Hi Guys! Newbie here to give you my story and ask for a little help.
Before reading on! THIS IS NOT A HOW TO THREAD -- MY SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK!
INFORMATION HERE IS MY GUESSWORK! Please tell me that I am wrong!
SIDKBIS = Something I Didn't Know Before I Started.
Television
I have held off for the longest time to come into the age of digital TV. There is a lot to consider, so many choices, SD, HD, Full HD, Plasma, LCD, Projectors, PVRs, Receivers, etc.
My old TV was a Panasonic CRT. It had just one input. Antenna in. It was analog and mono. The green gun was beginning to fail and caused the blurry picture to have a purple cast. I called it "Old Purple".
My new TV is a Panasonic 50" Plasma PS50P91FDX. Bit of an upgrade.
I got a new antenna too from Jarcar, since the old one was falling apart at the junction box.
The HTPC Vision
Now that I was getting HDTV on a widescreen TV, I needed a way to record it. I thought it was time to make a HTPC.
I asked a lot of people with HTPCs how they went about it and how happy they were with the result. Most were very happy, but none really truly used it as I would expect a HTPC to be used. I suppose that was my first lesson.
SIDKBIS: Everyone wants something different from their HTPC.
My idea of a HTPC is a central machine that can take all your media inputs from any source, possibly recording them, and being able to play them back on your A/V equipment.
Requirements
As a minimum requirement, I want to be able to record 2 digital channels and Fox at the same time. If anything comes with an online Programme Guide, then that is a bonus.
My first idea was to get a Divco Dual digital tuner card for HDTV and a Hauppauge PVR-1XX analog something for Foxtel. That was before I read about Divco cards on this forum. Big thanks to you guys for steering me clear of that!
My next plan was to follow the happy posters here recommending the Hauppauge HVR-2200 for digital. As it turned out the day I went to buy all my HTPC stuff, the HVR-2200 was the only card available for analog as well. So I bought 2x HVR-2200s.
HTPC Hardware
This is my complete parts list:
- Antec Fusion Black HTPC Desktop Case (IR but no remote)
- Antec 430W Power Supply (comes with the case)
- Asus P5E-VM HDMI Motherboard
- Intel ATX E6550 CORE 2 DUO 2.33GHz CPU
- Intel X3500 on board video
- Zalman CNPS8700 Cooler
- Geil PC6400 DDR2 2Gig 800Mhz Dual Channel Memory
- Video capture: 2x Hauppauge HVR-2200 Hybrid Dual Tuner Card
- Samsung 750G 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA II Hard Disk
- Samsung SH-S203B 20xDVD Rom
- Logitech LX710 Cordless Desktop Keyboard and Mouse
- Logitech Harmony 785 Universal Remote
... and then later (see below) ...
- Windows Vista Home Premium
- Windows MCE Remote with IR Receiver/Blaster
I can already hear the sighs and giggles from you more experienced HTPC guys about me thinking I just needed to plug all that in and it would all work. That is how it should be though, right? Anyway, the laughs keep coming for the experts and maybe a little insight for the newcomers!
MediaPortal
At first I wasn't going to try MCE at all. My first thought was MediaPortal. There is a new client/server version out now and it looks spiffy. If it worked. The newer HVR-2200 was not on the list of supported cards, but it is new, and MediaPortal seemed to work with every Hauppauge card in the past, so I wasn't too worried.
Digital TV worked well under Media Portal on the HVR-2200. But, I had no luck at all getting MediaPortal to recognize the analog side of the HVR-2200 or the S-Video input. Whether I scanned for the channels or manually entered the frequencies, it just didn't work.
WinTV2K
I then wondered if it worked with WinTV2K, the Hauppauge TV Viewing program. Damn! It wouldn't install from the CD supplied with the card. It did try to install WinTV2K, but then said it was not on the CD. I tried the other CD in the other cards box and it was the same. So I downloaded every version of WinTV I could find and none of them worked with the HVR-2200.
SIDKBIS: HVR-2200s are designed to be installed with Vista Media Center (VMC) or XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE). HVR-2200s do not come with any TV viewing software at all.
GBPVR
GBPVR didn't recognise the HVR-2200 at all. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Vista MC
So I gave up on Media Portal and anything else and went for Windows Vista Home Premium which included Media Center in it. My main reason for choosing VMC over XP MCE was that Grand Poobah Logifuse (Hi Logifuse!) was using it and his sig even had 2xHVR-2200s in it. Confidence was high!
SIDKBIS: Windows Vista Home Premium includes Windows Media Center.
So I loaded up Vista. Very easy install.
Loaded up the drivers for everything and launched Media Center. Now, I didn't go in fully blind. I had done a fair bit of research on this forum and sorta understood there were limitations on cards and tuners, but it is very hard to understand all of it until you actually do it for yourself.
SIDKBIS: Media Center (out of the box) only uses the first capture card it finds and ignores the rest. You will need hacks to get more than one card working.
