HP Dual TV Tuner, XP Media Center - need help!

Hi. We moved to the Broadlands area during the summer, and bought with us an HP Media Center-equipped laptop complete with the HP Dual TV Tuner. We have been unable to get it to work here. When we were in Herndon on Cox basic cable and Verizon T1-speed internet, we were able to use the tuner. No luck here on Adelphia. We've been unable to get any constructive assistance from HP, or Adelphia. I'm just curious if there is anyone out there in Broadlands using this setup and might offer some insight other than wiping the hard drive and re-installing the OS.

We thought it might be the tuner, but now we're starting to wonder if it's the cable signal. If you feed the signal directly from the wall jack to the tuner, it does not work...you get two b&w channels out of 71 and are snowy. However, if you feed the signal into the VCR, then into the tuner, you can view. We've tried a cable signal amplifier with no improvements.

I'm wondering if Adelphia uses a different cable signal strength than Cox, or if they've messed up the way the cable signal is brought into the house. From what I understand a splitter on top of a splitter, etc. is used to connect all the wires to the main line coming into the house.

Perhaps someone can shed some enlightenment?

Also...any suggestions on how to view/record TV programs on computer? Has anyone got recommendations on TV Tuners? Thanks.

 

Can you view tv if you plug it straight into a television?

 

Yup. Both tv's working.

 

I was doing research on the Adaptec website who makes the card inside the tuner. (The HP Dual Tuner is an OEM product so they don't support it.) There was a similar issue listed on their support site but it regarded a PAL signal. I'm curious why our box has a problem processing an analog signal in Ashburn, but not in Herndon.

 

Do a search or post a message on this site.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

You might be able to get an answer and a possible fix to your problem

Lee j

 

You might want to look into the software settings for the TV tuner. It might be that the tuner is set to use a different set of frequencies. I know that I had to tweak my tuner in linux to get the whole channel issue worked out.

 

Hi, Merky1.
I'm not quite sure where to make those changes. HP and MCE seem to control the the tuner, and any tech support resources I've read don't shed any light on how to fine-tune frequencies. If you'd be able to shed more light on that I'd really appreciate it.

P.S. Thanks LeeJ for the URL. I'll be sure to check it out.

 

For those of you interested, here is a posting on the Adaptec website for a similar problem but with WinDVR3 and VideoOH! Note: I am using an HP zd8000 laptop with MCE 2005, and the HP Dual TV Tuner (External box with USB connection) and gettign the exact same situation.

Adelphia has admitted that the Digital Cable, High-speed Internet and Analog Cable signals all piggyback on the same cable. Is this normal procedure for cable installs or this an Adelphia thing? I wonder what Cox does?

I'm wondering if there is anyone out there in our area who has successfully been using the HP Dual TV Tuner on a similar Adelphia setup such as ours.

Is there such a thing as a signal splitter to split the digital cable signal off the analog?

The following answer has been forwarded from Support Central:
http://adaptec-tic.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/adaptec_tic.cfg/php/enduser/home.php


Summary
---------------------------------------------------------------
Only 2 channels are found during an Auto Scan in WinDVR3


You can view this answer at
http://adaptec-tic.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/adaptec_tic.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php\?p_faqid=10333

============
Here is the copy of the text:

Only 2 channels are found during an Auto Scan in WinDVR3

> Question
I have connected a digital cable directly to the VideOh! Media Center Edition kit. Whenever the WinDVR3 application is opened and I run the Auto Scan feature to find my cable channels, only two (usually channels 5 and 6) come in clearly. There is no reception for the rest of the channels. I have taken the cable and connected it to a television and it works fine.

Why won't the VideOh! Media Center Edition kit work with my digital cable?

>This information applies to the following Product(s):

- VideOh! DVD Media Center PCI Edition
- VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 Edition


This information applies to the following Operating System(s):

- Windows XP
- Windows 2000 Professional

Answer
Unfortunately, the VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 Edition (AVC-2310) and VideOh! DVD Media Center PCI Edition (AVC-2410) kits cannot directly receive digital cable signals. The tuners are not compliant with digital cable signals and cannot unscramble the source.

To work around this issue, you may want to connect the digital cable source to a cable box or other device first (such as a VCR) to unscramble the signal. From there, an output can be sent to the VideOh! units.