Basilisk:

johnlo:

... I wanted to ask if i install the beta, do i still need to install the Vista TV pack??   

No. 

IMnsHO Beta MC is -much- [much much much much much...] improved over the TVp [... although there are some issues with non-US support and with no-yet implemented previous features where the experience is tainted, none of these serious issues have impacted me (using USA Comcast)].

OTOH, I am frustrated to the point of gnashing my teeth at some of the quixotic stylistic changes of Beta.  Little seems truly broken in Beta, just changed from long-standing arbitrary standards to new arbitrary standards, with only a few recurring glitches.  G'luck!

What beta are we talking about?

pilotbo:

Basilisk:

IMnsHO Beta MC is -much- [much much much much much...] improved over the TVp

What beta are we talking about?

That was Windows 7 Beta. 

Installing W7B is not an option at this point: while you might find a copy and load it, MS is no longer [validating/authorizing/registering/enabling?] it; I expect you could run it for 30[?] days and then it would lock up for want of validation.

Those of us who installed it can run it until Aug 30th[?], after which it will be a dead fish.  With luck, MS will have released W7 by then, or will extend our Betas.  I'm no MS fan-boy, but my experience with W/VMC was so bad I'll probably buy W7 for my HTPC.

I'm having the exact same problem with Vista MCE. Please update if you have found an answer kkmak!

I'm having an issue where Media Center will periodically be unable to tune into the local NBC station using my Hybrid Volar Max.  One day it will be working, and MC records NBC shows without any trouble.  Then the next day (today for instance), I'll see the notification in the task bar that MC can't tune into the channel.  Tomorrow or a couple of days from now, it will start working again automatically.  I know the channel is coming in OK, though, since I can tune to it if I plug the cable directly into the TV.  For some reason, it always seems to be NBC that this happens with...

I'm running Vista (SP1) with the TV Pack installed.  My tuner is configured to receive QAM, and I'm using driver version 1.0.0.85.

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks!

Can anyone confirm that they are successfully using this card in a single-card setup in MCE 2005 to for OTA ATSC?  (I don't have cable, so QAM issues are irrelevant to my intended use.)

Thanks

Basilisk:

That was Windows 7 Beta. 

Installing W7B is not an option at this point: while you might find a copy and load it, MS is no longer [validating/authorizing/registering/enabling?] it; I expect you could run it for 30[?] days and then it would lock up for want of validation.

Those of us who installed it can run it until Aug 30th[?], after which it will be a dead fish.  With luck, MS will have released W7 by then, or will extend our Betas.  I'm no MS fan-boy, but my experience with W/VMC was so bad I'll probably buy W7 for my HTPC.

Windows 7 is now offered as Release Candidate 1 that will expire in June 2010. It is a better interface than TV pack (and legal), but I have not been able to get my QAM channels to work with my Volar Max. Does anyone have any insite on setting this up properly?

defunc:

Windows 7 is now offered as Release Candidate 1 that will expire in June 2010. It is a better interface than TV pack (and legal), but I have not been able to get my QAM channels to work with my Volar Max. Does anyone have any insite on setting this up properly?

I presume W7MC isn't recognizing your digital tuners.  If it's seeing the tuners but not finding digital channels, skip the first "section", below.
_________________________________________________________
'Unsure how insightful this is, but: with two VM's and a Hauppauge 2250 [dual tuners], I did -nothing- special to set up W7MC:

1. I did a clean-load of W7RC. 
   
2. Ran TV setup (W7MC -> Tasks -> TV[?]) and configured MC with the results it found in its H/W scan: after I specified my ZIP-code and accepted the listings-download EULA, it searched for my tuners and displayed:

• Digital Cable (Clear QAM) (4 Tuners)
• Analog Cable (4 Tuners)

- Yes. Configure TV with these results

It recognized all the Digital Channels (3.1, 6.1, 10.1, 10.2, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3...) I expected to find, as well as all the cable analog channels expected.

I'm confident all four tuners are functioning as I tested that by requesting W7MC to record 4 different cQAM channels at once.

I've installed no driver updates for the VM's or H2250: drivers were recognized & installed by the baseline W7RC.

If this wasn't your experience, you might email me ["Contact" icon on this post] with Q's.  Maybe there's some test I could run for you.

[My H/W = ComCast -> (4-way splitter [1 for direct-to-TV]) -> (2xVM's + H2250 [Q6600 & 4GB &  W7RCx86]) -> Onkyo TX-SR606 -> Vizio 42" 1080p.]

