[eswrite]

I have WinTV running with a PVR-250 card. The source is from my cable box, which is a bit dirty (noise, mainly). Overall WinTV's PQ doesn't compare badly with what I get from my HDTV when I feed it the cable signal via RF and let it demodulate on its own, but it doesn't look good enough to be a substitute. When viewing at full screen, I see too much pixelation, especially when there's movement. What sort of filters/software would you recommend with WinTV (or to replace WinTV) when using a PVR-250 card? I've heard of Snapstream, but I'm not sure that's quite what I need. Also, I installed ffdshow and tried tinkering with it, but couldn't see any difference in the WinTV output.

 

[jcase]

Try DScaler

 

[eswrite]

 Dscaler is not compatible with the PVR-250.

 

[eswrite]

Wait a minute! I have read here that Dscaler isn't compatible with the PVR-250, but the DScaler FAQ says:

While we can't (and won't) claim "this card is the one you need", here are a few that have been sucessfully used by some users.


- Zoltrix Genie TV http://www.zoltrix-int.com/products/...8MMZXGENIE.htm

- The WinTV series from Hauppage http://www.hauppage.com/html/products.htm

- Guillemot maxi video 3 http://fr.guillemot.com/brand/gamme/...tvvidpci3.html

- The Pinacle Studio PCTV http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=6


Can anyone confirm this? If so, I'm stoked!

 

[boykster]

my regular old wintv card works fine with dscaler...don't have the pvr-250 though, so I can't confirm.


Rich

 

[eswrite]

Okay, this thread pretty much deflates my baloon. Dscaler will work in plug-in form (never as an app) with the PVR-250 only if you are using SageTV as your PVR software front-end.


So... what other solutions do I have at my disposal? ffdshow? Anything else?

 

[Sailn]

DScaler will work with the PVR-250. You just need to use the elecard codec.

 

[eswrite]

Quote:

DScaler will work with the PVR-250. You just need to use the elecard codec.

Okay, getting excited and salivating all over again. So where do I get this elecard codec and how do I install it? Is it freeware? My understanding was it only came with SageTV.

 

[eswrite]

Okay, I found the Elecard codec (MPEG2 decoder) here . No idea whether it's free for end-users or not.

 

[barhoram]

how do you get it to work with the Elecard codec? I have this card, and am using it with Snapstream, but Live tv playback isn't the best. Recorded shows look very good, though.

 

[mavromatis]

I'd like to know too...

 

[Sailn]

The elecard codec is not free. There is, or at least was a free 30 day demo. There was also a beta release which is free and has no time limit. There was a link of the sage.tv forums about it. I'll try and find it. Once installed, sage will allow you to us it. Interestingly enough, now that sage is using it, various other programs are using it ( I know because the codec puts a little logo in the upper right corner of the display)

 

[barhoram]

Is there anyway to use it with the PVR-250 and Dscaler directly--instead of through SageTV?

 

[mavromatis]

I would just like to be able to take the SVIDEO input from the PVR-250 and have it run thru DSCALER... is that possible?

 

[eswrite]

Looks like the best option is SageTV, which comes with the Dscaler plugin and Elecard codec. Not sure how much Dscaler functionality this option gives, but from my use of the SageTV demo, probably enough for my purposes. Time to open up my wallet again...


BTW, I played a little with ffdshow, and it seems to have no effect whatsoever on the WinTV full-screen image.

 

[barhoram]

What is the progress of SageTV getting program listing for more than just the handful of markets they now support? I think last I heard they were targeting November 1? Too bad I'm a snapstream user. l really like their front end. Sage seemed a little clunky compared to it..and the no program guide thing is huge.

 

[madpoet]

You can use the XML plugin to fill in out-of-market station info. Works ok, but I look forward to when they have my market directly covered.


-MP

 

[Martin Rendall]

Quote:

I have this card, and am using it with Snapstream, but Live tv playback isn't the best. Recorded shows look very good, though.

Er, just in case you haven't done this yet, SnapStream video looks awful until you configure it a bit. I don't have the app in front of me, but you do need to make sure that adjust the timeshift quality to MPEG2, with a nice high datarate. Otherwise, your live TV will suck, but recordings will be good. That's what I had to do, anyway.


Good luck,

Martin.

 

[pawn]

Quote:

Originally posted by barhoram What is the progress of SageTV getting program listing for more than just the handful of markets they now support? I think last I heard they were targeting November 1? Too bad I'm a snapstream user. l really like their front end. Sage seemed a little clunky compared to it..and the no program guide thing is huge.

Like another poster said: There is a XMLTV plugin for anyone outside of their EPG coverage areas. I set it up, scheduled a batch file to download listings twice a week and haven't had to worry about it for months now.


Also, the authors of Sage are planning full EPG U.S. coverage buy the end of this very month.


I can only ask you to trust me: use Sage and you'll never, ever go back.


And to the OP: you'll be very happy with Sage+Elecard+DScaler. Try the adaptive deinterlace setting (my favourite).

 

[salsbst]

mavromatis: no I don't think it's possible. The card is built to immediately encode the video signals that it receives to MPEG2 as befits a PVR. The Dscaler app operates on raw video.