TView 99 - Conexant BT878 Working (1 Viewer)

[Steve Clarke]

I believe after some hacking I have made my Software TV Card - work with MediaPlayer (i.e. I can see various TV channels, change channels etc)

I have attached a Graph File, Picture of the Graph, and run the MediaPlayer Testtool. These files are attached to this message.

Below is the code that I have inserted for my Tview 99 - CPH05X card. I have found that sometimes when I start MediaPlayer, the graphics aren't working properly. I then start my native TV program and/or DScaler then afterwards I run MediaPlayer and everything works.

I haven't got MediaPlayer working full screen yet. I pretty sure there is a lot more configurations that I can do to improve playback on a Software TV Card. Any suggestions are welcome.

Note: Other people could probably get success also with their Askey, Typhoon, Anubis or Dynalink cards that are using Sigmatel BT878 Conexant type chips. To get mine working I looked at the deviceid information under Device Manager for my TV Card, and searched for a similar Vendor Id in the CaptureCardsDefinition.xml file. Below is the entry I made for the CaptureCardsDefinition.xml file.

Is it possible to add my card to the Support Software Cards? Any other suggestions for things to do to improve playback quality etc. I find the quality under DScaler still a lot better.

<capturecard commercialname="Tview99 Conexant Analogue" capturename="Conexant Capture" devid="ven_109e&amp;dev_036e&amp;subsys_3002144f&amp;rev_02">
<capabilities tv="true" radio="true" mpeg2="true" mce="false" sw="true" bda="false"/>
<tv>
<interface cat="mux" video="" audio="" mpeg2="0"/>
<filters>
<filter cat="tvtuner" name="Conexant TvTuner" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="tvaudio" name="Conexant TvAudio" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="crossbar" name="Conexant Crossbar" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="capture" name="Conexant Capture" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="audcapture" name="%soundcard%" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="videncoder" name="%videoencoder%" checkdevice="false"/>
<filter cat="audencoder" name="%audioencoder%" checkdevice="false"/>
<filter cat="mux" name="%mpegmux%" checkdevice="false"/>
</filters>
<connections>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%tvtuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="tvaudio" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvaudio" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%audiotuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="videncoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="audcapture" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="audencoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="videncoder" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="mux" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="audencoder" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="mux" sinkpin="1"/>
</connections>
</tv>
</capturecard>



MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0
Windows Version: XP - SP2
CPU Type: Pentium 3.2 Ghz
HDD: 150GB
Memory: 1 GB
Video Card: ATI Radeon X800XT
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live - 24 Bit
1. TV Card: TView 99 - CPH05X
1. TV Card Type: BT878 Chipset
1. TV Card Driver: Askey - Vendor drivers
MPEG2 Video Codec: Dscaler
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Dscaler

 

[dpirs]

TView 99 - Conexant BT878 Working?

Hi,

That is great, I have the same card.

Have you succeeded to make it work completely?

Thanks,

dpirs

 

[Steve Clarke]

I have included the latest view of the CaptureCardDefinition file below (it may be the same as my last entry).

I have found to get reasonable playback, timeshifting, and recording I needed to do the follow

1) Download the Nvidia Pure Video/Audio decoders, mentioned else where in the forums and set them as my default Video and Audio decoders

2) Set the Audio Render, under settings when you are running MP to "Default Direct Sound Device". This has improved lip sync. How knows why I can't select Sound Blaster Live-24bit explicity?

3) Download the InterVideo demo and install this. This is required to take the Video Stream and Audio stream put on by the card and create a MPEG2 stream I believe. It is my understanding that MP requires a MPEG2 because it uses Directshow for some of the TV, Video and Sound routines. This card doesn't natively produce a Hardware Encoded MPEG2 stream so the Intervideo software does this, but is taxing on the CPU.

4) I found the autotuning didn't work out for me. What I did for the channel setup was I explicitly set the TV frequencies and the channel numbers and country. I took this information from the tuning info for DScaler 4.x the TV playing program. I haven't been able to tune TV1 channel in New Zealand successfully yet, that is the only thing outstanding. This issue is probably related to the TUNING tables used by Direct Sound in New Zealand because Microsoft didn't release the correct tables for our country.

