Topic: DVB-T support (Read 10043 times)

Yaobing · « **on:** November 01, 2006, 08:03:13 am »

I am still working on it.

In the most recent build of MC12 (12.0.104 or newer) I added frequency maps for Australia and UK, hoping that it will allow users in those countries obtain available channels.

Users in those countries please test. Take a look at "DVB Frequencies.xml" file and let me know if any info in it is incorrect.

Thanks.

jmone · « **Reply #1 on:** November 16, 2006, 02:01:33 am »

Hi,
I have installed the latest Beta on my HTPC, with a DVICO DVB-T Plus card with BDA drivers. The correct drivers appear to be installed in MC12 for Analog Video Devices and also Digital TV Devices, but there is nothing in the Countries Drop Down box.

The only Available Channels are SVIDEO, Composite, Parallel Digital. Try to select Digital Channels fails.

Thanks
Nathan

PS - I've also checked your DVB Frequencies.xml file against the following INI file from a local forum that listed details for some of the commercial chanels in Sydney Aust and they appear to be included:
# DigitalWatch - channels.ini - Sydney
#
# See docs\Configuration.txt for details on this file
#

Network_1("Seven", 177500, 1)
Program_1("7 Digital" , 1312, 513, 514, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(9)
Program_2("7 Digital HD" , 1316, 577, 578, 0)
Program_3("7 Program Guide" , 1318, 609, 610, 0)

Network_2("Ten", 219500, 1)
Program_1("TEN Digital" , 1585, 512, 650, 0)
Program_2("TEN HD" , 1576, 514, 650, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(9)
Program_3("TEN HD AC3" , 1576, 514, A672, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(1)
Program_4("TEN Digital AC3" , 1585, 512, A651, 0)

Network_3("Nine", 191625, 1)
Program_1("Nine Digital" , 1072, 519, 720, 0)
Program_2("Nine Digital HD AC3" , 1073, 512, A650, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(9)
Program_3("Nine Guide" , 1074, 517, 720, 0)

Network_4("ABC", 226500, 1)
Program_1("ABC", 561, 512, 650, 0)
Program_2("ABC AC3", 561, 512, A660, 0)
AudioDecoderEntry(4)
Program_3("ABC HDTV AC3", 560, 2307,A2308, 0)

Network_5("SBS Sydney", 571500, 1)
Program_1("SBS Digital 1" , 785, 161, 81, 0)
Program_2("SBS HD" , 784, 102, 103, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(1)
Program_3("SBS Digital 2" , 786, 162, 83, 0)
Program_4("SBS EPG" , 787, 163, 85, 0)

Yaobing · « **Reply #2 on:** November 16, 2006, 11:16:44 am »

Quote from: jmone on November 16, 2006, 02:01:33 am

Hi,
I have installed the latest Beta on my HTPC, with a DVICO DVB-T Plus card with BDA drivers. The correct drivers appear to be installed in MC12 for Analog Video Devices and also Digital TV Devices, but there is nothing in the Countries Drop Down box.

This is puzzling. It indicates that the device driver does not indicate any compatible (analog, I think) format. Please try reinstalling the driver. If the problem persists, email me a log file. yaobing at jriver dot com

Quote

The only Available Channels are SVIDEO, Composite, Parallel Digital. Try to select Digital Channels fails.

I guess without selection of a country, scanning would not work.

Quote

PS - I've also checked your DVB Frequencies.xml file against the following INI file from a local forum that listed details for some of the commercial chanels in Sydney Aust and they appear to be included:
# DigitalWatch - channels.ini - Sydney
#
# See docs\Configuration.txt for details on this file
#

Network_1("Seven", 177500, 1)
Program_1("7 Digital" , 1312, 513, 514, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(9)
Program_2("7 Digital HD" , 1316, 577, 578, 0)
Program_3("7 Program Guide" , 1318, 609, 610, 0)

Network_2("Ten", 219500, 1)
Program_1("TEN Digital" , 1585, 512, 650, 0)
Program_2("TEN HD" , 1576, 514, 650, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(9)
Program_3("TEN HD AC3" , 1576, 514, A672, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(1)
Program_4("TEN Digital AC3" , 1585, 512, A651, 0)

Network_3("Nine", 191625, 1)
Program_1("Nine Digital" , 1072, 519, 720, 0)
Program_2("Nine Digital HD AC3" , 1073, 512, A650, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(9)
Program_3("Nine Guide" , 1074, 517, 720, 0)

