Calling all MP New Zealanders (Both of you!!) - Page 108

mruane · 2008-03-16, 11:01

Has anyone else noticed if there EPG is one hour out. Programs starting at 8:30pm this evening (i.e. Sunday) are appearing at 7:30pm in the EPG i.e. one hour earlier than it should. Guess its because Summer Time normal finishes this weekend but we are running Summer Time longer this year.

Cheers Mike

handya · 2008-03-16, 18:40

i have the same problem but i checked my tvserver and the time on it was out by one hour, hopfully just computer settings that is doing it

AlanR · 2008-03-16, 21:14

Thank you for your welcome. My initial HTPC has been built on a shoestring budget – but these things have to be justified to a highly intelligent but otherwise Luddite wife! Here we go:

Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M with a Sempron 3000+
1GB DDR400
ATI 9550 AGP (256MB)
Hauppauge WinTV Nova-S-Plus using the remote control
250GB PATA HDD partitioned 40GB/200GB
XP Pro SP2

I use the onboard sound processor via the SP-DIF.

I have just installed TV-Server and have almost finished configuring it. I kept getting the DVB Hotfix warning even though I had applied the patch but after the third attempt to reinstall TV-Server after completely removing it – this warning has gone away. Weird!

Your guide has been invaluable – thank you! One thing that did trip me up was that I initially replaced the entire satellite.xml with your replacement but this caused TV-Server configuration to lose almost all of the tuning parameters. I reinstalled the original satellite.xml and just added your entries and it all worked. I cannot see why this should be. I will complete the configuration tonight and hopefully get the EPG working.

Most of my remaining issues are more to do with getting to know the application and for the meantime I am happy to plod on with the learning curve. One area I would be very happy to receive advice on is to do with waking the machine from standby. I don’t think there is any way I can do this with the Hauppauge remote as it causes no change on the USB or any other I/O subsystem - I may have to invest in an MS MCE remote – would you agree? The other concern is to do with scheduled recording and whether the application is able to wake the machine up. If you could point me in the right direction to where I can read up on this, I would be grateful.

Thanks again for your welcome and the help your site has already provided.

Cheers

Alan

hazza87 · 2008-03-16, 23:33

The Powescheduler plugin which is included in tv server ( See the plugins tab on the left hand side menu) will wake up the machine for recordings and then put it back to sleep according to your settings (Ie you can tell it not to put it to sleep if you are using specific processes) You can also set it to wake up your pc for epg grabbing. For more info you can check the wiki which has info on powerscheduler. There are also other plugins available to do similar things.

Also as a matter of interest here are the links to the official freeview word on DTT
Launch Details
Fact Sheet

PHansen · 2008-03-17, 01:25

Okay, so with the official dawn of DVB-T approaching, now is the time to bring up a few queries i have and hopefully one of you will be able to help.

I am thinking about importing one or two of the BlackGold 6 in 1 cards (Or just the Hauppauge[sp?] Nova-T ones) in the not too distant future to use in the HTPC but i need to know a few things.

1. Will the aerial cable and plug i have now from the UHF aerial plug straight into the cards DVB-T socket and away i go? Or will i need to find a new male socket end for my cable? Where is a good place to start looking for these?

2. What is the best way to split the cable so that it can be used in both cards?
I tried a cheap and cheerful option from DickSmiths years ago and it degraded the signal quality so significantly that i didn't like it at all so went and bought a dual tuner card to compensate.

3. Assume i have already split the DVB-T cable into each of the cards. To use the analogue tuners would i need to split them both again and have them running into the Analogue input at the same time as the DVB-T tuners? Effectively splitting the original cable into four.

4. Following from 3. and 2. if the original aerial cable needs to be split into four, is it even technically possible to do without a huge loss in signal quality?

Thanks all.

mruane · 2008-03-17, 06:34

PHansen, make sure that the antenna splitter you get can handle the highest frequency that you will encounter - so for DVB-T that will be about 900mhz. A splitter does introduce loss, more so if the signal you are pushing through it is outside of it passband. I have one cable running through a 1 to 4 splitter and do not suffer noticeable picture degradation even though 1 to 4 splitters produce the worst signal loss. However that splitter is rated to 2000mhz. I think you would be better using a 1 to 4 splitter rather than 1 to 2 then 1 to 2 again as the losses are adding with that combination.