The first thing I did was disable one of the HVR-2200s. I thought it might be easier to start with just one.
So with one HVR-2200 up, I went into MC and did a scan for digital channels. It all worked just fine. I did the same for analog TV. Again, all good. But where did my digital channels go?
SIDKBIS: Media Center (out of the box) only recognises 1 type of input per capture card. For example, if you say that your card is for digital TV, it will only recognise digital TV channels. Even if your card supports other types. During the setup of one type of signal, the previous configuration is completed deleted. Media Center will recognise 2 digital tuners on one card if it has two tuners. Media Center will recognise 2 analog tuners on one card if it has two tuners. There is no way (without hacks) to set up 1 analog and 1 digital tuner on the same card. If your card supports FM or S-Video they count as one type too. Vanilla Aussie MediaCenter will recognise one and only one type of tuner input (Digitial, Analogue, FM or S-Video) on the HVR-2200.
Seems to be the offical
Microsoft line
Annoyingly, it looks like the US version of MC does actually support mixed digital and analog.
SIDKBIS: The HVR-2200 is dual digital, dual analog with FM and S-Video. This means it has TWO tuners (not four and not six). Either one of those two tuners can tune one of Digital, Analog, FM or S-Video. The Analog tuner counts for an FM or S-Video input too. FM and S-Video are not extra inputs you get as well.
Then I tried to get Foxtel through S-Video. In the simplistic wizard style of setup there was no way to say that the S-Video signal was just a signal coming in. MC expected that the S-Video was coming from a set-top box. At a certain point along the wizard setup, MC told me I didn't have any IR control hardware for the S-Video and only gave me the option to cancel. It was particularly frustrating because at this stage I could see the S-Video signal being correctly displayed in a preview window. The general consensus on the forums to get past this problem was to buy a Media Center Remote Control. Not something I was planning on doing since I wanted to unify all my remotes into the Harmony, not buy yet another remote control!
SIDKBIS: To setup up an S-Video input on Media Center, you need to have the Microsoft Remote Control with IR Receiver/Transmitter. There is no way round it. Just borrow or buy one, click next on the setup and forget about it.
What I should say is, that if you do have a set-top box, it is a marvellous thing that your HTPC can control the channel on your set-top box.
SIDKBIS: Your HTPC can control your set-top box with a Microsoft Remote Control and IR Receiver/Transmitter. This is a good thing if you want to record many different Foxtel channels unattended without messing with the Foxtel timer setup.
So I thought I would give it a go just for fun. Eventually I got the hang of the path the wizard was leading me down and got it working. Sort of. It was not 100% reliable to change the channel on the Foxtel box. Sometimes it would miss a digit, particularly the first one. Even on the slowest setting. I messed with the positioning of the transmitter a lot and still didn't get it 100% reliable.
Particularly annoying was when you tried to go to say channel 411 and only 11- turned up on the screen. You can't just go 411 again, because the 4 would make 114. So you have to wait until the Foxtel box gave up on your attempt and the channel prompt vanished. You would try 411 again and nothing would happen. MC knows you are already on channel 411 and doesn't bother to try send the channel number again. So now you are in the state where you want to go to channel 411, but can't because MC believes it is already there. You have to try another channel to trick MC and ... on and on. And woe to you if the channel you try to use as an in between has a digit dropped too.
In the end I gave up on it. (I even tried the "learn all the keys on your remote option" - same result.)
Even if the IR Remote/Repeater thing worked 100%, MC still required you to put in the 3 digits for the Foxtel channel, MC would store them, and then after you finished the last digit, MC would replay that to the Foxtel box. The lag from channel to channel was so long by comparison to the original Foxtel remote that I just wouldn't bother.
Q. Any tips on IR Remote/Repeater accuracy?
SIDKBIS: There is considerable lag when changing Foxtel channels through Media Center.
SIDKBIS: Media Center restores the last used Foxtel channel in Media Center when you first fire up Media Center. (Not necessarily a bad thing...)
Two HVR-2200 Cards - Research
I sorta knew this would be trouble by now, so I trawled the web looking for guidance. There were a few sites that helped:
Wixkidder - DTV and Analog TV Works (TOGETHER)
DTV and Analog TV Works (TOGETHER)
RustyGonad - Vista MCE - Setting up Analogue and Digital Tuners
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp...&TopicId=18907
Scuffs - Howto: Setup 3 analog Tuners (Pinned)
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/46023.aspx
Vista Kram HDTV Hybrid Tuner Install Routine
http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/vistahdtvinstall.html
Scuffs says that there is a program that already does "this" (two card under MC?) here:
MCE Tuner Extender -
http://mce.ramonvanbruggen.nl/
There is very little documentation on this program, but it does display your config in a neat fashion, so it might be worth having around. The forum on that site seems broken?
