HVR-1800 - Comast / Digital / QAm Issues

[feniks]

Hello guys,

Sorry to resurrect old thread, but I found myself in exactly same situation as OP mja311... clear QAM scans and doesn't find/display channels...

Using HVR 1800 with Media Center Kit. I am running Windows XP x64 SP2 (4GB RAM) on 790i chipset board.
I tried drivers/app from original CD (3.1H) <-- no luck

Then googled support for this product and found this:
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_hvr1800.html#manuals
which is ridiculous because it's still up and offer version 3.4d as latest one... of course no luck with QAM.

now I came here to seek help and found this thread. just discovered that there is actually later version of support website and downloaded driver/app version 4.6 from here:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hvr1800.html

still no luck, arrrgh

I see that you were using version 4.8 with success though, but I cannot find it anywhere.
Could someone please post a link or PM me with it? I'd like to use digital cable (analog works fine but it's doomed already...).

Forgot to mention that I have cable from Comcast as well (Northern part of New Jersey).

Also, by any chance, do you know how can I install (where is it) a driver for IR receiver box (USB box from MCE kit) on my windows xp x64? tried browsing CD and latest downloads for it with no luck ehhhh.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[SHS]

version 4.8 is rigth here http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=11717.0

[feniks]

thanks for a link, downloading...

is it safe to remove all registry keys containing "hcw" ? I am scared to remove too much and end up with crippled OS...

also what should I install from that 4.8 CD to get my IR working?

thanks for help.

[SHS]

Just skip step 8 and you be fine it more for hardcore user that know what there doing.
Like said in the post "You don't have do below uninstall just upgrade over top of what you all ready have" or just skip step 8 it is just an option most people don't do it any way.

[feniks]

Hello!

installed 4.8 without registry cleaning following all other steps to the letter and still cannot see any clear QAM channels after Auto-search...

removed again, this time following instructions to the letter, now removing registry keys and/or instances. I had dozens if not hundreds of hits for "hcw". I'm not a Windows noobie lol - working as IT Systems Admin hehe. was just saying that searching registry by keyword "HCW" and removing it may disrupt some other system functionality like ODBC, video codecs (e.g. full K-lite package) and some other stuff too, depends on names used by other keys... or perhaps I'm just too cautious...

I understand that perhaps I removed too much and will have to restore registry from backup afterward if things go wrong. So far no windows errors after reboot, will try to do a clean install once I get home from work (was working remotely on my home machine).

can someone tell me what do I need to install to get USB remote IR receiver to work? is this IR32.exe or what? Last time i tried it it still did not recognize USB IR receiver and wanted drivers...I don't want to install stuff like Blaster which I don't need I think.

I just would like to get this digital tuner working as soon as possible with clear QAM and remote...

thanks guys!

[SHS]

USB remote IR receiver only work with MCE
May your bot going to QAM part you have do manual auto scan
After running WinTV v6 and scanning for analog and/or digital channels, you can scan for clear QAM channels.
On the WinTV application, click the Menu button, then SuiteManager. Click the Sources tab. You will see "Clear QAM source' listed towards the bottom of the list. Click on 'Clear QAM source' and then click 'Autoscan'. This will take as much as 10 minutes to scan.

[feniks]

man, you missed my point.
I was clicking it just like it says on this picture from the beginning (I read the quick install guide first) starting from version from CD until the last one.

heheh anyways i got it working now.
thanks for help with uninstall instructions as this what fixed it!
winTV (now looks different), drivers finally correctly installed and I am picking up QAM channels  :D

still wondering how about this remote, because I do not own MCE system, need to fix this driver issue somehow as it is not installing automatically by itself.

I think this is gonna help me out:
http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=11016.0

will try it out later.

big thanks again!

[steveken]

You really don't have to do an analog and digital channel scan before going on to QAM.  It doesn't do anything for you in that respect.  In fact, I have never done those scans prior to QAM and its worked.

Feniks, I don't know if you noticed the issue or not, but when I would scan for QAM, it would continuously repeat qam-1 through how ever many it detected on each channel/frequency.  Each instance it detected would be a new qam-1, thus overwriting the previous qam-1 it found even though its still listed in the lineup.  I found that I had to do the scan one channel at a time, then after finding the new qam to rename it to whatever channel it was, that way it would be different and not get overwritten when you scan the next channel.  Just a very odd bug.  I personally HATE WinTV6.  I find its just a pain in the ass.  GB-PVR is a much better product and it works for free.

I don't know about the remote thing because I haven't tried it yet on a system that is not MCE.  I would think, though, that since it comes as part of the MCE package when you buy the tuner, it would get its drivers installed and set it up for you.  Maybe some of the buttons would not work, but again, I don't know as I haven't tried it on a non-MCE system.  I may give it a shot for you and see what I come up with since my wifes computer is Vista Business.

