Wondering if anyone has had success configuring OTA HDTV channels with Vista MCE. It detects that my digital tuner is getting a signal, but the only channels it finds have no signal. Kind of weird that it would find any of those channels since they have no signal, but anywho. I have tried to both manually and automatically configure the digital channels. When I do it manually, it adds the above-mentioned digital channels, but alas no signal. When I do it automatically it doesn't list any digital channels. When I try to use the Digital TV Guide listing, it says Listing Mismatch. I click Next anyways and it configures the normal analog channels, but no OTA channels are detected.

I know the tuner works because with the AverTV software for my tuner card gets all the local HD channels, but MCE gets a much clearer picture.

I have done a lot of research and it appears that MCE doesn't really support OTA HDTV channels besides the HDHomerun. I am going to try to manually configure the channels using the frequencies the AverTV software detects the channels are on and see if it works that way. I will post back with the results.

If anyone else has any suggestions or input, I would greatly appreciate it!

This post has been edited by Fenor: May 13 2007, 05:09 AM

Well I am getting frustrated here and decided to check the AverMedia support page again and low-and-behold they editted the FAQ to include the following:

Well that really sucks. I am in the process of scanning for digital channels with the AverTV software. Will post another update after I try manually configuring the channel in MCE. Doubt it will work, but worth a shot since it works so much better then the AverTV software...

Nope couldn't add the channels manually. The frequency that you input in MCE is only 4 numbers, while the frequency the AVerTV software uses is 6 digits in length. Dang Microsoft.

AVerMedia has released some beta drivers that allow you to receive unencrypted "clear" QAM (HD digital) channels on a Vista Media Center PC using the AVerTV Combo PCIe x1 M780 tuner. You can find their blog post regarding these beta drivers here (including download link).