Blackgold Channel Problems

[Bear72]

I have an existing self-built Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC which has two Blackgold DVB-T tuners; I am in the UK and use this to watch Freeview with no problem.

 

Because BBC is now broadcasting a test HD channel and I receive my signal from the tower in question, I want to use DVBViewer to watch this HD programming - lots of people on the Digitalspy.com forums appear to be doing this.

 

I ordered and downloaded DVBViewer v 3.2.6.80 yesterday and just cannot get it to find any channels. I have stopped all the Windows Media Center services and killed all eh* processes in case these are grabbing the tuners.

 

If I go to Settings > Options > DirectX in the DVB Device, Current Device drop down list I see Genesis BDA Tuner (1) and Genesis BDA Tuner (2) which I believe corresponds to my two tuners.

 

Then if I go to Channel > Channelist > Channel Scan tab and select Root Terrestrial (EUR) from the drop down list and click Scan the app scans the frequencies but finds no channels. Please note that at this point I am just trying for "normal" DVB-T digital channels, the HD stuff I will worry about later when I can see the "normal" channels.

 

Any help or advice will be most appreciated.

[Mr. Bun]

Ok, it seems that no one (including me) has a bright idea as to the cause of your problems, but here a couple of things you can try:

 

Check whether other DVBViewer versions work:

 

- Download (from the Customer Area, Beta Section) and install the latest beta (3.4.10.11) of DVBViewer Pro. The ReadMe with the installation guide is apparently missing from this zip-file, so here is the important bit:

Installation

First copy your DVBViewer 3.2.6 folder to a folder of your choice und unzip the contence of the

beta.zip into the copied folder. DVBViewer Pro BETA can coexist with other DVBViewer

installations, as long as they are not mixed up in a single folder. So there is no need to uninstall

them.

When launching DVBViewer Pro BETA for the first time, it is recommended to immediately open

the Options Dialog („Settings/Options“), and to select a suitable video- and audio decoder (e.g.

Cyberlink, InterVideo, Nvidia, Sonic or DVD Express) on the DirectX page. The default setting

„auto“ will let Windows deceide – sometimes with problematic results.

You should also verify on the Hardware page your hardware is detected correctly.

- Download and install DVBViewer GE 1.9.4. See the ReadMe for instructions on how to install and get an english userinterface.

 

- Download and install the latest beta of DVBViewer GE (1.9.5.3). Just like with the Pro-Version make a copy of your GE install folder and replace the old DVBViewer.exe (1.9.4) with the version from the zip-file.

 

AFAIK these newer versions include some improvements for handling BDA-devices, so maybe one (or more) of them will work for you. You will need the latest versions for HD anyway.

 

You should also check whether it works with just one of your DVB-T cards. Disable one of them in the Windows Device-Manager, then re-scan for devices in DVBViewer.

DVBViewer does support multiple tuners, however for troubleshooting purposes it's probably better to work with just one card.

 

I have stopped all the Windows Media Center services and killed all eh* processes in case these are grabbing the tuners.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not familiar with Windows MCE. Could it be that you killed too many processes?

 

the app scans the frequencies but finds no channels.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What exactly happens when you scan for channels? Does the progress bar fill up slowly or very quickly?

 

Hope this helps!

[orbiplaya.com]

Hi,

 

Did you get the problem solved?

 

I have 2 Black Gold cards installed when i boot up V3.5.0.1 it says No Hardware Available!.

 

Do I need different make cards?

 

Regards,

Pete

 

My Mobile Site

[Andyba]

Definitely something between DVBViewer and Black Gold!!

 

I have a fully patched MCE with DVBViewerGE also which I use for BBCHD from Astra with a Nova-S.

 

So far I’ve used a Nova-T DVB-T and a Terratec Cinergy 2400i (dual tuner) DVB-T with no detection / channel scan issues in either MCE or DVBViewerGE.

 

I’ve now rejected the Cinergy as it has judder issues within MCE only, which Tetrratec are aware of, but seem unable to fix.

 

So thought I’d try a Black Gold Single tuner PCI. I’m using latest BDA (MCE) drivers, and the card works perfectly in MCE.

 

In DVBViewerGE, the card is detected, but when I try to scan for channels I get an error along the lines of “failed to initialize BDA device”!!

 

Any assistance appreciated.

 

TIA

Andy

[mech]

I also have 2 Blackgold tuners and experienced the same scanning problems when I tried to use Transedit MMC Demo (even though I've used them sucessfully with MCE2005 for the last two years). I thought I'd try Transedit first before buying DVBViewer Pro to see if it the tuners would work. In trying to find a resolution to the problem I came across a the info at the following info in the link:

 

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/133114.aspx

 

Although the content in this link is for editing the registry for use with MCE, I found that by creating a bespoke .ini transponder file with the exact frequencies and offsets of my local trasmitter the scanning problem could be solved and all channels detected. My .ini file looks as follows:

 

[sATTYPE]

1=5000

2=Pontop Pike

 

[DVB]

0=6

1=690000,8,|C48

2=729833,8,|C53

3=746167,8,|C55

4=778167,8,|C59

5=802167,8,|C62

6=826167,8,|C65

 

 

The following links hav details of frequecnies and offsets:

 

http://www.ukfree.tv/txlist.php

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/reception_a...t_guide_2-8.pdf

 

I've now purchased DVBViewer Pro and it's been working fine with both tuners for several days! With regard to the MCE services/processes you are correct in disabling them in the Services manager, otherwise MCE will grab control of the tuners.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

I have an existing self-built Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC which has two Blackgold DVB-T tuners; I am in the UK and use this to watch Freeview with no problem.

 

Because BBC is now broadcasting a test HD channel and I receive my signal from the tower in question, I want to use DVBViewer to watch this HD programming - lots of people on the Digitalspy.com forums appear to be doing this.

 

I ordered and downloaded DVBViewer v 3.2.6.80 yesterday and just cannot get it to find any channels. I have stopped all the Windows Media Center services and killed all eh* processes in case these are grabbing the tuners.

 

If I go to Settings > Options > DirectX in the DVB Device, Current Device drop down list I see Genesis BDA Tuner (1) and Genesis BDA Tuner (2) which I believe corresponds to my two tuners.

 

Then if I go to Channel > Channelist > Channel Scan tab and select Root Terrestrial (EUR) from the drop down list and click Scan the app scans the frequencies but finds no channels. Please note that at this point I am just trying for "normal" DVB-T digital channels, the HD stuff I will worry about later when I can see the "normal" channels.

 

Any help or advice will be most appreciated.