MCE -- Why NO COMPOSITE possible without IR receiver

[jimbo45]

Why Microsoft do you always "Screw Up" a really good idea.

While companies such as Pinnacle and Hauppage are trying to get their TV cards to work on W7 the media center makes them work already including an EPG as well.

However Why oh why if you want to use a composite video / audio input (such as from a camcorder / satellite box / video sender etc) does the setup INSIST you have a remote control receiver.

The really annoying thing is you can see the composite input in a little box when you are setting up the Media Cemter -- but you can't complete the setup because it says -- No set top IR receiver found.

On a Laptop I'm already using enough USB devices so I don't need an extra one -- I just want to play a Camcorder through the composite video connection on my Hauppage HVR 900 usb device.

Surely it shouldn't have been impossible for Microsoft to skip the IR setup if you don't have one.

Anybody know of any other program that will detect and display composite video input -- I don't want to RECORD stuff just play it back in real time.

Pity Microsoft can't fix this seemingly simple problem.

I did look at MythTV but even THINKING about setting this up seems to require a Ph.d in computer science -- never mind about actually doing it.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[baarod]

Why Microsoft do you always "Screw Up" a really good idea.

While companies such as Pinnacle and Hauppage are trying to get their TV cards to work on W7 the media center makes them work already including an EPG as well.

However Why oh why if you want to use a composite video / audio input (such as from a camcorder / satellite box / video sender etc) does the setup INSIST you have a remote control receiver.

The really annoying thing is you can see the composite input in a little box when you are setting up the Media Cemter -- but you can't complete the setup because it says -- No set top IR receiver found.

On a Laptop I'm already using enough USB devices so I don't need an extra one -- I just want to play a Camcorder through the composite video connection on my Hauppage HVR 900 usb device.

Surely it shouldn't have been impossible for Microsoft to skip the IR setup if you don't have one.

Anybody know of any other program that will detect and display composite video input -- I don't want to RECORD stuff just play it back in real time.

Pity Microsoft can't fix this seemingly simple problem.

I did look at MythTV but even THINKING about setting this up seems to require a Ph.d in computer science -- never mind about actually doing it.

Cheers
jimbo

Anything else would be a half-solution violating Microsoft's common sense 80/20 rule. The IR setup is required so you can control your composite video source from the couch. If you're at the keyboard use the video monitoring / import app supplied with the hardware or WIA.

 

[weedmonk]

Frustrating I know. There was this huge thread about it on the Green button and one of the MCE guys from Redmond basically admitted there is no technical reason to prevent you from finishing the setup. I was hoping they'd take care of it in Win7 but its not looking good. They seem to be layering on tonnes of features and protected DRM crap at the expense of its core functionality of being a PVR.

I always boot back into Vista to record because I still get random 'copying prohibited' flags on my analog network channels.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
the only reason I'm using WMC on W7 is because the supplied application (Win TV 6 and Win TV 7) currently don't work properly on W7. It IS annoying because the only thing I REALLY want from the card is the composite input. I use the Video sender to transmit my SKY channels to a receiver near the computer and this receiver has the composite plugged in to the TV card.

WMC won't complete the setup becuase it INSISTS on an IR device even though whilst setting up you CAN see the composite input.

If I'm desperate now I do re-boot back into XP it's quicker and I can use another machine for working whilst I'm watching the football SKY SPORTS (although the Pub is better often for those games) etc.

This is one of those rare occasions where a Virtual Machine is no good yet -- whilst you can do all sorts of Audio streaming etc on a Virtual machine the VIDEO virtual BIOS doesn't permit this yet with any VM software I know.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[baarod]

Hi there
the only reason I'm using WMC on W7 is because the supplied application (Win TV 6 and Win TV 7) currently don't work properly on W7. It IS annoying because the only thing I REALLY want from the card is the composite input. I use the Video sender to transmit my SKY channels to a receiver near the computer and this receiver has the composite plugged in to the TV card.

WMC won't complete the setup becuase it INSISTS on an IR device even though whilst setting up you CAN see the composite input.

If I'm desperate now I do re-boot back into XP it's quicker and I can use another machine for working whilst I'm watching the football SKY SPORTS (although the Pub is better often for those games) etc.

This is one of those rare occasions where a Virtual Machine is no good yet -- whilst you can do all sorts of Audio streaming etc on a Virtual machine the VIDEO virtual BIOS doesn't permit this yet with any VM software I know.

Cheers
jimbo

I guess I'm not seeing what you want here. It is just like a closed circuit monitor for analog video? Have you tried AMCAP? http://noeld.com/programs.asp?cat=video It even supports tuners and runs really nice on 7. If I wanted to watch TV or some composite source on Windows while working I'd sooner use something like that than MCE which takes up the whole screen...

 

[kill1033]

Why Microsoft do you always "Screw Up" a really good idea.

While companies such as Pinnacle and Hauppage are trying to get their TV cards to work on W7 the media center makes them work already including an EPG as well.

However Why oh why if you want to use a composite video / audio input (such as from a camcorder / satellite box / video sender etc) does the setup INSIST you have a remote control receiver.

The really annoying thing is you can see the composite input in a little box when you are setting up the Media Cemter -- but you can't complete the setup because it says -- No set top IR receiver found.

On a Laptop I'm already using enough USB devices so I don't need an extra one -- I just want to play a Camcorder through the composite video connection on my Hauppage HVR 900 usb device.

Surely it shouldn't have been impossible for Microsoft to skip the IR setup if you don't have one.

Anybody know of any other program that will detect and display composite video input -- I don't want to RECORD stuff just play it back in real time.

Pity Microsoft can't fix this seemingly simple problem.

I did look at MythTV but even THINKING about setting this up seems to require a Ph.d in computer science -- never mind about actually doing it.

Cheers
jimbo

I am using pinnacle pctv hybrid 310c pcmcia card and using it like you. When I installed w7 first think I did was setting up the card on mce. But I coulndt setup my card. I see the video and hear the audio but at next step It requires a IR reciever.

You can say that I can use another program for it but this model of card has no driver. Actually I can see video with other program with vista drivers but Cant say same thing for audio. So I had to remove w7 and installed xp. I am using bsplayer now.

when microsoft fixe it up, I will install it again. Because tv is my everthing.

 

[darko29]

I must admit that MS has finally made a nice move with W7, but as far WMC is concerned, why bother?
Try DScaler 4.1.15, works perfectly with older TV cards like FlyVideo or TerraTec Cinergy 200 and it also works great with Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick 340e and you can even adjust your brightens settings and you certainly don't need an IR. Composite and S-video and tuner usage is ready in a couple of minutes.

You may try ChrisTV, with it you also get recording capabilities of WMC.

(Windows 7 Build 7100 64)

 

[akteni]

pinnacle has announced windows 7 drivers but not yet for 310c card.

google it "how to cheat IR reciever" and you will get fake IR reciever driver.