Windows 7 Media Center in Canada (ATSC, QAM, Logos)

[pastoral]

Dear Digital Home folks,

To make a long story short, I had an old upgraded Vista box with WMC working fine using Peter Near's great ATSC for Canada (Toronto) hack (thanks, Peter very much!). It started to BSOD because of an electrical spike. Bought a brand new Acer Desktop and a new Hauppage usb tuner and I can not get it to find channels in WMC setup no matter what I do. I even took the new desktop back to Future Shop and exchanged it for another one.

Hardware:
I am using a brand new Hauppage HVR 950Q USB stick (I originally had an 850 but when it wouldn't work, I went out and bought the 950 in desperation). The 850 still works in an old configured laptop.
I am also using a brand new ACER A8 AMD Quad Core with Radeon card and HDMI out and a 2 TB HD running Windows 7 Home Premium (fresh install).
I have a ChannelMaster professionally installed on my roof (by Sal's TV) - no amplifier. Worked great and still works with an old Windows 7 laptop I configured last year to run with the ATSC hack but I can't get the new Acer to work.


What I have done (several times)
1. Plugged in USB tuner card (auto download of drivers). I have also tried every permutation of downloading drivers from Hauppage, using CD drivers, Windows update drivers etc.
2. Run the two batch scripts for Peter Near's hack (EnableATSCandQAM.bat and USGuide.bat) using the "4" option for Toronto
3. Run WMC setup. It finds the tuner, tells me (as understood) no ATSC settings for my region and then it starts the search for channels. It finds none and asks me if I want to scan again. This has never happened to me before. On my old laptop I get about 27 channels, all pretty strong (I live not far from CTV tower).
4. I have reset WMC settings and when that didn't work I then reinstalled Windows itself twice for good measure. Nothing works.
5. Tried to get the buggy Hauppage WinTV 7 software to work. No joy.
6. In a moment of despair I even loaded a Mythbuntu Live CD to see if I could get a TV signal...
7. I'm at the end of my wits and time. I'm about to give up on my beloved WMC PVR setup and get a regular old TV.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris.

[johnvan]

Thats too bad. So the same co-ax plugged into the TV picks up channels but you disconnnect it and put the same cable into your Acer and no channels regardless of OS, Windows or Mythbuntu will pick up channels.
You also confirmed the Tuner works on another computer.

What about a different USB port on your Acer? I had a USB tuner that would randomly drop off line sometimes, that's why I switched to a network tuner. Try a USB port in the back if you're currently using one in the front.

[johnvan]

You didn't mention if you tried cable or satellite but you said you're using PNears hack. If you plan on OTA only set your system up with a U.S. Zip code, no need for the hack.

[pnear]

Agree on trying the setup with a US zip code and no hack, I use 14174. Sometimes with the hack it finds no channels and you need add them manually, but I've never had an issue with direct us zip.

Secondly, try a signal tester. The Hauppauge might include one, or you can use TSReader and select BDA tuner.

[pastoral]

Thanks everyone - I really appreciate the help. Since I tried setting up with a Canadian post code, it won't let me setup with an American Zip (I'm pretty sure it has to do with the DRM).

I'm doing a reinstall of Windows just to make sure I'm working with a crystal clean full install. It'll chug along while I'm out and I'll give this a shot tonight hack free.

Thanks again Peter for sharing your work with this community and for those that have helpfully replied. It is greatly appreciated.

I wish that more people would come to see WMC (properly setup) as the media powerhouse that it is so that MSFT would support ATSC in Canada.

[groovejumper]

Has anyone tried any of this on the Windows 8 preview?

g.

[Dr.Dave]

WMC on Windows 8 seems to work the same as Windows 7 - no ATSC support for Canada, but it works fine for a U.S. Zip Code. I haven't tried pnears's hack yet.

I'm going to try Windows 8 RTM next week and see if I can get WMC to install (it's officially an extra cost add-on in the production version of Windows 8). If so, I'll try the hack then.

[flavoie]

Cool, Let us know how you fare with Windows 8 Media Center. I am interested in knowing if the Netflix MCE plugin will work with my Netflix Canada subscription. Using the US setup at the moment, this is the only way i can see the Netflix plugin appear but it does not work with Netflix Canada service.

Overall even if they still don't support Canada OTA, i am lucky enough in Ottawa that it doesn't matter as we got all the channels in the US-based setup. I know that's not the case for everybody so let's cross our fingers on that front.

[j0dest3r]

I tried Windows8 MC on a laptop with the previous to this release version. No Netflix Canada support in the Netflix plug-in and no ATSC support as per usual. Pnear's hack still worked. I had to manually add the two VHF HI channels as well (in Edmonton) as it wouldn't scan and them automatically like the UHF channels. I also had this issue on Windows 7. Next week I will do the same tests with the RTM bits as well once they are released to TechNet. Dr. Dave perhaps we can swap notes here! I don't anticipate any differences with the RTM, but do hope to be pleasantly surprised.

BTW...There is supposed to be a Metro Netflix App released at time of launch I doubt it will be there for the 15th but it should be here in the coming weeks. Hopefully Metro can be navigated remote control without too much effort.

[flavoie]

Thanks for the update !!
Guys, I am already anxious to see your next updates

[Dr.Dave]

Probably the best place to discuss Windows 8 WMC is this thread:

Any Early Windows 8 HTPC Adopters?

I don't use Netflix, so I can't comment on that.

[websherpa]

[I tried WMC with ATSCCANADA PNear Beta fix (US machine located in Canada) and all works the same as it does in Windows 7 (i.e. no improvements and no accommodations for Canada) EXCEPT that you can no longer easily auto boot into WMC. On top of that I ran into a myriad of issues and bugs with Windows 8 Consumer Preview - > I suggest staying WELL AWAY from Windows 8, it was nothing but trouble and is actually meant for tablet devices. I believe that Microsoft has shot themselves in the foot AGAIN, just like they did with VISTA.]

[Danno100]

I've decided to stick with Win 7 for my HTPC for all long as possible. Thanks also to the pnear hack for ATSC, ClearQam. I use PLEX Media Server on that same box to provide TV recordings (primarily HD ATSC) and other content (e.g. ripped movies with meta data) from my NAS to my PLEX clients (iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, other Windows PC's, etc). Netflix itself runs fine on all Apple devices. With PLEX you have all the add-ins for video content that seem to be non-existent in Media Centre. Win 7 is basically a TV recording box. RIP.

[j0dest3r]

Sounds like you are using it more on the back end then. If that's the case, then it makes more sense to just stick with 7. The improvements to 8 are more on the front end and being that MC is pretty much the same, there is no improvements for your setup with 8. I have a 7 box on the back end doing the same thing only the recording are viewed on Xboxes and a PS3 via Media Center extender on Xbox and good ol' DLNA on the PS3.

[slyboy]

Have any of you had problems with your WMC7 OTA setups over the last couple days? All of my Windows 7 PCs now have Media Center crashing pretty much on startup since the latest round of Windows 7 Updates. I've been using the Canadian OTA registry hacks of Peter's and they've been great. For the past several hours I've been troubleshooting get this all working again and haven't got too far just yet, but I'm curious if anyone else experienced this after the October 2012 batch of Windows Updates that were just recently released.