Pinnacle DVB Dual Diversity USB TV stick

[netgroover]

I'm considering buying the Pinnacle DVB Dual Diversity USB TV stick, but I need to know whether it works?

Does anybody have any experience of this device?

Any information much appreciated.

netgroover


MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.4
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: Windows XP SP2
CPU Type: Intel P4 3GHz
HDD: 2 x 120GB SATA
Memory: 1GB DDR400
Motherboard: Biostar 200t
Motherboard Chipset: Intel 865
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800SE 256MB
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card:
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card:
1. TV Card Type:
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Biostar 200t
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: Windows Remote & Keyboard
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:

[netgroover]

UPDATE:
-----------

Ok, against my better judgement I took the plunge and bought the Pinnacle. I'm still testing it at the moment, and I have it 70% working, so there a few problems.

For those of you considering this card, despite my problems, I actually really like this card. The picture quality is excellent in both Live and Recorded TV, and the (small) size is amazing, so if we can just get by the problems (below) this will surely be the card to get.

1) Card not found! - Solved

I resolved this by editing the c:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\CaptureCardDefinitions.xml file and removing any reference to Dibcom on the 'Pinnacle Dual DVB-T Diversity Stick' entry.

Update 14/07/07 - The latest Pinnacle drivers seem to have renamed the device, so you now also have to prefix the entry with 'PCTV DiB' to get it detected by MP.

2) Poor Reception - Ongoing

MP scans and finds the TV channels fine, but it doesn't find the best quality channel, so you get poor reception.

I got around this by scanning with the Pinnacle software and putting the settings from there into an entry for my transmitter (Waltham) into c:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\TuningParameters\dvbt.xml

This vastly improved reception, but it's still not perfect. This baffles me as I have a High Gain Antenna and multiple Digi-boxes in the house that work perfectly?! I've had similar problems with another card, so I suspect PC TV Cards are just not as good as Digi-boxes?

One thing I've noticed a lot in the log, which may be related is:

DVBGraph: Unlocked... wait for tunerlock
Tuner locked: False

The next step here is to try and re-point my antenna to the exact co-ordinates of the transmitter, which in the absence of new drivers, is my last hope.

3) TV crashing - Ongoing

Periodically TV just stops and goes to a black screen, but the rest of MP continues to work. The only way to get aroung this is to restart MP.

The only thing I've noticed in the log, which might be related is:

Tuner locked: False
DVBGraphBDA: VMR9 stopped quality:100 strength:100 locked:True fps:0
DVBGraph: Unlocked... wait for tunerlock
Tuner locked: False

This I think might be able to be resolved by the MP developers? So if they're reading this HELP!!!!

---------------

Hope this helps?!

Anybody else got this tuner? I'd love to hear how it's going for you, or anybody else who can help me get this card working!!

Cheers,

Netgroover

[Paranoid Delusion]

This vastly improved reception, but it's still not perfect. This baffles me as I have a High Gain Antenna and multiple Digi-boxes in the house that work perfectly?! I've had similar problems with another card, so I suspect PC TV Cards are just not as good as Digi-boxes?

Correct with above assumption, any weakness does effect PC cards more than dedicated digibox's. obviously the more box's you have, degrade the signal quality.

Most probably if you unplug all your box's and connect your pc direct to the first feed point from the aerial and see if you get a uninterrupted TV signal, ie no tuner lock false messages. At least that will eliminate signal quality, also make sure you are using USB 0-1 sockets on your motherboard as that can also make a improvement.

[netgroover]

2) Poor Reception - Solved

See my post below for more details, but I basically found out what channels my transmitter (Waltham) broadcast on, and stuck that into dvbt.xml. I also decided to do it for all other UK Transmitters to save you (UK Users) the problem!

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/sh...600#post109600

3) TV crashing - Ongoing

I still haven't managed to sort this out, and I suspect either the Driver or MP itself is to blame, so unless Pinnacle release an update, or the MP Developers support the card, its not going to get fixed.

Any suggestions??

Cheers,

Netgroover

[Paranoid Delusion]

TV crashing - Ongoing

This may well be the "weak signal causes MP to lock up BUG" that's being looked at now, I get it very occasionally but nothing even showing in logs.
Can say a improvement was found by disabling a lot of services in xp that were not needed, and if you look at my systems specs, it's not for a lack of hardware resources.

[netgroover]

This may well be the "weak signal causes MP to lock up BUG" that's being looked at now

Lets hope so, I'm so close but so far with this card!!

nothing even showing in logs

I noticed this also, it just seems to drop out and there is nothing specific in the logs, which makes reporting it a nightmare.

Does anyone else have this card?

