progdvb.com

Hi, I have here a (pinnacle) PCTV Quattro Stick (510i) featuring DVB-T, DVB-C, Analog-TV and UKW-Radio. I have installed first Drivers and TVCenter from pctvsys.com - and TVCenter finds over 50 analogue and over 200 DVB-C TV Programs (plus a bunch of UKW-Radio). I have to change Antenna - either cable (DVB-C and analogue) or "Antenna" for DVB-T. With ProgDVB and the Antenna, I can capture all the receivable DVB-T Programs. But changing to the cable-Antenna, nothing is found, neither analogue nor DVB-C.

What am I doing wrong - as with PCTV TVCenter, all is found (DVB-C, analogue, UKW). Thanks for help.

ProgDVB alone would not tune to analogue sources like from cable TV (or FM radio).
You would need the analogue module. But AFAIK FM radio is not implemented there.

Anyway, DVB-C should be possible (if not crypted), but you will have to change the device selected.
So look into the ProgDVB device list and find out, if there's more than one specific device for your tuner, like the DVB-T one, with it's specific name and being active now, and a similar DVB-C one, that would have to be activated instead, to allow tuning to digital cable.

Only the original software knows a proprietary trick, how to change the devices on-the-fly, as this is a non documented feature, bypassing the usual limitations of Microsoft's BDA definition. It's driver and hardware specific, not a general solution.

Anyway, there's no way of getting around changing the cables, to change from terrestrial to cable services, as those partly share the same frequency bands and would interfere each other. So they can't simply be summed up.

By manufacturer's design, with just one antenna input, it's like "either - or", not "and". A nasty hardware limitation, to save a penny on a second tuner input connector, plus an electronic RF switch...
The only way of avoiding to finally wear out the antenna socket is, to apply a manual external RF switch.

Thank you so far. Weird thing ...

FM/UKW is not the thing. If it's there, it's there - if not, then not; so don't bother about that. But it would be nice if ProgDVB would also support it.

Switching cable/antenna is not the problem. either I have the cable connected - or the antenna. a switch is not necessary. it's just that at home I have cable and analogue (and internet) on the cable (that I can connect manually) - and outside I have DVB-T (no analogue anymore).

In the device list, there are (among others):
PCTV 380e/510e Device TV in (AnaloguTuner device 2.12 API 1.33
PCTV 380e/510e Device in (AnaloguTuner device 2.12 API 1.33
{BDA} PCTV 380e/510e BDA TVTuner (BDA.Device 2.10 API 1.37
but there is no explicit DVB-C device.
By selecting Auto, it only selects BDA-Device sometimes (not always), analogue are not activated.

Transponder list for BDA has to be set to "all region/all channels" as switzerland is not available - and germany/munich only lists 6 channels (of 57).

It seems that device options can only be selected by channel list, not by the device itself. Seems strange to me

PCTV 510e always sets itself to PAL-D even if set to PAL-B.
PCTV 320e always sets itself to PAL-I even if set to PAL-B.
I cannot understand why - and what that dialogue is for when it sets itself back to PAL-D/I when set to PAL-B. But when scanning, both are set to PAL-B ... strange.

When scanning transponder separately and finding channels, they are not added to the program list. They appear but are not included and immediately lost again (even if signal there). Strange thing is that when searching whole BDA-Device, they do not appear and are not found.

There is another problem that analogue scan does not begin - it does not start and always stands still on "scanning 0 of 107" (germany cable - there is no "switzerland - cable"; btw: almost everywhere in switzerland is cable-network available with mostly hyperband also used - cf. www.intergga-ag.ch - cablecom is not representative even if biggest in switzerland as the don't provide clear DVB-C, but something proprietary and encrypted).

Scanning BDA-Device only scans DVB-T and not DVB-C as there seems no DVB-C device to be available or recognized by ProgDVB.

Another strange thing is that when I set country in original PCTV-software TVCenter to switzerland, it warns me that probably no reception will be possible. I have to set to germany-cable.

Something else: I'd prefer skin setting to "default"/"no skin" by default.

Other question: what about DVB-H? I have one transponder here that DVB-T-device is finding, among the programs is (at least) one DVB-H.

