Hi Guys,

Following some limited testing by various people across the world I am going to give public access to the latest version of the BDA drivers.

Here
Please note that feedback indicates the following:

1. MCE2005 does not appear to support AC3 audio. (only ATSC AC3 is supported)
2. The HDTV display supports up to 1280x768 only, (many HD programs are up
to 1920x1080i or 1440x1080i)
3. MCE2005 does not include any MPEG2 decoder, so you should install a MPEG2
decoder first, either IVI, Cyberlink, Elecard, or Nvidia. (use the latest revision please)
4. Not all VGA cards can support MCE2005 well, the only VGA card TwinHan tested ok is Nvidia GeForce4 MX440
5. Some people who have tested in Australia are having difficulties tuning all the channels

You should also note that we can not provide support for this product, we are only doing for the benefit of our many customers and others that have a VP card.

Cheers

Renura

Edit: Drivers have now (28 Oct 2004) been update to Version 1.2.0.1
Please read release notes and use the relevant install file for your country- Enjoy

Edit: New version (02 December 2004) is now 1.2.1.2 and supports DVB-s as well as DVB-t.

Edit: Drivers version 1.2.1.2, in the above link have now received WHQL certification. They work with DVB-t, DVB-s, DVB-c and ATSC- enjoy it
Edit: 1.2.1.4 drivers are now (Feb 2005) available from above link
Edit: 1.2.1.6 drivers are now (7 Mar 2005) available from above link
Edit: 1.2.2.0 drivers available - including 64bit versions
Edit: 1.2.2.4 drivers available - including 64bit versions (13 Sep 05)

Having difficulties with MCE and my Nvidia GeForce2 MX 200. Guess that's wot you get for using old, outdated hardware

>> NiCK <<
Nips out to buy a new GFX card

Keen just to try these out with Showshifter to see how they run....

This is what's happening to me.

These drivers work great with showshifter too. Much better than the first released version from before.

Hi Guys,

Please note Drivers have just been updated to Version 1.2.0.1.
Download from link in first post of this thread.

Cheers

Renura

Hi renura,

Thanks for allowing us try out the new drivers, I know these are special for MCE2005 but just wondered if you know if Twinhan were expecting these drivers to be backward compatable with earlier versions of windows? If so then they may seem to have a bit of trouble with other third party software as I am unable to tune to ch 9. : The previous twinhan BDA version drivers seemed to be ok but didn't test them for long.

I also notice that with these drivers you can have multicard operation, they seem to be able to exist in the same program instance without the major drama's of tunning eg, you can run two VP card filter chains within the same Graphedit. I notice though that it can do this on the first filter chain by unmapping the PSI pids on the demux that is feeding the Transport information filter when the second graph is tunned and it also stops the first Network provider Interface to the TIF preventing you from retuning the first cards filter chain.

Just wondered where they got the idea for that?

Thanks,
Dan.

I assume that they would want them to be compatible with non MCE windows versions, but I have not asked them about this. As for compatibility with other software, I suspect that they probably do not have such applications as DW and WS and therefore have not tested them.



I really have no idea about this. I am happy to give them feedback about any issues that are brought to my attention.

I presume that their objective, though is mainly to get the dual card support under MCE.

Their own application software will not use BDA drivers, so I am not sure how far they would go, beyond ensuring that the drivers work well under MCE 2005.

Cheers

Renura

renura,

Thank you for your quick responce, I do understand that the activity at Twinhan's head office would no doubt be frantic at the moment with with the need to get the MCE2005 BDA drivers out & working so I won't bother you with any more minor details.

Its just good to see some good progress is being made in the VP card camp rather than waiting for the MS fix.

Thanks,
Dan.

Looking at the inf files it seems the only difference is they have added driver fixed bandwidth options a la Spectrum's original BDA drivers.

I have no idea why they would need to do that for MCE2005 as I thought the bug in bdasup.sys that was not forwarding the bandwidth to/from the DVBT NetworkProvider had been fixed ~ I truly can't believe that MS have still not fixed it...

However if these inf files fix channel scanning in MCE2005 then I guess they really haven't fix it ~

It probably won't hurt to use the THBDA_MCE_XX.inf installation for other app's ~

bear, are you thinking they have implemented your multiple graph in a single instance solution ? Fame at last

Guys, I can now scan all Melbourne FTA channels!

