Freecom DVB-T TV USB Stick

[djtaylor]

get good pictures, which seem pretty stable. I don't know which epg option I shopuld choose in UK. None seem to be very complete. Suggestions please?

In my opinion, the best way in the UK to get the EPG is to download xml tv gui http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/ choose the Radio Times source, choose your channels and go from there.

I gave up with the OTA EPG right at the beginning. It's not the lack of EPG data that was the main problem but also the fact that you can't choose that channel from the TV Guide if there's nothing in the guide. There were plenty of times when I knew what was on so didn't need to know the guide info.

Having said that the xml source is the best way, at the moment, i'm picking up 3 illegal characters each night which are preventing an import without a bit of editing. Hopefully, once these programmes have past, the problem will go away again.

David.

[pastyman]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've downloaded the XML GUI. Much better result but ITV still comes up as unavailable. Is this everyone else's experience?
By the way, you can select a channel from an empty epg channel. Just select the last active entry, then use down arrow and enter to select the next, blank one. This works well for me.

[ArtificialIntel2]

I get full epg for all uk freeview channels using the uk_rt grabber. There are a lot of alternative channels you can choose from and I have chosen my regional station and mapped it to the dvr channel in config. Have you done that?

Regards

AI

[djtaylor]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've downloaded the XML GUI. Much better result but ITV still comes up as unavailable. Is this everyone else's experience?

Nope, you've got something wrong their unless you've also got a bad character in the EPG data?

By the way, you can select a channel from an empty epg channel. Just select the last active entry, then use down arrow and enter to select the next, blank one. This works well for me.

I haven't tried but it's not too useful when a) there's no cursor and b) I have a screen full of blank lines at the moment!
David.

[congoblue]

Just in case anyone still reading this, I have just managed to install the Freecom DVB-T stick after much messing and this is my solution:

It appears that in the BDA.INI file installed with the latest version the Freecom entries have

FILTER_TUNER=Digital TV Receiver
FILTER_CAPTURE=Digital-TV Device Capture

but my Freecom unit identified itself with 'USB' in front of that and GBPVR did not detect it. CHanging the BDA.INI file to this

FILTER_TUNER=USB Digital-TV Receiver
FILTER_CAPTURE=USB Digital-TV Device Capture

(note the hyphens)

got it to work.

Worth trying if you're struggling.

[mingdiesel]

Freecom stick now works, but it happened by accident.

I purchased another more recent Freecom DVB-T stick for XP & MCE (july 2006) thinking it must have BDA drivers for MCE. When I installed it I directed install to original BDA drivers first, it did not work but the original DVB-T when reconnected to same USB port now updates at least part of the EPG, hopefully I can resolve this problem too.

I can only presume that I did not get the original stick to install bda drivers correctly as I had installed Freecom software prior to uninstalling & deleting references to westlake etc for GBPVR to use bda drivers.

I seems there are a lot of Freecom sticks out there, some XP, some XP & MCE, some hybrid Analog & DVB-T so all Freecom sticks are not equal and some I guess are probably based on other DVB-T sticks.

Where can you identify which stick hardware is used if unidentified in hardware profile?

regards

Mingdiesel

[Mart123]

Hi guys,

I'm sure you're sick to death of hearing about this bit of hardware, but any help you can offer would be very much appreciated!!...

I'm using a Freecom stick manufactured in November 2005 and have the current BDA drivers from the Freecom website (maybe this is part of the problem?). Unfortunately the Yakuma links posted earlier are no longer valid, and what's currently available on their website doesn't seem to match what people on this thread were talking about when the links were posted (no viewing software I can find for a start).

When I scan, GB-PVR finds all the channels I expect it to, and shows programming from a couple of them during the scan (BBC1 for a start). Both audio and video appear to work until the scan presumably switches frequency. It goes on to find 20+ channels (from the Crystal Palace transmitter which is relatively close by), but only previews 2 or 3 as it goes.

When I click on channels after the scan, no preview is shown.

When I go to watch live TV in GB-PVR, the signal STRENGTH shows 100%, but quality shows 0%, and no video or audio are shown. With the standard WMD drivers and software I get 100% on both (as well as on 2 different freeview boxes), so signal isn't he problem.

I'm using the Nero decoder.

Any ideas?!

Many thanks in advance,
Martin.

[mingdiesel]

Hi Mart123

Re Freecom DVB-T BDA & EPG.

I tried for ages to get my Freecom Stick to work and eventually only obtaining part EPG resolved problems by doing the following, this may or may not work for you but mine now works ok and signal strength is now exceptional in all weather conditions.

1. Insert Freecom in another USB port and RE - INSTALL CORRECT BDA DRIVERS, directing install to folder where the correct drivers are stored if encountering problems with BDA.

2. EPG Problems: I fitted a high quality antenna (£30 at B&Q) designed for digital signal to replace previous old chimney mounted analog model. I ran CT100 sat quality cable direct to Freecom without joins. This improved signal strength and quality immediately and I then obtained fully populated EPG first time!

From this it appears to me that the key to obtaining full EPG was down to improving signal reception at certain frequencies where EPG was missing before, mine now works every time.

Good Luck

Mingdiesel

[Tyx]

Hi guys,

I'm sure you're sick to death of hearing about this bit of hardware, but any help you can offer would be very much appreciated!!...

I'm using a Freecom stick manufactured in November 2005 and have the current BDA drivers from the Freecom website (maybe this is part of the problem?). Unfortunately the Yakuma links posted earlier are no longer valid, and what's currently available on their website doesn't seem to match what people on this thread were talking about when the links were posted (no viewing software I can find for a start).

When I scan, GB-PVR finds all the channels I expect it to, and shows programming from a couple of them during the scan (BBC1 for a start). Both audio and video appear to work until the scan presumably switches frequency. It goes on to find 20+ channels (from the Crystal Palace transmitter which is relatively close by), but only previews 2 or 3 as it goes.

When I click on channels after the scan, no preview is shown.

When I go to watch live TV in GB-PVR, the signal STRENGTH shows 100%, but quality shows 0%, and no video or audio are shown. With the standard WMD drivers and software I get 100% on both (as well as on 2 different freeview boxes), so signal isn't he problem.

I'm using the Nero decoder.

Any ideas?!

Many thanks in advance,
Martin.

Hi Martin,

This might seem obvious to some, but have you tried mapping the channels after you find them? The 'Channels found during scan window' might have all the channels you wanted, but on the left, under 'Tuning Request', have you mapped them to a frequency? If you click the empty spaces under Tuning Request, you will see a drop-down menu for each box, where you have to choose the channel (and associated frequency) that matches the 'Channel name' are on the left, from your EPG.
This happens automatically apparently in some countries but not here in England.
And I suggest you use the XMLTV plugin from radiotimes to get the EPG listings, it worked great for me.
Finally, I think there is some problem with the frequencies that 'Crystal Palace' looks for...try an 'All regions' scan...it takes longer but gave me stuff like ITV etc that Crystal Palace wouldn't.

BTW, previewing only a few channels as it goes by is normal.

If you have already done all this, you must be missing some software or drivers, in which case only sub might be able to help.

Cheers,
Alex

P.S. I just finished configuring GB-PVR for my Freecom USB stick, and it positively rocks... better that all the other software I've tried with it since I bought it a few days ago (powercinema, totalmedia, avsmedia..). It involves a bit more hassle, but the result is well worth it...and the support is fantastic. Makes it absolutely worthy of donations!!

[Mart123]

Thanks Alex, you're a star!!

I just needed to set it to scan all frequencies instead of just CP. Weird!!

Anyway, thanks very much for the advice, it's working great now.