Just when I thought I couldn't be any happier with my Xcard....

[BryanJ]

No, not yet.. I'm not really sure what my problem is with this setup.. Could be the cable... Could be that my soldered on pin header onto my Xcard is not going to work... Could be my video card (ASUS V8200) is incompatible w/ the Xcard VPE port.. I think I'll revisit the Xcard plugin and tweak what I can to improve the UI speed.. (that before I spend more $ on other hardware) Bryan J.

[SHS]

Can you sent me high rez screenshot of your Xcard like with a flat bed scanner that way I can comparison my card with your card to see if anything is missing.
By the did ASUS V8200 have pin all ready on the board or did have them solder on?.

[BryanJ]

Can you sent me high rez screenshot of your Xcard like with a flat bed scanner that way I can comparison my card with your card to see if anything is missing.
By the did ASUS V8200 have pin all ready on the board or did have them solder on?.

SHS.. Plz see the attached images.. The ASUS board is new.. (came with VIP header) (I also tried an ATI card with a soldered on pin header but it did not work... I gave up on the ATI since it is a little older.. mfg in 2000) The Xcard has a soldered on pin header.. Thanks for helping troubleshoot.. Bryan J

[SHS]

No wonder why your Xcard VIP is not working there few a chip miss from the board and also the board layout is diff it has one ext chip that found on my board which Rev S2.
You know there alway the NetStream 2000 which dose give you Windows mode over reg PC monitor with out a VIP cable but there a downside to it you not will beable to see desktop on NetStream 2000 when using the TV output or Video with Video card TV output and the away around that is with a NetStream 2000TV which are very hard to get hold of and cost petty penny when do fine them.

[BryanJ]

Thanks SHS.. Now I know I need to be looking for a Rev S2 Xcard!..

You know there alway the NetStream 2000 which dose give you Windows mode over reg PC monitor with out a VIP cable but there a downside to it you not will beable to see desktop on NetStream 2000 when using the TV output or Video with Video card TV output and the away around that is with a NetStream 2000TV which are very hard to get hold of and cost petty penny when do fine them.

About the Netstream2000/2000TV... is this correct about what you're saying? :
Netstream 2000:
VGA Port - Yes, Overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?
SVideo out - No, no overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?

Netstream 2000TV:
VGA Port - Yes, Overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?
SVideo out - Yes, Overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?

What are the capabilities of the Hollywood plus.. Would it be the same as the Netstream 2000?

Bryan J

[SHS]

Netstream 2000:
VGA Port - Yes, Overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?
SVideo out - No, no overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?

Yes that rigth

Netstream 2000TV:
VGA Port - Yes, Overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?
SVideo out - Yes, Overlayed Sage UI on MPEG 2 video, full screen ?

Yes that rigth, Composite and Component output as well

Hollywood plus didn't turely support DirectShow and is a waste of time even know a few people got lucky by use home brew DirectShow driver which was rip from the Netstream 2000 drivers package.
H+ was base on 8300 chip where the Netstream 2000 is base on 8400 chip which is a tab old then Xcard 8470 chipset so there only one small diff that is DivX Hardware Playback.

[kenpo]

Hello Gang,

I’m a new poster to this forum but I have been an avid reader for a year or so.

Ok, I tried the Xcard to Geforce 3 Ti 200 via VIP and it works pretty well, but there are two problems that may force me to revert back to my old FX5200 w/ nVidia decoder configuration.

Some history: After reading through this thread I became inspired. On ebay I picked up a used Xcard with VIP and a Gainward GF3 Ti/450 (basically an OC’ed TI 200) with s-video out and a VIP header. I constructed my own 26 pin VIP ribbon cable. Members of this forum were kind enough to provide the necessary dll. I finally installed the hardware, drivers and the XMedia Player app. this past weekend and gave it a spin. I used the s-video out on the video card to my SDTV.

On my first attempt I got the picture from the Xcard and the SageTV interface – great! – but no sound. I then connected a cable from the internal analog audio output on the Xcard to one of the CD-ROM analog audio inputs on my motherboard (still using onboard audio). Now I have sound – but, that sound is just awful. I seem to be having the same problem cmaffia described earlier in this thread. The audio is very loud and distorted. Reducing the volume using the little slider in XMedia Player has no effect. Using the system volume control reduces the volume but not the distortion. Has a fix or work-around for this problem been discovered yet? Using the digital audio out or SPIDF is not an option for me, at least not without further investment.

My second issue – less serious, but annoying just the same – is that I can not get the desktop to scale correctly on the TV. I think this may be a limitation of the TV-out on the GF3 card. With the FX5200 I could set the desired resolution (800X600 of 720X480) and then make adjustments in the driver control panel so that the picture filled the TV screen. Now when I set 800X600 I get a TV display with black borders about ½” to ¾” wide. At 720X480 the windows desktop expands beyond the limits of the viewable TV screen and I can find no control in the driver to allow me to shrink or expand that image to fit the TV screen as I could when using the FX5200. Has anyone else seen such behavior when using a GF3 or older card?

