Hey guys, I'm working on my new setup and I had a couple questions. I had an "idea" today, just wanted to bounce it off you guys. I currently have a Twinhan 102g card in my tower PC, and was considering using it as a media center. I also have an XBOX 360. I've been successfully to stream DiVX movies from my PC to my 360 using the Windows Media Center. Has anyone used the WMC to tune their 102g (or other DVB-S) card and stream it to a WMC Extender device, specifically a 360? I figured this would be awesome if it would work. WMC isn't a MUST, I guess I could use another media center-isk application, but I specifically need it to work with my 360. Thanks!

bump bump

Windows Vista WMC is known not to excel in that task (if at all) - read Vista WMC Help (http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/ef5b8360-958c-425b-9529-2922167e78631033.mspx), though it can hardly be considered an explanation of actual WMC functions. The reasons for this are not necessarily MS policies related, but overall situation with FTA support in NA. However, Windows 7 MC is expected to support well both DVB-S and DVB-S2 Sat cards. There're reports in German forums of WMC 7 current builds working well with both standards. Do you want to try?

Hmm...wasn't aware of that update. I just installed Windows 7 32-Bit RC (can't find compatible 64-bit drivers for my 102g...if I get another DVB soon I can wipe it out and install 64-bit...no big deal to me) and I'll give it a shot and let you know! Thanks!


Update: Okay, got it installed. Installed the drivers for my card and everything, and ran the WMC setup. SUPER easy. It automatically detected my DVB card, allow me to set it up. It allows me to pick a satellite, and my LNB frequency, and then if you like it can scan for signals in it's database of known TPs (you can also go in and scan keyed in TPs and SR). I don't have it hooked to my satellite right now (pouring the concrete for my BUD today hopefully), but when I get it going I'll post an update. For all of you PC card users, I highly recommend giving this a shot with Windows 7. Heck, the 7 RC is still free for download through August 20th (so hurry!), so you've got nothing to lose. It also has an EPG downloader, so hopefully for the "known" networks on DVB, you should be able to have a guide and schedule and record. Seems like an awesome idea, we'll see how it works out.

Good news! Did you have TV Pack 2008 included with your Windows 7 download, or get it separately? I think, it has been quite polished and rolled into WMC 7 by now. You might be interested to learn that Windows 7 RTM (http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/08/06/windows-7-rtm-available-today-for-msdn-amp-technet-subscribers.aspx) has already been released and can probably be found on the web (with matching checksum). Can you try also DVB-S2 performance in WMC 7 and let us know?

For those interested in setting up an ATSC & QAM Tuner in WMC 7 RTM - here are the Instructions (http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/pnear/archive/2009/08/10/enabling-atsc-amp-qam-in-canada-for-windows-7-rtm.aspx). This guy (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/joeb/) looks like a good contact for any pain expression, FTA PC warriors are still experiencing. :)

No, didn't know that. But I'll "check my sources" when I get home and see if I can snag it somewhere. I'm not sure what the "TV pack" is, I just installed my 32-bit RC ISO. It downloaded some packages from the internet, it was kind of vague what it was installing, only thing I caught on to was the EPG. I just ordered the TBS 6920 PCI-e card, and I will let you know how the S2 performance in.

TV Pack 2008 was for Windows Vista only.

Most (if not all) features for that pack were included in Windows 7 Media Center.

Thanks for clearing that up meinename. I did some searching, I did find references to the TV Pack for Vista, nothing for 7. So I installed the 7 RTM last night. Not much has changed obviously. I did notice it installed drivers for my 102g automatically, something it did not do in the Beta or RC. I installed the latest ones from Twinhan anyway. It set everything up automatically. I ordered my TBS 6920 from Ebay yesterday, I'll probably get it next week. I hope to have my dish up and running by then.

I will say 7 has impressed me so far, I've been using it for a few months everyday. I've been a Mac and Linux guy for 6 years. Ubuntu is incredibly easy to install and configure now, as well is Mac OSX. It seems like Microsoft did their homework this time. It looks like WMC seamlessly configures our DVB tuners and integrates it with everything. I'm definitely looking forward to this. If it works like I hope it does, I'll slap an ATSC tuner card in my PC as well, and have both OTA and FTA pouring in.

How are you guys legally using Windows 7 RTM when it won't be out until October 22nd, 2009?

Windows 7 RTM was released to TechNet subscribers the first week of August.

Windows 7 RTM was released to TechNet subscribers the first week of August.

How much are you paying for that subscription?

Me personally, nothing. My company has a TechNet Gold subscription, which is like $2495 a year I think. There are different levels of subscriptions, starting at $99/year I believe.

I just ordered the TBS 6920 PCI-e card, and I will let you guys know how the S2 performance is.Juts make sure your 36" Fortec dish is adequate to receive DVB-S2 and/or clear 8psk channels you target at your location, which is remote enough for such dish size. You may want to consider 1.2 m dish for much better luck with DVB-S2 channel locking. And with that dish size you may have a bonus of getting some (limited) C-band stuff, if you go for a mini-BUD setup. :)

True. Well I'm puting up my 10ft C-band dish so it should be adequate. As far the 36", the Ku signals I receive here in SC absolutely bang in...I've very few signals that I got less than 90% quality on. But I do understand because of the FEC, dish size is important. We'll see how it goes.

Will Win7 MC be capable of streaming live TV through a local network? I know it will do recorded media, just not sure about live...

Yes it will. There's a option that says "Live TV" on the extenders. This is why I'm wanting to do this project. Once I get my satellite cards working, I'm going to put an ATSC card in as well so I can do OTA as well.

Do you have to be using WMC to view the live streaming video? I would like to use WMC on my media server b/c Windows has support for my Pinnacle Pro HDTV USB OTA tuner, but if it is going to require me to put Windows 7 on all of my computers then I will probably just stick with a Mythbuntu backend and try to figure out how to get the Pinnacle tuner configured for Linux. I don't want to buy Windows and my University won't have it available for students to download until 6 months after it's initial release and I really don't want to wait that long (and I don't think my laptop would like running Win7 very much anyway :) )

:EDIT:

After talking to a guy at work, I think I am going to stream video using VLC. I have decided to run Win7 on my media PC so I can use WMC and just stream anything I want/need using VLC. I don't need or necessarily want a media center on every computer. If I want to stream something to my laptop, viewing it through VLC is sufficient. VLC is fully compatible with Ubuntu so I won't need to make any OS changes except for my media PC (which is getting a hardware overhaul as well).

That's cool Willie. Yeah, I tried VLC a while back, works great as long as you have enough bandwidth. At the time, all I had was an 802.11b network (11mbps) and it wasn't enough. Once I plugged into my 100mbps wired network it was fine. I'm thinking 802.11g will be enough. It works great streaming to another computer, but my 360 will only communicate with WMC to stream live content...it will work with other media streaming applications for movie files and such.

Right now, everything is setup up with 802.11g. For my birthday I got a gift certificate for Newegg.com so I will be buying some 802.11n stuff soon and probably a new 500GB or bigger hard drive. It should be able to handle HD content :). I have talked to a guy at work who tried to stream HD content over 802.11g and he said it didn't work very well, but the SD stuff worked fine on 802.11g.

Right now, I just have en extra CD-ROM drive in my media PC. I've been holding back on buying a DVD drive and have been thinking about just getting a Blu-Ray/DVD drive. These are getting pretty cheap, so I may invest in one of these and hold out on the 802.11n hardware.

If 802.11g isn't doing it, 802.11n may help but don't have too high of expectations.

I'm using power line ethernet to bridge my up and down stairs and stream content (basically huge MPG2 files) between my Tivos. It isn't the same as what you are doing but the challenge is the same. SD works fine. HD I can't quite watch in real time. Via 100 Meg Ethernet I can.

Well, it took all night but I finally got Windows 7 downloaded (legally, from my university :)). The 32 bit pro version is 16 GB. I think the 64 bit is a 20 GB download. Hopefully by the end of tonight I will have it running with my Twinhan 1020a card.

