Tuner not installed - FusionHDTV Dual Digital

Aquagraphite · **21st April 2006, 12:29 AM**

Ive been using my MCE setup for quite a while now. Got everything settled and is running perfectly. I had a Sapphire 550 tuner in there - this is a custom build with MCE 2005 OEM, 3.2ghz P4, 512mb etc etc. The ATI tuner was brilliant, then I found out I could get freeview.

I brought a FusionHDTV Dual digital card. I took the Sapphire out and rebooted. Installed the latest drivers for the Fusion card which all went OK. I put the new card in and went through all the found new hardware messages no probs here. Ran the fusion software, loads of channels - brilliant, nice and smooth although channel changing caused the software to crash.

Then came MCE 2005. Tried to go through the setup TV, then the dreaded message Tuner not installed.

All updates from Microsoft have been applied.

I searched around the forums and have followed many guides - reinstall drivers, complete uninstall and reinstall of Fusion, still wont show up in MCE, the hardware manager shows that the BDA driver is loaded and is working OK.

Im going to try an earlier version of the software tonight as I have read people have had problems with the newer versions. Im also going to try a manual install of the drivers.

Its as if MCE isnt reading the drivers, although they are all shown in device manager.

Whats the next step?

Thanks in advance.

simbot82 · **21st April 2006, 02:32 AM**

I am going to depress you here but being an owner (not a proud one

) of two dvico cards you will need to do a fresh reinstall of MCE 2005 and all drivers.

oince the Fusion cards failed to install properly once or twice they will rarely be flawless again after that. I constatnly fight the urge to hurl them

So I would try out a few more things but the issue with dvicos drivers is that even uninstalled they leave a footprint. Try System restore as well

Aquagraphite · **21st April 2006, 02:50 AM**

Thanks for your response. I havent quite lost hope yet - I hate doing a format and reinstalling as everything is set just right. Although i'm glad i've partitioned my hard drive so all my media is separate - phew.

I've found a really indepth guide to uninstalling the drivers and what have you. I will try it out. I will post a link as soon as I find it again - doh.

Is it me or is the BDA architecture a bit flaky and not properly supported by MCE? I had a freecom USB stick and a Terratec USB stick that never worked inside of MCE even though I had BDA drivers for them.

Mark

Aquagraphite · **21st April 2006, 07:02 PM**

AWESOME

I went through a guide that ended up with me mucking up my system - never mind. It was behaving oddly anyway, even through it was a month old install. I think it mucked up when I made an error when installing the new ATI Omega Drivers.

Fresh system was installed. Then all updates, then drivers, then any other software and finally rhe DVICO drivers. I used the 3.30.1 version. I did a full install. Loaded up media center for the first time and bam it could see it. Both tuners full blast.

I think the original problem wasnt helped by the fact that I didnt plug in the USB lead to the machine at all - doh. So it may have worked properly after all.

The only oddity is that a few minutes into watching a channel it stutters only briefly and then continues as usual. I guess this may be a ram or harrdisk shortfall. Im not running SATA yet and have only 512 of dual channel ram - although it is crucial ballistix.

Mark

logifuse · **21st April 2006, 07:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquagraphite

AWESOME

I'm guessing, but by your use of the term "freeview", I assume you're a resident of the UK? Shouldn't you replace AWESOME with SORT-ED?

Quote:

The only oddity is that a few minutes into watching a channel it stutters only briefly and then continues as usual. I guess this may be a ram or harrdisk shortfall. Im not running SATA yet and have only 512 of dual channel ram - although it is crucial ballistix.

Mark

CODEC is always a usual suspect. Signal strength & quality is another.

Logifuse

Aquagraphite · **21st April 2006, 07:34 PM**

Ok ok, Sort-ed mate - LOL

Im using the current Nvidia Purevideo codec. It seems to be the best from the ones ive tested and it sits well with the ATI card (Sapphire X700 128mb - should have gone for Nvidia but this is quiet and cheap)

It could be that the machine is just settling down. Its only a couple of hours old.

Mark

logifuse · **22nd April 2006, 10:35 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquagraphite

Ok ok, Sort-ed mate - LOL

Im using the current Nvidia Purevideo codec. It seems to be the best from the ones ive tested and it sits well with the ATI card (Sapphire X700 128mb - should have gone for Nvidia but this is quiet and cheap)

It could be that the machine is just settling down. Its only a couple of hours old.

Mark

Yeah, I use the Purevideo with my ATi 9600Pro & it is the best combo.

Do the intervals between stutter seem relatively constant? What about impulse noise? I'm not sure about how much of a problem it is over there, but here (maybe because we use VHF more than UHF) people often get pixelation/stutter/break up when a light is switched on (or a mobile phone rings, etc). It's often due to poorly sheilded (old) cable from the antenna (& also because most antennae are still designed to pick up VHF I band frequencies for analogue TV).

Logifuse

Aquagraphite · **22nd April 2006, 06:32 PM**

Ive got a funny feeling that its a signal strength problem. As the stuttering gets worse and worse to the point that it stops and I get a 'no signal' message. Although the picture quality is really really good, its not really like a standard TV signal (I think) that would degrade in quality and eventually get snow. I cant get all the channels that I should get so Im sure its a strength problem.

Do you know this is the only forum that has actually responded to my questions, thegreenbutton and dvbowners have come up with nothing - and the responses here are actually friendly!

Mark

farnold · **22nd April 2006, 07:21 PM**

I don't think it has anything to do with signal strength. My experience is as follows:

I have a new Shuttle SD36G5M with an INtel D940 proc, DVICO HDTV Hybrid card and an XFX nVidia 7600GS. I installed all software, regarding TV mainly

DVICO drivers - attempting to leave out the included MPEG drivers, but they were installed anyway
Nero 7
Power DVD - checking that the Cyberlink is the preferred decoder

TV is a SAMSUNG LCD connected via VGA

My initial experience with both MCE and the DVICO HDTV program was dreadful. Stuttering TV picture and the longer you run it the worse it gets up to the point that it almost stopped and sometimes came up with these messages of "No TV signal". I read alot through the forum and tried this and that, fiddling with Wireless Network, Virus, and so forth - virtually with very little impact... The DVICO HDTV program pretty much the same - but without any stuttering when showing analogue channels

Somehow I changed the window size of MCE and noticed that the TV quality was better, when MCE is not running full-screen mode. I tried that with the DVICO program as well - same effect.

Then I started looking through some settings of the DVICO HDTV program. To my surprise the TV picture quality improved when I unticked the option "Hardware Acceleration for Decoding"

- anybody here to make sense of that to me?

Anyway, I continued on that path and set the Quality (1080i) to Highest... the TV signal is close to perfect... maybe a slight hick-up every 2 minutes or so...

The downside: I'm not aware of any such option to switch hardware acceleration of for MCE - in fact, I wonder anyway and think: shouldn't the qulity be better when hardware acceleration is on???

Coming back to your situation, Mark. Maybe you like to try that as well and change the setting in DVICO HDTV and see if you come to the same effect.

And I would be very pleased to get an idea if I'm on the right track or just creating inciental improvements... maybe the story before helps to narrow down the problem.

rollersmb · **23rd April 2006, 04:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquagraphite

Ive got a funny feeling that its a signal strength problem. As the stuttering gets worse and worse to the point that it stops and I get a 'no signal' message. Although the picture quality is really really good, its not really like a standard TV signal (I think) that would degrade in quality and eventually get snow. I cant get all the channels that I should get so Im sure its a strength problem.

Do you know this is the only forum that has actually responded to my questions, thegreenbutton and dvbowners have come up with nothing - and the responses here are actually friendly!

Mark

G'day Mark,

Have you tried viewing a channel with the dvico tv software? It has a signal strength indicator (I have not seen this in media centre.. yet.. :P ), that could help in checking whether the signal strength is fluctuating.

Cheers

Aquagraphite · **26th April 2006, 02:02 AM**

Sorry peps ive been away from my computer for a while - now got withdrawl symptons from lack of internet.

Ive read a couple of people have had luck disabling write caching on the main harddisk so Ill give that a go.

I havent tried the main DVICO software as yet - will check the signal strength at the same time

cheers

Mark

Aquagraphite · **26th April 2006, 07:12 AM**

I have tried the disabled write cache - it has helped a bit but its still there.

I have found that the signal is about 50%. I think im on the fringe of getting DVB.

The stuttering actually appears on the MCE time shift as well. If I rewind and play its there. So its not as if something isnt keeping up as it were.

Its definately the stream coming into the machine.

Im at a loss at the moment.

Mark

vbap · **26th April 2006, 02:35 PM**

Signal strength would definitely be an issue @ 50%. Suprised you get anything at all!

If possible, look at new antenna / cabling.

Aquagraphite · **26th April 2006, 08:27 PM**

Thats what I would have thought. BBC 1, BBC 2 and a few others are now almost stutter free. Others like ITV are unwatchable. Im sure its signal strength now. Whats weird though is the BBC channels are at 47% in the Fusion software and the ITV ones are at 52%. Would have thought it would be the strongest would be better.

If I was to put my old ATI 550 theatrix back in side by side with the Fusion card how do I distinguish and select analouge and digital in the guide. Obviously some channels would be doubled up.

Also how would the setup procedure be? - at the moment when I go through the tv signal setup it shows a screen with bluebird and fusion tv tuners. Will the theatrix show up here as well and after the scan for services give me the standard aerial tuning screens?

Im just making sure as I dont want to upset the fusion now that MCE can see it.

Thanks again.

Mark

vbap · **26th April 2006, 11:14 PM**

Analogue and DVB cannot work at the same time in MCE2005 - it's either one or the other.