Need Help for Multimedia Video Controller?

[Frederick]

Someone gave me a PCI video controller card labeled as:

NTSV/NTSC-J 48432 Rev 1110 Wintv

I am hoping it will enable me to record some video clips I have from
my old VHS tapes to DVD.

On my XP SP3 system, after boot with the card installed it is called a
Multimedia Video Controller in Device Manager - needing drivers to no
surprise.

Something called 'mcekit.exe' was provided by DriverAgent which
installs drivers for the card - apparently successfully, because
Device Manager is now happy. But no relative icons to execute
anything show on my system.

I want to use the card - but I can find no application/software on the
web to do that.

Help anyone?

Thanks

Big Fred

 

[Paul]

Someone gave me a PCI video controller card labeled as:

NTSV/NTSC-J 48432 Rev 1110 Wintv

I am hoping it will enable me to record some video clips I have from
my old VHS tapes to DVD.

On my XP SP3 system, after boot with the card installed it is called a
Multimedia Video Controller in Device Manager - needing drivers to no
surprise.

Something called 'mcekit.exe' was provided by DriverAgent which
installs drivers for the card - apparently successfully, because
Device Manager is now happy. But no relative icons to execute
anything show on my system.

I want to use the card - but I can find no application/software on the
web to do that.

Help anyone?

Thanks

Big Fred

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=3973.0

"I have a Gateway MCE that has been upgraded to XP MCE 2004.
I have the 48432 Freestyle OEM PVR-250. On the card there
is a big sticker that says NTSC / NTSC-J."

It sounds like it is the equivalent of a PVR-250.

mcekit is a way of saying, I guess, that it would work with
a version of Windows with MCE. If you don't have the MCE version
of Windows, then mcekit might not do you much good.

If I go here, I find...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauppauge_Computer_Works

PVR-250 Various PCI SAA7115 1x SAA7115 Composite In S-Video In
1x ivac15

PVR-250 Various PCI SAA7115 1x SAA7115 Composite In S-Video In
1x CX23416

So, yes, you can record from a VCR via the baseband output. You'd
run either a 75 ohm composite cable, or an S-Video cable with four
pin Mini-DIN.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xy1ZADlyL.jpg

Your journey starts with review comments from other owners.
They'll identify possible software solutions. If the card
is an OEM (is actually the Freestyle one), it's possible
the Hauppauge software won't work. They mention Beyond TV 4.0.

http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Win...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

There is a trial version of Beyond TV here, for your testing.
It is commercial software as far as I know.

http://www.snapstream.com/download/beyondtv/

The thing is, some chipsets are easier to find free solutions
for than others.

MythTV may sound perfectly free, but the setup isn't always that
easy, and it isn't intended for "simple recording" from a VCR.
I've had it working, and did manage to make real-time
recordings, but without a firm understanding of what was happening.
(The MythTV software thought I was "viewing" the incoming content,
but it was also writing the recording to disk. Grabbing the disk
file and bringing it over to my Windows box, installing a special
CODEC for it, and I could view the recording later.)

MythTV has the notion of "front end" and "back end" elements, where
one part of the software does recordings, and another part plays
back stuff. It uses an annoying "on-screen menu" concept for doing
so. What happened to me the last time, is the software tells me
"you have no tuners", and I was unable to convince the stupid
thing that yes, there was a tuner in the box. So I had to chuck
my MythTV setup. I got it working another time, about two years
about that, complaining about the same error. Why the stupid
software can't discover the hardware properly, on its own, is a
big question mark. It requires entirely too much coaxing. I
couldn't remember what recipe was required to get the tuner
recognized.

My current tuner is BT878 based, and thank goodness for DScaler.
Not all TV software works with all chips, and DScaler works
great with BT848/BT878 designs. Your card is more fancy than
mine (possibly doing compressed output, to save disk space),
but on the other hand, my chip has more software for it. For
example, I've even plugged my BT878 based card into a Macintosh,
and used some software a Mac user wrote. So my card has been on
many adventures. There *is* software for your PVC-250 look-alike,
but it'll be a full time job tracking it down and testing it.