_________________________________________________
Edit: Footnote

If you're getting the correct configuration information regarding the number of digital tuners, but digital channels aren't showing up in your Guide, that's a different issue.  My first guess would be that either you have selected the wrong cable provider Id, or the provider hasn't identified the cQAM channels to the listing.  For example, I have two listings for my provider [ComCast of Cherry Hill, NJ] and they have slightly different contents!  [I vaguely recall that one lacks the cQAM channels, and that it's used for the analogue listings; the other listing includes the digital channels (and has "(CR)" -- Cable Ready -- in the title.]  I've never learned how to add non-listed channels to the MC, but I believe that's possible.

_________________________________________________

All that aside, I do seem to have bescrewt the system to some degree while customizing W7RC -- probably as I installed various CODECs for FLAC, etc.  I expect I'll get back to a stable MC, as W7Beta was very stable and W7RC was at first.  [I -really- don't "get" CODEC -management- yet -- removal, selection-between, etc.]  Until then, some recorded programs put the audio track into a 1 second loop while the video continues -- for a few seconds, until MC complains & aborts.

kkmak:

I could actually see all the unencrypted HD QAM channels in AverMedia's QAM scan tool.  These unencrypted HD channels appeared as channels #70x's in Comcast Digital (I'm in CA).

After I exported all the QAM channels to XP Media Center from AverMedia's QAM tool, XP MC simply would not allow me to tune to those HD QAM channels (#70x's) altogether.  I suppose XP MC should have done the right job mapping those HD channels using the EPG data for Comcast Digital to the correct channel numbers.

Or did I do something wrong during XP Media Center tuner configuration so it only recognized Volar Max as analog tuner only?  Perhaps XP MC would not allow a hybrid (analog+diigital) tuner configuration?

I ran into a similar issue that VMC was only recognizing the analog tuner after a scan & export from clearQAM tool.

I figured out that the tuner should be manually configured as a digital antenna only. Then I was able to go to the Guide option to remove the Enable-DT channel.

All your digital channels should be mapped to 1xxx (OTA range) instead of Comcasts virtual channels (ie. 1xx-7xx)

Losing the analog channels is not a big deal since the reason for doing the scan is to pickup more clear QAM channels after Comcast has converted the extended channels to digital a few weeks ago in my area. I found a way to get the analog channel appear by hacking Registry, but there is really no need since the digital version looks much better anyways.

Now, I need to figure out how I can map the Guide from a digital cable to the clearQAM channels. OTA guide is better than nothing, but getting the full guide is really nice as I have that on my other MCE system with a M780 combo tuner.
Anyone managed to get the full gide for the clear QAM channels?

yukit:

Anyone managed to get the full gide for the clear QAM channels?

In VMC, VMC+pkg, and W7MC: my Comcast (Cherry Hill, NJ) provided accurate Guides for both Analog sets and for combined Analog+cQAM. The latter was qualified by "(CR)" ["Cable Ready"? -- which of course makes no sense!] in the Guide title. To see this, use 08055 as your ZIP.

It's possible your ComCast affiliate isn't providing some of the tables.

I'm puzzled by your reference to "digital cable": I have "analogue cable with cQAM channels" while my neighbors have "digital cable" and must use a ComCast tuner box. I've glanced at ComCast's web pages and it seems to me that their "digital cable" requires that box and I'm surprised (& pleased) if you can use any tuner with it [since MS dropped support of Cable Cards].

For MC, W7rc is much improved over any previous release. The free RC's [x64 & x86 Release Candidates] are still downloadable and won't expire until June 2010. [I'd suggest downloading the latest release from the Torrent of your choice, rather than the MS site's version which is only the initial RC; the latest x86 RC is 7260, the x64 is 7235 IIRC.]

Basilisk:

yukit:

Anyone managed to get the full gide for the clear QAM channels?

In VMC, VMC+pkg, and W7MC: my Comcast (Cherry Hill, NJ) provided accurate Guides for both Analog sets and for combined Analog+cQAM.
...
I'm puzzled by your reference to "digital cable": I have "analogue cable with cQAM channels" while my neighbors have "digital cable" and must use a ComCast tuner box. I've glanced at ComCast's web pages and it seems to me that their "digital cable" requires that box and I'm surprised (& pleased) if you can use any tuner with it [since MS dropped support of Cable Cards].

The full guide I was referring to is in the context of Avermedia's clearQAM app to map clearQAM channels such as ESPN & CNBC in VMC, otherwise I just get the mapping for OTA channels for FOX, NBC, CBS, etc.

