Avermedia MCE A180 HDTV Tuner Card...

Andrew Magil · **13th October 2006, 01:13 PM**

I Recently purchased an Avermedia MCE A180 HDTV Tuner Card for my MCE PC. I've tried searching this site to see if anyone else has tried one of these tunres, but it doesn't seem like anyone has.

I installed the card & then dowloaded the MCE drivers from www.avermedia.com Windows Device manager says the card is installed & running ok, but Media Center does not detect the card. I then tried downloading the TV Software for XP from avermedia, but I can't get it to pick up any signals. I'm starting to think that maybe this card is not suitable for Aus. HDTV.

The card does, however, have some AV input connectors on it, which I have connected my Xbox 360 to, & I can play the Xbox 360 through the software I downloaded from avermedia.

But I can not get MCE to recognise that the card is installed..... Any help/suggestions welcome.....

Andrew Magil · **13th October 2006, 05:40 PM**

I read something on the avermedia website about this card, that said I may need to have DVB-T tuner connected to my pc as well, as this card is ATSC.

I have a USB DVB-T Device that I have removed since I installed this card. Does anybody know if the USB DVB-T tuners work in conjunction with PCI Tuners?

To this day, I have tried several different PCI tuner cards & I have not been able to get any of them to work with MCE, including the Twinhahn DVB-T PCI Card that was bundled with the copy of MCE that I bought. I have not been able to get any USB DVB-T devices to work in MCE either, I can only get the USB DVB-T devices working in XP.

Any help/suggestions would be great....

Andrew Magil · **31st October 2006, 09:28 AM**

Has anybody ever heard of the Aver MCE A180 HDTV Tuner card that I have asked about here? I've still had no luck getting it to work, but I can play my Xbox 360 on my PC through this card, so If anyone can recommend an SD Tuner card for MCE, that will allow me to plug my Xbox 360 into as well?

Nudge · **31st October 2006, 09:59 AM**

Andrew,

You may not get a huge response from Aussies for this card as ATSC Digital is not supported. You need a DVB-T supported tuner for digital in Aus.

The avermedias that support DVB-T are the A16A's or DVB-T 777 (or their hybrids), not too sure about plugging in the 360 as well.

Later,

Nudge

Andrew Magil · **31st October 2006, 11:25 AM**

Thanks Nudge, I kind of noticed that ATSC was not supported in Aus after I received the card.

I have been using a USB DVB-T before I installed this card, but since installing the card, i've tried to re-install the USB DVB-T receiver, but it seems to conflict somewhat with the PCI tuner card. & I am now back to square one... trying to find a good PCI tuner that works well with MCE, i've tried numerous PCI tuners in the past with no success..... It looks like I might have to check out the AveMedia 777 tuner...

Lester_Burnham · **31st October 2006, 12:17 PM**

Hi,

It's not to do with MCE region settings is it?
You tried an MCE reset and then install the USB DVB-t

Lester

Andrew Magil · **31st October 2006, 12:28 PM**

The USB DVB-T that I have, was never supported by MCE ( I work for a company who imports & distributes these, and many other PC Peripherals, etc ), I was only ever to use the USB DVB-T that I have in the normal XP part of MCE.......

Can anyone recommend a decent USB/PCI DVB-T that will be supported by MCE? I am tempted to leave my Aver MCE A180 installed, just so I can play my Xbox 360 through my PC, but it qould be nice to be able to enjoy Digital TV again, especially with an MCE supported DVB-T tuner.....

Lester_Burnham · **31st October 2006, 12:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Magil

The USB DVB-T that I have, was never supported by MCE ( I work for a company who imports & distributes these, and many other PC Peripherals, etc ), I was only ever to use the USB DVB-T that I have in the normal XP part of MCE.......

Can anyone recommend a decent USB/PCI DVB-T that will be supported by MCE? I am tempted to leave my Aver MCE A180 installed, just so I can play my Xbox 360 through my PC, but it qould be nice to be able to enjoy Digital TV again, especially with an MCE supported DVB-T tuner.....

