Pinnacle 7010i PCIe Dual DVB-T / DVB-S/ Analogue

[Lakeuk]

This thread has been started from another thread (link below) to keep both threads on topic, this thread will discuss owners experiences with the Pinnacle 7010i PCIe Dual DVB-T / DVB-S/ Analogue which seems be available from various places very cheaply.

I order mine from Play on Sunday night and it came this morning, it's oem packaged (brown box) and you get the card, driver/software cd, remote, batteries and remote cable. It's going to be the weekend when I get a chance to play with it but I'll be testing the satellite / analogue features on a XP / dvbviewer setup (don't get freeview here till next year)

Previous thread-
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...95#post6926895

[jon_c0]

Originally Posted by Lakeuk

it's oem packaged (brown box) and you get the card, driver/software cd, remote, batteries and remote cable.

No sign of the (slightly mysterious) "Internal cable 30 cm for PC wake-up 8202-26226-31" present on the PDF spec sheet?

I've also realised that the potential (if increasingly unlikely looking) "DVB-S2"-ness of this card is going to be a bit difficult to test for most users here in the UK until either C4HD goes FTA or ITVHD launches (assuming C4HD stays DVB-S2 and ITVHD launches as DVB-S2, of course). I hadn't actually realised this card had been around for a while - at least some literature has a 2006 vintage - but without DVB-S2 I don't think it's going to be a popular choice for HD reception here, even if BBCHD and luxe.tv HD are currently broadcasting via DVB-S at the moment...

[nigelbb]

My Pinnacle 7010ix (note the x on the end as it's a PCI Express card) that I bought from Ebay arrived a few days ago. My package sounds identical to Lakeuk's. It contains the smallest remote control that I have ever seen for any device. I was a bit disappointed that it doesn't have an A/V adaptor (PN 8202-26247-71 on the spec sheet). I guess that I could make one up but it would be nice to have the pukka article for the option of analogue TV capture from a Set Top Box. On one end it's an s-video size plug but with 7-pins & on the other end s-video (4-pins), composite video & a 1/8" stereo jack socket for audio). If anyone knows of a source I would be very grateful

I have only had a quick play at present but can confirm that it works well but is DVB-S only. It's good value as a dual tuner DVB-T (Freeview) card but adding dual tuner DVB-S & even the option of analogue capture with the correct lead then it is an absolute bargain & it only takes a single PCIe slot. I'm not too worried about lack of DVB-S2 given the bargain price & the fact that I have several DVB-S2 tuners already.

[speedyrazor]

Hi, any indication about wether it supports any sort of diseqc 1.2 or not?

Kind regards.

[jon_c0]

mmm...and with that DVB-S2 news, I'm out .

Very cheap for what it is, but not so practical for an HTPC with limited slots and space - I could house the Pinnacle, but I'd have to ditch the BlackGold BGT3540 (and lose DVB-S2) to do so. Looks like I'll have to persevere with the BGT3540...

[LostCause]

Quite a large card, full height and reasonably long (prelude, xsonar d2x size) so space is likely an issue for some. Card failed to be detected twice during installation, proper seating/alignment of the card is suspect here.

For vista, ignore the disc and the 32bit vista drivers from the pinnacle site. Vista will identify the card correctly and will download a later version than is indicated on the site. Since I'm not running 64, I can't tell if these are also available. Appears as Dvb-S is not available in VMC, so an external App will be required. Scanning appears faster than the Blackgold although far less accurate in VMC, certainly in my case and took numerous attempts to find all 72 channels.

Dvb-T quality seems fine, signal strength tests indicate it is probably more sensitive than the BG however quality appears similar, although channel selection seems slower. Has successfully resumed from S3 sleep and both channels were available. Further testing however has indicated that it is at least equal or less reliable than BG, hardware disappeared from resume and failed to be rediscovered after reboot. This maybe down to suspect seating/alignment, however the BG has always been discovered on a cold boot and usually with at least one tuner is available.