You may have purchased that card for not much money off Ebay,
but now you're going to need to invest two weeks of time
testing and installing possible software solutions. Now
the card isn't so cheap any more.

If you look on Newegg, in the tuner card section, an enduring
theme is "software issues". The hardware hardly matters
at all, and the software makes or breaks a product. If
nobody can get the software to work, that's why the cards
end up on Ebay.

Paul

 

[Frederick]

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=3973.0

"I have a Gateway MCE that has been upgraded to XP MCE 2004.
I have the 48432 Freestyle OEM PVR-250. On the card there
is a big sticker that says NTSC / NTSC-J."

It sounds like it is the equivalent of a PVR-250.

mcekit is a way of saying, I guess, that it would work with
a version of Windows with MCE. If you don't have the MCE version
of Windows, then mcekit might not do you much good.

If I go here, I find...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauppauge_Computer_Works

PVR-250 Various PCI SAA7115 1x SAA7115 Composite In S-Video In
1x ivac15

PVR-250 Various PCI SAA7115 1x SAA7115 Composite In S-Video In
1x CX23416

So, yes, you can record from a VCR via the baseband output. You'd
run either a 75 ohm composite cable, or an S-Video cable with four
pin Mini-DIN.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xy1ZADlyL.jpg

Your journey starts with review comments from other owners.
They'll identify possible software solutions. If the card
is an OEM (is actually the Freestyle one), it's possible
the Hauppauge software won't work. They mention Beyond TV 4.0.

http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Win...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

There is a trial version of Beyond TV here, for your testing.
It is commercial software as far as I know.

http://www.snapstream.com/download/beyondtv/

The thing is, some chipsets are easier to find free solutions
for than others.

MythTV may sound perfectly free, but the setup isn't always that
easy, and it isn't intended for "simple recording" from a VCR.
I've had it working, and did manage to make real-time
recordings, but without a firm understanding of what was happening.
(The MythTV software thought I was "viewing" the incoming content,
but it was also writing the recording to disk. Grabbing the disk
file and bringing it over to my Windows box, installing a special
CODEC for it, and I could view the recording later.)

MythTV has the notion of "front end" and "back end" elements, where
one part of the software does recordings, and another part plays
back stuff. It uses an annoying "on-screen menu" concept for doing
so. What happened to me the last time, is the software tells me
"you have no tuners", and I was unable to convince the stupid
thing that yes, there was a tuner in the box. So I had to chuck
my MythTV setup. I got it working another time, about two years
about that, complaining about the same error. Why the stupid
software can't discover the hardware properly, on its own, is a
big question mark. It requires entirely too much coaxing. I
couldn't remember what recipe was required to get the tuner
recognized.

My current tuner is BT878 based, and thank goodness for DScaler.
Not all TV software works with all chips, and DScaler works
great with BT848/BT878 designs. Your card is more fancy than
mine (possibly doing compressed output, to save disk space),
but on the other hand, my chip has more software for it. For
example, I've even plugged my BT878 based card into a Macintosh,
and used some software a Mac user wrote. So my card has been on
many adventures. There *is* software for your PVC-250 look-alike,
but it'll be a full time job tracking it down and testing it.

You may have purchased that card for not much money off Ebay,
but now you're going to need to invest two weeks of time
testing and installing possible software solutions. Now
the card isn't so cheap any more.

If you look on Newegg, in the tuner card section, an enduring
theme is "software issues". The hardware hardly matters
at all, and the software makes or breaks a product. If
nobody can get the software to work, that's why the cards
end up on Ebay.

Paul

Thanks Paul. Once again, I can depend on you for help. I will have
to digest all of what you say. There is a lot. My driver retrieval
from DriverAgent also downloaded a folder called MCE_soft_encoder
containing SoftMCE_Setup.EXE, but it failed, saying it did not fit my
hardware or the drivers were wrong.