Network_4("ABC", 226500, 1)
Program_1("ABC", 561, 512, 650, 0)
Program_2("ABC AC3", 561, 512, A660, 0)
AudioDecoderEntry(4)
Program_3("ABC HDTV AC3", 560, 2307,A2308, 0)

Network_5("SBS Sydney", 571500, 1)
Program_1("SBS Digital 1" , 785, 161, 81, 0)
Program_2("SBS HD" , 784, 102, 103, 0)
VideoDecoderEntry(1)
Program_3("SBS Digital 2" , 786, 162, 83, 0)
Program_4("SBS EPG" , 787, 163, 85, 0)

Thanks for the info.

jmone · « **Reply #3 on:** November 16, 2006, 01:48:11 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on November 16, 2006, 11:16:44 am

This is puzzling. It indicates that the device driver does not indicate any compatible (analog, I think) format. Please try reinstalling the driver.

Thanks - I'll play more on the weekend. FYI the DVICO DVB-T Plus card has two drivers - One handles the standard DVB-T TV Transmissions, the other is for the Analog capture via a S-Video port (which can also handle Composite). MC seems to have selected the correct ones after the first config but I get messages like the TV Card did not like "-1" for countury in I went into the Analog TV Section, and I would just get a could to start TV card type error when going in Digitial TV Section. Selecting one of the 3 Channels (eg S-Video) seemed to work fine but I did not have any device connected to the port to be sure.

I'll try to reinstal the TV from inside MC but I could not fine how to get back to the original TV Setup.

Thanks
Nathan

Yaobing · « **Reply #4 on:** November 16, 2006, 01:54:40 pm »

From within MC, all you can do is to click Reset button on TV Options, or Tools -> Options -> Playback ... -> Reset TV Settings ...

I was thinking you needed to reinstall the DVICO driver/application.

jmone · « **Reply #5 on:** November 17, 2006, 04:27:00 am »

Hi - DVICO S'W tuner still works fine - so I'd assume (but happy to hear otherwise) that my driver install is fine. I've tried the "Reset" option several times but it does not do much. I still have no countries in the drop down. The error I get in the Digital TV is "Failed to Play TV (unknown error)" but this is not surprising as I have not been able to scan for channels in the original setup and can not find that option again. DVB-T reception is a key feature for me so any advice to try would be appreciated!
Thanks
Nathan

Yaobing · « **Reply #6 on:** November 17, 2006, 08:57:36 am »

Please realize that DVB-T support is still work-in-progress (slow progress). Your case is even stranger in that your device does not report any supported video format (that is why the country list is empty). If we can get past this point, we can then further look into digital channel scanning, which was the main problem that some other people have reported in the past.

Please email me a log file. yaobing at jriver dot com

jmone · « **Reply #7 on:** November 17, 2006, 02:11:52 pm »

Thanks Yaobing for all your help, I know DVB-T is a WIP but I'm very excited

to be soooo close to getting something to work for all my media types correctly. I've sent the log file and also the log from ScanChannels BDA which lists the results of a full freq scan for Sydney Australia.
Nathan

Yaobing · « **Reply #8 on:** November 17, 2006, 03:39:30 pm »

Thanks for the logs.

I noticed one oddity in your log file.

The analog TV tuner device is called "FusionHDTV, NTSC/ATSC WDM TvTuner". It may well be just a benign oversight on DVICO's part, such as forgetting to change the name when they ported the code to Australia/dvb-t. However there is also a possibility that they included the wrong driver, or you downloaded the wrong driver. That might explain your empty country list problem, but can not explain why DVico program works fine.

To make sure, can you try downloading the latest driver from DVICO and reinstall it?

jmone · « **Reply #9 on:** November 17, 2006, 07:00:07 pm »

Wierd, as there is No "Analog TV Tuner Device" or "FM Tuner" in this card only DVB-T and the S-Video port for analog input. I'm reluctant to reinstall the DVICO drivers/apps as the DBV-T reception is still working fine in Nero Home as well as DVICO, and was also fine with Media Portal (but now deinstalled). (note: DVICO have two sets of drivers/apps, one for DVB-T and one for ATSC)

I also notice that under the "Advance Properties" the Turning Mode the options are ATSC or FM Tuner, yet the Country = 61 and all the other settings appear to be for PAL.

Thanks
Nathan
(note: Nero Home has a bug and can not output the DD sound track from HD channels)

Yaobing · « **Reply #10 on:** November 17, 2006, 07:32:42 pm »

So the device can only receive digital, but not analog TV? It is so probably because the analog portion was designed for north America only!

jmone · « **Reply #11 on:** November 17, 2006, 07:56:38 pm »

Yaobing you must never sleep

! I've checked the DVICO web site to see how they package the S'W. They release one pack of thier "Fusion HDTV" software/drivers for DBT-T and another for ATSC (currenlty V3.51 - this is a new version so I will try that and see if it makes any differerence!). The hardware cards look different from DVB-T and ATSC.

