It should work for all digital channels (SD ones too),

I suspect that since Techluvr is in here in Ottawa where only 3 of the 15 stations broadcast locally are digital, what he meant was that it only works for DTV channels and not the analog ones.

I suspect that since Techluvr is in here in Ottawa where only 3 of the 15 stations broadcast locally are digital, what he meant was that it only works for DTV channels and not the analog ones.

No, I understood that WatchHDTV only detected digital stations.

What happened was that there are 2 SunTv stations on channel 20.1 and 20.2. One is HD the other SD. I didn't properly set the sub-channel - so I only found the HD one. Now I get both SunTv stations, as well as CBOT, and CBOFT.

Now I just gotta hoist that big stinkin antenna to try to pull in the US nets.;)

I downloaded a demo of SageTV; the audio is fine. Unfortunately the video makes little jumps instead. After watching anything with motion for a few minutes, I get dizzy and nauseous.
That's a video-driver issue, which can be compensated for with either a faster CPU or better video card drivers. Eg. on Windows, the NVidia "PureVideo" stuff apparently rocks. On Linux, well.. nothing yet, though lots of good drivers are currently in alpha.

EDIT: or perhaps it's just a configuration issue in SageTV -- maybe just need to enable h/w decoding, motion-compensation, h/w deinterlacing, etc.. ?

Cheers

i live in midtown toronto and i'm using a hauppauge hvr950 tuner with the standard antenna. i have a nice view of the cn tower and i get about 25 channels (half atsc, half analog), i want to know if its worth buying a better antenna. my atsc reception is great, analog not so good but i get all the same channels as digital anyways. if it is, i'm not willing to spend too much $$ or go through so much trouble to acquire one because i just watch from my laptop and im only using it during evenings when im home. any advice would be appreciated.

The advantage of a better antenna is that you may be able to get Buffalo stations, depending on your location. If you care about that then I would say yes, give it a try. If you don't care about pulling in Buffalo stations then stick with your existing antenna as there isn't much reason to care about analog reception.

I have a Pinnacle HD Pro USB and in Oshawa using the small included stick antenna I get the HD channels along with an assortment of Radio and Analog [Analog are weak in this area with the small antenna. HD are excellent!
CBLT-DT
CFTO-HD
WNED-HD
WNED-SD
WNED-TH
WNLO-HD
CIII-DT
OMNI-1
OMNI-2
City-HD
CKXT-DT

linuxguru, if you read through the Oshawa Reception Results thread you can see the other stations you would probably get with a proper antenna.

If you post your results in there can you please put your location in the title?

cheers

Though you might be more interested in this one, :p
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=36538

Oyyy... thanks for the wake-up! :D Okay, just poured another coffee.

Oshawa != Ottawa
Oshawa != Ottawa
Oshawa != Ottawa

linuxguru, see the link in recneps77's post!

The advantage of a better antenna is that you may be able to get Buffalo stations, depending on your location. If you care about that then I would say yes, give it a try. If you don't care about pulling in Buffalo stations then stick with your existing antenna as there isn't much reason to care about analog reception.
well i'm already getting the cw, abc, cbs, fox, 3 different pbs's, and some movie channel, but no nbc. no big deal since the nbc primetime stuff comes on one of the canadian channels also. so i guess i'm doing pretty good with what i've got.

Hello,

I've been reading this forum quite a lot to learn about OTA, so I picked myself up a HVR-950Q from NCIX at the beginning of June (was onsale for $79)
I live in the GTA (Danforth Area) and even with the included dinky little antenna I was able to pick Buffalo stations (from the attic loft in my house - 3rd floor).
Even Analogue reception from Buffalo surprised me ... Strangely enough I couldn't get CBC digital (even though I'm about 5km from CN Tower and have a direct unobstructed line of sight)

Unfortunately it seems my hardware would overheat .. I tried using it on two computers and three vista installs (I have a laptop and another machine with two vista installs for testing media center and media portal)

No matter what software I would use Vista MC, WinTV 6 or 7, Watch HDTV .. after about 5-20 minutes the software playing the TV signal would freeze. On rare occasions I was able to terminate the processes, but mostly I had to reboot. I tried various versions of the drivers, and even tried Hauppauge technical support but to no avail. After much digging through google I found a number of threads about heating issues with the tuner hardware (may be specific to the chip as I've seen some people complaining about their DVICO fusion 7s as well).

So unfortunately back it goes to NCIX, which is sad because I was very impressed with the quality of the picture and the ability of the tuner to pick up weak buffalo stations.. I was waiting for Silver Sensors to come in at Above All Electronics Surplus on Bloor st, so I can only imagine what I could have gotten with a decent antenna.

I know other people have had good luck with this tuner, but I thought I'd just add my experience as a cautionary tale.. I may try one again, but I will buy from a local dealer so I don't have to pay for return shipping in the event of problems.

Jay

PS thanks to all the great posters from which I have learned a great deal and have caught the OTA bug

Check to make sure the stick itself wasn't overheating - it should be relatively out in the open, make sure it has some airflow. My old version 950 can get hot, fast.
The hardware failing due to heat may be causing the software errors.
If it's not overheating then it's probably defective as you suggest.
Perhaps Hauppauge will swap it for you (for a newer revision, if available?)

Good point about the 950Q getting hot. I noticed that mine does too. But since the setup is in a cool basement, rather than a warm 3rd floor loft, it never gets hot enough to actually cause problems here.

Mmm.. I think I'll just droop the USB cable for it, such that the tuner ends up behind the PSU fan outlet of the HTPC box. Free extra cooling that way.

All of the other tuners here also get very hot when in-use, especially the HDHomeRun units.

Cheers

I've got two 950Qs and I made sure to use the little USB extension cables that came with them so that they are suspended in mid air rather than inserted into the back of the PC. My Mythbackend box is also in a cool basement location so heat is never a problem.

A person could rig up a cheap and dirty heat sink for them by having them rest on a small sheet of aluminum.

That's exactly what I do with mine. I use the extension and hang it over the cables at the back so that the fan vents on it. It's warm air, but it still cools it better than still air.

I suppose that once mine is out of warranty, I'll take and drill some ventilation holes through the plastic housing, to help it survive better long term..

Remind me to do that come next Christmas. :)

Hmmm... copper tubing wrapped around them for water cooling! :)

Hi All,

After reading your follow up posts I started to examine my setups and just realized something. In both my test situations I had the 950Q on the USB extension cable, and in both cases the 950Q would up in front of the CPU exhaust (for my laptop and the case exhaust fan nearest the CPU in my ATX desktop case).

I wonder if I was exasperating the situation by blowing hot air across the tuner ? Doh ....

Anyone try putting heatsinks something like Stampeder suggested (or perhaps chipset heatsinks on their hot stuff ? Or do you need good thermal contact ? (prevented by plastic casing)

Thanks again

Jay

I suppose that once mine is out of warranty, I'll take and drill some ventilation holes through the plastic housing, to help it survive better long term..

If you do that, be very careful to ground yourself every time you touch it afterwards. The modified case may increase the risk of ESD damage. When devices are designed with ventalation holes, they make sure the static sensative components are kept far away from them.

Unless the air is really hot, it would still be beneficial as the moving air is better than still air over the device