No HDTV reception with WinFast DTV 2000 DS Plus TV Card

[Motorcycleboy]

Windows XP with SP3

Direct X 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) with June 2010 update

Arcsoft video decoder 2.28.511.141

LAV Splitter 0.65.09

TV card chipset: RealTek RTL2832U

Winfast DTV2000 DS Plus driver 11.523.186.1020

DVBViewer 5.6.4.0

 

I have successfully installed the drivers for the TV card and it works like a charm with DVBViewer, but I cannot achieve HDTV reception even though the TV card is advertised as supporting HDTV. Here is what I have done so far:

 

My system has a suitable splitter and decoder for H.264 video and AAC audio that has been tested to work with MP4 files played with MPC-HC.

 

In the Direct X section of settings I have selected Arcsoft Video Decoder for H.264 Video Decoder and LAV Audio Decoder for AAC Audio

 

In the Hardware section of settings the Tuner Type has a tick in the box for DVB-T2

 

In the channel editor I select a station that can receive HDTV and tick the box for Video Type: H.264 and Audio Type: AAC, but the setting is not saved when I restart DVBViewer or change channels.

 

Has anyone any ideas what the problem could be?

 

 

 

[Tjod]

As far as I can see the "WinFast DTV 2000 DS Plus" is DVB-T only and doesn't have DVB-T2 capability.

If the card was detected as DVB-T2 that is a bug, post a support.zip that we can fix this for the driver ID.
Meanwile you can untick the DVB-T2 checkbox.

If there are DVB-T HD channels or only DVB-T2 HD depends on the country you are living in.

[Motorcycleboy]

As far as I can see the "WinFast DTV 2000 DS Plus" is DVB-T only and doesn't have DVB-T2 capability.

 

I have done some research using Wikipedia and I have concluded that high definition TV in the UK (Freeview HD) depends entirely on the DVB-T2 standard which my TV card may not support. Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article on Freeview UK:

 

'Freeview HD is the first operational TV service in the world using the DVB-T2 standard. This standard is incompatible with DVB-T, and can only be received using compatible reception equipment'.

 

I have checked out some USB TV tuner sticks that use the RealTek RTL2832U chip and it appears that they do not support DVB-T2, so it must be an inherent limitation of this chip.

[Motorcycleboy]

I have done some research and I have discovered that a tuner based on the RTL2832U chip can receive DVB-T2 transmissions, but it needs additional hardware to do so. Here is an article about a USB DVB-T2 receiver that is based on the RTL2832U + R820T reference design with the addition of an external DVB-T/T2/C demodulator. It is titled 'Teardown HD-901T2 DVB-T2' and it can be found at http://blog.palosaari.fi/2013/10/naked-hardware-14-dvb-t2-usb-tv-stick.html . The RTL2832P in this USB DVB-T2 receiver is the same chip as the RTL2832U, but it has an extra TS (transport stream) interface to connect to an external DVB-T/T2/C demodulator in the form of the Panasonic .MN88472. The author thinks that the RTL2832U will shortly be combined with an USB interface and DVB-T demodulator in one package.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Motorcycleboy