PCTV nanoStick T2 290e unwatchable Picture

[Lao Pan]

Anyboby else had problems with this tuner.
I have had one of these since christmas on my vista htpc - first I thought it was a poor signal (loft aerial) so invested in a 40 element log periodic aerial and new distribution amp + cabling. Disapointingly still appeared to be poor signal so bit the bullit and had aerial moved outside. The Installer was impressed with signal strength +30% of standard freeview aerials he uses in our nabourhood. He checked the signal at the pc and I am getting a 100% signal with zero dropped bits - so should be perfect - it is prity close to it on the old T700 PCI-e card.
I am still getting bad picture brake up - with arcsoft decoder npvr crashes - cyberlink pdvd 9 or 10 picture brakes up all the time.
In desperation I installed the pctv centre software and realised this also is happening on sd mpeg 2 as well as the T2 HD transmittions.
Anybody got any ideas?

[sub]

In desperation I installed the pctv centre software and realised this also is happening on sd mpeg 2 as well as the T2 HD transmittions.

Phew, sounds like I'm off the hook. (sorry! )

[johnsonx42]

Perhaps your signal is too strong? I've found it to be possible to overwhelm the input side of some devices with too much signal - I think the effect is the radio signal equivalent of audio clipping due to too much pre-amp gain. Particularly USB devices have a lot less room for the proper components to deal with a wide range of signal strength.

[Lao Pan]

Perhaps your signal is too strong?

This is a possibility - just my luck gone from too little to too much in one jump!
I was trouble shooting epg update bat not running at night for the last week (access denied - hopefully firewall problem) when I noticed dvbguide reported a signal strength of +23.9db on the videomate E700 tuner on a mux with the same strength as the T2 HD mux.
(Update - this is on one of a duel tuner this means the nanostick is getting + 26.9db!!! - could probably pull the plug out of the pc and it would keep on running!)

Anybody got any ideas what signal strength would be more appropriate for the PCTV nanoStick T2 290e?
also - in the pctv centre settings there is gain enabled settings for the stupid small antenna thing or disabled for aerial system butI havn't found a way to access this in the drivers.

[nj2112]

I couldn't tell you what signal strength the 290e could cope with, but I use an old standard roof aerial with a distribution amp that probably gives little more gain than needed to offset the split. At a guess I doubt I'm getting more than half your signal on each down lead, probably less but that's just a guess.
Output from the dist amp is then fed into a 3 way 15dB amp then into a variable attenuator something like this :-
http://cpc.farnell.com/_/f361g/variable-...dp/AR70689

[Lao Pan]

After 2 months of changing aerials, amps, atenuators, etc. - installing internal USB port on Motherboard (to reduce interference) I got to thinking - why is the tuner under performing (seriously) but running very hot - answer: low voltage, high current!
I have now plugged the nano stick into a powered USB hub and am getting perfect reception
Anyone know of a high quality micro ATX PSU?? Seems that my Cheap Chinese 400w one is under performing on the 5v side powering 3 hdd + Blu-ray player + HD5670 GPU.

Now just got to find an AAC codec that works nicely with the 5.1 and 2.0 changing. (Arcsoft HD = warbly sound)

[gEd]

I got the BlackGold pci-x card for freeview HD as I had enough of all the USB problems with my old Nova-T USB2 tuner.

Let me know how you get on with your hunt for a working audio codec as I am not having much success here. I thought it was working ok at the beginning, maybe I drempt it but I can't make it work at the moment. sounds is breaking up all the time and volume level fluctuates. happens on HDMI and analogue output.

400W micro ATX PSU? That's rather a tall order. Maybe look at the Shuttle ones as I thought they were reasonably good kit AFAIK. I would have thought that the small fans would be quite noisy compared to good quality ATX PSU such as seasonic/corsair/enermax.

http://computers.shop.ebay.co.uk/Power-S...kw=shuttle

[Lao Pan]

Installed the latest Divx Codec pack -went to reinstall the one that came with the stick - asked me if I wanted to download the latest so it is less than a month old.
Limited testing (Wife on Challenge TV ) seems OK so far.
I am getting 5.1 surround over SPDIF using the DTS Connect on the Gigabit MB when its available but only L/R on stereo transmittions - Quality seems Good - much better than Arcsoft HD - only time will tell if it can handle stream changes better than the old version.
I still get problems with SD sound with MPEG & AAC enabled - running in 2-3 seconds timeshift fixes it - but try telling the wife that :confused:

[martint123]

I have now plugged the nano stick into a powered USB hub and am getting perfect reception

Just to resurect this thread. I can confirm that these things seem to need more power than is usually available on a PC USB connector.
I have just moved one from the test box (HP Microserver) to the same PC but with a powered USB hub and the improvement is dramatic.

[Lao Pan]

Just to resurect this thread. I can confirm that these things seem to need more power than is usually available on a PC USB connector.
I have just moved one from the test box (HP Microserver) to the same PC but with a powered USB hub and the improvement is dramatic.

Just an update seeing as you necromanced this thread

Managed to get a Silverstone 450w sfx psu from scan computers which is a quality unit - bronze rated and stuff.

Still had the same problems - I think most usb headers don't give enough power, this stick uses a Sony TV chip - so stuck with the powered hub and all is very OK.

Decoders now I use PDVD12 for both HD & SD Video and LAF Audio decoders for MPEG and AAC + HC-AAC (SAF6 UL) with the ATI 12.10 Catalyst drivers (on Windows 8) Picture quality is really good on both HD and SD (especially if it was shot in HD)