N50VN-FP024G Question (Hybrid TV Tuner?)

Hey There! You might have guessed from my earlier post that I really have no idea what I'm talking about and am relatively clueless with IT...

I bought an N50 on the weekend and I have NO IDEA what these cables and things are for....



I took a pic on Flickr (find it @ exhaust_this/3024677296/ - obv. I'm a noob and can't post urls)

Maybe some of them aren't even relevant, I just want to know what they're supposed to do, and how to do it! Because I searched EVERYWHERE looking for a manual or some basic info and I can't find anything - I just don't see the point of having my laptop able to do something but not even attempt to use it.

I've never used Windows Media Centre before I got this laptop, I got as far as plugging that white box into the usb and attaching that thingo that looks like infrared or something to it and clicking the remote buttons until it popped up and I went "oooo!"

Otherwise, I have no idea what I'm doing. The manual that came with the ASUS doesn't even make mention to it and when I google 'OVU412000/00' (which is the number on the back of the white thing), I don't get anything relevant enough to make sense.

And googling RC6 ir for the remote didn't really help either.

Hoping someone here will take pity on me and explain.

 

How much did you pay and where from?
How are you finding the angles on the LED screen?

The picture you post is basically all TV Tuner related.

The Big White thing with a USB connection, looks to be a dongle for remote control. The big black thing is the aerial, the remote is the expresscard remote.
The other connecters look like joiners or different sized connecters likely for analogue input, (VHS) etc.

 

I have an F3Fv and recognise most of these parts. So, from this picture:

- The "Can't tell" at the top - S-video to RCA adapter. Plug it into to the TV-Out socket of the laptop and the other to the video-in of the TV. This is good for older TVs, but it you have a TV with a HDMI input, that is much better.

- "Ant/coaxial adapter" - The small end plugs into the laptop antenna socket. The large end is a F-Type coax connector (not so common here in Australia).

- "Some type of adapter" - is a converter from the F-Type coax connector to the more common coax connector.

- The big white thing is a IR receiver. Unfortunately, ASUS isn't building IR receiver into these laptops.

- "Can't tell" that appears to be a long cable - This is an IR extension. It plugs into the receiver.

- "Antenna" and "IR Remote" - That's what they are.

David

 

Nice machine and based on the my F3Sv and the M51Sn in the house, I'm sure you will be happy

The ASUS manuals are "lacking". They are limited to the basics of the laptop and don't really deal with any of the extras. I think we have everything labeled in the other posts.

That's actually a good start. What you need to do now is to configure Media Centre. Luckily, that's not hard. With the antenna plugged in, start MC. This should prompt you with to configure. If it doesn't do the following:

1. Scroll the list of items until you see "Tasks" and select that.
2. In the horizontal list of items, choose "Settings". It is probably on the left.
3. Select "TV"
4. Select "Set up TV Signal"

Then you answer the questions. Most are obvious, but in case: The "TV Signal" is "Antenna", the tuner type is "digital", "Set-top box" is "no". When it tries to download the guide, I don't think it will find anything, so just accept that. The last step is to scan for the channels. This will take a while but when you are finished you can watch TV.

The remote is simply a remote for controlling Media Player.

Hopefully this will get you on the track.

David

 

As I think it is a hybrid tuner (like on the M50VN I got), how do you setup Media Center to tune in to channels the analogue and digital both at the same time? I can only tune in one or the other, not both! Seems a silly artificial limitation to me. Selecting Cable instead of Antenna gets me an extra analogue channel which had a weaker signal, but no digital channels. I have tried both with the included antenna and hooking up to the house antenna.

Also be warned the included antenna is quite weak and may not pick up many (if any) of your channels.

 

Kinda off topic, but I bought an Asus Cinema U3100 external USB TV tuner which I think is currently the best on the market. I've been through several TV tuners and they all lack good software and/or poor antenna reception.

 

As far as I can tell, you can't get Media Center to do this. I have to admit that while I setup Media Center, I don't use it except as a quick way to show-off the TV card. Normally, I use GB-PVR. This seems to have a way to do it but I have never tried. Where I am in Australia all the analogue stations are broadcast in digital as well. Each station has at least one extra digital channel that broadcasts in HD and might have different shows on.

True, but the main problem I have is the antenna appears to receive only one band. At home, only one station is broadcast in that band. I have tested it at work and received all except the one channel that wasn't in that band.

David

 

Thank you so much everyone for your replies! I'm going to try setting some of it up tonight and we'll see how I go!!!

I paid $2500.00 for it from JB in Sydney, that was last weekend, but now the same model is going for $2,439 at alwaysonsale dot com dot au so I reckon you could sweet talk your way down to $2,430... well, I could anyway, being a girl and all, haha

The screen is AWESOME, I've been watching family guy from my bed which is about 4m away and the image is clear and bright, I don't know if there are some tests I can run to give a better indication but I can pretty much see from any angle.

 

That's about the same price in the US $2500AUD = $1589 USD
In the US, we have the exact same model but with a higher resolution screen priced at $1549 USD. I would have thought it would be much more expensive in Australia

There really isn't a program that can test viewing angles... those tests are more based on personal observations. Usually reviews will cover vertical and horizontal viewing angles.

