Well, I don't think it is an antenna issue. I just attached a longer cable to the antenna and took it outside. I also raised it higher than it had been when I had it inside working with the lcd tv. I'm sort of stumped on this.

Try a different program.
Watchhdtv is freeware and works great.
That way you can rule out VMC setup issues versus hardware issues (antenna or tuner card)

I originally didn't find this thread, my post was moved here. Since finding this forum, I found great advice. In particular, my issue was solved by going through Peter Near's fantastic post on his blog.

thanks

Not sure if this has been asked or clearly stated, my searches didn't really turn anything up...

If I'm using a 2.4GHz Quad PC, should there be any problems recording or time shifting with a tv tuner card, such as the Hauppauge HVR-1250, that does not have hardware encoding?

thanks

The software encoding should take up no more than one of your CPUs - I believe the software encoding is only for NTSC channels, any OTA digital channels do not need encoding so that takes up very little CPU resources.

ATSC is straight video dump + decode to play.
If you're watching live it just reads straight from the device.

NTSC is software encode, and should have no problem with a 4000+ (single core) or better, as that's what I was using with my HVR-950 before my recently built desktop.
Again, watch live just reads from the device, unless you're using wintv, which encodes it anyway.

The software that you use will determine if the analog TV signal is being encoded to MPEG2 and being stored on the hard drive first before going to the TV application. Check to see if you can rewind a "live" TV program. If you can, it is being stored to disk first.

ATI Catalyst/Multi Media Center and Microsoft Vista/Media Center both do this by default.

Digital TV is simply saved to disk. No encoding.

Either way, your rig should handle the load.

To clarify my post above:
WinTV (and probably other programs) encode to mpeg2 regardless (then, if you choose record, it saves to disk, otherwise it just dumps the memory).
3rd party programs that access it as a capture device (like virtualdub in avi capture mode) reads the NTSC stream directly.

I was trying a Hauppauge HVR-1250 last night with several problems. First, the CD wouldn't let me install WinTV. I kept getting a "the cd has stopped responding" error. I then downloaded the latest software from the Hauppauge website, ran the installer, and got the same error. Bizarre and frustrating.

So I then went to Windows Media Center. As pointed out in Peter Near's website (http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/pnear/archive/2006/11/22/202706.aspx), Canadians need a bit of work around to get WMC working. I had previously been successful with this on an HVR-1800 that I borrowed. I didn't have any luck with the HVR-1250. This card shares NTSC and ATSC on the same tuner and I think this is the problem. When I go through all the setup and enter in a few dtv channels (such as cbc) and then try to view it, WMC says that the tuner is not present. My guess is that WMC thinks I have only an analog tuner and no digital tuner. The main purpose of this post is to see if anyone has been successful in Canada using WMC and the HVR-1250.

I also tried to use WatchHDTV without luck. It wouldn't find any channels when scanning, and when I manually entered a channel it still didn't pick up anything. I think the issue is choosing the correct decoder or something like that but I couldn't find a solution.

thanks

A quick search shows that this is a hybrid ntsc/atsc tuner, much like my ATI HDTV Wonder. These are not dual tuner cards. They can switch from NTSC to ATSC but cannot receive on both tuners at once.

It is commonly known that Windows Media Center will only recognize the HDTV Wonder as a digital ATSC tuner and only if paired with another NTSC tuner card. In my system, that is an X600Pro All-in-Wonder.

I suspect that you have a similar problem with the hvr-1250. The good news is that the Hauppauge software should let you use the card. I also suspect that the problem is with your installation of the Hauppauge drivers. I'd boot into Safe Mode and completely uninstall and remove any previous drivers or Hauppauge software. I believe their utility HCWCLEAR will do that. Reboot again into safe mode and reinstall the latest software that you downloaded from their site.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hvr1250.html

Thanks Michael. I think for the PITA factor I will go with the HVR-1800 dual tuner. The whitebox model isn't a lot more than the hvr-1250

cheers

Hi,

I getting dangerously close to finalizing my setup. I finally have my own dual tuner card in place (Hauppauge HVR-1800). I'm getting reception for the three HD channels available here in Vancouver. Using Windows Media Center I get 4 orange bars for CHAN, 5 green bars for CIVT and 5 green bars for CBUT. The strange thing is that when I go to watch the channels, only CIVT gives me a picture and sound. CHAN and CBUT give a blank screen and no sound.

EDIT, WMC is working ok now: I had incorrectly entered in the channel data for the two channels. For example, CBUT-DT should have been 2-1 rf#58. I had entered 58-1, rf#58.

I've also tried Watchhdtv. It found the three channels and I can watch all of them. However, the sound is really stuttered. Things change depending on what I choose for decoders. The best I've found so far is CBVA DMO wrapper filter + DScaler Audio Decoder. That gives me scattered audio on only 1 channel. Some decoders sort of freeze the PC.



thanks!

People on here seem to like the WinTV-HVR-1600 but the one thing I don't like about it is it has separate analog and digital inputs. This means I need to split my antenna feed, and thus power, to record both analog and digital broadcasts (most of the channels I want to record are still analog here in Ottawa).

Can anyone recommend a good tuner card with a combination analog/digital tuner so that the power doesn't need to be split between the two tuners? Optimally it would have a H/W MPEG Encoder. How does it compare to the WinTV-HVR-1600?

Also, does anyone know which generation decoder chip the WinTV-HVR-1600 has?

Thanks.

Wouldn't the HVR-950 USB do the job?

Wouldn't the HVR-950 USB do the job?

I would prefer one with a hardware MPEG encoder. Looking further it seems like the WinTV-HVR-1950 (http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr1950.html) might be a good option. Does anyone have any experience with it? Unfortunately it seems a lot more expensive than the WinTV-HVR-1600.

I actually like having two inputs. It allows me to receive cable on the analog (NTSC) input and over-the-air (ATSC) on the digital input with an indoor antenna.

I wish my TV had separate inputs for the NTSC and ATSC tuners. Since I can't combine the signals, I'm forced to choose one or the other.

I actually like having two inputs. It allows me to receive cable on the analog (NTSC) input and over-the-air (ATSC) on the digital input with an indoor antenna.

I agree that it is useful for many people, but I don't have (or intend to get) cable so it is a disadvantage for me.

Roger, I picked up the HVR-1800 for $105 from ncix. It has two tuners, and this is useful for some software such as Windows Media Center in Canada. It is a major PIA to use a shared tuner in this situation.

I agree that it is useful for many people, but I don't have (or intend to get) cable so it is a disadvantage for me.
I don't think you should be complaining for a problem that is so simple to fix :~)

Hi,

I getting dangerously close to finalizing my setup. I finally have my own dual tuner card in place (Hauppauge HVR-1800). I'm getting reception for the three HD channels available here in Vancouver. Using Windows Media Center I get 4 orange bars for CHAN, 5 green bars for CIVT and 5 green bars for CBUT. The strange thing is that when I go to watch the channels, only CIVT gives me a picture and sound. CHAN and CBUT give a blank screen and no sound.

EDIT, WMC is working ok now: I had incorrectly entered in the channel data for the two channels. For example, CBUT-DT should have been 2-1 rf#58. I had entered 58-1, rf#58.

I've also tried Watchhdtv. It found the three channels and I can watch all of them. However, the sound is really stuttered. Things change depending on what I choose for decoders. The best I've found so far is CBVA DMO wrapper filter + DScaler Audio Decoder. That gives me scattered audio on only 1 channel. Some decoders sort of freeze the PC.



thanks!
Try MPV decoder (mpeg2dec) - it is the most compatible and any system with a dual core cpu will have no problem using it.