BTW: watching DVB-T with ProgDVB works fine, but watching DVB-T with PCTV-TVCenter is blocky and under the limit. I wonder why.

Different PAL versions relate to channel frequencies, bands and channel bandwidth and audio subcarrier offset. In fact those are country specific, on both, analogue terrestrial and analogue cable. For Digital TV of any kind, they should not matter, as transponder lists are used then, that take care of transponder frequencies, bandwidth and alike.
Germany uses PAL B on VHF channels and PAL G on UHF. Switzerland should be similar.
D / K is / was used in eastern Europe, I in Italy.

Missing a suitable DVB-C device, there's nothing you could do. Obviously the original software / driver package does not install this, but uses some proprietary tricks, to change over at run time.

Though, you might want to try, to deactivate the DVB-T device, restart ProgDVB and look for a DVB-C device again.
Also possible, things depended on the state, you've closed the original software in.

DVB-H is different from DVB-T, even if it's transponders are visible in ProgDVB, or even on most receivers I know. Normally that services only appear as data channels. And as they use a variation of MPEG4, the free versions of ProgDVB may be to limited, to have any change of getting this tuned in, even if that's not HDTV, for sure...

Hmm ... you mentioned Analogue Module ... Am I blind, did I look in the wrong place - or where do I have to download that?

The thing I wondered was that by default, PAL-D or PAL-I is preset. When I change to PAL-B and apply the changes, reopening the same configuration page, it is again set to PAL-D or PAL-I. But when going to the channel search, PAL-B is set. Don't mind where was used what (i.I.r.c., B/G is in western europe (CCIR), D/K in eastern europe (OIRT), L in France, I in the UK, K1 in some former french colonies and other african etc. countries. But this is not the topic here.)

What (kind of) device is needed to "view" DVB-H?

The bad thing is that all the PCTV-products are no more from "Pinnacle". I don't know how about support there. And the weird thing is that with ProgDVB, TV is nicely watchable even with a weak computer. I have a Netbook with 1.6GHz VIA C7-M that works fine with ProgDVB - but with original PCTVCenter-software, it is unacceptably blocky. So I fear they won't tell the secret how to switch to DVB-C.

Am I blind, did I look in the wrong place - or where do I have to download that?

its included in the normal progdvb package ...but you have to choose it during the installation of progdvb to use it later

Hmm ... that's what I did, selecting the "analogue" at install (but when does that dialogue appear? I deinstalled the application (without deleting the found programs), and at reinstall, it did not appear), and also selected and "activated" the analogue device. When trying a "transponder search", nothing happens; I have to cancel at 0 from 107 scanned (and of course 0 found). When I manually search, it does neither find something, nor even display signal strength higher than 0 of 0 (on both). What's wrong? What did I forget to set?

Other Question: how can I save or export the found stations/programmes to reinstall them later or on another PC (without a search, as I want to keep several programs that signal strenth is too weak here, but outside, it is quite ok).

Sorry for having mixed up British and Italian standards. Never got any of those here.

Anyway, to use your channel lists on another machine, copy and paste the whole "channels" folder and in case the "DiseqTree.ini" from ProgDVB base folder. However, the file mentioned may have to be corrected for the device (ID) used then. AFAIK ProgDVB would (allow / try to) adjust this on the first start.

Also possible, to copy the whole folder system of ProgDVB, then add / register the codecs required and set to the correct device.

In any case, check the DiSEqC / LNB settings.

This may allow to keep your whole channel data base, including favs.

OK, I did several things:

I put all the used frequencies in text-form and added them in a separate category both in DVB-C (CabFiles) and Analogue (AnalogTv) subfolders inside transponders folder - but both did not help in any way. For this test, I took PCTV 510e (DVB-C-capable), but also with PCTV 320e it's the same thing: DVB-T-channels are not found automatically (they are listed as lost), I have to add them by separate single transponder scan.

DVB-C is still not there (no device present). As sometimes a Network-ID has to be given, I wonder how this works here. I remember a DVB-C-Box that I had to declare the NetworkID manually.

Something else: for better order, I would put all the language folders into a separate folder as they are sorted as the user likes - and mixed up in between all the other folders.