SBS Brisbane - Blank screen (1 Viewer)

[rockuman_ex]

Hi All,

I'm not sure if this has been posted before, if it has, please let me know.

I'm having problem in getting SBS (Brisbane, Australia) to work on my machine:
- AMD XP 3800+ X2
- 2x1G DDR500
- Plenty of hard drive space
- Sapphire X800GT
- PlusView DVB-T card (digital, not really sure the model number)
- Media Portal RC3

The problem I'm getting is that, I can get everyt FTA channel no problem, except SBS.
It's either blank with nothing on, or the picture is so jerky it's not viewable.

Any help? Any settings that I have to set? Any special codec i have to use?

Please help, as the reason why i'm getting a tv tuner is to record the upcoming World Cup.


Thank you

 

[Taipan]

It's either blank with nothing on, or the picture is so jerky it's not viewable.

This sounds like the signal strength for SBS is very marginal. Are you able to watch SBS clearly with the application supplied with your TV card?

 

[rockuman_ex]

It's either blank with nothing on, or the picture is so jerky it's not viewable.

This sounds like the signal strength for SBS is very marginal. Are you able to watch SBS clearly with the application supplied with your TV card?

I'm not sure actually, the software supplied doesn't support 64bit windows, and I'm using x64 pro.

But signal shouldn't be a problem as I can get any other channels perfectly.

 

[Taipan]

But signal shouldn't be a problem as I can get any other channels perfectly.

From what you have described, I am 99.9% certain that it is your signal level that is the problem. Just because you get the other channels, does not guarantee that you will get SBS, as it is on a very different frequency. For example, in Brisbane SBS is on 585.625 MHz and the next nearest channel is ABC on 226.500 MHz.

What sort of aerial, leadin, splitter and connectors do you have?

 

[rockuman_ex]

But signal shouldn't be a problem as I can get any other channels perfectly.

From what you have described, I am 99.9% certain that it is your signal level that is the problem. Just because you get the other channels, does not guarantee that you will get SBS, as it is on a very different frequency. For example, in Brisbane SBS is on 585.625 MHz and the next nearest channel is ABC on 226.500 MHz.

What sort of aerial, leadin, splitter and connectors do you have?

How do i go about changing the frequency in media portal?

 

[Taipan]

How do i go about changing the frequency in media portal?

You don't need to change the frequency (unless the value that Autotune captured is wrong - and you can check this, and change it, in MediaPortal Configuration, Television, Channels).

What you need to do is get a stonger signal to your TV card for SBS. That means a better (higher gain) antenna, mounting the antenna higher, better quality TV cable, a mast-head amplifier, etc. To get quality digital TV, you need a very good RF signal to start with.

 

[rockuman_ex]

When I looked at the frequency for SBS, they are all 585667 khz

So does that mean it's wrong?

I'm getting a new antenna tomorrow, a better one. will see if it makes any difference.

Oh, does codec makes any difference? What's the best video codec?

 

[Taipan]

When I looked at the frequency for SBS, they are all 585667 khz - so does that mean it's wrong??

Well according to the information here, it should be 585,625

I'm getting a new antenna tomorrow, a better one. will see if it makes any difference.?

Don't forget that SBS is a UHF channel, so you need an antenna that gives very good performance in the UHF section that SBS occupies (channel 36 UHF).

Oh, does codec makes any difference? What's the best video codec?

Yes, the codec makes a difference, but not to the problem you describe. The codec I use and highly recommend is the nVIDIA Pure Video decoder - it has very good de-interlacing and uses DxVA to reduce the CPU usage.

 

[rockuman_ex]

How and where do I download the nVIDIA Pure Video decoder?

 

[rockuman_ex]

Ok, i got the nvidia pure video decoder, changed it to be the default codec for my tv, now channel 10 and 9 isn't viewable. just blank screen....