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I purchased a TV Tuner card. It is a ATi TV Wonder 650 PCi Card. There is some issue with the same. The card is detected in but some not working. I was using Windows XP before. There was no problem with that OS and it worked really well. But after Vista upgrade things started to get worst. I cannot find proper settings to make it work in it. The hardware is detected but the remote is not working and Media Center no longer finds the card. Any idea how to fix this.
I had installed Windows Media Center 2005 on Windows Vista. I had also purchased a IR Receiver with the entire kit. I am not talking about Media Center here. I am talking about the set top box and a TV tuner card with remote. My system works well, the remote works fine, but there is some issue with recording. Nothing is recorder. There is a feature in the card which says that I can automate it. I did the settings but that does not work. I switch to XP and things went fine. So in short this is a bug with Vista.
You must try to install the TV Tuner card first. There are separate drivers for Windows Vista and Windows XP. I had seen number of people try to install the same old Windows XP hardware on Windows Vista which causes the failure. You must first connect the card. Check inside bios if there is something needs to be enabled. Later on you can hook the card and verify in Device Manager. In that if the card is listed then you just require to right click on that and update drivers. Navigate the driver disc and done.
I got the issue on a laptop. I am using a external tv tuner card. I cannot figure out why it was not working on Windows Vista. While on my XP desktop the setup was hassle free. The cable box was attached to the set top and I can view the screen directly on my system monitor. I use the remote to change channels. It is necessary that you must find compatible products for your system. Because if those products fails to work properly or lack drivers then this kind of issue appears.
Many thanks Nigel for directing us to this work-around. This virtual ir receiver worked great for me. However, I did find that I had to uninstall the virtual ir receiver afterwards to be able to use my usb HP Media Center 2005 receiver/remote.
This is a common issue. The most common problem always lies with IR Blaster. It never works in Vista. I had tried to channel my set top through that but it failed to work. It is not a connectivity or driver issue. According to me it is worthless to work on Vista. Best stick with Windows XP. Whichever issue related to media center configuration I saw was on Vista only. While driver bugs on XP are much easier to resolve.
I am here struggling to connect HAVA box on Vista media center. I had connected the cables properly and to some extent it looks it is detected. But there is no final confirmation that it really works. I visited hava website to find a proper guide on the same. But I am here more confused. There is a separate type of configuration for different models and there is also difference in the interface. In my system all work except the IR blaster. I purchased that separately.
To use a remote on Media Center, you will need a Media Center compatible remote only. Other than this none will work. I had already wasted a good sum in getting that. The HAVA box comes with some set of cable but get the remote from Microsoft site only. It is always good go get a entire kit and check that it is vista compatible or not. Or else your spending amount is completely wasted.
I found Xbox setup as one of the most easiest way to create a media center at your some. All you need is to buy a Media Center extender. This is available at Linksys. You can find that model on the web and buy it. You can configure it over the network and use it for sharing files on the network and also on the wifi. A TV Tuner thing is more complicated and it is not at all easy to configure the same.
Those who don't have Xbox can go with some third party Media Center server. One of them in MythTv. There are many other media center software that are available on web and offer you connectivity options. You just need to install the remote it in and configure the settings in Media Center software. The only remote that I found working with Xbox is Microsoft Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote.
I had seen a nice tutorial that allows to configure Media Center on Windows XP using Microsoft Remote Control Receiver 1.0A for Media Center PC. There are ample of products available on the web, but you will have to choose only those which are official termed as working with Vista. And for XP there is no limitation.
Okay here is the solution to the problem where you do not have an IR Blaster nor wish to purchase one and wish to control the channel changing through your set top box (Cable or satellite). I ran into this problem mainly because I am using a usb tv tuner for my laptop which does not offer a connection for the IR device. To defeat the IR requirement you will need one small piece of hardware that is cheap US$5, an RF Modulator (These things were commonly used when DVD players came out and were used to attach them to TVs that only had a COAX input), select channel 3 (or 4) on the RF modulator and attach to your TV tuner via coax. What you are effectively doing is converting the signal from digital to analog from your cable/satellite box (Most set top boxes do not even have a Coax out so hence the need for the RF modulator) Open Media Player run the setup as normal, when you get to select Signal type, configure manually, do not install the Antenna Digital Tuner, do the analog antennaonly, it will run through it's process and select finish when done. When I went to 'Live TV' it did not have the channel 3 that I selected on the RF Modulator available. Not to worry.
On the Main page of the Media player scroll to Tasks then Settings then select TV then select Guide, then add Missing Channels Name your channel whatever you want it to be called and then select the channel Number (In my case 3 on the RF modulator). You can also in this menu delete any other channels that you do not want that the Windows search so only your channel 3 is available. When you go back to Live TV your channel is now showing......Voila that's it defeat of the microsoft empire.