DTT with Windows 7?

I had it working last night on Windows 7 RC. I upgraded my PC which already had a working DVBViewer setup with CoreAVC H.264 drive so maybe Media Centre is picking up that.

Media Centre works quite well in Windows 7 compared to previous versions and even makes a solid attempt at an organised EPG for Ireland when you tell it that you have a DVB-T tuner and DVB-S tuner. It scans all the channels and organises them and downloads a 14 day program guide.

MHEG-5 teletext also works well for RTE.

@OP

70dB could be a little low. What is your analogue signal like?

Also, what way is your TV distributed around the house? Via an active splitter or a passive?

Please note as MS does not pay us there is no support for MS OS here. Especially ones not out yet.

Unless you like fiddling with MS OS as a hobby or are paid to do so, I recommend you only use released versions of MS OS.

All versions of windows currently need an added suitable MPEG4 H.264 codec. Core AVC is one option known to work.

The RC version Win7 will periodically shut down some months before expiry and is only recommended for a separate Test PC. Also the MS apps on release version might be tied to MS approved codecs only.

All versions of MS Win MCE are seriously poor for TV in Europe, designed around Analogue NTSC originally with later support for US digital and US cable card. They are poor quality Expensive power hungry things compared to dedicated Set boxes.

Do make sure your graphics card properly supports PAL 576i for SD (rgb, composite & S-video) and Euro 1080i for HD on HDMI

Very very few PC screens, especially LCD work properly at European TV refresh rates. The MC PC is essentially designed for North American/ Japan markets. Many European makers stopped doing because of problems and cost.

mrbongo wrote: »

I installed the Core AVC trial, no difference. I wonder if Windows 7 is still using the default H264 decoder? How to tell??

I'm using the same mobo as you and a similar spec Athlon, but with Windows XP SP3 and DVBviewer. With any of the software-only decoders including CoreAVC I was getting 70% - 80% CPU utilisation on HD material and around 40% on DTT SD material from RTE encoded with H264.
The only decoder which enabled the H264 hardware decoding on the mobo which worked for me was the Cyberlink Power DVD 08 trial. This reduced my CPU utilisation to below 10% on HD material. The Gigabyte mobo is excellent for an on-board graphics card, ideal for video handling.
Vista (and I assume Win 7) support DirectX10, rather than DirectX9 which is used in XP, so your experience with H264 decoders may differ, but it's worth downloading the Cyberlink trial to try to enable the hardware decoding of your on-board ATI. The latest ATI drivers definitely support all the relevant European HD modes through the HDMI port.

I've found CPU utilisation ignored, that the ATI HW assisted decoder in Cyberlink very poor compared with CoreAVC for quality. Especially noticable on scrolling captions/ tickers.

CoreAVC v1.9.5: What's new in this release
======================================================
CoreAVC H.264 Video Codec - Version 1.9.5.0 (20090316)
- Add: NVIDIA CUDA accelerated decoding for interlaced streams (MBAFF and PAFF)
- Add: Input stream colorspace override options
- Fix: CUDA matrix handling and DPB management improvements
- Fix: SEI messages were sometimes discarded
- Fix: Seeking problems with Canon HF100 streams
- Fix: Use faster asynchronous memory transfers between CPU<->GPU for CUDA


Full Version history
======================================================
CoreAVC H.264 Video Codec - Version 1.9.0.0 (20090210)
- Add: NVIDIA CUDA accelerated video decoding (Thanks NVIDIA!!!)
- Add: NVIDIA CUDA detection to installer
- Add: Tray icon showing NVIDIA CUDA state (green=in use, blue=not in use)
- Add: Tray icon mouse over shows 32bit/64bit states
- Add: Initial installer changes for 32/64bit
- Add: Updated Haali Media Splitter
- Fix: Focus bug related to MCE
- Fix: Focus prevention when the tray icon is off
- Fix: Improve seeking on frames with one IDR frame
- Fix: Various small bugs

Seems it now has Nvidia HW support. But it worked well on with less than 40% CPU on BBC HD MPEG4 on ATI card.