Thanks heaps Renura

Is this something I should know about?? Don't tell me that TH has stolen your ideas?

I am not really sure that I understand what you are talking about, but if you are refering to multicard supports (using various ways), we have had this going for years now! We asked TH to explore various way of doing multicard support a long time ago.

DigiBox/DigiVision used a particular way of doing it, while DNTV Live!, for example uses a diferent way again. And for your information DVBViewer, when using PIP on a single card (uses also multiple graphs in a single instance), and these techniques have been going on for quite a while.

If any of you think that TH or anyone is stealing your ideas, yiou should certainly speak up!

Cheers

Renura

You will buy your next card from now, won't you

Cheers

Renura

You know I will

I can't just have one card anymore...GOT to have two

JoeyBloggs,

Would be nice if this was the case but my guess they got the idea direct from MS.
Just wondered where MS got the idea for that?

renura,



I'm not sure if its possible to steal someones ideas from a public forum, is it?

I'm sure this is certainly the case and I do feel that Twinhan is doing a great job by looking ahead in releasing these BDA multiple DTV card drivers early with nodoubt, operational software shortly on the way.



Once again I'm not sure if its possible to steal someones ideas from a public forum? I guess what your saying here is put up or shut up. All I can say is that I have no Idea where Twinhan gets its ideas from but if I was able to come up with an idea on how to work arround a bug in MS software then I guess MS can also.
We just ain't seen it yet.

Thanks once again for the sneek look at the new BDA Drivers, I won't be using the latest version on my XP/sp2 as they instantly lockup the PC if I tune them to Ch 9.

Yep, new driver works well, all channels in Brisbane, scans in a 3rd of the time. I'll try it with 2 VP cards this afternoon.

Now for DIVCO to sort their drivers out, and a Guide for MCE

Yep, channels tuning much faster. Have been getting a Decoder error since the new drivers were installed, but this is a fresh MCE box so I might have to tweak it up a bit.

Almost have the Guide working have to go to work now so will finish it this afternoon.

I'm having great difficulty getting MCE2005 to scan for services. I've done a clean install of MCE2005, installed the 1.2.0.1 driver (and MPEG2 decoder, etc etc). But when I scan for services it shows 0% scanned then hangs the Media Center app. I've tried leaving it for hours and it just doesn't move. So, I assume I'm doing something wrong. I've looked for an idiot's guide to the install process but can't find one. Does anyone have such a guide, or can anyone give me some hints. I'm PC literate, and have installed plenty of other hardware and software (including getting the VisionPlus working under WinXP), but this has got me stumped.

Cheers

Steve

renura,

would it be fair to say you will start setting Vision Plus cards again? Their cheap price and from what it seems, a re-start from Twinhan to develop some decent BDA drivers would make it a popular card once again.


your thoughts?

What programs will work?

I got the drivers installed for XP atm

Lets just say that the option is open. In the meantime if you do want a VP product, you can always ask me, you never know.

Cheers

Renura

Hi Renura, All

The new drivers have worked wonders for me. Obviously the bandwith issue from 2004 still exists which is kinda disappointing but if thats what it takes i'm happy to live with it.

I can now scan all the channels, and as mentioned above in about a third of the time. Unfortunately a couple of channels are still mis-behaving saying that the signal is not available but this is intermittent and could be my building.

Other then that everything is sweet Can't wait til we get a proper guide going. Gear ... care to share how your achieving guide goodness? Have looked at all the different methods with smartguide etc.... but since D1 isn't giving any xml info atm, I can't figure out where to get the guide details in australia.

I get this on occasion too...all I do is change channels (or restart) and the problem goes away. I was having some sound sync issues earlier but they appeared to be codec related. I now use Nvidia's codec and the problem has dissapeared.

yeah i have the same problems too. Anyone out there HELP!!

has anyone have anyluck with the new vp drivers and two vp cards? mce sees the 2 cards but when i go to scan channels, it'll take a good 40mins and come back with none found.

Jeffrey

Did you use the correct .inf file for Australia, included in the latest drivers package?

