Problems with a Nova-T 500 TV card.

Joe42 · 29 Mar 2007 at 14:57

I'm having a problem with my Hauppauge Nova-T 500 dual freeview DVB tuner card.

Every couple of days it will completely loose the tv signal. Rescanning finds the channels but it won't tune to any of them. Rebooting doesn't fix it. It won't work in either mce or the hauppauge wintv 2000 tv viewing software.
I'm using the latest driver, and i've done several driver updates and the problem still happens, intermittently.

I know its not my tv signal as i have a built in tuner in the tv and if i move the aerial over to that it works fine, every time.

The only way to fix it seems to be to leave the pc off for a while.

Any ideas what it could be?

I've seen this card recommended lots on here, indeed i've recommended it myself a few times, so there must be a few around... has anyone else had problems like this?

The other problem i have with it is it can't pick up channel 5, but the tuner in the tv can... any ideas why this could be?

Thanks

Tosk · 29 Mar 2007 at 15:27

it could be that the signal ain't power full enough and if your splitting the
power into 2 places ie dual. it could be why its dropping the signal on
the card.

you could try just using 1 and see if it still does it.

also the ppl at http://www.tv-cards.com/messageboard/
they might have a better idea of what's going on

good luck

Joe42 · 29 Mar 2007 at 15:39

Its dual tuners on a single card so the signal is presumably split internally on the actual card...
I'm fairly certain its not a signal problem as the card works most of the time.

I'll probably email hauppauge tech support with a view to getting an rma, just wanted to ask here first to see if anyone knows of a simple fix.

joegib · 30 Mar 2007 at 09:57

What's your aerial setup? Every time you add a signal receiving device to an aerial circuit (without adding amplification) you're more than halving the effective off-air signal fed to each device. If, in that situation, the TV has a more sensitive tuner, it may continue to operate satisfactorily with the reduced signal. The new device, however, may operate intermittently because it's only getting a marginal signal at or below its proper operating needs. Mix in other variables such as weather conditions (wet weather can affect the signal received by your aerial) or seasonal conditions (a lot of "earthy" foliage between your aerial and the transmitter), and this may tip the TV card over the edge.

Joe42 · 30 Mar 2007 at 15:02

joegib said:
What's your aerial setup? Every time you add a signal receiving device to an aerial circuit (without adding amplification) you're more than halving the effective off-air signal fed to each device. If, in that situation, the TV has a more sensitive tuner, it may continue to operate satisfactorily with the reduced signal. The new device, however, may operate intermittently because it's only getting a marginal signal at or below its proper operating needs. Mix in other variables such as weather conditions (wet weather can affect the signal received by your aerial) or seasonal conditions (a lot of "earthy" foliage between your aerial and the transmitter), and this may tip the TV card over the edge.

I never have the tv tuner and the card plugged in at the same time, but if i had you're absolutely right.
I live in an area which 'can't get' freeview, however with a masthead amp and a decent aerial setup i can get it perfectly.

The issue here, except for channel 5, isn't a signal quality thing. The tv tuner card just completely looses the signal sometimes, but the rest of the time is fine. Its never marginal, which suggests its not being caused be the quality of the tv signal varying, but by a dodgy driver or tv card or something.