Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C and DVBViewer Pro

[Ossiman]

Hello

 

I am building a HTPC with two Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C cards. Initially the telvision software and drivers provided by Terratec have been a joke, but on August 2006 Terratec published BDA Driver 4.8.11 and TerraTec Home Cinema 4.21 thus greatly improving the usability of that tuner card.

 

However, as I am located in Finland, tvtv scheduling is not available and I have to use Home Cinelma's own EPG. And altought adequate, it is not very usable. Furthermore I cannot use Home Cinelma to control my DVD player and MP3 library. Wireless keyboard and mouse are adequate, but I would really like to have some kind of dashboard for controlling all that.

 

I've studied the feature list of DVBViewer and it seems to be able to provide me with the needed features. However I do have some questions.

 

- Does anyone have previous experience with DVBViewer and Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C? Do they work well together?

- How fast is channel changing? (MythTV in Linux is SLOW)

- Can DVBViewer automatically detect and select the aspect ratio for widescreen and 4:3 broadcasts?

- How do DVB text (subtitles) work? Does DVBViewer support them?

- As I have two tuner cards, I would like to use one for recording and other for viewing & view rendering. Is this possible?

 

Regards,

- Ossi

[Griga]

1) There are known issues with the 1200-C and BDA driver (data drop-outs on certain transponders if the signal is too strong) but if THC works flawlessly in this respect, DVBViewer should do it as well.

 

2) Usually DVBViewer channel switching is very fast. However, it may also depend on other circumstances, like the behaviour of the tuner and the driver.

 

3) DVBViewer is able to detect 4:3 / 16:9 broadcasts and to adjust the aspect ratio accordingly. Additionally it supports user defined zoom presets (stretching the image horizontally and/or vertically), switchable via keyboard or remote control.

 

4) DVBViewer Pro supports DVB and videotext subtitles.

 

5) Yes.

[Ossiman]

Hello

 

I have some troubles when I am trying to find the multiplexing broadcasts. DVBViewer's manual is a bit short when it comes to instructions on how to select the parameters for channels scanning. It is not automatic. For example it does not explain what is the difference of "Scan Range" and "Scan Frequency buttons" and what should be typed to the Symbolrate field (is the information supposed to be entered in KILOsymbols/s, symbols/s or MEGAsymbols/s?).

 

The information I have gotten from the network server provider (Helsinki Television or Welho nowadays) is following:

 

Modulation parameters

Network ID:		 100
Modulation:		 64-128-QAM
Inner FEC:		  None
Outer FEC:		  RS(204,188)
Symbol Rate:		5,9-6,9 Msym/s

And the multiplexes I am interested in are following:

 

Mux#	Frequency  Symbol rate   Modulation TSID  ONETID
1	   274 MHz	 6.9 Msym/s   128-QAM	1	 0
2	   282 MHz	 6.9 Msym/s   128-QAM	2	 0
3	   162 MHz	 6.9 Msym/s	64-QAM	3	 15
15	  394 MHz	 6.9 Msym/s   128-QAM	15	0

 

In this table TSID means Transport Stream ID and ONETID Original Network ID.

 

TV channels in these multiplexes are unscrabmled and are following:

Chan#	TSID	Serv. ID   Service name	Video PID	Audio PID(s)	PCR PID	PMT PID	Teletext PID	Subtitle PID
1		1		17		TV1			 512		  650:fin		  128	   256		2321	
2		1		33		TV2			 513		  660:fin		  129	   257		2321	
3		2		49		MTV3 D		  305		  561:fin		  305	   110		817			 1073
4		2		65		Nelonen D	   512		  650:fin		  512	   258		576	
5		1		81		FST			 514		  670:swe		  130	   259		2321	
6		2		97		subtv		   353		  609:fin		  353	   107		865	
7		3		113	   Urheilukanava   417		  673:fin		  130	   260		929	
8		1		129	   YLE24		   515		  680:fin		  131	   260		2321	
9		1		145	   YLE Teema	   516		  690:fin		  132	   258		2321	
13	   2		209	   MTV3+		   304		  560:fin		  304	   264		817			  1072
14	   2		225	   Nelonen Plus	516		  690:fin		  516	   259		
15	   3		241	   The Voice	   513		  660:fin		  513	   259		
30	   3		1973	  Infokanava	  221		  222:fin		  221	   30		
40	   15	   1001	  BBC World	   513		  644:eng		  8189	  304		577	
42	   15	   6040	  MTV			 6041		 6042			 6041	  303		6046	
44	   15	   12240	 TV5MONDE		45		   46			   45	   301		3602			  3652
46	   15	   607	   Deutsche Welle  1000		 1001			  1000	302

 

Additionally free (unscrambled) radio channels I am interested in are following:

 

Chan#	   TSID	  Service ID		Service name		Audio PID(s)
1		   1		   4369			  YLE PEILI		   Digital radio sound
3		   1		   4401			  YLEN KLASSINEN	  Digital radio sound
4		   1		   4417			  YLE VEGA+		   Digital radio sound
5		   1		   4433			  YLE Mondo		   Digital radio sound
6		   1		   4481			  YLE X3M			 Digital radio sound
30		  3		   4449			  Uusi Kiss		   Digital radio sound
31		  3		   4465			  Iskelmä			 Digital radio sound

 

And now, the problem: I cannot locate multiplexes 1, 2 or 3 with scanning. I however can get multiplex 15's channels. And since Terratec Home Cinelma does find the multiplexes 1, 2 and 3 successfully cards and drivers should work and I should be able to get also multiplexes 1, 2 and 3 to tune in.

 

Given that I know those parameters, what am I exactly supposed to write in which field? I'm not sitting by the HTPC computer, but I've tried following:

- Set Start frequency to 274 000 (assuming that the frequency rate should be entered in kilohertz). Tried also 274.

- Set End frequency to 282 000. Tried also 282

- Set modulation to 128 QAM (and tried also 64 QAM

- Entered '6900' to symbol rate field. Tried also '6.9', '6,9' and '6900000' (without quotes of course). Some predefined modulations pre-filled this field with several values separated by commas. What does it mean? Should I do the same? (Is there some fluxuation between symbolrates that I should be taking into account when scanning for channels?)

- Set type (the combobox whic has by default "Satellite") to Cable

- Left the Stepsize unchanged

- Tried both "Scan frequency" and "Scan range" buttons.

 

Regards,

- Ossi

[Griga]

Try to scan with TransEdit 3.0 (see members area). Maybe the transponder list that is used for scanning has to be modified (e.g. by adding frequencies)., which can be done with TransEdit. Additionally, there is a comprehensive TransEdit Manual.

 

P.S. In a German forum TerraTec announced a new THC and BDA driver version for the 1200-C, that fixes the drop-out problems mentioned above (frequently occuring in Germany). See here:

 

http://forum.digitalfernsehen.de/forum/sho...mp;postcount=30

Edited September 22, 2006 by Griga