Doesn't 802.11n have average rates of 100-200 Mbps? Why should I not be surprised if it doesn't stream live HD? It seems like that would be more than enough to handle it...

802.11n has higher theoretical limits but in practice (for me anyways) the only advantage has been range in spite of what the connect speed says.

A guy I work with said he couldn't get the wireless n to work in Windows 7 with an encore brand wireless card, but he got it to work fine with another brand (can't remember which one). You might want to check forums elsewhere and see if other people can get the higher 802.11n speeds with the same equipment and OS you are using.

Well, it took all night but I finally got Windows 7 downloaded (legally, from my university :)). The 32 bit pro version is 16 GB. I think the 64 bit is a 20 GB download


The app that MSDNAA downloads Microsoft software through was wrong. It said that the download size was 16,000 MB (as I said above) and I was blown away by the size of this new OS.

After downloading, the .iso was 2.3 GB; nowhere near the 16GB it said. phew.

I got Win7 Pro installed and it works great. I got my OTA tuner working with Windows Media Center, but I am still trying to get it to work with my 1020a. Windows didn't automatically find any drivers for the 1020a so I installed the drivers that came on CD with the card. Windows recognizes it now and says the device is working properly, but I was unable to find it through WMC. Do I need to do anything with the software that was installed with the drivers? It has the antenna setup stuff like a receiver would have, but I'm not sure if I need to have that running as well as WMC or if WMC will do it all? I will try it tonight. When I tried to add a satellite receiver through WMC it only had info/setup options about STBs, not tuner cards. I am going to try and get it working with the VisionPlus software that came with the card and then with WMC. Hopefully I can get it working through WMC.

As a side note, when I was watching live HD content on NBC last night, it worked great. However, when I would try to view the guide while the show was still playing, things would start to get rough and the video started skipping and the system started get hung up. This is using 2GB of RAM and the on-board HD Radeon 3200 video. I have another 2GB of RAM and a Nvidia 9500 GT w/ 1GB DDR2 on the way. I'll update on the performance once I get these installed.

willie,

Just curious, are you using the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version? Just remember the 32 bit version will peak out at 4GB total of RAM, combining your system memory and your video card memory. You may want to switch to the 64 bit version and try it, however, it may be tough to get drivers for the 1020a. I had a tough time getting my 102g working but I finally did after scouring through forums for hours. My TBS 6920 came yesterday, and I should have my small dish up buy the end of the week and maybe my 10 footer by the end of next week (woo hoo!). I streamed a movie to my 360 this weekend, worked GREAT!

willie,

Just curious, are you using the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version? Just remember the 32 bit version will peak out at 4GB total of RAM, combining your system memory and your video card memory. You may want to switch to the 64 bit version and try it, however, it may be tough to get drivers for the 1020a. I had a tough time getting my 102g working but I finally did after scouring through forums for hours. My TBS 6920 came yesterday, and I should have my small dish up buy the end of the week and maybe my 10 footer by the end of next week (woo hoo!). I streamed a movie to my 360 this weekend, worked GREAT!

I am running the 32 bit version. I didn't realize the 4GB limit included the video card RAM. I have access to the 64 bit version so I guess I will need to do that. I popped in the CD that came with my 1020a and it seemed to install the drivers fine. Device manager says the card is operating properly. The software that came with it runs fine (in XP SP2 compatibility mode) but I haven't messed with it very much yet. Does Win7 let you just run an upgrade to 64 bit or do I have to do a fresh install?

When you had a tough time getting your 102g to work do you mean that you couldn't find a driver or you had a driver, but it still didn't work right?

Good question. I've always done a clean install between the two. I'm GUESSING that with 7 you may be able to upgrade, I'm not sure. I was able to upgrade between beta to RC and then RC to RTM. When I was running the 32-bit RTM it automatically installed my 102g drivers as well, but when I wiped it and installed the 64-bit it did not. I had the Digital TV 3.4 release 19 from the Twinhan website, and it would not install correctly. I found some patched drivers for Vista 64 that worked fine (I love user support forums). Then WMC found it correctly. Fortunately, I popped my TBS 6920 today and installed the drivers from TBS's website, and it installed without a hitch on 64-bit :) If you need some help getting your 1020a installed, let me know, I'll send you my patched drivers, I have them stowed away for safe keeping, since Twinhan seems to lack support for 64-bit :(

Btw you said WMC wouldn't find your OTA card afterwards? Run the initial setup again (Tasks > Settings > General > Windows Media Center Setup). That's what I had to do after I got my drivers installed.

Okay, I locked in a Q signal with the Vision Data app that came with my 1020a. It seems to have found the TP and locked onto it. I would really appreciate those patched drivers if you don't mind. I'll send you a PM with my email. I am downloading Win7 64 bit right now.

I have tried to run the initial setup a few times now and WMC only finds my OTA tuner. As I said above, the card seems to have locked onto the signal I told it to, so I'm not really sure why WMC doesn't find it. Is there a media player I can use that works well with FTA stuff so I can try it out on there before messing with WMC. If it is a hardware issue I want to find it before I spend too much time fiddling with software.

The pic shows a screenshot of the app with the locked signal. I know the Q is low - I need to adjust my dish :)

Okay, I finally got Win7 64bit installed. As expected, none of the software/drivers that came with my Twinhan 1020a worked. I installed the patched drivers for 64bit and device manager says the device is working properly and WMC finds the card. The problem is that I scanned the satellite I am aimed at through WMC and it found a bunch of FTA stuff, but when I try to view it, nothing comes up. It looks like there is no signal. I'm not sure why this is since there is a signal when I use my receiver. I am hopefully going to get this worked out this week. If you all have any suggestions please let me know! Also, I found beta version of the Twinhan DTV media player that is for 64bit Vista and I am going to see if I can't get that working as well.

:EDIT:
And FYI to answer to my question from an earlier post you have to do a clean install when switching from 32bit to 64bit. Upgrade option is not available, as expected.

Nice job Willie! I'll tell you what I did, I installed the patched drivers and then went back and installed the latest Twinhan Digital TV package over it...and it worked fine. Might wanna try that too.

Nice job Willie! I'll tell you what I did, I installed the patched drivers and then went back and installed the latest Twinhan Digital TV package over it...and it worked fine. Might wanna try that too.

You are using Windows 7 64 bit, right?

Yes, I am. I know it sounds weird and doesn't make since but it worked for me. It seems like if you just install the raw patched drivers it's missing some component, but when you install the Digital TV package, it works. I couldn't get DVBDream to recognize the card until I installed the Digital TV package, then it worked fine. I still haven't got my dish up to test the signal. I've been either sick or the weather hasn't cooperated.

Yes, I am. I know it sounds weird and doesn't make since but it worked for me. It seems like if you just install the raw patched drivers it's missing some component, but when you install the Digital TV package, it works. I couldn't get DVBDream to recognize the card until I installed the Digital TV package, then it worked fine. I still haven't got my dish up to test the signal. I've been either sick or the weather hasn't cooperated.

I have tried this over and over, but can't get it to work. After disable driver signature enforcement, the DVB-Data app locks onto the TP I am trying to get, but no other program will do it. WMC finds the card but says it can't find any signals and to check my connection. The newest DTV package installed correctly and will run, but when I try to lock a signal using it, it finds nothing. Last night Twinhan DTV looked like it was trying, but the Q was only around 12%, whereas at the same time the Q was around 35% in DVB-Data (the TP at 12061 on AMC4), I don't understand why the two programs from Twinhan are showing such different results. It's nice to get the signal locked in with DVB-Data, but I can't do anything else with that program. It seems like the drivers should be working fine if DVB-Data works with my 1020a, but then why wouldn't any other program work? Am I missing something??

Willie,

That is odd. I wish I could say I've tested mine but I haven't. I worked all day last Wednesday mounting my dishes, and since then have been working everyday so I haven't had a chance to align them and run coax...hopefully I can get to that this week. Unfortunately Twinhan doesn't want to get it together and code a 64-bit driver...why, I have no idea. It definitely sounds like you have a driver issue going on. Maybe we should e-mail Twinhan and request Windows 7 support.

Maybe we should e-mail Twinhan and request Windows 7 support.

I sent them an email last week and got no response. I sent another email earlier this morning as well, so hopefully I'll get something out of them this time.

Guys I'm in the same situation as you are, so I got a few questions:

I'm using Windows 7 x64 after installing DTV 3.4 and then reboot with -disable signed drivers I got it recognized in MCE and ProgDVB but I cannot get any channel, I can't even get signal from FastSatFinder so I really would like to get that patched driver you mention in this thread and also a recap about how to install it, if I'm not wrong the way to install it is:

- Patched x64 driver
- DTV 3.4
- Boot in -signed drivers

is this correct?

Guys I'm in the same situation as you are, so I got a few questions:

I'm using Windows 7 x64 after installing DTV 3.4 and then reboot with -disable signed drivers I got it recognized in MCE and ProgDVB but I cannot get any channel, I can't even get signal from FastSatFinder so I really would like to get that patched driver you mention in this thread and also a recap about how to install it, if I'm not wrong the way to install it is:

- Patched x64 driver
- DTV 3.4
- Boot in -signed drivers

is this correct?

I actually did it backwards. I turned off the UAC, installed the Patched x64 driver, and then installed DTV 3.4. Like I said, I can't verify a signal because I have nothing hooked up, but everything is detected and installed properly. I've attached the driver I found on another forum somewhere. I can't take credit for it, nor can I offer any kind of "warranty." Good luck, let me know what you guys find. Hopefully, I can join in on the party soon. I'm about to send Twinhan an e-mail myself.

Thanks for the driver but I still can't make this card to work in Windows 7 x64

I actually did it backwards. I turned off the UAC, installed the Patched x64 driver, and then installed DTV 3.4.

I got it to work in win7 RTM 32bit. I installed the drivers from TwinhanDTV2.608a.zip (from twinhan site). Then I installed the setup.exe from the package. It did BSOD crash when it tried to install DirectX (try deleting it from the package to avoid BSOD). After it rebooted itself from the crash, I opened DVBdream and chose the Twinhan Direct driver that came with DVBdream. Radio and video channels work! No F8 crap.

Now for 64 bit . . .
My twinhan 102g DVB-s card will not take those DVB-T drivers you posted dashund. . . in fact, all the drivers I have tried get reject by device manager. If I could get the drivers to stick I would run the setup.exe in Vista SP1 or SP2 compatibility mode and if it wouldnt work in DVBdream after that, then I would run setup.exe in XP mode (NOT to be confused with XP compatibility mode). This is a feature only in RTM win7.

So how did you install the driver in win7 64bit?

Now for 64 bit . . .
My twinhan 102g DVB-s card will not take those DVB-T drivers you posted dashund

I have yet to test them. I'm gonna try to get everything done Tuesday, my next day off. Device manager took it, and DVBDream sees it, but I can't testify whether it actually accepts a signal, so I may have the same issue willie has. I did install Windows 7 32-bit and it was a breeze with the Digital 3.4 package. But it's the 64-bit drivers that it won't take, and this seems to be a problem for years...I had the same issues with Vista 64-bit. I want the 64-bit performance and RAM capability advantages, hence why I'm trying to figure this out. I bought a TBS 6920 (which installed beautifully without a single hiccup) for S2 and general feed hunting with my 10 foot dish, but I wanna use the 102g for my fixed Ku dish I have on AMC 21 for PBS.

EDIT: I was reading around and found where someone posted that ProgDVB 64-bit has a driver for Twinhan cards. Anyone tried this yet?

