[jimmyk36]

If you have it working, can you please post your hardware configuration here and what the steps were to install the OS and Drivers?


I almost had it working. It was working briefly but now I am getting the blue screen of death when I go to live TV.


Here is my configuration:


MSI K8N Neo Platinum

Athlon64 3000+ retail

MSI Geforce FX5900XT 128 Meg

Hauppauge PVR 350

ATI HDTV Wonder

512 Meg Crucial

40 Gig Maxtor - system drive

250 Gig Maxtor - Drive for recording, etc.

Lite On DVD/RW


I installed the software in the following order:


1. MCE 2005 w/sp2

2. K8N Drivers - Nforce chipset, sound, network, etc.

3. Latest NVidia Video Drivers

4. PowerDVD 5 with Audio pack (DD5.1, DTS)

5. Hauppauge PVR 250/350 drivers

6. ATI HDTV Wonder Drivers - Downloaded from ATI - the first 3 listed. (Not the ATI HD application software though)

7. Windows Update - HDTV Roll up package


I had good signal strength from NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and it was working OK but then when I went to put the Football game on in HD, everything blew up. BSOD


I am thinking I may need to go to an ATI graphics Card?

 

[Alex Wetmore]

It works fine for me. I just did the install a couple of nights ago, so I remember the details pretty well.


My hardware is:

ABit nf7-s motherboard (nForce2 with soundstorm)

AMD Barton 2500+ XP processor

512mb of DDR

NVidia NVTV tuner card

VBox DTA-110 ASTC tuner card

NVidia 5700LE-based video card with 128mb of RAM

200gb drive, 10gb partition for the OS, 190gb for video

120gb drive for MP3 files


Installation:

Install MCE 2005

Install nForce2 drivers, don't reboot

Install nVidia video drivers

reboot to get networking

Install NVTV video drivers and MPEG-2 decoder

Install VBox BDA drivers (two drivers for this one card)

reboot

Run MCE for the first time and do guided setup

Install other applications that I use


I'm using the latest nForce and nVidia video drivers from their website. I'm using the nvtv drivers that came with my card. I'm using the latest VBox drivers from their product support.


alex

 

[abiharbani]

Alex,


Where did you get NVidia NVTV tuner card? And does it include NVDVD 4 decoder?


Thanks,


-- Abi

 

[barhoram]

alex, are you sending Dolby Digital via SPDIF to a receiver? Mine is working except for no Dolby Digital via SPDIF. I only get 48Khz PCM out SPDIF. I can not for the life of me, figure out how to pass Dolby Digital for HD broadcasts.

 

[dguns]

Alex, How's the PQ with NVTV?


And where did you get it? ;-)

 

[Alex Wetmore]

My NVTV card included the NVidia NVDVD 4 decoder.


The card is made by eVGA. I'm very happy with the picture quality. It doesn't try to remove noise as aggressively as the Happauge PVR-250 that I used to use. This does leave a little more noise, but it also leaves more detail in the picture.

http://www.evga.com/articles/public.asp?AID=219


I have the single tuner model. I googled the part number and found this seller with them on backorder:

http://www.neutronexpress.com/prod.c...PCI_TUNER_CARD


These guys show them in stock:
http://www.computerhq.com/eVGA_NVTV_...id-513125.html
http://www.spacecentersystems.com/ca...9bc8b80df22de2


I've never worked with any of these companies and can't recommend any of them.


I'm using SPDIF for audio. My motherboard has the soundstorm chipset. I'm using the SPDIF pinout on the motherboard to connect to a homemade cable that has a female RCA plug. This is connected to my NAD T762 receiver by a 5 meter 75ohm cable with RCA plugs on each end. The cable is so long because I keep the computer in my basement (to isolate noise from the living room). The other two cables going to the living room are a USB cable (plugged into a USB 2.0 hub which has the remote sensor, DVD +/- RW drive, and Gyration kb/mouse transceiver) and a cat5 cable over which I run VGA. I convert VGA to CAT5 and back using a Cybex Longview.


Anyway, I didn't do anything special to make dolby digital work. The SoundStorm is a unique beast though in that it encodes all signals into Dolby Digital.


alex

 

[kevo]

Alex,

How is the NVTV HDTV capable? Does it have ATSC receivers for OTA? Sorry, but I can't seem to get much info on NVTV / LSI DVExplore capabilities.


