TV Card doesn't work well !

[tuhandsome]

I have purchased a T&W Electronics TW8388 TV Tuner card (China Manufacturer) !
My card uses Philips SAA7130HL chip !

I installed the driver ( 2002 dated ) and the software (Ulead Video@Home) included on the driver CD.
My TV tuner card work well for a few seconds, then, the video froze (no motion), but the sound is still coming out from my

speaker, my computer becomes extremely slow (nearly not responding) for a while ! I pressed ALT + F4 and waited for about 2

minutes, the software closed and my computer returned to normal state ! I tried many times but the same situation occured.

I tried installing other drivers (older and newer) from LifeView, PowerView and even from DriverAgent.com (I can't find any

driver update on T&W website), also I tried other TVR Softwares like LifeView TVR, IuVCR, ChrisTV ... but they didn't work

for me !

Did anyone of you meet the same problem ? Please help me out !

Thanks !

[Bjs]

No , no , and no .

The device's are installed in this way only .

1: Install software that came with device ... normally device driver's are installed at the same time .
2: Shut down pc , take the power cord out ... you do not want it , as installing cards on modern system's will trigger a stratup .
3: Choose an appropriate slot for device only ... example

Onboard / addon agp = do not use pci1 (shared resources)
Pci2 / pci3 = use one only (shared resource's)
Pci4 / pci5 = use one only (shared resource's)

4: Restart pc ... os will detect card , install's device driver's ... may even ask for the driver cd in some case's .
5: Reboot pc ... if device is not re-detected , and os show's not driver issue's in hardware , then device is installed correctly .

6: You may now proceed with test's and setup recording's .

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The problem with these device's , is simple uninstall and reinstall of device driver's require .

1: Uninstall driver's and software for device .
2: Shut down pc , turn power off at power point , remove card .
3: Restart pc , reinstall device driver's , software .
4: Repeat reinstall of device .
5: Reboot pc , and try it again .

The remaining issue's come down to three possibilities :

One being "try a different slot" .

The second being a possible need to remove other pci card's first , so as to get the device up and running correctly first , then find a route to install the other's where they dont cause conflict's with other device's ... in relation to shared resource's as above .

The third being a possible issue with the device itself ... you need to carry out all of the above , before even considering performing an rma for return's .

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I just noticed you pc specs are not completely filled in , so any further advice would be pointless at this stage , but I would recommend and point you to this link .

http://www.cpuid.org/pcwizard

This tool will help you to discover the motherboard model and other feature's required to fill in those spec's ... from there , we might be able to give further advice ... I'm just thinking ... 6gig hd from listed spec's ... wouldn't be really suitable for video capturing ... it's possible , but rather limited considering the "capture" vs "edit" vs "conversion" space required for each process ... though you may have simple done a typo mistake on that .

Pity these basic tool's are not part of the tool's section ... it would be damn handy .

[tuhandsome]

I have followed ALL of your instruction ............ but .... sadly .... nothing changed !

Is there any solution out there !

Please help me, thanks !

[Bjs]

Well , if you followed the advice , there is always the chance the card you where sent wasnt any good to start with ... I remember it wasnt long ago that a large number of user's were asking for help on these ... similar chipset's ... and most ended up doing rma's and either getting refund's or replacement's .

There was a large batch of dodgy card's produced in the last 18 month's ... most of the reputable manufacture's do there own thing ... such as avermedia and avoid this by sticking to specific design rule's ... which mean's quality ... I own several of their device's , and never had problem's ... easy as pie .

I know how painfull it is when they dont want to work properly and how disappointed some get , but before doing an rma , it would be nice to confirm the device on another pc ... if none available , then do the rma if possible .

I also had the fly3000 stereo , wintv2000 , asus v3300 and the v6600 unit ... the v3300 proved difficult when xp came out , but I managed to get it up and working sweet .

Sound's like you have limited option's if the retest didnt work ... rma it , or keep searching for driver's that may be suitable for the saa7130hl chipset .

Update's : beware of windows media player 11 ... it break's thing's .

My final though would be to take a look at the psu (power supply) ... if it's below 400watt's , it , while it work's fine , may not be capable when the system is placed under the stress of capture , and the required compressor chosen ...

These card's have inferior tuner's built into them , and in their setting's , set to vtr mode only and split the signal via vcr ... video component to video in on capture card ... audio from vcr to line-in on pc sound card only ... do not use that cursed cross-over cable .

In the lifeview program , set the input type ... pal or nstc , and the scale of the capture ... set audio from line-in ... output folder for captures ... max file size ... codec used ... then try capture once more ... the only avi compressor's I recommend with these card's are those lossless type's like huffy or what ever it's called .

To go beyond these really require's a pc with ball's in the cpu department ... though , even an 800mhz system can do 720x576 with the right setting's for lossless codec choice ... provided nothing else is running at the same time .

I would not use the ulead product that came with the card , it add's more system strain than the lifeview product dose when capturing .

So you have a test or two to do ... if they fail , I would say possibly the card itself was a dud from the start and you need to take some action to sort it out ... blow up the one's that sold it too you over the phone , and get it under rma if possible .

[tuhandsome]

Thanks a lot !!!

It would be really great if I can RMA it !!! I bought it when I wen on a tour to China, and I ordered them to send it to Vietnam as I came home ! So, I think no RMA ... would be available !
I think its quality deserved the price of under 50$US !

Also, I am using a 320W power supply, but I found that my system is running smoothly.
As I don't really need to capture video, I just need to view it, can you please recomend me a TV Tuner software that is best for highest compatibility !

Thanks again ! I think I loved this forum and all members here !