Can't get QAM TV channels

[JP]

I have an AverMedia express mini TV tuner in my HP notebook with 64-bit
Windows 7. The tuner is HD QAM capable. It is connected directly to the
Comcast cable jack (no set top device.) The vendor's media center
software can tune in all the unencripted digital channels, but Windows
MC can only show the analog channels even though the source was set to
digital cable for channel scanning. Is there any way to get WMC to show
the clear QAM channels?

[Barb Bowman]

take a look at
http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/01/manually-adding-clearqam-channels-to.html

Post by JP
I have an AverMedia express mini TV tuner in my HP notebook with 64-bit
Windows 7. The tuner is HD QAM capable. It is connected directly to the
Comcast cable jack (no set top device.) The vendor's media center
software can tune in all the unencripted digital channels, but Windows
MC can only show the analog channels even though the source was set to
digital cable for channel scanning. Is there any way to get WMC to show
the clear QAM channels?

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

[JP]

Post by Barb Bowman
take a look at
http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/01/manually-adding-clearqam-channels-to.html

I did and at first it looked promising. However, I just can't get the
kind of screens and menus your URL is showing. I did a channel rescan
and when it completed I did see a list of channels where some of them
had that lock symbol on the right side but later when I tried the "edit
the channels" I could not see that channel list anymore. The Media
Center in the Start menu has only two submenu entries: "Play Live TV"
under the "Frequent" label, and "TV Program Guide" under the "Tasks".
Eventually I did find an "Edit Channel" menu entry in the pupup menu of
the "TV Program Guide" but that only showed a single channel. I guess I
need a User Guide for WMC but I don't find one anywhere. Without it the
whole interface is less than intuitive for me.

[Barb Bowman]

did you set up the TV signal as described first? it sounds like you may have
missed that step.

Post by JP
I did and at first it looked promising. However, I just can't get the
kind of screens and menus your URL is showing. I did a channel rescan
and when it completed I did see a list of channels where some of them
had that lock symbol on the right side but later when I tried the "edit
the channels" I could not see that channel list anymore. The Media
Center in the Start menu has only two submenu entries: "Play Live TV"
under the "Frequent" label, and "TV Program Guide" under the "Tasks".
Eventually I did find an "Edit Channel" menu entry in the pupup menu of
the "TV Program Guide" but that only showed a single channel. I guess I
need a User Guide for WMC but I don't find one anywhere. Without it the
whole interface is less than intuitive for me.

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

[JP]

Post by Barb Bowman
did you set up the TV signal as described first? it sounds like you may have
missed that step.

I sure did. Actually the initial setup, that includes the TV signal
setup, is the easiest part and pretty easy because it's aided by a
wizard. The problem is the steps after that initial setup. But it's not,
even though I live next door to Redmond and probably use the same
Comcast cable service the Media Ctr developers used for their testing.

[Barb Bowman]

which tuner from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Browse.aspx?type=Hardware&category=TV%20Devices&subcategory=TV%20Tuners&compat=certified&v=Avermedia

and/or which HP laptop and tuner part # and what driver?

trying to determine if this is a driver issue.

Post by JP

Post by Barb Bowman
did you set up the TV signal as described first? it sounds like you may have
missed that step.

I sure did. Actually the initial setup, that includes the TV signal
setup, is the easiest part and pretty easy because it's aided by a
wizard. The problem is the steps after that initial setup. But it's not,
even though I live next door to Redmond and probably use the same
Comcast cable service the Media Ctr developers used for their testing.

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

[JP]

Post by Barb Bowman
which tuner from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Browse.aspx?type=Hardware&category=TV%20Devices&subcategory=TV%20Tuners&compat=certified&v=Avermedia

Interestingly my TV tuner, though one of the most recent models from
AverMedia, is not listed even though it's own description mentions
Windows 7 support:

http://www.avermedia-usa.com/AVerTV/Upload/ProductImages/Express%20mini%20Datasheet.pdf

[Curious]

Do you have the latest Win7 drivers for your tuner from the AverMedia
Website?
What model tuner do you have?
Win7 support does not necessarily mean support for all applications that are
included with Win7 such as MC.
Are you able to watch record clearQAM(those without a Lock symbol) channels
with the AverMedia application that came with the tuner?

