HDTV Wonder (1 Viewer)

[bobmook]

This is just plain shoddy. I downloaded MP after checking the compatability list ( I wondered what those asterisks beside the HDTV wonder meant since I couldn't find any sort of explanation, I now know it meant "We're really kidding so you can waste hours of your time in a frustrating exercise leading nowhere HA HA") Clearly the HDTV Wonder is NOT supported in any meaningful way, a search of these forums proves that.
I love Open Source and since I work in a computer department I Recommend open source projects at every opportunity, but frankly I'm going to have to stop. The sheer shoddiness of the documentation makes it about a 50/50 shot whether you can make it (an open source product) work.
What's ironic about this is I have a MSDN copy of MCE and the kram drivers to make the HDTV wonder work w/ it (and amazingly the instructions actually work) but I wasted my time doing this. I wanted to have an Open Source Media Center showcase I could show my geek friends, promote the movement and all that.
Now That I've had my rave I'm willing to let anyone tell me I'm wrong and I will cheerfully apologize. My understanding is the HDTV Wonder is NOT supported in analog mode and is NOT supported in most areas of the US in HDTV mode. Am I wrong about this? If so I apologize in advance, if not I've lost about twelve hours of my life for nothing.

 

[mello]

Mine doesn't work either. I live in the Chicago area so we are fortunate to have a bunch of HDTV channels. In the initial setup when MP scans for stations I can actually hear a sample of each channel discovered and lists those when the scan is complete. So far so good. I use the drivers specifically listed for ATI video. I agree that better instructions are needed in this part of MP. It is very easy to get lost setting up your TV card. Anyway when I actually try to watch any of the channels MP scanned I get no picture or sound. Its like MP isn't turning on the TV even though I checked the box to automatically turn it on when TV is selected. Manually turn it on and off does't do anything either. I too wasted a few hours trying all the different drivers for video and sound. NOTHING works. I will state for the record that ATI is not known for writing good drivers for any of their products. Nvidia is miles ahead in that regard and that may be part of my problem since I am using a GeForce 6800 Video card. I have a ATI 9800 card but I am not willing to waste more time on this. The HDTV Wonder didn't work that great with their own software! The gamma constantly had to be reset every 3 minutes. I hoped MP might behave better. Works GREAT with everything else. My favorite DVD player now.

 

[bobmook]

Which goes exactly to my point. It says it's supported but as far as I can tell that's a venus fly trap waiting to suck hours out of people's lives leaving them w/ a non-working program.
I desperately want someone to prove me wrong and say this card is actually supported in some meaningful way.
When people complain about the lack of adoption of open source stuff this is exactly why that happens, 99.9% of the time when they buy a closed source program it just works, but in this case the HDTV Wonder support is, according to everything I can find, a mirage.
If Open Source projects want to compete w/ the closed source alternative they at least need to tell the truth, or even better provide instructions that make sense to someone who's been web programing, running various flavours of SQL servers and administering email servers (including open source spam/virus blocking gateways) for years.

 

[mello]

Well here is the hardware I am using;
Motherboard-MSI 875P Neo series
CPU-Intel Pentuim 478 Northland 3.3Mhz
Memory-2 Corsair CMX512-3500C2 DDR
Sound-Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Video-MSI GeForce 6800 GT
TV Card-ATI HDTV Wonder
Logitech Laser Wireless Mouse
Maxter 7200 300 gig harddrive
Monitor Type SHARP LC30HV4 30 inch DVI LCD
D-Link AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter(rev.B)
Media Portal 0.1.3.0 w/ProjectX Skin 0.1.0.15
Everything has the very latest drivers up to this minute and ffdshow 7-27-2005 codecs and XP PRO with all updates and SP2.

 

[rand]

Actually, ATI HDTV Wonder works very well with 0.1.3 Pre. I recommend using that version until the bug has been fixed in 0.1.3 Final. This bug appears to affect any ATSC HDTV card as I also have a fusion5 lite that is experiencing the same problem. I posted a message in the Bugs forum about this.

http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8644&highlight=

Media Portal is an excellent program and I recommend you don't give up on it. The folks developing it don't reside in the US so it's difficult for them to know when there are problems with the ATSC video cards. That's why the more folks that use Media Portal and post in these forums will help make this excellent software even better. I'm confident that this bug will be fixed in a later release.

 

[bobmook]

Well I hope it is but the point remains support was claimed for a card the software obviously comes no where near supporting. And I did try backing off to the 1.3 pre (just for giggles) no soap there either. And sadly I suppose I was right to begin with, despite being listed as a supported card the HDTV Wonder really isn't supported in any way. We call that lying in the hills of Kentucky.

 

[rand]

bobmook,

You really should use the support template, as it's next to impossible for anyone to help you with no information on your HTPC configuration. All I can do is tell you for a fact that ATI HDTV Wonder works quite well for me with MP 0.1.3 pre.

The support template can be found here:

http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6438

 

[icepick]

HDTV Wonder has problems

Hi all:

HDTV Wonder is having problems, I have been in IRC for the past couple of weeks, and have had Frodo log into my machine here, as he has no access to HDTV Wonder. He has made progress on it, but has not fully fixed the problem yet - stay tuned!

For me - 1.03 release is where it was broke - 1.03pre DID WORK. although the CVS is no longer posted on the web - I do have a copy of it, and will share with anyone who asks.

I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but hopefully frodo can find time to help us all out!

IcePick

 

[Frodo]

At the moment we're completely reworking DVB/ATSC
Reasons, to many problems with the current implementation.
Sad thing is this will take a while and in the mean time i dont have a solution for you. Good thing is that when its finished DVB/ATSC should work flawlessy
and also the HDTV wonder card
frodo

 

[Richtv]

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good news is that my HDTV Wonder now works for TV viewing again with the 0.2 RC1. I had to autotune stations again, but sound and video are okay. It missed one station with a fairly strong signal, and on another station selected the SAP audio (which didn't happen in earlier versions). Haven't tried tuning a second time.

The bad is that TV viewing does not work with timeshifting. I didn't try recording yet. I think this may have been an expected condition for RC1.

The ugly is that CPU usage is between 65% - 80% when TV is on - digital or analog. This is approximately double what it was for me in previous versions, which was already too high. I like Media Portal a lot, but so far the CPU load is just unacceptable.