STRANGE! Channel 9 (not other channels?) WHITE BACKGROUND STUTTER (mostly during ads)

[IronChef]

I've used too many tuners!!! This is a quick run down of my experiences with tuners that are still somewhat relevant in the market.


Avermedia PCI-E Duo Hybrid - Worked very well, but gets dangerously hot and stops performing well without good ventilation.

DigitalNow PCI-E Dual Hybrid S2 - Signal strength was poor despite having an excellent professionally installed outdoor antenna and great reception. Picture occasionally stuttered on pretty much all channels. Tried connecting antenna to both RF inputs as suggested elsewhere on this site. There may be something wrong with my particular card though. Channel change speed seems average. Tends to be a bit on the hot side. DigitalNow support is unusually good and Renura should get some kind of a medal for his efforts. I've not contacted DigitalNow about my problems but I'm sure everything would have been done to try and find a solution.

DigitalNow Tiny USB (the old beetle one) - Works fantastic with excellent channel change speed. Only problem was stuttering during the Nine HD demo, but when Nine switch to regular HD programming it would work fine. I have a theory that the bitrate may have been too high to handle during the demo. Device barely gets hot.

DigitalNow TinyTwin USB - Works flawlessly in every respect. I can't recommend this more highly. This is what I'm currently using. Unless you need hybrid you should seriously consider this.

Dvico FusionHDTV Dual Express - Apart from the issue in this thread, it seems to work very well. It's easily the coolest running PCI-E card I've used (even though it still gets far hotter than the USB solutions). Channel change speed seems fast to me (around 1-2 seconds depending on the stations you're switching between).

[simmo]

>Is Lako Pacific the distributor for Dvico? What is there contact number incase I need it in the future

They are certainly one of the distributors - actually their name was printed on the side of the box. Their technical support is

Lakopacific.com.au
Phone 1300 302 306
Email helpdesk@lakopacific.com

>They've had problems with Intel motherboards? Doesn't that cover most people!!?

No, I'm referring to the actual motherboard manufacturer not the processor. But anyway it seems like the problem is much more widespread.

>Are you saying the Dvico Express was slower to change channel than the Avermedia?

It appears that performance is varying between systems. On mine the Avermedia was noticeably quicker with the DigitalNow Dual Hybrid the fastest of the 3.

[Mark1]

Mine doesn't have anything on the box. Thanks for those details.

I don't have an Intel motherboard, I have a Gigabyte. So I guess thats good regarding that issue.

Yes, It seems like THIS problem falls square in the lap of Dvico. I believe their cards (from what I have read - mostly the Dual Digitals - mines a PCIe), have an issue in their drivers with the stream Channel 9 broadcasts.

Contrary to my last post, I wont be changing cards.

Apart from this issue, I must say this has been a great card.
Stable, great quality, good channel change, no issue with signal, etc etc...

I have put my foot down, and have had enough of being a test dummy for tuners (have tried 5). If its not low tolerance to signal strength or slow channel changes its something else!! THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. Agree with me or not, doesn't bother me. All I can say is if anyone is going to turn around and say X brand cards are perfect is making a false statement. It may be according to their antenna, coax cable, motherboard, graphics card, driver cocktail, decoder or whatever else that makes up a system that could impact the working of a tuner card - but not mine and most others.

Back to the topic of this thread. I will contact the Lakopacific support # and see what they have to say - see if I can get something done.

[test7875]

Hi all,

Been in the same boat for over a year now. Add me to the support group!

Ive been speaking to Gary-Ann

Gary Ahn(Ahn, Ju-Jung)
GaryAhn@dvico.com

He doesnt have the power to fix it or cant ..

I would suggest everyone with this issue email him and ask him to escalate .. Ill do the same with aus distributor listed in the earlier post. Maybe with enough voices they will do something about it!

So far there is no solution for the problem as it resides with Dvico Driver, we need a new iteration of it.

The problem isnt seen on the XP driver and you cant fix it in Vista by changing Aero or MPEG2 - you may ease the symptoms though.


Cheers
Test!

[Mikey_M]

