Loosing Channels / Guide disappearing – IceTV and Vista (Possibly also MCE2005)

[Eaglehawk]

Oh, I have no doubt that my current P4 2.4Ghz can run Vista. But it isn't good enough to play all the 1080p material I started downloading.

Anyway, back to the original thread topic...anyone? Prime HD?

[Freefall]

PrimeHD has been working for me ever since I switched from XP MCE to Vista MCE, so I think your only option Eaglehawk is to go to Vista if you want PrimeHD. Even before this hotfix PrimeHD was fine on Vista. Now that PrimeHD has gone 1080i it's worth upgrading.

[philzgr8]

Just wondering, but is this issue related to my Prime HD channel disappearing issues that we have here in Canberra?

(Summary: Scan multiple times until you get Prime HD, stays there for a while, then in the Edit Channels listing, it loses it's Mhz display and subsequently becomes invisible. However, every now and then, it returns...)

So my only fix for my MCE2005 box is to upgrade to Vista?

"Honey...I've found a fix for that Prime HD problem...but I need some new hardware..."

Personally I never had any real problems in MCE 2005 that weren't easily worked around. I used to schedule a reboot for immediately after the guide download every day and never ever lost a channel.

[scritch]

Personally I never had any real problems in MCE 2005 that weren't easily worked around. I used to schedule a reboot for immediately after the guide download every day and never ever lost a channel.

I did the same - system reboot every night after guide download... one of the many things I'm happy I don't need to do with Vista.

Regards,
Shane.

[Auldar]

Hey astro,

I'm thankful for the efforts Mike put in with helping push this through Microsoft, so quickly.
Where I was coming from, was that if I'm a new user and just starting out. How do I easily find these fixes to have a trouble free Vista MC?

Yep, that's a fair call.

I don't think MS are planning to drop the ball on packaging the fix though. They just have to go through standard release processes first, and this can take some time.

[KCROWE]

Hi all
i started having similar problems with my Vista MC box, no epg or brp or anything, just a clean vista installation. it started losing channels 7 and 9, with the thing just giving me a blank screen and eventually a "no tv signal" alert. i reinsatllaed the card (Digitalnow S2 Dual Hybrid) - all to no avail. I finally researched the topic on this good forum, loaded the MS hotfix and regfix, and thought it was fixed .... for an hour or so. Then the dreaded "no signal" is back and all of the problems are back.

Will reformatting and returning to MCE 2005 fix this? Any idea whether i had the right fix in the first place?
cheers
ken

[ozbear]

Any idea whether i had the right fix in the first place?
cheers
ken

Since you failed to mention exactly which hotfix you applied, it would be difficult for us to guess if you had the right one.

Oz

[goldilox]

I have had my Vista MCE rig for 6 months now. Up until 3 weeks ago I have had to put up with losing 7 ( & occasionally SBS) frequently, sometimes a few times a week...especially in wet, stormy weather.

I have applied all hotfixes to no avail. I was advised that the problem was a signal strength problem. I called in an antenna guy & he told me that I had excellent reception at the wall but advised me to get rid of all my "skinny" non-digital cables & el-cheapo splitters. Instead he told me to use thick black digital cables (about $10 each) and to loop the cables into/outof my old VCR, set-top box etc instead of using splitters. Still no joy. I then got hold of a signal amplifier but this resulted in no signal whatsoever getting to my MCE !!

As a last resort I went cold turkey & ran a cable from the wall directly into my MCE & am not linking in my VCR or set-top box. BINGO....I have not lost any channel for 3 weeks now !!

In my case, it seems that the problem is very much signal strength related. Too much strength & I lose all channels, too little & I lose 7 etc. atm I am learning to live on the knife edge & all is well. I hope my experiences are of some help to others.

[KCROWE]

Since you failed to mention exactly which hotfix you applied, it would be difficult for us to guess if you had the right one.

Oz

I installed KB938927 first, checked that it was stable after a reboot and check of channels, then installed KB935685. Both hotfixes addressed issues similar to the problems i seem to be having.

After posting the above i noticed a few references in the forum to signal strength being an important factor. I am confident my signal is strong, although with the Low Noise Amp it may be too strong. I though it would be an issue for the Digitalnow card to sort out but i've seen statements that Vista can lose channels if the signal is out of spec. I plan to take the LNA out of the circuit and recheck, also see if i can get the software package (hypermedia?) to display the signal strength and go talk to Digitalnow about whether this could be a factor.
cheers KC

[ftkalcevic]

Is there any work around for us poor MCE2005 users? I just lost channel 7 again last night, and the only way I know to repair the problem is delete all settings and start again. That takes half an hour.

Where are the channels stored? Can I make a back up copy and then restore it when MCE screws up?

Upgrading to vista is not an option. I have MCE2005 OEM, which I can't upgrade. The options are $430 for a full version, or $160 for OEM if I upgrade the PC, which doesn't need it. And that's too much money, especially considering all the bad vista reviews still coming out, and all the stories of companies reverting back to XP. And considering this is and others are day one bugs, I have no faith in vista being any better.

[GlenR]

Unfortunately there is no fix for XP. MS only released hotfixes for Vista.

I would consider upgrading to Vista if this is a big problem for you.

Vista is much more stable than XPMCE and very few here have had issues with Vista for Media Center use.

You don't really need to upgrade your PC to get the OEM version. Most places will sell it for some token bit of hardware - and many will just sell it to you.

[sbucko]

Upgrading to vista is not an option.

yes me too, mainly because I can't physicly put the disks in or use a keyboard. But mainly because I use the the terminal service patch on XP & I haven't had much luck with vista terminal service patches.

my fix ,
reload blade runner pro with plenty of reboots. ie after uninstalling BRP do a reboot & just about everytime you do something.

I also wonder if IE7 has anything to do with it as I uninstalled IE7 about the same time (album art issue) which I still don't understand how IE7 could cause such a problem , but it did so there you go.

cheers STEVE

[slimf]

Today I installed both hotfixes on my Vista 64bit box...

938927 and 935685

The first (938927) went ok, except when I was creating the registry key I had the choice of creating a 32bit DWORD or a 64bit DWORD - unsure which one to pick, I picked the 64bit. The instructions from MS dont mention this at all.. Does it make a difference?

The second patch mentions a registry entry that simply does not exist:

Location: HKLM/software/Microsoft/Windows/Currentversion/Media Center/Service/EPG
disableUpdateDiscSvc

I created this as a 64bit DWORD - will this do?

Thanks
David

[prj32]

Anyone still having this problem? Channel 7 went for me at 230AM this morning. I am running SP1 but didn't have the registry DisableActualStreamOpportunisticScanning key set. I have now, just wanted to post to community in case anyway also forgot about this spider.