Hauppauge Nova-T (909/90002) no channels found

[oldnell]

Hi there

I'm really hoping someone can help me here before I tear out all my hair. First, I'll give some background.

I've been trying to get some sort of media centre type setup going. First, I bought a Nova-T with XP MCE 2005. I have since found that my graphics card (GeForce 2MX) is woefully underspecced for MCE 2005, so while I could detect and record TV successfully and watch it through Windows Media Player 10, I couldn't watch live TV.

Until I have some money to upgrade it, I thought I'd look at any MCE alternatives. I tried Media Portal, which managed to display TV, but was slow and would hang for no reason.

I came across GBPVR and the user interface seems very snappy, and looks to be exactly what I'm after.

However, I can't get it to detect any channels when I click "Map digital channels to EPG channels". With Media Portal, I could only pick up a few channels (ftn, The Hits, Sky News, Sky Travel, UKTV History and Bright Ideas). I got the same set of channels with MCE, but once I managed to get the full set with MCE. This is over the course of many reinstalls of the OS.

So, I tried selecting only the channels I knew I could detect in the EPG, and still got the "No channels could be found" error after the scan. This is regardless of which of my local transmitters I use (a Freeview website told me Ridge Hill was the local one for where I live in Gloucester), but I've tried Oxford, Mendip, Malvern, and a few others with no success.

The annoying thing is, that during the scan, it clearly can pick up some channels, as it displays them very clearly in the preview, and I can hear the audio perfectly. Sky News is an example of a channel shown in the preview while the scan is taking place.

I am using the HCW2.1 version of the Nova-T drivers, and selecting the BDA recorder plugin and "Hauppage Nova-T (90002)". I have not installed any other Hauppage tools (as these seemed to kill MCE when I was trying that).

I have reinstalled Windows (XP MCE 2005) twice while trying to get GBPVR to work. The last two times, I have not touched Media Centre in case running that does something to kill GBPVR.

Also, I have installed CyberLink PowerDVD 5 (OEM that came with my DVD burner), and I still get a warning message from GBPVR telling me that I need to install an MPEG2 multiplex filter. I don't know if this would cause no channels to be found.

I have also tried the uk.reg file for the Nova-T that changes a couple of registry entries relating to the use of 2k vs 8k. This makes no difference.

Anyone have any ideas?

[sub]

You could try setting <BDAScanType>2<BDAScanType> in config.xml. This has helped some people with scanning issues.

[oldnell]

Hi

Thanks very much for your reply, Sub. Much appreciated.

I actually decided to reinstall using Windows XP SP2 (rather than Media Center Edition 2005), and guess what? The problem disappears.

I now am not getting all the channels I should be, but I think I can probably work through that one. I'll try your suggestion to see if it gets me extra or different channels, and work through the other posts in the forum.

Thanks for your help. :-) Great piece of software. I just wish that the whole TV tuner thing was a bit more plug and play, but I know that is something for Microsoft and driver developers to make happen.

Cheers

Oli

[bgowland]

Remember TV transmission is pretty directional so trying other transmitters without re-aligning your aerial isn't necessarily going to help. Even if the others are just as close to your recommended one, if they are in a different direction (significantly) then you are unlikely to pick up anything of any use.

Also, digital reception seems to be even more fussy when it comes to direction - if you can easily get to your aerial, try adjusting it slightly one way or t'other to see if that improves things. If you want to be more accurate, get an OS map and work out the compass bearing from your house to the transmitter and align the aerial to that (with a compass of course ).

DVB is kinda all or nothing - whereas a slightly misaligned aerial will give you analogue stations albeit fuzzy etc. if a digital tuner can't lock to a strong enough signal, it will simply tell you that nothing has been found.

Also, not all transmitters in all areas have all channels available. An example of that is that although Crystal Palace is my main/recommended transmitter, a postcode search for my house also says I should be able to receive from Guildford - last time I looked, Guildford wasn't transmitting anywhere near the number of channels that Crystal Palace is (it was quite a while ago though and things may have changed).

Hope this is of some use.

Cheers,
Brian

[funkybro_uk]

Also, not all transmitters in all areas have all channels available. An example of that is that although Crystal Palace is my main/recommended transmitter, a postcode search for my house also says I should be able to receive from Guildford - last time I looked, Guildford wasn't transmitting anywhere near the number of channels that Crystal Palace is (it was quite a while ago though and things may have changed).

Must have been a while ago! I receive all digital muxes from Guildford with a set-top aerial.

funkybro

[oldnell]

Remember TV transmission is pretty directional so trying other transmitters without re-aligning your aerial isn't necessarily going to help. Even if the others are just as close to your recommended one, if they are in a different direction (significantly) then you are unlikely to pick up anything of any use.

DVB is kinda all or nothing

Hi

Thanks very much for that. I've been finding out just how directional it is myself. This is my first experience of digital terrestrial TV. I'm using an indoor amplified aerial and have found that the position and direction needs to be altered for each channel I choose. I'm sure that's not how it's
supposed to work.

On the assumption that I'm going to need to get a proper loft-mounted aerial, I'm wondering how I'd go about aligning the aerial. Or should I get it installed professionally?

I wish gbpvr had some sort of signal strength monitor so I could work out if I have a good signal without having to wait for glitches. Perhaps it already has one...

Hope this is of some use.

Absolutely it is. Thanks again.

Oli

[bgowland]

This is my first experience of digital terrestrial TV. I'm using an indoor amplified aerial and have found that the position and direction needs to be altered for each channel I choose. I'm sure that's not how it's supposed to work.

Nope. If it was like that I'd be running up and down the stairs every time my wife changed the channel on our Freeview box.

On the assumption that I'm going to need to get a proper loft-mounted aerial, I'm wondering how I'd go about aligning the aerial. Or should I get it installed professionally?

I was actually serious about the map and compass thing. I installed my loft aerial myself but I'm lucky enough that Crystal Palace is almost directly due East from the back of my house (I did the map thing). All I had to do was align it with the side walls in the loft (with a minor tweak afterwards). If you can get a good price then having it installed professionally may be worth it - they should have signal strength meters to make sure they get it spot on.

I wish gbpvr had some sort of signal strength monitor so I could work out if I have a good signal without having to wait for glitches. Perhaps it already has one...

I think the latest Hauppauge WinTV2000 app. shows signal strength. Download the v2.1 software for the Nova-t - I think it comes with that.

Cheers,
Brian

[chris-owens]

Im having a similar strange problem....

If I scan all the availiable channels then it appears as if I have no reception, however if I select Crystal Palace (which is almost on my doorstep!) I get most channels (except CBBC and some others).
Now the strange thing is that I can recieve ALL the channels in WinTV2000... hmmm i'm gonna have to play around with this one methinks