This thread will explain some of the issues and workarounds with the Nova-t PCI (90002) DVB-t card. Feel free to add your own comments to it.
Driver Changes
The CX22702 Auto-lock Issue
The CX22702 demodulator features an auto-lock feature whereby it can automatically locate a mux that is located +/-167KHz (166KHz from software perspective) from the base frequency. Muxes are commonly offset in the UK in this way to avoid interfering with another transmitter.
The Nova-t drivers are based on the source driver from Conexant (Stratford reference design). The original driver had the CX22702 auto-lock disabled, and so if you had a mux on say 762.167MHz you would have to get the software to scan 762167KHz exactly. MCE2004 and MCE2005 scan in this way (CH21-167, CH21, CH21+167, CH22-167, CH22, CH22+167, CH23-167, CH23, CH23+167...etc). Older software only scanned the base frequencies (CH21, CH22, CH23 etc.) and so wouldn't find an offset mux. Hence, transmitter tables in the software were changed to specify exactly.
Recently the auto-lock has been enabled, so if the software scans CH21, CH22, CH23 etc. the demod will automatically lock onto an offset mux if present. This would have presented a problem however for MCE2004/2005 because it would still scan every frequency inc offsets, so if you had that mux on 762.167MHz it would locate duplicates, once on 762MHz (with demod auto-locking) and again on 762.167MHz (with auto-lock not required). So, it was decided to ignore the exact frequencies and let the auto-lock do the work.
So, if you choose to use the newer drivers, make sure that you edit the tables in C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\BDA\dvb-t to only give the base frequency (e.g. 762166 becomes 762000, 577834 becomes 578000). Read on for another issue though...
No channels are found on certain muxes
It appears that where the auto-lock is required, there isn't sufficient time to get the info on channels in that mux. The easiest solution I've found is to add the problematic mux again, e.g. for me I had problems scanning the last mux (which was really 762.167MHz and so needs more time for autolock):
to
No channels are found at all
Go into C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr and edit config.xml so that <BDAScanType>1</BDAScanType> becomes <BDAScanType>2</BDAScanType>
Where can I get listings for all Freeview channels?
Try Alan Birtle's XMLTV Radio Times UK Grabber.
Driver Changes
- CD v1.0 - first driver, quite buggy. Will require restarting the device driver if an application using the driver crashes. Has issues with stuttering.
- CD v1.1 - still buggy. Driver still works if an application crashes but will cause a noticeable stutter every 65535 interrupts (approx 12 min). Only single Nova-t card supported.
- CD v1.2/Driver 22285 - interrupt bug fixed. Only single Nova-t card supported.
- Driver 22345 - support multiple Nova-t cards.
- CD v1.3 - still using 22285 driver.
- CD v2.0/Driver 23082 - enable CX22702 auto-lock for +/-166/7KHz offset scanning. But as a result of this change it is nescessary ignore 166/166KHz specified by software (or double channels will be found)
- Driver 23151 - auto-lock still enabled. Support multi-instance so 3rd party software will run on MCE2005 without stopping MCE services. May cause stuttering when using dual cards.
- CD v2.1 - uses 23151 driver
- Driver 23208 - fixes stuttering issue introduced in 23151. May not scan properly for Australian users (7MHz issue? - unconfirmed)
- CD v2.2 (pending) - uses 23208 driver
The CX22702 Auto-lock Issue
The CX22702 demodulator features an auto-lock feature whereby it can automatically locate a mux that is located +/-167KHz (166KHz from software perspective) from the base frequency. Muxes are commonly offset in the UK in this way to avoid interfering with another transmitter.
The Nova-t drivers are based on the source driver from Conexant (Stratford reference design). The original driver had the CX22702 auto-lock disabled, and so if you had a mux on say 762.167MHz you would have to get the software to scan 762167KHz exactly. MCE2004 and MCE2005 scan in this way (CH21-167, CH21, CH21+167, CH22-167, CH22, CH22+167, CH23-167, CH23, CH23+167...etc). Older software only scanned the base frequencies (CH21, CH22, CH23 etc.) and so wouldn't find an offset mux. Hence, transmitter tables in the software were changed to specify exactly.
Recently the auto-lock has been enabled, so if the software scans CH21, CH22, CH23 etc. the demod will automatically lock onto an offset mux if present. This would have presented a problem however for MCE2004/2005 because it would still scan every frequency inc offsets, so if you had that mux on 762.167MHz it would locate duplicates, once on 762MHz (with demod auto-locking) and again on 762.167MHz (with auto-lock not required). So, it was decided to ignore the exact frequencies and let the auto-lock do the work.
So, if you choose to use the newer drivers, make sure that you edit the tables in C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\BDA\dvb-t to only give the base frequency (e.g. 762166 becomes 762000, 577834 becomes 578000). Read on for another issue though...
No channels are found on certain muxes
It appears that where the auto-lock is required, there isn't sufficient time to get the info on channels in that mux. The easiest solution I've found is to add the problematic mux again, e.g. for me I had problems scanning the last mux (which was really 762.167MHz and so needs more time for autolock):
Code:
[TERTYPE]
1=Borders and Northern England
2=Belmont
[DVB]
0=7
1=C30,546000,0,0,8
2=C48,690000,0,0,8
3=C68,850000,0,0,8
4=C66,834000,0,0,8
5=C60,786000,0,0,8
6=C57,762000,0,0,8Code:
[TERTYPE]
1=Borders and Northern England
2=Belmont
[DVB]
0=7
1=C30,546000,0,0,8
2=C48,690000,0,0,8
3=C68,850000,0,0,8
4=C66,834000,0,0,8
5=C60,786000,0,0,8
6=C57,762000,0,0,8
7=C57,762000,0,0,8No channels are found at all
Go into C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr and edit config.xml so that <BDAScanType>1</BDAScanType> becomes <BDAScanType>2</BDAScanType>
Where can I get listings for all Freeview channels?
Try Alan Birtle's XMLTV Radio Times UK Grabber.
