Unable to get Sony MPeg2 card to work...

[AssarGabrielson]

Oh yeah and by the way I did end up trying it correctly with CABLE selected as tuning type instead of antenna as seen in photo. Same result though.

[zaphod7501]

This will sound silly, but have you tried tapping on the tuner with an insulated stick (wood or fiberglass, possible wooded spon handle)

I've serviced Sony products for over thirty years and that is a Sony built tuner on the card, not the typical ones you see on every other tuner card that I have ever seen. Sony tuners of that design had serious problems with internal solder connections failing.

[pBS]

it's actually like a pvr350..it has a decoder on board...
i'd be curious to see a 350 graph...what filter does it's muxed output come from?
this card just seems to hide the encoder inside the crossbar...
the decoder is a separate filter tho so may be usable..

i took a stab at rewriting the .ini section...will report back on what i find, and if i can get the decoder working in a graph..

[pBS]

well it's working...tho i have to put it thru it's paces still...tried composite input and all is well...I just installed the 2 file driver and the 'sony decoder' sw...

the hardware video decoder even works!
it has postprocessing,etc but i'm still playing with that...isn't deinterlacing right on my card..looks like bad bob deinterlace..
but so far it plays HW assisted HD! tried some 1080i files and was ok...[still no deinterlace, tho i'll probably find out how]
it's a custom Sony chip so who knows what they did...still playing with it, may not even be hw assisted much..[like just idct, no mocomp]
seems like it's offloading cpu fine...still deinterlacing issues...

the rest is just pvr350 it would seem...tho not very different from 250 or 150...
simplest graphs ever! no separate encoder filter, just muxed data straight out of capture filter..
all the parameters seem to work also...tweaks for frame size, bitrate,etc..just like a 150..
sweet...
interestingly enough, the capture filter lists everything twice...will post pics later..
it's been a good day, finally found the pinouts of a lowprofile pvr150 clone i got for $9 so i can use the svideo in...and now this one...sweet..i was worried till heard Snooze got it going..

p.s. it also has .ts output in mux...i think all of these enc. chip cards do...
just Haupp. doesn't...tho they may also now...reference drivers have .ts outs...

modified pvr350 direct.ini entry i used..only changed filter names and 1 pin name..

Code:

[Sony MPEG RealTime encoder board]
INIT_MODE=IVAC
INIT_MSP=1
SUPPORTS_FM_RADIO=0
MODEL=481xx
FILTER_CROSSBAR=SMRT Crossbar
FILTER_CAPTURE=SMRT Capture
FILTER_TV_TUNER=SMRT TV Tuner
FILTER_TV_AUDIO=SMRT TV Audio
PIN_CROSSBAR_VIDEO_TUNER_IN=Video Tuner In
PIN_TVTUNER_ANALOG_VIDEO_OUT=Analog Video
PIN_TVTUNER_ANALOG_AUDIO_OUT=Analog Audio
PIN_TVAUDIO_TV_AUDIO_IN=TVAudio In
PIN_TVAUDIO_TV_AUDIO_OUT=TVAudio Out
PIN_CROSSBAR_AUDIO_TUNER_IN=Audio Tuner In
PIN_CROSSBAR_VIDEO_DECODER_OUT=Video Decoder Out
PIN_CAPTURE_ANALOG_VIDEO_IN=Analog Video In
PIN_CROSSBAR_AUDIO_DECODER_OUT=Audio Decoder Out
PIN_CAPTURE_ANALOG_AUDIO_IN=Analog Audio In
PIN_CAPTURE_CAPTURE_OUT=Video/Muxed Out
PIN_CAPTURE_PREVIEW_AUDIO_OUT=Audio PCM
PIN_WRITER_INPUT_IN=Input

recording works great...

[sub]

I'll add that entry to the direct.ini file for the next release. Thanks for posting it.

