HTPC Newb Seeks Guidance

[saeborne]

Hello All,

I’m relieved to find this forum, because there seems to be a great wealth of information here.  You guys are clearly quite knowledgeable / helpful.  I’m currently in the process of building a HTPC, and I could really use a point in the right direction.

My immediate goal is to capture Over-the-Air HD channels.  Perhaps down the road, I could see myself getting Comcast’s most-basic cable line, so I’d like to have the option for both analog and digital cable signals.  QAM is not a concern for me at this time.

My intent is to use Windows Media Center, included with Vista Home Ultimate.

I’ve already purchased a lot of equipment.  Most of which works great…

Components that seem to work fine:
[list]
[*]Windows Vista Home Ultimate, 32 bit   
[*]Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz   
[*]ASUS P5N-EM HDMI w/ NVIDIA GeForce 7100  [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131229](link)[/url]
[*]Micro ATX Case   [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154087](link) [/url]
[*]D-Link PCI Wireless Adapter   
[*]2 GB of RAM   
[*]320 GB Hard Drive   
[*]DVD Optical Drive    [/list:u]

Unfortunately, I’ve run into trouble, with regards to the Tuner Card.  I purchased an ASUS My Cinema PE9400 Combo [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815293002](link)[/url].  Admittedly, I bought this card, because I liked the way the remote control looks.  I know, I know… I’m the idiot that buys a car because of the cup holders.

First, I was hoping for some help diagnosing my problems with this tuner card (ASUS has not responded to my repeated requests for support).  Second, I would like recommendations on other tuner cards, should I choose to return the ASUS tuner.

[u]Issues with ASUS Tuner[/u]
This is a brand new system, with a fresh / clean installation of Windows Vista.  I installed the ASUS card, downloaded the latest drivers from ASUS.com.  Vista recognized the card.  I plug in the included “Rabbit Ear” antenna, and everything seemed peachy.

The problems start when I ask Windows Media Center to scan for TV signals, and I receive a message that says “TV signal was not detected.”  If I attempt to manually configure the antenna, I end up with a long list of channels, that do not get any reception.  As an interesting note, NBC is channel 4-1.  MCE tells me that NBC is channel 1041. Is this standard nomenclature? Or is MCE searching the wrong channel list?

[u]Perhaps it’s a problem with the Antenna and Reception?[/u]
If I take the same antenna and plug it directly into my Samsung LCD TV, I get reception of about a dozen ATSC channels.  All the major broadcasters including NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, including their secondary feeds.  So logically, the antenna and the signal strength seem to be fine.

[u]Perhaps it’s a problem with MCE?[/u]
The ASUS Tuner comes with some crappy software called ArcSoft Total Media 3.5.  When I tried installing it, low-and-behold, the ArcSoft application was able to get [i]some[/i] reception… But I only get three channels: NBC, and NBC secondary feed (weather forecast), and UTV, the Spanish channel.  Where are the other stations?

Does anyone have any suggestions on what else I could try?  In the end, I really don’t want to use the ArcSoft application… You can only set recordings by date and time, not by program name.  It’s total crap.  But why does the tuner work under this application, but not under MCE?

[u]Alternative Tuners[/u]
Can anyone offer a solid recommendation on another tuner?  In other posts I’ve read people refer to the DViCO FushionHDTV7, or the AVerMedia M780.

At Newegg.com, the customer reviews for the HDTV7 make me somewhat nervous to give this card a try [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16815135001](link)[/url].  Does anyone have direct experience with this card, who can confirm or deny?

Is this the M780 [url=http://(link)](link)[/url]?  The title doesn’t specifically say M780, but this link came up in a Google search.  Any other thoughts on this card?

Any thoughts about the Hauppauge HVR-2250 [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116037](link)[/url]?

Ok…. Sorry for the extremely long post.  As you can see, it’s 3:30 am, and I’m still trying to figure some of this stuff out.  I would greatly appreciate a point in the right direction.  Thank you, in advance.

Bryan

[Author]

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