Full Review of VisionPlus VisionDTV Freeview PCI Card
 

See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm



--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

DAB sounds worse than FM, Freeview, digital satellite, cable and
broadband internet radio

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm

This fits in with my experience of this card which I've had for about
6 weeks now.

One thing worth mentioning is that recordings roll over to a new file
when they reach 4Gbyte (typically 2.25 hours) even when on an OS
like XP or 2k that supports bigger files. Not a big problem but it
does mean you have to sew together two files for very long movies.

Your review is based on v2.41 software which is the standard that
comes with the card.

V2.42 is available from the TwinHan site but is not necessarily a good
upgrade, although that is what I'm using.
Pros
10 Recording slots rather than 5
Channel change seems a bit faster
The CPU usage dropped even lower for me.

Cons
Doesn't seem to work for everybody
They re-invented the full screen stupidity where it fills the whole
screen rather than using the correct aspect ratio and putting in
borders.

I find I can play back the recorded mpg files in bsplayer or power
dvd, but they are transport stream mpegs so the players can sometimes
get out of sync particularly if the signal quality is not good or the
commercial channels hiccup during an ad break.

There is an interesting standalone capture program supplied with it
that can capture the whole transport stream of a complete mux and so
it should be possible to post process this to extract individual
channels to give the effect of simultaneous recordings from one mux. I
believe however, this is a bit dumb in having a non roll over 4Gbyte
size limit which runs out quite quickly on a full multiplex.

Other things that might be worth including on your site is a link to
the Australian site
http://robdvd.radfiles.net/index.php

This hosts a forum for DVB-t owners and they have been using the card
for a lot longer than us. Interesting topics there are its use on HDTV
(I wish) and tying the card in with other software applications
including altrnative drivers that can support ShowShifter.

And the use of DABDig to integrate the VisionDTV software with
Digiguide

regards

Robert Tidey wrote:
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm

This fits in with my experience of this card which I've had for about
6 weeks now.

One thing worth mentioning is that recordings roll over to a new file
when they reach 4Gbyte (typically 2.25 hours) even when on an OS
like XP or 2k that supports bigger files. Not a big problem but it
does mean you have to sew together two files for very long movies.


Hopefully they'll add that in a new version of their software.


Your review is based on v2.41 software which is the standard that
comes with the card.

V2.42 is available from the TwinHan site but is not necessarily a good
upgrade, although that is what I'm using.
Pros
10 Recording slots rather than 5
Channel change seems a bit faster
The CPU usage dropped even lower for me.

Cons
Doesn't seem to work for everybody
They re-invented the full screen stupidity where it fills the whole
screen rather than using the correct aspect ratio and putting in
borders.


I've just installed v2.42, and it works alright for me. I might go back
to 2.41 to get the correct aspect ratios in full-screen mode.


I find I can play back the recorded mpg files in bsplayer


Nice one, I've been after a free video player for a bit. I've been using
WinDVD but you have to select the looong list of folders to get to where
my video files are each time you want to play a file.


or power
dvd, but they are transport stream mpegs so the players can sometimes
get out of sync particularly if the signal quality is not good or the
commercial channels hiccup during an ad break.


Watching TV on it last night I noticed it hiccup twice. It just throws a
very brief wobbler, but doesn't crash. Strange.


There is an interesting standalone capture program supplied with it
that can capture the whole transport stream of a complete mux and so
it should be possible to post process this to extract individual
channels to give the effect of simultaneous recordings from one mux. I
believe however, this is a bit dumb in having a non roll over 4Gbyte
size limit which runs out quite quickly on a full multiplex.


What is this program called?


Other things that might be worth including on your site is a link to
the Australian site
http://robdvd.radfiles.net/index.php


I'll have a look, thanks.


This hosts a forum for DVB-t owners and they have been using the card
for a lot longer than us. Interesting topics there are its use on HDTV
(I wish) and tying the card in with other software applications
including altrnative drivers that can support ShowShifter.