There product range for DVB-T is differentiated with some cards supporting Dual DVB-T Tuners, some One DVB-T + One Analog TV, Some with FM radio etc. My card (the DVC-T Plus) definately only has one DBV-T and Analoge Input for video capture only.

EDIT - DVICO is the biggest selling Digital Tuner card in Australia

jmone · « **Reply #12 on:** November 18, 2006, 04:11:39 am »

Getting excited again

. While nothing is really repeatable

1) I can now select DVB-T as my system type everytime I reset the TV Options
2) Somtimes "Australia" appears (or can be selected) in the drop down box but it always blanks out after a reboot (Note: it was a very long and non-alphabetic list!)
3) Scanning now produces some channels but I get a 'put_channel failed" when try to view them
4) Some of the channels have names I recognise but other are just the CH-MAJ-MIN code
5) Once when I stoped scanning I heard the sound (no Video) from the TV Channel even though the avail channels were blank.

An example of one channel that came up in the scan was:
CH4112-544 ABC HDTV which was reported on 545 Physical, 4112 Major, 544 Minor.

When I run ScanChannelsBDA, it reports this Channel as:
Network_4("ABC Sydney", 226500, 7, 1)
Program_ 1("ABC HDTV" , 544, 2314, A2315, 258) # LCN=20 Teletext=2316
Program_ 2("ABC TV Sydney" , 545, 512, 650, 256) # LCN=2 Teletext=576
Program_ 3("ABC TV Sydney AC3" , 545, 512, A660, 256) #
Program_ 4("ABC2" , 546, 2307, 2308, 257) # LCN=21 Teletext=2310
Program_ 5("ABC TV" , 547, 512, 650, 259) # LCN=22 Teletext=576
Program_ 6("ABC DiG Radio" , 550, 0, 2317, 260) # LCN=200
Program_ 7("ABC DiG Jazz" , 551, 0, 2318, 261) # LCN=201

I presume I could enter this detail in manually using the ADD button or editing a file but I don't see an obvious connectio between these #'s and the Physical, Major, Minor fields in MC.

I'll send a new log file...
Thanks
Nathan

evilhobo · « **Reply #13 on:** November 18, 2006, 07:30:04 pm »

How long does the digital tv scan normally take?

when i went to the tv options, i could see my hardware, and could select australia (i live in sydney).

problem is the digital scan does not show progress so after waiting for a while with no channels found (and signal stuck at 0) i canceled and gave up...

but how long should i be waiting?

in any case, keep up the good work! can't wait for full dvb-t support!

PS: my tv card is Compro VideoMate DVB-T300

jmone · « **Reply #14 on:** November 18, 2006, 08:00:30 pm »

It can take a while (I normally do something else) but it is only finds channels half the time and when it does find channels it only finds some of them - never all, and normally a different set eg somtimes I got the ABC, OR SBS, OR 7 etc but you seem to get all the sub channels. Still can not display any though. Note: the Advance Properties --> Digital TV options still only shows ATSC or FM under the Tuner drop down.
Thanks
Nathan

Yaobing · « **Reply #15 on:** November 20, 2006, 10:12:02 am »

Nathan,

Thanks for the log file and all the info you provided.

MC does find an analog device on your computer, "FusionHDTV, NTSC/ATSC WDM TvTuner" and "FusionHDTV, WDM Video Capture". I guess I will have to find a way to ignor it, since you said your device is not supposed to receive analog TV.

If you can not repeat the channel scan result, most likely my recent addition of Frequency map does not work as I hoped. I will have to do more thing "manually".

Stay tuned.

Yaobing

jmone · « **Reply #16 on:** November 20, 2006, 01:49:17 pm »

Thanks Yaobing,
I did another channel scan (have done a couple of dozen by now) and this time got a different set of channel groups (SBS / Ch7). It seems MC is happly using a "TuningSpace found: DVB-T" and certanly recognses the "Digital Tuners: FusionHDTV, BDA Tuner" but the results of each scan vary and are not consistant. The scan seems to pick op one set of channels (eg all of Ch7) but next time it will not find Ch7 but instead SBS & Ch10 etc and and half the time finds none.