Q. Anyone know if this thing really does help the process? What does it really do?
Two HVR-2200 Cards - Practice
I thought I would try to get 1 Analog Tuner on one card and 2 Digital Tuners on the other card working. Then I would push Foxtel through the VCR as channel 60. Not as ideal as going through S-Video, but this way I don't have to mess with the Foxtel set-top box IR Remote config thing while learning the 2 card set up procedure.
(Small note here, my VCR does mulitiple types of PAL and NTSC. When I first tried to get it working into my HVR-2200 it didn't work at all. It turned out that the VCR, a JVC HR-J781AM was outputing PAL B/G by default. This seemed fine for my old TV, but I needed to mess with the VCRs config to make it output PAL H before the HVR-2200 would have anything to do with it.)
It seemed the general idea to get two cards working was to:
Disable card 2
Set up card 1 in MC
Save a bunch of registry settings card1.reg
Disable card 1
Enable card 2
Set up card 2 in MC
Enable card 1
Restore card1.reg
??? Do something to make it all come together ???
(NOTE: THIS IS NOT A HOW TO! MY SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK!)
So here is exactly what I did
Installed Vista.
Windows Update.
Installed Drivers etc
Installed FreeEPG as per this thread:
Neilwa - NEW Instructions for FREE EPG Setup Incl MS Hotfix + Discovery Service Error 14 Fix
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...or-14-fix.html
When I tried to install Discovery Service Update Fix KB935685 I got the message that "The update does not apply to your system". Thinking that my Vista must be more up to date than the guide info I moved on and I applied the registry fix provided. Note that in my limited experience with MC and FreeEPG, it seems to be working. (I did this whole process many times, and I did get my EPG clobbered a few times, but after applying the registry fix it seemed to go a whole lot better, even though I could never install the KB935685 msu part.)
I did not apply Guide Corruption Fix KB938927. (I will look out for that corruption problem, but I have bigger problems at the moment.)
Update: Looks like I might have SP1 already installed, should have read this sticky:
GlenR - SP1 - Registry Keys Required To Prevent Guide Corruption
SP1 - Registry Keys Required To Prevent Guide Corruption
Then I went on to setting up my cards in Media Center by disabling one card and setting up the other and vice versa. Each time I enabled or disabled a card I did a reboot whether it was required or not.
If I messed with Capture Cards or the Media Center registry I also ran this script as administrator as suggested by Peter in Scuff's thread above to Stop the Media Center Receiver Service.
Stop Media Center Receiver Service.bat (right click and Run as Administrator):
Code:
net stop ehrecvr
pause
Disable the HVR-2200 that I was going to use as the Digital TV Card
Reboot
Export initial registry:
00-01 Media Center - Fresh Vista Install.reg
Set up Media Center for 1x Analog tuner with EPG working
Export registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\...
01-01 Media Center - Analog Setup Complete.reg
01-02 Tuners.reg
01-03 7198 Digital - None Used.reg
01-04 A799 Analog - 043D Tuned.reg
01-05 043D Tuned Analog.reg
01-06 TVConfig.reg
01-07 EPG.reg
01 EPG (backup of C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/eHome/EPG)
Analog works fine - this really is a breeze for one card, one service type.
Stop the Media Center Receiver Service
Disable the HVR-2200 that I was going to use as the Analog Card
Enable the HVR-2200 that I was going to use as the Digital Card
Delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Tuners
Reboot
Set up Media Center for 2x Digital tuners with EPG working
Export registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\...
02-01 Media Center - Digital Setup Complete.reg
02-02 Tuners.reg
02-03 7198 Digital - 03D8 4D4A Tuned.reg
02-04 A799 Analog - None Used.reg
02-05 03D8 Tuned Digital.reg
02-06 4D4A Tuned Digital.reg
02-07 TVConfig.reg
02-08 EPG.reg
02 EPG (backup of C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/eHome/EPG)
Digital works fine.
Stop the Media Center Receiver Service
Import 01-04 A799 Analog - 043D Tuned.reg
Import 01-07 EPG.reg
OK, so now it shows only Analog channels. If I import 02-08 EPG.reg it will magically show only Digital channels.
My big question: How do you get them to work at the same time?
I must be overlooking something obvious. Towards the end of Wixkidder's instruction it says a couple of things I don't fully understand:
Quote:
|
9. set tvconfig to 1,1,4,1
|
I tried this and it doesn't seem to do anything? I am pretty sure I got the right (fHasDVB = 1, fHasSTB = 1, iBroadcastStandard = 4, iVideoSource = 1?)
Quote:
11. now you will have "add missing channels" button. all added channels will go through av and change with blaster.
12. add all required channels and add listing to the channels.
|
I am afraid this is just over my head. When i try to add missing channels MC seems to act like I am trying to add an Analog Channel (if I have Analog channels showing), when really I want the Digital ones back?
Thank you for your time and patience for getting this far, even if you can't help!
Vista MC, 2x HVR-2200, need help