Big Fred

 

[Frederick]

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=3973.0

"I have a Gateway MCE that has been upgraded to XP MCE 2004.
I have the 48432 Freestyle OEM PVR-250. On the card there
is a big sticker that says NTSC / NTSC-J."

It sounds like it is the equivalent of a PVR-250.

mcekit is a way of saying, I guess, that it would work with
a version of Windows with MCE. If you don't have the MCE version
of Windows, then mcekit might not do you much good.

If I go here, I find...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauppauge_Computer_Works

PVR-250 Various PCI SAA7115 1x SAA7115 Composite In S-Video In
1x ivac15

PVR-250 Various PCI SAA7115 1x SAA7115 Composite In S-Video In
1x CX23416

So, yes, you can record from a VCR via the baseband output. You'd
run either a 75 ohm composite cable, or an S-Video cable with four
pin Mini-DIN.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xy1ZADlyL.jpg

Your journey starts with review comments from other owners.
They'll identify possible software solutions. If the card
is an OEM (is actually the Freestyle one), it's possible
the Hauppauge software won't work. They mention Beyond TV 4.0.

http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Win...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

There is a trial version of Beyond TV here, for your testing.
It is commercial software as far as I know.

http://www.snapstream.com/download/beyondtv/

The thing is, some chipsets are easier to find free solutions
for than others.

MythTV may sound perfectly free, but the setup isn't always that
easy, and it isn't intended for "simple recording" from a VCR.
I've had it working, and did manage to make real-time
recordings, but without a firm understanding of what was happening.
(The MythTV software thought I was "viewing" the incoming content,
but it was also writing the recording to disk. Grabbing the disk
file and bringing it over to my Windows box, installing a special
CODEC for it, and I could view the recording later.)

MythTV has the notion of "front end" and "back end" elements, where
one part of the software does recordings, and another part plays
back stuff. It uses an annoying "on-screen menu" concept for doing
so. What happened to me the last time, is the software tells me
"you have no tuners", and I was unable to convince the stupid
thing that yes, there was a tuner in the box. So I had to chuck
my MythTV setup. I got it working another time, about two years
about that, complaining about the same error. Why the stupid
software can't discover the hardware properly, on its own, is a
big question mark. It requires entirely too much coaxing. I
couldn't remember what recipe was required to get the tuner
recognized.

My current tuner is BT878 based, and thank goodness for DScaler.
Not all TV software works with all chips, and DScaler works
great with BT848/BT878 designs. Your card is more fancy than
mine (possibly doing compressed output, to save disk space),
but on the other hand, my chip has more software for it. For
example, I've even plugged my BT878 based card into a Macintosh,
and used some software a Mac user wrote. So my card has been on
many adventures. There *is* software for your PVC-250 look-alike,
but it'll be a full time job tracking it down and testing it.

You may have purchased that card for not much money off Ebay,
but now you're going to need to invest two weeks of time
testing and installing possible software solutions. Now
the card isn't so cheap any more.

If you look on Newegg, in the tuner card section, an enduring
theme is "software issues". The hardware hardly matters
at all, and the software makes or breaks a product. If
nobody can get the software to work, that's why the cards
end up on Ebay.

Paul

Wow - I had no idea the process was such a gray area. Actually the
board came from a now defunct Media XP machine. It cost me nothing.
There was a time when I thought to try the process because I had some
old VHS tapes worth converting. But I postponed the attempt. When I
saw this PCI card, I thought just maybe I could now do it.

I am going to take a quick look at the current state of the art for
this process just to see if I should try it another way. But this PCI
card is headed for the dump. My wife currently has a medical
situation that requires my 24/7 support anyway, so I really can't
devote a lot of time to get the process to work. Old age is
wunnerful. 'Nuff said. My problem, huh?

