PAL and GB-PVR(what about xmltv ?)

[stdim]

Hello,
Congratulations for the greate job...( at least it seams so, because I just started searching around the forum for tips.)
I have WinTV-PVR-350 for a year or so, and I decieded to move forward to something else beside WinTV-2000.
I have already done a rather unsuccesful installation of GB-PVR v0.1.3, may be because of a lot of installations of different products.So now I am in the middle of a fresh install(Win XP).

For starting
1. Could you please let me know if I have to do any special configuration, because in Europe there is PAL TV.
I mean do I have to configure my environment for PAL reception and how?
2. Is OSD supported in PAL or it does not make any difference.
3. What about xmltv (ini file).
As, as far as I know , there is no support for TVguide (here in Greece). Is it correct?
So , do I have to create one with some default channel names or not?
Thanks in advance .

[sub]

GB-PVR was designed and developed here in New Zealand which is PAL country - so yes, it supports PAL. You dont have to do anything specific to configure it for PAL.

I'm not sure if XMLTV is available for greece. If not, your could create a simple listings.xml file that only contains the channels. Obviously this isnt going provide a useful TV Guide screen.

<tv generator-info-name="Maria Listings Generator" generator-info-url="/tv_listings/_xmltv.php" source-info-url="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/">
<channel id="15">
<display-name lang="en">BBC1 (South)</display-name>
<icon src="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/image....gif" />
</channel>
<channel id="29">
<display-name lang="en">BBC2 (South)</display-name>
<icon src="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/image....gif" />
</channel>
<channel id="42">
<display-name lang="en">ITV1 (ITV1 Meridian)</display-name>
<icon src="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/image....gif" />
</channel>
<channel id="53">
<display-name lang="en">Channel 4</display-name>
<icon src="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/image....gif" />
</channel>
</tv>

[bitter_old_man]

stdim,

According to the XMLTV site, Greece is not supported yet. The countries that are supported are Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Japan, Sweden, and France.

Barry

[stdim]

Hello,
Your response was really very quick...thanks a lot,
I'll try it tonight.

[MaBo]

stdim,
If an xmltv feed is unavailable but Teletext is, you could try my tool to convert Teletekst pages into xmltv-listings. It requires some configuration, but it works fine for me.

Download via this link. Please read the readme file, otherwise it will not work!!

Greetings,
MaBo

[stdim]

Hello,
I did some tests as bellow,
            but I have problems with the picture.

* I created config file:GR.xml as bellow
              (as I do not connect enywhere I left URLs as you proposed.........or do I have to make a connection?...
==============================================
<tv generator-info-name="Greek TV" generator-info-url="/tv_listings/_xmltv.php" source-info-url="http://www.ert.gr/tv_listings/">
<channel id="8"> <display-name lang="en">ET1</display-name> <icon src="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/image....gif" /></channel>
<channel id="30"><display-name lang="en">NET</display-name><icon src="http://www.ananova.com/tv_listings/image....gif" /></channel>
</tv>
===============================================
* install GBPVR application
* config
* directories for capture
* VMR9
* xml=GR.xml, recording:Greece
* update EPG----------all channels are found

* run GBPVR (no TVout, only on CRT)
-----got ERROR------
-----Invalid pointer
-----RenderFileToVMR9 failed
* run FreqCopy (Code=30,Antena)
-----same error
* run FreqCopy (Code=30,Cable)
-----same error
* reboot
-----same error
* set Mpeg decoder Happauge (Which I had missed)

-----channels are tuned but with snow.... (neither picture nor blank screen)
* set config to ---------> Cable
..................but I use Antenna....

-----channels OK but B&W  (Black&White) ...no color


* edit "direct"  
                            (just in case to force PAL)
[SETUP-Main]
ForceStandard=1
-B&W again


during all steps I run WinTV and everything is fine for all channels

I am not sure if I give you any hint, but if you want to test something else I'll do it...

......something else : no TELETEXT usable for me...
          (the channels broadcast in Greek....and VTplus does not show greek letters..........)

[sub]

Hauppauge use a different mechanism tfor tuning the channels that is not available to me. I have to use the standard Microsoft mechanism for tuning TV channels. This works as described below.

Microsoft has a two tables of channel frequencies, based on your country and whether you are using Antenna or Cable. When Gb_PVR changes channels (eg channel 7), I pass to the microsoft API - Greece, Antenna, channel 7. It then looks up what the frequency should be and tells the Hauppauge driver which changes the frequency. Often in Europe the TV companies dont seem to use the frequencies, and instead transmit on different frequencies, causing what you are seeing. Many of the dutch users have also had this problem.

To allow for this Microsoft provides a mechanism to override the default frequency tables, but you'll need to do this manually.

More info on the channel tuning provided by microsoft can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library....ing.asp

Overrides are described here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library....des.asp

Here is another description and solution of the same problem relating to SnapStream/BeyondTV
http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/showth...eadid=9163

Also there is a utility somewhere called freqcopy, which will use your WinTV Hauppauge tuned channels to "tweak" the microsoft settings.

[MaBo]

Quote[/b] (stdim @ Mar. 11 2004,23:10)]......something else : no TELETEXT usable for me...
          (the channels broadcast in Greek....and VTplus does not show greek letters..........)

..I somehow feared that...
MaBo

[stdim]

Sub,
Thanks once more for your quick response....

As I noted in my previous reply I already have used the utility you propose
( freqcopy -http://www.prize.nl/software/freqcopy, I have found it at some forum - may be in shpvr )

and works OK as far as the tuning part.

Now I receive all channels that I have defined in WinTV........but the problem is that it is Black & White
(it seams to me that it is a NTSC/PAL issue - but I am not an expert)

Is there something that I could check to see if I realy have a good configuration for PAL ?

Thanks again.

[stdim]

Hello,
After a lot of retries I managed to install GBPVR V0.1.3, and see all channels colored...
I have concluded the following...

If I change the country from Greece to Italy and REBOOT color is O.K.
NOTICE : I have to reboot or else there is no effect to the Black & White problem I had.

Before I configure GBPVR I run "freqcopy" software
BUT I run it for
Source=Cable, Country=0
(even if I use Antenna source, and Country=Greece(that is 30))


So the steps I did are as follows:

Install FreqCopy
* Run it as Country:0, Cable(if I want to use Antenna)
GBPVR install
* version 0.1.3
* General setup
* Use PVR350 hard decoder
* Mpeg2 decoder :Intervideo...
* Use VMR9
* Capture Sources
* Add
* Italy (even if I am in Greece)
* Antenna
* add simple xmltv file with channels
( I used the channels that WinTV proposes)
* Directories (set as prefered)
* Capture Sources
* Edit
* Update EPG
* Channel Numbers (set as prefered to change order of view)


So, there are a couple of questions
1) Why can't I use country=Greece, as it should ?
2) Why changing Country from Greece to Italy I have to reboot?
is there some initialisation command I should use?
3) Will I have any side-effects using the above configuration?