[mweppner]

Hi Everyone,


I posted on this a few months back, and I'm still in the dark. My computer specs are below, and I have new monitor (Dell 2408WFP connected via DVI). I'm trying to get my computer to show QAM HD channels from cable. Here is a summary of what I've tried:


Media Center (doesn't show any...which I believe to be normal). I downloaded BeyondTv and tried to "find" the QAM channels 6 or 7 times - didn't find any. I have tried using the Catalyst Media Center (I think that's the name) that came with the card - couldn't get that to work either. Downloaded the latest drivers/software, still didnt' work, and it left an annoying circle around the mouse so I uninstalled it.


Here are my specs:


Velocity Micro - about a year old


Power Supply 850 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI Certified


Motherboard Genuine Intel® P35 ATX Motherboard with DDR2, PCI Express, 1333MHz FSB, RAID DP35DP


Processor Intel® Core 2 Duo E6750, dual 2.66GHz cores, 1333MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache


CPU Cooling Arctic Cooling® Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink, Ultra Quiet Fan, Copper Heat Pipes, plus Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound


DDR2 Memory 2048MB (I've upgraded to 4GB RAM) Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 Low Latency CL4 Extreme Memory with Heat Spreader (2x1024)


640MB EVGA GeForce 8800GTS DDR3 PCI-E w/HDCP


ATI TV Wonder 650 Pro HDTV/SD/FM Combo Tuner



At this point, I'm willing to buy a new tuner card and software etc so that I can, without a doubt, watch HDTV on my PC (QAM channels - so I am aware I'll be limited to the locals from the cable co). If anyone can recommend a tuner and software package that I could switch to, I would greatly appreciate it. Having DVR functionality would be nice, but not a 100% must have. I guess it would be a "like to have" feature.


Thanks! I'm anxious to get some advice so I can start "playing" with it again.

 

[walford]

How many local digital channels are available with an antenna in your location. I ask because only a subset of these will be provided in unencrypted (Cleear) QAM by your cable company.

You can check at antennaweb.org if you do not know.

How is your cable connected to your tuner card?

 

[mweppner]

I don't know the exact answer off the top of my head (I do get OTA HD on my main TV...I had that setup before I got the cable HD boxes 6 or 7 years ago - but the feed from the antenna only goes to the one place in my family room, quite a bit away from my computer unfortunately). We get all the "main" locals OTA (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, and I think one or two PBS stations). If I'm only able to get the main locals in HD on the PC, that would be fine. Somewhere down the road, I may want to find a way to get the premium HD channels on my computer (ESPN, etc), but I'm just going one step at a time for the moment).


I tried playing with the ATI software and couldn't get it to work properly (didn't find any QAM channels, put a ring around my mouse cursor, etc), so I uninstalled it.

 

[mweppner]



Quote:
Originally Posted by walford /forum/post/15450041


How is your cable connected to your tuner card?

Sorry - didn't see this question yesterday. It's connected directly to the card via co-ax. I've even tried running the channel scan on both inputs, and was unsuccessful with both attempts. I can watch TV just fine using the Windows Media Center as well as BeyondTV - I just can't get BeyondTv or Catalyst Media to find the QAM channels.


At this point, I do not have BeyondTv any longer (expired), and I removed Catalyst.


But I want to have the option of watching a 24" HD picture on my new monitor if/when there is something good to watch while in my office.


If a new card and related software will make this task easier for me to accomplish, I'm all ears!


Thanks.

 

[walford]

Media Center does not support QAM so you will find no channels with the cable connected to the digital tuner. You need to try the ATI software with the cable connected to the digital tuner and not just to the analog tuner.

 

[James Mos]

You can get vista media center to work with clear qam if you download the tv pack. Just search on thegreenbutton.com for the tv pack and you'll find the links for the required files.


You may also have a weak signal and need an amplifier for it to work. I have an amplifier set up where my cable enters my home and I get all the available clear qam channels but my neighbor 2 doors down can't get any on his tv.

 

[walford]

James,

Good point, however, MS does not support MC TV-Pack only the vendors that are curretly allowed to sell it as part of a system are allowed provide it and are required to support it.

TV pack is included in Windows7 MC with full support.

 

[HappyFunBoater]

I'll second TV-Pack (Fiji) under Vista Media Center. It doesn't work with all tuner cards, but I know the the AVerMedia M780 works great. All of the QAM channels showed up just like any other OTA channel, including showing up in the guide. It couldn't be easier. And I installed it on an existing machine without absolutely no issues. (Folks that have issues tend to be those that have installed VMC extension. The file extension for recorded shows, and who know what else, changed when TV-Pack was installed.)


Microsoft only supports TV-Pack on new machines. They don't charge extra for it, so you'll have to decide whether you consider it stealing if you download a copy on some random internet site.

 

[CarolinaGuy]

This may be some of your problem if you have both MCE & BeyondTV loaded.

http://snapstream.helpserve.com/inde...articleid=1337


CarolinaGuy