[pBS]

NP, it's an interesting card...i was wondering how a lowly 300mhz! gpu could play video so easily...now i know...it was hardware assisted..
still, looks better and same cpu usage with my ati card..

i hadn't tested the tuner side, cuz nothing to tune here anymore...[i don't have cable]
it does seem to work tho...

i had read all sorts of stuff out there about how to get this card working, they say to install the whole package...[150+megs!] and they all call it a gigapocket, which is only the name of the pvr software from Sony...not the card...

so none of the Sony stuff is needed, just the smrt.inf and smrt.sys...[driver]
lots of these out there and no help from Sony, so glad i could help..

[Snooze]

@pBS
Thats great pBS, so all I need to do is revise my direct.ini like you have here? I had it working for S-Video all along, but with cable in and tuning assistant I could see cable channels, but the channels stuttered horribly in tunin assistant. Within GBPVR the screen just stays black with no audio. So I only been using my STB S-video out to this card.

@sub
The difference from what pBS used and the one I found earlier in this thread and have been using all along, in your professional opinion, would the difference in the direct.ini cause the stutter in tuning assistant, and not work at all in GBPVR? See below, bold black is the change pBS made, red is what is deleted from what I am using.

[Sony MPEG RealTime encoder board]
INIT_MODE=IVAC
INIT_MSP=1
SUPPORTS_FM_RADIO=0
MODEL=320xx,480xx CHANGE THIS TO READ MODEL 481xx
FILTER_CROSSBAR=SMRT Crossbar
FILTER_CAPTURE=SMRT Capture
FILTER_TV_TUNER=SMRT TV Tuner
FILTER_TV_AUDIO=SMRT TV Audio
PIN_CROSSBAR_VIDEO_TUNER_IN=Video Tuner In
PIN_TVTUNER_ANALOG_VIDEO_OUT=Analog Video
PIN_TVTUNER_ANALOG_AUDIO_OUT=Analog Audio
PIN_TVAUDIO_TV_AUDIO_IN=TVAudio In
PIN_TVAUDIO_TV_AUDIO_OUT=TVAudio Out
PIN_CROSSBAR_AUDIO_TUNER_IN=Audio Tuner In
PIN_CROSSBAR_VIDEO_DECODER_OUT=Video Decoder Out
PIN_CAPTURE_ANALOG_VIDEO_IN=Analog Video In
PIN_CROSSBAR_AUDIO_DECODER_OUT=Audio Decoder Out
PIN_CAPTURE_ANALOG_AUDIO_IN=Analog Audio In
PIN_CAPTURE_CAPTURE_OUT=Video/Muxed Out
PIN_CAPTURE_VBI_OUT=VBI Line 21
PIN_CAPTURE_Video YUV_OUT=Video YUV
PIN_CAPTURE_Audio PCM_OUT=Audio PCM
PIN_CAPTURE_Output6_OUT=Output6
PIN_CAPTURE_Output7_OUT=Output7
PIN_WRITER_INPUT_IN=Input

[sub]

MODEL=320xx,480xx CHANGE THIS TO READ MODEL 481xx
PIN_CAPTURE_VBI_OUT=VBI Line 21
PIN_CAPTURE_Video YUV_OUT=Video YUV
PIN_CAPTURE_Output6_OUT=Output6
PIN_CAPTURE_Output7_OUT=Output7

The above lines are not used at all by the application, and will make no difference whatsoever.

[pBS]

well, it seems there *is* a separate encoder, it's just not in WDM streaming encoders, it's in WDM streaming muxers category... looks like same filter...
I set it up that way and piped YUV video into it and it worked also..
i was having a need for double tuning with original setup on occasion, but that may have been something else..
so i'll see which way is best and if they're the same we'll just leave the .ini the way it is..
otherwise i'll set it up like a 150 with a proper decoder filter...

just a thought, but you may want to make filtercheck look for wdm streaming muxes as well, may find more cards' filters that way...tho probably only cards like this..
this one seems to enjoy all features of a standard blackbird when used in pvrx2... [framesize/bitrate settings work, which is really nice] and hauppauge tweak works so can get rid of the filtering trails..

[pBS]

shots of the graphs...both works fine it seems...
[the double tune i needed was related to the hardware assist sony decoder..]

what entry do you think i should use as template? pvr150? 250?
i'm thinking the one with less filters, it may handle cc if everything's handled internally, no extra connects to hook up..