Modular Technology MM100PCTV Windows 2000/XP Installation Guide
Modular Technology MM200PCTV Windows 2000/XP Installation and Sound Guide
Like a number of people, I have a Modular Technology MM100PCTV PCI TV tuner card installed in my computer. Like a lot more people, I also have Windows XP installed on my computer, and I like being able to use my TV tuner under Windows XP.
However, Modular Technology hasn't exactly made it easy for us MM100PCTV owners to use our cards. The drivers that used to be supplied on their website (before it went down) were only for Windows 9x and did not work under Windows 2000 or XP, and now that their website is down it seems that there is no hope that they will release official Win2K/WinXP drivers onto the Internet.
But there is a way to get your card working under Windows 2000/XP. It's not that easy, but it is free and with a little bit of fiddling and a few downloads it's possible. You can even use it to tune into FM radio stations, which you couldn't do with the old drivers. This page will show you how.
WARNING: Before you start, if you are a real novice in computers, you'll probably struggle to get this working. You'll be better off purchasing a new TV card as digital TV receivers are quite cheap now, and are a lot easier to install and probably a lot more reliable than using this old card. And if you mess up your computer doing this (unlikely, but not impossible), I can't be held responsible. I do NOT work for Modular Technology and these steps are unsupported.
But if you're fairly competent with computers and want to get a bit more life out of your old TV card, then read on...
If you're looking for more general information on getting Modular Technology cards working, try this mirror of the old Modular Technology website, which contains their old PCTV Tuner Support section. Many of the hints will only work for the original Windows 9x drivers, but some might help with the new ones as well. I also now have a copy of the original MM100PCTV/MM200PCTV Windows 9x drivers from my own driver CD in case you can't find them elsewhere. I haven't included the Cebra Teletext application as I believe it may be copyrighted, but everything else you need should be there.
Technical information on the MM100PCTV: The main chip on the card is a Bt848A (marked BT848AKPF), and there is a crystal marked R354JD76 (35468950Hz, PAL bias). The TV tuner on the card appears to be a Samsung TCPI9092PD27A, the same as the MM200PCTV, containing 3 Philips chips, marked TDA9800T, TDA5737M and TSA5523. Click on the chip name for links to the datasheets (found on various other websites).
UPDATED (version 1.4): Added technical information and chipset datasheets.
UPDATED (version 1.3): Changed the recommended tuner, crystal and GPOE settings as a result of further research into the card and how other drivers set it up, added instructions for getting FM radio tuning working (thanks Hot Denim), added link to a mirror of the old Modular Technology site (thanks Mike Ginger), added a download link for the old Windows 9x drivers, and added Smart Tee tip to the amcap.exe video capture notes.
The Modular Technology MM100PCTV uses a bt848 chipset. This is an extremely common TV chipset, and the generic Windows 2000/XP drivers are fairly easy to come by. In particular, there are two sets that are freely available:
In an ideal world, you would be able to use either of these drivers on your MM100PCTV without problems. Both of the driver sets claim to support the MM100PCTV, but they both have problems:
I have found a way to fix both of these driver sets. The best driver to use IMO is the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver, which is more up-to-date, easier to install, and supports FM Radio tuning, but I also include instructions for Ivan Uskov's driver in case you want to try it.
In the past I have sent details on what needs to be fixed in this driver to get it to work without modification to the maker of the Bt8xx driver, and he did say that he would fix MM100PCTV support in the next version. However that was a long time ago and the drivers have not been updated since then. The following instructions are for driver version 5.3.8. If you go to the download site and find that there is a new version of the driver available, then try just using the 'MM100PCTV' option in the driver rather than the 'Custom card' option. Please let me know if this ever happens (email link at the bottom of the page) so that I can test the new drivers for myself and update this site.
First off, download the latest version of the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver from the following website:
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/
Find the 'Download' link and download the 'Driver Installer (Binary)'. Driver version 5.3.8 claims to support the MM100PCTV driver but when you install it with the MM100PCTV preset you will probably have problems with displaying video. That is where the steps below come in.
Extract the .zip file that you downloaded and run the program inside. The installer will search for your TV card device.
Select 'Install the driver' and accept the license agreement.
Under 'Select your Video Capture Card', pick 'Custom card defined by user...'
Under 'Select TV Tuner Model used in your card', pick '[001] - Philips PAL_I', and tick 'TV Tuner natively can't tune FM Radio, but will try' if you would like to try to use the card to pick up FM Radio:
In the original version of this guide I suggested using the '[000] Temic 4002 FH5 [NORM B/G]' TV Tuner option here and in DScaler later on. This will work, but having actually opened up the metal casing that covers the tuner chips on my card I discovered that it actually contains Philips chips, hence the change. As for the specific model, because this is a UK card, it is probably a PAL I tuner rather than any of the other options.
Click the 'Advanced Autodetection Overrides' button.
Set 'Crystal0 Present' to 'Yes' and 'Crystal1 Present' to 'No'.
Set the Crystal0 frequency to '35468950'.
Note that if you close this dialog and open it again, the frequency setting will reset back to 28636363 (the default), so you will need to change it again.