Anyway, that’s my Xcard experience so far.

My system before the mods above:

Hauppauge PVR-250MCE & Hauppauge PVR-500MCE / Chaintech 7NIF2 mATX Mobo / Athlon XP 2800+ / 512MB PC2700 RAM / 200 GB Maxtor IDE HD / Seagate160GB IDE HD/Geforce FX5200 using SVIDEO TV-Out / Win XP Pro SP2 / SageTV v2.2.8 using SageMC STV/ Nvidia Purevideo decoder

[ErsatzTom]

I have no idea why it would work any better (and you would think worse) but have you tried using the external line-out on the xcard bridged over to the line-in on your mother board? The xcard usually ships with a cable just for that purpose.

t

[kenpo]

Hmm. I haven’t tried that. Seems to be the one cable that was not included in my ebay Xcard package. I’ll have to check Radio Shack for cable w/ mini-plugs on both ends. Although as you say, it’s hard to figure why that configuration would perform any differently.

Thanks for the idea – I’ll let you know.

[kenpo]

Well, I tried the jumper from the Xcard analog line-out to motherboard line-in -- no help. The sound is unacceptably distorted.

It looks like this project may have to go on the shelf until I get set up with digital audio (if ever), and an HDTV to get around to poor TV-out implementation on the Geforce3 card.

[dblaine2]

Hi all,

I got the VIP connector stuff working great from my Xcard to my Geforce 256 card. My question now is how can I get the Xmedia app to maximize?

Right now it comes up in a window about 1/4 the size of the screen. I have to take my mouse and drag the corners to fill the screen. For an HTPC this really isn't practical. Is there some way to maximize the window with the remote or via commands?

[dblaine2]

Any ideas on making Xcard player full screen using VIP?

BTW, I finally figured out how to get rid of the black bars on the side of the Sage UI screen AND get very good video when a video is playing. It really isn't spelled out in one place on the forums.

First, I had to use TVtool, set to NTSC and Full screen.

Then, I had to adjust the Aspect Ratio for horizontal and vertical to 95% (100% caused the video to appear wrapped - blurry and unreadable).

[skavin_ger]

could someone please email me the Rmvpe32.dll needed to use the VIP port on the xcard through my video card? if so please let me know...

[skavin_ger]

sorry to reply to my own last post, i wanted to let evryone know what i am doing and see if anyone could help me with their xcard experience. i soldered the 26 pin VIP header onto my brand new xcard. i have been reading this thread and noticed that the dll file i asked about in the last post i made was missing from sigma's ftp sight and the driver cd. i am trying to use the vip input on my geforce1 DDR card and have the xcard decode the divx and mpeg2 content. if anyone is willing to help me please private message me and i will check my messages tomight after work. thank you ahead of time for any help i receive.

[shn]

Hello,

I hope there is someone who can tell me if there are different versions of the rmvpe32.dll out there? My rmpve32.dll is version 4.06.122 (Build 122). Unfortunately, I haven’t got my setup working.

I am using Epia SP MB and XCard drivers 2.1 w/ rmpve32.dll (4.06.122). As described in this forum I made a cable connecting like this:

XCard Epia SP
D0 pin 1 - pin 2 CAPD0
GND pin 2 - pin 1 GND
D1 pin 3 - pin 9 CAPD1
D2 pin 5 - pin 8 CAPD2
D3 pin 7 - pin 10 CAPD3
D4 pin 9 - pin 4 CAPD4
D5 pin 11 - pin 6 CAPD5
D6 pin 13 - pin 5 CAPD6
D7 pin 15 - pin 3 CAPD7
CLK pin 17 - pin 4 CAPCLK

My cables are really hacks. I have two XCard (not installed in the same box), one with 26 pins connector on and one without. I also took a shot and tried to connect the XCard to a Matrox dual head G450 using a standard flat cable without any luck.

I would appreciate to hear from anyone who could tell me which versions are working for this setup. Thanks in advance.

[xred]

I'm playing with an old PC (933MHz) and I managed to get my hands on an XCard with the 26 pin VIP port intact. I managed to get a copy of RMVPE32.DLL (Thanks SHS!!) and I have it up and running no problems using the X-Media Player. X-MediaPlayer plays MPG 1/2/4 no problem on monitor & TV Out. Sage works great playing back MPEG 1/2 (TV, DVD) but refuses to playback MPEG-4 based clips using the XCard. I suspect the main reason is that Sage sees the Xcard decoder as "Sigma Designs MPEG-2 Hardware Decoder" and not as an Xcard that can decode MPEG-4 as well.

Anyone have an idea of how I can enable Sage to use the XCard for MP4 (xvid, divx etc) decode for "Imported Video" as well?

TIA