Is HP Expresscard Analog TV Tuner supported

[pinnacleprobs]

The filters you need to set up is the MPEG2 Video and MPEG1 Audio, plus Video Renderer. If you are running XP one of the VMR9 renderer would probably be the best. I'm puzzeled about the picture, seems almost as the card is set to PAL and getting NTCS. Are you sure you have a strong signal? If you watch with another pvr app first, does it make any difference in npvr?

I had the same thought on ntsc vs pal. In fact I looked in Npvr to see if I could see a setting for pal ntsc but didn't see one? I downloaded the saf6 and installed it. It found certain things that it removed or changed. I changed the settings in Nvpr to VMR9 and the mpeg2 video to Cyberlink. Still the same wrong lines in nvpr. I started Cyberlink Powerdirector8 and the picture is fine in it. I left it running but there are still the same wrong lines in nvpr. I can't run the Sagetv anymore as the trial expired but it had no problem showing and capturing correctly with it before. I uninstalled the pctv software that was there from a Pinnacle usb tv card(it was so small I either lost it or left it somewhere...it didn't work so well anyway).

[pinnacleprobs]

I'd think Cyberlink PDVD8 ought to work for video on your setup, but I have no way to know whether that decoder is actually properly installed and functional. ffdshow ought to work as well, but again as long as you have it installed right and have NextPVR.exe whitelisted in the ffdshow settings.

You might try installing Hoborg's SAF6 package here: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?50227-Saf6. It installs all the decoders you need and sets them up correctly; hopefully it can deal with the decoder mess you have already installed.

I think during the installation it tells you how to set your NPVR settings, or these days it may do it for you.

In any case, for analog recordings you need only the MPEG2 video and MPEG1 audio decoders. You should disable all the other decoder settings.

Thanks. As I mentioned in the reply to Reddwarf I installed saf6 but no change. It didn't refer to nvpr in its installation. I'm not sure how one would "disable all the other decoder settings". For example, I use Cyberlink for camcorder and webcam editing. It shows a picture from my tv card and can capture from it but has no setting to program tv shows to record.

[Reddwarf]

This is strange, can you try watching a live-tv channel and afterwards post both npbr.log and nrecord.log. Have you tried to record a show and play it back, does it work better?

[pinnacleprobs]

This is strange, can you try watching a live-tv channel and afterwards post both npbr.log and nrecord.log. Have you tried to record a show and play it back, does it work better?

I hit ctrl-k and all I got was "no show info available". I don't think it started recording. I did manage to get a manual recording scheduled but the picture was still only the wrong lines with correct audio. I've enclosed the logs. Thanks

[johnsonx42]

Everything looks ok in the logs. My guess is the same as Reddwarf's - the card is trying to capture in PAL format but is getting an NTSC signal (of course, since you're in the USA). I'm not sure how that happens honestly; I suppose the driver is expecting some command to set the video format that it isn't getting so it's defaulting to PAL.

I do see you're doing software encoding, but the card appears to have a hardware encoder. It's worth trying; perhaps hooking up the hardware encoder will somehow kick the card into the right format. I don't know why it would, but it can't hurt... besides, if you ever do get this working, you'll want to be using the hardware encoder anyway.

Change your analogdevices.xml entry to this:

Code:

    <Device filter="HP Analog TV Tuner">
        <Name>HP Analog TV Tuner</Name>
        <Type>HARD_ENCODE</Type>
        <FilterEncoder>Python2 USB TvTuner</FilterEncoder>
    </Device>

After that restart the recording service and try livetv or a recording and post the logs.

[stustunz]

I didnt think you could use hardware encoding with npvr

[johnsonx42]

I didnt think you could use hardware encoding with npvr

hardware encoding has always been supported and is still preferred by far. software encoding was only expirementally supported with GB-PVR in a limited way, and even now I would guess is supported only grudgingly. I suspect you're thinking of something else.

[Reddwarf]

hardware encoding has always been supported and is still preferred by far. software encoding was only expirementally supported with GB-PVR in a limited way, and even now I would guess is supported only grudgingly. I suspect you're thinking of something else.

Actually, if you have a powerful cpu the software encoding works excellent provided you set the bitrate high enough in config.xml

[mvallevand]

I didnt think you could use hardware encoding with npvr

There's likely some confusion here because the TS mux all analog cards need is included in the SofttPVR package.

Martin

[pinnacleprobs]

Everything looks ok in the logs. My guess is the same as Reddwarf's - the card is trying to capture in PAL format but is getting an NTSC signal (of course, since you're in the USA). I'm not sure how that happens honestly; I suppose the driver is expecting some command to set the video format that it isn't getting so it's defaulting to PAL.

I do see you're doing software encoding, but the card appears to have a hardware encoder. It's worth trying; perhaps hooking up the hardware encoder will somehow kick the card into the right format. I don't know why it would, but it can't hurt... besides, if you ever do get this working, you'll want to be using the hardware encoder anyway.

Change your analogdevices.xml entry to this:

Code:

    <Device filter="HP Analog TV Tuner">
        <Name>HP Analog TV Tuner</Name>
        <Type>HARD_ENCODE</Type>
        <FilterEncoder>Python2 USB TvTuner</FilterEncoder>
    </Device>

After that restart the recording service and try livetv or a recording and post the logs.

Allright! That worked. I have a picture. I tried recording by using control-k but only get no info message again. I went to manual recording and was able to specify a time and it recorded. I can't figure out how to be on a channel and just start recording? As I mentioned before I hope to use Titantv to select future programs to record. Has anyone been able to do this? Thanks