Vista MCE "Loss Of Signal" anyone help?

[jimbarino]

Hi

Ok, so after yesterdays revelations of using old hardware (thanks gang), I went and bought a whole bunch of new kit so my setup is now:

Motherboard: Asrock ConRoe1333-DVI/H Socket 775
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E4600 2.4ghz
RAM: Arianet 2gb DDR2-667
GFX: ATI Radeon Saphire HD2400 PCIe 256mb
TV Card: Compro Vista T750F Dual DVB-T/Analogue
HDD: 1x40gb, 1x200gb IDE

Full re-install of Vista Home Premium 32-bit.

Installed Drivers for graphics, TV etc etc.

Fire up MCE, detects card perfectly, scans channels, finds the ones I want, go to Live TV - I get sound but no picture, after a few seconds I get the dreaded blue screen "Loss Of Signal" message.

All Windows Updates done
All Manufacturers latest drivers loaded inc latest ATI Catalyst etc drivers

Still same issue, loss of signal.

Compro integrates its own DTVAddIn app into the program library bit which kinda works but not in Live TV.

Yesterday on the old system, at least I could get a picture under LiveTV albeit choppy and with lag now nothing, black screen, audio perfect, no video.

Done a lot of reading, suggestions include:

Download K-Lite codec pack full - DONE no change
Defrag Hard Drive(s) - DONE no change
Turn off indexing - DONE no change
Try playing a DVD from MCE - DONE - works no problems

Has anyone else had this problem and got around it?

Getting a reliable HTPC working shouldn't be this difficult.

Please please please help.

Thanks
James

[mac124]

I had something similar with my Terratec card, that installed ok under mce scannfor channels fine but refused to show any tv, turned out to be drivers. It worked perfectly with the bundled software just not mce so i knew the card was ok. IIRC it was something to do with the way it picked up the signal which was fixed with a new release of drivers. If you are absolutely sure you have the latest drivers and it works under the bundled viewing software all i can suggest is scouring the web to se if anyone else has issues with your card and vista and contacting the manufacturer.

[jimbarino]

Hi mac124

Yep, everything works outside of MCE - wierd.

The driver version I have is 1.3.7.0 dated Feb 08 but the latest on the Compro site is 1.3.6.6 dated Jan 08.

I've had this problem before with wireless USB sticks for networking that you have to install the manufacturers driver, not the version that MS updates you to.

The drivers package from Compro is in a .exe file, how can I force it to load the 1.3.6.6 driver without windows immediately overwriting it?

[mac124]

You could try uninstalling it from device manager then reinstalling the drivers from the website? Just don't reboot between uninstalling the old ones and installing the "proper" ones.

[jimbarino]

Thank mac, I forced a full uninstall of the drivers and software and finally got the Compro 1.3.6.6 driver onto the machine, went into MCE and it recongnised the card as a tuner, did the guide setup etc etc, went to live TV, black screen, sound, no picture - arrrrrrgggggghhhhh!

I re-installed the bundled software, the ComproDTVAddIn icon appeared on the main MCE navbar and their DTVAddIn appeared in program library, went into that and TV works but not in MCE's native Live TV app.

Unfortunately this means that when you record from their app, it doesn't appear in the Recorded TV module, doesn't get the right file tags etc etc that a DVR-MS recording does.

I can't find anything on the net regarding Compro cards and MCE (apart from 100's of sites selling them and stating they are MCE compatible) so i'm resigning myself to it being the TV card.

You have the (Hauppage) Nova TV card - does this integrate straight into Live TV and not via some obscure plugin in the program library?

My Laptop is an HP Pavillion 9500 series which came with an ATSC PCMCIA tuner by HP and it worked perfectly.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I sometimes think that manufacturers get a better deal with integrating these things than people like us who build our own kit.

Can anyone suggest a card PCI or PCIe that will definitely work?

What requirements should I look for - hardware decode? PureVideo support?

Thanks in advance.

[tystar]

ok peeps having read through all the posts it looks like it's a simple issue.

mce and vista mce require BDA drivers to be installed which not all manufacturers include on there disks. I once had a freecom dvb-t usb stick which would have the same fault you have described above. once i downloaded the bda drivers it worked a treat.

So to start uninstall all the software already installed download the bda drivers from there website and install using these NOT the included software. this should sort your issues.

[jimbarino]

Ok, according to Compro their card already uses the BDA driver interface and all the posts I can find seem to relate more to MCE2005 than VistaMCE.

The card is a Compro Vista T750F - can you point me in the direction of the right BDA drivers.

I've tried the sites 1.3.6.6 driver and the 1.3.7.0 MS driver and both have the same problem.

I'm going to go and buy a different TV card but i'd like to be able to get the Compro working in MC anyway.

All help is greatly appreciated

[tystar]

just had a look and it shows as supplied with bda as you mentioned. cant get on there website to check though.

personaly i purchased this card and it's worked a dream.

Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI Quickcode: #25533 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/TV+Tuner+Cards/Pinnacle+PCTV+Dual+DVB-T+Pro+PCI?productId=25533)

highly recomend this card if your gonna change it.

[jimbarino]

Thanks Tystar, Went and got a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1300 from **World chucked it in, did a scan and guide download, went into Live TV and it works perfectly.

Just can't get the IR blaster to work with my Sky+ box properly, does anyone know if the Microsoft IR/Blasrter that Aria sell works with Sky+.

MCE finds everything BUT the IR hardware although it's working perfectly as a remote sensor and I can see the LED flashing on the blaster.

I know with Sky+ you get two-tuners and can record one/watch another or record two at once etc but what i'm trying to do for myself is set up one machine that I can watch TV, play music, playback AVI's etc and also dump recordings from my Sky+ box to the PC for longer keeping.

At the moment i'm using the DVB-T side of the card and getting about 47 out of 90+ services in my area so I think I need a booster.