Where's my Damn NICAM?

[Bugblatter]

Hi all, bit of newbie in this area so please bear with me.

I'm in the UK and I'm not getting NICAM sound from my G400 + RRG, just the usual mono FM stuff (although my area definitely gets NICAM broadcasts). That's using either a normal TV aerial input or the cable TV, in fact with cable I don't get sound at all. I've tried changing the sound settings to Nicam stereo, but whenever I go back in the settings window it shows the current settings as FM mono.

I'm now using the composite output from the cable box (in order to get a reasonable picture quality), and I can use the audio-out on the box to at least get some sound, but again it's only mono. If I use the Co-ax output from the cable I get a lousy picture and no sound (which is weird, the TV plays the sound ok if I plug it in there. Also, the auto-scanning doesn't pick up any channels, but they're there (maybe it looks for sound as well as picture?)).

I'm no expert in this area, can anyone enlighten me?

[This message has been edited by Bugblatter (edited 23 January 2000).]

[Pertti]

You can find the Damn NICAM option in the Damn PC-VCR Damn properties.

Pertti

[Uwe]

Hi Pertti !

That´s a Damn good hint !



Uwe.

[Bugblatter]

Like I said in the first paragraph, I already tried that.

Thanks anyway.

Dammit!

[Pertti]

Bugblatter,

Ok, now that you got the hint...

Which soundcard do you have, and what other hardware your box has swallowed ?

Have you doublechecked that all you cables (inside and outside your PC) are of the correct type and connected the way they should ?

In "Control Panel/Multimedia", what do you have chosen in "Preferred quality" ?

In "PC-VCR Properties/Recording/Capture Options", what is chosed for "Audio output quality" ?

Doubleclick on the VolumeControl in your Systray, is your "Line-in" muted ?

Pertti

[Bugblatter]

Got the hint? 'Fraid not, I didn't even know there was one in there. Was it about my foul language? Guess my momma just didn't raise me right

My soundcard is a Diamond MX300, CPU Celeron 300A O/C to 450MHz, 128MB PC100 RAM, 32MB G400 DH with RRG, Yamaha CRW4416S SCSI CD Writer, Pioneer A04SZ IDE DVD drive, Maxtor HD, Abit BH6 mobo. I've a couple of USB devices: an MS Intellimouse Explorer and a Mitsubishi 900u monitor.

In "Control Panel/Multimedia" it's not called Preferred Quality as I'm using Win98SE. However, everything is set to maximum quality, and stereo.

In "PC-VCR Properties/Recording/Capture Options", "Audio output quality" is set to TV Quality. I've tried CD quality as well though, which doesn't help, besides which the problem's not just with capturing but also with just watching TV.

The Line-in isn't muted, and the balance is centred.

I'm a newbie when it comes to video capture, but quite an old hand when it comes to putting PCs together. Having said that, I will double-check the connections between the G400 and the RRG.

I have to think there's a connection between only getting mono sound from the TV aerial and getting no sound at all from the cable box.

On a side note, what's the deal with the 'Air' and 'Cable' options? The cable option doesn't find any channels with anything, including cable. Is it specific to the US?

Thanks, dagnabbit.

[Pertti]

The "Air" vs "Cable" is about whether you are receiving through Cable or an Aerial antenna.

The channels have been pre-programmed according to the applicable standards, but there are occasions (especially with cable) when a cable company uses their own frequencies (Holland for example). When this happens, you have to adjust the frequencies yourself, Chris has advice on his site http://desktopvideoworld.com/ on how to do it.

Are your VideoTools installed into the default directory, ie: C:\PROGRA~1\MATROX~1 ?

When you look in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Matrox", do you have folders \0000, \0001, \0002..., or just one named \0000 in there ?

Pertti

[Bugblatter]

Thanks for the info on the cable stuff Pertti.

Re my registry, I don't have any numeric keys in that location, just the entries Matrox Video Tools, OverDrive, PowerDesk, RainbowRunner, Rrpath and Vidpres.

Looking through the RainbowRunner part of the registry, I found TVTCountry. in there it has UK as 'PAL_I_STD,I_FM_NICAM'. Well, there's a key called 'PAL_I_STD', but there's nothing called 'I_FM_NICAM'. This may be nothing, but it looks a bit suspicious. Does this match what you have in your registry?

Everything's in the default directory.

Hopefully it's that registry thing, if not then God only knows (oops, more profanity )

Thanks.

[Pertti]

Exept for the lack of \0000 key, and the existence of that "OverDrive" ???, everything else sounds similar (oh... and of course the country setting here is Finland).

I'll have a look at my W98SE machine, if I can come up with something new.

Pertti

[Bugblatter]

I've a feeling we may be on the right track with the reg settings, but tracking it down could be a nightmare.

I've forwarded an export of that part of my registry, along with a description of the problem, to Matrox Tech Support, hopefully they can shed some light on it.

If they come up with anything I'll post it here. Thanks for all your help Pertti, if you come up with anything else I'm still interested.

Thanks.