Thanks again

Big Fred

 

[Paul]

Wow - I had no idea the process was such a gray area. Actually the
board came from a now defunct Media XP machine. It cost me nothing.
There was a time when I thought to try the process because I had some
old VHS tapes worth converting. But I postponed the attempt. When I
saw this PCI card, I thought just maybe I could now do it.

I am going to take a quick look at the current state of the art for
this process just to see if I should try it another way. But this PCI
card is headed for the dump. My wife currently has a medical
situation that requires my 24/7 support anyway, so I really can't
devote a lot of time to get the process to work. Old age is
wunnerful. 'Nuff said. My problem, huh?

Thanks again

Big Fred

I didn't want to spoil your fun. I just see a lot
of video capture products that are let down by the software.
The hardware is just fine and is capable.

MCE for Windows did not help matters. It meant some capture
devices only had MCE software written for them, and no
"conventional" software. There are some third-party PVR
applications that can address some of the cards.

It means the cards are a "patchwork quilt". Some will
work without too much problem. Others require a lot
of effort.

Another way to do this, would be to visit the Newegg
page, look in the video section for capture devices,
sort the products by rating, then find the cheapest
one with a good rating. That might be the quickest
way to get the function you need. If the customer
reviews indicate it works, you're done.

In terms of spending time, you could download MythBuntu,
and you don't have to sit in front of the computer while
that is going on. Burn a CD with the software. Boot
the computer, and there is some chance your 250-lookalike
could work. It might not take much time, to be sitting
in front of the software. But I won't be able to help
you if it says "no tuner found", because the last
time I tried it, I couldn't figure it out.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Centre.png/800px-Mythbuntu_Control_Centre.png

The download page for the CD is here. i386 is 32 bit software,
suitable for Pentium 4 or older. AMD64 is 64 bit software
for Intel or AMD 64 bit processors (stuff a bit more
modern than the Pentium 4 roughly).

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/11.04/release/

mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso 645MB (32 bit OS)
mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-amd64.iso 698MB (64 bit OS)

There isn't much incentive to get the 64 bit OS, so just
use the 32 bit one. You might have better luck with that.
You'll need a broadband connection for download, as
dialup would take too long.

Just for fun, I'm downloading the i386 one now (as I'm
going back down the basement to work on a project and
won't be watching the download). Should be interesting
to see if the latest version can "find my tuner"

Paul

 

[Frederick]

I didn't want to spoil your fun. I just see a lot
of video capture products that are let down by the software.
The hardware is just fine and is capable.

MCE for Windows did not help matters. It meant some capture
devices only had MCE software written for them, and no
"conventional" software. There are some third-party PVR
applications that can address some of the cards.

It means the cards are a "patchwork quilt". Some will
work without too much problem. Others require a lot
of effort.

Another way to do this, would be to visit the Newegg
page, look in the video section for capture devices,
sort the products by rating, then find the cheapest
one with a good rating. That might be the quickest
way to get the function you need. If the customer
reviews indicate it works, you're done.

In terms of spending time, you could download MythBuntu,
and you don't have to sit in front of the computer while
that is going on. Burn a CD with the software. Boot
the computer, and there is some chance your 250-lookalike
could work. It might not take much time, to be sitting
in front of the software. But I won't be able to help
you if it says "no tuner found", because the last
time I tried it, I couldn't figure it out.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Centre.png/800px-Mythbuntu_Control_Centre.png

The download page for the CD is here. i386 is 32 bit software,
suitable for Pentium 4 or older. AMD64 is 64 bit software
for Intel or AMD 64 bit processors (stuff a bit more
modern than the Pentium 4 roughly).

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/11.04/release/

mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso 645MB (32 bit OS)
mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-amd64.iso 698MB (64 bit OS)

There isn't much incentive to get the 64 bit OS, so just
use the 32 bit one. You might have better luck with that.
You'll need a broadband connection for download, as
dialup would take too long.