FYI - The ScanBDA log file is what was produced by running "ScanBDA" on my PC - it apparantly scans all the Australian Frequencies using the WDM driver and reports the results that you see.
Thanks
Nathan

jmone · « **Reply #17 on:** November 27, 2006, 01:45:07 pm »

Hi Yaobing,

You might find the souce code for the ScanChannelsBDA prog useful when looking at your code - http://nate.dynalias.net/ScanChannelsBDA/ScanChannelsBDA.html

Yaobing · « **Reply #18 on:** November 27, 2006, 03:00:29 pm »

Thanks a lot. I am sure that will help! I had seen an early version of that code. My link to it stopped working. Thanks for bringing it back to me.

jmone · « **Reply #19 on:** November 28, 2006, 01:48:12 pm »

You're welcome (this prog is FAST & Accurate - as I guess it only scans the possible freq here in Oz). The Other OpenSource code that works for both scanning & tuning on this card (and as reported for most other DVB-T users) is MediaPortal.

While I know DVB-T is not a high priority, I've been downloading the latest builds in the vain hope there is some change in this area

- any idea when you would like the next set testing?

jmone · « **Reply #20 on:** November 30, 2006, 11:49:04 pm »

Hi Yaobing - Any chancee of a Early Christmas Present

(my trial will run out soon and without DVB-T, Nero Home is still the best choice

)

Yaobing · « **Reply #21 on:** December 01, 2006, 09:38:37 am »

Sorry, I am not sure when I will be able to get something out. I will announce it here when there is something to test.

Yaobing · « **Reply #22 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:14:10 pm »

jmone and all other interested users in Australia or UK:

MC 12.0.128 includes some new experiments with regard to channel scanning for DVB-T. Please test it.

Yaobing · « **Reply #23 on:** December 07, 2006, 05:36:34 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 07, 2006, 03:14:10 pm

jmone and all other interested users in Australia or UK:

MC 12.0.128 includes some new experiments with regard to channel scanning for DVB-T. Please test it.

Oops. Do not test it yet. Please wait until the next build.

Yaobing · « **Reply #24 on:** December 08, 2006, 04:37:44 pm »

Please try MC 12.0.129.

jmone · « **Reply #25 on:** December 10, 2006, 11:20:09 pm »

Hi,
Firstly - appologies for the delay (just got back from the "in-laws" in the courntry where we were for a few days $:-\$ ).

I've installed 12.0.129 and tried tuning DVB-T several times (I'll try some more and repost if it is any different) but apart from the % Done, there seems to be little changed in the behaviour

.
* Non consistant results from scanning (mostly it finds none, sometime one channel group)
* Still get a put_channel failed if I try to use a channel
* the TunerPropertyPage (from the Advance Properties tab) still only whows ATSC and FM as "Runing Mode"

On the + side, "Australia" always appears in the Diag Box but your country order in the drop down box is all over the place.

Note: I've tried rebooting, reinitalising the the tuner etc between scans. Also double checked by running ScanBDA again - it worked fine and found all the channels as it always does.

jmone · « **Reply #26 on:** December 11, 2006, 12:03:24 am »

No further luck

. I'll send a copy of the log file but have not picked up an channels since the first scan.
Thanks
Nathan

PS also have now tried re-installing the DVICO S'W & Drivers - but same results.....

Yaobing · « **Reply #27 on:** December 11, 2006, 08:11:06 am »

Quote from: jmone on December 10, 2006, 11:20:09 pm

* the TunerPropertyPage (from the Advance Properties tab) still only whows ATSC and FM as "Runing Mode"

I guess you will have to ignore this property page. It seems Dvico just took a device designed for North America and modified driver to make it DVB-T. The property page is useful only if you use the analog tuner, which you can not since it is for North America.

Quote

On the + side, "Australia" always appears in the Diag Box but your country order in the drop down box is all over the place.

Yeah. The countries are grouped by video format (NTSC vs. PAL etc.). I should try sorting it alphabetically.

jmone · « **Reply #28 on:** December 14, 2006, 12:04:30 am »

I've purchased a licence (the trial was going to expire soon) as I have faith that DVB-T support will get there

and I can use MC over Nero Home sometime soon....

Yaobing · « **Reply #29 on:** December 14, 2006, 11:22:55 am »

Quote from: jmone on December 14, 2006, 12:04:30 am

I've purchased a licence (the trial was going to expire soon) as I have faith that DVB-T support will get there and I can use MC over Nero Home sometime soon....

Thank you for having faith in us. Welcome aboard.

