Black Gold Card...crystal palace Ariel with 1 usb DVB-T and Nova DVB-S2 all working great.......so far : )

come on the guide data!!!!!!

 

Andrew

Can anyone confirm that Win7MC uses Media Foundation (instead of DirectShow) to decode live TV?

According to Wikipedia, Windows 7 Media Foundation introduces an HE-AAC multichannel decoder, but I can't see any way to transcode this to Dolby D for passthrough to an AV receiver, and it's unclear to me if Microsoft in Europe have abandoned DVB-T2 HD support going forward.

DirectShow on the other hand, can be tweaked to use open source codecs -- and FAAD2 looks promising for HE-AAC.  But if live TV can't be decoded with DirectShow in Win7MC, then the best option I can see may be to edit the .wtv recording and convert the audio to Dolby D for later playback. 

 

MC uses Media Foundation by default - you can change the codec that's used for DTV/DVD audio though.

I use MCDU to set the TV audio codec to ffdshow to get the extra options that it gives (I've also used ac3filter in the past).

http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/04/media-center-decoder-utility-mcdu-finally-comes-to-windows-7.html

Thanks for the information.  I had been looking at Win7DSFilterTweaker from http://www.codecguide.com/windows7_preferred_filter_tweaker.htm but as you say, MCDU looks more promising.

Still unclear if it will be possible to transcode the HE-AAC to Dolby D, though.

 

Win7DSFilterTweaker is good for changing codecs for non TV areas of Media Center (I use it to set ffdshow for movies etc).

I can't help specifically with HE-AAC TV audio really as I'm not getting DVB-T2 until next year, but having ffdshow in use gives a lot of tweaking options on a per format level.

Mate's just got a tv with a Freeview HD tuner and he was surprised to get HD channels.  Just looked and they're definitely listed as available off Emley Moor.

Can I just check - I assume that the DVB-T2 tuners co-exist nicely with DVB-T, but count as DVB-T.  So you can have up to four DVB-T2 and/or DVB-T tuners in total?

The Black Gold registers as DVB-T so if you have another dual DVB-T tuner like me you have the maximum of 4 without hacks. Worth noting that at least in my case the channels available on DVB-T2 were also assigned to the plain DVB-T tuner as well so you have to go to the channel settings and edit sources and cancel out the DVB-T2 channels for the plain DVB-T tuners . If you don't then the system assumes all the DVB-T tuners can get the DVD-T2 ones. Obviously, that presents a slight problem! It's a shame that WIndows 7 can't decode Dolby DIgital out of AAC-HE, but I have a DVB-S2 tuner as well so that's still at the top of my list. However, despite the 'all tuners in use' error the system still records using the DVB-T2 tuners when you set the system to record something like BBC HD while you have another recording set for BBC 1 HD on DVB-S2. You therefore need to manage your priorities in terms of what you actually want to see with DD sound and what you are happy to watch without it.... until such time as Windows can handle DD out of a recorded AAC-HE stream.

They work together fine, but: a) You have to make sure a T2 compatible tuner is used for the tuning b) To avoid a T2 tuner being used for a non HD show and forcing an HD recording to be missed, you need to manually configure the tuner preferences to prefer the non T2 tuners on SD channels I've not had any problems with T tuners thinking they can get HD channels.

ShadowTD

On the surround sound issue, it'd be really great if there was an official MCE forum where a Microsoft representative could comment on whether this can be made to work or whether we're SOL.  Oh, wait... ;)

I tried posting this as a question on social.msdn.microsoft.com (which is monitored by MS), but I only got advice to read Nigel's blog at gonedigital.net or upgrade my AV receiver to one that decodes HE-AAC, or try thegreenbutton.com ! 

So there doesn't seem to be any official support for Freeview HD from Microsoft in the UK.

I'd love to know what changed since this marketing press announcement was released back in 2009  

 http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=3289

According to this MSDN page, the Media Foundation AAC codec does support outputting multichannel HE-AAC as multichannel PCM, assuming that's the one that Windows 7 Media Centre uses. However, MC always seems to down mix the audio to stereo for output.

The '411-info' page shows it is receiving 6 channels on appropriate broadcasts (and correctly shows 2 channels when switching to adverts/non surround programs) but it also shows the bitrate as 0. Not sure if this is because there is some incompatibility between the AAC being broadcast or a bug, but does appear to indicate there is some kind of problem.

I've also tested it in Media Portal, where the only codec which seems to even play the audio is the divx one and that always seems to down mix to stereo as well. The only (small) success I've had is when playing with DVBLink TV Source and previewing a channel in VLC, which did output multichannel PCM, although the volume levels seemed to fluctuate a bit.

Blackgold responded with this:

The BGT3620 has two independent DVB-T/T2/C tuners.  One of which can also be used as an analogue tuner.   Therefore you can have two simultaneous Digital channels or one Digital and one Analogue.   The practical limitation of only being able to connect one IEC lead, of course does mean in terms of digital, you would only be able to connect a either DVB-C cable or a UHF antenna.

Cafe.Racer

you would only be able to connect a either DVB-C cable or a UHF antenna

Muppets.

I've been quietly watching this thread, dreaming of when my local transmitter switches to all digital (still many, many months away) and Freeview HD becomes a reality. I was thinking I could use this card to also drag in the few channels Virgin don't encrypt (only 101-105 I believe), but no. Even that small dream has now been crushed.

 

sanderton

They work together fine, but: a) You have to make sure a T2 compatible tuner is used for the tuning b) To avoid a T2 tuner being used for a non HD show and forcing an HD recording to be missed, you need to manually configure the tuner preferences to prefer the non T2 tuners on SD channels I've not had any problems with T tuners thinking they can get HD channels.

As a matter of interest how do you "make sure a T2 tuner is used for the tuning". A recent note on the BG web site suggests installing the BGT3620 on its own and running TV setup. Then installing the other DVB-T card(s). But this will need a re-run of TV setup. How can you be sure that the re-run doesn't pick a DVB-T tuner for the channel scan instead of a DVB-T2 tuner?

Or, put another way, how does 7MC pick which tuner to use for the channel scan when there are more than one of the same type?

Ben

When your set up TV settings, you reject the automatic detection of the source and manually pick the DVB-T2 tuner ; then when it asks if you want to add more tuners you select the SD ones. MC7 uses the first one you picked as the one which detects channels.

sanderton

When your set up TV settings, you reject the automatic detection of the source and manually pick the DVB-T2 tuner ; then when it asks if you want to add more tuners you select the SD ones. MC7 uses the first one you picked as the one which detects channels.

Thanks

Ben