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I have the same problem.. I have the Dvico Dual digital card which picks up all stations fine when i use FusionHDTV but in Media Centre (Vista) i cannot get a picture for channel 7. any suggestions appreciated...
How many time do the guru's on this forum have to say that testing reception with a TV's in built tuner or a PVR prove NOTHING when it comes to using a HTPC's tuner card in the same situation.
It is a well known fact they are a whole different ball game.
There is no real reason why Vista should be blamed for the problem you are experiencing. So if you are looking for a magical registry tweek, or a driver suggestion, I think you will have no joy.
Another problem is - and TheRob and others should back me on this - the manor in which you have requested support, and the information you have supplied, require a little more thought and detail.
The link provided by Mox would actually be a great place to start. Just check out the details provided by the original poster.
What tuner card? What operating system? What software (XPMC, VMC, other)? Are you getting an on screen message? Have you run any signal strength utility tests? Are the channels that do display, displaying perfectly, with no glitches? Even where you are might help some answer your question. Maybe there is someone nearby that might have had the same problem who might be able shed some light on it for you...
Sometimes a signal can be too low OR even to high for a HTPC.
I'm gonna cop it for this post. But meh, I don't like the tone of this thread.
It's reception. Fix that and you fix your 'no channel 7 picture problem'.
Another possibility is that channel 7 is being broadcast on an offset to the main frequency that either the tuner driver or Vista is not picking up correctly.
There seems to be a growing number of posts from people in regional areas that find a particular channel when scanning, but can't watch it. There is a long running discussion over on The Green Button about this phenomenom (don't have the link handy, but do a search on something like 'frequency offset').
From what I understand, within each digital broadcast band there are three possible frequencies a station can choose broadcast - the centre frequency, centre+offset and centre-offset. Apparently with Vista Microsoft changed the way it stores channel tuning information. There appears to be a mismatch between the actual scanned information and that used to tune subsequent to a scan that affects stations which are not on the centre frequency. In Sydney the main towers broadcast everything on centre frequencies, but in other area some stations are broadcast with an offset.
I suspect that if you are scanning channel 7 ok but not able to view it, you may have this problem. You could check with channel 7 tech department and find out if they are broadcasting with a frequency offset in Dubbo. If this is your problem then you'll have to do a bit or research to try to find a workaround. I believe some people have discovered some registry hacks to fix the problem, but it's tuner card specific.
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Yea, I've know of that too.
That was one fix discussed back in the "Dvico White stutter" days. I never gave it a try, but I think others did, it never helped in that situation. But sounds viable in this case.
Unfortunate some users may have to deal with it, because the fix sounds messy.
p.s. Where did you get Dubbo from? PM or another thread, or a special mind reading gift you possess
...From what I understand, within each digital broadcast band there are three possible frequencies a station can choose broadcast - the centre frequency, centre+offset and centre-offset.
...
In Sydney the main towers broadcast everything on centre frequencies, but in other area some stations are broadcast with an offset.
This may help explain the offsets a bit more.
Australian Broadcasters may use a +/- 125KHz offset to avoid adjacent channel interference. This will typically be used when planning constraints dictate the use of adjacent analogue and digital channels.
For example: A PAL broadcast on Channel 7 at 182.25 MHz would necessitate a DVB-T broadcast on Channel 8 at 191.625 MHz.
Notes from Broadcast Australia (Broadcast Australia is the sole provider of digital television transmission services for ABC and SBS). "In Digital/analog combining networks, Broadcast Australia adopts the principle of offsetting the frequency of a digital service by +125 kHz if it is located on an upper adjacent channel to an existing analog service. This is to improve insertion loss and group delay of the analog channel sound carriers."
As noted in section 3.6, the use of channel offsets is not normally considered in the development of DCPs. Where implementation issues may warrant the use of a frequency offset, the ABA will consider as part of the implementation plan process and on a case by case basis, broadcaster proposals for use of +125 kHz or -125 kHz offsets, provided the use of such offsets is not detrimental to channel allotments in the same or adjacent markets or to long term digital planning.
The use of frequency offsets, as a means of reducing protection ratios for co-channel services, is well known in analog television planning and implementation. Although no comparable benefit has been identified for digital television, implementation issues such as combiner constraints, that may limit a broadcaster's ability to use the same transmission antenna for an adjacent channel digital service, may be overcome
through use of a frequency offset.
Explanatory note from ACMA web page http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/1001/pc=PC_91856 The Australian Receiver Standard AS - 4933.1-2000 recommends that receivers accommodate channel offsets of 0 kHz, ?125 kHz and +125 kHz which may be required to ease the implementation of adjacent channel transmissions. Such a channel offset is consistent with the DCP technical specifications.
And the Sydney frequencies:-
These are the channels from the main transmitters on the North Shore. ABC VHF 12 Hor 226.5 MHz ABC Tower 221 Pacific Highway GORE HILL
SEVEN VHF 6 Hor 177.5 MHz Ch7/10 Tower 192-196 Hampden Road ARTARMON
NINE VHF 8 Hor 191.625 MHz TCN 9 Television Tower Artarmon Road WILLOUGHBY (now from Gore Hill)
TEN VHF 11 Hor 219.5 MHz Ch7/10 Tower 192-196 Hampden Road ARTARMON
SBS UHF 34 Hor 571.5 MHz ABC Tower 221 Pacific Highway GORE HILL
Dig44 UHF 35 Hor 578.5 MHz ABC Tower 221 Pacific Highway GORE HILL
And those at Kings Cross. ABC UHF 30 Hor 543.625 MHz Elan Building Victoria St KINGS CROSS
SEVEN UHF 48 Hor 669.5 MHz Elan Building Victoria St KINGS CROSS
NINE UHF 33 Hor 564.5 MHz Elan Building Victoria St KINGS CROSS
TEN UHF 45 Hor 648.5 MHz Elan Building Victoria St KINGS CROSS
SBS UHF 34 Hor 571.5 MHz Elan Building Victoria St KINGS CROSS
And those at North Head. ABC UHF 30 Hor 543.625 MHz Broadcast Site Sewage Treatment Plant MANLY
SEVEN UHF 48 Hor 669.5 MHz Broadcast Site Sewage Treatment Plant MANLY
NINE UHF 33 Hor 564.5 MHz Broadcast Site Sewage Treatment Plant MANLY
TEN UHF 45 Hor 648.5 MHz Broadcast Site Sewage Treatment Plant MANLY
SBS UHF 34 Hor 571.5 MHz Broadcast Site Sewage Treatment Plant MANLY
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to charlesc3 for this information:
Thought I'd throw my 2c worth in here after having similar problems. A little while ago Channel 7 in Brisbane stopped working for me. It worked just fine on the inbuilt tuner in my plasma TV. ScanChannelsBDA didn't seem to give too different numbers to when I first installed my box with dual Nova-T 500 tuners (i.e. 4 tuners), but two of the tuners seemed to find channel 7 reliably but not the other 2.
So, I thought I'd give a masthead amplifier a go (Kingray 24db model with adjustable gain). Well, it fixed the problem and now I can watch and record the Olympics Quality on Ch7 has gone from 10 up to 40 and all tuners find Ch 7 reliably now. I'm actually not that far from the TV towers but have a hill between me and them plus I get reflections off buildings nearby.
Note for anyone else here - I found that MCE didn't seem work any better initially after powering up the masthead amp. I needed to kill ehrecvr.exe for it to make a difference (a reboot also would have sufficed, but I try to avoid rebooting as lots of other stuff runs on the MCE box - it's the hub of my home network).
Anyway hope that is of use to someone... another vote for masthead amps to fix reception problems. Also, I run RG6 Quad Shielded everywhere and the one unused connection is terminated -- so even if you think you have the best quality setup, you may still need an amp.
. So not mind reading - just reading 
Quality on Ch7 has gone from 10 up to 40 and all tuners find Ch 7 reliably now. I'm actually not that far from the TV towers but have a hill between me and them plus I get reflections off buildings nearby. 
