FM Radio?

[JuliusPB]

Is it just me, or is the FM radio program in Beyond TV really awful? Is there any way to configure it...

Things I would like to see:
1. Being able to put a station call sign/name along with the frequency (perhaps even a description or genre)
2. Basic radio functions (scan all stations and auto program)


I'm not a huge radio listener, but if you are going to have the feature, I doubt either of the above would be hard to implement.

Also, does anyone else use the hauppauge 500? Does Windows Media recognize your fm tuner? Since BTV's radio is weak, I tried to use WMC, but it claimed I lack the hardware (is that because BTV takes exclusive control of the video tuner card and along with it the radio tuner?)

[Mamba]

Heck, mine doesn't even work...get a little static but that's it (and yes, I have an antenna attached to it). But what the hey, I can get better reception off my HTR anyway.

[pdaughe]

I've wondered why I haven't seen more posts on the new FM radio support.

Granted, it is relatively new and will mature, HOWEVER, I have been amazed at how much it is used in our home!

We've had a receiver for several years. Seldom did anyone walk up to the receiver and tune in a radio station. I never took the time to program the receiver's remote for radio stations -- just too cumbersome.

Now, however, simply because it's easier, both my wife and son (especially) play radio much more frequently using BTV. It really did surprise me.

So much so that I purchased a small Terk antenna which I'm going to throw up in the attic. Coax will run to a three-way splitter to all three FM tuners in the tuner server. For right now, the tuner server is sitting in the living room waiting to be moved downstairs. Those little wired antennas shipped with the tuners are plugged in and just laying on the floor, but the reception is fine.

(if you just receive static, did you try scanning?)

I defined the seven or eight stations they listen to and it is really quite nice. My son want visualizations (which I bet are coming) and of course the ability to record.

Personally, I listen to Piano Solo music via Spotlight. I love that...

[Rich A]

Yup, I use it often too. When I'm in my home office working on something I open up a BT-LINK and start the radio part of it. Then minimize it so I can listen to comforting music in the background while I'm working. Late afternoon I like to tune to the local PBS station and listen to the news on "All Things Considered". And since I have the BTV server feeding a whole house A/V distribution, any room where there is a TV can be set to listen to the FM radio of BTV via that TV. Wife used to have both a TV and FM radio in the sewing room. Now we don't need the FM radio.

I agree, it can be "polished" a little but as for functionality it's great ! What I would REALLY like is for it to be made to work like the TV PVR .. where you can schedule shows to record. Doesn't need to be fancy. Just some sort of manual time set ... Wow, that would really "rock my boat".

[JuliusPB]

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried the radio program from Hauppauge? I quickly downloaded it, but it complained about a lack of drivers and I was too lazy to figure out which ones I needed (I have their pvr-500 card... the cd that came with it (package from snapstream) had drivers for the capture card, but none of their standard winpvr software)

Honestly, I mostly listen to audio over ip streams, and not fm radio... but it would be nice if it worked well (I guess the BTV implementation is functional... just a bit rough and ugly... only 9 presets, no station naming, etc.)

[crunch1]

I use the one that came with my Hauppage card [wintv pvr 150 mce] It works well. I live in the city and my office is in a basement, but it picks up very well.
I just downloaded the btv 4.1, but don't see any setup for the radio. I would like to compare, can anyone help me?
Have a good one.

[Rich A]

It's been a while since I first installed it, but let me see if I can remember. I believe you have to install the Hauppauge radio application to get the drivers etc. But of course don't run the application. Shut down BTV and run the BTV setup. From there you should see your PVR-x50 RADIO listed. Then just do with that the same thing you did to get the PVR tuners installed. On my screen, I show a PVR-250, a 350, the OTA ATI tuner and the 350-radio.

Hope that gets you into the ball park.

[crunch1]

Thanks Rich,
Went into setup and it worked out well. Only thing I like about the wintv radio is you can set aside more stations in the program mode. Looks like BTV only allows 9. I listen to a lot of different types of FM so I use more stations over the long haul, and am too lazy to search for.
Again thanks for the help.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by crunch1

Thanks Rich,
Went into setup and it worked out well. Only thing I like about the wintv radio is you can set aside more stations in the program mode. Looks like BTV only allows 9. I listen to a lot of different types of FM so I use more stations over the long haul, and am too lazy to search for.
Again thanks for the help.

