New HTPC setup advice please!

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vaughng

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Hi All ... as you will see by my number of posts I am a noob to this forum. I've been reading up over the past weeks as I build my first HTPC.

Specs:
Intel Dual Core 3.0Ghz
Windows 7
MCE
2Gb DDR3
1.5Tb Samsung SATA2
Antec Fusion Black
ATI Radeon HD 4550 512MB
Hauppage 2200 Tuner (here)
Logitech Harmony One Remote
Satellite = DSD990
Samsung 32" LCD (Full HD)

I've hooked up the Radeon via HDMI to the LCD
I've setup MCE to watch videos fine ... my next project is to get the Tuner working.

What cable should I use to link the DSD990 to the Tuner card? I know it seems a silly question, but I tried last night with a standard arial cable (male female ends) but the MCE tv setup didn't pickup any signals :wtf:

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks!
 
The software that come's with the tuner - does it not allow you to select "input"
Might be on AV, CD, TV, VCR etc.
Select TV I think and run a scan?
I have an AverTV card and that's how I got it working on my side?
 
Might I suggest XBMC www.xbmc.org to file your movies, albums and series nicely in glorious HD.

I had my htpc setup via recieving signal from dstv decoder , mce etc.
But it's such a waste having a computer on whenever I watch TV - it was more for recording than anything else, but along came HD decoder and HD so I don't use it anymore.
 
Hemps said:
The software that come's with the tuner - does it not allow you to select "input"
Might be on AV, CD, TV, VCR etc.
Select TV I think and run a scan?
I have an AverTV card and that's how I got it working on my side?
Click to expand...

Thanks ... the Hauppage comes with WinTV 7 that integrates with MCE so my initial attempts for setting this up had to go through MCE. As far as I can tell there is no TV software for the Hauppage only via MCE. I have also downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the card.

I'm going to try MediaPortal and XMBC tonight to see if these pickup the Tuner and signal. If not then the next step would be to replace the cable?

The DSD 990 has AV out that I am using to connect the decoder to the tuner, can I use the RCA's? The tuner card didn't come with adapter cables so what do you suggest I use to get the RCA's to connect to the AV on the back of the tuner?
 
Hemps said:
Might I suggest XBMC www.xbmc.org to file your movies, albums and series nicely in glorious HD.

I had my htpc setup via recieving signal from dstv decoder , mce etc.
But it's such a waste having a computer on whenever I watch TV - it was more for recording than anything else, but along came HD decoder and HD so I don't use it anymore.
Click to expand...

Thanks ... my project plan does include a HD decoder :)
 
The DSD 990 has AV out that I am using to connect the decoder to the tuner, can I use the RCA's? The tuner card didn't come with adapter cables so what do you suggest I use to get the RCA's to connect to the AV on the back of the tuner?
Click to expand...

Your tuner has the RF in - so you should be able to connect the RF out from the decoder to this tuner card with an ordinary TV cable.
Don't think you can use the RCA as the tuner doesn't accept RCA connections from what I see on the specs.

Mediaportal will be ideal for you as apposed to xbmc (which is more for collections)
 
Hemps said:
Your tuner has the RF in - so you should be able to connect the RF out from the decoder to this tuner card with an ordinary TV cable.
Don't think you can use the RCA as the tuner doesn't accept RCA connections from what I see on the specs.

Mediaportal will be ideal for you as apposed to xbmc (which is more for collections)
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll try a new cable as well as MediaPortal tonight :)
 
vaughng said:
Hi All ... as you will see by my number of posts I am a noob to this forum. I've been reading up over the past weeks as I build my first HTPC.

Specs:
Intel Dual Core 3.0Ghz
Windows 7
MCE
2Gb DDR3
1.5Tb Samsung SATA2
Antec Fusion Black
ATI Radeon HD 4550 512MB
Hauppage 2200 Tuner (here)
Logitech Harmony One Remote
Satellite = DSD990
Samsung 32" LCD (Full HD)

I've hooked up the Radeon via HDMI to the LCD
I've setup MCE to watch videos fine ... my next project is to get the Tuner working.

What cable should I use to link the DSD990 to the Tuner card? I know it seems a silly question, but I tried last night with a standard arial cable (male female ends) but the MCE tv setup didn't pickup any signals :wtf:

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Two possible solutions you can try:
1) convert the RCA outputs from the decoder to match the TV card inputs.
http://www.hdcabling.co.za/35mm-stereo-jack-plug-to-2-x-rca-female-adapter-gold-plated-p-254.html
http://www.hdcabling.co.za/female-r...l-4pin-type-svideo-vhs-gold-plated-p-145.html

2) Use RF but manually set the correct channel. I have a different hauppauge, but when I still used RF I had to set the channel to 46 when setting up MCE TV signal.

I now use RCA for my set up (my hauppauge has RCA inputs). I use a RCA splitter ( http://www.hdcabling.co.za/1-x-4-4way-active-powered-composite-rca-splitter-p-181.html ) to connect my TVs, and HTPC via the RCA outputs of my DSD990 decoder.
 
Mier said:
Two possible solutions you can try:
1) convert the RCA outputs from the decoder to match the TV card inputs.
http://www.hdcabling.co.za/35mm-stereo-jack-plug-to-2-x-rca-female-adapter-gold-plated-p-254.html
http://www.hdcabling.co.za/female-r...l-4pin-type-svideo-vhs-gold-plated-p-145.html

2) Use RF but manually set the correct channel. I have a different hauppauge, but when I still used RF I had to set the channel to 46 when setting up MCE TV signal.

