DAMN! nVidia DualTV is SUPERB!

[Joe The Dude]

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to hold off on getting the DualTV cards until they either:
A) Have a driver update to allow the use of multiple DualTV cards.
B) Come out with a single board with 4 tuners on it.

I went ahead and subscribed to this thread so I can keep an eye on future developments.

EDITED TO ADD:

Originally Posted by cpmiv

I run both the Nvidia DualTV and the Hauppauge 500.

Are you running them together in the same machine?

[cpmiv]

Yes I have the DualTV, PVR-500, PVR250BTV and Fusion 5 all in the same case, I've finally run out of PCI slots.

[Grasshopper]

I've recently purchased a DualTV and have found a severe problem. When I play the MPEGs on a MediaMVP almost all of them freeze the MVP at either 5:15 into the clip or 5:25 into the clip.

I've sent some sample MPEGs to Hauppauge for them to analyze. Their tech support is superb. On the other hand the bug report I've filed with nVidia has been in the "researching" state for 4 days.

I do not know for sure but I suspect the DualTV is messing up the MPEGs. I've never had the problem with any of the recordings made by my 150 or old Roslyn card. I can't see how BTV could be at fault.

The MPEGs that freeze the MVP play fine on any Link machine. They also play fine on all the other software MPEG players I have tried.

I have tried all sorts of different recording qualities, no difference at all.

Anybody else seen this? Any suggestions on how to further debug the problem?

[cmcquistion]

I'm running an Nvidia DualTV card, a Hauppauge PVR-500, an ATI 550, a Dvico Fusion 5 Lite (OTA HDTV), and a Vbox Cat's Eye USB (OTA HDTV). No problems, here, except some IRQ weirdness when my DualTV card was sharing an IRQ with the video card. Swapping cards around different PCI slots fixed my issues and I am able to record 7 shows (5 SD and 2 HD) simultaneously on my Socket 754 Athlon 3000 (overclocked to 2.5 GHz, because I can....)

Everything runs pretty smoothly. Picture quality is great on the Nvidia card. About the same or ~slightly~ better than the ATI 550. The Hauppauge is slightly worse, although not terrible by any means. Both HD cards are working well (digital picture=perfect) although I suspect that the Vbox is actually a bit better at working with weak HD signals.

[cmcquistion]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

I've recently purchased a DualTV and have found a severe problem. When I play the MPEGs on a MediaMVP almost all of them freeze the MVP at either 5:15 into the clip or 5:25 into the clip.

I've sent some sample MPEGs to Hauppauge for them to analyze. Their tech support is superb. On the other hand the bug report I've filed with nVidia has been in the "researching" state for 4 days.

I do not know for sure but I suspect the DualTV is messing up the MPEGs. I've never had the problem with any of the recordings made by my 150 or old Roslyn card. I can't see how BTV could be at fault.

The MPEGs that freeze the MVP play fine on any Link machine. They also play fine on all the other software MPEG players I have tried.

I have tried all sorts of different recording qualities, no difference at all.

Anybody else seen this? Any suggestions on how to further debug the problem?

What are your recording quality settings set to? Since different cards have different capabilities, it could be that the Nvidia card is changing some of the settings (normal) to some ranges it can work with. For instance, my ATI 550 card will only record average video bitrates, in multiples of 1000, so if I set something to record the video bitrate at 7200 kbps, the BTV log shows that it was changed to 7000, when the recording started. I imagine that the same holds true for variable rates.

What bitrates are you using and are they variable or static (average)?

[Grasshopper]

No IRQ conflict, it's the only device (using IRQ 21).

I've tried various bitrate settings and there is no difference.

I am hoping to get some feedback in a few days from Hauppauge when they have time to look at the MPEG files I sent.

[cmcquistion]

Are you using variable bitrates?

[Grasshopper]

I tried VBR and CBR, no difference.

Hauppauge tech support is currently analyzing the MPEGs. When I hear something I will post back here.

[yatman]

I'm using the card and loving it. I was using my AIW x800xt previously and the picture quality can't compare. All I can say is that it's a damn good thing you can get 750gb drives now!!! I'm gonna need em.

I still use the s-video inputs on my AIW card to hook up my xbox and there's been absolutely no conflicts at all.

[Fonceur]

So is that card available from any other sources than the NVidia store? Preferably in Canada or as a bundle from SnapStream (*hint* *hint*)?

[Cal]

I've been looking around for a place to order this card in Canada. I've seen nothing. Anyone know?

[btvfreak]

This is an interesting comment about the dualTV card and HDTV PCI cards from the very knowledgeable SpHeRe31459:
http://forum.byopvr.com/dvr/index.ph....html#msg36201

The NVIDIA DualTV is known to cause stuttering issues with PCI HDTV tuners as they both ride the PCI bus and want priority.

[cmcquistion]

Originally Posted by btvfreak

This is an interesting comment about the dualTV card and HDTV PCI cards from the very knowledgeable SpHeRe31459:
http://forum.byopvr.com/dvr/index.ph....html#msg36201

I had a similar issue which I documented in this thread. After swapping PCI slots, my problems went away.

Originally Posted by Cal

I've been looking around for a place to order this card in Canada. I've seen nothing. Anyone know?

So far, the only way you can get this card is direct from Nvidia.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by cmcquistion

So far, the only way you can get this card is direct from Nvidia.

Pretty much what I had concluded after a few searches... Oh well, I guess the Avermedia Purity 3D 500 will have to do, since it is available in Canada...

[extremefire]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Pretty much what I had concluded after a few searches... Oh well, I guess the Avermedia Purity 3D 500 will have to do, since it is available in Canada...

I wouldn't necessarily say that the Purity 500 will just have to do. Its an awesome card and it appears to have a lot of the same specs as the DualTV card anyway. I personally am looking into picking up a second card right now too.