Black Gold BGT3595 Now Available (Dual DVB-S2 + DVB-T + Analogue)

slegs

Dont think so yet

sfag31

slegs wrote: »

OK, didnt read the PDF about the power cable...will play around some more tonight.

I dont understand this bit. I thought these things were plug and play. I've having trouble. WMC finds this card but crashes when it trys to scan the satellite, The dvb-t parrt is fine - I can tune the Irish channels.

The manual refers to things like sli and crossfire enables and a pcb - what on earth are these.

What do I plug the 4 pin into.?

gtg60

sfag31 wrote: »

What do I plug the 4 pin into.?

http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT3159.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3159/Categories/Support/Product_Hot_Topics/BGT3595/Not_able_to_find_DVBS_Channels

sfag31

gtg60 wrote: »

http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT3159.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3159/Categories/Support/Product_Hot_Topics/BGT3595/Not_able_to_find_DVBS_Channels

wow - thanks for the quick reply - no wonder i'm having trouble. i'll do that and report back.

sfag31

Well even that wasen't easy.
I had to make up my own floopy extension lead and run it from an large 4 pin ide connector to a floppy plug and connect it that way.
No such adapter or extension lead came in the box. No instructions came either.

The card lights up now but Win 7 MCE still cant find any channels.
I tried dvb viewer with it but it also cant find channels - Is there any other pvr software that will work with this card.

Is there anything else I can try?

I only have one satellite source and have tried it in both lnb sockets on the card.

sfag31

Could it be that my problems are because I am using win 7 32 bit? After reading around the net it seems that only 64 bit people have had success?

gtg60

What driver are you using and did you not receive an email from Blackgold the day the item was shipped with full instructions?

gtg60

Instructions:
http://home.btconnect.com/blackgold/Downloads/BGT3595_Installation_Guide_1-0-0.pdf

Latest driver:
http://home.btconnect.com/blackgold/Downloads/BGT3595_20100906.zip

sfag31

gtg60 wrote: »

Instructions:
http://home.btconnect.com/blackgold/Downloads/BGT3595_Installation_Guide_1-0-0.pdf

Latest driver:
http://home.btconnect.com/blackgold/Downloads/BGT3595_20100906.zip

I'm using that driver (although the one on their support page is earlier ) - where did you get that one?
Don't know if i got an email - wouldn't have expected a shipping email to contain instructions.

The installation guide is not that helpful - eg it uses very technical terms - refers to PCB's when it means the pci card, floppy conecters when pc's stopped having floppys years ago, and so on.

I'm handy inside a pc but have never had to supply separate power to a pci card - would never have expected this.

The very least I would expect would be to have a power extension/ double adapter included. Power leads are pretty snug and short in my Dell PC.


I bought the card having read the recommendations here - was not ready for the little shortcoming - such as it not working with win 7 32 bit.

Can you confirm that you have got it working on win 32 mce setup - I needs ta know?

Oh - I should add their customer service is crap - they never responded - I mailed them 4 days ago.

slegs

I am using Win 7 64 but until I put the new driver on I was in the same boat as you...deinstall the previous driver and make sure you are using the new one. My case and power supply were brand new but there still was a floppy power commector...are you sure you didnt have one?

Mr McBoatface

If you have not already done so , you should install the MS dual tuner fix too. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67986423&postcount=27

Neffa2

Hi,

I have a "spare" HP PC which has two slots - one a PCI-E 16x and the other is a PCI slot. Both are effectively half-height as it is a slimline chassis.

I'd like to try the Blackgold card - will it work in the PCI-E slot (the BG card is PCI-E 1x - will it work (physically and electrically?)

Thanks for any advice!

gtg60

sfag31 wrote: »

Can you confirm that you have got it working on win 32 mce setup - I needs ta know?

Oh - I should add their customer service is crap - they never responded - I mailed them 4 days ago.

As stated before I never used it with Win7 32 bit.

I had problems when emailing them too, can't remember whether going through the site or emailing direct worked but one I got no response and the other took about a day to respond. You could always ring them.

Neffa2 wrote: »

I have a "spare" HP PC which has two slots - one a PCI-E 16x and the other is a PCI slot. Both are effectively half-height as it is a slimline chassis.

I'd like to try the Blackgold card - will it work in the PCI-E slot (the BG card is PCI-E 1x - will it work (physically and electrically?)

The card will work in either PCIe slot, 1x or 16x.

It could be a tight fit when using the half height bracket all depending on your particular case.

sfag31

jobyrne30 wrote: »

If you have not already done so , you should install the MS dual tuner fix too. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67986423&postcount=27

I tried this but its not for win 7 ?.

sfag31

slegs wrote: »

I am using Win 7 64 but until I put the new driver on I was in the same boat as you...deinstall the previous driver and make sure you are using the new one. My case and power supply were brand new but there still was a floppy power commector...are you sure you didnt have one?

I did have a floppy power lead but it was designed to reach a short distance - would have required a power extension or adapter - not easy to pick up just anywhere.
The only driver i have used is the one recommended here.

A fresh install of win 7 with the car in place causes the win 7 install to crash.

With all that in mind I'd have to say this is not an easy card to work with.

sfag31

Does anyone know if this card will work with any other pvr software?

sfag31

MCE question.

The recordings using win 7 mce are huge in size - 9 gig for 2 hrs and 25 mins.
Furthermore recording using mce and the new Irish terrestrial digital signal you end up with .wtv .h264 files which cannot be transcoded to a smaller format

Has anyone else encounterd this?

sfag31

gtg60 wrote: »

I had problems when emailing them too, can't remember whether going through the site or emailing direct worked but one I got no response and the other took about a day to respond. You could always ring them.