Hi,

This one Single Tuner

This one Dual Tuner
Out of Stock though

Lester

Andrew Magil · **31st October 2006, 12:47 PM**

Thanks Lester. Very helpful. I like the looks of that dual USB tuner...... Can you tell me with this dual card, I see that it comes with a coax splitter cable, does taht mean that you only require one aerial on the roof, but having this card will allow you to watch one channel, whilst recording a second channel?

logifuse · **31st October 2006, 01:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Magil

Thanks Lester. Very helpful. I like the looks of that dual USB tuner...... Can you tell me with this dual card, I see that it comes with a coax splitter cable, does taht mean that you only require one aerial on the roof, but having this card will allow you to watch one channel, whilst recording a second channel?

You should only ever require 1 aerial on the roof (unless stacking for ghosting or adding gain) & assuming your signal is good enough, splitting it (with a reasonable quality splitter) to 3 or 4 points in the house should be fine. If your signal is borderline, you would probably need to amplify the signal before splitting it.

Have a look at this guide for some more info:

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...tem-guide.html

The included splitter cable with the TwinDVB-T is probably only good enough if you have strong signal. 1 step up from that is an f-type die-cast splitter & quad shield cable. The next step up is an amplified splitter (as per the guide, this won't make a bad signal better - it will just make up for the loss you normally get when splitting the signal).

Also, remember that dual tuner cards that only have 1 input probably aren't using amplified splitting on the card, so they will suffer the same problems if you have a weak signal.

Edit: Yes, you can watch one channel while recording another (or record 2). I use one of these plus a 3rd USB tuner to cover all bases.

Justin

Andrew Magil · **31st October 2006, 01:15 PM**

Thanks Justin, great help!!. I know from the last time that I had my USB DVB-T working, I had great signal strength as I was able to clearly receive all channels (even a couple of HD channels as well). I live in the campbelltown area & funnily enough, I get better signal if I point the aerial on my roof towards Wollongon, rather than Sydeny.

I think I'm going to source one of these dual USB tuners & give it a crack during the week......

logifuse · **31st October 2006, 01:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Magil

Thanks Justin, great help!!. I know from the last time that I had my USB DVB-T working, I had great signal strength as I was able to clearly receive all channels (even a couple of HD channels as well). I live in the campbelltown area & funnily enough, I get better signal if I point the aerial on my roof towards Wollongon, rather than Sydeny.

I think I'm going to source one of these dual USB tuners & give it a crack during the week......

Yeah, receiving the 'Gong is often a better option for people around your area (& in a large chunk of Southern Sydney - especially up the coast of the Eastern Suburbs).

If you want continue to receive both, you can go for a VHF/UHF combo antenna pointed towards Artarmon/Gore Hill) & then a UHF antenna pointed towards Wollongong. You can join them using a diplexer (without breaking the combo bridge - don't worry, if you get that far you'll know what I mean

) & then run a single signal down in to the house. Something like this would probably be good enough for Wollongong: http://www.jaycar.com.au/products_up...Large_1778.jpg

Justin

Andrew Magil · **31st October 2006, 01:30 PM**

Thanks Justin, don't worry you didn't "lose" me at all with your tech talk, i'm an electrician by trade & have installed many of these aerials before. Incidentally, i've also got a couple of MCP's & am not far of obtaining my MCSA certification as well.....

I just need to hit the books & do some study!!!!

I noticed your using a TwinHan (not exactly sure of model)tuner on your machine, When I first bought MCE 2005, I got it with a TwinHahn PCI DVB-T Tuner, that was supposedly supported by MCE & also supposedly supported HDTV. From day one when I bought this card, I could not get MCE to recognise that it was even installed!!! the "XP" part of MCE recognised that there was a card installed (ie; Device Manager recognised the card), but I was unable to get it to work, even in the "XP' part of MCE....
How is the TwinHahn card for you? any dramas?