Does WinTV radio application work with PVR-250?

[srcodemonkey]

I know BeyondTV doesn't support the FM tuner feature of the Hauppage PVR-250 (whatever that means), but I thought I could use the Hauppage radio utility independently. However, I can't get any sound out of it. It looks like it's tuning OK - the RF signal strength is high and "Stereo" appears when tuned to a known channel - but no sound. I've tried selecting different "Audio Mixer Inputs" under "Configure Audio..." without effect. (This is the only setting that seems appropriate, but I'm not sure exactly what it's for.)

Any insights? Does anyone have this working?

[Rich A]

Are you sure you're not talking about the PVR-350? The 250 doesn't have the FM Radio. The 350 does. I've used my 350's FM radio with the Hauppauge radio application and it worked okay. But it's not supported by BeyondTV and I decided to use it in the latest build of my ever-changing HTPC. I have one each of the 250 and 350. So the 350 for me is just running like a 250 without the radio.

[SHS]

Rich A don't for get there PVR 250MCE and yes some reg PVR 250 do have a FM Tuner if lucky get one from germany

[rtkracht]

Yeah, mine worked just fine. Haven't used it since installing BTV 3.5 but I doubt that would have any effect. I'll make sure that it still works this evening and let you know.

[srcodemonkey]

Originally Posted by Rich A

Are you sure you're not talking about the PVR-350? The 250 doesn't have the FM Radio.

Now that's interesting! I bought the All-In-One bundle with the PVR-250 (WinTV-PVR-250BTV). I remember seeing mention of the FM tuner in the product info on the SS site, but apparently they've dropped that bundle and I can't find the page anymore. The Hauppage site's documentation doesn't mention the FM tuner for the 250.

But the install guide that came with the bundle says it's a 250 and shows the FM input. Curioser and curioser. Maybe I did get one of the models that SHS mentioned.

[srcodemonkey]

Originally Posted by rtkracht

Yeah, mine worked just fine. Haven't used it since installing BTV 3.5 but I doubt that would have any effect. I'll make sure that it still works this evening and let you know.

Thanks. Any info you can give me on your settings would help too - e.g. what Audio Mixer input are you using in the FM tuner app. I assume the tuner should send sound out through my sound card. There's no special cable that has to go from the WinTV to the sound card, as with CD drives, is there?

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by srcodemonkey

Now that's interesting! I bought the All-In-One bundle with the PVR-250 (WinTV-PVR-250BTV). I remember seeing mention of the FM tuner in the product info on the SS site, but apparently they've dropped that bundle and I can't find the page anymore. The Hauppage site's documentation doesn't mention the FM tuner for the 250.

But the install guide that came with the bundle says it's a 250 and shows the FM input. Curioser and curioser. Maybe I did get one of the models that SHS mentioned.

Uh listen guys. This is simpler than you think. Just look at the back of the card's back plate sticking out of the back of the computer. Do you see TWO F-Fittings? If NOT then you DON'T have the FM tuner. If you did have the FM tuner you'd have another (2nd) TV-type F-fitting. That second F-fitting is for the FM Radio antenna that COMES with the PVR kit IF it has an FM tuner. And by the way, if you don't hook up the included antenna, you probably won't hear much of anything. Possibly a strong local may be found but it might not be strong enough to be properly decoded and you might not actually hear anything.

Of course I'm assuming you DO have two tuner inputs on your cards. I know one of you mentioned the docs showed it .. but did you actually CHECK the physical card itself? If I'm not mistaken the docs for the 250 might be the same as the 350, and the fine print or *, notes "only available with 350".

So please check that first before you go bonkers trying to make something work that isn't available. HTH ..

[rmiles7721]

The PVR250BTV has an FM tuner, if that is the card that you have. It is here. I have tried using the FM tuner plugin for meedio, and it screwed up an entire day of video recording (all radio, no video). Sucked. It would be nice if Snapstream would add support for it in BTV.