These settings are from the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver FAQ (Question 65) and are the ones that fix the video problem.
In the original version of this guide I suggested setting both crystal settings to 'Yes', setting the first one to 28636363 and the second to 35468950, as this worked for me. However having investigated the card itself and the original Windows 9x drivers I noticed that the chip on the card is a Bt848A, and therefore there is only one crystal on the card, and the crystal is for the PAL frequency, which corresponds to the 35468950 setting.
Click 'OK' on the Advanced Settings dialog.
Click 'Next' on the Video Capture Card Selection dialog.
Tick 'TV Tuner - Present', and set 'MUX' to 2 and 'GPDATA' to 0x000002.
Set 'Audio Muting - GPDATA' to 0x000003.
Set 'GPOE' to 0x00000B.
Set 'Composite ins - Number' to 1 and set 'Mux #1' to 3 and 'GPDATA #1' to 0x000001:
If you are not using the CD audio passthrough function of the MM100PCTV (connecting your internal CD audio cable to the MM100PCTV and your MM100PCTV to your sound card), you can set 'Audio Muting - GPDATA' to 0x000008, which will fully mute the MM100PCTV output when it is not being used. This will remove any 'hiss' that might otherwise be experienced. If in doubt, use 0x000003.
In the original version of this guide I suggested setting the 'GPOE' setting to '0x00000F'. Having investigated this setting further the '0x00000B' setting is actually more appropriate for this card, and is used by other pieces of software like DScaler, but having said that either setting should and does work.
Click 'Next' on the Custom card setup dialog.
Select the country where you are based. The 'Country Code' and 'Default Video Standard' will be set for you based on which country you select. Click 'Next'.
Click 'Finish' to remove all old drivers and install the new driver. You may be asked to reboot.
Now that you have a driver installed you can go on to the 'Download TV Tuner Software' step.
You are better off using the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver if you can.
You need to get my tweaked copy of the Ivan Uskov driver that supports the MM100PCTV with sound. I have changed the .inf file inside the driver to support sound correctly, and to make the default TV format PAL I (which is the UK standard). You can download it here:
mm100pctv2kxp.zip
The driver version 3.1.28.36 currently available on Ivan Uskov's site has my name under the credits for the MM100PCTV support - however, it does not work properly. I have sent information on the tweaks I have made to Ivan Uskov but he has not implemented the changes. He is still welcome to do so.
Driver installation should be fairly straightforward if you have ever manually installed Windows drivers before. Unzip the drivers into a folder somewhere. Then shut down the computer and install the card. When you start up the computer again, Windows should detect the new hardware, and ask you for the driver location, select 'Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)' and select the folder where you unzipped the drivers. Make sure you pick the Modular Technology MM100PCTV driver. If you pick another driver the sound may not work properly.
If you have already installed the card and cancelled the 'New Hardware Detected' dialog box, you can still update the drivers by going into the System control panel (right click on My Computer and click Properties), go to the 'Hardware' tab and click 'Device Manager'. Then look for an 'Unknown Device', which will probably be your MM100PCTV. Double click on the Unknown Device and find the 'Update Driver' button on the 'Driver' tab. Then perform the steps above for manual driver installation.
After you install the main Modular Technology MM100PCTV driver, your computer will start detecting other new devices. For each device, just select the tweaked drivers folder as the driver location. You should end up with:
Hopefully by now you have your MM100PCTV drivers installed and ready. But as you may have discovered you can't use the old MM100PCTV TV tuner program in Windows 2000/XP. You need a new TV tuner program. Fortunately, the Internet is A Good Thing and some helpful people have already written one, for free, which is MUCH better than the old MM100PCTV tuner. It's called DScaler:
DScaler Homepage
Note that DScaler really needs an AGP or PCI Express primary graphics card in order to work properly. If your primary graphics card is only a PCI card then there may be other pieces of software on the Web that you can use, but they are beyond the scope of this guide. If you can't find any, you should be able to use the amcap.exe video capture software mentioned at the end of this page. Installing an AGP or PCI Express graphics card will make things a lot easier (and faster) in the long run.
Go to the DScaler News and Downloads page on the DScaler homepage and download the latest version of DScaler in 'Setup Program' format. (Getting a 'Beta' version is fine, but the 'Source Zipped' format will do you no good). The latest Beta versions have a nice installer which you can use.
When you first run DScaler you'll get a dialog something like this:
Set these settings according to your own preference. Don't worry; you can change this stuff later under 'Settings/General Hardware Setup'.
Once you click 'OK' on the first dialog, you should get a second dialog. You'll probably find that the 'Auto-Detect' button doesn't work, so select 'MM100PCTV' as the card and set the tuner to 'Philips FI1246 [PAL I]'). Again, you can change these settings later under 'Bt Card / Setup Card/Tuner' if you get them wrong, but incorrect settings in this dialog box may cause DScaler or your whole computer to hang, so be careful!
See the earlier driver notes for why I now recommend selecting the Philips tuner instead of the Temic.
