Freecom DVB-T stick

[beermonster49]

Mr Bun says

'Yes, I have a Freecom DVB-T USB Stick and it works very well with both DVBViewer Pro and GE.

You did try the "Scan Devices"-Button in Options -> Hardware?'

 

 

Got the pro version of DVBViewer

Yes - done all that. The settings button is greyed out when the 'usb digital receiver' is selected. Select any other such as 'DVB File Device' and everything defaults to satellite in the'tuner type' box.

 

THe stick model has letters in the serial no., MPortal finds it ok as does GBPVR (although this won't find any channels). It's using the 225.sys capture driver. Oddly, the freecom stick is listed under 'sound, video and games controllers' with a usb composite device listed under the usb section in device manager.

 

Anyhow, if you have it working, there must be a way. Perhaps I'm missing summat obvious.

 

This stick was bought as a replacement for a wavefinder, (very temperamental and doesn't work on xp sp2 but otherwise a great bit of kit well ahead of its time when new) but is proving to be as troublesome on the radio side.

 

Radio records ok here on a Nebula digitv tuner, but needs demuxing to play on a normal dvd or cd player. I was sort of hoping by recording straight to mp3 in DBVViewer, it would solve this step, and if it is successful try using DVBViewer on the nebula insted of the given software.

 

Any suggestions welcome - I've tried the uninstall device,/program/reboot etc to no avail.

Attached is support.zip

 

Cheers.

 

Graham.

support.zip

[Mr. Bun]

Your setup seems to be ok.

 

The only thing that struck me is that your stick's product id (pid in "<section name="@device:pnp:\\?\usb#vid_14aa&pid_0226..." in hardware.xml) is 226 whereas mine is 22b and the old version of the stick had 221, AFAIK. Could it be that Freecom have changed the hardware yet again?

 

Anyway, DVBViewer has recognized your stick. So what exactly is the problem you're having?

So far I only know of an (implied) "it's not working". What happens when you do a channel scan?

 

You should also upgrade to the latest beta version of DVBViewer Pro (currently 3.5.0.50) if only to make sure that we are both talking about the same software.

 

EDIT: I had completely forgotten that the last official release wrongly identifies itself as a beta-version and had therefore assumed that you were using an outdated beta and not the official release. You can still try the new beta, if you want (make a copy of your existing installation-folder and move/copy the new files from the beta-version there, replacing the old files).

 

You might also want to try the GE version of DVBViewer, either the official 2.0.2 release or the current 2.1.1 beta or both (available in the members area, installation instructions in the readme). It offers a few more hardware-settings that might make a difference, such as "Tuning Space".

Edited October 30, 2006 by Mr. Bun

[beermonster49]

Your setup seems to be ok.

 

The only thing that struck me is that your stick's product id (pid in "<section name="@device:pnp:\\?\usb#vid_14aa&pid_0226..." in hardware.xml) is 226 whereas mine is 22b and the old version of the stick had 221, AFAIK. Could it be that Freecom have changed the hardware yet again?

 

Anyway, DVBViewer has recognized your stick. So what exactly is the problem you're having?

So far I only know of an (implied) "it's not working". What happens when you do a channel scan?

 

You should also upgrade to the latest beta version of DVBViewer Pro (currently 3.5.0.50) if only to make sure that we are both talking about the same software.

 

The problem was that as DVBViewer was fired up a box popped up telling me that 'no hardware found'. Once the prog was opened no matter what was selected under the hardware tab, DVBViewer would not recognise the freecom stick, so would not scan for channels.

After upgrading to the latest beta as suggested, still no luck.

However, when the GE 2.1.1.0 was installed, BINGO, the freecom stick was recognised, and after a couple of (operator) errors, channels successfully scanned in far, far quicker time than other software such as MPortal. For some reason it found 2 of a number of tv channels, but all these are deleted and a favourites list made. For some reason it found 5live and bbc world service, displays the start up logo and info for a few seconds but no sound - any ideas? The nebula produces sound ok with them.

I've now tested the epg and scheduler to record various radio progs - work perfectly. The great bonus is that radio records in mp2 format, and unlike the nebula recordings (which are also mp2) they don't need demuxing to play on a dvd player or the car mp3 cd player. (Just rename mp2 to mp3 for the car).

All in all, first impressions, I've got to say that now it's working, albeit with an unofficial development (GE) and minus a couple or radio stations, DVBViewer apperas to be a lovely bit of software. It's nice it's not developed on the media centre model like so many others. I'll give it a couple of days to find the potential glitches then if all ok have a go at ditching the nebula s/ware and try DVBViewer instead on their bda drivers.

The idea is to shove the pc with the freecom stick in it in the cellar, attached to the network just to record, mainly radio, controlled via VNC - much as with the wavefinder.

 

Thanks for your help. It would be interesting to know why DVBViewer wouldn't work without the GE addition, though - if only for future users.

 

Cheers.

 

Graham.

[Griga]

and minus a couple or radio stations

So some expected radio stations are missing (= not found by scanning), correct?

 

I'm not sure whether all DVB-T frequencies and/or bandwidth parameters in your region are the same as in the default Europe.ini transponderlist file. Check it with TransEdit 3.0 (see members area). It allows to edit the transponder list resp. to add/change/scan frequencies and provides better means to analyze what's going on.

[beermonster49]

So some expected radio stations are missing (= not found by scanning), correct?

 

The Nebula card finds the channels and plays them ok on my main pc.

The radio channels show up in DVBViewer, but no sound comes out. However, they record ok which is what i'm bothered about. I've moved the pc downstairs now with no speakers, so can't see if it's rectified itself or if i cocked up somewhere. I'll attach an old stereo next week and have another go just for interest and have a go with the prog you suggest.

 

For interest, I attached the freecom stick on another pc and used the GE version to tune it. (see previous post) I then went back to the 'normal' latest beta version of DBVviewer and it found and tuned the stick ok. No idea why - it is possible i made a fundamental mistake in the first instance of attempting to connect the freecom with DVBViewer.

 

Also for interest, the Freecom/DVBViewer do not work on the same drive as the NEBula usb digitv box, using its own software. PC locks up, crashes and continually reboots itself when (it looks like) it tries to start the nebula software. Unplugging the freecom solves this.

 

Also, i tried DVBViewer with the Nebula usb digitv box and their bda drivers to no avail either on the GE or normal versions. Pity. Would that be nebula i need to lobby or DVBViewer?

 

Cheers.

 

Graham.

[Griga]

The radio channels show up in DVBViewer, but no sound comes out. However, they record ok which is what i'm bothered about.

Which means they are simply not played on your PC, at least not "live", right? Does DVBViewer play the recorded mp2 files flawlessly?

 

After having tuned such a station, please open the property page of the DVBViewer Filter (View -> Filters -> DVBSource) and check what it reports, particularly the audio state and audio format. Post it here or attach a screenshot.

[beermonster49]

Which means they are simply not played on your PC, at least not "live", right? Does DVBViewer play the recorded mp2 files flawlessly?

 

After having tuned such a station, please open the property page of the DVBViewer Filter (View -> Filters -> DVBSource) and check what it reports, particularly the audio state and audio format. Post it here or attach a screenshot.

 

 

I've just had another play.

Attached are a couple of files.

 

The radio stations with no sound that do not play 'live' on this pc, record ok in mp2 and the recordings play ok via DVBViewer and wmplayer.

 

However, I had a look to see what audio codecs are available in DVBViewer. The audio was using a codec called 'MPA Decoder Filter'. This was the first in the drop down list which is why it was used. Using this codec most radio stations play 'live', but some (r5 live, r5live sports, bbc world service and oneworld) don't. With the codec changed to 'MPEG Audio Decoder' the sound is stuttered like an old fashioned medium wave at night but at a faster speed, while on Descaler Audio Decoder, or Arcsoft MPEG Audio Decoder all the radio stations playOK.

 

Later - I've found a 'TV/Radio Preformat Detection' option. When the audio is checked those 4 radio stations now play ok on all codecs.

 

For info attached are 2 screenshots from when using the 'MPA Decoder filter', before checking the 'Radio preformat detection'.

 

Cheers.

 

Graham.

[beermonster49]

Screenshots which didn't appear in the last post.

 

'For info attached are 2 screenshots from when using the 'MPA Decoder filter', before checking the 'Radio preformat detection'.

 

Cheers.

 

Graham.

support.zip

[Griga]

I see - your first experience with DirectShow pitfalls a few audio decoders need a little help from DVBViewer. However, the MPA decoder should have played the 48 khz 192 kbps stream, because that's as normal as can be.

 

If you want to try a real good one:

 

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AC3_Filter.htm

 

It decodes all kinds of DVB audio (including Dolby Digital) and is able to play your streams without the audio format detection option (that slows down channel switching a bit), except those with other sample rates than 48 khz, that always require a sort of advance notification. AC3 Filter provides a whole lot of options on its property page (View -> Filters...), but better untick "Use for PCM" on the system tab, in order to prevent it from coming in as audio postprocessor unwantedly.