Any XP hardware has XP already, and Win7 costs more than a setbox to upgrade to aand only adds DX10. Not whit else. The Beta & RC do expire, with the RC shutting down frequently about 2 months before end of RC date.

This is a Terrestrial TV forum, not for promoting a lack-luster OS from a Company that can afford its own Marketing.

€400 does not buy MS OS, 1T drive decent Graphics with S-Video & HDMI and quad tuners and Decent PC. In reality a decent 4 tuner MCE is closer to €1500. €150 buys a netbook, €400 to €600 a decent PC /Laptop and SW.

Unless you want to go Linux route. For Web, Email, Office amps, media player, Linux has finally got there. But a fully fledged Media Centre based on Linux is Product Development. Cheap on SW, expensive on time and very clunky. maybe if Canonical do a MCE next year ?

mrbongo wrote: »

All I did was start a thread to get support for getting Terrestrial TV to work on my setup, I think that's okay, no?

You chose to make some points about Windows, and I chose to correct some of your points, I think that's fair also. I'm not on here to promote Windows. Me stating that it's the best TV software feature-wise is a pretty valid opinion, not an attempt to help out MS.

By the way, Windows 7 does add much improved multi-tuner support over XP and numerous other enhancements to MCE, not just DX10 support.

Hi Mrbongo.

Dont mind our Mr Watcha makcall it here, he probably has vested intrests in the regards of this. Anyway lets stay on topic
I have been using Media Centre since the xp days right up till now with Windows 7 rc1 which is excellent.

I have the same card as you and Windows 7 picks it up automatically. I have 2 sat connections and 2 dvb-t working. The best way to set it up is get your install completley done basic rc1 use avg turn of the on access scanning. Download Community Codec pack. This is the only codec packs you will need if you plan on useing the cpu as the main decoder for the x264 channels. Set it up as Ireland Dublin. Let it scan through the dvb-t then tell it when this part is done that you have other tuners and select the sat tuners let it run through.
Also take a look at Mymovies and MYTV(paid app but excelent)

I have mine setup in antec fusion case. The pc hibernates when not in use and wakes up to do the recording which are set through guide and series link excellent application.

Its all controlled through a harmony remote and WAF is A+ any problems just ask. I am what you would call an expert with Media Centre.

Moved From Terrestrial TV as this is MCE/HTPC Win7 Codec issue, not a specific Terrrestrial TV issue.

XP works, Vista works, your unlicenced, unreleased Win7 doesn't work yet with DTT. You'll get more support here or the Windows forum.

I didn't lock or close your thread, The Terrestrial Forum is NOT for supporting any kind of PC, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X or Win7

I've been Building NT Media solutions since 1994 (Win7 is NT 6.2 or so).

Your €400 includes no warranty, no bought sw, no OS licence and is not a comparable solution to and off the shelf system. It's a hobby box. So yes, by time SP1 for Win7 is out and long before Analogue Switch Off a PVR will be cheaper than your PC. And a lot less hassle.

I have 2 laptops with various Windows, 2x XP based Media centre, a server with 2x sat tuner cards DVB-s running Win2K advanced Server. I'm just not a sucker for the latest hype, not anti Windows.

3 x Satellite Set-box.
I've had Reelbox linux PVR multituner/DVD writer HDD on test. ANY version of windows is better.

I've also tested Lyngbox combo tuner HDD PVR and Motorola Hybrid DVB / VOD/IPTV PVR.

I spent some years in Broadcast & Video Studio Industry too. So I'm not making stuff up.

Anyway this forum is the Media Centre/HTPC club, so you will get lots of support from like enthusiasts. I don't make life any easier for the Dreambox Linux Fanbois that claim it's a viable box for watching satellite with a Sky card.

You are more likely to get help from HTPC/Media Centre people than Setbox/Tv Aerial / Dish people.

