Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro with Analog Cable

[gbw88]

Forgive me if I'm asking a bit of a dense question, however my experience with this tuner has been a long and arduous one, with plenty of lost sleep involved. Firstly, I'd like to say that GB-PVR is a great piece of software, the first I've found besides MCE and Pinnacle's crapfest that will even recognize my (apparently very uncooperative) tuner stick.

That all said, onto my question- I've been pouring through the forums and all other info on here, and I've managed to get the GBPVR to recognize my card, however, only for over-the-air ATSC (as per the majority of posts on the forum). Thats good, but my real interest is getting the card working to tune my plain old cable through Comcast, which is just a normal analog signal. I've wired it right into my cable connection, but it doesn't detect any channels (it doesn't with ATSC on an antenna either, for that matter, but I figure its moot as thats not my interest regardless).

I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on their experiences with the tuner, and what I'm looking at for limitations, etc with it. I can post any info on demand, and I apologize if this all seems moronic to the many veterans in this forum- I only just started playing with the idea of a tuner on my laptop, and it is apparently much more involved than I would have thought.

Thank you very much for your time!

[sub]

Unfortunately thios device lacks the required hardware MPEG2 encoder so isnt usable as an analog device in GB-PVR. Sorry.

You could try one of the software encoder plugins, but I'm not familiar with them so arent able to provide you any guidance.

[gbw88]

Hmmm, I'll have to look into it. I doubt it's plausable without a giant performance hit though. Thank you either way

[bachus]

Go to your GBPVR folder and open direct.ini and add the following code (I just create it and it is not fully tested)

[Pinnacle PCTV 800e (NTSC3)]
INIT_MODE=DEFAULT
INIT_MSP=0
FILTER_TV_TUNER=PCTV 330e/800e WDM TVTuner
FILTER_TV_AUDIO=PCTV 330e/800e WDM TVAudio
FILTER_CROSSBAR=PCTV 330e/800e WDM Crossbar
FILTER_CAPTURE=PCTV 330e/800e Device
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_WRITER_INPUT_IN=Input

Save it and after that the card should be recognized using the Direct Recording Plugin (Edit Recording Source).

Also you can test it through the tuning assistant.

[sub]

I'm pretty sure that wont work. You'll find you cant record.

[bachus]

The card/stick is getting recognized and I am able to view tv through the tuning assistant however I don't get any video or sound when I open the GUI.

Any thoughts?

[sub]

As I mentioned above, I'm pretty sure its not going to work. Its expecting MPEG2 data to be coming out of the device, but thats not what the card is delivering. This would account for why you're not getting any sound or video, and why recordings wouldnt work.

[bachus]

It is working (the live TV/ cable), however I have not tested the recording feature. I used the following driver: (please see previous comment on how to install/add the driver)

[Pinnacle PCTV 800e (NTSC3)]
FILTER_CAPTURE=PCTV 330e/800e Device
FILTER_AUDIO=PCTV 330e/800e WDM Audio
FILTER_TV_TUNER=PCTV 330e/800e WDM TVTuner
FILTER_TV_AUDIO=PCTV 330e/800e WDM TVAudio
FILTER_CROSSBAR=PCTV 330e/800e WDM Crossbar

I am able to get video and sound. I will advice if i can get the the recording feature.

[sub]

Its usually the recording that doesnt work on these cards without the MPEG2 encoder.

[bachus]

I finally gave up, I returned the card and got a WINTV instead.