Nova S2 HD tuner

[jaminben]

Off topic question for Doc,

I see in your sig that you use a Nova S2 HD tuner for Sat channels, does this card work well with Sage and do you have to use the supplied software (CyberLink PowerCinema) or can you use any HD codec for HD channels like BBC HD.
I currently have an HVR4000 and although it works well for SD content using Nvidia purevideo codec the HD channel (BBCHD) can only use the supplied CyberLink PowerCinema codec. Now this wouldnt be a problem if it was only to be used for BBCHD but when viewing other HD content it clearly isnt as good as CoreAVC in terms of PQ and CPU usage.

Sorry for the off topic reply but I've been wanting to get rid of the HVR400 and try the Nova S2 for some time but was unsure if it could use CoreAVC as the HD codec within Sage.

Cheers

Ben

* split to its own topic *

[doc]

Originally Posted by jaminben

Off topic question for Doc,

I see in your sig that you use a Nova S2 HD tuner for Sat channels, does this card work well with Sage and do you have to use the supplied software (CyberLink PowerCinema) or can you use any HD codec for HD channels like BBC HD.
I currently have an HVR4000 and although it works well for SD content using Nvidia purevideo codec the HD channel (BBCHD) can only use the supplied CyberLink PowerCinema codec. Now this wouldnt be a problem if it was only to be used for BBCHD but when viewing other HD content it clearly isnt as good as CoreAVC in terms of PQ and CPU usage.

Sorry for the off topic reply but I've been wanting to get rid of the HVR400 and try the Nova S2 for some time but was unsure if it could use CoreAVC as the HD codec within Sage.

Cheers

Ben

The card works well for unencrypted satellite, and records the BBCHD channel fine.

Playback is a little more complicated. I tried to record and playback on the same pc (Athlon x2 5600, 2GB ram, Vista, Sage 6.3) and it would play ok some of the time, but mostly it had what I can only describe as a microstutter.

I put the card in my proper sage box (athlon xp3200) and it records fine. I can play it back on my x2 5600 pc a lot better than before but it took a while to get anything like half-decent playback.

Its certainly not perfect, especially when there's movement, but I thought this was probably more to do with the graphics card which is a 7300LE. The only codecs I've tried are the Cyberlink, Intervideo and Sage default ones. I think I ended up sticking with the sage one. I had to turn 3d acceleration off too. I haven't tried playback on XP as I don't have a powerful enough PC with XP on it.

I thought about trying the CoreAVC codec but couldn't work out if Sage could be configured to use it or not.

I've tried to stop spending more on it as I'm now saving for my holiday in New Zealand. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on an HD Extender, I'm sure that would improve playback no end.

As for Luxe TV HD, I've had no luck with playback at all. Its definately unwatchable. That said, theres nothing on it worth watching!

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by doc

I thought about trying the CoreAVC codec but couldn't work out if Sage could be configured to use it or not.

I only use 3 codecs on my machine, CoreAVC (HD), Nvidia PureVideo (Mpeg 2) and Divx (avi etc) I would definatly give CoreAVC a whirl for HD as this works really well with Sage for me.

My main hesitation for not buying another Hauppauge DVB-S2 card was the codec compatabilty with the HVR4000 but if you have tried various diffrent HD codecs with this card and they all work (to some degree) then I will most definatly give the Nova HD-2 card a try.

Thanks for the reply

[doc]

I just rebuilt my pc and couldn't get it to play any HD recordings.

After trying every possible video decoder option and changing hardware acceleration on and off a thousand times, I remembered that last time I also installed CYberlink PowerCinema 4.7 which came with thd nova-hd-s2 card.

I installed that and wham bang, its all working fine again.

I thought I'd better write it down on here so that the next time I forget how I got it working, I can come and do a search on here!