Hauppage Nova-t 500 Driver Bug

[vbap]

Originally Posted by DTB

...
VBAP, did New Magic tell you they were testing next week?
...

They are expecting some cards from Hauppauge early next week

[mstandfield]

New cards? Does that mean it might not just be a driver issue?

[DTB]

Originally Posted by vbap

They are expecting some cards from Hauppauge early next week

Thanks for the info.

The thing that has me a little concerned however is that they are awaiting new cards. If it was a driver issue only I would have expected new cards would be unnecessary.

Not being the computer expert however I will give Hauppauge the benefit of the doubt.

Hopefully all sorted out next week. Can't wait to start watching Chasers and the ABC News again!

Cheers

Darren

[vbap]

Originally Posted by DTB

The thing that has me a little concerned however is that they are awaiting new cards. If it was a driver issue only I would have expected new cards would be unnecessary.

My guess would be it's a firmware issue, and Hauppauge don't (yet) have a flash utility, so have hard-flashed for now. I'm pretty sure we won't be need replacement cards.

Originally Posted by DTB

.
Not being the computer expert however I will give Hauppauge the benefit of the doubt.

Agree!

EDIT: Whoops, I quoted the wrong passage there - my "Agree!"ment was with DTB's desire to watch the Chaser...!!

[max_fenig]

It's interesting that I have exactly the opposite problem to everyone else here, i.e. I get SBS and ABC perfectly with not one glitch so far, but 7, 9 and 10 have no end of trouble, although 10 was OK to start with but has since gone down hill. I am in Ballarat so our signals are UHF, whereas metro areas are VHF as I understand it. I am also about 63km from the tower but my STB picks up all channels perfectly with full strenth and quality and analouge is flawless. Perhaps there is an issue with these cards in a particular band or bands?

[DTB]

Originally Posted by max_fenig

It's interesting that I have exactly the opposite problem to everyone else here, i.e. I get SBS and ABC perfectly with not one glitch so far, but 7, 9 and 10 have no end of trouble, although 10 was OK to start with but has since gone down hill. I am in Ballarat so our signals are UHF, whereas metro areas are VHF as I understand it. I am also about 63km from the tower but my STB picks up all channels perfectly with full strenth and quality and analouge is flawless. Perhaps there is an issue with these cards in a particular band or bands?

Just a small suggestion. My limited understanding of the Nova T is that whilst it is a dual tuner card it simply splits the signal (hence reduces the signal strength). Have you considered plugging in an amplifier at the power point. I am using Kingray one (I'm at work so I can't let you know the model number) but it increases the signal strength to compensate for the splitting of the original signal. On ScanChannel BDA it resulted in the average channel strength go up by ten points.

You may have some success perhaps with an amplifier (not to be confused with a Mast Head amplifier).

Whats the signal strength your getting with ScanChannel BDA at the moment?

Cheers

Darren

[max_fenig]

I am getting about 55 on all channels, even SBS and ABC. Only SBS and ABC however give me constant quality of 100%. I have a friend with a tinyUSB in Ballarat and his works perfectly and another friend has a nova-t 500 and he has the same problems as I do. They are both ex-radio engineers so have very good understanding of signal stuff and they believe that signal strength is not an issue.

[vbap]

Originally Posted by max_fenig

I am getting about 55 on all channels, even SBS and ABC. Only SBS and ABC however give me constant quality of 100%. I have a friend with a tinyUSB in Ballarat and his works perfectly and another friend has a nova-t 500 and he has the same problems as I do. They are both ex-radio engineers so have very good understanding of signal stuff and they believe that signal strength is not an issue.

Your signal strength is fine.
I would suggest sending a copy of your ScanChannelsBDA logs for both tuners to newmagic and see what they make of it.

[DTB]

Originally Posted by max_fenig

I am getting about 55 on all channels, even SBS and ABC. Only SBS and ABC however give me constant quality of 100%. I have a friend with a tinyUSB in Ballarat and his works perfectly and another friend has a nova-t 500 and he has the same problems as I do. They are both ex-radio engineers so have very good understanding of signal stuff and they believe that signal strength is not an issue.

I get about 72 or so on mine and still have problems on ABC and SBS whilst the commercial networks are fine. I think we may have to just wait and see what Hauppauge come up with next week to solve the problem. It is an acknowledged problem (in Melbourne at least) so hopefully thefix will get us back and running again both in Melbourne and Ballarat.

Cheers

Darren

[arkay]

I'm not entirely convinced that the card reports signal strength properly either.

On my rig the 500 mce reports 100% strength with 10 % quality where my twinhan gives me 80% strength and 80% quality on the same antenna connection.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[vbap]

Originally Posted by DTB

I get about 72 or so on mine and still have problems on ABC and SBS whilst the commercial networks are fine. I think we may have to just wait and see what Hauppauge come up with next week to solve the problem. It is an acknowledged problem (in Melbourne at least) so hopefully thefix will get us back and running again both in Melbourne and Ballarat.

Cheers

Darren

I thought I needed to get strength readings aroung 80-90 and used to use a powered amp/splitter. After the Antenna installer measured everything, installed a quality antenna and double-checked cabling, he told me I could easily have 4 passive splits from the one outlet without issue. The kingray powered splitter has been in a cupboard since...!
At the moment, I have 1 novat 500 (with readings around 50-60 - haven't measured in a while) + 1 novat PCI (total 3 tuners).

The novat PCI is what lets my daughter watch ABC Kids during the week and lets me record The Chaser on weekends (requires me to remember to change Tuner priorities on Friday nights though - lucky ABC2 have a backup on Saturday )

[max_fenig]

What version of scanChannelsBDA are you using out of interest? I'm running 2.3

[vbap]

Originally Posted by max_fenig

What version of scanChannelsBDA are you using out of interest? I'm running 2.3

v2.2 (as per here: Signal Strength/Quality Utility for UK - Hauppauge UK Forum.
I haven't used the latest in a while, until fix for the NovaT 500 is released. My signal strengths have not been an issue.