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[prod]

I have one of these (actually two - long boring story), and it doesn't work with MC - I get the "Failed to Play TV" message. Is there a process for getting support for such hardware in MC?

[Yaobing]

email me a log file. yaobing at jriver dot com

[prod]

I've emailed the log. One other thing, when I click on TV Tuner in the tree and then Options, a dialog comes up titled "Audio Connection", and in that box you have Choose Mixer Device which contains a list of my audio outputs and microphone, and Choose Audio Line which contains nothing, so I can't get past the validation. I get past this box by clicking X (close).

[Yaobing]

I've emailed the log. One other thing, when I click on TV Tuner in the tree and then Options, a dialog comes up titled "Audio Connection", and in that box you have Choose Mixer Device which contains a list of my audio outputs and microphone, and Choose Audio Line which contains nothing, so I can't get past the validation. I get past this box by clicking X (close).

There appear to be bug there.

For now you can get past that by unchecking "This device requires a cable to route sound directly to sound card". The options asked for on this window are for analog TV only.

[Yaobing]

I read your log file.

Your device does not seem to conform to bda exactly. The tuner device and the capture device are named exactly the same (I suspect they are the same filter), and they would not connect to each other.

Does the device work with another program (such as one supplied by Yuan)?

[prod]

Does the device work with another program (such as one supplied by Yuan)?

It works with HP QuickPlay, which is a bit, erm, rubbish. The card and software came bundled with the HP laptop.

[Yaobing]

I made some small change which I hope will help. It should be in build 212, but I am not 100% sure. It will definitely be in a later build if not in this one. Give it a try and let me know how it works.

[prod]

Thanks, I've just tried but still getting the same message (maybe the change didn't make it into bld212?) - I've emailed you another log.

[Yaobing]

It seems that the change was not in that build. Please try again with the next build.

[prod]

It seems that the change was not in that build. Please try again with the next build.

OK have tried with build 213 and it works much better. I've sent you the logs.

The main problems are;

1. Although scanning finds stations, and MC displays live TV whilst the scan is progressing, once the scan is finished TV won't play citing an error reading from writer, and signal strength goes down to 0%.
2. I get a crash when "Wait longer" is checked

Sorry if this info isn't detailed enough - I'm in a hurry I've got to get down to the bookies before the Grand National kicks off at 3pm. If you need more detail I'll go through it properly later on.

[Yaobing]

I will read your log on Monday.

Not sure what 2. is.

1. is a time-shifting issue. Digital TV defaults to starting in time-shifting mode. To help isolate the issue, go to Options, Digital TV tab, uncheck "Start Digital TV in Time-shifting mode".

[prod]

1. is a time-shifting issue. Digital TV defaults to starting in time-shifting mode. To help isolate the issue, go to Options, Digital TV tab, uncheck "Start Digital TV in Time-shifting mode".

Did this and there's a slight difference - the last channel scanned continues to play after I've clicked OK in the config dialog. Clicking on another channel tho produces the similar results - signal strength down to zero and nothing happens, no error message this time.

Have sent another log, on this one I have just gone into the TV Tuner and selected a channel. Nothing happens, just a black screen and a message displaying the signal strength at 0%.

[Yaobing]

Thanks for the logs.

Unfortunately they do not reveil much about the problem. Everything seems to be normal with only one exception - the program can not load BDA IP Sink filter, which should not affect tuning. Are you running on Vista? We have seen that problem on Vista, and simply ignore it.

Do you not get any signal on all channels?

[prod]

Sorry, I've been away for a few days.

That's a shame (logs not revealing much) - yes, I'm running Vista. I've not tried every single channel but probably around 6-7 with no luck. I see there's a few updates with logging etc in the latest builds so I'll give it another go and get back to you.

[prod]

OK another log has been sent in your direction ... hope this one is a bit more informative. I changed several channels with start with time shifting off and then did pretty much the same with it on. Using MC12.0.218 and I'm getting the same behaviour as before. Live TV shows up during the scan but as soon as I start changing channels the screen goes black and signal strength moves to zero.

[Yaobing]

We are making some progress.

I see in your log that some channels are saved with incorrect/incomplete data. Maybe there is an issue with channel scanning.