Thanks in advance,

Kevo

 

[kevo]

Alex,

Sorry, missed your hardware entry of Vbox DTA-110 ATSC tuner! Would a MyHD 120 card work as an alternative to your Vbox? I know some have posted that MyHD is not compatible with MCE2005 (yet). MyHD (MIT) has yet to release BDA drivers ... What other advantages does VBox have?


Thanks,

Kevo

 

[jimmyk36]

So does anyone else have the ATI HDTV Wonder working in MCE with an NVidia graphics card?

 

[abiharbani]

I didn't get HDTV to work 100%.


My hardware:

- Athlon 64 3200+, GIGABIT mobo (don't remember the model), 1 gig RAM, 200GB dedicated MCE disk

- Hauppauge PVR 250 with shspvr latest driver

- Fusion HDTV 3 Q with latest driver

- video card ATI Radeon 9600 256MB with cat 4.09 at 1280x720 with powerstrips. 8x & fast write

- Decoder: NVDVD4 that came with TT 2.0


My problem:

- 480i, 720p HDTV are fine

- 1080i stutters like crazy (it's fine if I use dvico app)

- subchannels aren't recognized. I can only tune to first subchannel.


has anyone got fusion card working right?


-- Abi

 

[littlerm]

I bought another ATI HDTV Wonder (after returning the first one due to several problems realted to ATI MMC) yesterday and installed MCE2005. I used the ATI HDTV drivers in Windows Update and wasn't really expecting much, but everything worked wonderfully. Earlier problems I had with the card (poor recording software, couldn't tune in some channels) were gone and it worked exactly as I wanted it to. In the small time I have used it, MCE2005 is great. The PVR functionality is very good. It mimics all of Tivo's functionality such as season passes, wishlishlists, and even has movie lookup capability. I am very impressed. It's very nice to have analog and HDTV recording capability, DVD, file playback, music, pictures, weather, news, etc. all in one uniform package. It isn't as tweakable as some of the other packages, but is tuneable enough for me. I will wait until I have used it more before final judgement, but so far I am extremely pleased.


MCE 2005

AMD XP3200+

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (Soundstorm)

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

ATI HDTV Wonder for OTA HDTV

Hauppauge PVR250 connected to DirecTV receiver

1 GB RAM

 

[Crabby Guy]

Some confusion here. Anandtech.com had a very recent review of MCE 2005 and said it only worked with hardware-based decoders. Please set me straight. Thanks.

 

[jimmyk36]

littlerm


Did you use any of the ATI HDTV Drivers at all or did MCE 2005 with Roll-up recognize it out of the box?


Jim

 

[Jeff Lloyd]

bump

 

[littlerm]

I used the drivers included in MCE2005's update. During the driver installation it asked me to insert the cd for a couple of files, but that's the only time i used the cd. Don't install the drivers from the cd or ATI's website. Let Windows Update do it's thing.

 

[littlerm]

Crabby Guy, I think they meant it only supported analog recording with hardware-based encoders, like the PVR-250. OTA HDTV streams are already digital and are simply written to disk. From what I hear you do need a powerful video card in order to playback HDTV smoothly.

 

[jimmyk36]

littlerm,


Was the HDTV Card already installed when you did the "Rollup"?


I installed the Rollup package first and then inserted the HDTV Card asumming the drivers would be found - they weren't. I had to install the 3 drivers from ATIs web site.


Also I broke down and bought a Radeon 9800 Pro and HDTV is working fine now. I guess it didn't like my NVidia 5900.


Now I just need a better antenna.


Jim

 

[littlerm]

jimmyk36, yes I had the card in the system when I did the MCE2005 install and the rollup. I have a 5950 Ultra at home, I will try it and see if it gives problems with HDTV.

 

[MartinK]

I have it working, too


Shuttle AN35N Ultra, Athlon XP 2500

HDTV Wonder using the supplied antenna

2x NVTV

Chaintech AV-710 sound card, Intel GbE, 1GB RAM, some hard drives, DVD-ROM...

MCE 2005, nvidia codec pack as released a few days ago


You only need update #2 from the ATI web site. Then go to Windows update and get the updated ATI drivers, then run the MCE TV wizard again.


I had horrible stuttering with a FX 5200. I put in the Radeon 9800 Pro from another machine and now it's working silk smooth. Still trying to figure out what video card to buy for the HTPC so I can get the R9800 back


MCE wants a hardware _encoder_. All decoding is done in Software. If Playback is OK in zoom player or WMP 10, but has problems in MCE, you need a faster video card.

 

[jimmyk36]

bump