Dos_Box Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 This is a rant abo9ut a TV\Sat tuner card. A rather expensive and (on release) well recived and feature rich device. It wasn't until recently that I've started to look at why my media PC (I am a BIG media PC freak) has been misbehaving, booting up randomly from standby in the middle of the night\day. The card in question is this: BlackGold BGT3540 6in1 Dual DVB-S, Dual DVB-T, Dual Analogue Terrestrial, PCI-E Tuner Card - Scan.co.uk A Blackgold BGT3540 (I'd show you the Blackgold site but their ISP has taken it down in some kind of 'dispute'. Looks nice doesn't it? It has dual satellite and terrestrial tuners and the drivers are MCE certified. But it has a dark side. A very dark side in fact. To put it simply, it doesn't work, or does occasionally, if you're lucky. I've been browsing AVForums (where hardcore AV freaks hang out) for solutions to the problems I've faced and boy, am I not alone. This card has a list of problems longer then both my arms, legs, and girth , so here is a little sample for you. When the PC wakes up from S3 the card 'vanishes' from the device manager list When the PC wakes up from S3 the card is visible in device manger but VMC (Vista Media Centre) reports that no tuner is available. It may take several reboots to make it come back to life again (if you're lucky). When I brought it, it had DVB-S2 (Sat HD) listed as a spec on their site. They have since removed this as they made a 'mistake'. The tuner on the card can detect S2 signals but the decoder can't convert them. No support for systems running over 2GB RAM (WTF!!). I'm running Vista for flips sake!! In short, I give up. I'm going to get a separate (recognised) digital tuner and S2 card. The BlackGold BGT3540 is all fur coat and no knickers! I really hope Google indexes this pretty quickly too!!
Domino Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 This is a rant abo9ut a TV\Sat tuner card. A rather expensive and (on release) well recived and feature rich device. It wasn't until recently that I've started to look at why my media PC (I am a BIG media PC freak) has been misbehaving, booting up randomly from standby in the middle of the night\day. The card in question is this: BlackGold BGT3540 6in1 Dual DVB-S, Dual DVB-T, Dual Analogue Terrestrial, PCI-E Tuner Card - Scan.co.uk A Blackgold BGT3540 (I'd show you the Blackgold site but their ISP has taken it down in some kind of 'dispute'. Looks nice doesn't it? It has dual satellite and terrestrial tuners and the drivers are MCE certified. But it has a dark side. A very dark side in fact. To put it simply, it doesn't work, or does occasionally, if you're lucky. I've been browsing AVForums (where hardcore AV freaks hang out) for solutions to the problems I've faced and boy, am I not alone. This card has a list of problems longer then both my arms, legs, and girth , so here is a little sample for you. When the PC wakes up from S3 the card 'vanishes' from the device manager list When the PC wakes up from S3 the card is visible in device manger but VMC (Vista Media Centre) reports that no tuner is available. It may take several reboots to make it come back to life again (if you're lucky). When I brought it, it had DVB-S2 (Sat HD) listed as a spec on their site. They have since removed this as they made a 'mistake'. The tuner on the card can detect S2 signals but the decoder can't convert them. No support for systems running over 2GB RAM (WTF!!). I'm running Vista for flips sake!! In short, I give up. I'm going to get a separate (recognised) digital tuner and S2 card. The BlackGold BGT3540 is all fur coat and no knickers! I really hope Google indexes this pretty quickly too!! I've found the issue....
fafster Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Well that sounds like a waste of your hard-earned cash. I'd send it back.
ZeroHour Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Refund time as it does not sound fit for purpose. BTW I moved this into general chat, remember google cant see behind the red door
broc Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 It makes you wonder how exhaustively products get tested by reviewers in magazines & the like. I have been looking for a new mobile phone, the so called 'professional' reviews rave about them, but real world experience is often so very different I seriously wonder if magazines worry more about their advertising revenue than their impartiality? If you want to see a even nastier piece of action, search on fiat ducato X/250 judder..... it seems that fiat have designed a power train that only wants to go forward & can destroy gearboxes going backwards..... either that or you have to reverse at high speed.....
LeMarchand Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 all fur coat and no knickers! I can see situations where this is a good thing...
Dos_Box Posted March 30, 2009 Author Posted March 30, 2009 Good idea. TBH, Vista may be pants, but VMC is quite good, especially once you tweak it. And 95% of what my media PC does is VMC, from playing DVDs\Blu Ray to recording and viewing TV. The BlackGold card issue is ongoing, and I'll wait for them to fix it (apparently they are REALLY beavering away at the problems). But finding another SFF card with this feature list will be very hard indeed.
FN-GM Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Refund time as it does not sound fit for purpose. BTW I moved this into general chat, remember google cant see behind the red door Maybe it should be in the Bad Experiences board?
_Bat_ Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 I really hope Google indexes this pretty quickly too!! BlackGold BGT3540 - Google Search Your wish is googles command - see the second page at this moment in time
Geoff Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Assuming issues with licensing can be resovled, one day your Blackgold card will work under Linux. As it's a SAA716x based card. NXP SAA716x - LinuxTVWiki
Ric_ Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 I don't think that the BlackGold card is causing your PC to awaken... mine does this regularly and I have a Hauppauge card. It also regularly disappears from Media Center, requiring an uninstall in device manager followed by a reboot. At first I thought that Windows Update was waking up the PC but I have changed the schedule on that (and everything else) so that it happens at a more convenient time.
powdarrmonkey Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Assuming issues with licensing can be resovled, one day your Blackgold card will work under Linux. As it's a SAA716x based card. "Work".
john Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Vista PCs seem to wake up anyway whatever happens, mine does it randomly at silly-o-clock at times.
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