Supporting the OnAir USB HDTV GT - Issues

[fiteclub]

I have one other question. I plan on using the OnAir mostly for cable with QAM but may sometimes want to use OTA reception. It looks like there is only one RF connection on the GT device. So I assume it can't do ATSC and QAM simultaneously. I guess I will need to use an A/B switch to chose a signal source. Is this true?

Bill

[rpertusio]

Yes, an A/B switch would work fine.

Thanks,
- Ryan

[jecahill]

Ryan - if you get a chance, I would like your thoughts on this thread.

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=21814

Thanks.

[Fatawan]

I have this tuner, set it up in newest download of GBPVR, configured, installed the patch I found here on page 5, and went to scan for digital channels. While scanning, I see the occasional video in the small preview window, but I get loads of channels, all looking like this:

79.1 Unknown(000)
79.1 Unknown(000) #2
79.2.........and so on all the way to 79.16

It does the same for 80, 81, and various other numbers up to 116. Not always up to X.16, but plenty of channels in total, always Unknown. Any ideas on this? I do see signal strength indicators as it scans, first number always 13000 or 14000. The scans work fine in the OnAir program.

[sub]

These channels being 'unknown' isnt a problem as such, it just means the cable system is not transmitting the PSIP tables which have stuff like the channel name, major/minor number, language etc. This info is mandatory for OTA ATSC, but not for cable ATSC QAM. You'll probably find the OnAir is also missing the channel names, and uses these same fake major.minor numbers which are infact just the physical address and stream number.

The reason it shows up like this in GB-PVR, is because its mainly designed for the OTA users, where it gives you useful info about the channels found.

Its not a problem, but does make the mapping process harder.

[jaxelrod]

This software looks like everything I've been looking for.

I'm just installed the OnAir drivers on my MCE PC. I added it as a BDE recording source, set up the zap2it listings for Comcast digital cable. When I hit the "map digital channels to EPG channels" button, no channels are found and each channel's signal strentgth and quality measurements come up zero.

Strangely, although there appear to be well over 100 channels from zap2it, the software only attempts to scan 40 channels. Also, the only recorder source setting I wasn't sure about was "device number," which I left as 1.

I already tried installing the patch from page 5 and got the same behavior. Any ideas?

Thanks for everyone's support,
Jeff

[sub]

I seem to remember that if you're running MCE, you need to stop some service to free up the device. I can remember what those services are off hand, but do a forums search (or google) and I'm sure you'll find some details.

[jaxelrod]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, sub. It appears that we can't use MCE and GBPVR concurrently, even if they are assigned separate tuners?

I wanted to do this so I could have GBPVR record QAM cable shows, save them in the DVR-MS format, which then would appear inside MCE, and continue using MCE for my NTSC recorder.

Jeff

From other thread:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did not see this documented elsewhere, but if you are using Windows MCE 2005 with GBPVR, you need to disable the Media Center Receiver Service.

This can be done from the Administrative Tools | Computer Management control panel applet.

I changed the service startup option from Automatic to Manual. After that, manually stop the service or reboot.

After this is turned off, you will not be able to use MCE to receive TV -- but you WILL be able to use GBPVR.

[Fatawan]

Jeff:

I had the same issue with mapping. When I first used the patch from page 5, it didnt work. I then redownloaded it, extracted it, dragged the two files into GBPVR, and clicked YES when it asked if I wanted to replace the similar older file. After that, it found a bazillion digital channels(see my post a few above this one). Sub was right--these were legit--I just had to map them, which is a real pain. I still don't have many of them right, as stations around here may broadcast 3 or 4 digital subchannels.

The next issue I have to deal with is the stuttering video/audio, which I have yet to conquer.......

[Eric89GXL]

I can't get mine not to studder, either. I have an ATI x1600, Athlon XP 2600, and 1256MB ram, and videos play back perfectly in everything else---WinAMP, WMP, OnAir Software and such. The video just kinda lurches in GB-PVR for some reason.