You'll then get a few dialogs talking about the System Mixer. The MM100PCTV card supports automatic muting inside the card, so just leave these settings on the defaults for the moment.
Now you should have a blue window open. This is your new whiz-bang TV tuner. Make sure your TV card is plugged into the TV aerial and let's play!
First off, go to 'Bt Card/Video Input' and select 'Tuner'. (Picking 'Composite' will allow you to use the composite input on the MM100PCTV, but remember that this doesn't include sound!).
Now go to 'Channels/Setup'. Pick the region where you live (I pick 'UK Air Frequency') and click 'Scan'. Hopefully the TV tuner will find your local channels. Now you can switch between them using the Channel menu, or the shortcut keys mentioned on the Channel menu.
If the channel scanner doesn't pick up the channels, and you live in the UK, you may be able to find the necessary channel information on the following website. You can either delve through the information on the main page, or simply enter your postcode into the reception predictor:
http://www.wolfbane.com/uktv.htm.
If you want to go full-screen at any time, just double click on the window.
There are lots of other options to play with in DScaler, like noise reduction filters, changing the deinterlacing method (which may help to reduce judder), and setting the Aspect Ratio so that you can watch widescreen video in the proper format. You may also be able to view Teletext inside the application, using the options in the 'Datacasting' menu, although I have not tested this myself.
If you're having problems with sound, first of all make sure that the input you have selected supports sound, and then make sure that the MM100PCTV is properly connected to your sound card, and that you installed the drivers correctly as specified above. If you're still having problems, start up DScaler and select a channel with sound, and then load up the Windows volume control by double clicking on the speaker icon in the Windows System Tray. Select 'Options/Properties', and then tick *all* of the volume control options for 'Playback' in the next dialog. Experiment with each volume control until you find out which one is associated with the input that your MM100PCTV is connected to, and then make sure that this is unmuted and 'turned up' while DScaler is running.
Also remember that DScaler can be set up to modify your Windows volume control settings when it starts up and shuts down, so make sure that there are not any rogue settings in the 'Settings/Audio-Mixer Setup' dialog as well.
The only other thing to add is that if your video appears in black and white when it should be in colour, try going to 'Advanced/Advanced Settings' and untick 'BT8x8 Advanced/Color Kill' if it is ticked. If this doesn't fix the problem, try ticking 'BT8x8 Advanced/AGC Disable' and then unticking it again (this may not survive a channel change).
If you use your MM100PCTV to do video capture, try using one of the following free programs:
amcap.exe from the wdmmiscutils package on the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver site. This will do DirectShow video capture, which is more efficient (read: faster, bigger capture sizes and less buggy) than VFW capture when you are using DirectShow drivers. If you have problems getting video to display, try going into the 'Options' menu and enabling 'Use Smart Tee': this fixed the problem for me.
VirtualDub which only supports VFW capture but has a lot of extremely useful features for capturing video, and is also free.
It has recently been discovered that you can use the MM100PCTV tuner to pick up FM radio as well as TV frequencies. This is currently only possible using the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver, and requires you to select the 'TV Tuner natively can't tune FM Radio, but will try' option when you install the driver, as advised above. Once you have done this, there are two applications you can use to listen to radio stations:
amcap.exe from the wdmmiscutils package on the Bt8xx WDM Video Acquisition Driver site. This is a very basic application but it works well and will automatically mute the radio station when you close the program. To use it to listen to FM radio, just run the program, select 'TV Tuner' from the 'Video' menu, change the 'Tuning Mode' to 'FM Radio', and select the frequency of the station you want in the 'Channel' area (although be aware of the tuning issue mentioned below!).
Radiator by Miroslav Flesko. This is a radio-specific program that has a much nicer interface than amcap.exe; however when I used it with my MM100PCTV I was not able to make it mute the radio station when I closed the program: please let me know if you manage to find a way around this problem.
To set up Radiator to use the MM100PCTV, follow these steps:
IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING TUNING: When I tried out the radio tuning functionality on my MM100PCTV, I found that in order to get a good quality signal on any given station, I had to set the frequency in the radio tuner program (amcap.exe or Radiator) to a significantly different value to the 'published' radio frequency for the station. For example, to get a good signal on a station broadcast at 96.1Mhz, I had to set the tuner software on the PC to 97.7Mhz. If I did not do this, while I could still hear the station, I found that the signal was often mixed with noise, or the signal of other stations around the same frequency range. This is probably caused by the fact that the MM100PCTV was not originally designed to be used for radio, and so the tuning mechanism is not perfect. So basically, if you have problems with the signal, try moving the frequency setting up or down within the range of a megahertz or two, as the 'sweet spot' for any given station may well not be the same as the 'published' radio frequency.
That's it!
I hope this guide helps some people to get their MM100PCTV working under Windows 2000/XP. If you have any useful additions or corrections, please do get in touch. If you have problems, bear in mind that I don't have a lot of time to help, so it would be better if you can get a more-knowledgeable friend to have a look at these instructions instead.
Special thanks to Billy Flynn, Brice Bozier, Tim, Hot Denim and Mike Ginger for their helpful suggestions and additions to this guide.
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