Issue with Astromeda USB DVB-T Tuner

[bigdodda]

After a lightning strike I had to replace my old KWorld USB tuner which worked perfectly on my Windows 10 machine with NextPVR.

I found an Astromeda DBV-T, DVB-T2 tuner for a similar price to the old KWorld one which seem to no longer be available.

After installation everything seemed to work with NextPVR, except that the picture quality is extremely poor eg half the frame is covered by blocking >50% of the time.  This occurs when watching live and in recorded programs.

Initial research suggests this is caused by a poor signal.  However I don't believe this to be the case.  The old card was using the same aerial, a TV is still sharing the same aerial without any picture noise. Further, the picture using the TV software is perfect.

It suggests there is an issue between NextPVR and the tuner.  I've seen a similar comment comparing other PVR software with the Astromeda supplied software (eg https://www.dvbviewer.tv/forum/topic/614...2c-tuners/)

Is there any chance this could be addressed in NextPVR or should I get a different tuner?

[sub]

Honestly, there is zero NextPVR could do differently - it treats all tuners exactly the same way. The drivers and the device itself take care of the actual tuning and delivery of the stream.

It's likely either signal (like antenna has moved, or crappy cable or splitter), or the device has a hardware problem, or Astrometa drivers are buggy. If the drivers do work in Astrometa's own software, then it's likely they're not 100% compliant with the Microsoft BDA driver model. There is nothing that NextPVR should have to do that is special for your Astrometa device. You may find there is other versions of the drivers that behave better.

[bigdodda]

Thanks for the prompt reply.  As you say, I suspect it's a compliance issue - I was hoping there might be something that could be tweaked.

[NumberFive]

There are several versions of the Astrometa tuner, same case but different chipsets.  I've found the Panasonic ones to be good, but there is an issue with the ones using a Sony chip.

The picture will work fine in the Astrometa supplied application, but there will be a very high bit error rate / picture breakup with any other application.

Similar issue on Linux, but there is a work around.  On TV Headend, you can untick the box for continuous signal strength updates.  That seems to solve the issue.

I'm fairly sure it is a driver issue, that the default behaviour is to poll the signal strength continuously and this causes the picture breakup. The Astrometa app must disable that somehow.

I'd recommend reporting the bug to Astrometa. They do respond to emails.

[bigdodda]

Thanks NumberFive - I've sent them an email. We'll see what transpires.