In all cases ensure you use the F type connectors and get the splitters that have F connectors rather than the Belling Lee connectors.

PS: Is no one other than handya having issues with EPG times being one hour out. Everythime I refresh the EPG they are all one hour out even though my machine has the correct time and still showing Daylight Savings time?

Cheers Mike

PHansen · 2008-03-17, 07:22

mruane, any chance you can point me in the right direction to get a splitter something like what you have mentioned?

hazza87 · 2008-03-17, 07:43

This is what you will be needing. Would also be worth checking if the analogue and DTT inputs on your card are different. For example on my card there is only one connection for DTT and analogue so everything goes into one connector so it doesn't need to be split as much.

mruane · 2008-03-17, 09:16

@Phansen

hazza87's linked item will do the job nicely. You could also looks at Jaycar Electronics for alternatives. The Freeviewshop option is marginally more expensive but will also be useful for splitting a satellite dish output as well as it handles up to 2400mhz. So, that would be the one I would go with - $20 is a pretty cheap option!

PS: Oh, I stopped and restarted the TV Service and then reloaded the EPG and that fixed the timing problem.

Cheers Mike

hazza87 · 2008-03-18, 09:34

I seem to be a having a problem possibly with just my release of tv server 17890. Wondering if anybody else was having this problem or whether they know whats causing it.
When watching live tv occasionaly (about every 30 mins or so) the picture will freeze and sometimes pixelize and then continue on again after about a minute from the live tv position ie 1 minute ahead of what i last saw. This happens when timeshifting too but havent noticed it during playback of recorded tv.

2008-03-16, 23:33	#1074 (permalink)
hazza87 Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Auckland Posts: 42 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	The Powescheduler plugin which is included in tv server ( See the plugins tab on the left hand side menu) will wake up the machine for recordings and then put it back to sleep according to your settings (Ie you can tell it not to put it to sleep if you are using specific processes) You can also set it to wake up your pc for epg grabbing. For more info you can check the wiki which has info on powerscheduler. There are also other plugins available to do similar things. Also as a matter of interest here are the links to the official freeview word on DTT Launch Details Fact Sheet Last edited by hazza87; 2008-03-17 at 00:50. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

2008-03-17, 06:34	#1076 (permalink)
mruane Portal Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Wellington Posts: 162 Thanks: 1 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts Country:	PHansen, make sure that the antenna splitter you get can handle the highest frequency that you will encounter - so for DVB-T that will be about 900mhz. A splitter does introduce loss, more so if the signal you are pushing through it is outside of it passband. I have one cable running through a 1 to 4 splitter and do not suffer noticeable picture degradation even though 1 to 4 splitters produce the worst signal loss. However that splitter is rated to 2000mhz. I think you would be better using a 1 to 4 splitter rather than 1 to 2 then 1 to 2 again as the losses are adding with that combination. In all cases ensure you use the F type connectors and get the splitters that have F connectors rather than the Belling Lee connectors. PS: Is no one other than handya having issues with EPG times being one hour out. Everythime I refresh the EPG they are all one hour out even though my machine has the correct time and still showing Daylight Savings time? Cheers Mike Last edited by mruane; 2008-03-17 at 06:44.

2008-03-17, 09:16	#1079 (permalink)
mruane Portal Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Wellington Posts: 162 Thanks: 1 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts Country:	@Phansen hazza87's linked item will do the job nicely. You could also looks at Jaycar Electronics for alternatives. The Freeviewshop option is marginally more expensive but will also be useful for splitting a satellite dish output as well as it handles up to 2400mhz. So, that would be the one I would go with - $20 is a pretty cheap option! PS: Oh, I stopped and restarted the TV Service and then reloaded the EPG and that fixed the timing problem. Cheers Mike Last edited by mruane; 2008-03-17 at 09:57.

