Setting up Twinhan Magic Box Pro to work in Analog with MCE

aurora7795 · **29th March 2006, 10:58 PM**

Hi all, I'm Martin from the United Kingdom and I have recently built myself a media centre PC for use in my living room. I love the concept and am very happy with what I've got so far. However, I 've experienced a problem that I was hoping to ask people opinions on. Is it ok to post it here? If not, please tell me and I'll post it again in another part. I am using a Twinhan Magic Box Pro as my TV card and it does a nice job of DVB-T, however, I have a Sky box (satalite) and I was hoping to use the Analog function of my Magic Box Pro to feed my Sky tv into my PC. However, while Twinhan have provided BDA drivers for my TV tuner, they always seem to load up as Digital. Does anyone have any experience of setting up the Magic Box Pro for Analog use in MCE?

I was informed by another poster that my system can't run BOTH analog AND digital at the same time which (while a bit annoying) is fair enough. I'd be happy if my TV Tuner was only working in Analog mode...

Thanks!
Martin

aurora7795 · **12th April 2006, 12:20 AM**

Ok - I've done some digging and have some answers. Please correct if I have made mistakes:

The Magic Box Pro is a 'softPVR' meaning that it uses the computer's processor and graphics card to digitize a signal. As a result, it requires software (I think it is called an encoder pack?) to do this. However, while Twinhan have produced BDA drivers to allow the Magic box Pro to work with MCE in Digital TV mode, they have not provided the appropriate encoder to allow this hybrid device to function via MCE. The Twin-Han viewing program appears to have the necessary encoding software built in but it limits you to only use the analog functionality via their program (which, by comparison with MCE, is a bit pants). It also raises the question of whether it is worth buying a ‘softPVR’ in the first place – you are required to have a pretty speedy PC to encode the data and also do all of the background tasks required. A HardPVR will do that element of the processing for you (from my understanding, at least) putting less strain on your system.

So how have I resolved the problem? I’ve admitted defeat. My Hauppauge MCE PVR 150 kit came through the post yesterday and is working a treat! It was penny pinching and lack of knowledge that drove me to buying the MBP. I thought that having a Hybrid solution would be a worthwhile feature and that the MBP was at a far more reasonable price. I also thought that a USB solution would be nicer than a PCI solution. I have now come to realize that, for use with a set-top box (like my Sky satellite receiver), you don’t need a Hybrid device and possibly don’t even WANT such a device as it adds an additional level of complexity (bless my poor, under-powered brain ). Another thing I learnt was that you get what you pay for – sure, the MBP is cheaper than other Hybrids but it is a softPVR meaning that it would eat up my system (the Hauppauge I bought is a hardPVR). Also, Twin-Han English support is practically non-existent. This isn’t surprising seeing that English isn’t their first language but it doesn’t change the fact that I sent them two emails that they never replied to. A little acknowledgement would have been nice, even if they couldn’t answer my question immediately. Finally, having got the Hauppauge set up in my Living Room rig, I realized that being hung up on having a USB solution was a bit silly. It’s nice, but in my PC with plenty of PCI slots left, wasn’t necessary.

I do want to offer some defence to the little Magic Box though. It was very reasonably priced for a Hybrid USB and provided you have a nifty PC and don’t want analog – this is a good budget option in an MCE box. Also, if you need to move around, the powered USB feature is nice as well to keep clutter down. Provided you realize it’s limitations, the Magic Box Pro is a decent piece of kit – but it wasn’t good enough to achieve what I wanted.

renura · **12th April 2006, 03:26 PM**

Actually the solution is very simple, you need to install an MCE software Encoder, which maybe provided by TwinHan at extra charge.
It is not generally included in the package because it cost them license fees and most people don't use it. Perhaps if you ask your supplier, they maybe able to get the package for you.