Hey that's great! Yes what you say is true. But keep in mind this is still a very early product version. It's a start. Knowing SnapStream, it will just keep getting better I'm sure.

[Mamba]

Well after reading the replies here I decided to tackle the FM once more...turns out I needed a bigger antenna (RCA powered bunny ears) and then programmed all 9 stations. Not too shabby...and decent WAF too! Now, is there an easy way to set a button on the FF remote to start the radio? That would save turning on the TV at all, as then wouldn't need to nav the VS.

[Revenent]

Tried out the radio function today. What I'd really love is the ability to just punch in a frequency and not have to jump around to the right frequency.

[nicknero]

Got the idea to tweak the FM Radio feature in the Advanced settings but keep getting this error message

The value '0.0' of the ValueToCompare property of 'Comparevalidator2' cannot be converted to type 'Double'

Any ideas why?

[PremoKnight]

Originally Posted by nicknero

Got the idea to tweak the FM Radio feature in the Advanced settings but keep getting this error message

The value '0.0' of the ValueToCompare property of 'Comparevalidator2' cannot be converted to type 'Double'

Any ideas why?

I'm not sure what you are tlaking about by "Advanced settings", I don't see that anywhere int eh interface. But, 'Double' is a type of data that contains not only whole integers but also decimal places. My guess would be that you are setting something to 0.0 when you mean to set it to 0. It's hard to say withotu seeing the sourcecode. Are you playing around with actual files or just settings in BTV. It would seem really wierd to get that kind of error by playing around with something in the interface.

[JoeDornan]

I set up the BTV radio functionality when it first came out, as I was a big proponent of using the FM parts of our Hauppauge cards. I believe that BTV should do for radio what it did for TV. Automate the recording, increase the flexibility of watching. (ie free you from the default scheduling decisions of the original radio broadcast. I don't listen to live radio much anymore)

Unfortunately, I found BTV's functionality too limited to use it as my main FM app, so I resorted to using VCRadio until BTV brings their FM implementation in line with their TV implementation. http://www.sagebrush.com/vcradio.htm

I use VCRadio to:
- schedule automated recordings of specific radio shows
- identify how many of each radio show to keep before deleting old episodes
- save those recordings in MP3 format with custom MP3 tags and custom file names into a specific folder
- I then use iTunes to transfer those files to my ipod for listening on the go.

If BTV could do this and maybe even automate the import into iTunes, then all of a sudden it has a killer radio app that has no equal. (VCRadio is the only app of its kind as far as I can tell).

Down the road if BTV wants to take radio seriously, it could try to find a guide data provider, be able to record all those satellite radio channels that most people never use, etc. etc.

Wouldn't use anything but BTV for the TV stuff though! :-)

Ciao,
-Joe

[dequire]

Originally Posted by JoeDornan

I set up the BTV radio functionality when it first came out, as I was a big proponent of using the FM parts of our Hauppauge cards. I believe that BTV should do for radio what it did for TV. Automate the recording, increase the flexibility of watching. (ie free you from the default scheduling decisions of the original radio broadcast. I don't listen to live radio much anymore)

Unfortunately, I found BTV's functionality too limited to use it as my main FM app, so I resorted to using VCRadio until BTV brings their FM implementation in line with their TV implementation. http://www.sagebrush.com/vcradio.htm

I use VCRadio to:
- schedule automated recordings of specific radio shows
- identify how many of each radio show to keep before deleting old episodes
- save those recordings in MP3 format with custom MP3 tags and custom file names into a specific folder
- I then use iTunes to transfer those files to my ipod for listening on the go.

If BTV could do this and maybe even automate the import into iTunes, then all of a sudden it has a killer radio app that has no equal. (VCRadio is the only app of its kind as far as I can tell).

Down the road if BTV wants to take radio seriously, it could try to find a guide data provider, be able to record all those satellite radio channels that most people never use, etc. etc.

Wouldn't use anything but BTV for the TV stuff though! :-)

Ciao,
-Joe

In a stellarly cunning PR move, they could put that functionality into Beyond Media as a shure-fire way to rekindle that software. Make FM, Internet, and Sat radio recording, pause, etc. a BM module, much like the DVD plug-in is for BeyondTV.

Right now, I use ReplayAV to handle this duty, but obviosly would prefer everything through the 10ft interface.