Multiple cards/devices Support

If you are setting up a HTPC with two or more cards/devices to be used simultaneously with Media Center (MCE 2005 or Vista),

DNTV Live! or DNTV Scheduler Pro, you might benefit from reading the following:

 

Tips

• Install one card at a time - this is likely to save you a lot of time and headaches
• Make sure that once the first card is installed it actually works with the software bundled  with it (eg in the case of DVICO with FusionHDTV)
• Do not use beta version of the software, unless you have been advised otherwise by our support team
• Once the first card has been installed and is working, go the device manager and disable all the device entries. This will ensure that the Windows installer does not associate any of the first card drivers with the second card.
• Turn off your PC and insert the next PCI card in an adjacent PCI slot. Repeat the above step, if you have more devices to install.
• Once all the hardware devices are installed, enable all the previously disabled devices in the device manager.
• If you are using our DNTV Live! application you must use the drivers that have been provided to you specifically, by DigitalNow.
• If you have a device that requires registration (eg the Nebula, DVICO or TwinHan devices) you must ensure that the device that is registered is set as tuner 1, as appropriate.
• If you are using DNTV Scheduler in a multi tuner environment, in conjunction with DNTV Live!, you should select tuner 1 above as the last tuner on the list, as DNTV live will always require that tuner 1 is free for its use.

Note that Media Center officially supports only two tuners, however it is possible to tweak the registry to enable more than two tuners.

You might want to read this article for details on how to do it. A tool is also available to facilitate this task.

 

The following examples provide a snapshot of the Device Manager - under the Sound, video and game controllers for various situations:

One TinyUSB 2 Receiver and one DVICO Lite PCI Card

 

Two DNTV Live! Pro PCI Cards

Two DVICO Plus PCI Cards

 

DNTV Live! + DVICO Full (T1) PCI Cards

 

DNTV Live! + DNTV Live! LP (low profile) Cards

Three DNTV Live! PCI Cards

 

Four DNTV Live! LP (low profile) Cards

 

In more recent times, drivers development has improved considerably whereby one device entry is required for multiple tuners making installation very easy.

The following examples Indicate what you should see in the Device Manager for some our more recent products.

 

Dual Hybrid PCI-Express S2 Card

 

Hybrid LP S2 Card

 

TinyTwin (Dual USB) DVB-T Receiver

 

Dual Digital PCI-Express card