There may be an easier way to do this.

When a new card is added a new key is added under

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\A799A800-A46D-11D0-A18C-00A02401DCD4]

even if the card isnt supported by MCE.

If the same card with the same settings are being used for it as for your other cards it may be possible to export thier settings, and change the key and import them to the new card.

I am going to try this when I get home, another thing to try is manually adding the settings to a card that MCE does not support just to see what happens.

I have this card at home, it works great, but doesnt work with MCE.  Im going to pop it in, and see if I can force MCE to see it. 

 

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Scuffs,
Concerning you idea about multiple USB IR adapters I check my MCE machine and have the same numbers listed for the USb IR Transceiver: vid_045e&pid_006d That correlates to mine which btw is a HP OEM model with dual IR blaster ports. I also have 2 other IR Transcievers (both MS) and plugged a Microsoft branded one in and it comes up in Device manager as : VID_0471&PID_0815\7&1B8CBBDF&0&0001

Notice the difference in the VID_0471 pid_0815. Maybe that is the key to getting multiple IR Transcievers working and specifying the ir port to use for the blaster to control STB. Use 2 different IR Transcievers and some registry edits to specify the target!

I do not have any STB setup to test and have a PVR-500 on the way to get to 4 tuners. All CATV input. This is awesome thanks for the discovery!

Also under each tuner is a Key UserSettings. Inside that one is one called UserDefName. This is Cable A and Cable B for my 2 tuner setup. You can change the name here to name each tuner setup and MCE displays which tuner was used to record each show. Viewing scheduled TV and History and this string shows up! Even after renaming each tuner it reflects in the History view.

I wish MCE would show this string when selecting record or viewing Live TV. That way you could tell which tuner you are using or select them. Has anyone tried the Watch prefered or Record prefereed setting with more than 2 tuners to set priorities?

Awesome. Thanks. If I can get a hold of another card I will give it a go.

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I would love to see a machine cope with recording 6 DVB-T streams. That is a whole lot of data! How does your machine cope with recording 3? Have you tried recording 3 and watching something that is already recorded?

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\{A799A800-A46D-11D0-A18C-00A02401DCD4}\{04CBCD6F-0EFE-4E52-9209-43B6AC9D4217}\UserSettings]
"UseSTB"=dword:ffffffff
"WatchOrder"=dword:00000001
"RecordOrder"=dword:00000001
"WatchPrefered"=dword:ffffffff
"RecordPrefered"=dword:ffffffff
"EnabledForMCE"=dword:ffffffff
"STBCode"="<stb> <codeseturl>\\microsoft\\C1376</codeseturl> <keyinterval>100</keyinterval> <keyduration>xxx</keyduration> <channelpause>yyy</channelpause> <useenter>False</useenter> <numdigits>3</numdigits> <target>\\\\?\\usb#vid_045e&amp;pid_006d#ms1b3lh4#{7951772d-cd50-49b7-b103-2baac494fc57}\\irport0</target> </stb>"
"UserDefName"="Cable box"

Check out the Userdefname

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\{A799A800-A46D-11D0-A18C-00A02401DCD4}\{54B4E960-C8E5-42A2-AC64-98A586B7BEA2}\UserSettings]
"EnabledForMCE"=dword:ffffffff
"UseSTB"=dword:00000000
"UserDefName"="Cable B"
"WatchOrder"=dword:00000000
"RecordOrder"=dword:00000000
"WatchPrefered"=dword:ffffffff
"RecordPrefered"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\{A799A800-A46D-11D0-A18C-00A02401DCD4}\{BAF147BF-2181-466D-96FE-48020D0861DD}\UserSettings]
"UseSTB"=dword:00000000
"WatchOrder"=dword:00000000
"RecordOrder"=dword:00000000
"WatchPrefered"=dword:00000000
"RecordPrefered"=dword:ffffffff
"EnabledForMCE"=dword:ffffffff
"UserDefName"="Cable A"

I need to make more time to play with this because im having series issues with the stupid controllers changing to the wrong channel.  My STB goes to 900 my other 2 only go to 89...

I just need to take the time to experiment and let the results sink in.  I am probably going to remove the single tuner and buy a duel tuner, then drop in an HD Tuner.   

 

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Something interesting that I noticed on my test machine.  This one has a usb2 hauppauge tuner.  Being a test machine, I dont always turn on the turner.  or sometimes remove the usb while inthe box.  Not sure how, but after about 6-7 disconnects with MCE running without the tuner, theres now 8 usb tuners listed in the registry.  Makes me wonder if it may just work without reg hacks if you used all external tuners.

Still no time to play with other IR Blasters.  I'm starting to go into one of those "what can this thing really do".  Going to try to find channel mappings to see if I can custom map channels to tuners.  Maybe I could have 2 low end stbs, 1 hd stb, 1 free to sat stb, and for the hell of it coax directly in. 

Anyone know much about UK television?  any free to watch digital satelites that I might be able to pickup from the east coast of the US?  would love to watch the new dr who that just started.  btw, don't take the thread off topic, please email me where I can find info on UK sat offerings.

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

I think thats normal for analog cable actually.  I would have to look it up, but I think standards say there are only that many channels. 