Just for fun, I'm downloading the i386 one now (as I'm
going back down the basement to work on a project and
won't be watching the download). Should be interesting
to see if the latest version can "find my tuner"

Paul

Thanks

I have downloaded mythbuntu and xubuntu (both versions). Have to burn
the disks now. Can I safely boot and use xubuntu without hurting XP
now loaded on my hdd? I have done a backup this AM.

Big Fred

 

[Frederick]

In terms of spending time, you could download MythBuntu,
and you don't have to sit in front of the computer while
that is going on. Burn a CD with the software. Boot
the computer, and there is some chance your 250-lookalike
could work. It might not take much time, to be sitting
in front of the software. But I won't be able to help
you if it says "no tuner found", because the last
time I tried it, I couldn't figure it out.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Centre.png/800px-Mythbuntu_Control_Centre.png

The download page for the CD is here. i386 is 32 bit software,
suitable for Pentium 4 or older. AMD64 is 64 bit software
for Intel or AMD 64 bit processors (stuff a bit more
modern than the Pentium 4 roughly).

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/11.04/release/

mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso 645MB (32 bit OS)
mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-amd64.iso 698MB (64 bit OS)

There isn't much incentive to get the 64 bit OS, so just
use the 32 bit one. You might have better luck with that.
You'll need a broadband connection for download, as
dialup would take too long.

Just for fun, I'm downloading the i386 one now (as I'm
going back down the basement to work on a project and
won't be watching the download). Should be interesting
to see if the latest version can "find my tuner"

Paul

Well Paul, When I tried Mythbuntu I was stopped cold twice. First
when I tried to use it under Ubuntu, it required a password. When I
tried to boot from its cd I made, it required a 'back end' serial.

I have neither.

Now what?

Thanks

Big Fred

 

[Frederick]

In terms of spending time, you could download MythBuntu,
and you don't have to sit in front of the computer while
that is going on. Burn a CD with the software. Boot
the computer, and there is some chance your 250-lookalike
could work. It might not take much time, to be sitting
in front of the software. But I won't be able to help
you if it says "no tuner found", because the last
time I tried it, I couldn't figure it out.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Centre.png/800px-Mythbuntu_Control_Centre.png

The download page for the CD is here. i386 is 32 bit software,
suitable for Pentium 4 or older. AMD64 is 64 bit software
for Intel or AMD 64 bit processors (stuff a bit more
modern than the Pentium 4 roughly).

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/11.04/release/

mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso 645MB (32 bit OS)
mythbuntu-11.04-desktop-amd64.iso 698MB (64 bit OS)

There isn't much incentive to get the 64 bit OS, so just
use the 32 bit one. You might have better luck with that.
You'll need a broadband connection for download, as
dialup would take too long.

Just for fun, I'm downloading the i386 one now (as I'm
going back down the basement to work on a project and
won't be watching the download). Should be interesting
to see if the latest version can "find my tuner"

Paul

Well Paul, When I tried Mythbuntu I was stopped cold twice. First
when I tried to use it under Ubuntu, it required a password. When I
tried to boot from its cd I made, it required a 'database login
credential' and/or a 'security key'. (I said something else a minute
ago-sorry)

I have neither.

Now what?

Thanks

Big Fred

 

[Paul]

Thanks

I have downloaded mythbuntu and xubuntu (both versions). Have to burn
the disks now. Can I safely boot and use xubuntu without hurting XP
now loaded on my hdd? I have done a backup this AM.

Big Fred

Well, I had a look at the latest Mythbuntu... and nothing
has changed.

It looks like you might still have to install it on a disk
drive, to be able to use the back end. When I tried to set up
the back end, it told me the database wasn't running. And there
were no instructions of note, to help me.

