AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › WMC and the AverMedia Duet
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

WMC and the AverMedia Duet

post #1 of 10
1/24/13 at 5:36am
Thread Starter 
I am using this in a new win8 setup and having all kinds of problems.
I am on a channel and hit record show.
Then I try to change channels and it eiter says you can't change channels because the tuner is being used or it says no tuners available.
But its a 2 channel card isn't it.
I have nothing scheduled just recording one show but can't do anyhing else.
Season recordings I am constantly turning on my tv and seeing a box that says recording failed. OK
I have turned off all hybernate or sleep settings in winders and still I am getting failed.

I tried running thru the setup again and it says dual tuner etc and scanning and all that stuff but I am still getting the same results.

any ideas?
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 10
1/24/13 at 6:00pm
I bought a Duet because it was 25 dollars cheaper than the Hauppauge thinking I'd be lucky and not have the many issues other people had. Wrong, it repeatedly vanished from device manager until finally it disappeared for good. My understanding after long searching was something was wrong with the voltage thresholds on the PCIe buss. Something marginal that only affected some card/MB combinations. I sent it back and got the HVR-2250. It's been trouble free.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 10
1/25/13 at 5:33am
Thread Starter 
Thanks I saw what you described on a win7 htpc last year and in device manager after a while it would show yellow.
I finally pulled the card and rebooted, shutdown and put the card back in and it detected and installed software and worked perfect from then on.
In this win8 box it shows fine in device mgr.
Last night I was watching a show and about every 4 or 5 minutes the bottom of the picture would break up and the sound would drop out.
Then run great and again break up.
I need to get your recommendation or go with one of the network devices.
unsure which way is best.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 10
1/25/13 at 3:54pm
I had a pair of Duets in my old media center, and they were real stinkers with Windows Media Center. I would often get the same message the OP has gotten. Plus sometimes the cards would cause Media Center to abort a recording, and nothing would record until I rebooted. I switched over to SageTV, and it seemed to be able to handle card failures better, but I would still get multi-part recordings every once in awhile.

I built a new media center this month and went to a SiliconDust HDHR and ArgusTV for recordings. It's been basically rock solid.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 10
1/25/13 at 7:31pm
I also read about the Duet problems some people were experiencing, but some thought it had a more sensitive tuner than the Hauppauge card. I took a chance & tried a Duet with WMC7 & it worked great so I bought a second one. But they do seem to work hit or miss with some HTPC setups.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 10
1/26/13 at 9:12am
Yes, the Duets are great reception wise, but can cause trouble by "getting lost". One workaround (which worked for me), was to move it to another pcie slot.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 10
1/26/13 at 4:48pm
iI have been through Hauppage, Avermedia and Silicon Dust stuff over the years. The SD ATSC tuners are the least sensitive and the Avermedia the most. Before everthing went digitial a lot of stations were broadcasting digital at lower powerlevelss. Once the analog was gone the FCC allowed the stations to boost their wattage. So there was a time I cursed the SD tuners to death because no matter what they just did not pull stations in sufficiently to work properly even with a very good drop amp. The Avers would work, the Tivo would work, not the SD HRs. After the local OTA went to full power the SD Tuners are mody appliance like tuners I have. They just work and they have been laying on the floor, two of them attached to a 4 port Motorola BDA for several years with zero attention. They just work... You literally forget about them. The Ceton cable tuners have come a tremendous long way but they will never be as robust as my now 5 year old HD HRs.......... I gave 2 of them to my brother and he had one AC adapter fail. They were of the same vintage and have been in service for many years as well

I do seem to recall the Avermedia suff being flaky about showing on PCI-e bus..
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 10
1/28/13 at 8:12am
Thread Starter 
Last night I took everything out and then put it back.
The card is detected fine and so I go to wmc.
It first says its a dual tuner ATSC and QAM
NO its dual ATSC ok got that and scan for channels after all that I try to manually record a channel.
It is working and I try to change channels. ALL tuners are being used or not available.
What?
This is just bs from winders 8.
I go and look at my win7 box with same setup and same card I hit manual record and change channel fine...both are on the same channel.
to make sure in win7 I change channel and hit record, recording 2 channels and when I try to change channels it says all tuners are being used do I want to cancel 1 recording.

So its win8 WMC that is NOT WORKING Correctly, either it does not able to work with the card or something is messed in here.
I am wondering why it said atsc and qam when it first went to detect channels.
is it saying that 1 tuner is ota and the other is cable or ?

I was going to order a new dust but it seems that they are not out yet and it will only be a 2 channel ota....future relase of 4 tuner model is some time in the future.
I tried to get a date on the 2 channel and got nothing so its a ways off I guess.
Edited by etrin - 1/28/13 at 10:19am
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 10
1/28/13 at 11:20am
Where did you see that a 4 tuner Duet model was coming out?

Amazon was selling the retail version of Duet for $49 until a few days ago. The number available decreased until they had none, at least not for $49. I debated about getting a spare to have available just in case.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 10
1/28/13 at 11:55am
Thread Starter 
no its the silicondust that has a 4 tuner planned.
sorry I just said dust.
at first they made it sound like a new 4 tuner was just around the corner.
then they said no its 2 but a 4 ota tuner was in the works.
I assume when their pvr software is done...some time in 2096
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Home Theater Computers

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › WMC and the AverMedia Duet