Technomannz

I am running Windows XP on a AMD Athlon 1.6GHz machine with 1GB or RAM. I have recently made a completely fresh install of Windows XP, downloaded the update SP3, updated DIRECTX to 9.25 and installed Windows Mediaplayer 11. I have also installed a program called ffdshow.
The USB tuner came with two main software titles, ASUS EASYVCR and ArcSoft Total Media 3.5.

The EasyVCR program (wrongly) tells me there is no DVB-T service in New Zealand, but will find channels if I select an alternative country like UK or Singapore. I cannot find an update for this software, but in any case the picture is choppy and there is absolutely no sound.

The ARCSoft TotalMedia suite tells me my card doen't support hardware acceleration and asks me to disable it and try again when I scan for channels' however disablimg this feature has no effect - I keep getting the same message.

I then downloaded PowerCinema 6 - a softweare I've heard great things about. I got to the Setup Wixard and it did detect the tuner correctly, but when I get to the scan for channels section, it just seems to stay at 0%.

Some specs about my system after runnig dxdiag

System Manufacturer NVIDIA System Model AWRDACPI
Processor AMD Athlon 1800+ MMX, 3dNow~1.5GHz
DISPLAY Name NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
DirectDraw Acceleration Not Available
Direct3D Acceleration Enabled
AGP Texture Acceleration Not Available
SOUND DEVICE NVIDIA nForce Audio Type WDM


I am using an outside UHF tv aerial which was recently installed by professionals and it has a masthead signal amplifier siupporting it. I was assured by the installer that there is plenty of signal from the DVB-T channels.

When I use the EasyVCR program, which does pick up the picture, the USB stick glows bright greem, indicating a very stromg signaal.

I hope the above proves useful. I want to be able to view and record DVB-T terresterial digital TV. I am not too fussed about which software I use, they all seem t be able to do the main things if I ccna get them working.

Should I get a different tuner stick? Would I be better off with a PCI card> My computer would need a low profile card - any suggestions?

My preference is to use the equipment and software I have at present, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

I also tried MediaPortal but something went wrong when it tried to downloade Microsoft SQL Server Express- it crashed the system and automatically kept re-booting every time it finished loading Windows, even after reinstalling windows over existing, so I wiped the hard dirve and did a completely fresh install.

Thanks

Technomannz