Installing Hardware

OK, so you have a WinTV or other PCI capture card and a multitainer. How do you set it all up?

If you've looked inside the multitainer, you'll have noticed that the motherboard is not a standard shape, the PCI slots don't meet the back panel for a start. This means that the installation of a TV card is not as simple as it would be on a more normal PC requiring some really basic soldering.

Note: I have no need for the modem that comes with the multitainer, and so have removed it. If you want to keep the modem installed some extra work is required, namely drilling a hole into the back of the machine to fit the aerial socket.

Note: All this is done at your own risk - I take no responsibility if it doesn't work or for any damage caused to your machine etc. Sorry, but you have to say things like this.

Requirements

To install the card you will need the following equipment:

  • WinTV card
  • Spare bit of TV (coaxial) cable, about 10 cm.
  • Coaxial plug (to connect into the WinTV card). Something like Maplin code YW08J
  • Coaxial chassis socket (to connect your aerial into). Something like Maplin code HH08J
  • 35mm stereo jack (for audio to CD line). Something like Maplin code HF98G
  • Soldering iron
  • Insulation tape
  • Small wire snippers and strippers
  • Small 12V drill
  • 2 small self-tapping screws

    • Step 1: Card Installation

    Turn off and open up the multitainer, then install the TV card as instructed in the manual. Ignore the bit about the little audio cable that comes with the card, we will make our own later. I advise that you connect the aerial directly into the card now, install the drivers and test that the card works using the WinTV2000 app.

    Step 2: Audio Cable

    For sound to work on WinTV cards, you need a cable going from the output of the card to an input on your soundcard. The reason for this is that Hauppauge (or Connexant) don't provide a driver for getting the audio directly from the BT8xx chip. Apparently the linux drivers for these chips include a sound device for the card, so this part of the installation might not be necessary once things start to work in linux.

    The problem with using this cable on the multitainer is that the microphone socket is at the front a long way away and the jack is the wrong size. To get around this I have made this little cable to get the sound in on the CD audio line.

    Note: Doing this means that you can't play audio CDs on the multitainer. If this is a problem for you then I suggest finding an alternative solution.

    To make the audio cable, first remove the original cable going from the CD drive and the motherboard (the socket is located near the PCI cards). Remember which end goes where. Cut the cable about 5cm from the end that goes into the motherboard. Strip the cable so you can see two plastic covered wires and screening wire. Now take the 3.5mm audio jack, undo the cover and place the cover on the cable (before you solder). Solder the white and red cables to the two connectors and the screening wire to the connector chassis. Screw the lid on. You should have a cable that looks like the one in the picture.

    Insert the audio jack side of the cable into the WinTV card socket marked Audio Out. Insert the other side into the motherboard where it originally came from. Now start up your machine and run WinTV2000 to check that the sound works. If you don't hear anything, check the audio properties for the CD audio in line.

    Step 3: Aerial Extension Cable

    The aerial extension cable allows you to close the lid on your multitainer and have a nice looking connector on the back for the aerial.

    Note: If you are keeping the modem in your machine, you will need to drill your hole for the connector now. Once you have drilled the holes skip the next 2 paragraphs.

    I recommend taking the back panel off to do this part, as it makes it all so much easier and removes the risk of getting metal shards in the case. You can remove the panel by removing all the screws on the panel and at the back of the bottom of the machine.

    First you need to remove the modem socket and the plate holding it to the chassis. The screws for the panel are to either side of the socket. Take the coax chassis socket and put it into the hole where the modem cable was. Mark where the holes for the screws are on the chassis. Take the socket back out and drill small holes where the screws will go. These holes are just guides, the screws will need to tap their own bigger holes, so make sure the holes are smaller than the threads on the screws.

    Take the coax chassis socket and the length of coax cable. Strip the cable so that you can see about 3mm of the core wire and 1cm of the screen wire. Solder the core wire to the central connector on the socket and the screen wire to the outer connector. It's probably easiest to strip the other end of the cable in the same way now.

    Place the socket back in place, feeding the cable through the hole. Now use the screws to secure the socket to the back of the case as in the picture (the panel has been reattached in the picture, you will do this later).

    Now fit the coax plug to the other end of the cable by putting the cover over, bending back the screening cable, fitting the metal clip to it and screwing the two parts of the shell together.

    Once you are happy with the cable, reattach the back panel to the multitainer.

    You have now finished all the hard work, put some insulating tape around the connectors on the socket to make sure the wires don't short.

    Plug the aerial extension cable into the WinTV aerial socket and you are done. Your work should look something like this picture. Test your work by putting the aerial cable into the newly added socket and run WinTV2000 again.


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