Under XP this card maybe provide a different experience, however under Vista it has less functionality, is more problematic installing and has proved at least as unreliable if not more so than the BG. Not recommended, failed experiment, BG reinstalled. Hope others have more luck...

[DPhil]

I've got one of these and a BGT3540 arriving tomorrow to test a media server product I'm putting together for my company. Should be interesting...
I'll post any findings if they are interesting.

jon_c0 - the BGT3540 doesn't have DVB-S2 support as I understand it....is it really that big a deal yet?

[jon_c0]

Originally Posted by DPhil

jon_c0 - the BGT3540 doesn't have DVB-S2 support as I understand it....is it really that big a deal yet?

Interesting. Not only do Blackgold have a set of existing Core 2 Duo users with fundamental problems with their cards when awakening from S3 that they don't reply to via e-mail, I also see that they've now removed all references to DVB-S2 from the BGT3540 product description. Great. This card is going back for a refund, I think.

Lack of DVB-S2 support depends on what you intend to watch "HD-wise". As it stands, only Sky's encrypted channels are broadcast via DVB-S2 transponders from Astra 28.2/28.5E. The BBC have previously mentioned that they intend to move to DVB-S2 for BBC HD, the encrypted version of C4HD is broadcast via DVB-S2 and we don't really know what ITVHD is going to do. The final "jiggling" of transponders for the eventual launch of freesat wil probably tell us where the land lies on this...

[Lakeuk]

Originally Posted by jon_c0

The BBC have previously mentioned that they intend to move to DVB-S2 for BBC HD, the encrypted version of C4HD is broadcast via DVB-S2 and we don't really know what ITVHD is going to do. The final "jiggling" of transponders for the eventual launch of freesat wil probably tell us where the land lies on this...

Well I'm currently able to watch ITVHD that's currently testing with a 'Coming Soon' banner on satellite - was surprised that it's broadcasting as DVB-S like BBCHD

[jon_c0]

Originally Posted by Lakeuk

Well I'm currently able to watch ITVHD that's currently testing with a 'Coming Soon' banner on satellite - was surprised that it's broadcasting as DVB-S like BBCHD

My understanding is that DVB-S2 means the whole transponder must comply (maybe someone could clarify?). It's possible they're taking a pragmatic approach with freesat's launch imminent. Either way though, if the BGT3540's DVB-S2 support has "disappeared", it really does have no feature advantage over the Pinnacle card. Seeing as it's useless to me as it is with it's current sleep issues, I'll clarify the DVB-S2 side of things with Blackgold and then return it and try the Pinnacle.

[deekarma]

Originally Posted by LostCause

For vista, ignore the disc and the 32bit vista drivers from the pinnacle site. Vista will identify the card correctly and will download a later version than is indicated on the site. Since I'm not running 64, I can't tell if these are also available.

Sorry to hear your experience was poor, particularly after Black Gold joys.

I am running Vista 64 so thought I'd take a look at the Pinnacle site to see what they are saying to 64 bit support.

I was suprised to see no mention at all of the 7010 in the support section? Can you link me please?

Has anyone else had a positive experience with the card yet? Freesat kicks off on Tuesday and I am champing at the bit to enjoy it.

I gave up on Sky in November due to appauling customer service with their broadband earlier in 2007. I swopped broadband to Be There (who are flawless) and promised myself I wouldn't give Sky another penny of my money.

Since November I have had my hopes dashed by Blackgold and survived on 4od and iplayer.

A good pcie dual dvb-s card that runs on vista 64 is all I'm after, not much to ask you would think. Oh and if it can't handle S2, it needs to be sub £50!!

The Pinnacle seemed perfect... but sound like another piece of technology that will fail me.... grrr

I am surprised that this niche of computing is able to provide such below par products, no wonder sky aren't worried about providing support to manufacturers to integrate their product within htcps. Maybe now, in the eve of freesat, some manufacturer will realise that there is a massive gap in the market for a solid, out the box solution for DVB-S.

