Cheapest solution for FM tuning? (1 Viewer)

[omasse]

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.1
Windows Version: 7

My current capture card is a dual tuner ATSC-only card, and I'd like to be able to get an extra card to get FM channels. PCI or USB is preferred, as I have only one PCIe slot left and I want to keep it handy.

Here's what I found until now:
- I found some really cheap USB tuners on Ebay (14$) but there is no mention of the chipset they have, so it's a guess I'm not willing to take.
- Someone is selling a brand new obscure card (YUAN PG583) for 20$ including shipping. But there's not a lot of info on this chipset online, and it seems to be similar to the one used by the Pinnacle 800i - many here have reported here in 2008-2009 that it did not work correctly.
- The "best" one seems to be a Kworld PC150-U which I found on newegg - 45$ with shipping, but I get an extra ATSC tuner with this one.

Any advice? Suggestion? I'm especially interested to hear about fellows who made the FM tuner of MP work with the PG583.

Thank you

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again omasse

The key things that you need to avoid:
1. Realtek RTL283x based tuners. The FM support is via a proprietary interface that has been difficult to support. Tuners with this chipset often support DAB/DAB+.
2. Cards that require a connection to the soundcard. Optional connections are okay, but if the audio doesn't work without a connection to the sound card then it won't be supported.

Regarding the YUAN PG583: could you point me at the threads you were looking at? A lot has changed since 2008. If the threads talk about a capturecardsdefinition.xml then the info is probably obsolete.

mm

 

[omasse]

Thanks for the info. I'll avoid the Realtek tuners.

Concerning the PG583 there are many older threads and one of them indeed talks about capturecardsdefinition.xml:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...e-pctv-hd-800i-pci-ntsc-atsc-qam-tuner-35046/

I did some more searching this morning and the YUAN PG583 does seem to be the internal name of the Pinnacle/Hauppage 800i. I checked the drivers and they are BDA drivers, so it may be worth a shot. The 20$ PG583s on Ebay might be production leftovers or unsold 800is. I'm not sure I'll order one of them but if I do, I'll report back with my results.

Thank you

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again omasse

Based on the information in the thread that you linked (and the GraphEdit screenshot here) I would be very surprised if analog TV and FM would not work with the Pinnacle 800i. The question would of course be: is the Pinnacle 800i the same as the Yuan PG583. Of course I can't make any guarantee that the card would work but I'd do my utmost to help if there were problems. Do note that the 800i requires software encoders - not really ideal, but such a setup can work if you are willing to persist.

mm

 

[omasse]

Here is a follow-up to this thread.

I installed one of these 20$ eBay PG583's yesterday in my TV Server (just for science).

It was quite a challenge to locate drivers for Win7 x64 as it only comes with 32 bit drivers but I managed to have it recognized. But that's all it can do. I tried 3 different driver versions and ATSC tuning does not work, MP detects a signal but reports "nothing found". I wasn't interested in ATSC anyway, as I was looking for an FM tuner. Well, the radio tuner seems to work, with channels detected and such, and the encoder seems to kick in when I tune a station, judging by my CPU usage. But I have not been able to make MP play anything. My server is headless and the included software from CyberLink does not support a remote desktop so I couldn't try it, and it blue screened my server anyway.

Bottom line, don't purchase a PG583 for MP, at least on Win 7 x64. Maybe it works with WinXP or MythTV, but it's probably better to put more money into a tuner card which will be less deprecated, with hardware encoding.

If anybody wants one to experiment, I'll be glad to give mine away, assuming my shipping charges are reasonable.

Thanks

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again omasse

Sorry to hear it hasn't worked out so well, but I would encourage you not to give up quite so easily. Would you be willing to let me try to help you?

MP detects a signal but reports "nothing found".

I realise you're not interested in ATSC but perhaps you could provide the scan logs. This could be an easy fix.

Well, the radio tuner seems to work, with channels detected and such, and the encoder seems to kick in when I tune a station, judging by my CPU usage. But I have not been able to make MP play anything.

Could you possibly give a little more detail. This could be simply a codec problem. I'd really like the chance to look at logs.

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left hand corner.
3. Zip up all the files you find there and post the zip file here.

mm

 

[omasse]

Thanks for the offer, here is my log directory. I did the following last: 1. Scanned for ATSC channels 2. Tried to preview a radio channel from the TV Server config and 3. Tried to tune a radio channel from the MP frontend.

Note that I'm using the Microsoft audio encoder which is not standard, I enabled it by inserting it into the DB as posted in another thread. Beforehand I had the circa 2007 CyberLink encoder which was included with the card and had the same results.

Thank you

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks omasse

Regarding the ATSC problems: I see what you mean. It looks like it is very close to working - just no stream being received from the tuner driver. Please could you try using the ATSC network provider instead of the generic one. That is the "preferred network provider" setting in the tuner properties as described -->here<--. I know you're not too interested in this, but it would still be good to get it working...

2. Tried to preview a radio channel from the TV Server config

Everything worked well when you did this except that audio was not detected in the stream from the tuner. This could be an encoder problem (the Microsoft encoders are not supported for a reason - they've been tested and don't seem to work) but I also notice that it seems like you haven't set up the tuner correctly. It would need to be configured as a hybrid card because you can't use the ATSC tuner at the same time as the analog tuner.

Hybrid Cards - MediaPortal Wiki

3. Tried to tune a radio channel from the MP frontend.

The same issue with the preview attempt was present with the frontend attempt. Since the problem is on the back end you'd need to solve that first.

mm

 

[omasse]

That was fast! I owe you a Foster's, mate.

Things don't look so well. I tried changing the provider to ATSC, to no avail. I also configured the card as a hybrid as documented in the wiki and this did not resolve my radio issue. The last thing left to try is using another encoder. Just for fun, I tried scanning for analogue TV channels (there aren't any here) and the driver bluescreened my server. I expected that I would be stretching it a little too much by trying this card on x64.

Thank you for all your help.

 

[kwood129]

Did anyone come up with progress on this particular tuner card. I also have the same problem scanning channels. Everytime it locks on it just comes up with "nothing found". It works fine in windows media center on Windows 7 64 bit.