Post by JP

Post by Barb Bowman
which tuner from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Browse.aspx?type=Hardware&category=TV%20Devices&subcategory=TV%20Tuners&compat=certified&v=Avermedia

Interestingly my TV tuner, though one of the most recent models from
AverMedia, is not listed even though it's own description mentions Windows
http://www.avermedia-usa.com/AVerTV/Upload/ProductImages/Express%20mini%20Datasheet.pdf

[Barb Bowman]

Yes, their marketing pages state W7 but this does not always mean specifically
Media Center. I'd suggest that you also post on thegreenbutton.com forums (with
a short history of what you've checked so far) and also contact the Avermedia
support folks. I see that the most recent driver is 11/6. Ask them specifically
about that driver and MCE.

Post by JP

Post by Barb Bowman
which tuner from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Browse.aspx?type=Hardware&category=TV%20Devices&subcategory=TV%20Tuners&compat=certified&v=Avermedia

Interestingly my TV tuner, though one of the most recent models from
AverMedia, is not listed even though it's own description mentions
http://www.avermedia-usa.com/AVerTV/Upload/ProductImages/Express%20mini%20Datasheet.pdf

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

[JP]

Post by Barb Bowman
Yes, their marketing pages state W7 but this does not always mean specifically
Media Center. I'd suggest that you also post on thegreenbutton.com forums (with
a short history of what you've checked so far) and also contact the Avermedia
support folks. I see that the most recent driver is 11/6. Ask them specifically
about that driver and MCE.

The issue just became pretty much moot as Comcast encrypted virtually
all but local channels. WMC works fine with those.

[Barb Bowman]

thanks for the update.

Post by JP
The issue just became pretty much moot as Comcast encrypted virtually
all but local channels. WMC works fine with those.

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

[Jaime]

Your description of the menu choices (and the fact you said you don't see
those screens) doesn't sound like it's the full Media Center menus you are
seeing.

The confusing thing is you said "in the Start menu", the screens shown in
the link are found once you are in the MC interface, not in the standard
Windows interface. You would just click on the "Media Center" item in the
Start menu and the MC interface should take over the screen.
--
James
Bart: "According to creationism, there were no cavemen."
Homer: "Good riddance! Their drawings sucked and they looked like hippies."

Post by Barb Bowman
take a look at
http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/01/manually-adding-clearqam-channels-to.html

I did and at first it looked promising. However, I just can't get the kind
of screens and menus your URL is showing. I did a channel rescan and when
it completed I did see a list of channels where some of them had that lock
symbol on the right side but later when I tried the "edit the channels" I
could not see that channel list anymore. The Media Center in the Start
menu has only two submenu entries: "Play Live TV" under the "Frequent"
label, and "TV Program Guide" under the "Tasks". Eventually I did find an
"Edit Channel" menu entry in the pupup menu of the "TV Program Guide" but
that only showed a single channel. I guess I need a User Guide for WMC but
I don't find one anywhere. Without it the whole interface is less than
intuitive for me.

[JP]

Post by Jaime
Your description of the menu choices (and the fact you said you don't
see those screens) doesn't sound like it's the full Media Center menus
you are seeing.
The confusing thing is you said "in the Start menu", the screens shown
in the link are found once you are in the MC interface, not in the
standard Windows interface. You would just click on the "Media Center"
item in the Start menu and the MC interface should take over the
screen.

Well, the WMC has two entries in the Start menu: one in the pinup panel
and one in the "All Programs" list. The sub-menus only exist for the
pinup entry. I don't know how to explain this better without posting a
screen snapshot of what I am saying.

I do have the latest drivers from the vendor site and if you look into
that pdf Data Sheet I sent with my previous post, the footnote on the
first page says:
* ClearQAM is only for Aver MediaCenter, Windows Media Center TV Pack
2008 and Windows 7

However, though it mentions specific Windows 7 support as far as the OS,
it only mentions Vista MC specifically which is, I assume, the footnoted
Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008. It's possible that because this H968U
TV tuner came out fairly recently, they did not quite had the time to
completely develop the Win7 MC driver.