# Solved: Recommended TV Tuners-problems with Media Center



## rehmann (Jul 18, 2008)

Hello:
I am looking for recommendations for a TV tuner with recorder that will work on my system. All of a sudden MCE will not find the TV signal and therefore not display TV. I know the signal is there as I've checked that cable with a TV from the same wall connection and it is OK. I've tried to troubleshot this with Hp but have reached the point where all they can suggest is a "recovery". I am tired of reinstalling programs, especially when the recovery doesn't work. What happens in the TV viewer is that a box comes up in the lower left corner that says stopped or no video and there is just snow. Now MCE is also telling me there is no TV tuner present.
My system is an HP AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core processor 3800+, 2GB ram, Windows XP SP2 MCE 2005. The TV tuner card is an Hauppauge WinTV PVR II (26xxx).
I tried to install a Pinnacle PCTV HD USB stick. It recognized the TV signal right away but the video and sound were choppy or frozen. Maybe my system wasn't strong enough. I've also updated audio, video, tvtuner drivers.
I'd like to find a TV tuner/PVR that would work with my system, not require Media Center and come with it's own software for viewing and recording. Any suggestions. The current TV tuner is a PCI tuner. If I change I would have a PCI slot available (not PciE) or USB.
Thanks
Steve Rehmann


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## masterjim (Apr 14, 2007)

I have an HP XP MCE system similar to yours with the Hauppauge TV tuner card except for the CPU which is an AMD64 X2 4400+ and SP3. I tried a Hauppauge hybrid HD USB TV tuner stick,model WinTV-HVR950. It would not work even after disabling or turning off the 26xxx series Hauppauge TV tuner built-in the HP desktop. It conflicts with the tuner which came with the computer. I put it in my Acer laptop with XP MCE which didn't come with a TV tuner and it works fine. I can pick up DTV including HD channels and analog channels(which were snowy,not as clear as the digital channels). Digital channels depend on signal strength from your antenna. You may not be close enough to the TV station to get a strong signal so a rooftop antenna will help the signal strength. A dual core processor will decode the HD signal smoothly enough so it should not be choppy. My Acer has an AMD Turion TL-50 (1.6GHz) and 2GB DDR2 RAM and ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 graphics card (128MB) which helps smooth out the picture, and it decodes HD programs fairly well. If you're watching cable, digital and HD programs are compressed and quality is not as good as OTA (Over The Air) digital/HD TV. Like MP3 vs WAV file. USB TV tuner sticks like Hauppauge and Pinnacle were meant for computers with no TV tuner cards installed. I would try to physically remove the TV tuner card from the computer and remove the related drivers and software for the Hauppauge 26xxx restart the computer and then install the Pinnacle USB stick and software. Just like you shouldn't have more than one antivirus program running, you should have only one TV tuner program running. I don't even use the Media Center to watch TV on my Acer laptop. The HVR950 USB stick doesn't work with Media Center. I use the software that came with it.


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## rehmann (Jul 18, 2008)

I hadn't even thought of the conflict. Duh!! Actually I am going to try a pinnacle PCI card tuner rather than the USB. The tuner in question was picking up 75 channels from our cable provider, Mediacom. Any pick up of digital channels would be a bonus.
Additional info: My processor shows as 1.99GHz. With the dual processor doe that mean the speed is actually 3.98GHz? Video Card is Radeon X1300/1550 series and secondary. 256MB video memory, 1440X900 resolution at 60MHz refresh. Display is Hanns-G 19" Widescreen.
I don't need Media Center to watch TV as long as I can record as well as watch. Any good software supplied would do the trick.
I cannot figure out exactly if this is a hardware or software issue. When the installed tuner would not pick up the signal but the Pinnacle device did I thought hardware. But when I installed Pinnacle provided drivers to use Media Center with the Pinnacle device it would not pick up the picture either. Then I thought software, maybe both software and hardware??
Thanks
Steve Rehmann


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## Courtneyc (Dec 7, 2003)

It's probably not the card. The card is fully compatible with MC. On my system (I have used both cards you mentioned), TV will play fine for around 15-30 minutes, then it says it lost the TV signal. However, the Pinnacle software works fine. That tells me the problem is MC. I have three Vista systems. The problem is the same on all the Vista Home Editions, but works fine on Vista Ultimate. It also works fine on XP MCE.

Seems like a problem with the operating system.

Courtney


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## rehmann (Jul 18, 2008)

I'm not 100% certain what has all happened here but this is what has been accomplished to date. I ended up completely removing the WinTV-PCR-150 card that came with the computer, along with all of the drivers. I then installed a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-950Q USB TV tuner/recorder. I am still experimenting with it but at the moment it is working fine, I am able to view TV while working on the computer and schedule recordings. I wonder if all of this was in fact a hardware issue all along. I really don't need Media Center. I'll watch my TV in the program and watch my recordings in Windows Media Center.
Thanks for all your assistance.
Steve Rehmann


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