which USB2 DVB-S tuner works with vista tv pack 2008?

[Rich R]

the hauppauge wintv nova doesnt, all other apps work but the media
center app just doesnt tune at all.

it's an oem device i'm trying to put together, i'd *like* it to use
vista mce seeing that i'm a MS reseller and all...

[Nigel Barker]

Post by Rich R
the hauppauge wintv nova doesnt, all other apps work but the media
center app just doesnt tune at all.
it's an oem device i'm trying to put together, i'd *like* it to use
vista mce seeing that i'm a MS reseller and all...

Does it have to be USB or just an external device? The FireDTV units which
connect by Firewire work with TV Pack 2008.
http://www.digital-everywhere.com/en/alcms/index.php?sid=1190404681
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP

[philbury]

Crikey - I was just about to order that one...

I have a Silverstone case which is too slim for expansion cards and I need a
USB solution for DVB-S.

I would prefer S2 but apparently the BBC-HD works with the DVB-S tuners (for
now and at least with other viewing software if not VMC TV pack).

Excuse rant but why can't Microsoft with all its resources rescue its
reputation by making Media Centre truly brilliant rather than 95%?.

[John Lockwood]

On 18/9/08 11:20, in article

Post by philbury
Crikey - I was just about to order that one...
I have a Silverstone case which is too slim for expansion cards and I need a
USB solution for DVB-S.
I would prefer S2 but apparently the BBC-HD works with the DVB-S tuners (for
now and at least with other viewing software if not VMC TV pack).
Excuse rant but why can't Microsoft with all its resources rescue its
reputation by making Media Centre truly brilliant rather than 95%?.

Terratec make a USB DVB-S tuner but no idea if they have as yet updated
their drivers.

Digital-Everywhere make a DVB-S2 tuner but it uses FireWire. If your
logicboard has a built-in FireWire interface you could use that to the
"FireDTV DVB-S2" version of the Digital-Everywhere box. This does now have
TV Pack compatible drivers.

Personally I have given up on the idea of upgrading to Vista for Media
Center since Microsoft have yet again messed it up. Any bets they will
similarly mess up Windows7 Media Center?

So far Microsoft are far more interested in spending 99% of their efforts on
adding ever more pointless DRM, and only 1% on making the product do what
PAYING customers want. It still (even with the TV Pack) can't do any form of
HDTV at all (even free HDTV) for the _whole_ of Europe, and indeed can't
even do _Standard_ resolution TV in an increasing number of countries (e.g.
Norway, Ireland, New Zealand).

Microsoft Media Center is going from what was once the best in its category
(and almost uniquely for Microsoft a position it fairly achieved), to a
completely pointless product.

[philbury]

The sole reason I was thinking of upgrading to VMC (TV Pack) was to be able
to record DTV SD from UK Freeview with subtitles.

I am using the Hauppauge WinTV Nova USB2. Is there any PVR software which
will record subtitles - free or otherwise?

Have Microsoft at least promised to sort this out or indicated that they are
working on it? What's wrong with them? Their OS are very expensive to buy and
they don't work plus they must be the biggest company with the largest
resources in the world. Rather than spending $300 million on their current ad
campaign (in the US alone?) to brainwash people why not fix the goddam
product?

Dell are currently selling a computer (with Vista installed) which costs the
same as it costs to buy a copy of Vista. Bill Gates' charitable donations are
well and good but it wouldn't hurt to spend some of the money fixing your
products first Bill!

No wonder we're all going to hell in a hand-basket. (No idea!)

[John Lockwood]

On 19/9/08 06:32, in article

Post by philbury
The sole reason I was thinking of upgrading to VMC (TV Pack) was to be able
to record DTV SD from UK Freeview with subtitles.
I am using the Hauppauge WinTV Nova USB2. Is there any PVR software which
will record subtitles - free or otherwise?

Any software which records the 'raw' DVB stream should record the subtitles,
of course not all of them will then be able to let you display the
subtitles. For what it's worth Elgato's EyeTV software for the Mac has been
able to record and play DVB subtitles for years.

My understanding is that the TV Pack does now support displaying DVB
subtitles and logically it would record them as well. It however uses a new
proprietary Microsoft file format and very few (if any) utilities yet exist
to convert it, and I would expect that any that do would lose the embedded
subtitles when doing so.

I mentioned before, but Digital-Everywhere products which use FireWire (not
USB) are compatible with the TV Pack update and do support DVB subtitles see
http://www.digital-everywhere.com/en/alcms/index.php?sid=1220202904

Digital-Everywhere apparently don't yet support MHEG5 (the Red Button).

