problems tuning triple nova-t setup

[cosmocat]

I have just added two more nova-t PCI cards to my GB-PVR server, and I can't get the third card to tune in. I am feeding all three cards from different outputs of a multi output TV aerial amp/splitter, fed from a common aerial that worked fine with 1 card.
When I added capture sources in config only one entry was in the list tuner cards ( OK I suppose as it list types and all cards are identical, so there is only one type ). I set up three capture sources, (although the software seemed happy to let me add more capture sources that didn't exist ) and I gave the tuners different names . When I scan for channels, the first tuner gets them OK, the second tuner seems to struggle with lots of "unknown channel" in the channel list, and a small number of channels listed multiple times. The third tuner sees no channels at all.

I suspect I have a poor RF cable, but I can't trackdown which card has the problem. They are in PCI slots 2 , 3 and 4. Is there a way of identifying which capture source is in which PCI slot?

The cards are identical nova-t PCI 90002 type boards, and all are seen OK in control panel / system / hardware / devices list.

Thanks.

[cosmocat]

OK this is weird.
I have replaced the dodgy RF cable and hi made no difference.
The original device ( device 1) tunes in to the Mendip transmitter OK
Device 2 would not tune to Mendip transmitter but when I set it for All regions-Any transmitter it found most the channels, but reported different frequencies for them
Device 3 still would not find anything, even when set to All reigons-Any Transmitter.

Do you have to re-tune each tuner if they are the same type ?
How do you tell GBPVR it has 3 boards of the same type ?
Is GBPVR only counting each channel once, so that when it has found it one one tuner it doesn't pick it up on the next ?
Can you manuall edit the tuning info somewhere to force the tuning to be all the same i.e. as per card 1 ?
Has any body got a multiple Nova-T setup working in UK ? :confused:

Regards.

[Clanky]

I've got dual nova-t pci's working ok.

Each card has its own device no. I tune each card in to the same transmitter & setup the epg (xmltv-rt) for each card.

I run a distribution amp in my loft & another amp behind the tv to split the coax to the cards & tv.

It all works fine (except for operator errors, occasionally )

[bgowland]

Do you have to re-tune each tuner if they are the same type ?

Yes. GB-PVR stores tuning information for each cap. source and for each channel setup for that cap. source.

How do you tell GBPVR it has 3 boards of the same type ?

As long as you have setup each capture source to have a separate Board Number and to point to a valid EPG source and used Update EPG for each one, that should be all you need to do.

Is GBPVR only counting each channel once, so that when it has found it one one tuner it doesn't pick it up on the next ?

No. It will retune each card independently.

Can you manuall edit the tuning info somewhere to force the tuning to be all the same i.e. as per card 1 ?

Yes, I've done it occasionally but it means hacking the database file and I'm not even going to begin to explain how to do that here. The best thing would be to work out what the root of your problem is.

The way I'd try would be this...

1. Make sure all three cap. sources have separate board numbers, have a valid EPG source and all are set for Mendip transmitter (your original board worked with that so they all should).

2. Pull the aerial from your splitter and plug it directly into one card. Try tuning each cap. source in turn - in theory, two will fail but one will work (you'll know which cap. source it matches then). Repeat the excercise (i.e., plug the aerial directly into the next card, retune etc.).

If any of the cards fail to tune then it sounds like they're dodgy. If all else fails use HCWCLEAR to wipe all traces of the Nova-t drivers and re-install the latest drivers again.

Cheers,

Brian (4x Nova-t, 1x PVR350, 1x PVR500 in one machine - trust me, GB-PVR can handle it)

[cosmocat]

Thanks for the reasurance.

I had old drivers for the nova-t cards installed. When I plugged in the new cards windows used the drivers from the existing card. That had been in the machine for about a year, rev 1.3 I think.
Installed rev 2.1 from hauppauge and the third card sprang into life.

Also had RF signal problems, the three cards all seem to have different sensitivities. A solid channel picture on one card stutters on another.

A combination of distribution amp, 12dB attenuator lots of trial and error and moving the distribution amp away from the network switch :eek: and all OK now.

Ahhh.... triple-tuner freeview PVR heaven!

[bgowland]

When I plugged in the new cards windows used the drivers from the existing card. That had been in the machine for about a year, rev 1.3 I think.

Sounds about right - install more than one instance of the v1.3 driver and they really didn't like each other.

Installed rev 2.1 from hauppauge and the third card sprang into life.