.

they have no phone number listed or email address. there is only an onscreen message send facility - gawd knows if it actually does anything.

gtg60

sfag31 wrote: »

I tried this but its not for win 7 ?.

Are you for real? It clearly states it's for Win 7.

support@blackgold.tv

+44 1865 338008

slegs

sfag31 wrote: »

MCE question.

The recordings using win 7 mce are huge in size - 9 gig for 2 hrs and 25 mins.
Furthermore recording using mce and the new Irish terrestrial digital signal you end up with .wtv .h264 files which cannot be transcoded to a smaller format

Has anyone else encounterd this?

9 gig sounds way too big. Is this HD?

I get about 1 gig per hour

There is a function in Win 7 to convert .wtv to .dvr-ms format (another MS format) which can be read by VLC and Media Player

See here

http://www.pcworld.com/article/196255/convert_windows_7_tv_recordings_to_dvrms_format.html

sfag31

gtg60 wrote: »

Are you for real? It clearly states it's for Win 7.

support@blackgold.tv

+44 1865 338008

I am for real. Jayus - stay cool.
When I went to install this it told me it was not applicable for my setup - or something to that effect ??. These patches are sometimes for older versions of mce.
Wouldn't it be applied automatically under win 7 auto updates ?

Look -it seems the early movers on this card have win 7 64 bit. I've yet to hear of it working with any other o/s varient.

Not for the first time I have I encountered claims by manufacturers that dont hold true.
I've been sticking tv cards in machines for over a decade now and I feel I am providing useful info by posting here.

sfag31

slegs wrote: »

9 gig sounds way too big. Is this HD?

I get about 1 gig per hour

There is a function in Win 7 to convert .wtv to .dvr-ms format (another MS format) which can be read by VLC and Media Player

See here

http://www.pcworld.com/article/196255/convert_windows_7_tv_recordings_to_dvrms_format.html

win 7 wtv files at 1 gig per hour - wow - how'd you do that.
btw the conversion doesent alter the size..

Mr McBoatface

@ sfag31 - Did you install the 32bit version of that patch ? Not all hotfixes appear on windows update (or so I'm lead to believe). According to some users on the green button forum the fix is a hotfix as apposed to a critical update. http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/t/87401.aspx?PageIndex=1

I assume your recording are from RTE digital, I wonder if the entire transponder data streams are being recorded as opposed to just the one channel on that transponder.

I'm tempted to buy one of these cards myself but I'll wait a little longer to see if 32bit OS are confirmed to be working without issue, personally I plan to use the tuner on a Windows XP with Mediaportal (I'm a Mediaportal Fan).

sfag31

I couldnt get any joy with this card with media portal - although i must admit i'm not used to the media portal setup. I'd wait until some one confirms it works.

I can verify it will not work with dvbviewer (which is very reliable) and sagetv which I am used to.

sfag31

jobyrne30 wrote: »

@ sfag31 - Did you install the 32bit version of that patch ? Not all hotfixes appear on windows update (or so I'm lead to believe). According to some users on the green button forum the fix is a hotfix as apposed to a critical update. http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/t/87401.aspx?PageIndex=1

I assume your recording are from RTE digital, I wonder if the entire transponder data streams are being recorded as opposed to just the one channel on that transponder.

1st reply = yes - it had .x86 in its name - I get not 'suitable for my computer message'.

2nd answer = yes. The Irish recordings are big no matter if they are dvb-t or analogue.
The files are still big when recording uk freesat on a different dvb-s card.

I thought large recordings are a mce feature.

The rte & tg4 dvb-t have built in protection to stop them being transcoded.

Mce has its advantages in so far that it is easy to set up (although it is picky about the cards it uses) - but it has its downsides too.
The UK free sat recordings are shrinkable but they for ages to transcode.

I'm curious to know how that other poster got 1gb per hour recordings -I couldnt even manage that using sagetv and it captures in native mpeg-2 format.

One other thing I noticed with this blackgold card is that the dvb-t channels are very slow to change.

sfag31

gtg60 wrote: »

support@blackgold.tv

+44 1865 338008

cheers for the contact details

sfag31

chaps with similiar 32 bit probs here : http://www.dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10699

and here : http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-entertainment-pcs/1183026-latest-bgt3595-update-10.html

It's starting to look like the effers didn't bother to test their card properly. They seemed to have assumed if dvb-s works for win 7 32 64 bit then it will work for 32 bit. I'm not impressed.

sfag31

my final post for now
it would appear that large files are the order of the day:
http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/archive/index.php/t-6868.html

says: " the .wtv file I have are all 60 minutes and 5 - 6 GB in size."

slegs

sfag31 wrote: »

win 7 wtv files at 1 gig per hour - wow - how'd you do that.
btw the conversion doesent alter the size..

Might be 1.5gig per hour on higher quality SD feeds but no more than that.

Though you were trying to get a more portable format. You may be able to run it thorugh a compression tool after it gets to dvr-ms

slegs

sfag31 wrote: »

chaps with similiar 32 bit probs here : http://www.dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10699

and here : http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-entertainment-pcs/1183026-latest-bgt3595-update-10.html

It's starting to look like the effers didn't bother to test their card properly. They seemed to have assumed if dvb-s works for win 7 32 64 bit then it will work for 32 bit. I'm not impressed.

Return it if you are not happy.

I dont have your issues so cant help.