Hauppauge WinTV USB Stick with Dual tuners

I have been using one of the Hauppauge Win-TV Nova-T USB sticks for a while with my Vista Media Center without any issues. However, there have been a number of occasions when it would have been useful to have had access to two tuners.

With this in mind, I decided to upgrade to the Dual tuner version of the USB stick. For around £50-60, this looks like a bargain. The USB stick is only slightly bigger than the single tuner version and I thought that it was going to be a dawdle to set up. After all, the single tuner version was a breeze - just plug it in and let Vista find the drivers for it automatically and it worked first time.

Well, this only half worked with the dual tuner version. In fact, it exactly half worked because, while it seemed to install correctly, I could only access one tuner and not two.

Here's how I did it:

1. Remove the old drivers if you have previously installed a Hauppauge USB stick. You can do this using the HCWclear application that you will find on the CD that shipped with the device. If you want the latest version of the software, you will find it here: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/support/support_digital.html


2. You need to install the Diversity tool that is on the product CD. I have an aversion for bloatware and generally do not install software that comes with a product unless I really have to or it is a key part of the product. Again, this tool in contained on the product CD and it is possible just to install this tool (it is the checkbox at the bottom of the list). Once you have installed it, launched the application from the Start button and select dual tuner. For some reason, this seems to be set to single tuner mode by default. Strange. Can't imagine why someone would pay the extra money for the dual tuner version of the product and then use it in single tuner mode. You would be better off buying the single tuner version and saving the extra money.
3. Reboot. Media center finds this "new" dual tuner device and insists on going back through the setup process, but once done it works a treat.
   

Anyway, having been through these three simple steps, Vista Media Center can see both of the tuners. If you had previously installed it in single tuner mode, it will need to go through the re-scanning process again, but it will work afterwards.

Intel Atom DG945GCLF Motherboard

Just built a mini ITX PC using one of these motherboards. The motherboard has one of the Intel Atom processor onboard (230 clocked at 1.6Ghz). Probably the most remarkable thing about this processor is its power consumption of around 5W. The motherboard does have a fan, but it is on the graphics processor and not the CPU.

The motherboard was bought from Tranquil in the UK and set me back £42 (excluding VAT and delivery). I fitted it into a Noah 3988 case with a 500GB 7200rpm SATA drive, 1GB RAM and a slimline format CD/DVD drive. It is powered by an external power block and DC-DC board.

This combination is very quiet and produces so little heat that I could probably disconnect the fan in the case, leaving just the fan on the graphics processor.

I installed Vista Ultimate onto the machine. It installs without any issues and the CD that is supplied with the motherboard contains all the relevant drivers. The CD even recognise that it was installing on a Vista machine. The aero UI on Vista came up first time with the drivers on the CD. The network also installed without any issues. The audio took a little more fiddling with to get it to work.

The screen capture above shows the performance figures that I got out of the machine once I had installed the drivers from the CD enclosed with the motherboard. There is a definite improvement in video performance with these drivers - the graphics increased from 2.0 to 4.2 and the gaming graphics increased from 2.4 to 2.8.

When running Vista, this unit is pulling between 30-40W (most of the time it runs at about 33W). Exactly the same configuration with a D201GLY2A motherboard (Intel Celeron processor running at 1.2GHz) pulls about 40 - 50W (averaging around 45W). Because the Intel Atom is generating less heat, I unplugged the internal case fan. In hindsight, this was pretty pointless - it saves about 1.5-2W and makes very little audible difference to the running of the unit.

With this configuration, this unit is pretty quiet and would make an ideal candidate for a small format Vista Media Center. However, the motherboard's very limited video output capability (a single VGA connector) probably limits it's use in this department. Personally, I have been using the Linksys DMA-2200 Media Extender to connect to my TV via HDMI. So the lack of video connectivity is less of an issue.

I have a Hauppauge Dual Tuner TV USB stick that I will put into this machine and test out in the next few days.

Bob Carlos Clarke - The Dark Summer

I have managed to pick up a second hand copy of Bob Carlos Clarke's The Dark Summer. It seems to becoming pretty hard to get hold of. I can't believe that it is 20 years since I went to his exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath. I always regretted not buying the book at the time and it seems really weird to buy it 20 years later!

The images are stunning and looking back on these images you can see how far this genre of photography has come in the last twenty years - much of it due to the BCC influences.

The images are deep and dark with definite Goth style overtones. What makes this book even more remarkable is that many of the images are either hand coloured or the result of multiple negative printing. Today, such images would be easily replicated using digital techniques and this book underlines BCC's skill as a traditional printer although he will be remembered for his skills as a photographer foremost.

Installing Windows Vista on a MacBook Pro

My current laptop has run out of horsepower. I put some more memory in it last year, but it is now up to it's limit - 512Mb. It is only of the small Sony Viaos (Sony TR1-MP). I guess it is coming up for 3 years old so it is no surprise that it is time to replace it.

I had a look around and really liked the look of the new Apple MacBook Pro. Of course, these are Intel based and it is relatively straightforward according to some colleagues that have done it.


It took me a while to track one down - I was after a 2.4GHz, 15.4" MacBook Pro. Eventually, I found on in the Apple store in Brent Cross shopping centre. It was interesting that everyone else seemed to be sold out except the Apple Store. The price was pretty much the same wherever you bought it.

It is indeed quite straightforward to set the MacBook up to dual boot. You need to download BootCamp from the Apple website (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/). The software is Beta, but seems to work a treat. I used the latest version of the software - 1.3. The trick is to print out the instructions and follow them (http://images.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/pdf/Boot_Camp_Beta_Setup_Guide_v1.3.pdf). I was installing Vista Ultimate and the installation went without a hitch.

I have got everything working except the I-Sight camera. As part of the Boot Camp process, a set of Apple drivers are copied onto a DVDR and installed after Windows has been installed.

One of the cool things about Vista is being able to review the performance of the computer and its components. I am really impressed with the performance of the Mac Book (I have included the snippit from the performance monitor). It is way out performing my Toshiba M400 laptop that I use for work as well as my home desktop machine.

Pretty impressive for a laptop! And it is dual boot so now I can run Aperture too!

Tim Rudman - World of Lith printing

I have experimented with Lith printing and you will find examples on my website as well as some more detail information on the technical pages.

I admit that my initial interest was stimulated after reading Tim Rudman's "The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Courser" and I was excited to find this new book. The original book is a great handbook to Lith printing and is about all you need to get started (except papers and chemicals!).

This new book (published in 2006) contains some basic information to get you started, but is not a substitute in any way for the original text. Once past the first 30-40 pages of the instruction book, there are a series of example images from a number of guest photographer's portfolios together with technical notes. I find this really useful as it provides inspiration and explores the different styles and subject matter being used by a variety of photographers. I really liked the work from Margaret Ball, Cece Wheeler, Richar Clegg and Skip Smith.

The final part of the book is dedicated to using digital techniques to produce lith prints. I must admit that first time around, I skipped this section (as I have a habit of skipping anything that says "digital" in photography books). But having subsequently read it, I have to admit that I actually found it not only interesting, but useful!

All in all, a nice book. If you are looking to get start with Lith printing I would suggest starting with Tim Rudman's "Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course" and follow up with this book. ISBN: 978 1 902538457.