[srcodemonkey]

Rich, I guess I made it sound more complicated. I DO have an FM input on my card. That's not in question. That's why I'm trying to use the radio app. Remember I said it shows that it's tuning to stations, except no sound?

You just threw me when you said the 250 doesn't have the FM tuner, and after convincing myself that I wasn't hallucinating this time, I went looking for the documentation to prove it, and found weirdness. That's what all the other verbiage was about - sorry to muddy the waters.

So I have the FM input, I have an FM antenna hooked up, the radio app shows a strong signal, the volume is all the way up ... and nothing. I'm trying to figure out where the heck the sound is going, that's all. I assumed it would go to my sound card like the TV tuner does. But of course it couldn't possibly be that easy. The 1-page doc for the app shows how to fiddle with the knobs and not much else. That mysterious "Audio Mixer Inputs" setting looked so promising, but alas...

[srcodemonkey]

Originally Posted by rmiles7721

The PVR250BTV has an FM tuner, if that is the card that you have. It is here. I have tried using the FM tuner plugin for meedio, and it screwed up an entire day of video recording (all radio, no video). Sucked. It would be nice if Snapstream would add support for it in BTV.

I'm not familiar with meedio. Do you mean it gave you an interface to the tuner, found stations, and got audio out of it? Any special Windows audio settings you had it fudge with to get the audio?

I'm still trying to figure out what Snapstream means when they say they don;t support the fM tuner, other than that they don't have an app that uses it. I'm starting to wonder if it's more sinister than that, and they've disabled it somehow.

[rmiles7721]

Didn't have to mess with any Windows settings. You have to put the stations in, but it tunes and plays just fine. It's a pretty basic plugin, assumes that you know the stations in your area. Once BM gets a bit older, I am hoping that the configurability will equal Meedio, and that someone does a Radio plugin as well. I would be more than happy to switch, as BM obviously will work better with BTV than a 3rd party product.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by srcodemonkey

Rich, I guess I made it sound more complicated. I DO have an FM input on my card. That's not in question. That's why I'm trying to

<snip>

and not much else. That mysterious "Audio Mixer Inputs" setting looked so promising, but alas...

Not a problem. It's just that it keeps being referred to as a PVR-250. I think the actual model number is as rmiles7721 referred to, a PVR-250BTV. I own a "250" and it surely doesn't have a tuner. My 350 does. And I guess the 250BTV also does. My only concern would be if someone not in the know or a newbie saw all this talk of the FM radio and the 250 and were to say purchase a PVR-250 from Hauppauge or some mail order place .. he would really be upset that "his" PVR-250 didn't HAVE a tuner. Let's be clear that this one in question is not an out of the box Hauppauge standard 250 so as not to lead others wrong. That's all I'm saying.

[srcodemonkey]

Originally Posted by Rich A

the actual model number is ... PVR-250BTV.

Ok, PVR-250BTV then. Odd that only the BTV version has the FM tuner, but BTV doesn't support it. That is, it would be odd, if I actually expected things to make sense.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by srcodemonkey

Ok, PVR-250BTV then. Odd that only the BTV version has the FM tuner, but BTV doesn't support it. That is, it would be odd, if I actually expected things to make sense.

I agree 100 percent. Why sell a product especially made for their distrubution with a feature that is much desirable but not supported by them?

By the way .. If it's any help. My PVR-350 was original put in a single tuner HTPC I had built up a while back. I installed and tested several 3rd party radio applications, looking for something that I could use to actually record shows off the air .. like a Personal Radio Recorder as opposed to a Personal Video Recorder. Some worked better than others, but all of them did not work well in the BTV environment. So I abandoned that idea. Heck I'm not even sure it was Beyond TV back then .. maybe the Snapstream version 2.x or something. I'll have to look again. Things surely have changed since then.

Still that was at least a year ago. Maybe SS will someday add a radio support feature to Beyond Media. That would be cool. If they do, you'll be all ready.

[dirckjan]

Install the WinTV video decoder update from http://www.hauppage.com/pages/suppor...rt_pvr150.htmlThat did it for me.