The Energon Pub

Oh I do love my computer so...

Working with a Philips SAA7130, Hybrid Capture Device.

Installed, drivers all there. All I want to do is to get it to see the composite cable I've got plugged into the TV card. I'm not sure how to get it to scan for it. Using ChrisTV which is supposed to be very good. I've managed to get this to work before but not sure how.

All I get on ChrisTV is a grey screen, no signals detected or anything.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This one i may not be able to help with since don't have experience with the particular products but...

double check your drivers, make sure they are up to date. Make sure your OS is compatible(had that issue with an ati card). You said you've had it working before so i assume that isn't the issue.

if your card has multiple line in capabilites(i.e s-video,hdmi, and composite) check that it is trying to see the proper one.

and the most obvious which i trust you already did, make sure you have the cables in line-in and not line-out.

But most of all, make sure your television even has a line out connection on it. I'd say about 90%+ do not. That's something a lot of companies forget to tell you.

Drivers are up to date, according to the Device Manager.

All wires are where they should be, they haven't moved since when I got it to work last.

I think the only issue is trying to get it to actually acknowledge what's being fed into it with the composite cable... I'm not sure how to point it in that direction.

Well, you might want to try VirtualDub. If that can't find the device, something isn't hooked up right.

Meverix wrote:Drivers are up to date, according to the Device Manager.

I honestly wouldn't trust that. I've had it be wrong on more than one occassion. I would go to the devices websites and go from there. They may even have forums that would prove more useful than my random speculation of whats wrong.

Okay so I've tried a whole bunch of drivers. For some reason I have several folders. Of course one of these must've worked before, but absolutely none of them are making a difference now. I still get the same grey screen and no signals.

I've tried switching the PCI slot its in, but I get the same thing from both...

So, you never really answered my question. I'm assuming you're coming out of your TV. Does your TV actually have video out?

Iron-Man wrote:So, you never really answered my question. I'm assuming you're coming out of your TV. Does your TV actually have video out?

Sorry.

My setup is thus:

TV -aerial> Video -scart/Composite adapter (with input/output switch)>TV card

So yeah, the TV setup has an output facility. Everything is set to how it was previously when it DID work, so I think it's still outputting, my card just isn't displaying for some reason.

Well, then I would definitely try out VirtualDub. It's free and if it can't get a signal, there is something wrong with the card.

Iron-Man wrote:Well, then I would definitely try out VirtualDub. It's free and if it can't get a signal, there is something wrong with the card.

Well I just tried the site but it doesn't seem to want to download... It just brings me to the download page and sits there.

Iron-Man wrote:http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/virtualdub/VirtualDub-1.8.6.zip?download

That was the page that didn't work for me.

I went to Download.com and managed to get it there. Got it running and connected to the card and all that, but still a grey screen.

Nothing's changed with the card since it was last working, how could it suddenly stop? =\

Well, to be honest, it is one of the worst rated TV Cards on the web after doing some checking. Many people report that it just suddenly stopped working.

Iron-Man wrote:Well, to be honest, it is one of the worst rated TV Cards on the web after doing some checking. Many people report that it just suddenly stopped working.

Ah I might've guessed. Actually mine is one of these knock off ones you see on eBay. No mention of Philips on it but I heard somewhere that's what it was so..

Anyway, fair enough. In the bin with that. The question moves on to: Which tuner next?

I hear Dazzles are cheap and very good. I've got about £150 to spend on one so I may as well make it half way decent.

I have one of their DVD Recorders. The red one. Works quite well if you use VirtualDub instead of the crappy software it comes bundled with. Never used their TV Tuner Cards though.

before you completely give up hope on your current one, you might try completely uninstalling it(including deleting any folders associated with it that may be left behind, running a registry cleaner, and then reinstalling.

only thing you have to lose is time, right.

As for new ones, i can't offer much advice except don't buy ati...what a nightmare i had with those. Granted that was 6 or so years ago, things may have changed.

Things haven't. Much like most of their crap. *Still angry about his 9800 Pro burning up.... Both times*.

Gutter Bunny wrote:before you completely give up hope on your current one, you might try completely uninstalling it(including deleting any folders associated with it that may be left behind, running a registry cleaner, and then reinstalling.

only thing you have to lose is time, right.

As for new ones, i can't offer much advice except don't buy ati...what a nightmare i had with those. Granted that was 6 or so years ago, things may have changed.

Well this card has been a pain to install each time I've had to (at least three times due to computer screwing up bad). Since its a knock off thing, the CD that came with it is absolutely useless. It never had much going for it so meh. Out with it.

I've just bought a Dazzle tuner on eBay which looks the biz. Just a simple USB/Composite/S-Video dealy which seems simple enough.

Thanks for the helps anyway, guys!

Meverix wrote:Well this card has been a pain to install each time I've had to (at least three times due to computer screwing up bad). Since its a knock off thing, the CD that came with it is absolutely useless. It never had much going for it so meh. Out with it.

I've just bought a Dazzle tuner on eBay which looks the biz. Just a simple USB/Composite/S-Video dealy which seems simple enough.

Thanks for the helps anyway, guys!

Sorry we couldn't get it working for you. Let me know how the new one turns out.

Just a quick updates if you happened to be losing sleep wondering about my TV tuner predicament.

You know you have.

The Dazzle tuner arrived pretty much the day after I bought it, and the thing works fantastically well. I can really appreciate a clean, simple installation after all that faffing about with the other thing.

Cheers again for the help, guys. I at least needed someone to officially tell me it was knackered so I could buy a new one.

Glad the Dazzle works. Their stuff is pretty sturdy I've found.