It seems that in order to download the full guide in VMC, I have to pick a cable tuner, but if I do that VMC does not recognize the ATSC tuner so I don't get the clear QAM channels.

BTW, I mean the digital cable to be clear QAM channels in this discussion. In my area, only channels 2-34 are available in analog. Other channels require a clear QAM tuner or a digital settop box.

Apologies if I've been unclear:
- In my area, ComCast provides TWO guides, one for cQAM tuners, one for NTSC(analog)-only. (I believe your use of "ATSC" for cable tuners is incorrect, but that's of no concern.)
- In my area, the cQAM guide is distinguished from the analog guide by having "(CR)" in the name.
- Whether using Vista or W7, you should have to configure "each of your tuners" [the analog(NTSC) and cQAM tuners of the Volar Max]: IIRC, only the one (non-"(CR)") guide was offered for the analog tuner setup; for cQAM, both guides were offered but if I selected the one *without* "(CR)" in the name, I did NOT get the cQAM channels.

Hmmm... haven't I read that VMC doesn't support tuner mode-switching (while W7MC does)? Perhaps that's at the heart of your problem: you may be forced into one mode or the other. Since I had the H2250 with its two discrete dual- tuners, VMC may have been tricked into coping with both NTSC + cQAM modes even for the Volar. However... I thought that was fixed by adding the TVpack2008 -- which I'd added from first VMC use. [If you haven't added TVp2008 you should research its value.]

If you're not seeing two cable guides (a) your ComCast provider is *not* providing multiple guides -- perhaps your cable feed is fundamentally different, or your cable provider has failed to provide a guide -- or (b) VMC may be defaulting to NTSC in the absence of multiple discrete tuners.

I gave up on VMC+TVpack2008 for instability issues. In comparison, W7 MC is totally sane; I'm not pushing you to use it, 'just saying I couldn't cope with VMC! W7's MC can be improved upon, but it's the first MC I'd call "sane", nearly user-friendly and almost ready for prime time.

My initial experience of VMC was with my Hauppauge-2250, later with that plus a Volar Max. I don't recall if the Volar Max ever became fully integrated with VMC because I was getting pretty upset with VMC by the time I added it --'had to do a full (formatting) reload of VHP twice, and -still- VMC problems recurred! But, the H2250 installed as I've described, and under W7 the Volar did as well -- as did a second Volar I eventually added.

ComCast Analog, in my area, presents ~100 analog channels and about 15 cQAM. I don't have "CC digital": it's possible my area's CC digital is as you've described -- 33 analog and hundreds of cQAM or STB-required channels. Or, you may just be describing how your CC analog is set up. I'm not trying to be argumentative, 'just clarifying my uncertainties. I tried to research "CC digital" on Comcast.com, but all I found was ambiguous sales dithering -- nothing that pinned down the technical features of either their analog or digital offerings. 'Had I found anything useful, I could be more definitive here.

Under W7, the solitary problem I had with any tuners (H2250 * 2xVolarMax) was a noise-pattern on the tuners for NTSC channels 5-8. That was fixed by replacing my four (1 in, 3 out) co-ax' cables with RG6/quad: the computer was generating EMI that the cheap RG5 cables weren't excluding! [Can I plug MonoPrice.com for its inexpensive-but-good RG6 cables?!]

Summary:
- If you haven't added TVpack2008, you may have to have multiple discrete tuners to see both NTSC and cQAM.
- If you aren't being offered both analog and digital setup steps with your Volar Max, I expect the last sentence is true.
- If you're being offered both analog and digital setup steps, but only have *one* guide option for your provider, something is different from my experience.
- If you're successful with VMC, you're a better man than I, "Gunga Din"....
- This was a hopelessly verbose reply... apologies!

Basilisk, thanks for your detailed explanation.

I wasn't clear in my message regarding my setup:

* I have Vista x64 with VMC, but no TVPack (last time I checked, Fiji was not available for public upgrade)

* So I am using Avermedia's ClearQAM_Utility to scan for cQAM channels. Then I have to manually assign the channel logo using silicondust's guide as a reference for my neighborhood in ClearQAM_Utility.

* By default, VMC only seems to recognize the analog tuner in the hybrid tuner (ATSC part is ignored, though it does put the tuner entry in Registry) With the analog tuner active, I get to choose from several guide options for my area, the main options are basic analog & full digital (meant to be used with a full digital STB to get both cQAM & encrypted channels)

* My workaround is to choose the ATSC (digital antenna option) manually in the VMC tuner setup. Since this is only designed to work with the OTA channels, the guide downloaded is limited to channels provided by the OTA guide.