[cdldt]

Pinnacle's site is a bit difficult to get around, but the driver are here:
http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFi...ReadmePCTV.htm

I have the 3010iX and don't need to download drivers - they're on Windows Update. The 7010iX shares the same drivers so I suspect the same is true.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by Chris.Day

I have the 3010iX and don't need to download drivers - they're on Windows Update. The 7010iX shares the same drivers so I suspect the same is true.

That's correct.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by deekarma

Has anyone else had a positive experience with the card yet? Freesat kicks off on Tuesday and I am champing at the bit to enjoy it.

Works great. It's an absolute bargain even if were a single tuner DVB-S card. For a dual tuner DVB-S & dual tuner DVB-T it's unbeleiveably cheap.

BTW you don't need to wait for freesat all the channels except C4, E4 & More4 are available today & have been for years. You just need a DVB-S card.

[deekarma]

That's great guys, thanks. The website is offerring beta drivers for Vista 64, so I think I'll give it a whirl.

I may well be letting myself in for more frustration, but secretly I love it. I hope I prefer being a beta tester for Pinnacle than I did an alpha tester for Black Gold.

[jimbot54]

At the moment it looks like it can go either way, can those of you with experience of this card post your MC hardware spec. So we can get an idea of where the problems may be.

Has anyone used both a BG and 7010i together in the same box?

[jimbob19]

just ordered one of these from scan for £30 delivered
This will complement my floppydtv with cam
So I guess the only app that supports multiple tuners of this type is media portal ?

[Lakeuk]

Originally Posted by jimbob19

just ordered one of these from scan for £30 delivered
This will complement my floppydtv with cam
So I guess the only app that supports multiple tuners of this type is media portal ?

That's a shocking price from Scan, they'll be giving them away next

I tried MPortal but kept getting an error when trying to scan for channels, looking on the MP forums it seems to be a common problem with XP, dual based cards and an out of date dll. I'll try again sometime on a fresh install with XP Service Pack 3. Didn't have any luck with GB-PVR as well, it reconnised the pinnacle card as a blackgold for error's again when trying to scan the channels.

My best software so far has been dvbviewer although I've only got one satellite connection to play with, so my test is limited.

The pinnacle software is rubbish, I tested out analogue support, you have to telling it which aerial port to do a channel scan on, doing PIP it's good a detecting and using each tuner, but when it comes to recording two channels at the same time you have to tell it which tuner to use otherwise it'll warn you already have a record request set and wheather you want to overwrite it - I'd expect the software to know a tuner is available and use that for recording.

[deekarma]

Well here I am with a Pinnacle installed having just watched quesion time.

I am a Vista 64 user, DVB-S only user.

Chucked the card in and Vista silently installed the driver, great.

Using Media Portal TV Server, I scanned for channels and immediatley got a blue screen.

I understand there is a generic issue with 4gb and PCI express cards, so I whipped out a gig and restarted Windows. Windows no longer recognised my card. I shut down, took the card out and restarted. I then shut down again, plugged the card back in and restarted, Vista silently installed the drivers again and the card appeared in device manager. I used TV Server config again and scanned for channels - all fine.

Opened Media Portal and watched a few random chennels. Picture quality is not as good as Black Gold card, very watchable, just nowhere near as sharp.

Just finished watching Question Time and flicked to BBC HD - no probs whatsoever producing picture, and quick. Will play around with settings to ensure coreavc is default decoder, but again picture aint as sharp as Black Gold card.

Will set some recordings and report back, but so far more straight forward than Black gold to get some channels, just let down a little by pic quality...

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by deekarma

Opened Media Portal and watched a few random chennels. Picture quality is not as good as Black Gold card, very watchable, just nowhere near as sharp.

