Freecom DVB-T USB Stick
Early adopters of Vista experienced quite a bit of difficulty getting their stick to work. The problems now seem to have been resolved but it is still not always an entirely straightforward matter to get things working in Vista.
There are 3 things you need to address - you must have the correct drivers; you must have a media programme which can run on Vista and which is compatible with the stick and you must carry out the installation of both tthe driver and the media programme correctly. Note that there continue to be difficulties with Windows Vista Media Centre, which you can read about here.
Drivers
First, obtain the latest drivers for your stick here.
Installation of drivers and stick seems to be a problem for some. "Nat" from the Freecom Forum offers the following advice:
"Go to: Device Manager -> Sound, video and game controllers -> USB TV Receiver -> Properties -> Click Reinstall Drivers.
Choose the option to specify your own drivers. Don't bother specifying one and press 'Next'. Click 'I have the disk' and navigate through the menu to the folder and select one of the 'Capture' drivers (the one without the A on the end of the name worked for me".
That works for Nat and deals with a situation where the initial install has failed and he then reinstalls the driver as he describes. In theory, the same procedure ( of specifying your own driver and using the "I have the disk" option) should work in the case of an initial install.
What if Vista refuses to install an "unsigned" driver?
Vista is designed to protect itself from unsigned drivers. ("Unsigned" simply means drivers which Microsoft has not yet tested and authorised for use with their operating systems - a process which can take months!). But just because a driver is unsigned does not mean it won't work perfectly satisfactorily - lots of unsigned drivers work perfectly - and lots of unsigned drivers can screw up your system! You take yuour chance when you install an unsigned driver - but, as long as you have set a Windows Restore point, and ideally have a known-to-be-working backup copy of your essential files (which of course, everbody does....?) - then you should be able to reverse the installation if things go wrong.
Some folk have reported problems with Vista not allowing the installation of the unsigned Freecom driver.
If you still have a problem with installing the driver, there's further advice offered by "SgtFox" from the Forum:
"Device Manager -> Sound, video and game controllers -> USB TV Receiver -> Properties
In the General tab's blurb it said something about the thing not being installed properly. There was a button called 'Reinstall driver'. I clicked it and it gave me a few options (I'm going from memory now as I don't want to actually go through it again ;) ).
I chose the option to specify my own driver/s and it popped up with all the categories. I didn't bother specifying one and pressed 'Next'. I think I then said 'Have Disk' and navigated through the browse menu to the folder and eventually just selected one of the 'Capture' drivers. It did everything from there and the drivers installed (I don't think it matters what driver you select tbh)."
And if you are still having difficulty, "ClickyFeet" from the Forum has helpfully posted this simple guide:
"Step 1!
Go into C:\ and create a folder called usbdriver
step 2!
Go into C:\WINDOWS\INF and copy the wholeeeee contents
step 3!
COPY ALL THAT INTO C:\usbdriver
step 4!
THEN when your asked to look for the driver! and vista cannot find it POINT
IT TO THAT FOLDER C:\USBDRIVER and click ok.
It will find the driver as mass storage or cd drive and you'll be a happy bunny".
Multimedia Applications.
There are various multimedia applications which work with both the stick and the above drivers. But it's essential to have updated versions.Go here for details.
Reception, Aerials...and TV Licences!
You need to check you actually get digital reception in your area and, if things don't work properly, you may need to give thought to the aerial setup you are using. And some people have raised queries about the TV licence position. Check all those things here.
One Example of a Working Setup in Vista
If you've tried all the above steps, still not succeeded and are on the point of giving up and "binning" the stick, take heart from the following example. Forum user Toptecky has kindly given his permission to reproduce this from his Forum posts:
"OK so results.
With the Aerial that comes with this, even in a high signal area near Sandy Heath, and with 4 bars showing on signal strength, I got no picture and no channels found on the scan. With any software.
I used;
Windows Vista Ultimate - 32bit
Windows XP Drivers for the DVB-T stick (00008584)
Media Applications Tested Were;
TotalMedia (with the 3.04 Vista patch)
AVS TV Box
GB-PVR
MediaPortal
Windows Media Centre (Vista Ultimate version)
All of these recognised the card with the XP drivers, however, some did not with the Vista beta drivers. There seems to be little point in using the Vista beta drivers.
With the Aerial that comes with the stick, nothing is ever found in the channel scan. However, I have also got a Wide Band Aerial in my office roof, so, I connected the stick to that, and hey presto, everything worked.
So, to summarise;
1. No need to use Vista beta drivers
2. The aerial that comes with is next to useless
and later he/she added the following:
"As far as I can see and test, they work with both versions. But also, as I have said, there is no need to use those Beta drivers, just force the use of the XP drivers.
This is of course only on Windows Vista Ultimate, I havent tested any others yet and my experience so far with different versions of Vista (and Sony Vaio laptops) is that they may not work with 'lesser' versions of Vista.
Some other interesting news on Signal strenths and pictures etc...
I have as previously mentioned managed to get a perfect picture using a wide band aerial and have downloaded / scanned all channels which are now saved in my Total media player.
I then, for fun, decided to see if the next to useless aerial that comes with the stick worked now that I had the channels lists. And although it still has major problems, you can, if you get the correct elevation and direction, get a picture.
This was BBC1 and I only had 3 bars signal strength. I know that the BBC are possibly the best for signal, so tried others, and it was difficult. But still, interesting."
The Techie from Sneckie