Please go to Options and click "Digital Chan" button to bring out the "Scan Channels" window. Select a channel and click Modify button. On the resulting dialog window, do you see all data fields filled with correct values? For example you may see a channel with Frequency and Bandwidth being 0, or some other values being incorrect. If you know the correct values, please try manually fix them and then try playing the channel.

Scanning seems to have behaved strangely. I wonder if it is an Australia vs. UK issue, or just something related to your device.

[prod]

I've checked the values and they appear to be correct - I'd confirm it but I'm not exactly sure where to look up the information. For instance BBC ONE is on frequency 754166 and bandwidth 8 - which corresponds to other info I've found w/google. It's quite frustrating that I get video whilst scanning but not while changing channels - perhaps the card is doing something proprietary that only HP know about, hence it working OK with HP QuickPlay.

I'm also getting the following messages in the display area when selecting TV Tuner in the tree and clicking Options - Failed to Access TV and Failed to Access TV Tuner in MakeMenuOptions. Not sure if that's anything to do with anything.

Edit:
I've just tried it with Microsoft Media Center and I'm getting the same results - scanning finishes and finds a load of channels, but won't play any of them citing no signal. Even though it works with HP QuickPlay I've not used it extensively and read reports of problems using it within Vista. I think this could possibly be a Vista driver issue. Would that make sense to you?

[Yaobing]

I've checked the values and they appear to be correct - I'd confirm it but I'm not exactly sure where to look up the information. For instance BBC ONE is on frequency 754166 and bandwidth 8 - which corresponds to other info I've found w/google. It's quite frustrating that I get video whilst scanning but not while changing channels - perhaps the card is doing something proprietary that only HP know about, hence it working OK with HP QuickPlay.

Right, quite possibly there is something that does not conform to bda standard. I mentioned about tuner filter versus capture filter issue before. Normally there would be a separate tuner filter and capture filter which should connect to each other. However, this is not the first device that does not use a separate capture filter, and I think we get around with that alright. The tuning problem simply is puzzling.

I'm also getting the following messages in the display area when selecting TV Tuner in the tree and clicking Options - Failed to Access TV and Failed to Access TV Tuner in MakeMenuOptions. Not sure if that's anything to do with anything.

That is for analog TV only and can be ignored.

Edit:
I've just tried it with Microsoft Media Center and I'm getting the same results - scanning finishes and finds a load of channels, but won't play any of them citing no signal. Even though it works with HP QuickPlay I've not used it extensively and read reports of problems using it within Vista. I think this could possibly be a Vista driver issue. Would that make sense to you?

If Microsoft also has the problem, it is likely to be a driver issue.

[prod]

If Microsoft also has the problem, it is likely to be a driver issue.

In that case I guess there's good reason to wait for new drivers from HP and take it from there. I've raised it with them as an issue - tho I suspect they won't have a magical instant cure for the problem! Thanks v much for your time Yaobing, hope it's not been a waste for you.

[Yaobing]

In that case I guess there's good reason to wait for new drivers from HP and take it from there. I've raised it with them as an issue - tho I suspect they won't have a magical instant cure for the problem! Thanks v much for your time Yaobing, hope it's not been a waste for you.

Not at all.

[prod]

Well... HP released a new driver last week and, hey presto, it works great!

I'm afraid there's a tiny but... I'm still have the timeshifting problem (error reading from writer) plus the signal strength says 0% even though it's showing video. Seems to be some problem with the audio settings on some channels as well - I'm not sure how it works but I get no sound except for some running commentary (for the visually impaired i think) i.e. "Tanya picks up two glasses and a bottle" and "Steve's mobile phone reads 'Tom calling'". It's kinda amusing, for about 20 seconds!

Let me know if a log would interest you or be helpful.

[Yaobing]

Well... HP released a new driver last week and, hey presto, it works great!

I'm afraid there's a tiny but... I'm still have the timeshifting problem (error reading from writer) plus the signal strength says 0% even though it's showing video. Seems to be some problem with the audio settings on some channels as well - I'm not sure how it works but I get no sound except for some running commentary (for the visually impaired i think) i.e. "Tanya picks up two glasses and a bottle" and "Steve's mobile phone reads 'Tom calling'". It's kinda amusing, for about 20 seconds!

Let me know if a log would interest you or be helpful.

Do you see similarly named "channels" in your scanned channel list? Maybe the normal audio is in a separate program that we pick up as a separate channel.

Send me a log file anyway even though there is no guarantee that it will help.