Help Me! I can't get Live TV to work

[weirdlookinguy]

Hey guys, I'm new to the whole TV Tuner thing. Someone gave me (as a gift) a TV Tuner card, it is a Norwood Micro (CompUSA brand) card, based on the Conexant BlackBird reference design. Under GBPVR config, it is detected as a Conexant Blackbird. My problem is that I have set up EPG, set up the Tuner, and set up the remote for changing channels. However, I can't watch live tv! When I have "Live Preview" mode on, I click "Live TV" and the following error message pops up:

Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Some googling revealed that this is usually cause by two things: You don't have a software MPEG decoder installed (This card doesn't have a hardware MPEG decoder) and that this is also a glitch common when using a Blackbird card. It said you should disable "Live Preview" mode, but it also says this glitch was fixed in the latest version of GBPVR. When I disable live preview mode, I click live tv and the screen goes black. It says "Starting timeshift TV mode. Please wait." and then I get an error saying "Error: Failure playing back file".

For the MPEG decoder, I have tried the PowerDVD 7 decoder and the free DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder. Both give me the same result.

Can anyone help me, please? I am at a complete loss as to what is wrong, and the software that came with this (crappy and generic) tuner is royal piece of sh*t, I am anxious for a better software solution without having to pay for something like BeyondTV.

Help, anyone?

[sub]

Unfortunately this card isnt compatible with GB-PVR. It lacks the required hardware MPEG2 encoder. Sorry.

[weirdlookinguy]

dang.... oh well.

Can you recommend a decent card that WILL work in the $80-$120 range?

[csstup]

(just a suggestion for a future release)

Couldn't GB-PVR explain that there wasn't a hardware mpeg encoder available, rather than an obscure error message?

[pastro]

dang.... oh well.

Can you recommend a decent card that WILL work in the $80-$120 range?

Sounds like you are in the states since you have a CompUsa card.
Are you planning on hooking this up to analog cable, digital cable, OTA (over the air) ATSC?

[weirdlookinguy]

Yes, I'm in California. I'm hooking it up to Analog Cable.

[pastro]

Yes, I'm in California. I'm hooking it up to Analog Cable.

The Hauppauge or the ATI cards are very well supported in GBPVR.
For the Hauppauge the older pvr150 is analog only and the newer HVR1600 is analog and OTA ATSC. Both of these are around $80 or so.

Btw it might be possible to get your software card to work in GBPVR with the software recording plugin, but getting a hardware card is a better idea from CPU loading to ease of installation etc.

On the wiki there is a list of supported cards. You might want to check that out.