Desparate for help with WMC and Dish Netork

[ossodiseppia]

I am at my whits end trying to get WMC to work with my satellite box. I have a brand new HP S5150t with a Hauppauge 2250 tuner card. I have installed the 2008 TV Pack and the February 2009 TV Pack Update. Oh, I've installed the latest drivers and WinTV from Hauppauge.

My issues seem to change each time I try to configure live tv in WMC. I go through the entire setup and get only analog pictures from my HS satellite box. I go through the setup three or four more times (hoping something different will happen) and nothing changes. I go through the setup again and the system doesn't recognize the IR Blaster.

I've been through this so many times, I don't even know if I've ever seen a digital picture. Could it be that the satellite only sends out an analog signal to the PC?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[InsaneNutter]

When you say “Could it be that the satellite only sends out an analog signal to the PC” I presume the TV card is connected directly to the satellite dish and not a set top box? Can you get digital satellite with a normal box do you know?

Also I presume you are using Vista as you mention the TV pack, have you considered trying Windows 7? Support for cable and satellite tuners has improved a lot compared to Vista.

Sorry I can’t really offer much more help, at the moment I only have experience with DVB-T tuners in media centre, although I do hope to get a satellite tuner for ours in the future when more HD channels become available in the UK.

 

[ossodiseppia]

When you say “Could it be that the satellite only sends out an analog signal to the PC” I presume the TV card is connected directly to the satellite dish and not a set top box? Can you get digital satellite with a normal box do you know?

Also I presume you are using Vista as you mention the TV pack, have you considered trying Windows 7? Support for cable and satellite tuners has improved a lot compared to Vista.

Sorry I can’t really offer much more help, at the moment I only have experience with DVB-T tuners in media centre, although I do hope to get a satellite tuner for ours in the future when more HD channels become available in the UK.

Thanks for the reply. Since posting, I've found out why I'm having issues. I have a Hauppauge 2250 card. It has dual tuners and coax, composite input. My satellite box has HDMI, RGB and S-Video out. All I was getting was analog from the composite or coax. After reading the manual and speaking to a support guy at the satellite company, I've learned that the only digital out from the satellite box is through RGB and HDMI. So, the tunre card won't work.

I'll need to go with the Hauppauge HD-PVR or, be one of the first to try Mygica X8550A PCIe Digital TV Tuner Card:

Mygica X8550A PCIe Digital TV Tuner Card, ATSC Clear QAM NTSC FM Tuner, Windows 7 Ready, Free Shipping

I've not found a PCI E tuner card with RGB input until I stumbled across that card.

Yes, I'm running Vista, but am waiting for my free upgrade to W7. Thanks again.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Why not just connect the coax cable from your dish to the tuner card in your pc? I would presume that’s how you would want to do it, if a separate set top box is decoding the channels it makes the tuner in your media pc useless.

Edit – unless you want an easy way to record encrypted channels, your way would be pretty good then.

 

[ossodiseppia]

Why not just connect the coax cable from your dish to the tuner card in your pc? I would presume that’s how you would want to do it, if a separate set top box is decoding the channels it makes the tuner in your media pc useless.

Edit – unless you want an easy way to record encrypted channels, your way would be pretty good then.

The coax only gives analog. I want HD and I want to be able to record shows or movies in HD. So the only option is out the RGB terminals on the back of the box. When I posted yesterday, I only knew of one tuner card that has RGB input. I stumbled across the Mygica/Giantech X8550A PCIe tuner:

Mygica X8550A PCIe Digital TV Tuner Card, ATSC Clear QAM NTSC FM Tuner, Windows 7 Ready, Free Shipping

Geniatech PCI-e ATSC HDTV Tuner Card with Ditial Cable (Clear QAM) - X8550A

They only have one tuner, but that's ok. They are really cheap (not that I care) and should be a good solution to a box outside my PC. I am a bit reluctant to buy one of the above mentioned cards as I cannot find any reviews on them. So, I might end up being a guinea pig. I'll be using two tuners, one USB for OTA and one internal for the satellite box.

One thing that was a real challenge was getting the Hauppauge 2250 IR Blaster to work with WMC. About half the time WMC would recognize it and the other half it wouldn't, even though you could see the blaster flash during the setup. As I understand it, the IR Blasters are the biggest challenge to getting these things to work with set top boxes.