Picture quality has nothing at all to do with which DVB-S or DVB-T card you are using as the DVB transport stream is written directly to disk unchanged. Picture quality will however be affected by the DVB software used, the MPEG2/MPEG4 CODEC, the graphics card, graphics card drivers & display device.

[jimbob19]

Got my card today , installed in Vista , installed pinnacles own tv app and scanned with one sat feed and one dvb-t feed
It picks up all the channels fine , however one thing does confuse me.It shows all the channels on both tuners for each type of connection with only one feed. Does this mean it is possible to record two different programs from one feed ? Or is it just a case of , if the tuner locks up for a particular reason it will route the feed to the other tuner and continue ?

[jimbob19]

Got mediaportal installed now , scanned dvb-s fine (although didn't pick up chan 4 as fta , which I thought it was now via freesat). Also didnt pick up any dvb-t channels. The included pinnacle pctv did pick up dvb-t channels and does appear to see them on both tuners via internal routing , which media portal doesn't
Update - DVB-T is working - had a loose aerial - doh - also it does pick up the feed on both tuners with only one connection
Does anyone know the frequency for the FTA C4 on freesat at 28.2 because a scan doesn't pick it up

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by jimbob19

Does anyone know the frequency for the FTA C4 on freesat at 28.2 because a scan doesn't pick it up

It's the same frequency as Film 4, More 4, E4 & their +1 variants. 10729 V SR22000

[drummerjohn]

I can get the Pinnacle software to see the card and tune in to some 60+ channels on DVBT but it won't show anything on screen - I get a PREVIEW ERROR.

Mediaportal doesn't even know the card exists.

What a pile of crap.

Good job I still have my Blackgold card.

[jimbob19]

Think you must have an iffy card
The card works fine on my setup , scans both dvb-t dvb-s and analogue in media portal and pinnacles own software
This is in Vista

[rojgelf]

does vista 64 find the card and install drivers automically? or do you have to download them? i've only seen beta 64 drives on the net so would like to know before I buy one.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by rojgelf

does vista 64 find the card and install drivers automically? or do you have to download them? i've only seen beta 64 drives on the net so would like to know before I buy one.

I can confirm that Windows Update has new Vista64 drivers for the Pinnacle 7010ix. They are newer than the beta ones available on the Pinnacle web site. In fact the Pinnacle web site seems to have precious little information regarding this card.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by drummerjohn

I can get the Pinnacle software to see the card and tune in to some 60+ channels on DVBT but it won't show anything on screen - I get a PREVIEW ERROR.

Mediaportal doesn't even know the card exists.

What a pile of crap.

Good job I still have my Blackgold card.

There is probably something wrong with your card then. Are you using Xp or Vista? Does it appear in Device Manager?

[rojgelf]

Originally Posted by nigelbb

I can confirm that Windows Update has new Vista64 drivers for the Pinnacle 7010ix. They are newer than the beta ones available on the Pinnacle web site. In fact the Pinnacle web site seems to have precious little information regarding this card.

thanks, I want to use the card to play around with recording some hd channels, so can I just insert it, and use dvbviewer and ingore the pinnacle s/w cd which doesn't sound great.

note; I know some channels may move to dvb-s2 later but this seems a cheap option to try out the technology - and there's not many dvb-s2 cards around right now.

[cdldt]

Originally Posted by drummerjohn

I can get the Pinnacle software to see the card and tune in to some 60+ channels on DVBT but it won't show anything on screen - I get a PREVIEW ERROR.

Mediaportal doesn't even know the card exists.

What a pile of crap.

Good job I still have my Blackgold card.

It doesn't sound like a problem with the card itself. Sounds like an issue with the software installation, or perhaps a graphics card issue (e.g. it's trying to use Overlay on a system which doesn't have an overlay surface available, or trying to use VMR9 on an old pre-DX9 graphics card). In my opinion all manufacturer-supplied software is crap, irrespective of manufacturer. It seems that they put a lot of effort into the hardware and drivers, and then take their existing application and hack their new product into working with it.