, powercinema etc?

Not all cards work properly with Vista Media centre, i have an old freecom dvbt stick, has vista drives etc, when you use it on VMC it scans all teh channels picks them up alright, but when you go to view them only two channels work, the rest do not work, this is also partly a fault with media center, something to do with the way it programs the frequencies, however the freecom works flawlessly in progdvb and in powercinema, and i use the aerial that was included with, works perfectly! albeit i have to stick in on the metal frame of my bed

Yeah, its not to do with the software you use really more the drivers that support the card, something about one MUX instead of a few ?

Can you please post link as I have had problems with Compro E650 for ages.

Sure buddy, link here

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/2...howThread.aspx

Fair few pages to read mind.

[blueball]

Sure buddy, link here

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/2...howThread.aspx

Fair few pages to read mind.

Many thanks. Appreciated

[Blaineoliver]

Im glad you got it sorted, Scan are always on the case

[Cornholio]

Wasted another night trying to fix an obvious compro issue, you can watch tv fine..but when you try to record one channel and watch another it sh!ts its knickers and says no tv signal, which requires you to stop recording and restart media center.

Will be back at scan tomorrow, if theres nothing else that will do that job that ISNT compro il have to ask for a refund, hope it shouldnt be a problem as the card isnt fit for purpose, advertised that it works with vista and it doesnt.

Will see you tomorrow !

[Cornholio]

Just found out now that you can watch about 30mins of TV and it just comes up with " no tv signal ".

Never using compro again.

[looney]

Yeah, its not to do with the software you use really more the drivers that support the card, something about one MUX instead of a few ?



Sure buddy, link here

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/2...howThread.aspx

Fair few pages to read mind.

yeh i read about the driver thing, but personally am not 100% convinced its the drivers, cos if it was then it wouldnt work properly in other software would it?

I only run into problems with VMC, where it refused to work, on progdvb, powercinema and mediaportal it works fine. but then again if it was vmc then other cards wouldnt work either, hmmm