[QUOTE=dashaund;1953523

EDIT: I was reading around and found where someone posted that ProgDVB 64-bit has a driver for Twinhan cards. Anyone tried this yet?[/QUOTE]

When I installed 102g into 32bit windows 7, I could not use the twinhan direct driver in DVBdream because windows still had not recognized the device. The progDVB driver is probably for ProgDVB and not for win7-64bit (device manager). Cant hurt to try tho :)

I guess im gunna install stinky 32bit win7 just for this purpose in my HTPC. I tried emailing twinhan support to say "my twinhan card is only as good as the support" (re: 64bit) and my email bounced back.

Here is a web form from twinhan support, for those who want to encourage twinhan to make the driver :

http://www.twinhan.com/on_line_help.asp

EDIT: stupid webform wont submit from google chrome

Hey guys. Okay, finally got some signal coming in! I setup my 90cm dish and aimed it at AMC21 so I can get the PBS feeds. Result? Eh...nada. On either card. My 102g gives errors when trying to tune in both ProgDVB 64-bit and DVBDream. My 6920 either crashes DVBDream or shows no signal. Soooo, looks live Windows 7 doesn't like to tune either card even though I have no device manager conflicts. I think I'm going to install XP later this week and go with that until the manufacturers release fixes.

I have no device manager conflicts.

How did u get win7 64bit to take the 102g drivers?

How did u get win7 64bit to take the 102g drivers?

The same steps I posted previously...turned off UAC, and installed the patched drivers. Windows then installed the device without any conflicts, and then I installed Digital TV 3.4 release 19. Even with those drivers, the device still did not work. I'm currently installing Windows 7 RTM 32-bit to see if it works and it's just a 64-bit driver issue or a Windows 7 issue. I'll be the first to say 32-bit is outdated and everyone should jump on the 64-bit bandwagon. But, we're stuck in an XP world right now, and most manufacturers aren't going to code 64-bit drivers for old hardware. It looks like Snow Leopard has finally turned the Mac world in the 64-bit direction, lets hope Windows 7 64 along with computer manufacturers shipping computers with 64-bit OSes puts hardware manufacturers butt's in gear.

UPDATE: Okay, I got 32-bit installed. Got all the drivers installed, and the 102g works great with DVBDream. I've got an audio issue when decoding AC3, but that's probably a small kink I'll work out...I had similar issues with both XP and Vista at times, so, no big surprise. I just the audio codec is redded out when I'm playing an AC3 stream. I am, however, disappointed in Media Center. I was able to configure my card but two issues came up. First off, it seems to have an outdated and incomplete list of available satellites in the NA arc. It lists 123 as G10R, and there is no AMC 21 at 125. So, whatever, I'm just testing this out. So I chose 123 and continue. Onto scanning transponders. I manually key in a frequency, symbol rate, and polarity of the PBS HDTV signal on 12140 and Media Center crashes...awesome. I'm not sure if this is a driver issue or a Media Center issue. I'm guessing a Media Center issue since I can use my 102g in DVBDream fine. And I did install Digital TV 3.4 release 19 for the most up to date drivers. ::sigh:: Oh well, hopefully once Windows 7 releases officially we'll get some fixes and updates in the near future.

A program called DVBlink will take care of your scanning issues ($30).

Scanman's codec pack will take care of your AC3 problem ($free)
Undertaker's Blog: Scanman's Ultimate DVB Codec Guide (http://under1aker.blogspot.com/2008/03/scanmans-ultimate-dvb-codec-guide.html)

Check PM.

Ah, yes, Scanman"s codec pack...the missing piece I forgot about ::bangs head against wall::. Thanks for the tip, that's why I find this forum and invaluable resource.

I found this at Planet 64. It doesnt say twinhan specifically but one of the options in the readme should work.

I just got a Twinhan 102g card. Windows 7 Media Center detects it, but I can't use it because I have a multi-LNB setup. Is there some way to tell Media Center about the switch?

Use DVBlink for DVBdream and use diseqc 4x1 switch for 7MC.

7MC doesn't ask about the switch, at all. I've seen a website that says it's supposed to, but I've seen other websites where everyone is having the same problem as me, with no solution other than to suggest that possibly the BDA driver is buggy.