* Once I enable the ATSC tuner on VMC, the cQAM channels exported by ClearQAM_Utility becomes available starting at channel 1001. When the dummy channel is removed (enable-DT channel) OTA guide is mapped to the call letters I chose for each channel.

* In my area (northern CA) Comcast has converted analog channels 35-99 to cQAM so an analog tuner can only pick up 2-34. We also get a bunch of music & radio channels in teh cQAM channels as well. The Volar Max cQAM tuner can pick up all these channels, but I don't get the guide for these channels.

* As you suggested, if I added another analog tuner, I would be able to choose a digital cable guide to map to the cQAM channels picked up by the Volar Max. This is consistent with Aver's M780 combo tuner able to map cQAM channels in another system.

* The Vista x64 driver has come a long way since the initial beta release. It used to BSOD frequently. I was analyzing the minidump stacktrace to report bugs, but I don't think I have experienced BSOD while I am in VMC for a long time. But then again, I don't run VMC that frequently on this system.

* There is a way to enable the analog tuner in VMC by manually updating Registry, but there is really no point since the video quality is worse than cQAM. You cannot enable both tuners in the Volar Max at the same time anyways.

Felix, I have the Volar Max Hybrid on Windows 7 RC. I have my Comcast cable from the wall streight into the tuner and Media Center detects a ClearQAM signal from the tuner. However when MC scans for channels it doesn't pick up any of the QAM channels. The AverMediaCenter application however does pickup a bunch of QAM channels under QAM(Standard). Any ideas??
I am using the latest Windows 7 drivers for the tuner, my zip code is 33158. I will add that I am able to manually add QAM channels in Media Center but unable to find them through the auto-scan. Could this be due perhaps to a mismatched EPG mapping? Strange that it doesn't even pick up a single QAM channel.

Thanks.

Hi everyone.
I joined this forum because I am completely lost in trying to get my Volar Max setup with VMC. I've tried the various fixes and tweaks in this thread but can't seem to get them to work. So, if you can please bear with me, I'm looking for help.

Ideally, I'd like to have the Max recognized as two tuners, an analog and a digital Clear QAM. I'd like to be able to tune a Clear QAM channel and then, for instance, tune to an analog channel. Can this be done? I know they can't run simultaneously and I don't need them to. If this is impossible, I have an older tuner I can use as the analog tuner.

My question is this: how do I get Clear QAM in VMC with the Max? I just can't seem to do it. I've tried the latest beta drivers, the official drivers, the TV Pack, and no TV Pack. When I run a scan for Clear QAM with the TV Pack, it gets to 99% and hangs VMC. It's eating half of my processor (Core 2 Duo) and is slowly taking up memory as it runs.

I'm running Vista SP2 Ultimate x64 with (and without) the TV Pack.

Can anyone help? I bought this tuner so that I could do Clear QAM for the few channels I receive and am really frustrated that it won't work.

yukit:

* I have Vista x64 with VMC, but no TVPack (last time I checked, Fiji was not available for public upgrade)

Googling for "download tvpack 2008" should provide adequate links with information. BTW, you are correct: MS ain't released it, won't "support" it, and has a product (VMC) that is castrated w/o it. With the pack... VMC remained utterly underwhelming [unreliable and incapable] for me, but YMMV.

W7rc has these advantages: it works; it works without exotic efforts -- no registry scrogging; and single and multiple Volar Max's are recognized, self install, and are capable of switching transparently between analog and cQAM modes. I have W7RC-x86[b7260] (H2250+Volar) and W7RC-x64[b7035] (Volar). The second system's Volar was originally in the first box, which when was running with the H2250 and two Volars.

Should anyone elect to load W7rc, unquestionably MS provides the "safest" source. HOWEVER, I've only seen b(uild)7100 on MS. The only source I know of for the later builds are Torrents [I used ThePirateBay.org] (or being a member of MS's s/w community). I originally did reformatting-installls from the MS source, and later did "update" installs from TPB s/w -- re-using the original MS-provided Keys.


Edit 1- Perhaps I need to state this explicitly: With W7, both (analog/cQAM) tuners of the Volar (&H2250) were recognized -- the setup asked separately for cQAM and analog Guides -- and all analog and cQAM channels were discovered.

Edit 2- It must be obvious I do not believe that MCE or VMC were ready for prime-time. W7MC is far from ideal, but it's the first really usable MS MC in my limited experience. I know it CAN become a great product... but I can't know if MS will make the effort.