Sorry for not being able to make it happen faster. I am going to work hard to make sure you will not be disappointed.

jmone · « **Reply #30 on:** December 16, 2006, 03:20:14 am »

I've got to say that the support is terrific

! (I only found MC becase AHEAD/Nero just can not get their act together to fix the bugs in their products and just don't seem to care). Looking forard to a JR world!

jmone · « **Reply #31 on:** December 28, 2006, 09:15:02 pm »

Hi Yaobing, any progress on the DVB-T support?
Thanks
Nathan

Yaobing · « **Reply #32 on:** December 29, 2006, 05:05:37 pm »

I will have something for you to try after the holidays.

jmone · « **Reply #33 on:** December 29, 2006, 06:58:39 pm »

Thanks and have a good break

JimH · « **Reply #34 on:** January 12, 2007, 08:56:52 pm »

There are some DVB changes in this build:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=38290.0

jmone · « **Reply #35 on:** January 13, 2007, 03:07:35 am »

For al the DVB-T users you will be pleased to know that Yaobing has been working diligantly

over the last couple of weeks and while it is a work in progress you should now get:
1) Scanning Support - Should pick up the DVB-T channels (including the AC3/DD Subchannels) but you may find it misses a group of channels (eg all of Network Ten) - try retuning to see if you get a better combo and only miss the "Parliment Channels"
2) Tuning - Takes about 10Sec at the moment to tune/change a channel at this stage BUT you will not get any sound on channels with only AC3/DD feeds (eg most HD Channels In Australia). Try different Video filters if you don't get a proper 16:9 image or if it stutters (I found the nVidia filter works great).
3) Time Shifting - Works on all channels you can hear sound (will hang on the HD AC3/DD only channels)
4) Recording - Manual recoding ONLY works if you have Time Shifting on first.

Thanks
Nathan
(using a DVICO DVB-T Plus Tuner in Syndey Australia)

Yaobing · « **Reply #36 on:** January 13, 2007, 07:50:28 am »

Thank you, Nathan, for being a diligent tester in the last couple of weeks.

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #37 on:** January 15, 2007, 03:22:25 pm »

Quote from: jmone on January 13, 2007, 03:07:35 am

For al the DVB-T users you will be pleased to know that Yaobing has been working diligantly over the last couple of weeks and while it is a work in progress you should now get:
1) Scanning Support - Should pick up the DVB-T channels (including the AC3/DD Subchannels) but you may find it misses a group of channels (eg all of Network Ten) - try retuning to see if you get a better combo and only miss the "Parliment Channels"
2) Tuning - Takes about 10Sec at the moment to tune/change a channel at this stage BUT you will not get any sound on channels with only AC3/DD feeds (eg most HD Channels In Australia). Try different Video filters if you don't get a proper 16:9 image or if it stutters (I found the nVidia filter works great).
3) Time Shifting - Works on all channels you can hear sound (will hang on the HD AC3/DD only channels)
4) Recording - Manual recoding ONLY works if you have Time Shifting on first.

Thanks
Nathan
(using a DVICO DVB-T Plus Tuner in Syndey Australia)

Nathan,

Try rescanning now, I got Ten OK this morning, but didn't yesterday. If fact I couldn't get Ten for a couple of days with any software yet this morning it's all OK!

Richard

jmone · « **Reply #38 on:** January 16, 2007, 01:44:28 pm »

Thanks Richard - I've currently got all the major channels fine (just using CH10 as an example) - I can pick up Wollongong channels some evenings/morning!

raym · « **Reply #39 on:** January 16, 2007, 11:11:14 pm »

Yep same here. HD channels are appearing ok but no audio (spdif AC3). Problems I'm having are what you've already stated, ie, this and very loonnnnggggg time between channel changes.

other than this, looking good !

jmone · « **Reply #40 on:** April 25, 2007, 03:51:29 am »

FYI - Update on DVB-T Support - Thanks to the work Yaobing has been putting in you should now get:
1) Scanning Support - Should pick up both SD and HD DVB-T channels (including the AC3/DD support)
2) Tuning - Takes only a fews seconds
3) Time Shifting - Works on both SD and HD channels (including the AC3/DD support)
4) Recording - Works on both SD and HD channels (including the AC3/DD support).

Thanks
Nathan
(using a DVICO DVB-T Plus Tuner in Syndey Australia)

Yaobing · « **Reply #41 on:** April 25, 2007, 12:28:23 pm »

Thank you all, in particular Nathan, Ralf, and Richard, for diligently testing it for me.

JimH · « **Reply #42 on:** April 25, 2007, 12:31:06 pm »

Nice work, Yaobing!

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: DVB-T support (Read 10043 times)