Cheers

Renura

yep

with one card everything works great (well channel nine comes and goes), as soon as i put in the second card things stop working. either card works fine by itself, and also the cards work fine with the divco (just no sbs or nine)

Jeffrey

Thanks.

So it is really MCE that can't handle dual cards!

Cheers

Renura

Hey guys:

For all the people out there having twinhan cards working with MCE 2005, what did you guys do to make it to work? Can someone please provide instructions on how to get it work?

I have been trying for the last 5 -6 hours to tune the channels with no success. I have installed the HDTV update from microsoft, the twinhan BDA drivers, MPEG 2 decoder.

Thanks in advance!

Which is why I can watch with my nova-t whilst recording with my VP card. Under MCE 2005...

but i think the vp-bda-drivers don't enumerate the cards.

Not that clear cut

Like I said I can have the DVICO card and the VP running together be watching one channel recording another. It just wants to use the DVCIO card first so to watch channel 9 i need to be recording one channel so that it'll use the VP card to watch 9.

With the 1.2.0 drivers I could scan channels just not get 9 and sbs with 2 VP cards, It would start to record one channel and i could go to another channel and watch/record that, MCE would say that both cards are recording, but if i go back and watch the recording of the first channel it stops at the point i changed channels.

With the 1.2.1 drivers i can't scan channels with 2 VP cards.

So if I had working DVICO drivers i would be happy

Jeffrey

Ok I will pass it onto TwinHan, see what they got to say.

Unfortunately I can not try it myself, as I don't have MCE 2005.

Cheers

Renura

If you could let them know that 9 in brisbane is still flaky. Sometimes I have to change between it and another channel uptil it comes up. Then it'll just drop out sometimes. Tonight it dropped out 10mins into recording a show on 9. I have done hours of show on other channels no problem. Could it have something to done with the fact that 9 in on a old feq .625 where all the other channels are .5??

Jeffrey

I got mine working best by first installing the 1.2.0.0 drivers then updating only the DTV capture driver to 1.2.0.1, selecting the Australian region driver.

I don't know why, but when I only use 1.2.0.1, the card is not detected by MCE. When I only use 1.2.0.0, the card is detected, but I dont get all the channels. When I use a combination of the two, it all works really well. Only channel I miss out on is SBS, but that doesnt really bother me.

Finally get it to work! looks like its a random chance of draw for the system not to hang on me!
When it actually can actually tune to a channel, it just hangs within 5 mins or so.

Looks like there's still quite a bit of work to be done on the drivers. Signal strength is certainly an issue.

Hi guys,

Does anyone have problems when changing channels? Sometimes if I change channels too much the whole system just hangs (have to press reset button)

My card is working fine under VisionDTV with no problems tuning to ALL the channels

Thanks

Which DVD decoder are you using?

Im using the nvidia decoder

Hmmm....I dunno

Have you tried doing a clean install with all the latest drivers?

I think the ultimate question here is which version of the Nvidia decoder are you using as the lateset one has no real issues what so ever (1.00.58).

If you've got the beta version 4.0's they'll lock up the system and screw up dvd playback as well as killing windows media play back of recorded TV.

Thank you for all of your suggestion. After I have installed nvidia decoder version 1.00.58 problems still exist. I managed to get it working for one time but it still hang without warning. Not sure if it is related to my motherboard or not. I got a IGP9100 based motherboard

Do these drivers support the USB2.0 version of the tuner ?

If not is there anyway to get the usb box running under mce2005?

Thanks

James

What USB 2?

Where do you find that?

USB 2 tuner

Here ^

Sorry to disappoint you. That is not a USB 2 tuner, its USB 1.1. It does not support HDTV and is not supported by these drivers.

Cheers

Renura

It presumably provides the same features as it's PCI counterpart - which doesn't support HDTV as far as I know ?

James

The PCI version does support HD.

The USB version (until a USB 2 version comes out (whenever that will be)) does not handle HD due to the limited bandwidth avalible thru USB 1.1

Oliver have you installed the latest catalyst drivers for your onboard IGP?

Also you may want to look into the type of RAM your using because lower latency memory is better performance wise especially with regards to IGP. (Check your memory for errors)

Hi Guys,

The latest news is that we should have another version of the BDA drivers that will get around some of MCE 2005 issues and work with two cards AND with DVB-s cards as well.

Cheers

Renura