As for booting those discs, yes, they're safe to boot on a Windows
machine. They're not safe to *install*, while the Windows disk is
connected. For safety, I use separate disks for Linux test
installs. A couple years ago, I had a Linux installer overwrite the
MBR on my Windows disk ( *not* the same disk I was doing the Linux
install on). So the Linux installer can choose to write the MBR
of *any* running disk. As a matter of fact, even if you enter
the BIOS of the computer, and disable all disks except the
target Linux disk, Linux is stupid enough to turn all
the disks on again :-( That means, you can't use the BIOS
as a means to prevent Linux from damaging disks.

For me, that means unplugging the data cable on my
regular Windows SATA drives, before doing anything with
Linux installs. Once installed, then it is safe to plug
all the disks in again. (It's not likely an update-grub
will overwrite the MBR.) And is one of the reasons I do
few test installs, as it's wearing out my connectors...
SATA connectors are only guaranteed for around 50 insertions,
for the internal red colored cables. ESATA, on the other hand,
is rated for 5000 insertions. So I guess all my disks
should be external, to be doing this.

So if you want to try Mythbuntu, it still looks like a
PITA. I had it running once, and it did make good looking
output, but haven't run it since. Since I have a limited
set of "scratch disks", I can't keep every install I ever
do. I just overwrite them and move on.

Maybe the path of least resistance, is to use that trial
version of Windows software I linked to in a previous post.
Maybe that will work, without "hair loss".

Paul

 

[Frederick]

Maybe the path of least resistance, is to use that trial
version of Windows software I linked to in a previous post.
Maybe that will work, without "hair loss".

Paul

You are referring to mcekit and/or mythtv under windows MCE version? I
may be able to come up with a copy of the latter.

Big Fred

 

[Paul]

You are referring to mcekit and/or mythtv under windows MCE version? I
may be able to come up with a copy of the latter.

Big Fred

There was the BeyondTV thing. A trial version. I don't know
how long that runs.

If there was a MythTV that relied on MCE elements, then would
you also need a Windows Media Center Edition OS to go with it ?
If MythTV Windows edition, included drivers for the 250 card,
that would be great, and then it might be worthwhile putting up
with the interface hassle. If it relies on MCE as well as mcekit,
then you might as well be using the Windows (MCE) interface.

The article here, says "Windows (playback only)", implying the
Windows port is just the front end, and you'd need a back end
running on a Linux box. The idea behind MythBuntu, was to get
both front and back end running on the same PC. But when I
booted that last night, it was ready to do the front end
thing right off the CD, but for the back end, it looked like
they wanted me to install it. And since I'm busy in the
basement right now, I don't have time for another install.
Maybe later. I've got a lot of holes to drill...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythtv

Paul

 

[Frederick]

There was the BeyondTV thing. A trial version. I don't know
how long that runs.

If there was a MythTV that relied on MCE elements, then would
you also need a Windows Media Center Edition OS to go with it ?
If MythTV Windows edition, included drivers for the 250 card,
that would be great, and then it might be worthwhile putting up
with the interface hassle. If it relies on MCE as well as mcekit,
then you might as well be using the Windows (MCE) interface.

The article here, says "Windows (playback only)", implying the
Windows port is just the front end, and you'd need a back end
running on a Linux box. The idea behind MythBuntu, was to get
both front and back end running on the same PC. But when I
booted that last night, it was ready to do the front end
thing right off the CD, but for the back end, it looked like
they wanted me to install it. And since I'm busy in the
basement right now, I don't have time for another install.
Maybe later. I've got a lot of holes to drill...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythtv

Paul

Right Turn!

What about this?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584104&CatId=1428

BF

 

[Paul]

Right Turn!

What about this?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584104&CatId=1428

BF

It's also listed on Newegg, so you can get more reviews there.

Results are mixed, with some people hating it, one getting
some noise in recordings, and the odd reviewer that seems
to like it.

The chip inside the thing is Trident Microsystems TM5600 TVMaster.
Trident has likely moved onto other projects, and I can't find
any information on it.