Bigger question is what combo of options might let an atsc tuner tune higher allowing QAM support on 3 digit channels without using an irblaster.

you may wnat to also add a 2 record/watch order.  looks liek you have 2 at 0.  just guessing thats how it orders which tuner is next to use.  Theres definately enough character space for much higher than 0 and 1. You may want to assume its binary where its 10 at the end and not just a 2.

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

I think I might be on to something here. 

Scuffs, you can break the 89 channel limit.  I don't have analog cable so here is an atsc tuner export for one of my atsc cards:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\{71985F48-1CA1-11D3-9CC8-00C04F7971E0}\{208AD2F7-0ECE-43AA-B147-B5C226BD61A5}\TuneRequest\Tuning Space]
@="{A2E30750-6C3D-11D3-B653-00C04F79498E}"
"Name"="ATSC"
"Description"="Local ATSC Digital Antenna"
"Network Type"="{0DAD2FDD-5FD7-11D3-8F50-00C04F7971E2}"
"MinChannel"=dword:00000001
"MaxChannel"=dword:00000063         <---  channel 99
"InputType"=dword:00000000
"CountryCode"=dword:00000000
"Min Minor Channel"=dword:00000000
"Max Minor Channel"=dword:000003e7
"Min Physical Channel"=dword:00000002
"Max Physical Channel"=dword:00000045     <----- Channel 69

I didn't test this, just an export.  I also found a channel override file in the ehome directory where you can break out and specify each channel with frequency.  The red seems to be where all the digital tuners are put.  And like your previous findings, I am seeing every card and every tuner I ever installed in the registry. only the 4 currently active are enabled.  The rest are there, including the analog side to hybrid tuners. 

EDITED TO REMOVE MY REQUEST FOR TESTS AND PUT OUT A WARNING  Max channel is the highest channel number thats the frequency is on "file".  Do not change max channel and only raise physical channel up to max channel unless your tuning with an stb, then its safe to change around more but really no reason too.

After I've had some sleep and get to work, I'll have time to post a quick howto for changing around the input type (seen above) to change the frequency chart your using and work up a list of safe maxchannel settings per chart type.  (and a howto to override the chart and make your own custom one).  Like say a frequency chart for hmmm radio??  add missing channels to the guide, never get picture but record the sound at a low encoding setting?  Oh I did figure out the encoder settings.  I may start a series of threads on these things.  just posting this to help out scuffs with whatever he is trying to accomplish.  don't get your hopes up too high for radio, that ones going to be a little hard to figure out.  digital radio might be easy though!

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

The only HD card that supports QAM is the Fusion card right?  Im working on getting one now but it looks like Ill have to wait for the Fusion 5 to come out.

 

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Actually the chipset on the avermedia a180 supports QAM up to 256, and it should be the same stream as ntsc so I would think that card can also, but no garuntees and its not tested by me also. 

 

 

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

I live in Fremont CA, according to there webpage they dont have any QAM signals.  Without an HD cable box I shouldnt be able to recieve HD, but then I did searches and according to a few posts people here in fremont have picked up multiple QAM stations.  I am going to try an a180 then next month when the new Fusion card is out, Ill try it.  I also want to buy another Duel analog Tuner, If all goes good I will have 5 analog tuners, and 2 HD tuners.

Now back to the main issue.  I know I was the one who figured this out but I have a problem now.  My third tuner is set up to use a STB.  Recording works great. Crystal clear changes channels fine etc.  But when I watch live TV it glitches bad, it also grabs 100% CPU usage.  Pretty much the computer freezes up until I stop the TV (which takes 5 minutes) or I hit record.  As soon as it switches to recorded TV it works great.

Any ideas?

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Can you take a screen shot of this.  I made the changes to mine, but it doesnt look like it did anything.  I have not had the time to reboot, but I did restart MCE front end.

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I rebooted for the change to take effect and it applies to all new recording after a reboot.

Regitry

History View

 

Yeah the webpage doesn't say anything about QAM but its in the chipset. Looks like it just does it from the manual for the chipset itself. Actually theres a few other formats in the chipset also. Digital Cable is basically just ATSC on a cable line plus some possible other options like encrpytion and qam. While the chipset can't decode the encrypted signal, the a180 should be able to decode the qam signal leaving the stream in the format that the drivers want it. Would be great if someone can confirm this. (for the super technical, I know this is a generalization that borders on incorrect information).

I basically confirmed that just installing a card with drivers for mce will put the card into the registry. TV setup enables the first 2 cards to be used by mce, but its really just a matter of enabling the card already in the registry with the proper tuning setup. Very simple to make a program to do this, tonight I should have my pci bus extender and I am bringing 2 usb tuners home from work to test out this. I have never programmed for windows before so hopefully I have a fast learning curve this weekend and can start beta testing a simple utility that initally will enable other tuners for mce. No STB support initally, sorry.

Also I have to put in a kudos to microsoft here. I have seen several interviews and videos where they say all the grass roots are there and its just a matter of programming for it. While not obvious, everything you need is in there. To the degree that the firewire project going on can easily be changed be turned into a simple install package, no hacks, no mods, no anything. This is exciting.

I am going to move the QAM stuff into a new thread in the HDTV forum, chris can move the thread back to hacks if he feels its better there.

Chris, is there anyway to get that lingering last post from days ago to go away?

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP