DVICO Fusion 5 HDTV tuner

[KAXKID]

...As I said, I can get it working fine with one card but not with multiple (2 or 3). ...
compare the listing of IRQ's used with one card installed vs 2 and/or 3 installed in the device manager "view by connection" screen. that may give a clue about what is going on.

here's an earlier post of mine that shows the IRQ view with multiple fusion pci tuners installed:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7135475&&#post7135475

[MikeSM]

If you're sure that you followed the procedure perfectly (allowing enough time for the drivers to finish loading is particularly important) then, yes, you must have a resource conflict, despite the lack of red x's, and changing PCI slots may fix it.


OK, I'll try moving slots and see if that helps.

thanks,
mike

[Poiuyt00]

Wonder if anyone can help me here. I got the Fusion 5 Gold about 8 months ago and popped it in and all was fine. Reinstalled windows a short time later all was fine. Just reinstalled windows again and now suddenly only one of my network HDTV channels works without crashing the entire computer! Everything freezes (HARD REBOOT). I am using cable and analog works fine. I can go to my local ABC I think and thats fine in HDTV, but when I switch up on channel BOOM, frozen. So I try to jump to FOX or CBS and the same thing. AM I making some kind of mistake here I don't know of?. It was great for so long now suddenly no HDTV... :(

Oh I should add I used 3.41 and 3.3

[jbailey895]

Just bought the DVico Fusion5 USB, intending on using it for unecrypted QAM HDtv. ONly seems to pull analog channels from my cable. Yes, I'm using the Fusion s/w, not MCE. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, if I want to use it in MCE, it will only work w/ OTA, not QAM, right?

Thanx for any input,
Joel

[TPeterson]

Wonder if anyone can help me here. I got the Fusion 5 Gold about 8 months ago and popped it in and all was fine. Reinstalled windows a short time later all was fine. Just reinstalled windows again and now suddenly only one of my network HDTV channels works without crashing the entire computer! Everything freezes (HARD REBOOT). I am using cable and analog works fine. I can go to my local ABC I think and thats fine in HDTV, but when I switch up on channel BOOM, frozen. So I try to jump to FOX or CBS and the same thing. AM I making some kind of mistake here I don't know of?. It was great for so long now suddenly no HDTV... :(

Oh I should add I used 3.41 and 3.3Did you change any hardware recently? If not, did you check to make sure that the PCI cards are all firmly seated in their slots? If so, try removing the new stuff and see if it's related to the problem.

[TPeterson]

Just bought the DVico Fusion5 USB, intending on using it for unecrypted QAM HDtv. ONly seems to pull analog channels from my cable. Yes, I'm using the Fusion s/w, not MCE. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, if I want to use it in MCE, it will only work w/ OTA, not QAM, right?

Thanx for any input,
JoelYour cable feed may have the DTV stations filtered out if you see no indications of any when you do the channel scan. Do you have or can you borrow another QAM tuner to try with your cable?

Yes, MCE is OTA only.

[Poiuyt00]

Did you change any hardware recently? If not, did you check to make sure that the PCI cards are all firmly seated in their slots? If so, try removing the new stuff and see if it's related to the problem.

Yeh about mid way through I switched my ATI AIW 800XT back to my old ATI AIW 8500, but the HDTV worked on both cards since then. Not sure how that would affect only some HDTV channels though? I did add a Motorola booster inline, but again HDTV worked very well after I installed that. This is the same version of Windows I used all those times also. The only thing I can think of is I did about 30 windows updates that i had not done before? Maybe one of them?

[COhiker]

compare the listing of IRQ's used with one card installed vs 2 and/or 3 installed in the device manager "view by connection" screen. that may give a clue about what is going on.

here's an earlier post of mine that shows the IRQ view with multiple fusion pci tuners installed:

thanks for your continued patience and help. I will play some more and let you know if I do eventually get it working.

[TPeterson]

Yeh about mid way through I switched my ATI AIW 800XT back to my old ATI AIW 8500, but the HDTV worked on both cards since then. Not sure how that would affect only some HDTV channels though? I did add a Motorola booster inline, but again HDTV worked very well after I installed that. This is the same version of Windows I used all those times also. The only thing I can think of is I did about 30 windows updates that i had not done before? Maybe one of them?And the card seating...?

[Poiuyt00]

And the card seating...?
Yes I had already done that a few days ago when this first happened. Have installed two times since then.

[TPeterson]

Maybe it's broken. Does Device Manager show all the devices to be working?

[KAXKID]

Yeh about mid way through I switched my ATI AIW 800XT back to my old ATI AIW 8500, but the HDTV worked on both cards since then. Not sure how that would affect only some HDTV channels though? I did add a Motorola booster inline, but again HDTV worked very well after I installed that. This is the same version of Windows I used all those times also. The only thing I can think of is I did about 30 windows updates that i had not done before? Maybe one of them?
yes could be the windows updates. others have posted in the software thread about windows updating the fusion drivers and then the fusion app having problems.

i'm also curious why you have had to re-install windows so many times, are you having other problems or ...

[Poiuyt00]

yes could be the windows updates. others have posted in the software thread about windows updating the fusion drivers and then the fusion app having problems.

i'm also curious why you have had to re-install windows so many times, are you having other problems or ...

Well as a rule I tend to not do Windows driver updates, and instead go to the original vendors site to see if I need to update. As to why so many re-installs, well lets just say I wanted to test something out, it went horribly wrong so I had to reinstall to fix it, and due to my number of drives and partitions Windows kept screwing up its install location. But thats all set now. :cool:

I think I solved the problem by switching to another video card and finding out that one worked. So I went back to my 8500 and found that the fan was a bit on the slow/stopped side. I lubed that and got it going again and I think that when I switched to HDTV the card ramped up the fan speed to quell the heat and nothing happened, crashing the card. Seems to be ok now

*crosses fingers*

Thanks for the help.

Now on to my next project of trying to build my own Projector for my HDTV...yikes!

[MikeSM]

If you're sure that you followed the procedure perfectly (allowing enough time for the drivers to finish loading is particularly important) then, yes, you must have a resource conflict, despite the lack of red x's, and changing PCI slots may fix it.

Ok, I moved the card to the only other PCI slot (it's a DFI Nforce4 board, and only has 2 PCI slots), and same problem. No go.

Is the card supposed to be showing up as a "multimedia controller" and not a DVICO HDTV5 RT Lite?

Windows doesn't think the driver in the driver directory is a match for this hardware. I followed KAXKID's directions to the letter on the install, but still no go. I even waited 2 hrs before letting the system reboot. It should have been long enough to install the drivers (it's normally a VERY fast system).

What am I doing wrong here? It's a HDTV5 RT Lite. Is there something special about this card? Should I try and force it to load a driver?

Thanks,
Mike

[TPeterson]

Mike, I'm not sure what it means that your card doesn't show up as the correct item in Device Manager, but my guess is that there's some sort of hardware resource conflict. I suggest that you try the Q&A forum at DViCo for help, as they've likely seen this somewhere else.

[KAXKID]

Ok, I moved the card to the only other PCI slot (it's a DFI Nforce4 board, and only has 2 PCI slots), and same problem. No go.

Is the card supposed to be showing up as a "multimedia controller" and not a DVICO HDTV5 RT Lite?

Windows doesn't think the driver in the driver directory is a match for this hardware. I followed KAXKID's directions to the letter on the install, but still no go. I even waited 2 hrs before letting the system reboot. It should have been long enough to install the drivers (it's normally a VERY fast system).

What am I doing wrong here? It's a HDTV5 RT Lite. Is there something special about this card? Should I try and force it to load a driver?

Thanks,
Mike
with 3.41, all the drivers are certified except one of the audio capture drivers so there is no waiting involved for the drivers to install.

in device manager, have you tried right clicking the entry with the yellow marks and hitting the delete key. that should bring up an info box about removing that device. say "ok". then goto "action" in the menu and click "scan for hardware changes" that should "refresh" the drivers. hopefully you will see the correct drivers install.

the fusion drivers are normally listed in the "sound, video and game controllers" section of the device manager and the names start with "fusion".

if this doesn't help, do the remove in "safe mode" as outlined in the "TROUBLE SECTION" here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7600356&&#post7600356

tere is also another thread that discusses the RT version, that might shed some light on your problems here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8156658&&#post8156658
post back with results.
good luck.

[MikeSM]

with 3.41, all the drivers are certified except one of the audio capture drivers so there is no waiting involved for the drivers to install.

in device manager, have you tried right clicking the entry with the yellow marks and hitting the delete key. that should bring up an info box about removing that device. say "ok". then goto "action" in the menu and click "scan for hardware changes" that should "refresh" the drivers. hopefully you will see the correct drivers install.

the fusion drivers are normally listed in the "sound, video and game controllers" section of the device manager and the names start with "fusion".

if this doesn't help, do the remove in "safe mode" as outlined in the "TROUBLE SECTION" here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7600356&&#post7600356

tere is also another thread that discusses the RT version, that might shed some light on your problems here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8156658&&#post8156658
post back with results.
good luck.

I've done the uninstall and rescan for hardware changes. Doesn't help.

Will try the safe mode uninstall and see what happens...

thanks,
mike

[JohnCalif]

I've done the uninstall and rescan for hardware changes. Doesn't help.


There are some uninstall utilities in the DVICO ftp site. Try both of those.

ftp://ftp.dvico.com/Products/FusionHDTV/Install/

[SpokaneDoug]

To everyone who have recently posted problems with drivers not recognizing cards, strange system hangs, etc. -- I just went through a few months of similar problems; it turned out to be an insufficient power supply. I swapped my 400W for a 550W, and everything cleared up!

Electronics get cantankerous when they're starved for power. Make sure you consider it when diagnosing problems.

[MikeSM]

There are some uninstall utilities in the DVICO ftp site. Try both of those.

ftp://ftp.dvico.com/Products/FusionHDTV/Install/

Ok. I tried these. No good. I removed the card, and then ran the utilities, and then reinstalled the card. This time there was a prompt that asked me to OK installing a non-WHQL driver, which I said OK to. After that though, same thing.

I looked up the PCI Vendor ID and DEV ID on the PCI database, and it referenced a brooktree chip and a hauppauge driver. I remembered earlier than some months ago I had a WinTV card in the same machine. I removed it, and removed all the software when it was removed, but thought there might be some remants left. I ran the Hauppauge hwclear utilirty several times, and removed all references to it in the system. But still no go.

On the "multimedia device", if I go into properties and then details, the device shows a line that starts with PCI\VEN_109E&DEV0878. On the Multimedia Video Controller, the line is PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_036E.

Can one of you with a Fusion HDTV5 RT card check the properties of the various devices that show up associated with the card in the device manager and tell me if these are the same?

I am wondering if windows somehow thinks this is still the wintv card, and is therefore ignoring the Fusion drivers. I can't understand how this would be, but it would be nice to check it off, esp. since the database on the web maps this to hauppauge drivers.

thanks,
Mike


PS Oh yes, the DVICO people responded to my post on their Q&A system and thought it must be defective hardware. I am not so sure though.

[TPeterson]

If DViCo thinks it sounds like a bad card, I'd tend to agree and seek an RMA exchange to eliminate that possibility.

[MikeSM]

If DViCo thinks it sounds like a bad card, I'd tend to agree and seek an RMA exchange to eliminate that possibility.

I may pull the card and install it in another system and see if it has problems there.

I think the card is fine, but something is hosed with the drivers or registry...

Thanks,
mike

PS If you have the card, can you check the PCI vendor and DEV codes for me?

[KAXKID]

Ok. I tried these. No good. I removed the card, and then ran the utilities, and then reinstalled the card. This time there was a prompt that asked me to OK installing a non-WHQL driver, which I said OK to. ...
what was the name of the "non-WHQL" driver? that might give a clue about what is going on.

[TPeterson]

PS If you have the card, can you check the PCI vendor and DEV codes for me?I don't have an F5RT Lite card.

[MikeSM]

what was the name of the "non-WHQL" driver? that might give a clue about what is going on.

I realized that this was triggered by installation of the gold driver and not the "lite" driver. After another round of deinstall/reinstall, when spec'ing the lite driver, no such popup comes up.

I did try and force a driver to be installed by spec'ing the LG fusion driver from the install wizard. It installed, (though every driver required clicking OK on the non-WHQL prompt) but didn't function. After a reboot it was back to the yellow balloons with the ! mark. I thought all of 3.41 had WHQL certified drivers? If so, why should I have gotten the prompt?

This is frustrating to no end.

Thanks,
Mike

[KAXKID]

...
I did try and force a driver to be installed by spec'ing the LG fusion driver from the install wizard. ...
what install wizard allows "spec'ing the LG fusion driver"?

[KAXKID]

I may pull the card and install it in another system and see if it has problems there.

I think the card is fine, but something is hosed with the drivers or registry...

Thanks,
mike

PS If you have the card, can you check the PCI vendor and DEV codes for me?
i don't have an RT card either, but from info on dvico's they use LG and Conexant chips which don't match what you say has shown up.

[KAXKID]

I may pull the card and install it in another system and see if it has problems there.

I think the card is fine, but something is hosed with the drivers or registry...

Thanks,
mike

PS If you have the card, can you check the PCI vendor and DEV codes for me?
i'm thinking the same way. another system might give a different result. you're only looking to see if the right drivers get installed and if the card is recognized as a fusion card. if that happens in another system, then some way has to be found to clean the registry in the original system

[MikeSM]

i'm thinking the same way. another system might give a different result. you're only looking to see if the right drivers get installed and if the card is recognized as a fusion card. if that happens in another system, then some way has to be found to clean the registry in the original system

Exactly. BTW, if you have a Fusion 5 card with the LG tuner, can you tell me the names of the drivers it uses for the various devices? If I try and force the loading of the LG tuner driver (I think that's the right one), it doesn't end up loading any of the devices that are supposed to be loaded in the documentation. I'm curious about this...

Thanks,
Mike

[MikeSM]

what install wizard allows "spec'ing the LG fusion driver"?

Sorry, I didnt use the right terminology. On the add device wizard, select install from a list of specific location. Then hit next. next screen, select "don't search. I will choose the driver to install". Clikc next, then next again, then have disk. I then browse to the driver directory installed in the DVICOdirectory. Then a list of drivers shows up. Select one and it will then force an install of that driver.

I am trying to find out which of these is the right driver for the Fusion HDTV5 RT lite.

Thanks,
mike

[TPeterson]

Mike, I think that you could save yourself a lot of headache if you try the card in another computer. If DViCo is right about the card's being broken it won't install there either and you'll have your confirmation.

[KAXKID]

Sorry, I didnt use the right terminology. On the add device wizard, select install from a list of specific location. Then hit next. next screen, select "don't search. I will choose the driver to install". Clikc next, then next again, then have disk. I then browse to the driver directory installed in the DVICOdirectory. Then a list of drivers shows up. Select one and it will then force an install of that driver.

I am trying to find out which of these is the right driver for the Fusion HDTV5 RT lite.

Thanks,
mike
i was looking in the .inf files for the drivers, but i have not found a reference to the RT cards. the zl88tune.inf makes reference to the bt878a wdm driver, which i believe includes the RT lite card, if that helps.

btw, you have found and chosen the RT Lite version in the drop menu when you install the fusion app, right???
see screen dump:



have you tried installing the software without the card installed and picked the right card from the drop menu? then installing the card to see if it will pick the correct driver that way?

[MikeSM]

i was looking in the .inf files for the drivers, but i have not found a reference to the RT cards. the zl88tune.inf makes reference to the bt878a wdm driver, which i believe includes the RT lite card, if that helps.

btw, you have found and chosen the RT Lite version in the drop menu when you install the fusion app, right???
see screen dump:



have you tried installing the software without the card installed and picked the right card from the drop menu? then installing the card to see if it will pick the correct driver that way?

I have selected the RT lite during the driver install process. That isn't the issue.

It also seems to work fine installed in another system. I don't have coax there so I couldn't test the decode, but it installs fine at least, not like in my desktop. So much for DVICO's advice.

Now, another interesting item. On my MB, there are only 2 other devices hooked to the PCI bus, neither of which I use. A 1394 controller and a 2nd GB ethernet controller. I had both these devices disabled since I didn't use them and wanted to save on IRQ's. This was from some time ago. Well guess what, if I attempt to enable them, they won't install either, even though XP has the drivers for these parts builtin.

So something very odd is going on with PCI logic, and I think the Fusion is just part of a larger problem. I may try and clear the BIOS config and reset that, and barring that do a reinstall of windows. It's funny to think about, but I have a highly functional system apparently without a working PCI bus, and I never noticed this. It's clear it worked at some point, because I did have a WinTV card in it a year ago. But some system driver or BIOS update may have hosed things.

I'll take another shot at this tonight and update you then. If you have any ideas for me, I'd appreciate the advice too.

Thanks,
mike

PS I have a Neopower 480 PSU in this that is super reliable and has tons of excess capacity, so I don't think it's a PSU problem. I never scrimp on PSU's - too much at risk.

[Fast351]

Did you do a MB update without resetting the BIOS settings? I've done this, and it does all kinds of strange things. The way the settings are saved are apparently not compatible sometimes between BIOS versions.

Just something to try. Anytime bizarre hardware problems like this crop up, a BIOS settings reset is a good path to try.

[obeewaan]

Hi guys,
I just got my fusion 5 Gold RT PCI card installed. And I hooked it up to Comcast basic cable.
After I finished scanning my Digital channels are like;
from D83 to D 9145 with most channels are playing only music.

Whats funny is that, local HD channels are like 4-1(fox), 11-1 (CBS),8-1(ABC) and etc....
Q - Why are the channel numbers different on Fusion Card ?

I got TNT, CBS, PBS ,ABC quite good. But I cannot find NBC and Fox .
Q - Does Fusion cards have limit on HD frequency ? ( Because Fox and NBC HD channels did not come up )


thanks in advance

[KAXKID]

... But some system driver or BIOS update may have hosed things.

...
that sounds like it is the problem. try clearing the bios and using the default settings to see if the problem goes away. if that works, you can readjust the bios settings as needed till you see the problem again.

at least it's good to see the fusion card is not at fault.

good luck

[KAXKID]

Hi guys,
I just got my fusion 5 Gold RT PCI card installed. And I hooked it up to Comcast basic cable.
After I finished scanning my Digital channels are like;
from D83 to D 9145 with most channels are playing only music.

Whats funny is that, local HD channels are like 4-1(fox), 11-1 (CBS),8-1(ABC) and etc....
Q - Why are the channel numbers different on Fusion Card ?

I got TNT, CBS, PBS ,ABC quite good. But I cannot find NBC and Fox .
Q - Does Fusion cards have limit on HD frequency ? ( Because Fox and NBC HD channels did not come up )


thanks in advance
the fusion channel numbers are different because that is the way dvico decided to program them. there is a formula posted in the software thread.

yes, the fusion software does not scan above rf124. if you have clear channels above 124, there is a registry hack to deal with it that works, also in the fusion software threads.

normally you should be able to get the local broadcast stations in the clear plus music only and any other stations your local cable company decides to broadcast un-encrypted. some even get "on demand" channels.

do some research in the fusion software threads.

[kingfai]

Hi All :)

I just got a new Fusion 5 for my new HTPC.

I have not bought the mobo or processor yet. Do you guys have any recommendations for a midrange motherboard (e.g., I'm happy with a P4 or single core AMD) that you know will not cause the Fusion 5 to stutter?

[Fast351]

My AMD Athlon 3200+ on an Asus A8M VM-CSM with a NVidia 6600 has been working well feeding my 720P projector.

BUT....

The video card had to be overclocked to 6600GT speeds in order to get rid of the stutter. My CPU shows 40% use watching 1 HD show while taping two others, so the CPU is definitely not overtaxed.

Make sure you get a good video card.

I would consider a 6600GT the VERY mininum. (Oh that's in a PCIe 16x slot).

-Mike

[obeewaan]

Hi All :)

I just got a new Fusion 5 for my new HTPC.

I have not bought the mobo or processor yet. Do you guys have any recommendations for a midrange motherboard (e.g., I'm happy with a P4 or single core AMD) that you know will not cause the Fusion 5 to stutter?

I got my Gusion 5 RT Gold PCI a few days ago, thats installed on Athlon 64 3200, Asus K8VSE Deluxe, 1 GB memory, Win XP Pro SP 2.

It works fine so far with what I want to do, some apps running in background with Tuner card on recording mode.

Key is, what are u doing with ur HTPC ?
Are u gonna play games on it too? U wanna add one more card in the future ( which I will) so u can recore 2 programs at the same time ? will u be multitasking ?

I recommend checking out Intel Core 2 Duo chips (consumes less power than AMD rivals, and produce less heat).

There is a lot of variables, I'ld first figure out what and howmuch usage to do with HTPC.

[arcticool]

I bought the Fusion5 Lite about 6 months ago and had trouble with skipping/stuttering about once every 3-5 seconds. I posted for help here and was told to reinstall and try putting the card in a different slot. I tried everything and still I got skipping so I gave up on the card feeling frankly a bit ripped off.

So now I'm back :)

I'm wondering if this issue was ever addressed with drivers or some configuration. I've seen other threads on other forums that a lot of people have these skipping troubles with the Fusion5 but none of the suggested fixes worked (for them).

Has anything changed in this department or should I finally just sell this card and get something that works properly with my system.
Thanks,

AC

=======
Specs:
XP Pro SP2, all patches
P4 3.0
6800GT AGP with latest Nvidia drivers 91.31
Creative Audigy 2 with latest drivers

[KAXKID]

I bought the Fusion5 Lite about 6 months ago and had trouble with skipping/stuttering about once every 3-5 seconds. I posted for help here and was told to reinstall and try putting the card in a different slot. I tried everything and still I got skipping so I gave up on the card feeling frankly a bit ripped off.

So now I'm back :)

I'm wondering if this issue was ever addressed with drivers or some configuration. I've seen other threads on other forums that a lot of people have these skipping troubles with the Fusion5 but none of the suggested fixes worked (for them).

Has anything changed in this department or should I finally just sell this card and get something that works properly with my system.
Thanks,

AC

=======
Specs:
XP Pro SP2, all patches
P4 3.0
6800GT AGP with latest Nvidia drivers 91.31
Creative Audigy 2 with latest drivers
have you tried fusion 3.41web version? some say it has better abilities with the later video cards.

[Fast351]

Have you checked to make sure that the tuner card is not on the same IRQ as the video card?

[breeze45]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, if not let me know where is the right place. I recently got the Fusion HDTV5 RT Gold card. Works Great. Captures to .tp format great. What is the best way to Edit/Convert the .tp files. Thanks

[TPeterson]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, if not let me know where is the right place. I recently got the Fusion HDTV5 RT Gold card. Works Great. Captures to .tp format great. What is the best way to Edit/Convert the .tp files. ThanksBest for free: H2M (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=395744), aka TSEdit or HDTVtoMPEG2. Ignore the name, read the thread.

More perfect editing, but not free and not as easy to use: VideoReDo.

[Govnah]

I currently have the same issue using a HDTV5 USB and BYTV. Last night I changed the HAL to Standard PC and the stutter went away, the only drawback is that I am unable to benefit from my AMD Dual Core, given the fact Standard PC HAL does not recognize the CPU as a dual core. I belive the issue is IRQ related, but who know as I have spent hours trying to address the issue.



I bought the Fusion5 Lite about 6 months ago and had trouble with skipping/stuttering about once every 3-5 seconds. I posted for help here and was told to reinstall and try putting the card in a different slot. I tried everything and still I got skipping so I gave up on the card feeling frankly a bit ripped off.

So now I'm back :)

I'm wondering if this issue was ever addressed with drivers or some configuration. I've seen other threads on other forums that a lot of people have these skipping troubles with the Fusion5 but none of the suggested fixes worked (for them).

Has anything changed in this department or should I finally just sell this card and get something that works properly with my system.
Thanks,

AC

=======
Specs:
XP Pro SP2, all patches
P4 3.0
6800GT AGP with latest Nvidia drivers 91.31
Creative Audigy 2 with latest drivers

[Nrmf]

ok i need help is this fushion 5 and software worth looking into for qam capablilities i already own a handful of myhds 130 was looking to add second card to system and just didnt know what way i should go any thoughts

[KAXKID]

I currently have the same issue using a HDTV5 USB and BYTV. Last night I changed the HAL to Standard PC and the stutter went away, the only drawback is that I am unable to benefit from my AMD Dual Core, given the fact Standard PC HAL does not recognize the CPU as a dual core. I belive the issue is IRQ related, but who know as I have spent hours trying to address the issue.
this is one of those problems that has as many different fixes as users and it is not just a fusion problem from what i see in the forums.

i don't have the stutter problem.

i don't use BYTV, my primary tuner is a 3goldt pci that always shares an IRQ with the mx440 agp video card.

the only time i saw a stutter on my system was when i tried to direct the fusion output to a second HD on the primary cable. once i changed the second drive over to the secondary cable, everything was fine again. i don't remember anyone else suggesting this "fix" but it works for me and i still have the video card and fusion drivers on the same IRQ as that is how the fusion installer always sets it up.

of course our systems are not at all alike, but ...

[KAXKID]

ok i need help is this fushion 5 and software worth looking into for qam capablilities i already own a handful of myhds 130 was looking to add second card to system and just didnt know what way i should go any thoughts
a number of users with myhd130 cards use the fusion cards also, in the same machine, as can be seen in the RT thread.

[Nrmf]

are they more stable than the fusion3 cards are is software still buggy

[KAXKID]

are they more stable than the fusion3 cards are is software still buggy
is windows still buggy??? is any software ever not buggy???

[Govnah]

Guys,

Any suggestions? 720P is smooth as glass but I still get that slight stutter with 1080i content. AMD 4200 X2, 4GB RAM, 7600GT, HDTV5 USB, Nvidia Decoders with hardware enabled using BYTV as the front end.


Thanks

[Fast351]

Is USB transport fast enough to handle 1080i? I would think so, but make sure you're on a USB2.0 Hub. Try unplugging other USB devices, maybe something is slowing the whole bus down.

[kingfai]

Is anyone having success with the Fusion 5 and a motherboard based on the Intel 875 chipset? I have a DFI Lanparty Pro875 in the closet, but want to make sure it's ok before I spend money on a processor.


Thanks!

Al

[parasailing]

Hi All,

I just picked up the Fusion HDTV USB and I am having problems with the screen pausing every 2 or 3 seconds when I put the display in full screen. I am using the CATV inut and it is picking up the analog signal. I have tried all the different video settings but still experience this problem. The cpu utilization at full screen is only like 15% so I don't know what is going on.

I have a AMD Opteron 165 running at 2.7Ghz and a Nvidia 7900GT card. I am using the latest 3.41 drivers.

Any ideas what could be the problem? Thanks in advance.

[audiorecon]

I want to record QAM-clear and perhaps some analog cable. I think I have narrowed it down to the DVICO Fusion. I will be running Mythtv. Which model of the DVICO line will be the esiest one to install?

[Govnah]

Is that an AMD dual core? I had same issues until I changed the HAL to Standard PC and you lose the dual core capabilities with the Standard PC HAL.





Hi All,

I just picked up the Fusion HDTV USB and I am having problems with the screen pausing every 2 or 3 seconds when I put the display in full screen. I am using the CATV inut and it is picking up the analog signal. I have tried all the different video settings but still experience this problem. The cpu utilization at full screen is only like 15% so I don't know what is going on.

I have a AMD Opteron 165 running at 2.7Ghz and a Nvidia 7900GT card. I am using the latest 3.41 drivers.

Any ideas what could be the problem? Thanks in advance.

[Paw Paw]

I am interested in purchasing a Fusion HDTV5 USB tuner. Can anyone point me to the best deal on the Web? I tried to get one from Digital Connection but they just call and told me they are dropping the unit and only had 3 “open boxes” left. Any help would be appreciated.

[Bruce Embry]

I am interested in purchasing a Fusion HDTV5 USB tuner. Can anyone point me to the best deal on the Web? I tried to get one from Digital Connection but they just call and told me they are dropping the unit and only had 3 “open boxes” left. Any help would be appreciated.

Putting a high bandwidth componant on USB bus is a bad ideal. You would be better off unsing one of the internal cards. My 0.02 worth.

[obeewaan]

I am using Fusion 5 GOLD RT PCI on a Athlon 64 3200,Win Pro SP2 system.

I noticed when the signal quality DROPS below 85 on Digital channel(Comcast cable, QAM ), both sound and pic start to stutter and makes it unwatchable.
It needs like 90 and more to play good HD program.

Is this common with u guys?

[TPeterson]

FusionHDTV needs about "60%" signal for OTA and over "90%" for cable. A decent cable feed will give you over "95%" signal. If you see less than 90%, your cable is not up to snuff (and NTSC reception will look pretty awful too).

[arcticool]

I currently have the same issue using a HDTV5 USB and BYTV. Last night I changed the HAL to Standard PC and the stutter went away, the only drawback is that I am unable to benefit from my AMD Dual Core, given the fact Standard PC HAL does not recognize the CPU as a dual core. I belive the issue is IRQ related, but who know as I have spent hours trying to address the issue.

Actually I tried Kaxkid and Fast351's advice, tried the latest software, which didn't work at first and I still had stutters, but then I swapped my cards around on the PCI slots (ok, several times) and finally, it's working!

I think the issue might actually have something to do with the IRQs, too bad they couldn't just handle this with properly coded drivers (ahem- hint hint Fusion folks), but if the planets are aligned perfectly and the wind is blowing from the NNW, you might just get it working.

BTW, I've seen a lot of posts here and elsewhere from people having skipping troubles with the Fusion5 and it seems that a common thread is having a video card with full DX9 compatibility, but lacking hardware acceleration, like my card the 6800GT AGP where HW acceleration is broken, or others that just don't have the horsepower for HD. Honestly for as much movie watching as I do and as little gaming, I wish I'd gotten the 6600GT instead and saved some dough ;-)

[arcticool]

A few questions now that I've got the Fusion5 working without stutters, and appologies if these have already been answered elsewhere:

1. How to turn on timeshifting? This used to be an option in the Configuration but I don't see it now.
2. How to make channel manager show up while in full screen? There is an option when I right click on the TV image, but as I recall its either greyed out while in full screen, or if checked when not in full screen makes the channel manager appear, but when I go full screen, it disappears again. Known bug maybe?
3. Anyone got the Remote Wonder working with Fusion5 Lite? I got the Lite sine I didn't want yet annother remote lying around and expected since it's the most popular remote on the market it would be quickly supported, but unfortunately I don't see any plugins available. If you got this working, please let me know, I could sure use it.
4. I would really like the controls to show up on my PC monitor, instead of the TV, since its much easer to view and use. I can drag it over but it keeps 'snapping' back into position on the TV. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

AC

[Govnah]

From the snapstream forum another user suggested I fall back to the 84.21 driver and guess what, HD playback via a Fusion HDTV5 USB is smooth as glass! Obviously there is something a miss with the 91.xx drivers. I am one happy cutomer as my stutter is gone using the older driver.

[TPeterson]

I am interested in purchasing a Fusion HDTV5 USB tuner. Can anyone point me to the best deal on the Web? I tried to get one from Digital Connection but they just call and told me they are dropping the unit and only had 3 “open boxes” left. Any help would be appreciated.A little birdie told me that you should give DC another try in a few days. ;)

[KAXKID]

A few questions now that I've got the Fusion5 working without stutters, and appologies if these have already been answered elsewhere:

1. How to turn on timeshifting? This used to be an option in the Configuration but I don't see it now.
2. How to make channel manager show up while in full screen? There is an option when I right click on the TV image, but as I recall its either greyed out while in full screen, or if checked when not in full screen makes the channel manager appear, but when I go full screen, it disappears again. Known bug maybe?
3. Anyone got the Remote Wonder working with Fusion5 Lite? I got the Lite sine I didn't want yet annother remote lying around and expected since it's the most popular remote on the market it would be quickly supported, but unfortunately I don't see any plugins available. If you got this working, please let me know, I could sure use it.
4. I would really like the controls to show up on my PC monitor, instead of the TV, since its much easer to view and use. I can drag it over but it keeps 'snapping' back into position on the TV. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

AC
timeshifting still has an "enable" box in the config on the "Time-Shifting" tab of the "Record/TimeShift" page.

Channel Manager has an "enable" box on the config "General" page to show a "Service List" in fullscreen. you run your mouse all the way to the right side of the screen and the list of channels pops up. there is also a small control panel pop-up on the lower left of the full screen if you run your mouse off the lower left.

[Paw Paw]

A little birdie told me that you should give DC another try in a few days. ;)

If that is their game I do not want to play.

Any other suggestions for a good retailer on the Web for the Fusion HDTV5 USB Gold?

[TPeterson]

It's not a "game". Sometimes people get misinformation even when they're dealing with fluent speakers of english, so it's not surprising that misunderstandings happen between U.S. dealers and Korean suppliers.

[obeewaan]

Actually I tried Kaxkid and Fast351's advice, tried the latest software, which didn't work at first and I still had stutters, but then I swapped my cards around on the PCI slots (ok, several times) and finally, it's working!

I think the issue might actually have something to do with the IRQs, too bad they couldn't just handle this with properly coded drivers (ahem- hint hint Fusion folks), but if the planets are aligned perfectly and the wind is blowing from the NNW, you might just get it working.

BTW, I've seen a lot of posts here and elsewhere from people having skipping troubles with the Fusion5 and it seems that a common thread is having a video card with full DX9 compatibility, but lacking hardware acceleration, like my card the 6800GT AGP where HW acceleration is broken, or others that just don't have the horsepower for HD. Honestly for as much movie watching as I do and as little gaming, I wish I'd gotten the 6600GT instead and saved some dough ;-)

I have a Fusion 5 Gold RT PCI for a week now and so far, it works fine for me.

I did notice some stutter on a few channels last nite and it turned out HD signal strength is only 85%.

My PC has, Asus K8VSE, Athlon 64 3200, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 5900 FX 128 MB, XP Pro current.

To those who have stutter trouble, are u getting Good Signal ? ( 90% or more)

Also, in my case, I have a basic cable goes straight into the card, and I get HD on some channels. And I map them manually and use manual record for programs I wanna play, Thus, No need for "Record_This" program.

Most of my analog channels are not good though, (I need to research why).

Well, so far, not bad for a 160 bucks card, but I may also give MyHD MP130 a try later on. (They said not much tweaking required, like Fusion does)

[MrZZZZ]

I have a FusionHDTV5 Gold card and I need 90% or better to get a watchable tv show on QAM cable. For a while I was receiving all the channels at over 90% signal strength. Then Fox and The WB channels dropped to about 83% and they were no longer watchable. I figured it was Comcasts' fault because they were sending a weak signal.

But just recently I bought a new LCD TV with a built in QAM tuner and it can pick up every channel with absolutely no sign of stuttering. It also displays the titles correctly for the music stations whereas the fusion5 card displays black screens.

I ended up having to use a rooftop antenna with the Fusion5 card to just pickup the local HDTV stations.

[MrZZZZ]

I want to add another HDTV tuner to my PC so I can record two shows at once. Will the FusionHDTV5 Gold card work okay with another HDTV tuner? THe 2 pci slots on my motherboard are filled(fusion5+audigy2ZS), so I will have to buy a USB HDTV card.

Do I have to get another Fusion5 or will something like the Vbox CatsEye USB work alongside the Fusion5 I already have? My system is an Athlon64 3200(oc'ed to 2.5ghz) with an ati x800xl.

[tikyle]

I have a FusionHDTV5 Gold card and I need 90% or better to get a watchable tv show on QAM cable. For a while I was receiving all the channels at over 90% signal strength. Then Fox and The WB channels dropped to about 83% and they were no longer watchable. I figured it was Comcasts' fault because they were sending a weak signal.

But just recently I bought a new LCD TV with a built in QAM tuner and it can pick up every channel with absolutely no sign of stuttering. It also displays the titles correctly for the music stations whereas the fusion5 card displays black screens.

I ended up having to use a rooftop antenna with the Fusion5 card to just pickup the local HDTV stations.


What Comcast market are you in?
Also if you're splitting your signal w/ your HSI it may hurt the performance of both.

[ColdBrew]

Putting a high bandwidth componant on USB bus is a bad ideal. You would be better off unsing one of the internal cards. My 0.02 worth.

The Fusion 5 USB isn't high bandwidth compared to USB2. USB 2 supports up to 480 megabit.

[ColdBrew]

I'm trying to get 3 fusion 5 USB tuners to work but so far can only get two at a time to work.

For the guys running multiple USB tuners here, what powered HUB do you recommend?

I currently have a cheap no name brand.

I'm thinking either the Linksys 4 port USB2HUB4 or the Belkin 7 port F5U237V1.

[obeewaan]

What Comcast market are you in?
Also if you're splitting your signal w/ your HSI it may hurt the performance of both.

Southwest US.

I am splitting High Speed Internet and HD signals on one cable input.

How should I connect them ?

But, when I was watching, I wasnt using internet.

Or, should I disable internet when watching HD ? :confused:

[MikeSM]

Ok folks, I'm back. Still have the problem. I have reinstalled/set to defaults my BIOS. Reinstalled windows from scratch. Loaded up the Nforce chipset drivers, and still have the problem. I then disabled the 1394 controller in the BIOS, as well as the IRDA and Yukon ethernet controller. Everything is off. It still can't seem to find the proper drivers.

Can someone with an Fusion HDTV5 RT Lite tell me what a good install is supposed to look like in the device manager, under sounds, video and game controllers? I want to know if the ones listed in the manual are correct, because it doesn't seem to match what 3.41 wants to install when i tell it to "install lite driver". I want to verify I am not missing something about what is the correct driver that should be loaded here.

This is all very odd.

Thanks,
mike

[TPeterson]

Mike, did you look at this DViCO FAQ page (http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/Support/FAQInstallation.aspx?act=RD&id=235&pg=0&CATID=10&SCATID=56)? It doesn't show the RT explicitly, but I think you'll see the pattern--and from your descriptions it doesn't sound to me as though you're even close to a good installation. IIRC, you said that you succeeded in installing it on a different PC, right? If so, then there's a serious incompatibility with this PC.

[MikeSM]

Mike, did you look at this DViCO FAQ page (http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/Support/FAQInstallation.aspx?act=RD&id=235&pg=0&CATID=10&SCATID=56)? It doesn't show the RT explicitly, but I think you'll see the pattern--and from your descriptions it doesn't sound to me as though you're even close to a good installation. IIRC, you said that you succeeded in installing it on a different PC, right? If so, then there's a serious incompatibility with this PC.

Right, that's what I am looking for. Hopefully someone with an RT Lite will read this and post the correct settings. I told it to load the LG driver and ignore the fact it didn't match the hardware setting. The funny thing, is that it seems have taken. IRQ's are assigned, and the devices appear functional after a reboot. But the application doesn't work inidcating something is wrong. Hence my query as to what the RT Lite configuration is supposed to look like.

Yes, it worked in another system, so its something odd about this machine.

Thanks,
mike

[KAXKID]

Right, that's what I am looking for. Hopefully someone with an RT Lite will read this and post the correct settings. I told it to load the LG driver and ignore the fact it didn't match the hardware setting. The funny thing, is that it seems have taken. IRQ's are assigned, and the devices appear functional after a reboot. But the application doesn't work inidcating something is wrong. Hence my query as to what the RT Lite configuration is supposed to look like.

Yes, it worked in another system, so its something odd about this machine.

Thanks,
mike
seems like you have the answer in front of you. look at the working machine, that's what it's "supposed to look like".

in fact, it might be nice to have a screen dump of the driver list etc, of the working system posted here for future reference since the RTLite is not specifically documented on the dvico faq.

[MikeSM]

seems like you have the answer in front of you. look at the working machine, that's what it's "supposed to look like".

in fact, it might be nice to have a screen dump of the driver list etc, of the working system posted here for future reference since the RTLite is not specifically documented on the dvico faq.

I was hoping not to have to take it out and take down my wife's system again. :-) Everything else in the house is a laptop or server.

Thanks,
mike

[KAXKID]

I was hoping not to have to take it out and take down my wife's system again. :-) Everything else in the house is a laptop or server.

Thanks,
mike
from your earlier symptom list of the non-working system, you need to fix it before the RT will install properly anyhow. do you have another spare HD to do a new windows install in the non-working system so you can rule out a messed up os installation? if that doesn't work, it looks like the mb is broken.

[MikeSM]

from your earlier symptom list of the non-working system, you need to fix it before the RT will install properly anyhow. do you have another spare HD to do a new windows install in the non-working system so you can rule out a messed up os installation? if that doesn't work, it looks like the mb is broken.

I have full nightly backups going back two months of all the systems in the house (I backup to disk), so I just reformatted the system and reinstalled XP and loaded the nforce chipset drivers, knowing I can bring it back to original state later. Even with the fusion card removed, the yukon ethernet and the 1394 controller hung off the PCI bus fail to install and operate correctly.

This makes me think it's the motherboard, which is hard to believe as it's very fast and works just fine except for this issue. On the off chance it's something windows related, I am now downloading the Suse 10.1 Linux Live DVD. This distribution has drivers for the yukon and the 1394 interface builtin, and so I will attempt to boot this DVD and see if Linux can init and configure the hardware. If it doesn't either, it's a mobo fault. If it works, then I am going to open up a nice bottle of red wine, drink it all down and then send hate mail to MSFT. :-)

If you have any other ideas, please send them along. I have wasted so much time debugging this it's not funny, but I get focused on these things and I will not give up until I understand what is going on.

Thanks
Mike

[MrZZZZ]

What Comcast market are you in?
Also if you're splitting your signal w/ your HSI it may hurt the performance of both.

I'm in central NJ. I tried connecting the cable coming into the house directly to the Fusion5. I get exactly the same poor signal strengths as I do when going thru the splitter. I am using a Monster 2ghz splitter.

[tikyle]

I'm in central NJ. I tried connecting the cable coming into the house directly to the Fusion5. I get exactly the same poor signal strengths as I do when going thru the splitter. I am using a Monster 2ghz splitter.


Try getting Comcast to boost your signal. When I only had HSI with them they were sending me too strong a signal and the HSI went out of wack. So maybe you're using more bandwidth than they've got you setup for. They actually have to come out and turn it up at the box going into your house.

[maxpan]

Below is my solution to DVICO Fusion 5 Lite (RT) stuttering issues. From
what I've read so far, it will not help everyone, but hopefully will be useful.

System: MB Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 (rev. 2.0), Athlon XP 3200+, X850Pro AGP,
WinXP

I had a card for about a month, and it worked fine before I re-installed XP on a
new SATA drive connected to MB built-in Silicon Image 3512 controller. Since then
everytime there was a disk access I had a ~1sec freeze while viewing QAM
channels. And since my page file was on the same disk, it was unbearable.
I was sure my signal was strong and CPU was never out of %50 load boundaries.
I rebooted to my old IDE drive system and stuttering disappeared, though was
reproducible if I accessed SATA drive. Recording to this drive was out of the
question (and I bought it specifically for this purpose).

After the problem was discovered, I've searched the net and tried every option
possible: disabled most devices in BIOS, plugged Fusion 5 to every possible
PCI slot (btw irq conflict was never an issue), reconfigured WinXP for standard
PC, used all the latest software, drivers, and BIOSes (I went as far as updating
my MB BIOS with a custom version to include SI 3512 4.3.79 BIOS module).
No matter what I did the Fusion tuner was stuttering whenever SATA drive was
accessed.

I don't want to think about how much time I spent trying to resolve this.... Finally
I did something that worked - I switched the access mode for my drive from
UDMA-6 to PIO-4 (using Sililcon Image software) and now all the stuttering is
gone. Completely. It can play live, time-shift, record, you name it... Flawless.
The problem? 20MB/s limitation (or is it 16MB/s?) of PIO-4. Can't go any faster.
It's still fine as a media drive to record and play but noticebly slower as the
system drive (read: forget about 15-sec XP boot times).

I don't know what's the real issue beyond this (DMA conflict?). Hopefully it can
be fixed in DVICO drivers, but in a meanwhile I recommend folks with Silicon
Image based SATA controllers to try this. You can get the software from
Silicon Image website (will not allow me to post a link).

[TPeterson]

Thanks, maxpan, for confirming the SI SATA stuttering problem with the PIO tack. Others have posted on the Forum about stuttering with SATA drives specifically with the SI controller, but yours is the most conclusive that I've seen.

BTW, there are utilities from the HDD vendors to limit the drive to a specific UDMA speed. Did you try using that to see if a slower UDMA access would avoid the stutters/pauses?

[KAXKID]

Below is my solution to DVICO Fusion 5 Lite (RT) stuttering issues. From
what I've read so far, it will not help everyone, but hopefully will be useful.

System: MB Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 (rev. 2.0), Athlon XP 3200+, X850Pro AGP,
WinXP

I had a card for about a month, and it worked fine before I re-installed XP on a
new SATA drive connected to MB built-in Silicon Image 3512 controller. Since then
everytime there was a disk access I had a ~1sec freeze while viewing QAM
channels. And since my page file was on the same disk, it was unbearable.
I was sure my signal was strong and CPU was never out of %50 load boundaries.
I rebooted to my old IDE drive system and stuttering disappeared, though was
reproducible if I accessed SATA drive. Recording to this drive was out of the
question (and I bought it specifically for this purpose).

After the problem was discovered, I've searched the net and tried every option
possible: disabled most devices in BIOS, plugged Fusion 5 to every possible
PCI slot (btw irq conflict was never an issue), reconfigured WinXP for standard
PC, used all the latest software, drivers, and BIOSes (I went as far as updating
my MB BIOS with a custom version to include SI 3512 4.3.79 BIOS module).
No matter what I did the Fusion tuner was stuttering whenever SATA drive was
accessed.

I don't want to think about how much time I spent trying to resolve this.... Finally
I did something that worked - I switched the access mode for my drive from
UDMA-6 to PIO-4 (using Sililcon Image software) and now all the stuttering is
gone. Completely. It can play live, time-shift, record, you name it... Flawless.
The problem? 20MB/s limitation (or is it 16MB/s?) of PIO-4. Can't go any faster.
It's still fine as a media drive to record and play but noticebly slower as the
system drive (read: forget about 15-sec XP boot times).

I don't know what's the real issue beyond this (DMA conflict?). Hopefully it can
be fixed in DVICO drivers, but in a meanwhile I recommend folks with Silicon
Image based SATA controllers to try this. You can get the software from
Silicon Image website (will not allow me to post a link).
this info should help a lot of users. i'm glad to see that someone else has also found that irq conflict is not an issue.

thanks for the post, i'll bookmark it for future reference.

[maxpan]

Thanks, maxpan, for confirming the SI SATA stuttering problem with the PIO tack. (I believe PIO4 is 16 Mbit/s (Mbps) though, about 2 MBps rather than 16) Others have posted on the Forum about stuttering with SATA drives specifically with the SI controller, but yours is the most conclusive that I've seen.

In wikiality PIO-4 is 16.7MB/s, so it's not that bad. Maybe <30% slower in real world
applications for my 300GB Seagate (st3300831as) compared to UDMA6 (access times
stay the same). Certainly enough for all existent media streams used by mortals :-)
My problem is that I wanted to get a silent system with just one HD and now it's
a choice between an extra noise generator and a slower system.

BTW, there are utilities from the HDD vendors to limit the drive to a specific UDMA speed. Did you try using that to see if a slower UDMA access would avoid the stutters/pauses?
Using SI tool I did try other DMA modes but in terms of stuttering they were no
different from UDMA6, unfortunately. I think SI tool changes modes in HD itself,
so it wouldn't be different from seagate util, and the setting is persistent across
system reboots and shutdowns.

[TPeterson]

Sorry...brain freeze. Of course PIO is, well, parallel I/O, so it would not be spec'd in bps. :(

However, I don't think I've ever seen it run at nearly 10 MBps...are you sure you're seeing such rates? I wouldn't expect such a rate to slow WinXP loads inordinately. ATSC TS bit rates are never over 2 MBps, so you're right that PIO is able to keep up. It's really just that the CPU overhead is usually unacceptable.

[beowulf7]

...

I don't know what's the real issue beyond this (DMA conflict?). Hopefully it can
be fixed in DVICO drivers, but in a meanwhile I recommend folks with Silicon
Image based SATA controllers to try this. You can get the software from
Silicon Image website (will not allow me to post a link).
Good post, although it's not relevant for me (yet) since I don't have a TV tuner in my computer, let alone DVICO's HDTV tuner.

FYI, I don't think you're allowed to post links until you have 10 or 20 posts (something like that). However, you can bypass that by putting a space before or after the "." in the URL. For example: http :// www . avsforum . com. Most people will know to remove the spaces within the URL. :)

[FranksPlace2]

Try getting Comcast to boost your signal. When I only had HSI with them they were sending me too strong a signal and the HSI went out of wack. So maybe you're using more bandwidth than they've got you setup for. They actually have to come out and turn it up at the box going into your house.

tikyle,

Thanks for the suggestion. My PQ (Analog & Dogital) seems random and have been trying to dcide what to do. I didn't know it was controlled locally.

Frank

[obeewaan]

Below is my solution to DVICO Fusion 5 Lite (RT) stuttering issues. From
what I've read so far, it will not help everyone, but hopefully will be useful.

System: MB Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 (rev. 2.0), Athlon XP 3200+, X850Pro AGP,
WinXP

I had a card for about a month, and it worked fine before I re-installed XP on a
new SATA drive connected to MB built-in Silicon Image 3512 controller. Since then
everytime there was a disk access I had a ~1sec freeze while viewing QAM
channels.

I don't want to think about how much time I spent trying to resolve this.... Finally
I did something that worked - I switched the access mode for my drive from
UDMA-6 to PIO-4 (using Sililcon Image software) and now all the stuttering is
gone. Completely. It can play live, time-shift, record, you name it... Flawless.
The problem? 20MB/s limitation (or is it 16MB/s?) of PIO-4. Can't go any faster.
It's still fine as a media drive to record and play but noticebly slower as the
system drive (read: forget about 15-sec XP boot times).

.

Maxpan, Thank you verymuch for your great research !!!

I have Asus K8VSE with Athlon 64XP3200, 1 GB RAM and Geforce FX 5900 (128MB).

I am about to add 2 SATA 150 MB/s drives to my PC for storage.

I looked in Asus manual and VIA website (K8T800 chipset) but no avail about the info of my SATA 150 controller.(whether its a Silicon Image controller :confused: )

How can I findout this info ?
Also, how do I switch access mode of SATA? in BIOS?

thanks

[maxpan]

Maxpan, Thank you verymuch for your great research !!!

I have Asus K8VSE with Athlon 64XP3200, 1 GB RAM and Geforce FX 5900 (128MB).

I am about to add 2 SATA 150 MB/s drives to my PC for storage.

I looked in Asus manual and VIA website (K8T800 chipset) but no avail about the info of my SATA 150 controller.(whether its a Silicon Image controller :confused: )
Quickly checked: you have one built in your south bridge, and maybe another one
on a Promise chipset, so no need to worry. Info should be in your MB manual.


How can I findout this info ?
Also, how do I switch access mode of SATA? in BIOS?
thanks
If you wish to switch, most HDD manufactures provide utilities (normally put
on a bootable floppy disk). I, however, used the utility made by my controller
manafacture (not sure if others provide the same though).

[poster]

Does the FusionHDTV5 USB Gold work with satellite(Dish Network) or is it just for digital cable. I just want to be able to save some TV programs(sports, other shows) to my hard drive in HDTV. Is this tuner a good option for me. I haven't seen too many that capture HDTV. Thanks for any help anyone can provide this noob! :)

[TPeterson]

poster--

No. All of the standard PC tuner widgets are for OTA and a few, such as the FusionHDTV ones, also handle cable clear QAM. For satellite, you need to use the providers' hardware (or some sort of bootleg device that can't be talked about in this forum and about which I know nothing specific).

[poster]

poster--

No. All of the standard PC tuner widgets are for OTA and a few, such as the FusionHDTV ones, also handle cable clear QAM. For satellite, you need to use the providers' hardware (or some sort of bootleg device that can't be talked about in this forum and about which I know nothing specific).

Thanks for the reply. Is satellite not considered OTA? I guess I dont get the difference between digital cable and satellite in that respect. I don't want to do anything shady to get this to work, is there any other options for satellite users that are looking to do what I am trying to do?

[TPeterson]

"OTA" (Over the Air) is synonymous with "broadcast TV", aka "FTA" (Free to Air) which is not satellite or cable.

[poster]

"OTA" (Over the Air) is synonymous with "broadcast TV", aka "FTA" (Free to Air) which is not satellite or cable.

Thanks TPeterson for the help. I have been reading up and it makes sense to me now. I guess I just have to buy one of these TV tuners knowing that they will not work in capturing HD from satellite. Take care!

[arcticool]

Kaxkid-
Thanks for the setup tips, working fine now.

Maxpan-
Good job troubleshooting, hopefully that will help some folks with the stutter issue. I still think the drivers have some issues with IRQs though, since randomly swapping cards around several times eventually fixed it for me.

BTW, has anyone gotten a Remote Wonder working with this card? Maybe I should start a seperate thread and bump it every few weeks...
Thanks,

AC

[replay_boy]

This may be a dumb question but if I am using Windows Media Center and recording cable shows, can I add the Fusion 5 to the media center and record OTA High-Def? Basically, does Windows Media Center allow me to have a cable channel line-up and a OTA channel line-up as well?

My Replay could handle this. (but not high-def)

Thanks,

Replay_Boy

[Bruce Embry]

This may be a dumb question but if I am using Windows Media Center and recording cable shows, can I add the Fusion 5 to the media center and record OTA High-Def? Basically, does Windows Media Center allow me to have a cable channel line-up and a OTA channel line-up as well?

My Replay could handle this. (but not high-def)

Thanks,

Replay_Boy

YES!!!!

[videojanitor]

Hi folks! This is my first post in this particular thread. I picked up a FusionHDTV5 USB Gold a few weeks ago -- the thing works, but I find that it becomes very unstable with 1080i material.

As an example, if I engage the "time-shifting" mode while watching a 1080i station, the window goes to black and that's all she wrote. If I try to change the channel, all I get is an "Overlay Not Available" message. The only way to clear it is to exit the program and re-launch it. I can RECORD a 1080i program then play the file later with no problems, though the program seems very touchy -- if I so much as press a key on the keyboard, it will hang and has to be dumped from the Task Manager.

Just wondering if this might be a sign that my video card is not quite up to the task? I have an nVidia GeForce FX5200, which as near as I can tell, is on the list of cards that should work. The PC is a Dell P4, 2.8GHz, 1GB RAM and two Seagate 160GB SATA drives.

No issues at all with 720p stations. Anything to point me in the right direction would be appreciated!

[TPeterson]

The issue seems to be video-driver related. Are you using DxVA mode or sw mode? Your machine actually should do OK with sw mode, so I'd give that a try.

Otherwise, you could try reinstalling either the same nVidia driver or a newer/older one to see if that might play better with FusionHDTV.

Also, if you have dual monitors, try disabling that in the driver to see if the problems are related to the multimonitor configuration.

[videojanitor]

The issue seems to be video-driver related. Are you using DxVA mode or sw mode? Your machine actually should do OK with sw mode, so I'd give that a try.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll admit to being a bit dumb about this -- how do I know which mode I am using? Are you referring to the "Decoder Option" in the "video configuration" screen? If so, I have that set to "Zulu HDTV Decoder." If I select the "Zulu HDTV (DvXA) Decoder" mode, then I can't see 1080i content at ALL. Just black.

I only have one monitor, connected via DVI, so that eliminates the possible dual-monitor problem. I'll give your driver re-install/update/downgrade suggestion a try.

Thanks!

[TPeterson]

Yes, that's the setting I meant. Another thing to check is the AGP aperture in your PC's BIOS. That should be set to at least as big as the DRAM size of your FX5200.

[videojanitor]

Another thing to check is the AGP aperture in your PC's BIOS. That should be set to at least as big as the DRAM size of your FX5200.

I checked it, and it's set to 128MB, which matches what is on the card. Is there any advantage to setting it to 256MB?

Also, I installed the latest nVidia driver -- it seems to be somewhat more stable, but still just goes to black if I click the "time-shifting" icon while viewing 1080i. It doesn't seem to crash though. I can now stop it and change the channel to get video back.

[TPeterson]

I doubt that there's any but, hey, it wouldn't hurt to try it to see what happens.

Glad to hear that you've eliminated the crashing problem anyway. Does DxVA mode still not work either?

[videojanitor]

Gotta run off to work right now, but I'll try changing that later tonight. As for the DxVA mode -- correct, I still get nothing at all at 1080i.

[SpokaneDoug]

... all I get is an "Overlay Not Available" message. The only way to clear it is to exit the program and re-launch it.

I had a bunch of "Overlay Not Available" problems when I first got the FusionHDTV RT Gold -- they went away when I switched to a bigger video card. (Then I had insufficient power problems, but that's another story!)

[TPeterson]

Doug, I had a similar thought, which was why I suggested disabling dual monitor mode. But 128 MB for a single monitor should be enough to handle 1080i overlays. (In fact, I have no such problem with a 64-MB MX-440, IIRC)

[videojanitor]

Well, I think the cause just might be insufficient DRAM on my video card. I found that if I change the color depth to 16-bit (instead of 32), everything works fine at 1080i. My monitor is a 19-inch Viewsonic widescreen running at 1440 x 900 -- perhaps this combined with the 32-bit color is just pushing things a bit too far?

[SpokaneDoug]

Well, I think the cause just might be insufficient DRAM on my video card. I found that if I change the color depth to 16-bit (instead of 32), everything works fine at 1080i. My monitor is a 19-inch Viewsonic widescreen running at 1440 x 900 -- perhaps this combined with the 32-bit color is just pushing things a bit too far?

That makes sense -- I was running a 1920x1200 monitor plus a 1024x768 side monitor, both in 32-bit mode. Apparently that was just a bit too much for a 128MB card, resulting in the "Overlay Not Available" error. So either a bigger card or lower resolotion/bit depth provides more memory for the overlay.

[TPeterson]

vj--

Are you sure that you're not running in a dual-monitor mode? I'm running a 1920x1200 monitor on a 128-MB card in 32-bit color (which is less than 10-MB/frame) and I don't see "overlay not available" unless I choose a dual-monitor configuration. If you're really set up for single-monitor output, I'd say that there's a good chance your video card has some bad RAM.

[KAXKID]

vj--

Are you sure that you're not running in a dual-monitor mode? I'm running a 1920x1200 monitor on a 128-MB card in 32-bit color (which is less than 10-MB/frame) and I don't see "overlay not available" unless I choose a dual-monitor configuration. If you're really set up for single-monitor output, I'd say that there's a good chance your video card has some bad RAM.
or a bad/misconfigured video driver.

[videojanitor]

vj--

Are you sure that you're not running in a dual-monitor mode? [...] If you're really set up for single-monitor output, I'd say that there's a good chance your video card has some bad RAM.

As far I know, I'm not. In the display properties, it only shows one monitor, not the dual-monitor setup.

Now what's really weird is, last night, it started working, even when the color was set back to 32-bit. This morning, I tried it again, and now it won't work in either 16 or 32 bit! And by "not working," I mean that it just goes to black if I click the "time-shifting" button. I haven't changed anything between last night and this morning, so I am really stumped.

Still, this is more of a curiosity than anything else, as I don't plan on using this for time-shifting. As long as I can record a stream, I'm good to go -- and that it WILL do.

[TPeterson]

Waitaminnit...you're saying that the display is OK in 1080i unless you click on TimeShifting? That's a different kettle. Make sure that you have adequate space on the TS-buffer HDD and that it's defragged (and using UDMA mode).

[videojanitor]

Yes ... 1080i displays fine except when engaging the time-shifting mode. The drive I am using as the buffer drive has 100GB of free space -- I haven't de-fragged it in awhile, but according to XP's Disk Management, it's only 6% fragmented. As for UDMA, how do I check that?

[TPeterson]

Device Manager, properties for IDE Controller (assuming it's not a SATA HDD).

[tikyle]

I've just officially joined the DVICO family and I'm having the same problem as videojanitor. I just installed the card last night and didn't have too long to play w/ it but everything ran cool except when I put time shifting on. When that was engaged my picture disappeared but my audio stayed.

Also I found that when I recorded something in HD when I played it on a media player (that's not the Fusion player) at the top there is some sort of white distortion or fuzzy border only at the top of the video but when replayed in Fusion software it looks perfect.

[tikyle]

Can anyone tell me how to begin using zap2it or xmltv program?

First off what certicate code do I need for record_this?
How do I use xmltv?
How do I find QAM channels on zap2it?

I know how to run the program in dos but I don't know how to USE the prog.

[KAXKID]

Can anyone tell me how to begin using zap2it or xmltv program?

First off what certicate code do I need for record_this?
How do I use xmltv?
How do I find QAM channels on zap2it?

I know how to run the program in dos but I don't know how to USE the prog.
i posted a little help on this when i first got started with RT and fusion use here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7679731&&#post7679731

also for further help regarding RT search in the RT thread here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6350329&&#post6350329

[TPeterson]

I've just officially joined the DVICO family and I'm having the same problem as videojanitor. I just installed the card last night and didn't have too long to play w/ it but everything ran cool except when I put time shifting on. When that was engaged my picture disappeared but my audio stayed.

Also I found that when I recorded something in HD when I played it on a media player (that's not the Fusion player) at the top there is some sort of white distortion or fuzzy border only at the top of the video but when replayed in Fusion software it looks perfect.Follow the same advice I gave vj regarding your TimeShift buffer HDD.

The "noise" at the top of the video frame is NTSC "Line 21" data that sometimes finds its way onto ATSC feeds in error. It's the broadcaster's error. You don't see it using FusionHDTV unless you change its default overscan top-border clipping from 10 (IIRC) to 0.

[videojanitor]

Device Manager, properties for IDE Controller (assuming it's not a SATA HDD).

Whoops ... it is a SATA drive. Anything to check there?

[TPeterson]

Dunno, vj, I've no SATA experience myself but have seen tales of woe here and there on AVS Forum about using them with HTPCs. Can you try putting your Timeshift buffer on a PATA drive? (I assume that you tried defragging even though MSFT said it wasn't needed?)

[mshan]

Anybody got a downlink for 3.42web (apparently the one that is supposed to be most stable?)

[TPeterson]

mshan--

3.42 is a Korean beta that offers nothing to U.S. users over the "official" 3.41 on the FusionHDTV website.

[Fast351]

I run a SATA drive with my HTPC and I have never had an issue with it. I do timeshifting, I even have two Fusion cards in there.

Of course I am using Beyond TV and not the stuff included with the cards.

[TPeterson]

Fast351--

What make is your SATA controller? The problems that I've seen reported most often mention that they have a Silicon Image contoller. (vj: same question for you, please)

[Fast351]

It's an Asus A8M-VM CSM motherboard. From the website it says it's the NVIDIA® nForce™ 430 MCP Southbridge chip. Not sure if that is the info you're looking for...

[TPeterson]

Yes, if you're using the SATA controller integrated into the Southbridge, it's not the SI one.

[dvgeek]

Does the FusionHDTV5 USB Gold work with satellite(Dish Network) or is it just for digital cable. I just want to be able to save some TV programs(sports, other shows) to my hard drive in HDTV. Is this tuner a good option for me. I haven't seen too many that capture HDTV. Thanks for any help anyone can provide this noob! :)
Poster - Search the forum for the R5000 - there is a separate thread. There is a device that can attach to the USB port of your PC to record TS / MPG streams from Satellite

[videojanitor]

Can you try putting your Timeshift buffer on a PATA drive? (I assume that you tried defragging even though MSFT said it wasn't needed?)

Yes I can have -- I have a couple of PATA drives laying around. I'll do that this weekend when I have some time. I did defrag -- didn't make any difference.

As for the make of the SATA controller, I can't seem to find that info. In Device Manager, there's nothing obvious that seems to be that. However, it does seem to be an Intel motherboard, as virtually all of the other chipsets are shown as Intel devices.

[TPeterson]

Isn't there a DM entry for the SATA controller? What does that say? Alternatively, what is the mobo brand and model number? The vendor's website likely will say what chips it uses.

[videojanitor]

Isn't there a DM entry for the SATA controller? What does that say? Alternatively, what is the mobo brand and model number? The vendor's website likely will say what chips it uses.

If there's an entry for it, it's not obvious to me. I don't see the letters "SATA" or anything like that anywhere. Under the IDE/ATA/ATAPI Controllers section though it shows "Intel 8280 1EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers" -- I assume that's for the IDE channels.

As for the mobo brand/model, hard to tell because it's a little crowded in the case. It's got DELL stickers on it, but I can't see anything else.

[TPeterson]

If there's an entry for it, it's not obvious to me. I don't see the letters "SATA" or anything like that anywhere. Under the IDE/ATA/ATAPI Controllers section though it shows "Intel 8280 1EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers" -- I assume that's for the IDE channels.

As for the mobo brand/model, hard to tell because it's a little crowded in the case. It's got DELL stickers on it, but I can't see anything else.That's it. That's the controller chip (ICH5) with SATA included. See:

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/865g/index.htm

Is there another device in that group that gives information about the settings for the SATA drive? Or an "advanced" tab on the properties for that device? That might give you a place to start figuring out if its correctly set or not.

The mobo brand is "Dell"--likely it's custom made by Intel for them.

[thegoldenstrand]

Hi,

I have installed and reinstalled the 3.41 drivers for my Dvico Fusion HDTV5 RT gold card.. and it is never enough for my Windows XP install.. video capture driver keeps showing up missing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

[thegoldenstrand]

oh.. I followed Kaxkids install and uninstall the last couple times to the letter as far as I know..

[KAXKID]

Hi,

I have installed and reinstalled the 3.41 drivers for my Dvico Fusion HDTV5 RT gold card.. and it is never enough for my Windows XP install.. video capture driver keeps showing up missing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike
what other symptoms are you experiencing? where is the info coming from that says the video capture driver is missing?

what shows in the device manager listing for "sound, video and game controllers"? can you post a screen dump of that listing? the RT cards seem to be giving problems on install for some people, maybe with a little more input, something will show up that will make it easier to help.

[thegoldenstrand]

I had a few other conflicts.. the samsung magic tune conflicted with the ati video card.. x1900xtx

all I know is.. that the video capture driver would show up missing.. kind of random, but once it is gone.. it is gone.

it was the wdm video capture driver..

in regards to waiting for all to load.. on my pc.. black screen surrounds all.. I can't see anything else that is happening..

I kept getting install new hardware message.. and sometimes.. computer would only boot up if I at least hit something.. f8.. would work.. as would delete..

if you ever get a Samsung 244T Monitor.. do not install magic tunes with the Ati drivers.. or a X1900... resolution goes to terrible.. and you cannot move around your screen unless you are lucky to remove the software.

anyway.. I will report back.. just got tired of the wdm video capture device not being recognized and showing NO driver.

Mike

[videojanitor]

Is there another device in that group that gives information about the settings for the SATA drive? Or an "advanced" tab on the properties for that device? That might give you a place to start figuring out if its correctly set or not.

Couldn't find anything like that, but I did notice that although I thought I had assigned my D: drive as the time-shift drive, it was actually set for C:. I changed it to D: and now it works. When I click the time-shift button, I just get a brief video freeze, and then it goes into time-shift mode.

Then I tried changing it back to C:, but instead of using the default folder that it had selected, I made a new folder in the root directory. Pointed it to that, and then it worked from C: as well. Go figure!

[TPeterson]

Glad that you solved your problem. Thanks for letting us know. I expect that you'll have more success with the timeshift buffer in the long run if it's not on the same drive as your Windows paging file (which is probably also on C: ). But if C: and D: are both on the same HDD, it won't matter much which of those two volumes you assign it to.

[videojanitor]

Glad that you solved your problem.

Well, as usual, I spoke too soon! I tried using it again this morning, and now it is back to the same old thing. I tried changing the time-shift drive back to D: (which is a separate drive), but with the same result. Weird! The only thing I've done between last night and this morning was to unplug it from the USB port, and plug it back in.

I don't want to waste your time anymore than I already have, so I will just continue to tinker with thing until I solve the mystery. If I find a solution that sticks, I'll post it.

Thanks for your help!

[TPeterson]

vj, I'd forgotten that you were dealing with a USB tuner. Another thing to try with that is to plug it into a USB 2.0 powered hub. Others have found that some PC USB ports don't supply quite enough juice for this unit and cause various strange behaviors. I don't know, but I speculate that your symptoms could come from that source too.

[videojanitor]

Thanks, I will give that a try as well. Of course, that means I have to go out and buy one, but that's a good thing to keep around anyway. I had originally debated whether to buy the USB or PCI version, and didn't really see anyone saying that one worked better than the other, so I went with the USB.

[Paw Paw]

Is there any way in the Fusion (or 3rd party) software to remap the clear QAM channels to the channel numbers that my cable provider uses. The channel numbers that Fusion assigns using the channel and subchannel numbers are very confusing when you have numerous clear QAM channels.

[TPeterson]

No. (Unless you write your own "3rd party" sw. I don't know about the Linux sw)

[ColdBrew]

I received my 3rd Fusion 5 USB tuner a couple of weeks ago and have been unable to get it to work with my other 2.

My original 2 tuners (one bought when they were released and the second one a few months later) are only stable in my system if I'm running v3.2 of the drivers. Running the 3.41 drivers causes my USB controller to eventually (within 24 hours) disconnect all devices connected to it. But windows doesn't even know that the devices are no long there. They still show up in the device manager.

My new (3rd) tuner won't work with the v3.2 drivers. The analog tuner works fine, but the digital tuner won't display any video. It will show 100% signal strength and a good DB reception, but won't actually show anything. It can't even decode the channel name and number. But it works fine with the 3.41 drivers.

Put all 3 together with either the 3.2 or 3.41 and I can't get them to work together. There are two peticular tuners that don't like each other for some reason.

I installed the 3.2 drivers (new 3rd tuner doesn't work) but the 2 older tuners do. I then run windows update and let it update the drivers to 6.0.91.0 (not sure how they get this version number anyone know what this is from? 3.41?). But it only updated 2 of the tuners. 1 of the tuners is running 1.1.6.0 (3.2 on their web site). It is weird that different tuners are running different version of the drivers.

But it work! I was able to get all 3 tuner to work together, but over night the USB contoller disconnect all it's devices... I guess it doesn't like the windows update supplied drivers.

Anyone got any ideas. I can still send this new tuner back for a refund or replacement. Did they change something since the original tuners were released? The new one isn't behaving like the old ones...

Maybe I could try 3.2 on the old tuners and 3.41 on the new tuner, but that might still miss up my USB controller. What would be great is if I could get them all to work using drivers 3.2.

BTW I haven't tried any other drivers besides 3.2, 3.41, and 3.42...

TIA.

[BobSalita]

FWIW, 3.41 gets a BSOD in Windows Vista RC1. The blue screen reports an interrupt error in bluebird2.sys.

[TPeterson]

ColdBrew--

So you have 3 "identical" F5 USB units purchased at different times and they won't all (individually) run using the 3.41 software. Do I have that right?

[ColdBrew]

ColdBrew--

So you have 3 "identical" F5 USB units purchased at different times and they won't all (individually) run using the 3.41 software. Do I have that right?


They will all run using 3.41 but eventually the drivers will causes all my USB devices to be disconnected, even though Windows can't tell the devices are no longer available (USB hubs link lights are off).

The newest tuner will NOT work when tuning a digital station using v3.2 drivers.

[TPeterson]

Does the disconnection occur only if you have all 3 hooked up? How are the units connected to the PC (all through one hub, more than one hub, some direct, etc.)?

Oh, and just to be sure I understand your testing, the newest unit fails to tune DTV stations using 3.2 sw when it is the only one connected to the PC, right?

[ColdBrew]

Does the disconnection occur only if you have all 3 hooked up? How are the units connected to the PC (all through one hub, more than one hub, some direct, etc.)?

Oh, and just to be sure I understand your testing, the newest unit fails to tune DTV stations using 3.2 sw when it is the only one connected to the PC, right?

It has disconnected while using just the older 2 tuners and using drivers 3.41 and 3.42. I haven't tried it with just 1 tuner. It is difficult to test because it can take up to 24 hours before the disconnection happens.

I did have them all, the tuners, connected directly to the PC but yestarday I received two new Belkin Tetra hubs and I moved them to the new hub. They seem to behave the same either way.

Yes the new unit fails to tune DTV stations using 3.2 software when it is the ONLY tuner connected to the system.

thanks for the help.

[TPeterson]

So the disconnection events so far were all with at least two units, both connected directly to the PC, because you only just got the hub, right?

(What I'm working on is the hypothesis that the disconnection is caused by overloading the USB port(s) and that so far seems consistent with what I know of your observations)

Please bear with me and try running with the three tuners connected, one each, to the PC and the two hubs until you would expect the disconnection to occur.

Meanwhile, I'll ask my DViCo contact about whether or not they know of production changes in the F5USB and problems between the newer units and the 3.2 sw.

[Fast351]

How about setting your HTPC computer to reboot every night when you're not using it? I'm doing that now with mine because of some slow leaking applications I'm running on it and I couldn't be happier. There are freeware applications out there that do exactly that.

Just a suggestion.

-Mike

[ColdBrew]

So the disconnection events so far were all with at least two units, both connected directly to the PC, because you only just got the hub, right?

(What I'm working on is the hypothesis that the disconnection is caused by overloading the USB port(s) and that so far seems consistent with what I know of your observations)

Please bear with me and try running with the three tuners connected, one each, to the PC and the two hubs until you would expect the disconnection to occur.

Meanwhile, I'll ask my DViCo contact about whether or not they know of production changes in the F5USB and problems between the newer units and the 3.2 sw.

Yes it also disconnected while using the new hubs (it did it last night). But I might add that when everything disconnected last night, BeyondTV was not recording any TV shows. I did load BTV and record 2 digital shows while watching a 3rd to make sure they were all working. But then I stopped all recordings and woke up to all the USB devices disconnected.

I'm starting to wonder if it could have anything to do with my HP AVC-3610 (dual USB SD tuner).

I think I might try disconnecting the AVC-3610 tuner and see if the problem goes away. Of course I don't like the idea of losing that tuner but it would be nice to figure out the problem.

The problem with the 3.2 drivers really does have me confused. I was ready to ship the tuner back as defective when I thought I would try the 3.41 drivers just to make sure that didn't have anything to do with it. Of course it worked with the 3.41 drivers, so that ruled out it being defective.

One thing weird is that after going from 3.2 drivers to 3.41 drivers I have to move the fusion tuners around to different USB ports before they will work without locking up the computer (even after I reboot). It is a strange issue and was one reason I stuck with the 3.2 drivers (3.41 drivers would cause instant lockup when the tuner was used). I never could get the 3.41 drivers to work before until I figured this out.

I do have 8 USB devices (not counting hubs) connected to the controller, but it should be able to handle 127 (I think).

[ColdBrew]

How about setting your HTPC computer to reboot every night when you're not using it? I'm doing that now with mine because of some slow leaking applications I'm running on it and I couldn't be happier. There are freeware applications out there that do exactly that.

Just a suggestion.

-Mike

During the night the computer encodes all my mpeg2 and TS videos to xvid. The thing is it is very stable with the two fusion tuners, but add that 3rd and it all breaks.

[Fast351]

During the night the computer encodes all my mpeg2 and TS videos to xvid. The thing is it is very stable with the two fusion tuners, but add that 3rd and it all breaks.

Yeah mine does too. It's set to start at 2am. So I reboot at 1:50am every night.

Does suck about the tuners. I was looking to pick up a USB tuner because I'm out of card slots in my HTPC (miniatx). I might have to reconsider that.

[TPeterson]

OK, if the disconnection happened with the hubs too, my hypothesis is junked. Mike's suggestion that it may be a resource leak is a good possibility (although your observation that the system is stable with only the two tuners argues against that--unless that was only with the older sw?). Restarting automatically once a day may be a workable approach....

[jimwhite]

just a note on the Adaptec 3610..... with the exception of once not waking up from S3, mine has not caused any unusual USB problems....

:cool:

[ColdBrew]

OK, if the disconnection happened with the hubs too, my hypothesis is junked. Mike's suggestion that it may be a resource leak is a good possibility (although your observation that the system is stable with only the two tuners argues against that--unless that was only with the older sw?). Restarting automatically once a day may be a workable approach....

Right now I'm trying other versions of drivers. Maybe there is one between 3.2 and 3.41 that all the tuners like.

[TPeterson]

CB--

My DViCo contact was unaware of this problem and suspects that you have a defective unit, but he's checking to find out if there was a production change that may explain your observation.

[ColdBrew]

CB--

My DViCo contact was unaware of this problem and suspects that you have a defective unit, but he's checking to find out if there was a production change that may explain your observation.

thanks for finding out. I have until next wed or so to get it replaced with a new one if I need to.

[skibum5000]

I can recieve digital OTA HD (and analog) just fine, as well as cable analog. but when i try to get digital channels, it will display maybe a frame or two pause maybe here a second or two of audio every few seconds to every few minutes and that is it.

just can't seem to get it to work with digital cable. signal strength seems to be very strong with cable too, like 33-34dB, so it's certainly getting something, that what it reports.

[TPeterson]

...with digital cable. signal strength seems to be very strong...33-34dB....That may be too strong and you're actually overloading the tuner frontend. Try putting in an attenuator (or a few multi-way splitters) to cut the signal level by 10-20 dB. (NB: doing this will not cut the FusionHDTV's "signal strength" reading by the same amount, if at all, but you'll be driving the input circuit at a much lower voltage, which may give fewer problems)

[ColdBrew]

Just an update.

I was able to get the 3 fusion tuners to appear happy by switching to v3.30.01 drivers. But of course things didn't go exactly as they should. I ran 3.2 driver uninstaller, but even after a reboot windows seemed to recognize the fusion tuner even though it had the "!" and wouldn't work. It should have prompted me to install drivers, but it didn't. So I did the update driver method through the device manager for all 3 tuners. But 1 of the tuners (I bet it was the new one) still showed the version of driver from windows update. Maybe the driver uninstaller fusion supplies can't get rid of those???

I really don't think you can have two different version of drivers installed since it appears that each device is using the same files...

But either way after doing the driver updates with 3.30.01, and shuffling the tuners around on the different USB ports (so they don't lockup when used), they seem to all work fine. I checked the new one on its own using fusionHDTV software v3.2 (I didn't uninstall the software when I uninstalled the 3.2 drivers), it it worked like it was supposted to.

BeyondTV seemed happy with the 3 tuners also... So after it did some recording it appeared that now I had problems with my SD tuners. BTV's recording processes were hanging during recording... ARGGG.. So I moved the USB SD tuner 3610 off of the HUB with the fusion tuners and plugged that directly in to the PC...

That seems to have solved my problems (so far). It has now been running over 24 hours without disconnecting my USB devices and BTV's recording processes haven't hung.

It appears that switching to 3.30.01 drivers and separating the 3610 from the other fusion tuners seems to have fixed it. I can't say for sure yet. If it goes a week with no problems, I'll call it fixed. Of course I'm affraid to touch anything in fear of breaking it again.

But thanks for the input guys!

[TPeterson]

CB--

Do I correctly catch your meaning in the midst of that tale that the new unit actually does work with the 3.2 sw provided it's the only one attached? If so, then the issue is actually with using 3.2 and more than one (USB) unit, right?

Glad that you seem to have a workable arrangement. :)

[ColdBrew]

CB--

Do I correctly catch your meaning in the midst of that tale that the new unit actually does work with the 3.2 sw provided it's the only one attached? If so, then the issue is actually with using 3.2 and more than one (USB) unit, right?

Glad that you seem to have a workable arrangement. :)

No I'm using the drivers included with 3.30.01. Not sure if they are the same as 3.2 or not, but the new tuner did work correctly with 3.30.01.

[TPeterson]

So this was a typo then:I checked the new one on its own using fusionHDTV software v3.2...it worked like it was supposted to.Actually 2 typos, but misspellings don't count around here. ;)

[ColdBrew]

So this was a typo then:Actually 2 typos, but misspellings don't count around here. ;)

Sorry, yes it works with the fusionHDTV software 3.2, but not the drivers that came with 3.2...

Maybe if I had shuffled around the tuners on the USB ports it