tsammyc Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Requirements: 1. Reasonably fast PC. Both my Athlon XP 3700 overclocked to about 5000 and 1GB or RAM with Nvidia 6600GT card and Lenovo X60S with Duo Core L2400 processor and 1.5GB work well. Slower PC's will have audio dropouts and video freezes 2. D-TV PCI card or Dongle. In my case, I bought a Leadtek Winfast DVT-T USB2.0 TV Box. It only receives Digital channels (Channel 5,8,CNA,TVMobile,Mediacorp HD1) for $109 from Fullwell in SLS 3. Reasonable proximity to Bukit Batok, where the HD channel is being broadcast from. If you live further away, you will need a higher gain antenna. I'm using the one supplied with the Winfast DVT-T and have 100% signal strength because I live just below the transmitter in Bukit Batok. 4. Beta software for Winfast DTV (the bundled version cannot work with the H.264 codec). You can download it from here: http://tw1965.myweb.hinet.net/WinFastDTV.htm 5. PowerDVD 7 in order to get the H.264 codec. You can get the trial version from www.cyberlink.com, but you won't get good sound out of the HD channel because it has the AC3 decoder disabled. In my case, I upgraded the Winfast bundled PowerDVD 6 to PowerDVD 7 Deluxe for USD29.95 and it works perfectly. Good luck.
Gaolow Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 ok.. mine setup..minus the crappy 2.4G intel CPU. - Kworld PCI DT210 DVB-TV card. $105 from Bizgram - DX mobile (claim by the shop tat is have internal boster build in) ant. - ATI 9800 with 256M Video ram. - OC 2.4 to 2.88...almost smooth. software: 1. beta software from winfast DTV version 2.0.1.92 2. Powerdvd version 7.0 3. totalmedia (only 2.0 channel)
hifi_enthusiast Posted July 20, 2006 Posted July 20, 2006 thanks for the info as i also stay near Hillview but further away from the antenna than you :) I qn, you recommend PCI but are using usb 2.0, is there a difference? (i'm thinking usb 2.0 is more convenient, and for usb 2.0, you can use an extension cable in case you need to repositon for better reception?)
tsammyc Posted July 20, 2006 Author Posted July 20, 2006 USB 2.0 seems to work fine for me. The frame rate is not completely smooth at 70-80% cpu utilisation, but I think that is due to something else.
pcking1624705747 Posted July 21, 2006 Posted July 21, 2006 Maybe it will be beneficial if U guys can list down your locations so the others can have a reference as to whether will they be able to recieve the digital signals from their own homes. For me, I am still hesitant to invest in a DTV card bcos I am still not sure if I will be able to recieve the signals in my area at Jurong West. ;) Anyone in Jurong West can recieve the digital signals clearly ? ;D
UpGuy Posted July 21, 2006 Posted July 21, 2006 anyone in the east receiving hdtv in full glory using their pc ?
kMan1624705733 Posted July 21, 2006 Posted July 21, 2006 ok.. mine setup..minus the crappy 2.4G intel CPU. - Kworld PCI DT210 DVB-TV card. $105 from Bizgram - DX mobile (claim by the shop tat is have internal boster build in) ant. - ATI 9800 with 256M Video ram. - OC 2.4 to 2.88...almost smooth. software: 1. beta software from winfast DTV version 2.0.1.92 2. Powerdvd version 7.0 3. totalmedia (only 2.0 channel) Gaolow, can you receive in Punggol area?
Gaolow Posted July 21, 2006 Posted July 21, 2006 yap..but ur antenna need to point to the correct position.
pschia Posted July 21, 2006 Posted July 21, 2006 Are there any HD broadcast at the moment? The time now is 1.42am and I'm getting only 38-1 Mediacorp HD1 channel and there's only AC3 music without any video. ???
hifi_enthusiast Posted July 21, 2006 Posted July 21, 2006 i note that ATI claims hardware accelerated H.264 for it's X1xxx series: http://www.ati.com/technology/avivo/h264.html I wonder for owners of this card, whether the CPU requirement can be less.... reason that i am planning to use an older computer for this, not my main computer...
pschia Posted July 22, 2006 Posted July 22, 2006 Are there any HD broadcast at the moment? The time now is 1.42am and I'm getting only 38-1 Mediacorp HD1 channel and there's only AC3 music without any video. ??? Problem solved. :) I moved the antenna supplied with the doggle to the window and there is now sound and video. But I probably would have to get a better antenna if I want to avoid dropouts in video and sound signals. Any suggestions, anyone? I am using the Leadtek WinFast DTV doggle and the WinDVD 7 Platinum Trial which was has H.264 and AC3 audio support. I believe that WinFast is only using the codecs from the WinDVD 7 software, there is no need to buy the software when the trial period expires as long as I don't instead to use the WinDVD software itself.
