Xbox One Digital TV Tuner…on Windows
Xbox One Digital TV Tuner is a pretty good DVB-C/T/T2 device with a very affordable price (I bought mine for about 8 Euros, shipping excluded). For some reasons Microsoft decided to not release a Windows drivers for it, so it was a logical addition to my newly published Dev_UsbDirect interface.
I tested the tuner on DVB-C and works well for SR 6900 and QAM64, but on QAM256 it loses packets from time to time. (you will see some video artefacts when this happens). I don’t know if this is a tuner/demodulator issue or is related to Dib0700 USB bridge and its firmware. Of course, your experience can vary depending on signal quality, USB controller, hardware revision, etc.
If you use the tuner for DVB-T2 terrestrial reception be sure to edit frequency list in AltDVB and change “Delivery Sys” to DVBT2, otherwise will not get the signal lock.
Download needed files and follow the installation guide from Dev_UsbDirect page.
Comments in the forum
Dev_UsbDirect – An experimental hardware interface for AltDVB
This piece of software started as an experiment more than 13 years ago when I bought my first DVB USB device: Siemssen Opera DVB-S1. The existing driver did not work very well so I thought of using a universal USB driver from Cypress and accessing the device directly. I disassembled the device, noted the IC used and started looking for documentation. The programming of the demodulator STV0299 was simple and the full datasheet was available on the internet. Excited about the speed of new interface, I later added support for two other devices I own: DVBWorld Dw2102 and Dw2104. Later on, I replaced the Cypress CyUSB generic driver with WinUSB to be more compatible with recent windows versions.
For those brave enough to try this interface, here is the download link and a short installation guide:
https://www.altx.ro/projects/dvb-usb-direct-interface
Comments in the forum.
AltDVB version v2.4
Changelog:
- hardware interface: maximum devices extended from 8 to 64
- decapsulation of T2-MI streams
- LAN streaming, with remote control for VLC 3.x and MPC-HC
- unicode text for channel name, provider, EPG events. Characters decoding as described in ETSI-EN-300-468 (v1.16.1), using internal tables for char translation of ISO-6937 and ISO-8859-05..ISO-8859-15 and windows CodePages 20949, 20936 for KS-X-1001 (Korean), GB-2312 (Simplified Chinese)
- channel’s internal structure was changed to allow max 32 ES, 32 CA and channel/provider name up to 127 chars (UTF8).File extension was changed from *.adcl to *.adch
- screenshots button + hotkeys:
[CTRL+S] = Current window
[CTRL+SHIFT+S] = Video window
[CTRL+ALT+S] = All app windows
Other changes:
- added quick LOF settings for Ka Band, C Band Extended & X Band
- allow plugins to alter TS packets (eg. Pow..Vu E m u)
- option to select frequency units KHz/MHz (see Settings->General)
- added detection of stream type 0x32 = VVC (no parsing/demuxing yet)
- option to set default character set per transponder. Default: ISO-6937 DVB Superset
- the buttons with key from main window are hidden if no plugins loaded and enabled
- + changes in scanner window, scan result, channel tree and EPG. See full changelog
PIC18 Bootloader – Version 1.8
A small update to PIC18 Bootloader which help porting it to larger/newer PICs.
Changelog:
- you can define FLASH_ERASE_BLOCK_SIZE
- support flash sizes larger than 64k
- fixed I/O initialization bug for PIC18F25K50
The companion application was also updated to support the new BL features.
Comments in the forum
Dev_StreamRead – AltDVB interface to StreamReader.dll
I wrote a simple interface to the StreamReader.dll library. Most of the tuner parameters (Modulation, FEC, MIS/PLS, Rolloff, Pilot) are sent to the dll if there is a correspondence between my internal coding and values expected by library. Raw DiSEqC is also supported,if hardware has this capability.
Download and extract it into the .\AltDVB\Devices folder.
You also have to download the StreamReader.dll and extract it into AltDVB folder.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/crazyscan/files/StreamReaderExEx-BDA.rar
…or the latest test version from here:
http://crazycat69.narod.ru/sattelite/StreamReaderEx/test/StreamReaderExEx-BDA.rar
Many thanks to Crazycat for his nice and complex piece of software !
Comments in the forum.
ICD2 programmer adapted for 64-bit Windows
Microchip made major changes to the 64-bit driver for the ICD2 compared to the 32-bit one, so it took me a while to adapt the application. Now it works OK regardless of the driver used.