[feniks]

thanks for input steveken.

I did not perform regular analog scan at all too. I canceled the wizard for it and went straight to Sources and QAM scan. in deed I noticed the problem with qam-1's, qam-2's and so on... I read your post above when you wrote the same to OP. I agree it will be a problem to manually fix it, but for now i just want to test if my card works fine, will play with it further later on.
perhaps i will give a shot another qam capable software too in close future.

as for IR remote, I understand that some (or most) of button will not work.. all i need is volume and channel up/down and perhaps mute... hopefully such functionality can be achieved with INF file modification in thread linked by me above.
I'm still unsure if i can (and should) install that "Microsoft Rollback 2 IR driver for MCE" on my plain x64 edition of XP system though... will try it out with out first later.

As for drivers for IR I got tricked with it, since me as well thought they will be included on CD and not a part of MCE OS which I don't have... a very strange approach by Hauppauge. can't they simply include a copy of those drivers on CD?

[feniks]

god damn it

it seems like there is no IR driver for x64 edition of any windows though, what a pathetic approach is this !!??

also WinTV picks up those clear QAM channels now but all of them have blank black screen and no audio, WTF?
also seems like Channel List set frequency "-1" for all of them...

Also Rollback 2 IR for MCE cannot be installed on x64 (wrong platform error), so in short i got screwed up so far with this purchase...

[steveken]

Well, easiest thing I can say is quit with WinTV.  Go get GB-PVR and let it do the scan and go through and assign the channels.  You will be up and running in like 30 minutes tops (takes a while for the scan).  The hardest part there is getting the zap2xml working, but even that is fairly easy.

If you don't wanna do that, go through the channels one at a time manually.  But first delete everything the previous scan found.  What it is doing is assigning ALL the qam-1's, qam-2's, etc the same exact frequency information as the last found one.  Thus, its killing everything it found before.  If you go through and do it one channel at a time like I suggested, you WILL get channels that you can use.  You are getting black screens because the last channel it found was NOT a clearQAM channel, it was an encrypted QAM channel.  Once you get one in the clear, you will be golden.

Don't fret this stuff, you will get it eventually.  It is indeed an art to getting this shit working.  :)

[SHS]

Do keep in mind that Windows 64bit OS hasn't really gone full swing

[feniks]

nice info guys you provide hehe

I'm ready to puke when I see WinTV6 window now. cannot watch HD TV at all still.
last chance is to scan 1 channel and see what happens next. i just wanna fire up one HD channel and see if it works, that's all i need haha. 2nd evening screwed up so far with no luck lol...

soon will switching to GB-PVR, if that doesn't help much I'm gonna RMA it and wait for something better.
not having a remote control at all pisses me off drastically.

They say HVR-2250 has better support for QAM (picking up much more channels), true?
I saw it has normal remote IR input, perhaps i could team it up with my old remote from encore shitty analog card i still got....

will need to think it over.

[steveken]

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention, I am using Vista 64-bit Ultimate right now.  Got WinTV and GB-PVR and MCE working just fine (albeit no QAM on MCE hehe).  The 1800 AND 1600 both work fine for me with QAM.  I like em.

The remote control should work with GB-PVR as well.  I seem to remember it having many remote options in the config window when you set it up.  Do you have ANY remote at all?  If so, what kind? 

And check your PM's for one from me.

[feniks]

just fired up channel 100, some farty Jewelry TV, but hey it works (video & audio not stereo though), so card is good, at least that haha. :D
OK, for now I will start playing with GB-PVR, if it overwhelms me I will let know...
nonetheless have to say that picture quality is nicer than analog, so I guess it's real clear QAM channel :)

BTW, i can only get following channels:
119 - nothing works here
118 - nothing works here
117 - nothing works here
116 - nothing works here
115 - nothing works here
103 - Shop NBC
100 - Jewelry TV

1. is that all that clear QAM has now to offer via comcast?

2. I received only a remote control for USB receiver with this shitty MCE kit that doesn't work, have no clue so far how to make this work under XP x64 SP2 (4gb RAM, nvidia chipset).
I got also old remote control for analog IR receiver that uses regular cable jack for connecting directly to old Encore ENL-TV-FM PCI tuner (device not compatible with x64, so abandoned it). but HVR-1800 doesn't have such connection... 2250 does though...

3. and last thing, so far i'm using analog TV only. so perhaps stupid question, if i subscribe to digital TV with comcast and they give me set top box (probably) will I be able to pick up more channels with direct cable connection or how does it work?
sorry for such questions, i'm not used to digital tv at all, usually use bittorrent for my entertainment needs hehe.