video only records black screen

[clifford]

thanks for taking the time to respond to all my emails. when you say i should be using the 'tuner' option - there is no 'tuner' option for me. There's just 'internal tuner' 'external tuner, fixed channel' and then the 'composite' and 's video' options. are you suggesting that i need to use the 'fixed channel' option?

[sub]

'internal tuner'

[sub]

'internal' as in 'tuner contained within the WinTV PVR USB2'. The other options like 'svideo, external tuner' is when you have an regular cable tv set top box (external tuner) connected to the WinTV PVR USB2 via an svideo cable.

[clifford]

i'm reading online the following:

“Internal Tuner” to record from the antenna socket on the PVR card using the internal TV tuner.

This isn't me - i'm not using the antenna socket - i'm using the cable connected directly to my external USB PV2 WinTV tuner.

use “Fixed-Channel, External Tuner” to record using an external tuner connected through the antenna socket on the PVR card, on a fixed channel (e.g. older set top box)

this doesn't apply to me either - i'm not connecting anything through the antenna socket. I just tried this because i thought this is what you were suggesting, but i just get static now (instead of the black screen) which is what i would have expected.

use “Composite, External Tuner” or “S-Video, External Tuner” to record using an external tuner connected through the S-Video or Composite socket on the PVR card

I have my tuner connected through the USB socket - so wouldn't that be 'svideo - external tuner'?

[clifford]

by the way - just to confirm - i tried the internal tuner but when i tried to update my epg it said that i wasn't configured correctly, and the live tv didn't work at all.

[clifford]

frig frig frig - now it works? i just re-restarted the recording service - and i see the video for the first time!?!?? (maybe i had selected antenna by mistake?) let me go back and check again. it's past midnight, i might be going goofy.

[clifford]

yes, everything works now. I owe you some cash.

thank you for taking the time to fix this problem for me. I can sleep now.

[sub]

“Internal Tuner” to record from the antenna socket on the PVR card using the internal TV tuner.

This isn't me - i'm not using the antenna socket - i'm using the cable connected directly to my external USB PV2 WinTV tuner.

Actually you are using the antenna socket. The same socket is used for both antenna and cable. They're actually both exactly same sort of signals, but the cable carries has more channels. The signal is feed into the tuner in the WinTV device, and encoded as an MPEG2 stream.

Anyway glad you got it going

[clifford]

thanks again. one final question: i did some tests now with the record, and it records great - i can watch the show on my tv and i can watch it on my computer with PowerDVD. but if i try to watch the recording through gbpvr on my computer, i get a 1/2 second audio clip and then it errors out. it's strange that it would work on the tv and not on the computer. it's not a big deal because i now have an option for both the tv and the computer (through power dvd) but i'm not sure why this is a problem.

Also - can you point me to any documentation out there about your new 'commercial weeding out' feature? I've chosen to 'auto skip commercials' and i've chosen "commercial detection" = "Comskip.exe from current directory, but i'm not sure how to use this at all, and i thought maybe you had some advice.

thanks again.
c

[clifford]

by the way i downloaded comskip.exe and put it in the gbpvr folder and then ran it. is that all i do? do i have to run it everytime i restart the computer? do i put it in a particular folder? i'm comskip illiterate. I know i'm leeching off a previous set of questions so if you wish to ignore me you now can do so.