Cannot use all the tuners

[MikeSin]

My MCE system has been in operation for a couple of years on Vista SP2 with 4 tuners. Recently I noticed that I was getting an unusual amount of pixelation on live tv as if the signal was bad (but it isn't). In my attempt to determine the cause I tried to force the live TV to use the 3rd tuner by setting tuners 1 and 2 into record mode and then going back to live TV to see if I had pixelation on tuner 3. (BTW the TV had recorded 3 programs simultaneously on 1/12/12).

I cannot not now make the system work with 4 tuners. The MCE tuner application shows 4 tuners enabled for MCE. I have run SCANBDA on each tuner and I get 100% quality reading on each tuner. I have re patched the registry hack that I first used to get 4 tuners working on MCE. I have removed and reseated the 2 Hauppauge DVB-T cards and downloaded and installed device driver s/w. I have restored system back to 05.00AM on 1/12/12. I have run SFC without finding any problems.

I have set up MCE TV and scanned in 97 channels on one tuner and am able to watch one and record one. The MCE Extender application shows 4 tuner installed but only two active. After applying registry hack all 4 tuners are active but I am unable to use all 4. I repeat the process with the second tuner and get 97 channels and am able to watch one and record one. I again check that MCE extender shows a different pair of tuners active, apply the patch and see 4 tuners active but cannot use more than two.

I did re-install (again) remote potato s/w recently ( i had had it working for some months but removed it in case it was affecting the system in some way) but cannot now remove it for some reason (error 1001 from installer s/w) but apart from that I cannot think of any other changes that have been made.

What else can I do to determine why MCE does not want to use 4 tuners?

Any advice gratefully accepted - thanks

Mike

[CyberSimian]

My MCE system has been in operation for a couple of years on Vista SP2 with 4 tuners. ... What else can I do to determine why MCE does not want to use 4 tuners?

I note that you are using Vista. I too am still using Vista (although I have Win7 installed in another partition).

I have 8 DVB-T tuners installed in my system (a TBS 6284 quad-tuner card, plus two Pinnacle 2000i dual-tuner cards). I use the "MCE Tuner Extender" tool to create/modify the necessary registry settings for me. I can certainly record 8 programmes simultaneously, as I always test this after setting up Vista, or setting up MC, or swapping tuner cards around.

Now Vista was designed with a two-tuner limit, and the one oddity that I have noticed is this: if you display the EPG and press the OK button on the remote control to see the details of a future programme, if you then select "Record" on the panel to schedule that programme to record, Vista allows you to do that for only two simultaneous recordings, i.e. Vista is imposing the two-tuner limit, even though you may have more tuners.

I find that in order to be able to schedule more than two simultaneous recordings, I have to schedule them via the "Advanced Record" panel. Vista does not impose the two-tuner limit doing it that way.

The other way to schedule a recording is to press the RECORD button on the remote control when viewing the EPG. I do not use that method (because I always want 5 minutes of programme extension, which you can request only from "Advanced Record"), but I would suspect that the RECORD button method also suffers from the two-tuner limit.

If you have not been aware of this oddity, your recent tests may have been using the method that still results in Vista imposing the two-tuner limit.

(Note: Win7 has a built-in default of 4 tuners [with certain versions having an even larger limit], so Win7's behaviour in these circumstances may be very different from Vista's.)

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[MikeSin]

thanks for the comment - the recording process is usually initiated from scheduled settings and has worked without problems - occasionally the record button is used but wifey has lots of series setup which sometimes overlap which generates the need for multiple tuners - this worked without problems but two nights ago the process of overlapping recordings generated a"tuner not available" message however I will go and try again to schedule 3 simultaneous recordings.
UPDATE No could not use more than two tuners and I am now remembering that I have always been able to check the status of the 4 tuners by accessing the guide, selecting a program and pressing record button and this has always worked and allowed me to confirm that I had 4 enabled and working tuners - which is no longer the case. So I have i have the situation where I have two PCI cards with four DVB tuners that both work independently and have co-operated as a "four-some" and no longer do so.
UPDATE - Ran CCleaner to clean up registry (in desperation) and problem appeaers to be resolved - shceduled 4 overlapping recording overnight and all worked fine.UPDATE A definite resolution to the problem and the pixelation has gone away

[MikeSin]

Almost a year later and the problem has come back -cleaning registry does not resolve so have to eat my previuos statement. Tuner tool shows 4 tuners available but cannot use 4 tuners. I do not know how to identify cause of issue. I will try rescan of TV setup and then repatch 4 tuners into the registry

[CyberSimian]

Tuner tool shows 4 tuners available but cannot use 4 tuners. I do not know how to identify cause of issue. I will try rescan of TV setup and then repatch 4 tuners into the registry

Are you using the "MCE Tuner Extender" tool to patch the registry? As far as I know, the author of this tool never finished its development, with the result that it has some usability quirks. From memory:

(1) Setup MC to use two of your tuners. Exit MC.
(2) Start "MCE Tuner Extender" and click the button to scan for tuners.
(3) In the list of tuners, click each tuner in turn. Two of them will have names, and be enabled for MC.
(4) For the unnamed tuners, type a unique name into the name field. Unfortunately, the "Enabled for MCE" field remains greyed out, so you cannot enable the tuner for MC.
(5) After you have named all of the tuners, click on one of the tuners that you originally set up for MC. This will have the "Enabled for MCE" field ungreyed (i.e. active).
(6) Now click on a tuner that you named. It inherits the ungreyed "Enabled for MCE" field from the previous tuner, so click the box to enable the tuner for MCE.
(7) Repeat step (6) for each of the other tuners that you want to use with MC.
(8) Reboot.
(9) Start MC. You should now be able to use all of the tuners that you set up.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[erkotz]

I'm digging around in the cobwebbed corners of my mind, but I THINK Vista Ultimate had a 4-tuner limit, whereas lesser versions had 2 - you might be able to pick up an upgrade for cheap. Alternatively, Windows 7 supports at least 4 tuners.

[holidayboy]

^ That does sort of sound familiar.

Or did it change with tvpack2008?

[CyberSimian]

I THINK Vista Ultimate had a 4-tuner limit, whereas lesser versions had 2 - you might be able to pick up an upgrade for cheap.

I currently use Vista Home Premium, and that does have a limit of two tuners. If more than two are installed, MC lists all of them, but allows you to set up only two. However, the "MCE Tuner Extender" tool circumvents this restriction (it does for Vista what "Tuner Salad" does for Win7).

The original poster should be able to set up all of his tuners using "MCE Tuner Extender", whichever version of Vista he has.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK