pcHDTV 5500 & MP Help (1 Viewer)

[TimZ]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2.0
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two Wide
Windows Version: Win XP Pro SP2
CPU Type: AMD 1900+
HDD: WD 300GB EIDE
Memory: 512MB
Motherboard: ABIT KR??
Motherboard Chipset: VIA
Motherboard Bios: AMI?
Video Card: ATI 9500 Pro (nVidia 7800 as alternate)
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live!
1. TV Card: pcHDTV 5500
1. TV Card Type: ATSC/NTSC
1. TV Card Driver: Distributed with card (5/2006)

I installed the Windows XP drivers and I'm getting an error on one of the devices on the card. It will not install no matter what I do.

When I look in the Device Manager I see a list of everything that is installed and one part that has a yellow question mark with a title of "Multimedia Controller". Please see the attachment of my Device Manager.

I'd like to know what is missing, if anybody knows.

I've searched here and on the pcHDTV forum with no luck. I only found info on the 3000 card and Win XP.

Once I get this straightened out, I'd like to get it setup in MediaPortal. Right now it says there are no tuners installed.

I had this system working with MythTV recording and playing back HD 1080i with the 5500 (except for the ATI card, I installed an nVidia 7800), so I know the card works.

Any help would be appreciated.

-Tim

 

[Paul S]

Hi TimZ, welcome to Media Portal forums.

To get your card to work in MP, the first thing that you need to do is follow the instructions on adding a new card:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Add_TVCard_to_natively_supported_list

This involves using the app GraphEdit. We need the exact names of the filters, as they are listed in the graph. We also need the device ID of the card, from the graph.

The information is added to the list of configured cards called CaptureCardDefinitions.xml. You can read and edit this file with notepad (not wordpad). I looked in my file, and could not find a card with the same tuner. I think that the DVICO cards use the same tuner, maybe you can copy one of those entries and change the info to match your card.

I have done it with the pcHDTV HD-3000 and the Air2PC card, so it's not really that hard. It's actually much harder to do it over the forum than it is in person.

Paul (waterhead at pcHDTV forums)

P.S. Like I said on the other forum, the missing filter looks to be the audio capture filter.

 

[briaric]

Did you guys get any further than this?

Just curious since I have the 5500 card and have been using Linux to view and record. Thought I would play with Windows and it.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Paul S]

Hi,

You can help out. TimZ has not posted back on his results with GraphEdit. If you can do this, I think that I can come up with a config entry for your card.

Here's the info that I need. I need the device ID (devid or "moniker") and the exact names of the filters (drivers) for the cards. The proper info is from GraphEdit, not the device manager.

I have actually written a config entry for this card, but it won't work without the above info.

 

[TimZ]

It Works!

Sorry for the late reply, due to circumstances beyond.....

Any way, I was able to use GraphEdt and come up with something that seemed to work. I didn't have enough time to devote to this, hopefully this weekend I will be able to but, the bottom line is that I was able to scan for channels and watch live TV!! Woo-Hoo! I'll attach the GraphEdt screen capture.

Here is my entry in the CaptureCardDefinitions.XML:

  <capturecard commercialname="pcHDTV 5500 ATSC" capturename="PVDA408 AVStream TS Capture" devid="ven_14f1&amp;dev_8802&amp;subsys_55007063&amp;rev_05">
    <capabilities tv="true" radio="false" mpeg2="true" mce="false" sw="false" bda="true"/>
    <tv>
      <interface cat="capture" video="2" audio="3" mpeg2="1" sectionsandtables="5"/>
      <filters>
        <filter cat="networkprovider" name="Microsoft ATSC Network Provider"        checkdevice="false"/>
        <filter cat="tunerdevice"     name="PVDA408 BDA DVB Tuner/Demod"	checkdevice="false"/>
        <filter cat="capture"         name="PVDA408 AVStream TS Capture"   checkdevice="false"/>
      </filters>
      <connections>
		<connection sourcefilter="networkprovider" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="tunerdevice"	sinkpin="0"/>
		<connection sourcefilter="tunerdevice"     sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture"		sinkpin="0"/>
      </connections>
    </tv>
  </capturecard>

I hope this helps! Like I said I didn't have a lot of time to play with this but it seems to be working!!

Thanks to Paul S for all of your help!

-tz

 

[Paul S]

Looks good to me. The important thing is if it works, and you say it does.

I actually made a graph for you using the DIVCO card that has the same tuner as the HD-5500. Here is what I came up with, notice that I used the other capture filter and the interface cat line is different.

  <capturecard commercialname="pcHDTV 5500 ATSC" capturename="PVDA408 Video Capture" devid="ven_14f1&amp;dev_8802&amp;subsys_55007063&amp;rev_05">
    <capabilities tv="true" radio="false" mpeg2="true" mce="false" sw="false" bda="true"/>
    <tv>
      <interface cat="capture" video="3" audio="4" mpeg2="1" sectionsandtables="2"/>
      <filters>
        <filter cat="networkprovider" name="Microsoft ATSC Network Provider"		checkdevice="false"/>
        <filter cat="tunerdevice"     name="PVDA408 BDA ATSC Tuner/Demod"		checkdevice="true"/>
        <filter cat="capture"         name="PVDA408 Video Capture"			checkdevice="true"/>
      </filters>
      <connections>
		<connection sourcefilter="networkprovider" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="tunerdevice"	sinkpin="0"/>
		<connection sourcefilter="tunerdevice"     sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture"		sinkpin="0"/>
      </connections>
    </tv>
  </capturecard>

I think this stuff comes easy for us Linux users.

 

[Paul S]

Your config is the correct one, mine is wrong.

Please send all of the required info into the MP devs, this way future versions of MP will automatically find the HD-5500.

Maybe you should post your results on the pcHDTV forums. There seem to be many people having trouble configuring this card in Linux, they may want to try using the card to watch TV, instead of always trying to configure it.

 

[briaric]

Looks like that works for me also. Not sure what to do about the driver that did not load but that does not seem to affect the TV from playing.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Paul S]

That looked like it was a driver for the analog side of the card.

 

[TimZ]

Close but no cigar...

Your config is the correct one, mine is wrong.

Please send all of the required info into the MP devs, this way future versions of MP will automatically find the HD-5500.

Maybe you should post your results on the pcHDTV forums. There seem to be many people having trouble configuring this card in Linux, they may want to try using the card to watch TV, instead of always trying to configure it.

I'm just starting to play with this a little. I still seem to be having trouble changing channels. I can't seem to get the video to display correctly either. When I tune to my local PBS station that transmits in 1080i, the display on my TV is compressed into a 4:3 format. It won't fill the screen. I checked under Settings>My TV> Aspect Ratio and they are not very self-explanatory. It would be nice to have a 4:3 or 16:9 selection instead of normal, stretched, zoomed, etc. Looks like I'll be doing some more reading about this.

I just installed my nVidia card to hopefully take advantage of the MPEG2 hardware on board. It doesn't look to be helping right now.

I'm not happy with my results so far so, I won't be posting that it definitely works just yet. I'm getting random crashes and I'm not sure why.

I just started with this MP program and I have a lot to learn. As far as being a Linux guy, well, let's just say it took me 3 months to get MythTV to work right. Then I decided to update it to the latest version and it all went to crap. That's why I'm looking for a Windows based PVR.

briaric, is everything working ok for you?

Thanks again for your help Paul.

-tz