ADS Tech MCE-3000 (aka PTV-305) sub, or anyone else good at adding tuner cards...

[sub]

That looks like it matches the original [Conexant BlackBird] section that was already defined in direct.ini

[oldarmy94]

Hey guys, thanks so much for all your work on this software and help with noobs like me. I also bought this card, set everything up as best as I could tell it should be set up, added the aforementioned code to the direct.ini file, but...

i have a blank screen when I try to watch live TV. The audio comes through for the channel, but there is no video whatsoever. Is there an easy explanation for this?

Also, I ran the muxchecker and it said I have no mux filters on my machine. This is odd because I have sp2. Could this be the problem? And if so, where's the easiest place to get a mux filter?

Thanks!!

[oldarmy94]

Well, I re-registered the filters and now i get video, but as some have already mentioned the video is very grainy and a little choppy as well. Any thoughts on how to address this?

[sub]

"Grainy" is probably due to the hardware itself and not something GB-PVR has any control over. You could try increasing the bitrate to see if it produces a better picture, but thats about it.

"Choppy" could be due to the decoders you're using or the capability of the hardware you using. Which decoder are you using, and whats a general description of your hardware?

[oldarmy94]

Wow, you're quick on the reply - thanks!

I didn't really mess with decoder settings, so the video decoder is set on MPEG. There was not a hardware decoder in the dropdown menu that matches my card, although everyone seems to think this card does have a hardware decoder (that's why I bought it). If it does indeed have a hardware decoder, what needs to be added to the direct.ini to allow gbpvr to make use of it?

As for the bitrate, would I just do that on the "livetv quality" capture settings box?

My hardware: 2.4 ghz celeron, Geforce4 64mb card, 256mb ram, it's a dell dimension 2400, using the PTV-305 card. I have the cable splitting from the wall, one split to the STB/TV, and one to the computer/projector.

[sub]

I didn't really mess with decoder settings, so the video decoder is set on MPEG. There was not a hardware decoder in the dropdown menu that matches my card, although everyone seems to think this card does have a hardware decoder (that's why I bought it). If it does indeed have a hardware decoder, what needs to be added to the direct.ini to allow gbpvr to make use of it?

It has a hardware ENcoder, not DEcoder. You need to leave the hardware decoder setting set to 'none - use software decoder'.

As for the bitrate, would I just do that on the "livetv quality" capture settings box?

Yeah. It may not help though. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with this device, so I'm not really familiar with the quality of the captures it produces.

My hardware: 2.4 ghz celeron, Geforce4 64mb card, 256mb ram, it's a dell dimension 2400, using the PTV-305 card. I have the cable splitting from the wall, one split to the STB/TV, and one to the computer/projector.

That hardware should be ok, but definitely worth trying other decoders (see video decoder setting in the config app).

You can also try setting the video renderer to 'VMR9 Fullscreen Exclusive' to see if it gets rid of any choppiness.

[oldarmy94]

Thanks for the help! I'll try this and see how it goes.

[oldarmy94]

In case anyone's interested, I've gotten the picture very clear and smooth now: it's the signal strength/clarity. I had my splitter before the cable box, one output to the cable box & then to the tv, and the other to my computer, which produced extreme graininess. After trying every other possible fix, I put the splitter between my cable box and TV, one line to the TV, and one line to the computer. The picture looks perfect now. I also tried without a splitter, just by using the s-video out on my cable box & the s-vid input on the card. That worked great as well. Ideally, I'd like to keep the original arrangement so I don't have to be dependent on the STB, so would a signal amplifier work as well as the STB hardware?