I got a card!

So I purchased the Compro DVB-T300, and shoved it in my desktop. I figured it’d be a good idea to sort out software issues before I bought the rest of the box, just to ensure a smooth installation and setup phase when it comes to bringing the HTPC on-line.

Installation was a breeze, although I just clicked OK to everything instead of choosing “advanced” in the setup app, so I ended up with some bundled software (ULead photo something…?) that I didn’t need/want.

Right now I’m just testing the TV capabilities (not DVD etc), so I cranked up the ComproTV software, plugged in a few preferences settings and hit auto scan…

It was at this point that I realised I had absolutely no TV reception in my room at all.

There’s a bit of a story here, but for the reader’s sake, I won’t go into it. To cut a long story short, I ended up purchasing a 10 metre quad shielded coax antenna extension with RF connectors, ran it out the window into the backyard, and stuck a wire coathanger in the end. Voila! Perfect signal.

Auto scan. About 5 minutes later when it had finished the scan, I had a whole list of channels to choose from, and was able to flick through easily. Time shifting worked just by hitting the pause button on the remote, recording worked just as easy. Since then I’ve tested scheduled recording too. It all works. The HD channels are a bit sketchy, but I put it down to my system specs, and all the stuff I’ve got running in the background… or maybe the wire coathanger antenna…

So the tuner card work works perfectly. All of this was done with the Compro software, which is good for a desktop PC, but not so good for a HTPC. Now comes the fun part of trying to get it all working with other software.