nVidia's DualTV used with SageTV, issues?

[IncredibleHat]

I have been considering buying the new nVidia DualTV card to replace my two Hauppauge PVR150's.

Has anyone out there bought the DualTV, and used it with SageTV?
Does it work?
Does it work good?
Does it work better than the PVR500 (or two PVR150s)?
Any issues to know about?

I have read only two review articles, and they basically did 'the idiots look at the card', and no real in depth testing with multiple software packages out there (Sage included), nor giving any real good results. Basically reviews written from just reading the box at the store.

Anyhow, the reason I am wanting to do this, is my two PVR150's are causing me so much grief. I used to just have one PVR150, and it worked so well, and gave me no troubles in the 10 or so months I had it. Then, recently I bought a second PVR150, and since I installed it, nothing but issues with some channels losing sound, or tuning to channels and getting some odd rainbow banding discoloration for sometimes up to a few minutes.

I don't want to buy the PVR500... because thats not much of an upgrade from two PVR150s. The nVidia DualTV looks to have a lot of nice features, and is of decent quality (its nvidia!).

Welp, if anyone has input, I'd love to hear it! Thanks.

[Fluffdaddy]

Looking at the nVidia DualTV myself, but waiting for someone else here to be the ginnie hamster

[tmiranda]

I've got a DualTV as well as a 150. The DualTV works great and has a better PQ than the 150. Beware, due to nVidia driver limitations you can only have one DualTV is the system. The DualTV also comes with the PureVideo decoder which most claim is top-notch. I don't use it so I can't confirm that personally.

[blade]

According to Narflex they tested an nvidia driver that supports dual tuners months ago and confirmed it worked with Sage; however, for some reason nvidia has not released it yet.

There have been quite a few threads on the forums discussing the nvidia dual tuner cards. If you do a search you should find plenty of information.

[IncredibleHat]

Hmm. My shurch skillz must suck I thought I was asking something new!

I already own purevideo (damnit... had I known, I woulda bought the DualTV instead of a second PVR150 and purevideo seperately!). Purevideo is great, from the various things I've tried. Mostly because I use nvidia hardware.

EDIT:
Ok, I found some decent threads.
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=20483
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=20708

Its looking like nvidia has yet again dropped the ball on inadequate drivers. I guess I wont be buying this then. I'm starting to think I may just swap out all my nvidia hardware and software and finally jump ship to something better. I'm really getting fed up with nvidia's junk.

[Wheemer]

Normally Nvidia makes a fine product... and the drivers are always better than ati's for sure.

I guess with tv tuners they must have not done enough testing with the drivers.

[IncredibleHat]

Yeah. It looks like their hardware is top notch for this field... but they made lowsy drivers! Not everyone who runs an HTPC uses that junk MCE Its overpriced and doesnt even compare in quality and features as Sage and ... even those 'other' brands

[blade]

Originally Posted by IncredibleHat

Its looking like nvidia has yet again dropped the ball on inadequate drivers. I guess I wont be buying this then. I'm starting to think I may just swap out all my nvidia hardware and software and finally jump ship to something better. I'm really getting fed up with nvidia's junk.

Most people I've seen still say they'd purchase the Nvidia over the hauppauge if they were buying one today.

[Polypro]

With the DualTV and Sage, can you:

Adjust Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, and Sharpness...like you can with the 500? I run a calibration DVD through through an RF modulator to "calbrate" the 500's Analog RF input.

Adjust the Spatial and Temporal "Blur" settings, to adjust for signal quality, like you can with the Hauppauge Tweak Tool?

If Sage had a beta driver that allowed for 2x DualTV's...could Sage legally allow its download?

P

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Polypro

With the DualTV and Sage, can you:

Adjust Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, and Sharpness...like you can with the 500? I run a calibration DVD through through an RF modulator to "calbrate" the 500's Analog RF input.

Adjust the Spatial and Temporal "Blur" settings, to adjust for signal quality, like you can with the Hauppauge Tweak Tool?

If Sage had a beta driver that allowed for 2x DualTV's...could Sage legally allow its download?

P

Unfortunately you can't adjust settings in Sage with this version of the driver. I doubt that Sage could release that driver - they're sure to be subject to NDA.

Andy.

[blade]

I don't have the Nvidia card, but from what most users have said the card looks good with the default settings. Maybe someone who owns one can comment on it.

[dagar]

That's impressive that Nvidia can actually create worse drivers than Hauppauge. Sheesh!

[IncredibleHat]

But apprently the nvidia drivers are really easy to install... as apposed to the 10 or so files you have to do in proper order to get a hauppauge running

[blade]

Originally Posted by IncredibleHat

But apprently the nvidia drivers are really easy to install... as apposed to the 10 or so files you have to do in proper order to get a hauppauge running

All I've ever done is install the hauppauge cards and click setup and I was done.

[Polypro]

I don't doubt that it looks good...far smarter people than me have reviewed it and/or own it. I just have a pet peeve that I want my stuff calibrated to 16-235 and Blue Filtered. It would drive me nuts knowing I couldn't get to the settings I'm really pretty happy with the 500's PQ...but that's all I've ever had.

P

[IncredibleHat]

Originally Posted by blade

All I've ever done is install the hauppauge cards and click setup and I was done.

Yeah, thats all you really need to do with SageTV installed. But do they bother to write such simplified docs? Heh, no, they have a big page of a a lot of downloads, and really don't say one way or the other on the proper steps, or what you REALLY need in the general handful of situations that exist (well, two really, use their crap software, or use something else with their cards).

But thats besides the point

I would too want to be able to calibrate the DualTV card. I get real upset when I see whites bleeding, or blacks getting clumped in shadows. Its gross and disgusting. I don't care HOW good the PQ is, if its not in the right ranges, its not good.

[walts81]

I don't even click the setup (cuz it install more than just the drivers). I just open up Windows Device Manager, right-click on the card in question, select update drivers, point to folder containing driver files.

That's it.

- Josh

[Polypro]

That *usually* works But with the 24108 Beta drivers (which fixed the Samsung tuner problem *for me*...), you have to double click the .exe file. Luckily, there are only drivers in there. I guess you could try extracting it with WinRAR though...

P

[IncredibleHat]

What I found odd about those beta drivers, is they are labelled "64bit"... and on their page, they dont label it as that. They even go on to say that for 64bit systems, you install the drivers basically the way walts81 just said.

[kricker]

Currently my DualTV PQ looks like ass. I am in the middle of figuring it out now. It looks good for a few frames then looks like total sh@$ for a few frames and the pattern continues. It took them 4 weeks to mail me this card and so far it is way worse than my old pvr 150. rrrghhhhh!