I now use RCA for my set up (my hauppauge has RCA inputs). I use a RCA splitter ( http://www.hdcabling.co.za/1-x-4-4way-active-powered-composite-rca-splitter-p-181.html ) to connect my TVs, and HTPC via the RCA outputs of my DSD990 decoder.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mier

I wasn't able to test MediaPortal last night but will try tonight as well as setting the correct channel as suggested. How did you know what channel to set?
 
vaughng said:
Thanks Mier

I wasn't able to test MediaPortal last night but will try tonight as well as setting the correct channel as suggested. How did you know what channel to set?
Click to expand...

Can't remember, I had a htpc since 2006, must have read it somewhere. On the hdpvr 2p it's channel 60 something. If 46 doesn't work for you, you may have to go through ithe channels one by one, or perhaps you can set the output freq of the decoder (don't know if it's possible).

My personal recommendation is to stick with MCE for viewing TV, because there is an epg available which is constantly updating so you can schedule your recordings. Check out www.mceguide.co.za if you haven't done so yet.

(BTW, just ordered my Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 deluxe sound card for my htpc :))
 
Mier said:
Can't remember, I had a htpc since 2006, must have read it somewhere. On the hdpvr 2p it's channel 60 something. If 46 doesn't work for you, you may have to go through ithe channels one by one, or perhaps you can set the output freq of the decoder (don't know if it's possible).

My personal recommendation is to stick with MCE for viewing TV, because there is an epg available which is constantly updating so you can schedule your recordings. Check out www.mceguide.co.za if you haven't done so yet.

(BTW, just ordered my Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 deluxe sound card for my htpc :))
Click to expand...

Thanks will try tonight.

Nice sound card! :jealous: ;)
 
UPDATE

So I have managed to get the signal to the tuner Yay! I bought 35mm to RCA and
Female RCA to S/Video from Zakspeed on Voortrekker road in C.T.

I went through the initial stages of trying to get the signal via satellite, selecting my region as South Africa, and following the steps ... I have encountered 2 problems

1. The wizard goes through the steps and then gets to the "no IR Hardware present" error (forgot to mention in earlier posts that I did get the Hauppage MCE remote kit as well) now the transmitter and blaster are plugged in and so after a bit of research I found that plugging in a set of headphones into the 2nd IR jack on the transmitter removed the "No IR Hardware present" error and I was able to continue with the wizard. I selected Multichoice decoder and was able to change channels etc etc. but then when getting to the end of the process MCE doesn't ask me to "save" the settings and goes round back to the start of the wizard and I can't get out of this loop.

2. After going through the wizard for the umteenth time eventually the Tuner has bombed out and now when I try and run the wizard MCE says no Tuner installed please reboot.

AARGH ... it's going to be a long weekend :)

Anyway any thoughts on the looping wizard process? I'm going to download the latest WinTV 7 drivers again and see if it makes a difference.
 
Nope, never had that problem. Sometimes solutions can be found on www.thegreenbutton.com ,but start with the latest drivers and make sure all windows updates are installed.
Lastly, you could do a reset of MCE (you'll lose all mce settings) by going to Task Scheduler Library>Microsoft>Windows>Media Center and run the MediaCenterRecoveryTask
 
The MCE was getting confused with dual tuners on the Hauppage. As soon as I selected only one to setup it worked. So alls good. :) The tuner is working great as a single, now I need to run through the setup and enable the other tuner.

My question now is if I setup the second tuner will I be able to watch 1 channel and record another? Is this done through the single signal cables running into the tuner card or do I somehow need to run more cables?
 
vaughng said:
The MCE was getting confused with dual tuners on the Hauppage. As soon as I selected only one to setup it worked. So alls good. :) The tuner is working great as a single, now I need to run through the setup and enable the other tuner.

My question now is if I setup the second tuner will I be able to watch 1 channel and record another? Is this done through the single signal cables running into the tuner card or do I somehow need to run more cables?
Click to expand...

Since you are using the composite signal from the decoder, only one channel is received by the tuner card.
To watch one and record another, you'll have to set up the second tuner and run another cable (from another source), which will have to be RF (limitation of the tuner card).

In the days before DSTV you had an antenna with a single cable to your TV and you could receive SABC 1, 2 etc. via one cable because the channels are separated by frequency. Your tuner card has two tuners, so if you use the RF cable you can tune to two different frequencies at the same time allowing you to watch/record multiple channels at once.

However, your DSTV decoder sends the output on the RF cable on only one specific frequency, irrespective of the dstv channel you are watching. So, from you tuners point-of-view it's always the same channel. That's why you need the IRtransmitter to change channels on the decoder, because tuning to a different frequency on the RF cable won't work.

Long story short, two different channels are not possible from only one DSD990 decoder.
 
Thanks Mier

I suppose its time to look at HD PVR 2P, but then how do I connect this to my Tuner :confused: :)
 
vaughng said:
Thanks Mier

I suppose its time to look at HD PVR 2P, but then how do I connect this to my Tuner :confused: :)
Click to expand...

Exactly the same as the DSD990. It will still only output one channel, so it will make no difference to the HTPC. However, if you connect two DSTV decoders together with DSTV Xtraview and link both to your HTPC you'll be able to watch/record multiple dtsv channels on the HTPC. (Your DSD990 is not xtraview capable, so you'll need two new decoders)

The 2P decoder has two tuners, but one is used to record internally and one is used as live tv. However, the 2P can still only decode and output one channel at a time, so the net effect for the HTPC is the same.

BTW, I also have a 2P decoder, but swapped back to my DSD990 because 1) DSTV copy protection caused problems on my HTPC (microsoft bug which is now resolved) 2) problems changing channels on the 2P from the HTPC irtransmitter (only about 60% accurate so many recordings fail)

The copy protection on the 2P means that you cannot watch your recorded stuff on a different PC that the original pc it was recorded on (unless you use something like a grex ;-) )
 
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