sapient007:

i live in an apartment building as well but have purcahsed a wingard outdoor omni directional antenna. still it it putzing around i've still only managed to get only 2chs.. all this work for 2 HD stations. this is a little disappointing. I'm considering getting a hauppauge HD receiver since i've heard they get better receptions.

If your using cable, or if you can get cable I would go with the HDHomeRun and use QAM.  Yes it is expensive compared to the alternitives, but you get 2 tuners and probably all of your local stations in clear.

I attempted to add a new tuner using the registry edit as recomended, but I am anable to record a show and watch another.

I have a previosly installed Hauppauge 150, and I am installing a Vista View  Saber DA-1N1-E. The VistaView card has 2 tuners, 1 analoge & 1 digital.

I followed the steps and backed-up the registry for the 150, then disabled the card, shut-down and installed the Vista View. Follwed the steps in MCE to set-up new card. Then rebooted. After start-up enabled the 150 and added the Registry setting back into Registry.

But I am unable to record 1 show and watch another.

Also it appears the Ramon's page link is down.

Please, any assistance is much appreciated.

Thanks,

MitchSchaft:

I typed this up and posted in another thread last week. This is for MCE2005, as I don't know anything about Vista.

Yeah, here's a blog outlining it. Once you figure it out, it's real easy.
Here's how I would do it:

Install tuners
Install drivers
Fire up MCE and configure 1 or 2 tuners. (MCE will only recognize 2 at a time; you'll have to tweak the registry after this next step.)
Download and install this tuner program.

Install it and choose the Get Tuners button (ignore the 'Configure Now!' button completely). The tuners highlighted in red are not configured for MCE. Highlight a tuner in red, give it a name, check the Enable for MCE box, and click 'Save'. Repeat for any other tuner. You can also change the names of the other configured tuner/s if you want.
(example pic1)

Now, you get to go in to the registry and set each tuner's recording and watch order. Otherwise, MCE won't use them.

1. Stop the Media Center Receiver Service (net stop ehrecvr)
2. Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and open this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MediaCenter\Service\Video\Tuners\{GUID}
where {GUID} is either {71985F48-1CA1-11D3-9CC8-00C04F7971E0} for Digital (HDTV) or {A799A800-A46D-11D0-A18C-00A02401DCD4} for Analog.
...

8. If this is the FIRST tuner:
RecordOrder = 0
RecordPrefered = 0xffffffff
WatchOrder = number of tuners - 1, e.g. for 4 tuners set this to 3
WatchPrefered = 0

If this is the LAST tuner:
RecordOrder = number of tuners - 1, e.g. for 4 tuners set this to 3
RecordPrefered = 0
WatchOrder = 0
WatchPrefered = 0xffffffff

If this is a tuner somewhere in the middle:
RecordOrder = whatever you put for the last tuner + 1
RecordPrefered = 0
WatchOrder = whatever you put for the last tuner - 1
WatchPrefered = 0

The idea here is that you increment the RecordOrder by 1 for each tuner, and decrement the WatchOrder by 1.  RecordOrder starts at 0 on the first tuner and goes up to #Tuners - 1; WatchOrder starts at #Tuners - 1 and ends at 0 on the last tuner.  RecordPrefered is true (0xffffffff) on the first tuner, false (0x00000000) everywhere else; WatchPrefered is true on the last tuner, false everywhere else.
9. Repeat steps 7 - 10 for each tuner, adjusting the values of RecordOrder, RecordPrefered, WatchOrder and WatchPrefered as appropriate.
10. Close Registry Editor.
11. Start Media Center. Voila!

I have 3 analog tuners and one HD. The ATI is tuner 1 and the other 2 analogs are off a Saber2020.
My ATI is set up to watch first and record last:
(example pic2)
My second tuner is set to record first and watch last. The last tuner is set in between.
(example pic3)
(example pic4)

This thread is a nightmare and should be ditched. That blog linked above is what really helps.

Thanks Denyart, I suspect you could be right. The registry seems ok with different instances for each tuner but it's still a none runner.

Cheers.

I have tried this several times previously. All 4 tuners are enabled for mce and even ordered correctly (record and view order), but mce reports an error when i try to use the third or forth tuner. I have spent hours trying to work it out and have come to the conclusion that it's a driver issue.

Cheers.