 

Lol, no such luck.... If they charge me prices based on my looks, my laptop may cost me 5K+.... Any link to the $2430, i did a search on the website you mentioned but no mention of the N50. I too got quoted $2500 from JB yesterday.

Thanks, I only managed a quick look at JB, and it was ok but the indoor fluro lights may have affected my viewing and opinion of the screen. Thanks for the info. I would like to see a 3Dmark06 @1200x800 score if anyone feels game...

PS.... Windows Media Center does suck there are better free and cheap alternatives, it won't handle the analogue portion and will not display the EPG for Australians. Media Portal is the best if you feeling game to set it up...

The Asus warranty in the US has accidental coverage but not in Australia, and also that screen res difference is surely worth a few dollars too, but yep at $2440 it's about right... I think the N50V models were sold here slightly before the US, which was also unusual.

I have been waiting for a new XPS, but i cannot wait much longer!

 

ok I have another question! I tried setting it up and all I could get was SBS... uhm... thats fine and all... but WHYYYYYYY. ****it.

Is it possible to get my foxtel connected to this thing? Assuming it would need some more gadgets, but how would I do it, if at all possible?

 

OK... so I'm still looking at stuff... this is all so beyond my brain power... I actually just wanted some way to stream the Foxtel from my iQ box to my pc... but it looks like I need to get a thingy that I stick my Foxtel card INTO and connect to the laptop? does that sound right?

I think its like a DVB-S2 or DVB-S.... SO CONFUSING for a bear of little brain

 

One of those adaptors is likely composite or SVideo input.
Which means you plug an SVideo or Composite out of your Foxtel box into that adapter which goes into the TV tuner. There are not really any CAMS to put your card into the laptop.

So you should be able to do it, but it will depend on the software. One option would be VLC Media Player, and another like Media Portal. Vista Media Center itself doesn't do analogue (ie Foxtel).

As for why you only get SBS, signal strength and ariel locations are really sensitive... When scanning move the aerial around a lot....

 

SBS Digital and SBS Analogue are the only channels I could pick up with the supplied antenna. I needed the stronger house antenna to get the others. Like someone said above it could be the antenna is only suitable for some bands even within digital.

We get satellite onto our house cable by some device which adds (modulates) it onto the same cable like it is another analogue channel - not sure if your Foxtel box provides this function, may well do if it has both an antenna in and antenna out. But this way you will only be able to get the currently viewed Foxtel channel. Media Center can handle analogue just fine.

 

I was looking at a N50VN at JB Hifi Melbourne.

Can you run some games on it, and report how it runs?

 

I'm not really a gamer so my opinion is going to be worthless (especially because I don't own games that would be worth testing).
But I will run a 3Dmark06 over the weekend and give my feedback.

 

The only way I can think of doing this is to use the RF antenna output on the IQ box and connect from there to the RF in of the TV card. Then setup an analogue channel for this. I use this technique at home to get the Foxtel signal to the second TV in the house - the RF out goes to a splitter, one to the main TV and the other to the cable to the TV in another room.

Also, as you found, I only get SBS with the supplied antenna. I didn't realise you where in Australia when I wrote about this yesterday or I would have been more specific. I get SBS only in Gosford. I have to point the antenna in the right direction. I tried it at work in North Sydney and the first time I tried in May, I was able to receive everything except one channel (I've forgotten whether it was TEN or Nine) with the antenna pointing to the St Leonards transmitter. When the Olympics was on, I tried again, but had less channels (SBS, Seven and CH44). Part of the problem is that the antenna is designed to receive particular bands. From looking at the list of where the channels are transmitted, some had changed in that period of time. From memory, this meant that the antenna was receiving band 4 but most of the channels are now in band 5.

David

 

Thanks again for the response David, so the logical solution would be - get a better antenna? haha, I kinda figured it'd be mediocre because its a freebie so I might just have a look round to see if I can find a decent one.

 

Any luck in finding a better antenna?

 

I'm using this one, (sorry bad photo) which is at least half the size of the Asus one, and it scanned all 23 digital services in my area on the first attempt.
(I didn't try the included one)

VMC works excellent, my only complaint is the remote cannot shutdown media center, it can start it up and also shut down the PC, but cannot exit MC back to windows. Doh!

Apart from that it's working excellent, and it's very responsive and quick to change channels. It's a shame in Australia our copyright laws prevent the EPG from working.... But all other (non Microsoft) TV tuner programs will work with EPG too.

 

nah my boyfriend scolded me because I'm supposed to be saving to see him and he's worried I'll have no money left when I get there....

 

Did you realize that you should of got 1x Domestic Air Flight, Free when you purchased the N50? Maybe you can use that?

http://event.asus.com/au/2008/flyfree/index.htm

 

Lucky you. I tried a similar one and only got SBS. But that wasn't in a capital city.

There are a couple of places to get an EPG. I am using GB-PVR instead of Media Center. There is a EPG and tools to use it at epgstream.net. Hmm, just had a look at that for the first time in a few months and there has been some changes. But, it looks like the tools will still be there. Also, IceTV has something for Media Center but I have never looked into it.

David

 

He's supposed to be happy to see you and not worried about anything else.

David (who remembers being in the same situation more years ago than I want to admit)

 

May I ask what model that is and where you purchased it?