Success! PCTV USB stick plus VLC

dowtchaboy

(mods - if this would be better in some other thread please feel free to move it)
Thanks to good advice given elsewhere in this forum I finally got Digital reception on my laptop.
Location: Baginbun Head, Wexford (near Fethard-on-Sea), Mon 14th Sept.

I have a barely adequate spec laptop (Celeron processor 1.4GHz) with a Pinnacle (now Happauge?) PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick (330e). Antenna was tiny 6inch stick thingy with a magnetic mount stuck on the door of my campervan about 5 ft off the ground, roughly horizontal.

I ran the Pinnacle tuning software and it said I had "8 channels", but could only get sound, no video. Following advice given here I ran VLC - open capture device - DVB DirectShow - put in frequency 666000 (which I found from the Pinnacle tuning bit) - presumably Mt Leinster - and hey presto up came 8 perfect channels!
RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4, RTENL (testcard), Radio 1, Network2, Lyric FM
Signal was 85%, quality 100%. Viewing was perfect - no hints of freezes, dropouts etc.
TV3 audio was about 0.5 secs delayed - was some botoxed bimbos chat show 12.15 pm) so I wasn't missing anything - but I see that happened elsewhere too.

Obviously this uses a lot less processor cycles than decoding analogue - my laptop just barely pays analogue, and that's with all other processes halted. On DVB I could do other stuff while playing perfect video.

NERO 7 Home could show the analog TV but not the DVB.

To recap re using VLC:
fire up VLC - go to Media - open capture device - pick DVB DirectShow (from capture mode dropdown list), then tick radio box DVB-T in "device selection", and put the frequency into "transponder/multiplex frequency" then click "play".
This will start showing RTE1.

Back in main VLC menu click "playback" then "program" will show all the other channels.

No sniff of a digital signal here in Crosshaven, alas.

Happy camper!

polyfusion

Which version of VLC are you using? I tried using VLC a few months ago, and whilst I got it to work, it was very unstable, it could crash or just go blank at any time. Using AltDVB and CoreAVC gives me perfect results with the same setup.

Also, do you have to go through all that rigmaroll of setting up the channels freq/etc, scan, every time you run VLC, or are the settings saved, like having a list of channels saved (like a favourites list)? When I tried it, I seem to recall having to put in the freq each time; maybe there has been some updates since I last used it.

parasite

to save yourself time, you can create a shortcut

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" dvb-t:// :dvb-frequency=666000000

Bob_Harris

dowtchaboy wrote: »

I ran the Pinnacle tuning software and it said I had "8 channels", but could only get sound, no video.

If the Pinnacle software supports external decoders, then you just need to install a H.264 decoder to get video working.

Give this a shot, it includes a H.264 decoder.
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

There are plenty of free DVB viewing applications which will be more user friendly than VLC, give you an EPG etc.

gbprv, Mediaportal, etc.

Richie Blackmor

Like parasite up there, I have been using a convenient shortcut to VLC except, being in Dublin, the frequency is different.

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" dvb-t:// :dvb-frequency=738000000

I just click the shortcut, wait a few seconds and up it comes. It is very stable with no dropouts or pixelation. It is VLC version 1.0.1, a Hauppage Nova-T USB stick, a One For All SV-9020 passive indoor antenna and a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop. I'm in an apartment block in Santry so it is a little surprising that it works so well.

dowtchaboy

Just an additional note:
I tried the above combo in Waterford city but got nothing. On the way back to Cork today I set up the laptop in the front cab (of my camper) and stuck the short stick antenna on the dashboard (horizontally). I couldn't get any signal from Mulliganish apparently but to my surprise I picked up the Mt Leinster signal (on 666000KHz) with an excellent picture all the way from Castlemartyr (where I turned it on) past Midelton to the Jack Lynch Tunnel. After that it went blocky and lost it completely by Douglas.
Note that it was a short stick antenna, INSIDE the cab which itself was facing West - with the metal body of the van between it and Mt Leinster. No TV3 this time - there was a testcard from RTENL instead. I was doing about 80km/h and the picture was rock solid. My lovely assistant was, of course, the one operating the laptop.

if that is a low power transmitter signal then I am well impressed! It also suggests people from East Cork might be better served aiming NE to Mt Leinster than west to Mulliganish.

gzoladz

Hi all, I am trying to do the above and vlc 1.02 doesnt seem to detect my tunner as I get the following error: "can not open dvb-t..."

This was working ok with the previous vlc version.

Any idea???

Richie Blackmor

I would revert to previous version of VLC. I did not update for this very reason - the possibility that the new version might not work with my DVB-T device. As far as I know, VLC is free and worked on collaboratively so updates can be troublesome.

Antenna

dowtchaboy wrote: »

I couldn't get any signal from Mulliganish apparently but to my surprise I picked up the Mt Leinster signal (on 666000KHz) with an excellent picture all the way from Castlemartyr (where I turned it on) past Midelton to the Jack Lynch Tunnel. After that it went blocky and lost it completely by Douglas.
Note that it was a short stick antenna, INSIDE the cab which itself was facing West - with the metal body of the van between it and Mt Leinster. No TV3 this time - there was a testcard from RTENL instead. I was doing about 80km/h and the picture was rock solid. My lovely assistant was, of course, the one operating the laptop.

if that is a low power transmitter signal then I am well impressed! It also suggests people from East Cork might be better served aiming NE to Mt Leinster than west to Mulliganish.

Again just to clarify the reception above in co. Cork was from Spur Hill, not Mount Leinster, - both using the same RF channel (Ch45 or 666MHz )
you were facing the right way too. Spur Hill gets out well due east and its Digital TV is a lot more powerful than its analogues.

dowtchaboy

Antenna wrote: »

Again just to clarify the reception above in co. Cork was from Spur Hill, not Mount Leinster, - both using the same RF channel (Ch45 or 666MHz )
you were facing the right way too. Spur Hill gets out well due east and its Digital TV is a lot more powerful than its analogues.

Point taken! Yes I have been trying on and off to pick up DTT signals around Waterford City and Tramore the last few weeks but no success - the antenna is no great shakes of course - a tiny 6 inch or so "whip" antenna on a magnetic base - and as the camper is aluminium body it won't attach to the roof. Must try some directional antenna one of these days......

Antenna

dowtchaboy wrote: »

- a tiny 6 inch or so "whip" antenna on a magnetic base - and as the camper is aluminium body it won't attach to the roof. Must try some directional antenna one of these days......

A whip antenna like that would only be suitable for vertical polarised signals (like in the north-east). All present DTT in the south and south east is horizontal polarised. The best compromise on a metal roof of a vehicle might be to bend it to a 45 degree angle. If not on a metal roof, try having the whip horizontal and broadside to the signal.
A proper directional aerial would be much better of course