BlackGold 6in1

[khemical]

I have been using the BGT3540 with Mediaportal and TVE3 for a little over a month now and thought I would add my experience for anyone looking at buying this card for use with Media Portal.

I'm currently runnning SVN Rev17915 but will soon try a newer build to see if the recent speed improvements apply to my setup. I use the 2 DVB-T and the 2 DVB-S Tuners on the BGT3540 (I have no use for the analogue tuners) and all works well.

• Channels scan on both DVB-T and DVB-S without a hitch
• Can handle 4 recordings/streams (2 DVB-T and 2 DVB-S) at the same time, in theory could do more depending on channel/mux layout etc, haven't put this to the test but see no reason why it wouldn't work.

There is an issue with the current BGT3540 drivers and S3 standby (and possibly other power management states) with Vista Media Centre and Windows Media Centre 2005. See long thread at AV Forums that deekarma already pointed to (BlackGold 6 in 1: Dual DBV-s, Dual DVB-t & Dual analogue Tuner (BGT3540) in Vista MCE - AVForums).

I suspect this problem will also impact Mediaportal/TVE3 but I can't say for sure as my system is used in a multi-seat role and isn't configured to standby or hibernate. If power management is important to you it might be best to first read up on the problem and perhaps wait until the new drivers being developed to fix this are released before buying.

[allanp81]

Wow, what a cool card. So tempted to sell my firedtv and 2x nebula tuners to get this instead. Would certainly make my server cupboard a bit tidier!

[ipa]

FYI, this card is similar to my DNTV QuattroS card. The 7162 bda drivers are the same. Mine is a rebadged twinhan 6090 card. Runs fine in MP.

Ivan

[SpudR]

Tested with the new RC build yet??
I am looking to buy this card when (if?) the FreeSat service launches

[helmuteke]

can this card handle diseqc ????

can it switch between LNB's in MP ???

tnx

helmut

[khemical]

Just a quick update regarding the BGT3540. When I bought mine it was clearly advertised as supporting DVB-S2, not just DVB-S. However, it has now come to light that it does not support DVB-S2 and the specs on the website have been changed which is a major let down. The lack of DVB-S2 brings the spec. down to that of the Pinnacle 7010i which is available at much lower cost!

Scan.co.uk have the 7010i for £30.52 before P+P (Pinnacle 7010i Dual DVB-S, Dual DVB-T) which is a massive saving over the BGT3540. If you bought the BGT3540 on the basis of its DVB-S2 capability then you may wish to do the same as me, return it for a full refund and get the Pinnacle instead. Please note the 7010i is a full height card, so if you need half height you will have to stick with the BGT3540.

As I don't currently need DVB-S2 (no UK FTA channels use it, yet!) I'll make do with the Pinnacle for now and back it up with a DVB-S2 card when necessary. Hopefully by then there will be more choice on offer and the price will have fallen a little. My 7010i has been in a week and has taken over full responsibility for viewing and recording without a hitch so seems to be a perfectly capable replacement for the Blackgold card at less than 1/3 the price.

[Paranoid Delusion]

Blimey that is cheap, do you know if it still suffers the same S3 problems.

Strange price as this is cheaper by £20 than there dual dvb-t pci board

A real blow about the S2 not existing, because that was the main point of interest to me for the card, pretty future proof.

[funkstar]

yeah that is a real shame, I was thinking about getting two (eventually).

Oh well

[khemical]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Delusion

Blimey that is cheap, do you know if it still suffers the same S3 problems.

Sorry, I can't comment on that as I don't use any power management on my setup. The Pinnacle card actually picked up and used the already installed Blackgold drivers when I put it in so I have little doubt that the two cards are almost identical technically.

Blackgold deemed the S3 problem to be driver related so whether the Pinnacle drivers would get round this or not I don't know but whilst everything is working so well I'm reluctant to play with it and break things!

It might be worth having a browse through the thread about the card on AVForums (Pinnacle 7010i PCIe Dual DVB-T / DVB-S/ Analogue - AVForums) and see if it is mentioned.

Originally Posted by Paranoid Delusion

Strange price as this is cheaper by £20 than there dual dvb-t pci board

Indeed, it does seem too cheap! I have a feeling they might be discontinuing it as there is very little mention of it from Pinnacle and some of the places that were selling it no longer appear to have them. I actually bought mine from Play.com but it has since disappeared from their website. With this in mind I am considering picking up a 2nd card to be used as part of a backup / test rig away from my main system whilst they are still available at such a bargain price!

Originally Posted by Paranoid Delusion

A real blow about the S2 not existing, because that was the main point of interest to me for the card, pretty future proof.

Yep, it was the primary reason for me choosing the Blackgold card so I wasn't too happy to find out their info was wrong!

[allanp81]

Has anyone got a setup running more than 1 of these cards? I'm going to try to put together a setup with 3 of these cards to ensure all 6 multiplexes are catered for (I potentially might have 10s of people viewing). I was also wondering whether you can use 1 card to view/record dvb-t at the same time as view/record dvb-s.