5) I also have EPG working as well using a manual method of creating the TVGUIDE.xml file and directing MP to the location of the file.

So all in all it is working ok. Although I think it is quite taxing on my CPU. There probably other tweaks to get it working better. Being a single Tuner you can only watch and record one channel at a time.

I would be interested to have your feedback on whether this works for you, and what your performance is like. By the way, your device id may be slightly different to mine if so just change the details below i.e. devid="ven_109e&amp;dev_036 etc to what your card says.

You can find out your cards details by going to:

Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Expand the Sound, video and game controllers. Right click on BTCap, WDM Video Capture and click on the Details tab. Select either the Deviceid drop down or the Hardware Ids drop down. That will give you the specific details for your card. Also make sure that text matches.

If you have a problem in detecting your card after check the capture cardname devid, you need to check the text. You need to download a program called GraphEdit. Once you have installed it you need the names of the various Video and Audio filters and ensure the match the names below. In my case by expanding the WDM Streaming capture devices provides you with the name of the appropriate device which is the text for the capture name.

Expand WDM Streaming TV Tuner Devices for the tvtuner text.
Expand WDM Streaming TV Audio Devices for the tvaudio text.
Expand WDM Streaming Crossbar Devices for the crossbar text.

Good luck, and please let me know how you get on.

Cheers
Steve

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<capturecards>
<capturecard commercialname="Tview99 Conexant Analogue" capturename="Conexant Capture" devid="ven_109e&amp;dev_036e&amp;subsys_3002144f&amp;rev_02">
<capabilities tv="true" radio="true" mpeg2="true" mce="false" sw="false" bda="false"/>
<tv>
<interface cat="mux" video="" audio="" mpeg2="0"/>
<filters>
<filter cat="tvtuner" name="Conexant TvTuner" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="tvaudio" name="Conexant TvAudio" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="crossbar" name="Conexant Crossbar" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="capture" name="Conexant Capture" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="audcapture" name="%soundcard%" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="videncoder" name="%videoencoder%" checkdevice="false"/>
<filter cat="audencoder" name="%audioencoder%" checkdevice="false"/>
<filter cat="mux" name="%mpegmux%" checkdevice="false"/>
</filters>
<connections>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%tvtuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="tvaudio" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvaudio" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%audiotuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="videncoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="audcapture" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="audencoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="videncoder" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="mux" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="audencoder" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="mux" sinkpin="1"/>
</connections>
</tv>
</capturecard>

 

[Steve Clarke]

Oh, BTW on my card I have used the external audio cable from the TV Card to my Sound card line-in for other TV programs. With the capture card setup mention in my last post, I have had to mute the line-in because - I think it is getting the sound internally as well is through the external audio cable.

 

[dpirs]

Thanks for your answer.
I won't have time to try this during the next week (I'm out of town), but I'll try it when I come back.

dpirs

 

[Keren]

Good work, got my Terratec TerraTV+ working the same way. (Bt878 Chip).
But the CPU load goes up to 100% and the Video has about 1 FPS. While Testing in Graphedit it worked fine (40% Load).

I tried around a little bit, Media Portal runs slow after startup. I think it already opens a connection to the TV Card, so its a Problem with the Encoder. I think I got no Chance with 2,4Ghz for realtime MPEG Encoding and the 845G Graphiccard takes 25-50% Load for the DX9 effects.

I'll now start a try with my USB-DVB-T Stick and see if that works on this crappy system.

Ok, I tested the stick, looks like a problem with the video overlay. Fullscreen works in both configurations. Since my barebone has only 1 pci slot, i'll start looking for a less picky software.

The rest isn't open source, or not realy working. OK now i'm looking for a PCI GK with DX9 (*do thy exist?*).

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0
Windows Version: XP - SP2
CPU Type: Celeron 2.4 Ghz
HDD: 40GB
Memory: 512 MB
Video Card: Intel 845G Onboard
Sound Card: AC97 Onboard
1. TV Card: TerraTV+
1. TV Card Type: BT878 Chipset
1. TV Card Driver: TerraTec - Vendor drivers
MPEG2 Video Codec: Dscaler
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Dscaler

 

[JackTramiel]

Thank you for the hint.
Got the same card and maybe i will give it a try even it looks a bit complicated.