Anyone get NTL digital to work with MCE?

gline

I recently got this hybrid adapter - http://www.expansys.ie/p.aspx?i=137494
and trying to get it to work with win MCE 2005.

I plugged the tv adapter into the signal out connector on the set top box and the win mce IR adapter thingy to the front of the set top box, and went through the wizzard but it doesnt detect any of the ntl channels.

Does NTL digital work with mce through dvb-t???

RuggieBear

yeah. i've got NTL digital and MCE05. But i have a scart to composite adapter conecting the stb to my tv card.

not really sure what that little thingie you have does

8T8

As far as I know & I could be wrong NTL Digital is DVB-C so your adapter wont work for that reason among others;

Tuners must be MCE compatible (I'm
The NTL STB must decode the signal

gline

8T8 wrote:

As far as I know & I could be wrong NTL Digital is DVB-C so your adapter wont work for that reason among others;

can anyone confirm this??

subway

ntl digital is dvb-c and requires dvdb-c tv card with a hardware cam and attached card to work with a pc.
and unfortunately, since none of the above are supported in mce,
even with a dvb-c tv card,
a cam installed
and getting an engineer to pair your crypto card with your pc instead of an stb (unlikely) it still wont work.

Conar

Guys GLINE said that he is using the STB so he should at least get a signal whether its supported on MSE or not.
Does it ship with some kind of video software itself?
Have you tried that?
I haven't used the NTL STB's so can you expand on what type of video output you are taking from it....scart to RCA, svideo?

gline

basically the ntl stb has an aerial in (which attachs to the cable box coming into your house) and a cable out (which attaches to a tv card and the likes). It also has the standard scart etc.

i am ataching the aerial out to the tvcard in my pc, so the signal should already be decrypted by the STB, this is how MCE recommends you set it up if you have an STB

But if the ntl signal is DVB-C then that would explain why it is not working

Conar

gline wrote:

basically the ntl stb has an aerial in (which attachs to the cable box coming into your house) and a cable out (which attaches to a tv card and the likes). It also has the standard scart etc.

i am ataching the aerial out to the tvcard in my pc, so the signal should already be decrypted by the STB, this is how MCE recommends you set it up if you have an STB

But if the ntl signal is DVB-C then that would explain why it is not working

If the cable out can be connected to a TV aerial port then it is un-encrypted and should be viewable by the TV CARD.
I think the DVB-C they refer to is the signal thats coming from the wall point into the STB.
Have you tried going from scart to RCA and connecting it that way?
As I mentioned earlier have you tried the cards own TV software as opposed to the MCE software? If MCE doesn't support it then you'll have issues. The native software is the best way to test the card.

gline

Conar wrote:

If the cable out can be connected to a TV aerial port then it is un-encrypted and should be viewable by the TV CARD.
I think the DVB-C they refer to is the signal thats coming from the wall point into the STB.
Have you tried going from scart to RCA and connecting it that way?
As I mentioned earlier have you tried the cards own TV software as opposed to the MCE software? If MCE doesn't support it then you'll have issues. The native software is the best way to test the card.

yeh ive tried original software and had the same issue, i havent tried scart, but i have decided to order a video in adapter for the pc and just use it that way, seems like the only way to do it i dont think there will be a problem with it except i have to use the original remote not the mce remote

subway

basicially ntl is dvb-c you have a dvb-t card
mce doesnt support dvb-c even if you ahd the card.

whats happening is the ntl aerial output on the box is a direct pass-thorugh, which can either go to anther stb for decoding or can output the basic 16 or 17 analog channels direct to a tv

the only way to output ntl digtal is with the scart connection

gline

subway wrote:

you didnt read my reply did you?

ntl is dvb-c you have a dvb-t card
mce doesnt support dvb-c even if you ahd the card.

and to finish off, the ntl aerial output on the box is a direct pass-thorugh, which can either go to anther stb for decoding or can output the basic 16 or 17 analog channels direct to a tv

the only way to output ntl digtal is with the scart connection

i did read the reply thats why i said it wont work because it is dvb-c andf thats why i am going to use scart

subway

sorry,
i edited my reply at the same tiem as you were replying.
still half asleep

just to mention aswell in case you didnt read my above reply...i wouldnt as it comes across a bit pricky....

ntl dont output the decrypted digi signal over the aerial connection - only analog
i learned that myself after days of confused looks at my tuner card

gline

subway wrote:

sorry,
i edited my reply at the same tiem as you were replying.
still half asleep

just to mention aswell in case you didnt read my above reply...i wouldnt as it comes across a bit pricky....

ntl dont output the decrypted digi signal over the aerial connection - only analog
i learned that myself after days of confused looks at my tuner card

yeh thanks for that, it makes sense on why it wouldnt work. So basically it is just a passthrough connector?? it just outputs the unencrypted signal?
well looks like i will be using the aul scart ocnnector

Conar

Good to know.
I'll gaurantee that catches out a lot of people.
Dang NTL and their sneaky ploys to confuse us wannabe techies!

gline

Conar wrote:

Good to know.
I'll gaurantee that catches out a lot of people.
Dang NTL and their sneaky ploys to confuse us wannabe techies!

lol, well i suppose they are making it harder for people to make digital recordings using a pc

Conar

gline wrote:

lol, well i suppose they are making it harder for people to make digital recordings using a pc

Thats what they want you to think!
I reckon they're working for the man!