I also added the -V option to the command line in order to program the microcontrollers powered from another voltage source. (default is to set VDD = +5V). More command line options here
AltDVB Device Server
This is an application used to remotely access a DVB device over TCP/IP. To install it extract the archive content into your AltDVB’s directory. The server is using one of the available interface libraries from .\Devices\ directory to access the DVB hardware. On network side, two TCP ports are used: one for commands (37000) and one for data (37001). You can change it by editing AltDVB_DevServer.cfg.
Warning: Be sure to stop the server if you want to use the same device directly in AltDVB !
To connect AltDVB to a remote server you have to manually edit Dev_Network.cfg. Please note that there is no autoreconnect feature: if the TCP/IP connection to the server is lost you have to restart the AltDVB.
AltDVB non-BDA interfaces
Here are some interface libraries to a non-BDA DVB devices. Use them only if the BDA version of the driver for that device is not available. Please note that I cannot test them from various reasons: missing PCI interface from new motherboard or I don’t own the device anymore.
- Dev_DvbWorld.int – v2.3.0.198
– access the hardware using vendor’s DwUsbApi.dll which must be present in AltDVB directory - Dev_Pinnacle.int – v2.3.0.200
– for older Pinnacle PCTV Sat/ PCTV 400i / etc. - Dev_SkyStar2.int – v2.3.0.770
– fixed DiSEqC command when using driver >= 4.4.0
– config dialog built without VCL - Dev_TTBudget.int – v2.3.0.294
– need WDM drv. 2.19h (28.11.2006)
– you have to copy “ttlcdacc.dll” (ver. >= 2.19.8.1) into ..\AltDvb\Devices\
– tested with S2-3200
Comments in the forum
Dev_BdaDriver – Version 2.3.0.435
Changelog:
- added DiSEqC, PLS & MIS support for TBS PCI-E devices
- fixed DiSEqC for TBS USB devices
I think there is a driver issue with some TBS devices. After sending a DiSEqC command, the 22KHz tone is automatically set to ON causing the LNB to switch into HI band and loosing then transponder signal, if previously was in LO band. Of course, this only happens if the DiSEqC command is sent after the tuner is locked on the transponder, and is not noticeable if the DiSEqC commands are sent before setting the tuner.
I have tested on TBS-5520SE (USB) with driver v1.0.0.7 and TBS-6522 (PCI-E) with driver v1.0.1.2.
(many thanks to Mr. satelescu/satesco for borrowing the TBS-6522 device)
The setting TbsFix22KHz=1 from Dev_BdaDriver.cfg fixes the issue by sending TBSACCESS_22K with TBSBURST_OFF after the DiSEqC command, if the current TP is on LO band.
I already notified Mr.Steven from TBS Technology and he will verify the issue.
Comments and feedbacks in the forum.
AltDVB version v2.3 – Mr. Orbita Edition
I’m pretty sure no one expected a new version of the application after so many years of inactivity. I tried once, back in 2016, but I didn’t have enough time to finish some of the started features and prepare a proper release.
This version is largely due to a special person, who through the passion and dedication to DVB technology has convinced me to work again on the rusty AltDVB’s sources. Thank you Mr. Orbita for your support, especially for professional testing and bugs report.
New version highlights:
- AltDVB is completely portable. Just unpack & run. You don’t need admin rights and you don’t have to register any filters or decoders. LAV Filters v0.74.1-31 are bundled into the archive, but if you are still using WinXP downgrade to LAV Filters v0.70.2 by replacing the content of [.\AltDVB\Filters\LAV] folder.
- added support for HEVC video and AAC,AAC-LATM and EAC3 audio
- added support for EVR – Enhanced Video Renderer
- added support for PLS and MIS. Currently is working only for TBS devices using my Dev_BdaDriver. I have tested on Eutelsat 5°W with TBS-5520SE and seems to be OK.
- new file format for channel list. You can’t use channel list from v2.2, you have to re-scan ! In the next major version I have plan to move from proprietary format to SQLite database.
- new file format for transponders. A few .tplist files are found in archive, but better use the [Import] button to download latest transponders.
- fixed a lot of bugs, added new ones 🙂
- change log here
There are no breaking changes in device interface. The “Dev_Bda2Driver.int” by Diodato and CrazyCat is still compatible, if you wish to use it as alternative to my BDA interface. I will prepare an SDK to include the new changes, if anyone wants to update the library. In the current archive is included only the BDA interface, for the old WDM / USB interfaces I will make a separate download package.
Comments and bug reports in the new forum.
Wish you all a wonderful New Year !