Radio - which TV card with HW encoder (1 Viewer)

marttoma

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    I would like to add FM radio to my HTPC. I was trying ~10 different TV tuners cards, but all of them needs SW encoder, which means slow tunning - in my case ~ 5 - 12 sec (generally USB cards are slower, and sometimes sound has gaps after few minutes).

    I would lile to buy a TV card just for FM radio with HW encoder (I guess it needs MPEG HW encoder), the TV cards should be USB or PCIe.

    By now I can not find any such card with HW endoder, which I can buy in Europe.

    - Which HW encoder is exactly needed? (there are no so much informatio in web)
    - Would you recommend any TV cards with HW encoder?
    - Will be tunning faster with TV card with HW encoder against the SW encoder?
     

    mm1352000

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    Hello

    I was trying ~10 different TV tuners cards, but all of them needs SW encoder, which means slow tunning...
    That's not generally correct. SW encoder does not lead to slower tuning. TV Server is slow with FM radio tuning in general.

    Will be tunning faster with TV card with HW encoder against the SW encoder?
    No, almost certainly not... but it may be faster if you try this patch:
    https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/analog-radio-problems.93264/page-2#post-769929

    AFAIK the patch works with all versions of MP from 1.1.x through to 1.7.x, and for the foreseeable future.

    mm
     

    marttoma

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    was trying ~10 different TV tuners cards, but all of them needs SW encoder, which means slow tunning...
    That's not generally correct. SW encoder does not lead to slower tuning. TV Server is slow with FM radio tuning in general.
    To be sure we are speaking about the same - I mean tunning as channel switch from one channel to another one -> this takes 5 - 12 sec. The initial radio tuning/scanning to find radio channels is quite fast. Do you mean the same?

    In case of HW encoder as far as I understand it should save CPU load, yes? Is there any other benefit? I would guess it should be more reliable and litle bit faster as MP does not need to wait to start SW encoding...
    In case of DBV-T or DBV*C radio stations to change the station from one to another one takes ~1 sec, why it is so fast and FM radio is slow? What is the reason?

    Where is stored the frequency list, which should be scanned during initial tuning to fidn radio stations? Is it in xml file or in database? I can not find it. In my case some frequencies are not scanned (or displayd during the scaning).
     

    mm1352000

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    To be sure we are speaking about the same - I mean tunning as channel switch from one channel to another one -> this takes 5 - 12 sec. The initial radio tuning/scanning to find radio channels is quite fast. Do you mean the same?
    Yes, that is what I mean.

    In case of HW encoder as far as I understand it should save CPU load, yes?
    Yes.

    Is there any other benefit? I would guess it should be more reliable and litle bit faster as MP does not need to wait to start SW encoding...
    Yes, HW encoders tend to be more reliable, and the tuners are more likely to work in MediaPortal. AFAIK there is no speed difference.

    In case of DBV-T or DBV*C radio stations to change the station from one to another one takes ~1 sec, why it is so fast and FM radio is slow? What is the reason?
    Better code for DVB; bad code for analog, especially FM radio.

    Where is stored the frequency list, which should be scanned during initial tuning to fidn radio stations? Is it in xml file or in database? I can not find it.
    There is no list. The scan starts at a certain frequency, then scans every X MHz. If a station is found, the scan jumps Y MHz.
     

    marttoma

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    Hi,

    Is there any other benefit? I would guess it should be more reliable and litle bit faster as MP does not need to wait to start SW encoding...
    Yes, HW encoders tend to be more reliable, and the tuners are more likely to work in MediaPortal. AFAIK there is no speed difference.

    Sorry, what is AFAIK?

    In case of DBV-T or DBV*C radio stations to change the station from one to another one takes ~1 sec, why it is so fast and FM radio is slow? What is the reason?
    Better code for DVB; bad code for analog, especially FM radio.

    Do you mean programming code?

    Where is stored the frequency list, which should be scanned during initial tuning to fidn radio stations? Is it in xml file or in database? I can not find it.
    There is no list. The scan starts at a certain frequency, then scans every X MHz. If a station is found, the scan jumps Y MHz.[/QUOTE]

    I see, but this is strange as my new avermedia card, i am now testing, miss some channels during the scanning. I saw this with other cards as well.
     

    mm1352000

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    Sorry, what is AFAIK?
    As far as I know.

    Do you mean programming code?
    Yes.

    I see, but this is strange as my new avermedia card, i am now testing, miss some channels during the scanning. I saw this with other cards as well.
    I don't understand what you mean. Perhaps you could give an example?
    In any case, you can always add missing channels manually. I have to do that myself.
     

    marttoma

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    marttoma said: ↑
    I see, but this is strange as my new avermedia card, i am now testing, miss some channels during the scanning. I saw this with other cards as well.
    I don't understand what you mean. Perhaps you could give an example?
    In any case, you can always add missing channels manually. I have to do that myself.

    In my case it starts from 87.5 MHz and it scan fm spectrum with step of 0.1MHz, witch is fine, but it skips few radio channels during the scanning process.
    Example: 87.5; 87.6; 87.7; 87.8; 88.6; 88.7 etc -> during the scanning from uknown reason some channels are not scanned and they are not showed during the scanning.
     

    mm1352000

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    Example: 87.5; 87.6; 87.7; 87.8; 88.6; 88.7 etc -> during the scanning from uknown reason some channels are not scanned and they are not showed during the scanning.
    It skips because it finds a channel at 87.8.
    If there is a channel at 87.8, there can't be a channel at 87.5, 87.6, 87.9, 88.0 etc. because channels can't be too close together.
    If the 87.8 channel is strong, it might also be detected at 87.9 (which we want to avoid).

    In other words, the skipping saves time in the scan and avoids finding duplicate channels.
     

    marttoma

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    Example: 87.5; 87.6; 87.7; 87.8; 88.6; 88.7 etc -> during the scanning from uknown reason some channels are not scanned and they are not showed during the scanning.
    It skips because it finds a channel at 87.8.
    If there is a channel at 87.8, there can't be a channel at 87.5, 87.6, 87.9, 88.0 etc. because channels can't be too close together.
    If the 87.8 channel is strong, it might also be detected at 87.9 (which we want to avoid).

    In other words, the skipping saves time in the scan and avoids finding duplicate channels.

    Numbers above were example (just to explain in better way),but now I tried again real scanning and here you can see real numbers:
    87.5 no signal
    87.6 no signal
    87.7 no signal
    87.8 New channel found
    88.2 no signal
    88.3 no signal
    88.4 no signal

    I see the point to skip neighbour channel, but 400KHz is too much I think. I would propose not to skip any or max 1 radio channel.

    Anyway second question - Radio sensitivity -> When I select high, it will find less channels against when I select low. It should be vice versa I think. Do you think the same?[DOUBLEPOST=1400281995][/DOUBLEPOST]SW encoder & reuse option
    Can you please explain the functionality of reuse option for each SW encoder? Description is not available in wiki. Thanks.
     
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    mm1352000

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    I see the point to skip neighbour channel, but 400KHz is too much I think. I would propose not to skip any or max 1 radio channel.
    I'll consider your suggestion.

    Anyway second question - Radio sensitivity -> When I select high, it will find less channels against when I select low. It should be vice versa I think. Do you think the same?
    I don't know. The sensitivity code is a bit complex, and there could be bugs in it. I just use low when I scan.
     

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