Post by philbury
Have Microsoft at least promised to sort this out or indicated that they are
working on it? What's wrong with them? Their OS are very expensive to buy and
they don't work plus they must be the biggest company with the largest
resources in the world. Rather than spending $300 million on their current ad
campaign (in the US alone?) to brainwash people why not fix the goddam
product?

Microsoft's promises are worthless. They previously promised H.264, they
previously promised DirecTV support, they previously promised subscription
TV (for Europe).

The next logical milestone at which Microsoft might grudgingly give us
paying customers some features is when Windows7 ships. Allegedly next year
(2009).

[philbury]

'2010' now for Windows 7 by the way, but even a hopelessly optimistic
futurist, such as I, have had enough of the failed promises from Redmond.

I installed the TV pack on my Vista 32 machine to test it (not a clean
install or anything special and it 'just worked') and it does indeed record
the subtitles. I recorded a movie to see if I could tranfer the recorded file
to my MCE 2005 HTPC. Strangely the 4.77GB file refused to fit on my 8Gb
memory stick with which I have had no previous problems. I networked it over
eventually - I have trouble with my Vista and XP machines seeing each other
(!) and none of my players, including VLC, would touch it. Why do we bother?

I'm favourably disposed towards the FireDTV solution you mention. I think
I'll go for one when I find the best deal.

[Jason Tsang]

If your memory stick was formatted FAT32, then the largest file i could hold
is 4 gigs, due to filesize limitations.
--
Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

Read my blog for the latest in Media Center topics
(and other topics that interest me)
http://jtsang.blogspot.com

More information by me
http://jtsang.mvps.org
http://www.classicsunveiled.com

Find out about the MS MVP Program -
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Post by philbury
'2010' now for Windows 7 by the way, but even a hopelessly optimistic
futurist, such as I, have had enough of the failed promises from Redmond.
I installed the TV pack on my Vista 32 machine to test it (not a clean
install or anything special and it 'just worked') and it does indeed record
the subtitles. I recorded a movie to see if I could tranfer the recorded file
to my MCE 2005 HTPC. Strangely the 4.77GB file refused to fit on my 8Gb
memory stick with which I have had no previous problems. I networked it over
eventually - I have trouble with my Vista and XP machines seeing each other
(!) and none of my players, including VLC, would touch it. Why do we bother?
I'm favourably disposed towards the FireDTV solution you mention. I think
I'll go for one when I find the best deal.

[philbury]

Thanks! - I had no idea

[John Lockwood]

On 19/9/08 18:58, in article

Post by philbury
'2010' now for Windows 7 by the way, but even a hopelessly optimistic
futurist, such as I, have had enough of the failed promises from Redmond.
I installed the TV pack on my Vista 32 machine to test it (not a clean
install or anything special and it 'just worked') and it does indeed record
the subtitles. I recorded a movie to see if I could tranfer the recorded file
to my MCE 2005 HTPC. Strangely the 4.77GB file refused to fit on my 8Gb
memory stick with which I have had no previous problems. I networked it over
eventually - I have trouble with my Vista and XP machines seeing each other
(!) and none of my players, including VLC, would touch it. Why do we bother?
I'm favourably disposed towards the FireDTV solution you mention. I think
I'll go for one when I find the best deal.

Jason beat me to mentioning the FAT vs. NTFS problem.

However as a reminder I did mention TV Pack supposedly uses a new but still
proprietary file format (called I believe WTV) which as yet I suspect VLC
etc. do not support (they do support DVR-MS the old format).

MCE 2005 is never going to support WTV, and I doubt even 'ordinary' Vista
Media Center ever will either.

If Jason is still reading, are you aware of any utilities to convert from
WTV to standard MPEG2 or H.264? That is MPEG2 in WTV to standard MPEG2, and
H.264 in WTV to standard H.264. While transcoding from MPEG2 in WTV to
standard H.264 is also useful I am more interested in simply getting the
unaltered content in to a format that can be reused.

[philbury]

Same enquiry here but also wish for a way to keep the recorded subtitles.

[Nigel Barker]

Post by John Lockwood
If Jason is still reading, are you aware of any utilities to convert from
WTV to standard MPEG2 or H.264? That is MPEG2 in WTV to standard MPEG2, and
H.264 in WTV to standard H.264. While transcoding from MPEG2 in WTV to
standard H.264 is also useful I am more interested in simply getting the
unaltered content in to a format that can be reused.

You can create a custom graph in Graphedit or use DVRMSToolBox with the ATI
AViVo MPEG2 decoder.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP