Has anyone else experienced strangeness with Dvico's FusionHDTV 5 USB Gold Tuner?

[NewestUser]

Hey all,

I purchased the FusionHDTV Gold USB Tuner from SnapStream Three(3) days ago, delivered yesterday, and I'm noticing some strange issues.

I'm using the latest software and drivers (3.60.01) downloaded from Dvico, so this shouldn't be the cause. Here is my problem.

After it's on for several hours, or sooner, it stops responding to the remote, or even responds differently to the button pressed, going to a different function other than the one chosen.

Sometimes it goes to a different channel when the volume up/down button is pressed, or will go to the Analog Tuner, and not go back to the Digital tuner when the ATV/DTV button is pressed, and has to be manually put back to Digital mode from the program.

The Analog Tuner seems to be weak, even with an amplified antenna, and I'm just about 6 to 8 miles from the transmitter, so, it leads me to believe this unit is defective.

The Digital signal is strong, using the Philips HDTV Silver Sensor Clasic UHF/HDTV Antenna.

Do you suggest SnapStream send another one as a replacement, or have any of you had many of these same issues, and I should just get a refund from them?

Thanks!

[greg5865]

I'm not using beyong TV but FusionHDTV that came with the turner. I had the same thing happen to me but I think I must have hit the profile button by mistake. I cycled through the profiles until I got to FusionHDTV and everything worked fine, but it took me a while to try that.

[NewestUser]

I'm using the included software too, but no special profile, except altering the default one.

Also, it's more than just one or two buttons/functions getting messed up.

After a while, button after button start to stop responding, or give wrong function replies, or, sometimes, a function will come up I didn't press a button for... so somethings up with the hardware, me thinks! ...

How 'bout the Analog tuner signal being weak, even with an amplified antenna, is the sensitivity of the Analog RF Amp section poor?

[NewestUser]

now it's starting from the second the tuner is activated ... wrong response for
the key hit, and some not responding at all ...

yeah ... this tuner has problems!!!

Sent a request to SnapStream Friday Morning March 30th 2007 .. let's see if they
reply, and pay the shipping both ways.

It was sent with their promotion code for free shipping, if they charge now,
I'm just going to ask for a full refund, and get it some-place else.

[greg5865]

You don't have to set up profiles. I was reffering to the button on the remote labeldd "Profiles" If you presss it you will see in the upper left of the PC screen things like "Media Center", "Winamp", "PowerDVD". The button changes the function of the keys to work with those apps. Press it until "FussionHDTV" comes up, then try the buttons.

[NewestUser]

well ... well ... well ... isn't that interesting ... I set the "profile" using the button on the remote, to the FusionHDTV default, on BOTH the Analog and Digital sections, and now the button response matches the button press on the remote control.
(it wouldn't go back to the DIGITAL tuner, from the Analog section, using the remote button, until I set the "profile" in the Analog section too, they must be separate settings..!)


Why didn't DVico tell me this when I put the question on their web site.

thanks greg, .. now if you can fix the weak signal on my Analog tuner, I may not have to send all this back. ... is there a setting to raise the Analog sensitivity (RF Gain) ? ... maybe I should check the cables too, and see if the connector is snug at the signal splitter, and AMP, thing is, it looks better on my regular TV, ... OH well ... no big deal anyway, I really got this for the HDTV , and have the Hauppauge WinTV PVR150 for the analog signal, but I'd still like to know how sensitive the DVico's Analog front-end is... and if an extra bit of 'snow' is normal.

BTW- is there a setting on the separate "Signal Checker" program to tell it the input is from the ANTENNA, and not any other input?
It seems to scan what looks like cable channels, even though I set it to AIR, and naturally all scanned channels shows "NO SIGNAL"

Originally Posted by greg5865

You don't have to set up profiles. I was reffering to the button on the remote labeldd "Profiles" If you presss it you will see in the upper left of the PC screen things like "Media Center", "Winamp", "PowerDVD". The button changes the function of the keys to work with those apps. Press it until "FussionHDTV" comes up, then try the buttons.

[NewestUser]

... well .. it was a short lived happy time with this tuner. ...

It seems there's still things wrong with it, like the pause, when playing back the recorded TV show, coming active by itself, intermittantly, and not being able to get out of TimeShift from the remote, and the tuner signal going totally off (showing -1 with 22db) ... and some channels getting weaker in signal strength, (to 22% or so) intermittantly ..!!, even with the amplified antenna, that showed 100% signal strength several minutes before.

It's too strange for me to take a chance and keep.

I got a reply from SnapStream, for the RMA, but they made NO mention of refunding my return shipping for the tuner, ignoring my question completely.

It's rather cruel offering free shipping to get me to purchase the package, then, making me pay shipping to send back a product that came in as Defective On Arrival, before the first day of the warranty ended.

I was thinking of getting more from them, but I'll have to see what they decide with this, ... it will help me decide to make future purchases, or not.

[NewestUser]

duplicate post,
couldn't delete the entire thing, so I just edited out the same text

[NewestUser]

you probably don't care anymore, but I feel I have to update this latest development... (it's a good thing...)

I received another e-mail from snapstream customer support, and they said the shipping was originally being paid by them. :-) .. they quoted the statement ...

"...Please ship the product back to us using the prepaid return label that we will send to you shortly, and we'll ship a replacement to you..."

But in the shipping instructions they said ...

"...3. Mail the defective product (including all original contents and packaging, you may hold on to the antenna) to us at the address below. We recommend you use a traceable shipping service such as UPS, DHL or FedEx for shipping:..."

so I assumed the Label wasn't prepaid, 'cause they would choose the shipper if it was, and not ask me to bring it to whom I choose, ... but in this latest e-mail from them, they actually gave me a UPS tracking# ... so, I guess now it's officially a prepaid UPS shipping Label ... :-) ...

I'm glad it all worked out, so far, I still have to wait for the label, either by regular mail, or through an attachment in an e-mail , they didn't say ... anyway ... it hasn't arrived yet... I'll let ya know what happens with the 'new' tuner replacement.

(if you even still care .. )

[NewestUser]

info removed...

[B Fox]

I currenty have a system with a Fusion5 PCI Gold and a Fusion5 USB Gold. I selected these for the HD and QAM support. I have to admit,to my suprise, that the small antenna that shipped from Snapstream is working great. I am able to record 2 HD shows while watching a 3rd previously recorded HD Show. This is on a standard P4 3.0GHz, no Dual Core yet.

Now to the point of this thread. When I tried the latest Fusion 3.6.X drivers I was no longer able to use BeyondTV because the drivers snapstream uses (WDM or BDM, I think) was not longer installed. I had to revert back to 3.5.1 drivers for everything to work correctly again. I do not use the Fusion viewing software except when I was using the signal strengh util to help adjust the antenna. But I did notice the Fusion software hangs and has glitchs after being on for a while. I don't have this problem in BeyondTV.

I have no plans of upgrading the drivers at the moment because everything is working. Enough tweaking for the moment. But I am curious how can I check which version of the USB GOLD I have? 1.0 or 1.1?

[NewestUser]

I removed the attached pictures, 'cause everyone looked, but no one replied about it.

36 views of the pix, and not one of you said anything about it.

[NewestUser]

I tried using the SnapStream v4.6, and it seems to not like computers with slower processors, mine being 1GHz P3 , overclocked to 1.12GHz.

Snapstreams program doesn't play smoothly, Dvico's isn't perfect either, but does do a better job of not glitching as often, and much less when in Time-shifting, and hardly at all when recording in 'silent' mode, during the scheduler.

I don't like the fact you can't stop SnapStreams Time-Shifter mode, it seems to always be recording to the hard drive.
You can stop it with Dvicos software, and just have the video stream on screen, without recording to hard drive.

SnapSteam doesn't have a 'EPG' programming mode, and most likely depends on the on-line internet program guide to show what's on.

Dvico's 'EPG' gets the program data from the stations vertical blanking Digital information stream, so you don't have to be on the internet to schedule an automatic recording, you just have to be on, or around, the channel you want to schedule, for the video signal to put this info into the program, when you hit the 'EPG' button.

The SnapStream program may have more features, but I don't think it works well with slower 'puters.
So, for me, with my OLD slow 'puter, Dvico's software is better.

[NewestUser]

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[NewestUser]

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