tsammyc Posted July 22, 2006 Author Posted July 22, 2006 pschia, I tried the trial version of windvd 7 and can't get any video. Do you by chance have powerdvd 7 installed also? If I have BOTH windvd7 and powerdvd7 trials installed then it works, but if only windvd7 is installed, I don't get any video. I think that DTV is using the Cyberlink H.264 codec even when Intevideo MPEG decoder is selected. If you have powerdvd7 installed, try uninstalling it and see if you get any video.
pschia Posted July 22, 2006 Posted July 22, 2006 Hi tsammyc, I do have both WinDVD 7 Platinum and PowerDVD 7 Deluxe installed and the Intervideo WinDVD codec selected in WinFast DTV. I find that if I select Cyberlink H.264 codec in WinFast DTV, I would get the video but not the sound but if I select WinDVD codec, then here would be video and the sound is very good. That's why I thought that the H.264 codec of WinDVD also works as I don't see why WinFast DTV would use another video codec and yet keep to the audio codec of the selected system. Then again, if I now choose Leadtek DTV's video codec, I could get video where I couldn't before PowerDVD is installed but the sound quality is distinctly Leadtek's. So you could be right that regardless of which video codec was selected, WinFast DTV would use Cyberlink's but for audio, it would still use the codec of the selected system's.
tsammyc Posted July 22, 2006 Author Posted July 22, 2006 Yes. I think that is the case. I can't get WinDVD to work standalone. When you select WinDVD as the MPEG decoder, is your CPU utilisation higher when watching HDTV? Is the video more stable when the Cyberlink MPEG decoder is selected? I find I can't avoid stutters and dropouts unless Cyberlink is selected. It may have to do with video hardware acceleration. When WinDVD is selected, the hardware acceleration box is greyed out which may result in higher CPU utilisation.
Gaolow Posted July 23, 2006 Posted July 23, 2006 Hi tsammyc, I do have both WinDVD 7 Platinum and PowerDVD 7 Deluxe installed and the Intervideo WinDVD codec selected in WinFast DTV. I find that if I select Cyberlink H.264 codec in WinFast DTV, I would get the video but not the sound but if I select WinDVD codec, then here would be video and the sound is very good. That's why I thought that the H.264 codec of WinDVD also works as I don't see why WinFast DTV would use another video codec and yet keep to the audio codec of the selected system. Then again, if I now choose Leadtek DTV's video codec, I could get video where I couldn't before PowerDVD is installed but the sound quality is distinctly Leadtek's. So you could be right that regardless of which video codec was selected, WinFast DTV would use Cyberlink's but for audio, it would still use the codec of the selected system's. what graphic card are u using?
pschia Posted July 23, 2006 Posted July 23, 2006 CPU utilisation is definitely higher when watching HDTV. With WinDVD, it's between 80-90% and with PowerDVD, it''s lower, about 70%. There is only slight difference if hardware acceleration is on or off. Though it's true that the hardware acceleration box is greyed out when WinDVD codec is selected, it could be changed if the codec is temporarily switched to Leadtek or Cyberlink before switching back to WinDVD. It would then be greyed out 'ON'. But like I said earlier, the difference is only a few percent in CPU utilisation on my PC. For my PC, I don't have stutters and dropouts with WinDVD. I don't know if Cyberlink is better because I don't use it because there is no audio with the trial version. The main problem I do experience is that after a while, the audio would sometimes disappear but I found that I correct this immediately by unplugging and replugging the antenna cable. My graphic card is a nVidia GeForce 6600.
hifi_enthusiast Posted July 28, 2006 Posted July 28, 2006 Just bought the Winfast USB. I'm in town at the moment and I can get audio+pic on mediacorp hd1 on my notebook, but since my notebook is a slower centrino, quite jerky pic. Is there any option to check signal strength... not sure where to find it....?
pschia Posted July 28, 2006 Posted July 28, 2006 I believe it's the horizontal bar indicator near the top of the WinFast dashboard. If you disconnect the antenna, the bar indicator will drop to zero.
