AverMedia PCIe tuner card - need help

Crawlerz

Crawlerz

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Nov 17, 2008
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...is my stupidity showing guys?

OK so the story goes I bought this AverMedia card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100014 and stuck right into my DELL but damned if I knew how to use it! Firstly the box has nearly no instruction besides the phrase "put the card into your computer"... I stuck the thing into my only PCIe port, but the box also includes a small 8-to-10 pin connector which I didnt hook up to anything - (please try to contain your laughter) - where and how and what's it for? (You can see the small connector on the pic of the card right?) Basicly all I've done is hook up my cable to the card and the card to my PC and the antenna and receiver to the card. (The antenna is pretty useless BTW.) Although Media Center sees it, I only get the reception of analog channels although the card has a QAM tuner and I should get the free digital channels I see in my bedroom. And get this - Media Center says "I see more than one tuner but they are either no signal or whatever so I cannot use them." I obviously waaaaaaaaay off - please tell me and explain or point in the right direction! I going a bit crazy here. The reviewers say that you need newer drivers (I tried windows' own search, beta from avermedia, regular from avermedia, and avermedia QAM app (whatever they mean by that!) Please point out where I screwed my hookup? 1 reviewer says hook up cable to both holes in the card. HUH?! As you can see I need "professinal" help.
 
After trial & error that lasted without stop for what seemed like several eternities, I figured some of it out. Here's how...
-vista's media center does NOT work by its own with QAM
-my dad hooked the cables (and of course if you want anything done right you gotta do it yourself) I reversed them (he put the antenna into digital and cable into analog "hole")
-downloaded and tried drivers for the card from CD, from their site, windows' own update, and several times the beta drivers from AVer's FTP (still didn't work! the %&**!@!$%&*)
-then downloaded AVer's media center... it crashed on startup every ^&*@ing time! OMG! (can you hear my explitives?)
-downloaded AVer's QAM utility (a kind of beta) scanner... found channels...
-then I figured out that AVer media center crash is caused by my having two sound devices: switched the onboard off in BIOS and turned the other to default) - worked! thank god for google
-exported the list of QAM channels found in AVer's beta scanner to vista media center (which doesn't see them natively.
my monitor is apparently not HD so the quality could be better... but live and learn...
 
Ok let me try and help as much as I can here without really knowing your card.

Is your computer powerful enough to run the card? I have all sorts of issues with mine because I don't have a dual core processor (yet). It works, but it does crash. Try shutting down all the processes you don't need. HD Tuner cards take up a lot of system resources.

What are the coax inputs listed as? Do you get HD cable? I get all over the air channels in HD through my cable so there really is no need to have an antannae hooked up. The QAM tuner is really only used to decode certain stuff through your cable line like what people are watching On Demand or special sports packages that might be running.

I really don't know your Aver Media card at all and from what I've read most of these HD tuner cards pretty much stink. Since your card hooks up through PCI-Express x1 and looking at what it cost, I'd hope it's a decent one. Hauppage seems to be one of the more popular brands. There are lots of user made software set ups out there you could try out if they are compatible with your card.
 
OK - since this post I did a little bit of finnagling...
I downloaded the TVpack for vista's Media Center and it saw the QAM tuner. found little channels but I was able to "add" others I know are there. (AVerMedia's own software sucks! AVerTV6 crashes every time! AverMedia center cannot find most channels and there isn't a way to add them. The quality of their picture is the same - not good.)
yes my pc can handle a lot. 2.4GHz core2duo, vista home premium, 2GB RAM, 300GB drive, nVidia 8800GTX video, 2ms 20" widescreen samsung monitor (icing on the cake), some additional DELL cooling, and a stock PSU (the box is all stock).
the point is - I see QAM channels but in quality that leaves a ton to be desired. I tried playing with media center's resolution (720p went offscreen, 1080i didn't work) and the qulity stayed the same. people swear by the HD quality of the card so it can provide it! where is it?
I got Camcast's limited basic (NOT digital) and no cable boxes - just wall-to-pc hookup. On the HDTV's in other rooms qith QAM tuners, these exact channels are in glorious HD, and why the %&$@# aren't they beautiful here?!
 
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