TBS 6284 PCI-E DVB-T2 Quad TV Tuner Card

[brewston]

Originally Posted by jaminben

The only downside is that all my guide data which is over-the-air is all messed up with funny characters... never had this with my USB tuners. Anyone else seen this and know how to fix it?

EPG for the HD channels are encrypted, I found that once it found this though, the EPG would corrupt non-HD channels. I ended up moving back to the XMLTV importer

[mevans]

Ben,

I see you're on WHS (v1?) too. What was your installation mothod for the card? was it the case of put card in the PC, boot up dismissing all 'new hardware found' dialogues and then install drivers from company website?

Any issues?

Cheers

mevans

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by brewston

EPG for the HD channels are encrypted, I found that once it found this though, the EPG would corrupt non-HD channels. I ended up moving back to the XMLTV importer

Gutted

That makes total sense as its what I'm seeing. I had hoped to get away from XMLTV but I guess not.

Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by mevans

Ben,

I see you're on WHS (v1?) too. What was your installation mothod for the card? was it the case of put card in the PC, boot up dismissing all 'new hardware found' dialogues and then install drivers from company website?

Any issues?
mevans

Sorry but thats out of date and I've not gotten round to changing it... I'm using Win7 now.

[brewston]

Originally Posted by jaminben

Gutted

That makes total sense as its what I'm seeing. I had hoped to get away from XMLTV but I guess not.

The annoying thing is that most of the programs are the same as those on the corresponding SD channels...

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by brewston

The annoying thing is that most of the programs are the same as those on the corresponding SD channels...

Yep

What XMLTV source are you using... I've been trying to get EPG Collector to work but it appears as though the frequencies are out of date since our digital switch over.

I've changed a few of my frequencies to the new versions in the EPG Collector XML file but I keep getting CRC Check failures.

[brewston]

Just used Stephane's importer as it was the only one I've ever figured out I'm waiting for Crystal Palace to complete the changeover next week before I fiddle with it again (Its my dev server, my prod one is DVB-S2)

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by brewston

Just used Stephane's importer as it was the only one I've ever figured out I'm waiting for Crystal Palace to complete the changeover next week before I fiddle with it again (Its my dev server, my prod one is DVB-S2)

Sorry I mean the EPG source... Radio Times, EPG Collector, Digiguide etc

[brewston]

Originally Posted by jaminben

Sorry I mean the EPG source... Radio Times, EPG Collector, Digiguide etc

Ah... digiguide

[jaminben]

ok, I think I'll have to go back to that... I didn't fancy paying for a guide again.

Thanks

[doc]

The only problem I've found with the Radio Times EPG listings is that it doesn't have the HD tags in the programme information.

I download the EPG for the channels (BBC1 HD, ITV1 HD, CH4 HD and BBC-HD) - selecting the actual HD channels from the list, and then run a vbscript against the EPG file that adds '<quality>HDTV</quality>' to all programmes for those particular channels. In Stephanes importer I have the HD box ticked for those channels.

That way, favourites will choose to record from the HD channels if available rather than the SD channels.

I don't know what anyone else does, or if there's a better or easier way to do this, but it seems to work for me.

[jaminben]

After 5 hours of pure frustration I eventually got it working using EPG Collector as my XMLTV source... not a 10 min job I promised the other half when I started out.
At least we have a few free HD channels to watch now not that she'll notice and will probably say "I can't see the difference" when I point them out.

[keefb]

Originally Posted by pjwerdna

Ive just tried the Dual tuner version of this card. (about two minutes ago!)

After putting the right freqency entry in the PredefinedDVBT.frq file for my transmitter I can get the HD channels picked up.

However I cant get it to play any HD channel as it always says "Sage.playbackexception: error (-5:0x80040200): there was a problem rendering the audio portion of the content for playback. SD channels are fine.

This is currently on Windows 7 test machine on which the media center plays back the HD channels without errors

So it partly works, but theres something not covered in a normal windows 7 install thats missing

Did you resolve this playback error? I'm looking at the 6820 as well for my WHS1/HD200 setup.

[pjwerdna]

Originally Posted by keefb

Did you resolve this playback error? I'm looking at the 6820 as well for my WHS1/HD200 setup.

Not resolved it yet, but I suspect Ill need a new audio decoder.

VLC plays back both the video and audio as can windows media center. But none of the plausable audio decoders that SageTV has access to seem to be able to do the audio.

However my HD300 plays HD recordings back without problems so Im not too concerned while thats still working.

[keefb]

Excellent news. Thanks for the very quick reply. I'll get one on order.

[pjwerdna]

Originally Posted by pjwerdna

Not resolved it yet, but I suspect Ill need a new audio decoder.

Actually I have resolved it now

Just needed to install the DivX codec pack from www.divx.com. I knew there was something Id forgotten

[mevans]

Hi all,

Following the 2nd retune of the Crystal Palace transmitter this morning (for which the re-tuning of my STV rig seems to have worked ok)...

I'm back in the running for one of these quad T2 cards - although it looks like I might be the WHSv1 guinea pig.

I'm interested in doc's post:

The only problem I've found with the Radio Times EPG listings is that it doesn't have the HD tags in the programme information.

I download the EPG for the channels (BBC1 HD, ITV1 HD, CH4 HD and BBC-HD) - selecting the actual HD channels from the list, and then run a vbscript against the EPG file that adds '<quality>HDTV</quality>' to all programmes for those particular channels. In Stephanes importer I have the HD box ticked for those channels.

That way, favourites will choose to record from the HD channels if available rather than the SD channels.

I don't know what anyone else does, or if there's a better or easier way to do this, but it seems to work for me.

I hadn't realised that STV was this sophisticated (i.e. to prefer to record an HD version of a favourite if available) .

Along with the HD tick boxes for each channel in StephaneM's importer, this morning I spotted that in the 'Advanced options' there is a 'put HD label in the program title' tick box . Does the combination of these two not do what is required for STV?

Once I’m sure things are ok after my retune I’ll get a card on order and give it a go...

cheers

[doc]

The HD tick box in Stephane's importer is there to allow or disallow HD tags that are already in the EPG file.

When I first set up the importer I ticked the box assuming it would make all programmes for that channel show as being HD, but it doesn't, it works the other way round and removes them for non-HD channels, which is why I have to put them in using a script after using the grabber but before running the importer.

I'm not sure what 'put HD label in the program title' tick box does as I've just had a quick play and it didn't seem to affect anything on my system.

The 'Program Guide Marks HDTV' in Sage's detailed setup - customize (after hidden secrets enabled) will put a pink dot in the corner of the program guide to show up HD programs, as shown in the attached image.

Sage will always try to record from the best quality source, but when you have the HD and SD versions of the same channel on the same source I don't know how it would decide which channel to use. I've not done any testing as such but all my favourites seem to record from the HD channels rather than the SD ones.

If you want a copy of the script I'll happily share, as long as noone critisized my coding It puts the HDTV tag into EVERY programme for an HD channel.

I don't know whether digiguide put in the HD tags, hopefully someone will know.

[mevans]

Thanks for the clarity Doc,

I'm using DG2XML to grab data from Digiguide. which, looking at the readme:

Supported XML Data

The following data, where available, is provided in the resultant XML file:

Credits (director, actor, guest, writer, producer)
Length of program (length of program, plus start and stop times)
Age rating
Aspect ratio
Star rating (out of 5)
Definition (HDTV)
Sound format
Episode name
Series number
Episode number
Subtitles (including type)
Repeat
Year

so with a bit of luck and the relevent bits ticked in the importer, it might just work!

I've just had a look in my epgdata.xml file (produced by DG2XLM from the Digiguide data) and found the following info on the HD channels (i have them in my Digiguide lineup):

- <video>
<quality>HDTV</quality>
</video>

although strangly not against every programme.

I guess i'll give it a try when i order one of these cards, and see!

[doc]

Thats good to know in case I change to digiguide in the future

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by mevans

although strangly not against every programme.

Thats probably because not all programmes are HD even though they are broadcast on an HD channel.

Well thats my guess anyway