AccessDTV card, Terk TV55 antenna

[Brian Stretch]

I've had my AccessDTV card (PCI HDTV decoder) for a few days now. I'm
using the second input on my Sony G500 21" monitor for the fullscreen
display. 1080i video, especially some of the stuff on PBS, is *amazing*
with this combo. (Wish I could justify a Sony GDM-FW900 24"
widescreen!) I have, however, had BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) problems
on my Win2000 SP2 (all patches, latest drivers) workstation. I suspect
this is common? It is bleeding-edge hardware, so I expect this will get
better as the software matures.

Going from the included antenna to a Terk TV55 amplified antenna was a
significant help. I'm in a third (top) floor condo on the second
highest point of elevation in my county, fairly far away from the
transmitters, and those transmitters are on the other side of the
(apartment-style) building. Multipath is undoubtably a problem with all
the walls and such in the way, and I suspect the TV55 deals with this
pretty well and that accounts for much of the difference (the amplifier
doesn't hurt either). I still have to turn the antenna depending on
which station I'm watching, so I can't wall mount the thing. It's
perched on top of my monitor at the moment. I am able to get all the
local HDTV channels though (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/PBS/UPN, WB allegedly next
month). I'm hoping that ST:Enterprise will be HDTV when it starts up
this fall? Anyone know?

I have a 60gig IBM 60GXP 7200RPM IDE drive arriving tomorrow for
recording shows (http://www.mwave.com, good folks). I didn't want to
risk writing to my primary drive during a BSOD, good way to hose the
directory structure. I thought about setting up an IDE RAID, but
decided that this has become much too expensive as it is, and I can
always build one later.

Would it be possible to hook up a Dish Network 6000 receiver to the
AccessDTV? I have an old Model 4000 right now. I can't really justify
the expense of upgrading, but I'm curious.
--
Brian Stretch http://www.mindspring.com/~bstretch Cert. Technojunkie
"Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a
well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all,
enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy."--John Derbyshire, NR

[Dennis Gregorio]

Brian Stretch wrote:
>
> I've had my AccessDTV card (PCI HDTV decoder) for a few days now.

How much did you pay for the AccessDTV card, if you don't mind my
asking?
I'm considering getting one myself.

Thanks,

Dennis

[Brian Stretch]

With 2-day shipping, slightly under $500. There's only one place you
can buy them from. Nice folks, shipped same day.

[David Silva]

What does AccessDTV say? I can tell you from a lot of other testing, with
other hardware and software that Win2k is not the ideal platform for leading
edge multimedia. I'm surprised to see you get BSOD in Win2k, but past
experience tells me it could be immature drivers. Win2k is just not given
as much attention by most companies as other formats.

This may be a long shot, but right now the graphic drivers could be the
hitch- Microsoft is forcing DXVA compatibility. While the AccessDTV won't
use that (it has the Terralogic chipset to do the decode in hardware),
pressures relatign to DXVA may have caused the graphic drivers to change
things in their latest drivrers that effect the AccessDTV card.

Regards,

David Silva

Brian Stretch <bstr...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
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