I'm running on v2.4 - there is a v2.4A version although I haven't installed that as there are no changes for the Nova-t PCI. Keep an eye on the Hauppauge forum for the latest versions - the support/download pages are invariably slow to catch up.

Ahhh.... triple-tuner freeview PVR heaven!

Nice innit?

Cheers,
Brian

[JohnMcCurdy]

Which driver do you refer to? I have just put 2 additional Nova-T-500's in a box today which was working fine with the one I purchased a few days ago for a test, so three in total now.

The original one was working fine. I am having grief getting the 3 working together. At first the 4 new tuners were not even spotted. I added this to the bda.ini and then 6 tuners were listed by Config as installed.

[Hauppauge Nova-T-500 DVB-T (3)]
TUNING_TYPE=DVB-T
FILTER_TUNER="Nova-DT DVB-T Tuner (Dev2 Path0) "
FILTER_CAPTURE="Nova-DT DVB-T Capture (Dev2 Path0) "
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport

[Hauppauge Nova-T-500 DVB-T (4)]
TUNING_TYPE=DVB-T
FILTER_TUNER="Nova-DT DVB-T Tuner (Dev2 Path1) "
FILTER_CAPTURE="Nova-DT DVB-T Capture (Dev2 Path1) "
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2-Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2-Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2-Transport

[Hauppauge Nova-T-500 DVB-T (5)]
TUNING_TYPE=DVB-T
FILTER_TUNER="Nova-DT DVB-T Tuner (Dev3 Path0) "
FILTER_CAPTURE="Nova-DT DVB-T Capture (Dev3 Path0) "
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport

[Hauppauge Nova-T-500 DVB-T (6)]
TUNING_TYPE=DVB-T
FILTER_TUNER="Nova-DT DVB-T Tuner (Dev3 Path1) "
FILTER_CAPTURE="Nova-DT DVB-T Capture (Dev3 Path1) "
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2-Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2-Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2-Transport

Is that correct? Do I need this?

Do I need to do anything else different from what I had with one card? I have spent hours scanning for channels, mapping the channels, and then finding that only 2 of my recordings worked, the others giving a playback error in GBPVR as if the recording was not made.

I'm new to this program, so would really appreciate an idiots guide to how to get the three cards configured.

I have GBPVR 09912 with Hauppauge drivers from cd-digital-34a.exe

Regards,
John

[sub]

Those entries would be my guess based on the other Nova-T 500 entries. All capture sources wuold be set to device #1.

If its not working for you with these, can you run FilterCheck then attach the resulting FilterCheck.log: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...ostcount=6

[JohnMcCurdy]

OK. I ripped all the software and drivers out, and re-did everything from the start with with latest drivers etc.

I can now recorde 6 concurrent channels succesfully. Excellent stuff.

One problem remains which I would like your comment on.

While recording previously with only 2 tuners, I could play back 'pending' recordings' (ie the stuff I am currently recording) successfully, and have even managed to do that on 5 remote machines concurrently as a stress test.

However, with my new super machine with it's 6 tuners, when I ask it to reply anything 'pending' it fails with a 'file error' type of message. (I don't have the specific message at present as I am mobile).

Did I do something wrong. Is this a bug? Did I reach a limit?

I note that although I can set up multiple Video folders, I can only set up 1 Recordings folder. This is a shame, as I have 5 disk drives in this machine, and it would be so cool if GBPVR could assign concurrent recordings to independent disks, increasing the system capacity by removing the bottle neck of one recording drive. Is this possible?

Regards,
John

[sub]

One problem remains which I would like your comment on.

While recording previously with only 2 tuners, I could play back 'pending' recordings' (ie the stuff I am currently recording) successfully, and have even managed to do that on 5 remote machines concurrently as a stress test.

However, with my new super machine with it's 6 tuners, when I ask it to reply anything 'pending' it fails with a 'file error' type of message. (I don't have the specific message at present as I am mobile).

Did I do something wrong. Is this a bug? Did I reach a limit?

You should be able to. Reproduce the problem, then zip and attach the logs and I'll take a look.

I note that although I can set up multiple Video folders, I can only set up 1 Recordings folder. This is a shame, as I have 5 disk drives in this machine, and it would be so cool if GBPVR could assign concurrent recordings to independent disks, increasing the system capacity by removing the bottle neck of one recording drive. Is this possible?

Not at this stange. Maybe in a future release.