Using the pcHDTV HD-3000 card in Media Portal (1 Viewer)

[Paul S]

Hi,

I'm a refugee from MythTV and Linux.

After trying for a year to get a working MythTV system, I decided to give Windows and Media Portal a try.

My main interest is in watching live HDTV, as I have a working WMCE system to record with.

Area: Media Portal Program
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0 RC4 (2006-04-18)
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder
Video Codec: NVIDIA Video Decoder
CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4 - 3.06GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Motherboard: P4PB
TV Card Model: pcHDTV
TV Card Type: Software
TV Card Driver: Conexant 4.0.101.0 (BDA)
Video Card Model: Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT (128 MB)
Video Card Driver: 84.21
Video Card Resolution: 1024x768
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device
Audio Card Driver: C-Media 5.12.1.643
Synopsis:: -

There is a listing for the pcHDTV card in the CaptureCardDefinitions file, but I had to modify it slightly:

<filter cat="tunerdevice" name="Conexant BDA ATSC Tuner/Demod"

The Windows BDA drivers are on the pcHDTV installation CD, as are the instructions for installing them.

All of the other information that I needed for setting up Media Portal I got from this forum and the Media Portal Manual

Thanks!

Paul

 

[Callifo]

Sorry for being daft, but is this actually asking something or are you just saying it works for you :lol:

 

[Paul S]

I searched the forum for any info on this card, and found nothing. So I thought that I should post somthing for any future pcHDTV/MythTV converts.

 

[Commodore 64]

Hi Paul,

This is great news. I have added an entry for the pcHDTV card to the wiki. I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a look at it and add some more speficis (like the card type, and a driver link).

https://www.team-mediaportal.com/mpwiki/Supported_TVCard_ATSC

Always glad to see another ATSC user. PLease let us know over in the ATSC SUpport thread how you fare, if you have Timeshifting working well, and if you have any audio issues (like audio sync, or losing audio after a time, or losing signal after a time).

Glad to see you got things working. There is a great zap2it plug in to populate your guide data now thanks to bradsjm.

 

[Paul S]

Thanks,

I disabled time shifting, recording and most other options. I don't want to cause too many problems, at first. After reviewing the ATSC thread, it seemed like a good thing to do.

I did have a problem getting the zap2it data merged with the scanned channels. I ended up wiping out all channels. I see that there is a choice to save the channel lineup. A good thing to point out to new users (like me), sure beats waiting for MP to scan all 255 channels again. I'll give that plugin a try. Right now I'm setting up the ATI X10 plugin so I can put down the keyboard.

I'll do my best with the wiki. I'd like to make the drivers for this card more readily available. Is there a place that I can upload them to?

 

[Commodore 64]

Paul S,

The zap2it plugin will be released publicly soon. It will take care of the channel match-up issues...at least it was designed to match zap2it data to your autotune data.

Are teh pcHDTV drivers hard to find onlline? We can just link to the manufacturers website on the wiki.

 

[Paul S]

The pcHDTV HD-3000 BDA drivers are only available on the installation CD that comes with the card. There is a copy of the CD at the pcHDTV website, but it is a compressed tar ball (Linux talk). That means it is a .tar.gz compressed file. You get all of the Linux stuff along with the BDA drivers. I don't know if there is a Windows program that will uncompress that file.

http://www.pchdtv.com/downloads/HD-3000-CD-04.tar.gz

Since we are only interested in the Windows drivers, I thought that they could be saved somewhere seperately. No biggie.

I'll check out the IRC chat link as time allows. I'm still trying to figure out how to make wiki modifications. I registered, so I'm on the right track.

Paul

 

[Paul S]

Here's what my graph looks like, so other pcHDTV card owners have something to compare to:

 

[Paul S]

And here's my CaptureCardDefinitions entry for the pcHDTV card:

 

[Paul S]

Here's a link to where you can get the Windows drivers for the pcHDTV card. They're in the compressed file, along with the Linux drivers :

http://pchdtv.com/downloads/HD-3000-CD-04.tar.gz

And here's a pdf file with the installations instructions:


I'll add this stuff to the wiki, someday.

Paul