Difficul;ties with trying to install and use tv adaptor

[Bret Busby]

On 16/05/2018, Nils Kassube <kassube at gmx.net> wrote:
> Bret Busby wrote:
>> On 16/05/2018, Nils Kassube <kassube at gmx.net> wrote:
>> > Bret Busby wrote:
>> >> So, a couple of hours later, it started working again.
>> >
>> > But did you replug the device before it started to work?
>>
>> Yes, I had done that, a number of times, on each computer.
>
> OK, then maybe the firmware load works only sometimes, which is of
> course strange.
>

No - the firmware does work - it is just that the next sentence
applies, each time that the USB device is connected.

>> >> It appears to take a couple of hours, for the software to detect
>> >> the
>> >> device and the signals.
>> >

I note that that applies to the plugging in of the USB devicve, and,
not to the loaading of the television viewer (eg, MeTV, the only
television viewer application that I have found to consistently work
on both computers, on UbuntuMATE 16.04 .

When I close the application, and, later reload it, it takes a minute
or two, for the video from the television broadcast, to be displayed,
rather than the about two hours, if I have unplugged the USB device.

>> > Which is quite unlikely IMHO. It only takes a few seconds for a DVB
>> > device to be available for the applications. I'd rather suppose a
>> > problem with the USB connection. As there seems to be a problem with
>> > two different machines, I would expect the problem to be at the
>> > device or the USB cable and not the computer.
>>
>> With both computers; one having an i7CPU and 32GB of RAM, and, the
>> other having an i3CPU and 16GB of RAM, whilst it may appear to be
>> neither credible nor rational, it does take about two hours, for the
>> software to detect the device, and, to detect the television signals.
>
> As it takes so long to find the device on both machines, I would suppose
> that the device is faulty. Kaffeine or MeTV should detect it within a
> few seconds after it is inserted. Receiving a TV signal is another
> story, but at least the device should be found.
>
>> That much, I have managed to figure out - by waiting a couple of
>> hours, it works (inasmuch as it does work).
>>
>> Both computers have the USB port used for the device, next to a USB
>> port that is used for an external HDD.
>>
>> The i7 system needed for me to use a hub for the TV tuner device, as
>> the molding around the metallic part of the USB plug on it, is too
>> wide to fit into the USB socket when the adjacent USB socket is used.
>
> It would be better to use a USB extension cable instead of a hub.
>

I have been using the USB port solely as an extension, in this case -
nothing else was plugged into any of its other sockets. The USB
extension cables that I have found for sale, are plug to plug,
requiring a socket to socket adaptor to join to another USB plug

>> However, on that computer, I was able to kind of use Kaffeine (it did
>> display the video from the television channels, and, it did detect two
>> of the television networks, whereas, on the i3 system, it did not do
>> either), but, as mentioned previously, the sound was weird, as
>> previously described. That weirdness of the sound, applied to both
>> Kaffeine and MeTV, on that computer.
>
> Is the sound OK if you play a DVD of if you watch a youtube video on
> that machine? I think it is unlikely that the sound is only weird with
> the TV device because sound and video are mixed in the DVB stream.
>

I have just checked by viewing a bit of a stored movie, using
Kaffeine, on the i7 computer (the only one that would display video
from the device, in Kaffeine), and the sound was good and as expected.

>> > Another reason for problems would be a USB hub if you use one. All
>> > the TV devices I had so far wanted to use the maximum available
>> > current from the USB port and there would be nothing left for a USB
>> > hub. So if you use a USB hub, try to connect the device directly to
>> > the computer.
>> As mentioned above. The i3 computer does not involve a hub, in the
>> connection of the TV tuner device to the computer. Only MeTV works
>> with the TV tuner device on that computer, and, it detects only one
>> network of the five networks and a standalone (community) television
>> channel.
>
> The inferior reception quality may be caused by the antenna location. If
> you move the antenna something like 20 cm it could make a big
> difference.
>

I had thought that, after initially trying the supplied interior (to
the building) aerial, I would try it with connection to the main
household aerial, using a standard 75 ohm coaxial cable, which I have
been using for both computers. The two computers, with apparently
identical software, have different results of what they can receive
through the TV tuner device and the same aerial connection - this one
can receive pnly one network, the othe computer - the i7 computer, can
receive two networks, and, various other channels, which I assume to
be radio channels, and, if this device is not connectedinto the
particular line for the aerial, the rtelevision that would be
connected to it, can receive three of the networks, and, the
standalone (community) channel. One of the other networks (the
national (government) broadcaster network), we can only receive on one
or two days in each year, and, another television network, can be
reecived on only one received in the building - only one television.


-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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