PC TV Tuner question, getting digital from my cable?

[jflongo]

Maybe someone could shed a little light on this for me, I'm a little clueless right now.

I recently purchases this card

AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe MCE ATSC/NTSC/QAM Tuner Card w/MCE Remote & L-P Bracket - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16815100014

I have it in my computer, and currently my cable is connected to the Analog TV Tuner port. I can watch tv on my 22" Monitor, and record it just fine.

Now comes the digital question? For some reason, I thought this card could pull digital from the cable as well and display HD on my monitor, but all I get is a fuzzy signal. What am I missing? Does this card not act like a HD Tuner?

If I were to plug my 37" TV which has a built in tuner, into my Video card, would I then be able to watch HDTV from this?

Is there something else I can add to get the HDTV on my 22" Monitor?

My 37" TV easily pulls the digital from the cable and displays it on the TV, I'm just a little confused why the above card can do the same and display it on my 22" LCD Monitor which is hooked up via DVI.

 

[firemist]

The card cannot decode digital cable (QAM) signals. Looking at the datasheet for this card it supports only Worldwide Analog TV and Digital Terrestrial (ATSC). Newegg has QAM listed in the description but that is not supported by the datasheet.

http://www.aver.com/mpd/combopcie_mce.pdf

Since it is misrepresented at Newegg you should be able to return it.

 

[mford66215]

Your cable TV provider give you a set top box descrambler?

 

[jflongo]

The card cannot decode digital cable (QAM) signals. Looking at the datasheet for this card it supports only Worldwide Analog TV and Digital Terrestrial (ATSC). Newegg has QAM listed in the description but that is not supported by the datasheet.

http://www.aver.com/mpd/combopcie_mce.pdf

Since it is misrepresented at Newegg you should be able to return it.

Ok, so you are saying if a card says QAM, then it should work? So if I return this and get a card that truly can do QAM, then it can decode QAM just fine and provide me digital display?

 

[jflongo]

Your cable TV provider give you a set top box descrambler?

To answer your question, I do have a Cable Box that descrambles just fine, but I would like to get rid of it, and replace it with this. My cable company has pissed me off over the years, and I would like to quit paying for that box and lower their revenue from me

 

[lashrimp]

I have the exact same card, also got from Newegg.
In short, this is an excellent card.

I am able to setup QAM in Vista Media Center without any problem, even though Vista Media Center does not officially support QAM.

If you just want to watch unscrambled digital cable from computer, you can just install AVer MediaCenter from http://www.aver.com/mpd/support/download/combopcie_mediacenter.html

If you want QAM working in media center, here is some information:

There are only two products can do QAM in Media Center. This card is one of them and the other one is HDhomerun by Silicondust, which is priced over $160.

You can download the beta driver for QAM in vista from the following FTP site:
ftp://beta:betatest@ftp.aver.com/
Follow the manual on this FTP website to install QAM

Avermedia's data sheet does not showing QAM for two reasons: 1. Windows Media Center does not support QAM. Avermedia only provides beta driver, and they do not officially support this driver.

There is a very long thread discussing this card, you can get everything you need for this card if you can go through these 52 pages.

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/1/249643/ShowThread.aspx

 

[firemist]

NTSC - analog tuner
ATSC - digital over the air tuner
QAM(64/256) - unencrypted digital cable tuner

Be sure to research your cable provider because not all digitial cable channels are provided 'clear' or unencrypted. If the channels you want are encyrpted by your providor you still will not be able to get them. I believe you will need a device (or PC) that can handle a cablecard provided by your cable company to receive the encrypted channels.

 

[lashrimp]

One Note: HDhomerun and AVerTV Combo Tuner can only do unencrypted QAM. No encrypted premium channels.
For encryped channels, the only way is A CableCARD ready PC.
See more in http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/cablecardtuner.html

 

[lashrimp]

As long as your 37" TV(with built-in QAM Tuner) can receive digital channels directly from wall. Your tuner card should be able to receive the unencrypted QAM on you computer.
What is your OS?

 

[jflongo]

As long as your 37" TV(with built-in QAM Tuner) can receive digital channels directly from wall. Your tuner card should be able to receive the unencrypted QAM on you computer.
What is your OS?

My 37" LCD TV receives digital channels directly from the wall. I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium.

I went ahead and ran a splitter into both coax inputs on the card. I went ahead and installed AVer MediaCenter. I scanned both Analog and Digital. It appears to show the digital music channels, but I'm still having a hard time getting regular digital channels. Also, is there a way to have the remove work with AVer MediaCenter?

 

[lashrimp]

I have not tried Aver Mediacenter since my card works great with Vista media center. You might want to try searching the thread at The Green Button:
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/1/249643/ShowThread.aspx

I would strongly recommend using the beta driver since you have the Vista Home Premium. Also try to install all updates for vista.

 

[jflongo]

I have not tried Aver Mediacenter since my card works great with Vista media center. You might want to try searching the thread at The Green Button:
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/1/249643/ShowThread.aspx

I would strongly recommend using the beta driver since you have the Vista Home Premium. Also try to install all updates for vista.

Did you have any issues with their Clear-QAM Utility? Everytime I try to use Export Guide, I get "Failed to open file!!".

 

[lashrimp]

I am fine with the Utility.
But many people on Greenbutton report same problem as yours. Here is a workaround from post#249078

you may want to give a try. You can also ask your question in that thread since those guys have much more experience than me. There is an Avermedia tech guy monitoring that thread,too.

I found a workaround for the 'Failed to open file' error on vista machines with SP1 last night.

Right-click on the Avermedia ClearQAM tool shortcut, click properties, compatibility and choose Windows XP SP2, also choose run as administrator. Run it again and the export will work.

I had tried running process monitor while clicking export to try to find out where the failure was but there was nothing in logs even attempting to find and/or write a file.

Now that I've got the QAM listings in my guide in the 1000 area hopefully someone can help me with this.

I have no channels under 100, I would like to map the QAM channels that are in the 1000's to channels lower than 100 like 5 or 22, etc.. and then set the appropriate guide listing to them.

 

[jflongo]

Yep I actually found out this work around yesterday right after I posted, I should have reposted that I found it. Thanks anyhow though.

 

[rhorwitz]

Ok, so you are saying if a card says QAM, then it should work? So if I return this and get a card that truly can do QAM, then it can decode QAM just fine and provide me digital display?

I am not familiar with this hardware, but I do know that Vista MC has a bug that prevents it from using QAM. A hot fix is available. This may be true with XP MC too.

Regards,

Rick

 

[lashrimp]

Rick
Can you give a link to the hotfix for Vista MC to use QAM?
I have researched this issue for a couple of weeks and never heard of this. Thanks in advance.

 

[frodbonzi]

What cable company are you with?

I'm with Rogers (Toronto, Canada) and I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a way to get HD/Digital channels on my PC without using a Box (I HAVE paid for HD/Digital, but see no need to rent a second terminal).