And the use of DABDig to integrate the VisionDTV software with
Digiguide


Yes, I'll add something about DABDig at some point.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

DAB sounds worse than FM, Freeview, digital satellite, cable and
broadband internet radio

"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote in message news:[email protected]
See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm

I'm wondering...

My PC at home isn't quite up to spec for this (only 450MHz), but I've
no intention of using it for video.

Would I still be able to use this card to grab the radio stations on
DTT, or does it require the stated processing power simply to demux
the incoming data?

Cheers,
David.

Robinson wrote:
"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm

I'm wondering...

My PC at home isn't quite up to spec for this (only 450MHz), but I've
no intention of using it for video.

Would I still be able to use this card to grab the radio stations on
DTT, or does it require the stated processing power simply to demux
the incoming data?


I've just looked at the CPU Usage Performance for a couple of minutes
and it's been wandering up and down between 2% and 10%, with an average
of about 6%, so a 450MHz CPU should be fine just for radio.

But if I had a 450MHz CPU I'd prefer to upgrade the CPU cos they're well
cheap at the moment, such as:

Athlon Duron 1.6 GHz for £28:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...85&GroupID=464

or Athlon XP 2000 for £41:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...34&GroupID=464

Plus cheap Athlon motherboard for £23:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...04&GroupID=304

and 256 MB of 266MHz DDR RAM for £28:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...41&GroupID=466

I'm good at spending other people's money. ;)


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

DAB sounds worse than FM, Freeview, digital satellite, cable and
broadband internet radio

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Robert Tidey wrote:
There is an interesting standalone capture program supplied with it
that can capture the whole transport stream of a complete mux and
so
it should be possible to post process this to extract individual
channels to give the effect of simultaneous recordings from one
mux.
I believe however, this is a bit dumb in having a non roll over
4Gbyte size limit which runs out quite quickly on a full multiplex.


What is this program called?


Capture.Exe

Actually I think I got it from the TwinHan download site under
utilities. There is a manual that goes with it.

regards

"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm

Is playback reliable?

What signal Quality reading do you get? (Hover mouse over the little
sat. dish symbol)

--

Brian Gregory (In the UK).

To email me remove the letter vee.

Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:
"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
See:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/vi...pci_review.htm

Is playback reliable?


Yes, it has been. I had a couple of brief drop-outs of Radio 1 when
listening to the Essential Selection, other than that it's been fine,
and I've also been experiencing funny goings on with Mux A (which R1 is
on), so that might be related to that.


What signal Quality reading do you get?


Signal strength is nearly always about 83% and signal quality is nearly
always around 98% irrespective of which mux I'm tuned to.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

DAB sounds worse than FM, Freeview, digital satellite, cable and
broadband internet radio

Robert Tidey wrote:
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Robert Tidey wrote:
There is an interesting standalone capture program supplied with it
that can capture the whole transport stream of a complete mux and so
it should be possible to post process this to extract individual
channels to give the effect of simultaneous recordings from one mux.
I believe however, this is a bit dumb in having a non roll over
4Gbyte size limit which runs out quite quickly on a full multiplex.


What is this program called?


Capture.Exe

Actually I think I got it from the TwinHan download site under
utilities. There is a manual that goes with it.


Okay, thanks, I'll check it out.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

DAB sounds worse than FM, Freeview, digital satellite, cable and
broadband internet radio

"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote in message ...

But if I had a 450MHz CPU I'd prefer to upgrade the CPU cos they're well
cheap at the moment, such as:

Athlon Duron 1.6 GHz for £28:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...85&GroupID=464

or Athlon XP 2000 for £41:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...34&GroupID=464

Plus cheap Athlon motherboard for £23:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...04&GroupID=304

and 256 MB of 266MHz DDR RAM for £28:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...41&GroupID=466

I'm good at spending other people's money. ;)

Well, you've just "spent" more than my PC cost me!

I hate spending money on computers.

Then again, I got a shock in kiddicare today too! I find the idea of
spending money on something that will be obsolete in a year or so (be
it PC or carry cot!) quite difficult.

Cheers,
David.