Yakuza

RuggieBear wrote:

yeah. i've got NTL digital and MCE05. But i have a scart to composite adapter conecting the stb to my tv card.

Hi RuggieBear -
What brand of adapter did you use?

One other question: assuming you've got one of the small pace boxes, like this one:


did you attach the infra red tranmitter from your MCE box to your STB? And if so, where did you put it?

I assume that by setting up in that way, your MCE just records whatever is being output by the SCART output on the NTL box, and Media Center sends a signal to the STB to change the channel to whatever you want to record.

subway

i have the same setup as ruggiebear.
im using a generic scart to composite from maplins - works fine.

the ir-blaster should be pointed at the bit of the box between the ntl logo and the card

RuggieBear

subway wrote:

i have the same setup as ruggiebear.
im using a generic scart to composite from maplins - works fine.

Yep same as me. Just a generic scart/composite adapter.

Yakuza

Lol thanks for the fast replies - I took too long making my post (damn, you , employers for making me work on a monday morning!!)

RuggieBear

Yakuza wrote:

Hi RuggieBear -
What brand of adapter did you use?

One other question: assuming you've got one of the small pace boxes, like this one:


did you attach the infra red tranmitter from your MCE box to your STB? And if so, where did you put it?

I assume that by setting up in that way, your MCE just records whatever is being output by the SCART output on the NTL box, and Media Center sends a signal to the STB to change the channel to whatever you want to record.

I've actually got it set up on the older bigger ntl box

SouperComputer

I had that smaller box when I was in Dublin, couple of pointers:

1) It does not output SVideo through the SCART cable, it only outputs RGB and Composite. To get Svideo you will need an RGB to Svdeo adaptor. This an electronic device and not just a plug. I didnt bother in the end and just used composite.

2) When using an IR blaster, the NTL box somtimes misses channel changes that contain repeated numbers. Eg 112, 221, 211 are somtimes picked up as 12, 21 and 21. I never got around to a solution, im not sure if the issue lies on the blaster side or the box.

Yakuza wrote:

did you attach the infra red tranmitter from your MCE box to your STB? And if so, where did you put it?p

Not sure where I put mine, you can use a flashlight to look for the IR receiver on the box and stick it near there.

Yakuza]I assume that by setting up in that way, your MCE just records whatever is being output by the SCART output on the NTL box, and Media Center sends a signal to the STB to change the channel to whatever you want to record.

Thats it prettymuch. The composite\Svideo signal and audio from the SCART plug goes to your PC and it changes the stations with the IR blaster.

subway

SouperComputer wrote:

I had that smaller box when I was in Dublin, couple of pointers:

1) It does not output SVideo through the SCART cable, it only outputs RGB and Composite. To get Svideo you will need an RGB to Svdeo adaptor. This an electronic device and not just a plug. I didnt bother in the end and just used composite.

2) When using an IR blaster, the NTL box somtimes misses channel changes that contain repeated numbers. Eg 112, 221, 211 are somtimes picked up as 12, 21 and 21. I never got around to a solution, im not sure if the issue lies on the blaster side or the box.

to avoid the channel change issue set the transmitter speed to medium.

Yakuza

My tuner card (the PC is a Hewlett-Packard 7240 media center) has both composite and svideo inputs as well as two coax inputs for tv signal and FM radio.

I'll have a fiddle around with it tonight.

Most of the stuff I want to record is on Sky One (114), so hopefully that repeated numbers problem you mention won't rear its head that often.

Thanks again for your answers

SouperComputer

subway wrote:

to avoid the channel change issue set the transmitter speed to medium.

I tried all three speeds to no avail. Hopefully I was just unlucky.

subway

just unlucky.
ive ran it on 3 machines though at least 8 rebuilds of both xp and vista and medium worked perfectly on all.

Yakuza

I got it all set up last night - seems to be working fine.

I've scheduled a few things to record (well, in fact, it seemed to preserve my series settings, even though I changed signal from ntl analogue to ntl digital), so that will be the litmus test.

One (last!) question: Do I have to leave the STB on all the time - I didn't seem to notice any way for MCE to shut down the STB. It's not an issue for day to day recordings, but I'd rather not leave it on if I'm going on holidays for a few weeks.

subway

good good,
think youll have to leave it on tbh.

id be more worried about leaving a 350watt pc on for 2 weeks than a little tiny ntl box

Yakuza

The power management on the PC is the best I've seen on any of my PC's that I've had over the years.

I put it into standby mode and it sits there, quiet as a mouse, until it's time to record. It then wakes up instantly, records what its told to, then shuts down again 5 mins later.

I guess the power management would need to be good for a device that's trying to cross over into a true consumer device.

My other PC's (2002 and 2004 Dell dimensions) allegedly have a standby mode, but shutting them down that mode wreaks havoc with their network cards etc, so I never bother using standby / hibernate modes with them.

Hopefully it won't be too long now until PC's are proper instant shutdown / startup consumer devices

subway

thats pretty good.
my htpcs are dells from about 2004 so while they do have s3 standby, it doesnt actually do anyhting :rolleyes:

i havent checked it out since i installed vista but it never worked with xp