DVB-T Card...anyone? (1 Viewer)

Obinice

Portal Member
November 3, 2009
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Hey guys and girls :)

I want to be able to rid myself of my Freeview box and my video recorder, so that I can watch digital TV through my media PC and record it easilly to HDD as well (preferably in a decent format as opposed to something that eats disk space like it's cake lol).

So I'm after a DVB-T card for MediaPortal, but I'm new to this. There are a lot of products out there, and I don't know what's best for me, and what's best for MediaPortal compatibility. I also don't want something that costs piles of money (though that doesn't necessarily mean I want the cheapest product available).

I figure the best thing to do is just come and ask the people in the know! I looked around this forum and saw numerous questions about the best card for this and that, but none directly addressed my request, so I decided to make my own thread...

:D

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Update:

So I got my first TV Card last week, it's the "KWorld PlusTV Dual DVB-T USB 399U" mentioned above. I followed the instructions, installed the latest drivers and software, but when it came to scanning for channels, it found none.

I tried it on two of my computers running XP Pro SP3 with the same result, but when I tried it on my sister's Vista laptop it worked perfectly. So there must be some sort of XP issue....

The Kworld website's only suggestion on fixing the problem of finding no channels is to adjust your aerial :/ So... no help there.

Do you guys have any ideas? I don't know what else I can do.... If you have no ideas, I'll be stumped, and I'll have to return it and find a replacement. I'd love to not have to do that though, as this is perfect for my needs and within my low budget.

Thanks :)
 

Obinice

Portal Member
November 3, 2009
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United Kingdom United Kingdom
So are you looking for a PCI card, PCIe card or USB dongle ?
Single or Twin tuner ?

I use a Kworld 399U twin-tuner USB dongle on my system which works fine (they've just released Win7 drivers for it too).
It's currently £30 at Maplin - Dual Tuner Digital TV USB Stick : External PCTV : Maplin

A USB dongle would seem wiser as I can use it on my laptop if I travel, and assuming that a twin tuner can record one station while you're viewing another, that feature is a must, and nifty :p

Thanks for the link, I never thought to check Maplin, silly me! That dongle seems just what I'm looking for :)
 

Obinice

Portal Member
November 3, 2009
9
0
Home Country
United Kingdom United Kingdom
So I got my first TV Card last week, it's the "KWorld PlusTV Dual DVB-T USB 399U" mentioned above. I followed the instructions, installed the latest drivers and software, but when it came to scanning for channels, it found none.

I tried it on two of my computers running XP Pro SP3 with the same result, but when I tried it on my sister's Vista laptop it worked perfectly. So there must be some sort of XP issue....

The Kworld website's only suggestion on fixing the problem of finding no channels is to adjust your aerial :/ So... no help there.

Do you guys have any ideas? I don't know what else I can do.... If you have no ideas, I'll be stumped, and I'll have to return it and find a replacement. I'd love to not have to do that though, as this is perfect for my needs and within my low budget.

Thanks :)
 

Obinice

Portal Member
November 3, 2009
9
0
Home Country
United Kingdom United Kingdom
I just tried both those drivers with no difference. And usualsuspect, I assume the dvbfix is only for Mediaportal? While I plan to use Mediaportal, I think it would be far wiser to get the device working with the software that was provided, less problems that way. I did however download and successfully apply the patch (and Mediaportal didn't find any stations). This whole thing's really stressing me out at this point :(

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Also, I just noticed that this dongle seems to be connected with my loss of internet availability (I wasn't using the internet on the machine much at the time so I hadn't noticed).

So I went to my Network Connections, and there's a new one with the description Local Area Connection 2 "Microsoft TV/Video Connection". It says I'm not allowed to disable it, and it's taking priority stopping my real internet connection from doing it's job. I went into it's properties and fiddled, and now my real internet connection takes priority again, but still....

It gives no details other than being connected at 30 Mbps, and disconnecting the dongle does not change its status. It is also not listed under Network Adapters in the Device Manager, but it does appear under Sound, Video and Game Controllers as "AF9015 BDA Device" as I confirmed earlier.

Could this strangeness be related to why the dongle is not finding any stations?... Oh also, someone suggested perhaps the dongle requires XP MCE, and I'm running XP Pro. I would think it's compatible with XP Pro, but I'd best check with you, as you've actually used the device :)

Thanks again for your replies :)
 

usualsuspect

Portal Pro
May 12, 2009
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And usualsuspect, I assume the dvbfix is only for Mediaportal?
no it's a windows patch, that should fix problems concerning dvb-adapters. read the post.

I have no idea, why microsoft builds the virtual lan adapter. for mediaportal, all you need is this "AF9015 BDA Device"
my msi-dual-tuner looks exactly like your one - seems to be the same - mine works without any video-lan-connection in mediaportal. I didn't even install the provided software...
 

Obinice

Portal Member
November 3, 2009
9
0
Home Country
United Kingdom United Kingdom
The post doesn't seem to specify that it's not a Windows fix that's Mediaportal specific, that's what I meant :) I also got the fix working properly now, and Mediaportal still doesn't find stations :(
 

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