hifi_enthusiast Posted July 28, 2006 Posted July 28, 2006 thanks. I stay Hillview area and am getting 100% reception of Mediacorp HD1, but cannot get Digital-5,8,or CNA. For HD1, I do sense that the frame rate is not smooth when the HD trailer clips are played and there is fast movement - pic seems jerky. I have a dual core 820 overclocked to 3.4Ghz and 6800GS gfx card so my hardware is not a problem. For the regular TV programmes, tonight was smallville, ghost whisperer, (which is 480p?), no problems. Hopefully software updates will solve the problem...
tsammyc Posted July 29, 2006 Author Posted July 29, 2006 I am the opposite. My notebook is smooth on the HD clips. It has a Core Duo L2400. However, my desktop with the 1900x1200 monitor is slightly jerky. Both have low CPU utilisation, but the notebook is lower. The desktop is about an Athlon 64 5000+
hifi_enthusiast Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 My 820 D overclocked to 3.4Ghz (faster than Pentium 940) is experiencing 90% CPU utilisation (i.e. both cores used) for Mediacorp HD at what appears to be 'full framerate'. If the framerate drops for whatever reason, cpu utilisation drops as well. I have a 6800GS using the latest Nvidia drivers which are said to support H.264. s/w is WinDVD + PowerDVD 7 trial. 1 qn, can anyone recommend a good high gain antenna..? what type should i look for at SLS/SLT?
htfreak Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 3 places that I have found such high gain antennaes so far are :- 1) Unify Shop on 3rd floor SLS retailing for $60. A display unit is found on the glass showcase on the left wall once you enter the shop. Rated about 20db. 2) DX Shop on ground floor SLT retailing for below $60. This is a battery powered version with antennae extensions on them rated about 11 to 17db. A picture of it posted by Gaolow can be seen in earlier pages of this thread. They do have 2 other non-portable versions which support a higher gain namely 38db and 50db. 3) Skycom Communications retailing the Draco branded high gain antennae rated about 20db as well. Supposed to be retailing for about the $60 mark as well. There is actually a fourth one which is the Technistat one given to earlier batches of the Mediacorp trial but I understand that they have run out of stock for these which is why they issued the Draco ones for subsequent trial users. Hope the above info is useful to you.
hifi_enthusiast Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 jeffong, thanks for your solid and detailed information!
tsammyc Posted August 1, 2006 Author Posted August 1, 2006 My 820 D overclocked to 3.4Ghz (faster than Pentium 940) is experiencing 90% CPU utilisation (i.e. both cores used) for Mediacorp HD at what appears to be 'full framerate'. If the framerate drops for whatever reason, cpu utilisation drops as well. I have a 6800GS using the latest Nvidia drivers which are said to support H.264. s/w is WinDVD + PowerDVD 7 trial. 1 qn, can anyone recommend a good high gain antenna..? what type should i look for at SLS/SLT? The 90% CPU utilisation is strangely high. There seems to be something wrong. I presume you have hardware acceleration set. Does the CPU utilisation rise when you uncheck hardware acceleration? If it doesn't your Nvidia acceleration may be broken. Is this using 1900x1200 on your Dell 24"? I recall that there were some registry hacks on the internet to get the purevideo decoding working on some installs. What revision of the NVidia drivers are you using? The latest one didn't work at all with WINTV and I had to go back to an older version.
hifi_enthusiast Posted August 2, 2006 Posted August 2, 2006 The 90% CPU utilisation is strangely high. There seems to be something wrong. I presume you have hardware acceleration set. Does the CPU utilisation rise when you uncheck hardware acceleration? If it doesn't your Nvidia acceleration may be broken. Is this using 1900x1200 on your Dell 24"? I recall that there were some registry hacks on the internet to get the purevideo decoding working on some installs. What revision of the NVidia drivers are you using? The latest one didn't work at all with WINTV and I had to go back to an older version. I'm using the latest version of Nvidia drivers with Winfast DTV. The hardware acceleration box is stated as 'on' but it's also greyed out and not selectable. I don't have the full verson of Powerdvd. I'm using the powerdvd trial version + Full version of WinDVD. I select WinDVD's codec. Maybe have to try full version of Powerdvd... An update, i got the battery powered DX antenna from SLT that people are mentioning. Unfortunately, it's performance is worse than both a $11 soundtech antenna i bought (1 m long) and the stock antenna with the Winfast USB! In my home it can only detect 1 TV mobilechannel and nothing else whereas the stock antenna can detect 2 TV mobile channels + Mediacorp HD1 (4/7 bars). I'm wondering whether the DX antenna i got is actually working properly... wonder if i can swap it... My 1 metre soundtech antenna gives me 7/7 bars with HD1
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