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2008-03-16, 11:01	#1071 (permalink)
mruane Portal Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Wellington Posts: 162 Thanks: 1 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts Country:	Has anyone else noticed if there EPG is one hour out. Programs starting at 8:30pm this evening (i.e. Sunday) are appearing at 7:30pm in the EPG i.e. one hour earlier than it should. Guess its because Summer Time normal finishes this weekend but we are running Summer Time longer this year. Cheers Mike

2008-03-16, 18:40	#1072 (permalink)
handya MP Donator Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 122 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	i have the same problem but i checked my tvserver and the time on it was out by one hour, hopfully just computer settings that is doing it

2008-03-16, 21:14	#1073 (permalink)
AlanR Portal Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Napier Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	Thank you for your welcome. My initial HTPC has been built on a shoestring budget – but these things have to be justified to a highly intelligent but otherwise Luddite wife! Here we go: Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M with a Sempron 3000+ 1GB DDR400 ATI 9550 AGP (256MB) Hauppauge WinTV Nova-S-Plus using the remote control 250GB PATA HDD partitioned 40GB/200GB XP Pro SP2 I use the onboard sound processor via the SP-DIF. I have just installed TV-Server and have almost finished configuring it. I kept getting the DVB Hotfix warning even though I had applied the patch but after the third attempt to reinstall TV-Server after completely removing it – this warning has gone away. Weird! Your guide has been invaluable – thank you! One thing that did trip me up was that I initially replaced the entire satellite.xml with your replacement but this caused TV-Server configuration to lose almost all of the tuning parameters. I reinstalled the original satellite.xml and just added your entries and it all worked. I cannot see why this should be. I will complete the configuration tonight and hopefully get the EPG working. Most of my remaining issues are more to do with getting to know the application and for the meantime I am happy to plod on with the learning curve. One area I would be very happy to receive advice on is to do with waking the machine from standby. I don’t think there is any way I can do this with the Hauppauge remote as it causes no change on the USB or any other I/O subsystem - I may have to invest in an MS MCE remote – would you agree? The other concern is to do with scheduled recording and whether the application is able to wake the machine up. If you could point me in the right direction to where I can read up on this, I would be grateful. Thanks again for your welcome and the help your site has already provided. Cheers Alan

2008-03-17, 01:25	#1075 (permalink)
PHansen MP Donator Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 60 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	Okay, so with the official dawn of DVB-T approaching, now is the time to bring up a few queries i have and hopefully one of you will be able to help. I am thinking about importing one or two of the BlackGold 6 in 1 cards (Or just the Hauppauge[sp?] Nova-T ones) in the not too distant future to use in the HTPC but i need to know a few things. 1. Will the aerial cable and plug i have now from the UHF aerial plug straight into the cards DVB-T socket and away i go? Or will i need to find a new male socket end for my cable? Where is a good place to start looking for these? 2. What is the best way to split the cable so that it can be used in both cards? I tried a cheap and cheerful option from DickSmiths years ago and it degraded the signal quality so significantly that i didn't like it at all so went and bought a dual tuner card to compensate. 3. Assume i have already split the DVB-T cable into each of the cards. To use the analogue tuners would i need to split them both again and have them running into the Analogue input at the same time as the DVB-T tuners? Effectively splitting the original cable into four. 4. Following from 3. and 2. if the original aerial cable needs to be split into four, is it even technically possible to do without a huge loss in signal quality? Thanks all.

2008-03-17, 07:22	#1077 (permalink)
PHansen MP Donator Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 60 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	mruane, any chance you can point me in the right direction to get a splitter something like what you have mentioned?

2008-03-17, 07:43	#1078 (permalink)
hazza87 Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Auckland Posts: 42 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	This is what you will be needing. Would also be worth checking if the analogue and DTT inputs on your card are different. For example on my card there is only one connection for DTT and analogue so everything goes into one connector so it doesn't need to be split as much.

2008-03-18, 09:34	#1080 (permalink)
hazza87 Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Auckland Posts: 42 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	I seem to be a having a problem possibly with just my release of tv server 17890. Wondering if anybody else was having this problem or whether they know whats causing it. When watching live tv occasionaly (about every 30 mins or so) the picture will freeze and sometimes pixelize and then continue on again after about a minute from the live tv position ie 1 minute ahead of what i last saw. This happens when timeshifting too but havent noticed it during playback of recorded tv.