[netgroover]

It's just happened again, and below is the log content:

2007-01-26 21:01:03.500000 [Info.][MPMain]: deinit->OSD:Off
2007-01-26 21:01:03.515625 [Info.][MPMain]: window:MediaPortal.GUI.TV.GUIFullScreenTV deinit
2007-01-26 21:01:03.531250 [Info.][MPMain]: texturemanager:CleanupThumbs()
2007-01-26 21:01:03.906250 [Info.][MPMain]: window:MediaPortal.GUI.TV.GUITVGuide init
2007-01-26 21:01:04.468750 [Info.][MPMain]: TVGuide: automatically turn on TV
2007-01-26 21:01:04.562500 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: crop T, B : 0, 0
2007-01-26 21:01:04.562500 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: crop L, R : 0, 0
2007-01-26 21:01:04.562500 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: video WxH : 768x576
2007-01-26 21:01:04.593750 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: video AR : 768:576
2007-01-26 21:01:04.593750 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: screen WxH : 129x126
2007-01-26 21:01:04.593750 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: AR type : Normal
2007-01-26 21:01:04.593750 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: PixelRatio : 1
2007-01-26 21:01:04.593750 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: src : (0,0)-(768,576)
2007-01-26 21:01:04.609375 [Info.][7]: PlaneScene: dst : (71,467)-(200,564)
2007-01-26 21:01:04.625000 [Info.][MPMain]: tv home msg resume tv:Channel 4
2007-01-26 21:01:04.625000 [Info.][MPMain]: GUITVHome.ViewChannel(): View channel=Channel 4 ts:True

Does anyone have any idea what this is about?

[ziphnor]

I bought this card for my development PC, and its working fine (i have to use another antenna but i live in an area were living room antennas are not supposed to work , i havent witnessed any crashes, but then again im using the latest SVN version.

If you arent already using at least 0.2.2.0, try a newer version of MP.

[netgroover]

Well I still have the TV Crashing problem, see the below log. I'm not sure whether the EPG Grab has anything to do with it?

Does anyone have any ideas about this error? Looking around the forums it seems to be a huge problem and exists on many cards.

2007-07-05 23:25:04.875000 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph:Grab epg for :BBC ONE
2007-07-05 23:25:04.875000 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph: start graph
2007-07-05 23:25:05.640625 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph:TuneChannel() tune to channel:1
2007-07-05 23:25:05.656250 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph: tuning details: frequency:698000 kHz ONID:9018 TSID:4102 SID:4166 provider:unknown
2007-07-05 23:25:05.656250 [Info.][6]: DVBGraphBDAubmitTuneRequest() frequency:698000 kHz Bandwidth:8 ONID:9018 TSID:4102, SID:4166
2007-07-05 23:25:06.859375 [Info.][6]: DVBGraphetHardwarePidFiltering to:0,1,10,11,12,D3,D2,258,259,25A,1046,
2007-07-05 23:25:06.875000 [Info.][6]: DVBGraphBDA: signal strength:100 signal quality:100 signal present:True locked:True
2007-07-05 23:25:06.890625 [Info.][6]: DVBDemuxer:BBC ONE audio:259 video:258 teletext:FFFFFFFF pmt:1046 subtitle:0 program:4166
2007-07-05 23:25:06.890625 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph: wait for tunerlock
2007-07-05 23:25:06.890625 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph:TuneChannel done signal strength:100 signal quality:100 locked:True
2007-07-05 23:25:07.421875 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph: Unlocked... wait for tunerlock
2007-07-05 23:25:10.500000 [Info.][MPMain]: VMR9Helper: playing->repaint 0
2007-07-05 23:25:12.500000 [Info.][6]: Tuner locked: False
2007-07-05 23:25:12.500000 [Info.][6]: DVBGraphBDA: VMR9 stopped quality:0 strength:100 locked:False fps:0
2007-07-05 23:25:12.515625 [Info.][6]: wait for pmt :-1
2007-07-05 23:25:12.812500 [Info.][MPMain]: WindowManager:route MediaPortal.GUI.TV.GUIFullScreenTV:602->MediaPortal.Dialogs.GUIDialogNotify:2016
2007-07-05 23:25:12.812500 [Info.][MPMain]: window:MediaPortal.Dialogs.GUIDialogNotify init
2007-07-05 23:25:13.031250 [Info.][6]: DVBGraphBDA: VMR9 stopped quality:0 strength:100 locked:False fps:0
2007-07-05 23:25:13.031250 [Info.][6]: DVBGraph: Unlocked... wait for tunerlock
2007-07-05 23:25:15.828125 [Info.][MPMain]: window:MediaPortal.Dialogs.GUIDialogNotify deinit
2007-07-05 23:25:15.828125 [Info.][MPMain]: texturemanager:CleanupThumbs()
2007-07-05 23:25:15.859375 [Info.][MPMain]: WindowManager:unroute to MediaPortal.Dialogs.GUIDialogNotify:2016->MediaPortal.GUI.TV.GUIFullScreenTV:602
2007-07-05 23:25:15.906250 [Info.][MPMain]: Notify Message:BBC THREE, No signal detected!

Any help appreciated!

[netgroover]

Just a quick update, the TV crashing seems to have cleared up now, not sure why?!

I've updated the TV Card Driver to 3.7.0.1, MP to 0.2.3.0 RC1 SVN 15342 and TVSERVER to 0.3 Beta SVN 15342, so it could be any or a combination of these.