Driver updates are here.

http://www.dmmdownload.com/index.php

One of the reviewers on Newegg recommends "AVS Video Recorder from download.com"
to record from the thing, as it has options for higher bitrate recording.
But it's that old saying "garbage in, garbage out" - if you
aren't feeding a capture device like that a pristine noise-free
signal, expect less than perfect output. The only really
good recording I got from my card, was a commercial movie on the
VCR. Live TV quality where I am, isn't good enough to give
a nice recording. (With your video capture device, you have
the option of using a VCR as an analog tuner, and using your
capture device to view the baseband output - assuming you
still have analog broadcasts where you are located. I have
analog here, until August.)

You could be throwing $30 out the window, but that's how those
things work now.

Paul

 

[Frederick]

It's also listed on Newegg, so you can get more reviews there.

Results are mixed, with some people hating it, one getting
some noise in recordings, and the odd reviewer that seems
to like it.

The chip inside the thing is Trident Microsystems TM5600 TVMaster.
Trident has likely moved onto other projects, and I can't find
any information on it.

Driver updates are here.

http://www.dmmdownload.com/index.php

One of the reviewers on Newegg recommends "AVS Video Recorder from download.com"
to record from the thing, as it has options for higher bitrate recording.
But it's that old saying "garbage in, garbage out" - if you
aren't feeding a capture device like that a pristine noise-free
signal, expect less than perfect output. The only really
good recording I got from my card, was a commercial movie on the
VCR. Live TV quality where I am, isn't good enough to give
a nice recording. (With your video capture device, you have
the option of using a VCR as an analog tuner, and using your
capture device to view the baseband output - assuming you
still have analog broadcasts where you are located. I have
analog here, until August.)

You could be throwing $30 out the window, but that's how those
things work now.

Paul

Thanks Paul

I want it mainly for old VHS personal recordings, not TV. No analog
here now anyway. All digital.

Go drill some more holes - labor of love as they say.
Been there done that.
At 80, I won't do it again.

Cya

BF

 

[Frederick]

There was the BeyondTV thing. A trial version. I don't know
how long that runs.

BeyondTV requires a monetary investment also. Hate to spend money not
knowing if works and/or suits.

Big Fred

 

[Frederick]

BeyondTV requires a monetary investment also. Hate to spend money not
knowing if works and/or suits.

Big Fred

My bad - I found a trial version of BeyondTV. Please ignore my last.

BF

 

[Paul]

My bad - I found a trial version of BeyondTV. Please ignore my last.

BF

The main purpose of running BeyondTV Trial, would be to verify whether
your card works well for the intended purpose. A basic hardware test.
If the trial lasts long enough, perhaps you can complete any projects
you had planned for the setup. If the trial doesn't last long enough,
you can return to MythTV.

I got around to installing MythBuntu on the test machine, but I
have no tuner over there to test with. What I did discover, is
the "back end" will exit (won't stay running), if it can't make
a tuner work. So MythBuntu 11.04 is just as much "fun" as the
older versions were. It requires fiddling about, Google searches
(like "how do I start mythbackend"). I'll be testing the tuner
later today. I gave it a USB webcam to play with, but that
doesn't have "channel change" functions, so mythbackend
"threw a wobbly".

Paul

 

[Frederick]

The main purpose of running BeyondTV Trial, would be to verify whether
your card works well for the intended purpose. A basic hardware test.
If the trial lasts long enough, perhaps you can complete any projects
you had planned for the setup. If the trial doesn't last long enough,
you can return to MythTV.

I got around to installing MythBuntu on the test machine, but I
have no tuner over there to test with. What I did discover, is
the "back end" will exit (won't stay running), if it can't make
a tuner work. So MythBuntu 11.04 is just as much "fun" as the
older versions were. It requires fiddling about, Google searches
(like "how do I start mythbackend"). I'll be testing the tuner
later today. I gave it a USB webcam to play with, but that
doesn't have "channel change" functions, so mythbackend
"threw a wobbly".

Paul

I tried BeyondTV with my PCI Wintv tuner card, and it looks as though
it is trying to work - it wants a TV channel (32). But here there are
no analog channels over the air that I know of. Only digital. Why it
picked 32 I have no idea, since I have no antenna. But anyway, what I
really wanted was to be able to connect a VCR to the
card to use to convert VHS tapes to DVD. So far I see no way to tell
BeyondTV to accept anything except a TV channel or maybe pre-recorded
TV program files as input. BeyondTV has a provision for burning
disks. looks like. It did recognize the card though I think.

I am going to play around with it some more in the hope that I have
missed something.

Big Fred

 

[Paul]

I tried BeyondTV with my PCI Wintv tuner card, and it looks as though
it is trying to work - it wants a TV channel (32). But here there are
no analog channels over the air that I know of. Only digital. Why it
picked 32 I have no idea, since I have no antenna. But anyway, what I
really wanted was to be able to connect a VCR to the
card to use to convert VHS tapes to DVD. So far I see no way to tell
BeyondTV to accept anything except a TV channel or maybe pre-recorded
TV program files as input. BeyondTV has a provision for burning
disks. looks like. It did recognize the card though I think.

I am going to play around with it some more in the hope that I have
missed something.

Big Fred

It wasn't exactly easy finding this No pictures to help, and just
a text description of what to do.

"How to record from different tuner inputs - SnapStream Knowledgebase"

http://snapstream.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1163

I notice the BeyondTV has an online manual, and I'd rather have a
PDF I could do keyword searches on, than this thing. Undoubtedly,
this is the same manual actually in the product itself, as "help".
I couldn't find a solution here to your problem, and ended up
on that helpserve site, eventually.

http://www.snapstream.com/support/beyondtv/helpfile/index.html

Paul

 

[Paul]

I tried BeyondTV with my PCI Wintv tuner card, and it looks as though
it is trying to work - it wants a TV channel (32). But here there are
no analog channels over the air that I know of. Only digital. Why it
picked 32 I have no idea, since I have no antenna. But anyway, what I
really wanted was to be able to connect a VCR to the
card to use to convert VHS tapes to DVD. So far I see no way to tell
BeyondTV to accept anything except a TV channel or maybe pre-recorded
TV program files as input. BeyondTV has a provision for burning
disks. looks like. It did recognize the card though I think.

I am going to play around with it some more in the hope that I have
missed something.

Big Fred

Well, I finished my MythBuntu experiment, and it's another fail.

I tried to get the stupid thing to do a "channel scan". MythTV
pretends to scan, but the "dwell time" on each channel is too
short. I have a fair idea how fast the tuner is on my WinTV
card, and MythTV goes through the channels too fast. Then,
it barfs later when you select "Watch TV", because it doesn't
really have any channels. The screen goes blank and the "esc"
key doesn't work. I need to use "control-alt-F1" to get to a
console (text) window, so I have some options to controlling
the machine. When I use control-alt-F6 or F7 or the like,
to get back to XWindows, by then it has recovered.

MythTV does have options to select signals from the four
inputs on my card (TV, composite 1, composite 3, S-video).
And I was only testing the TV option, because setting up
a composite signal would be more work.

I did use Synaptic Package Manager in MythBuntu, and selected
and installed "TVTime" program. It knows about my card type,
and the program works pretty well immediately. It did a channel
scan, and only saved the strong channels. Then, I could use
the onscreen display to change channels. I'm not sure that
records to file though. What that did for me, is prove the tuner
is OK and working. But running the MythTV back end setup later,
it still can't find channels, and "spins" through the channels
too fast. So something is disconnected in the software
stack. I looked at some log file, and it didn't shed any light
on what was broken.

So I've pulled the Mythbuntu disk, and the machine is back
to running Windows again.

So my track record

1) First time installation several years ago - works
2) Second time installation - "No tuner"
3) Third time installation - "No channels"

It's a good thing I burned MythBuntu on a DVD+RW, so now
I can reuse the disc

Paul