Windows Media Centre with USB DVB-S2 with HD channels. Anyone got this to work?

malachi · 5 Feb 2014 at 14:10

I have an Pinnacle PCTV DVB-S2 Stick (460e) . I use Windows Media Centre on Windows 8.1 as my primary TV program. I am unable to pick up any of the Freeview HD channels. In media centre its detected as an DVB-S not DVB-S2 for some reason and only BBC 1 and BBC 2 HD appears in the guide but I get no signal on either of them. Other HD channels such as Channel 4 HD and BBC 3 HD dont appear.

I have looked on the green button website for patches to fix this but nothing has worked. Has anyone had success with this?

Slam62 · 5 Feb 2014 at 18:14

did it come with its own software, if so can you get the HD channels ?

marc2003 · 5 Feb 2014 at 18:48

malachi said:
I am unable to pick up any of the Freeview HD channels

just to nit pick but you're not using freeview. dvb-s/s2 tuners are for freesat with a dish. has it worked ok with other tuners/tvs?

edit: just to add, i'm using a pctv freeview dvb-t usb stick and it works fine with WMC so i doubt it's any kind of software issue.

malachi · 5 Feb 2014 at 19:42

Slam62 said:
did it come with its own software, if so can you get the HD channels ?

Yep, works fine with HD channels with the pctv software.

marc2003 said:
just to nit pick but you're not using freeview. dvb-s/s2 tuners are for freesat with a dish. has it worked ok with other tuners/tvs?

edit: just to add, i'm using a pctv freeview dvb-t usb stick and it works fine with WMC so i doubt it's any kind of software issue.

Sorry I meant freesat HD channels not freeview HD. Standard freesat channels I can pick up only the HD channels are missing.

marc2003 · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:09

malachi said:
In media centre its detected as an DVB-S not DVB-S2 for some reason

well this must be the issue but i have no idea how to fix that.

the drivers must be ok for it to work in the pctv software.

you could try mediaportal. it really sucks to setup but it might be interesting to see how it detects your tuner.

Slam62 · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:21

Did you install the latest drivers from the website?

Do you have any other computers you could try it in, sounds like windows 8, maybe .

Slam62 · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:27

Just seen a post about installing the driver emon.exe or something in windows 7 compatibility mode, worth a try

malachi · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:37

marc2003 said:
well this must be the issue but i have no idea how to fix that. the drivers must be ok for it to work in the pctv software.

you could try mediaportal. it really sucks to setup but it might be interesting to see how it detects your tuner.

I've tried mediaportal, xbmc with pvr add-ons and they all work great apart from it takes ages to switch channels. At times xbmc would crash so i gave up using them for PVR's

Slam62 said:
Did you install the latest drivers from the website?

Do you have any other computers you could try it in, sounds like windows 8, maybe .

Yep, I also have a HTPC downstairs, same issue on there. But my hauppauge Dvb-t2 dual tuner works fine and picks up all the HD channels. It's like anything to do with S2 in WMC is not picked up but T2 is fine.

Slam62 · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:45

Hmm, I've used dvbviewer, works well, but you have to pay.

I'm pretty sure I've had freest HD working in MC in W7, but I've tended to use dvbviewer.

malachi · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:56

Slam62 said:
Hmm, I've used dvbviewer, works well, but you have to pay.

I'm pretty sure I've had freest HD working in MC in W7, but I've tended to use dvbviewer.

I tried the demo and it works but I didn't want to pay £13 for it to start crashing few weeks down the line.

How does it work for you, with the EPG and remote? As I use the HP media centre remote with my HTPC's which are built for WMC.

Freesat HD worked for me years ago but that was before they changed it from Dvb-s to s2 and only BBC HD was around.

Slam62 · 6 Feb 2014 at 20:01

Dvbviewer is pretty stable, I have had crashes when choosing the wrong codec for HD video,
If you stick with one its good though.

Now epg and media centre wise there are a few plugins and skins, which look ok, I use epg plus which does the job.
Read a few threads on the forums, as I have never really tried schedule recordings, but people do and the author is responsive.

I'm sure I've had s2 working under mce 7, if it works in an app it should work in mice,

Are you sure you told mce it was an s2, I seem to remember the device detection being a bit ropy.

malachi · 7 Feb 2014 at 08:43

Slam62 said:
Dvbviewer is pretty stable, I have had crashes when choosing the wrong codec for HD video,
If you stick with one its good though.

Now epg and media centre wise there are a few plugins and skins, which look ok, I use epg plus which does the job.
Read a few threads on the forums, as I have never really tried schedule recordings, but people do and the author is responsive.

I'm sure I've had s2 working under mce 7, if it works in an app it should work in mice,

Are you sure you told mce it was an s2, I seem to remember the device detection being a bit ropy.

Looking around its seems, MCE doesn't support s2 properly without a patch even then it only works with certain Hauppauge cards.

I have decided to give Dvbviewer a try and brought it. Trying to get the MCE remote plugin to work but all the channels are picking up fine. With MCE not being developed its hard to find an all in one media program without all the missing around or crashing.