PCTV DVB-T2 290e - Work with Media portal (1 Viewer)

[allanp81]

Under the section where you normally scan for your region, there is a manual scan option. Scan 554000mhz and see what if finds.

 

[Salem]

Media portal pics up all the (SD) DVB-t channel's fine, but does'nt seem to recognise the DVB-t2 aspect of the tuner.

Is there a patch or plug-in I need to download to activate T2 support within media portal.

Any pointers appreciated,

Thanks

Steve

Are Freeview HD (DVB-T2) services available from your local transmitter? Remember, Freeview HD (UK) is only available in select areas, namely all those that have reached DSO (Digita Switchover) and a handfull of others were rollout was possibly prior to DSO.

My card doesn't pick up any DVB-T2 channels either, but that's coz none are transmitted from Sandy Heath. From other posts, it doesn't look like any plugins are required, it should just work.

Have you manually scanned the HD mux as I don't MP will do this by default yet.

Yes, it looks like they've not added the HD (DVB-T2) muxes to the tuningparameters yet.

I've updated the Sandy Heath one on my PC in anticipation of the Freeview HD launch next Wednesday (also adding the other temporary mux frequencies between now and late 2012 according to DigitalUK, and omitting the Pre-DSO Mux B as it currently only offers Sky Sports which is useless on a PC TV Card). I'll submit it to the Forum for inclusion in MP 1.2 tonight when I get home.

Under the section where you normally scan for your region, there is a manual scan option. Scan 554000mhz and see what if finds.

Note: all transmitters (in the UK at least) will use 554000MHz for Freeview HD services. For example, my local one (Sandy Heath) will use 474000 MhZ

 

[stevem]

Thanks for the input guys.......looks like we have success,

Changed the scan setting to 554,000 ran a scan an no joy, waited 5 minutes, ran the scan again and bang BBC HD, BBC1 HD, C4 HD and ITV HD all picked up.

Started MP and all HD channels now present, based in Kent so have used the Crystal palace transmitter settings, everys so often the is very slight signal drop out, but i'm guessing this will only improve in 2012 when the switch over is complete.

Now the tuner software that was supplied has done nothing but upset/conflict with my pc, I have only managed to get it working today by disabling my user account control and virus protection, even when I managed to get it working it was missing frames everywhere. Running it under MP it's mutch, mutch better.

Again its not perfect but i'm sure that If I clean up my pc registry and remove any unwanted programs it will only improve,

only istalled MP a few hours ago but impressed so far,

Thanks again guys for the advice, much appreciated.

Steve

 

[stevem]

Update

Since my last post I have given my pc a thorough tidy up removing unwanted programs, running malware, and cleaning the registry. As a result the Freeview HD picture is fantastic with no signal/frame loss, indicating that the problem I had before was due to PC processing rather than a weakness in the ariel signal. Media portal is running on my second display a hatachi 42" plasma via HDMI.

In the last few days have lost the sound on the HD channels which was there origionally, sure this is just a matter of finding the right codec (also lost the 5.1 output decoding on my blu-ray images)

Getting to grip with media portal and having fun trying all the different skins and settings,

Steve

 

[mkjustuk]

Hi Guys, got a 290e on it's way from the bay to get me HD on Mediaportal. Can anyone give me a run down of codecs needed in 1.2 and should I upgrade to the latest version of MP (I haven't yet because it doesn't really offer me anything over a working 1.2)?

Also I will be using it on my Acer 3610 (4gb, Win 7 64bit), has anyone got the same PC with this tuner?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi mkjustuk

Can anyone give me a run down of codecs needed in 1.2 and should I upgrade to the latest version of MP (I haven't yet because it doesn't really offer me anything over a working 1.2)?

1.2 has only been released as alpha and beta versions so far. I guess you meant that you're running 1.1.2?
At this time you should use either the DivX or Mainconcept codecs (instead of the Mongram codec) for AAC audio if you want audio from HD channels to work correctly. Other than that, any video and MPEG/AC3 codecs you like should work (within reason).

PS: You might want to have a read of the following thread: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-bgt3620-dvb-t2-card-where-hd-channels-90945/
Although it focusses on the BGT3620, the codec and EPG issues discussed are relevant for anyone wanting to receive Freeview HD.

mm

 

[Salem]

Hi Guys, got a 290e on it's way from the bay to get me HD on Mediaportal. Can anyone give me a run down of codecs needed in 1.2 and should I upgrade to the latest version of MP (I haven't yet because it doesn't really offer me anything over a working 1.2)?

Also I will be using it on my Acer 3610 (4gb, Win 7 64bit), has anyone got the same PC with this tuner?

Hi MKJustUK

I too have a PCTV 209e and must say I LOVE IT. There are only two downsides for me:

• Lack of stable signal, but this is my own fault. I don't have it connected to an external aerial (e-wiring of TV aerial around the house is planned). Although i must say, it appears the HD Mux is much more tollerent of loq signal than the others. I've managed to get perfect picutre sound with 100% Signal quality from only 10% signal strength, which I could never get on the SD channels
• The EPG downloaded using the card is encrypted, so you need to disable DVB EPG on this card and use WebEPG. The Downside to this is the EPG doesn't update as frequently, especially with last minute changes, like with the recent Wimbledon coverage being moved from BBC Two (& BBC HD) to BBC One (& BBC One HD). But, I have another standard DVB-T card (Hauppauge Nova-TD Stick so have DVB EPG enabled on that for SD channels.

Regarding my codec setup, have a look at the to see screenshots of my codec setup in MediaPortal. I've found this to work with the Freeview HD streams, including the LOAS/LATM AAC audio

My PCTV 209e is running on a Dell StudioXPS 8100 with Intel core i7 running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with 8GB RAM.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know

 

[mkjustuk]

Cool, thanks guys yes it is 1.1.2 I'm running - sounds like it should be easy enough to setup then, just the question of my Acer running HD streams, my understanding is that I will likely be able to record and playback but perhaps not watch them live which is no biggie as my main TV has Freesat built in.

 

[Salem]

Cool, thanks guys yes it is 1.1.2 I'm running - sounds like it should be easy enough to setup then, just the question of my Acer running HD streams, my understanding is that I will likely be able to record and playback but perhaps not watch them live which is no biggie as my main TV has Freesat built in.

I don't see why your PC will be able to watch recorded HD TV but not live. I'd say recording should work (provided you have sufficient HDD space as it takes up alot more than standard FReeview), playback (Live or Recorded) either will work or it won't. It's all down to the commputers processor & GPU (Graphics card) capabilities.

Can you provide more details about your systems spec?

 

[mkjustuk]

Sure, I've read some accounts of not being able to watch live HD but can recorded, no idea why though as it didn't make a lot of sense to me either. My HTPC is an Acer Revo 3610;

Intel Atom 330 dual core 1.66 GHz processor, Nvidia Ion GPU (integrated) - led to believe the GPU is NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M chipset
4gb Ram
SATA 500gb HDD