Hi All

Thought I'd ad my 2 cents worth on the matter.
I have both the dual digital 4 and the dual express cards. Both suffer with the channel 9 problem under XP32, XP64 and Vista32.
Both of these cards use the Xceive tuner IC's which run extremely hot.
I've mounted K-type thermocouples onto these IC's and measured a constant temperature of 85 degrees celcius during normal operation. This is at an ambient room temperature of 25 degrees.
During the channel 9 stuttering the temperature spikes to around 86 degrees and at 86.4 the tuner IC breaks down and locks up all together. When the ads are over the temp drops back to 85 and off it goes again to normal operation. This yoyo effect has been observed now for well over a month. The temperature that these chips run at has already bbq'd one on the dual digital 4 card. A hair dryer passed briefly over the tuner sections is enough to get the cards to stutter on any channel, not just 9.
2 days ago I made up some metal shields for the tuner sections on the dual express card. These have been fitted to the card with some silicon thermal material on top of the tuner IC's to form a heat bridge to the metal shield. Here's the good bit. When the room temperature is at 25 degrees and lower the stuttering problem is no longer there. Today in Brisbane the room temp has been around 30 most of the day and channel 9 has been stuttering. Now that the room has been cooling down, the stuttering has been getting less and less.
Earlier this year LG recieved a number of phone calls regarding their digital tv's locking up whilst tuned to channel 9. They have since released firmware updates along with other STB manufacturers which has solved the problem.
My conclusion: The hardware design of these cards is poor in regard to heat generation/dissipation. The tuner IC's are obviously operating right at the end of their temperature limits which is adding to the problem. You can be sure the Dvico enginneers will be working in a nice comfy 22 degrees air conditioned office so the problems won't be as prevelant if at all.
The other cause is Channel 9 is transmitting data that is causing the Tuner IC's to loose lock and in turn the internal gain is increasing that is generating the extra heat.
These points are all of course in my opinion and I may be totally wrong.
Either way, lets all hope they do find a cure and soon.

Regards to all

[EzzA]

I also have this same problem

My MCE Rig is in my profile, but here are my specs anyway:
Athlon 3200, 1GB DDR, 250GB SATA, Pioneer DVDRW, 6800GS AGP, Sondigo Inferno Soundcard, Dvico Dual Digital 4 PCI, Windows XP MCE 2005, Purevideo Decoder

At first it was just on ch9 only, but then it became a problem on ch7 too, not as bad though.

For me it sucks most when I try to record a TV show and then convert it to XviD the stutters completely screw up the audio and video sync, the further into the show the more out of sync the audio becomes.

Maybe we should try looking for someone that has a Dvico card like ours that doesn't have the problem and see if they are doing anything different? If they exist

I will be rebuilding my HTPC in a month or so with new components, but keeping the tuner card, so I'll see if anything is different then.

[test7875]

Great feedback Mikey_M,

I agree with the heat issue as well, although i dont think its the cause of this issue.

From a driver point of view, Vista adds another layer (possibly 2) that drivers needs go through. This is why the issue is only seen on Vista. In fact i can take the exact same card and dual boot it in XP and no stuttering issue will occur.

With all the effort we have throw into this i would almost say definately its a Vista Dvico Driver issue.

They just need to get it right with the Australian stream.

[EzzA]

Originally Posted by test7875

Great feedback Mikey_M,

I agree with the heat issue as well, although i dont think its the cause of this issue.

From a driver point of view, Vista adds another layer (possibly 2) that drivers needs go through. This is why the issue is only seen on Vista. In fact i can take the exact same card and dual boot it in XP and no stuttering issue will occur.

With all the effort we have throw into this i would almost say definately its a Vista Dvico Driver issue.

They just need to get it right with the Australian stream.

I have the same exact issue and I use XP MCE 2005

[Mark1]

Keep this thread open, and add your comments.

This is what I know too: Its a driver issue. its a Dvico driver issue with the video stream. Its very noticable on 9, and yes, also very slightly on 7. Different decoders won't fix it (although I haven't tried - there have been enough who have to warrant me having this opionion). No setting anywhere in Vista will fix the issue. Only Divico tuner cards (but I don't want to change, because I have tried 5 different cards in the past - and all have problems in some way. eg, I'd rather have a picture on 9, than none at all on SBS!!). I think Vista has the problem MOSTLY, although some have said they get it in XP? (I had a Dvico Dual PCI in XP that didn't have this problem - but I now use a Dvico PCIe in Vista). Not too sure about the heat thing, doen't seem to get any better or worse for me depending on room temp.

I have a day off Monday, so will be calling whoever I can to have this explained (whether it be LakoPacific, Dvico support - I will get answers)

[andczo]

Guys,

I have the TinyUSB's and also the Quattro all from DNTV and I have the same issue. This has only occured since I have added ICETV, Webguide4 and NetworkMagic software. I don't think its purely DVICO issue....

By the way I'm no closer to the solution....

[test7875]

Just to help,

Ive tried

• Different versions of Vista INCLUDING 64 bit
• Different MPEG-2
• Turned services on and off
• Different Video card
• Vista WDM driver Vs Ati latest catalyst driver
• Vista WDM driver Vs Latest Fusion Driver (FYI WDM one was actually better)
• Faster HDD
• PCI BIOS Settings
• Ram timings
• BEFORE installing ICe after ice
  

It all comes back to the driver.

[jvesey]

I started getting a stutter on C9 last nite. All other channels worked ok and I tried forcing different tuners by recording other channels - with no change. Interestingly I got a stutter-free signal when viewing thru and xbox360

BTW: I'm using Hauppaughe cards

[Mikey_M]

Hi All

Just to let you know that this problem with Channel 9 is the number one priority with the engineers at Dvico atm. I've been working with them to sort this out. Emails and files have been flying back and forth throughout the week. So rest assured that something is being done and that a fix for it will be released soon.
Will keep you posted as things progress ... stay tuned

Regards

Mike