DVICO install procedure

[BGH]

Hi

I have a DVICO full and a DVICO lite that Im trying to get working in the same box together but no matter what I do I cant seem to get them to work together. I always get corrupt Windows installs/driver problems etc. Im up to about my 8th reinstall now and Im getting a bit frustrated.

Can anyone who has 2 DVICOs working in the same machine please tell me the order in which they installed their cards, installed their drivers etc etc?

Cheers

[BGH]

Well I finally got it going. Previously I had been setting up one card then plugging in another. However this time I did this and it worked

1. Leave both cards in and install Windows

2. Install mobo/vid card drivers etc

3. Do Windows update (not sure if this did anything useful or not)

4. Go to device manager and 'update driver' for all the DVICO entries using the Beta 3 drivers I had burnt to CD.

5. Reboot

Windows is happy now. Unfortunately the tuners arent working that well in MCE. Not picking up all the channels and the ones I am picking up are stuttering all over the place.

[eepunk]

Originally Posted by BGH

Unfortunately the tuners arent working that well in MCE. Not picking up all the channels and the ones I am picking up are stuttering all over the place.

When you say stuttering, do you mean blue screen signal loss type stuttering or playback stuttering?

[BGH]

Arrgghh!!! This is a nightmare!!

Couldnt tune all channels with both cards in there and was stuttering all over the place etc. So I took one card out and tried to retune. MCE crashed and rebooted. Then got the good ol'

Windows could not start becuase the following file is missing or corrupt

\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM

etc

which is one of the errors I kept getting when I was originally trying to install the two cards seperately.

*SIGH* I dont know if I can handle another reinstall today

[eepunk]

Are you using Ghost or a similar product to backup between re-installs?

I can't say how much time products like these have saved me.

Have you tried shifting the cards around in different PCI slots. It's old voodoo but it still sometimes works.

As regards your other problems, stuttering and so on.

Make sure DMA is enabled for IDE, distance any wireless network broadcast devices, make sure your PC is high-powered enough to handle what you want to do, make sure your graphics drivers/graphics card are DXva compatible.

Does the stuttering problem occur only with playback or does it also affect recorded material?

What CPU usage are you getting with both cards running?

A few more facts and maybe we can narrow this down.

[BGH]

Well a bit more progress. I think I have both cards installed and Windows is happy with them. MCE is tuned into all stations

BUT....

I now have unbearable stutter on all stations.

Here is my setup

Abit nf7-s mobo
Athlon XP 2600+ CPU
DVICO Fusion full
DVICO Fusion lite
250Gb SATA HDD
512Mb kingmax RAM
802.11b USB Wireless dongle

Any ideas? From other reading it seems that ppl have a bit of trouble with SATA drives. Im gunna be very annoyed if that is the problem.

[eepunk]

OK, your setup is almost identical to mine. With the obvious exception of Wireless and sata. I gotts ask is your system stable and fully functional with only one card in. If not, you may be one of the people who has an sata problem. I vaguely remember reading that MCE has a problem with the sata controller manufactured by Silicon Images, which I'm fairly certain is on your board.

[BGH]

Can confirm that yes it works fine with one card, just starts stuttering when I put the second in. Problem is confined to just MCE, stutters in Fusion player as well.

And yes that is the SATA driver that my board uses. Im starting to think there is not going to be an easy solution to this

Why cant something just go right for once?

[eepunk]

Originally Posted by BGH

Why cant something just go right for once?

I hear you.

Have a search about here and at TGB. you should be able to find something more definitive.

[BGH]

Well it seems that a lot of people seem to have a problems with dual DVICOs + nForce 2 boards. Especially Abit NF7-S's and esepecially when using SATA (all of which apply to me unfortunately). Seems the main problem is the handling of IRQs. Ive tried moving the 2 cards into different slots and some have better results than others but none come close to fixing the problem.

I did notice this on the DVICO support page though

http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/Supp...&pg=0&CATID=10

Orginally tried setting my processor to Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC but it wouldnt boot. Second time round tried setting it to 'Standard PC'. This 'almost' worked. It showed TV fine but just had a slight stutter caused by writing to hard drive when recording one channel and watching another. It doesnt really matter anyway because I cant use 'Standard PC' because you dont get power management features with it such as auto power down, stand by, hibernate etc.

So still no sign of things improving. Looks like I picked one of the worst possible combinations of hardware

[Sambooka]

Hi BGH,

Unfortunately it looks as though you're going to have to do a bit of trial and error. I would try driver versions and different codecs. There are so many factors involved here. First I would try a selection of the usual video codecs like powerdvd, windvd, dscaler, nvidia etc, and switch them using the MCE codec checking util. Then I would try different video card driver versions...the latest version should not automatically be assumed as the best in your setup.

Good luck

Cheers

[BGH]

Still no luck unfortunately. The combination of 2 x DVICOs + nForce2 mobo + SATA is a well documented problem for DVICO. Despite DVICOs attempts to solve the problem at places such as here and here, even they admit there isnt any hard and fast solution.

I'll try taking one of my DVICOs out tonight and replacing it with a Haupage Nova-T from my housemate's MythTV box and see if that fixes the problem.

[Mike]

Oh dear - what a crappy situation - sorry to hear about that.

At least you've picked an appropriate avatar for the time being - let me know when you've solved it and I'll find you a nice bright smiley one

[BGH]

Well put my housemate's ancient Hauppauge Nova T in my machine and it worked like a charm first time. Was able to watch TV fine, record one channel and watch another, record 2 channels all no probs.

Damn 2 x DVICO cards not working on nForce2 motherboards.

Soooo.... anyone wanna swap a DVB-T card for a DVICO Lite....