The Mod here will be at me quick enough and move this to Windows if I have moved it to the wrong place.

I believe there is an issue with ATI hardware acceleration for h.264 (for RTEs encoding). You can either force MC to use a different decoder see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055557620, or turn off DXVA in the register. Don't know the key though but it can be done.

Pity "slegs, mullingar, Karsini, fat-tony and Psygnosis" don't post to this forum often as there have been many questions about DTT and not many can answer (yet).

Taken from http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=84&topicid=31873

If you are confident with editing the registry you can turn off HW accel in WMC by adding these reg keys

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SCrunch\CodecPack\MSDVD]
"DXVA2"=dword:00000000
"DXVA"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\SCrunch\CodecPack\MSDVD]
"DXVA2"=dword:00000000
"DXVA"=dword:00000000

I haven't put up an aerial yet so can't say much about my experience with DTT. I just have read up to see if it wil work. But "elyod" got it working with CoreAVC according to the thread I linked before.

mrbongo wrote: »

Yep bazwaldo, that's the conclusion I've come to.

I've tried replacing the MCE decoder with both Core AVC and Power DVD decoders, but they only give me black screen with sound.

I was looking this morning for ways of disabling hardware acceleration. Can't find it in ATI Catalyst Center and the only reference in the registry (DXVA_WMV) is set to 0, looking like it's disabled.

I've followed the thread over from Terrestrial (only fair seeing as I posted there:D).
I can't help thinking that you are wasting a great facility to handle H.264 decoding in the hardware. Why buy an HW-accelerated video card (on the mobo) and then turn off the feature Until I found the PowerDVD trial (the H.264 decoder part still works two months after install!) I drove myself nuts trying to get the hardware acceleration working. Eventually I discovered that the feature in ATI is only enabled in some commercial decoder packs like Cyberlink because the interface is licensed. This is not clear when you buy an ATI (or nVidia) card or mobo with accelerated video. You would think that you can just plug and play!
I was given a full install set of CD's for the XP version of Windows MCE, but having done a bit of research I found that it had serious deficiencies in HD support. I figured that as I was trying to implement HD, then it would be not worth my while playing around with this, so I just installed XP. I had bought a Skystar HD card (satellite DVB-S2) which came with DVBviewer and a remote control, so I installed that. The DVBviewer software was just about ok, but not very flexible as regards channel setup and EPG. So i spent €15 and bought the Pro version. This works a treat, supports the remote(with the Skystar card) and also a separate Pinnacle DVB-T/S combo card. I have access to a raft of analysis tools from the DVBviewer site and the software allows you to use any combination of filters, decoders, renderers. There are several viewer software programs which will allow you to watch TV from satellite or terrestrial cards or USB-stick receivers. MPEG-2 is easy and will run well on almost anything. H.264 is more demanding and especially if you want HD, so you need CPU horsepower or (as you have) the capability to offload the decoding to the GPU.

What does MCE actually give you in terms of usability over that with a standard OS and a good quality free or paid-for TV viewer software? I'm genuinely interested as the biggest issue I have found with going down the PC route is the limited support for remote control and I find myself having to use the mouse or keyboard for various functions. If I'm using DVBviewer to watch TV, then I can sit back and watch the screen, change channels, look at the EPG etc. But if I have to tweak anything or run a scan or whatever, then I either have to use a keyboard and sit about 6 inches from the screen! Ok, I could use a wireless keyboard, but you get the idea;)
Watty is right when he says you can get better video/sound quality for less money with a dedicated set-top box (I have several:eek:), but the geek in us likes to experiment, so rock on:)

When BBC HD moves to an HD dedicated Transponder you will lose it. That card is obsolete for satellite as all the transponders that are 100% HD channels use DVB-S2, not DVB-s.

The suggestion is on Win7 that if there *IS* an MS codec, it is the only one Win7 will use. However the reviewer may be wrong and the final version of Win7 should be out in October. Though when not bundled with a new PC, it won't be cheap.