Cannot not use 4 tuners after TV Pack install

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MikeSin

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Cannot not use 4 tuners after TV Pack install

#1

Post by MikeSin » Thu Oct 01, 2015 9:49 am

Like many others I was looking for a way to recover from loss of EPG. I had planned to go to W7 but when others reported success with TVPack 2008 I decided to try that route.
The install was fairly uneventful only requiring the TV Pack 2008 and PlayreadyPC runtime - the two KB updates were flagged as not appropriate
However I cannot now use the 4 tuners that I have - previously I had had success with a registry hack which had stood the test of time for about 5 years. I have tried the Millisoft MCE add tuners route but still no success although they all report as "enabled for MCE". I I have tried applying the previously successful registry hack but it still will not allow more that two programs to be scheduled for recording . Has anyone got the solution to more than 2 DVB-T tuners on Vista with TV Pack 2008 ??
Thanks for any advice

Mike

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CyberSimian

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#2

Post by CyberSimian » Thu Oct 01, 2015 1:53 pm

MikeSin wrote:Has anyone got the solution to more than 2 DVB-T tuners on Vista with TV Pack 2008 ??
With the original Vista, I used the "MCE Tuner Extender" tool, which (probably) just does the registry changes via a convenient panel. However, that does not work for Windows 7. Vista with TV Pack is probably more like Windows 7 than original Vista, so you need to use...

...Tuner Salad. Originally this was donation-ware, but I think that the current version requires a small fee. If you search for references to "Tuner Salad" you should be able to find where to purchase it.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

dmagerl

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#3

Post by dmagerl » Thu Oct 01, 2015 2:42 pm

I think this problem is a bit different than the one Tuner Salad solves, though who knows, it might repair a registry problem in the installation.

Media Center is supposed to support 4 tuners of each type, ATSC, QAM, DVB-T, etc. The OP only says its recognizing 2 tuners.

All I can offer is to say that TV Pack is an extremely buggy piece of software. Those who originally installed it when it was first released were more than happy when they were finally able to move to Win7 and delete it from their HTPC. I cant recall tuner limits being one of the bugs though.

When you ran TV setup, did WMC offer to set up all 4 tuners or just 2? I know nothing about DVB-T but assume set up is similar for all tuner types.

You should also be able to go to the guide, right click on a channel, then Edit Sources and look to see what tuners/transmitters are listed as sources. It may help debug things. Again, I've never seen a DVB-T source list so I dont know how useful this will be.

MikeSin

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#4

Post by MikeSin » Fri Oct 02, 2015 5:27 am

Thanks for interest - i have emailed tunersalad to ask if it supports tvpack +vista and await a response.
pure vista used to recognise all my tuners but only allow me to configure 2 ( 1 dual tuner ) - vista tv pack knows that there are 2cards but will only allow me to work with first one it 'sees' - even when trying to manually configure tuners it will not allow me to select second pair - no tick box for them - have tried the registry hack for more than two tuners but mce then fails to record / show live tv - feels like W7 is next step.
As an aside system seems to be 'busier' and less responsive. Glad I've got second system else I would be in serious trouble with boss by now !

Update TV Pack seems to be using about 15% more memory and a lt more CPU - poss 20% more judging by the info from task manager - i have had one crash and restart whilst watching live tv today

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