COMPRO T200/300 flakey channel change! (1 Viewer)

[dickbarton]

Hi There, Long time viewer, first time poster.

For several months I have been trying to get the Compro DVB T200 to work with ANY software (esp the excellent MP!)

Although it works most of the time the signal will sometimes vanish on channel change, even to a channel/mux that I know is good.
A channel change will bring it back.

Obviously for unattended recordings this is not good.

I have tried every patch (running XP pro SP2) numerous clean install, my signal is good etc etc. I have searched this and other forums for info, other people have reported same problem but no resolution!

I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the Compro is a dud, either in hardware or software(compro driver).

However, some people have this card (or two of them!) and seem to be all-right with it, which is a puzzle.

Could Compro have identified an issue with early production runs of this card, which they addressed, but did not recall the dud batch?


Incidently, I ran a utility called ScanChannelsBDA which would display signal strength/quality/lock with strange results.

This utility when given a multiplex freq, say 754166 kHz, would continously display signal strength like this (from memory)

Strength:0 Quality:95
Strength:0 Quality:90
Strength:0 Quality:95
Strength:0 Quality:95
Strength:32567887 Quality:0
Strength:32567887 Quality:0
Strength:32567887 Quality:0
Strength:32567887 Quality:0

The utility would then lock-up. It seems that randomly the Compro when asked to tune will lock-up.

Has anyone who has this card and experienced this problem found a resolution? Its driving me crazy :shock:

Thanks in advance

 

[Marcusb]

yep, I have two and have never had this issue.
My first one must have been one of the very early batches and then a second one from not too ling ago, so I doubt the issue is to do with hardware.

What driver are you using?
I am using the x.26 one, as I found that the latest x.3 version wasn't as stable with MP.

Stick with it. I like the Compro much more than my dvico lite.
As a last resort, try getting it swapped under warrantee. It is always possible that your card has a specific fault.

 

[dickbarton]

Hi Marcusb

Thanks for the info.

As you can imagine I've tried all the drivers including the x.26, and of course the latest version.

I suppose I should return it but the place where I got it from will charge if they find no fault, they are quite tough.

I've got lots of things working that initially seemed hopeless so I tend not to assume faults in hardware. Since you have early/later cards I will give it another go.

However, in searching in the past I have found others with the same problem, perhaps a motherboard/bios thing.
Who knows? DVB seems to have been an afterthought for Microsoft.

 

[Marcusb]

One other thing that I forgot to mention is that you have to put the card in the last PCI slot.
I know this seems like a bit of a myth, but in this case it really is an issue.
Because of the ATV/DTV the card uses quite a few resources. Motherboards share resources for the first few PCI slots and then the last couple get their own.
I had similar issues when I first used mine and didn't pay attention to that part of the instructions. I never would have believed it would actually make a difference.

When I bougth my second card I had some issues with this, since my mATX mobo only has three PCI slots. I got the card working in the second slot by disabling all the things in the BIOS that I didn't need (LPT1, Com A&B etc).

Give this a try if you haven't already...

 

[ohdarklord]

Although it works most of the time the signal will sometimes vanish on channel change, even to a channel/mux that I know is good.
A channel change will bring it back.

Is this in media portal?

This somtimes happens with my t200 but i dont get a no signal i just get a blank screen

This only happens with media portal but never with t200s software .

 

[~ok|]

same situation as ohdarklord and dickbarton.

I use the latest driver from compro but I already encountered those kinds of "vanishing signals" under MediaPortal with previous releases.
Compro software doesn't show such issue.

This card doesn't like being on a shared IRQ at all but the symptoms seem different (regarding my own experience): the Compro driver doesn't install if IRQ was already occupied.

My card is made for the european market (not the later australian edit). Apart from that, I have no significant info (build date, revision, etc...) about my card to share.

 

[Marcusb]

So is it possible that the Australian version is a better build?

Have you tried emailling Compro support?
I have followed their service on other forums and they are very helpful, usually releasing patches that meet user requests within a couple of weeks. It's worth a try, since they would have to help resolve any issues with MP since it is a such a big market share nowadays.

 

[~ok|]

Regarding your signature, you (marcusb) seem to have DVB-T300 cards, not DVB-T200. The digital part may not be of the same build.

The Australian version of the DVB-T200 is called DVB-T200A.

 

[Marcusb]

Good point. I forgot that the Australian 200 is different.

Good luck with it, guys.
I still would suggest emailling their support. It's pretty good from what I have seen.

 

[dickbarton]

Sorry for not taking part in my own topic, irregular internet access.

Marcusb, yes tried last PCI slot, disabling many things in BIOS etc

I get this signal loss in every application I've tried, I have an OEM version of PowerCinema4 which shows it the least, but it still occurs.

In Compro software the OSD shows "Searching for signal" for a few seconds then "No signal", requires the software to be closed/opened.

In MediaPortal in fullscreen mode the screen goes black and the "Lost signal" message appears, sometimes the channel will show up, usually not though. In MP a channel change will restore operation.

In all cases if the channel appears it remains.

Its likley that my T200 (UK model) has a different build to the Australian model (T200a) and the T300, maybe firmware.


I did not bother contacting Compro as in my experience of computer companies they never provide information beyond the obvious, however I will give them a go. Thanks for the assist!