Quick guide for using WinTV6 with HP digital TV tuner

I have the HP Analog/Digital TV tuner, and I of course knew that Vista Media Center had poor signal monitoring. Yes, the settings lets you see it, but going back and forth between TV and the signal settings is annoying.

Then theres WinTV. Because this card is just a rebranded Hauppauge HVR-1500, it should work with WinTV. So with WinTV you can get this brand new plugin called the Digital Signal Monitor which works with both QAM and ATSC signals. See info here: http://hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_digital_signal_monitor.html

Hell if I know what "Master Lock", "AFC Lock", "EQ Lock", "VSB Sync" and "FEC Lock" mean...

Anyway, the drivers included with the HP driver disc are the same as the Hauppauge drivers (same file names and such) but it is missing a few files which make it work with WinTV (as you will see when trying to load WinTV). So heres a few quick steps to make WinTV work with your HP digital tv tuner expresscard.

1) Plug in the tv tuner card
2) Go into Device Manager
3) Uninstall the "HP Digital/Analog Tuner" device under "Sound, video and game controllers". Make sure to check the box to delete the driver.
4) Unplug the tv tuner card.
5) Download the 52MB driver file for the Hauppage HVR-1600 device at Hauppauge's website: http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/software/install_cd/hauppauge_cd_3.4d1.zip (this driver file is a generic driver for all Hauppauge products, containing information for every product in the provided INF files).
(this driver file has support for both the first and second versions of the HP Digital/Analog tuner)
6) Extract the zip file.
7) Run hcwclear.exe. This will clear out all traces of Hauppauge related driver files. Reboot if asked.
8) Plug in the tv tuner card. Select the option to ask me about the driver later when prompted.
7) Run HcwDriverInstall.exe. This will scan the computer for supported Hauppauge products (which includes the HP tuner) then install the driver for it.
8) Download and install this HP driver file for the HP Digital/Analog tv tuner: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp36001-36500/sp36460.exe - this is an updated driver for the tuner (the Hauppauge driver is version 1.18.25127 dated 05/07/2007. The HP driver is version 1.21.25165 dated 06/14/2007). Reboot if asked.
9) Download and install this newer version of WinTV6: http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/software/wintv2000/wintv_v6_25278.exe
(the one included with the driver from step 5 is version 6.0.25156 dated 6/14/2007, this download is version 6.0.25278 dated 10/5/2007).
10) Go back to the folder you extracted from steps 5-6, and go into the folder SoftPVR and install the SoftPVR_Update.exe file. This is a required software mpeg decoder.
11) Go back to the folder you extracted from steps 5-6, and go into the folder SMD and install the hcwSMD07.exe file. This adds some required files for the software mpeg decoder.
12) Go back to the folder you extracted from steps 5-6, and go into the folder PVR and install the HCW_ChanDB.exe file. This adds some required files for digital tv tuners.
13) Open WinTV and follow the directions below to watch TV.

Congratulations, you can now enjoy another tv program.


Directions for setting up TV with WinTV:
After opening WinTV, you probably should get a prompt asking you to scan for channels. You can just click no.
1) in the main WinTV app, click the Menu button and click "Suite Manager".
2a) to check what devices are part of your tuner, click the Devices tab and click the + next to the device (which should be "HVR-1500). I have the second version of the HP tuner. It shows Model 77041, and I see the following list of items: Analog Tuner, Composite, S-Video, ATSC, Clear QAM.
2b) You can click the "Scan" button in the "Scan" tab and it will scan all devices for you automatically and add channels by itself. It'll scan analog cable (or antenna, whichever you choose) first, then ATSC, and then QAM (if supported)
2c) To manually scan individual sources (QAM, ATSC, NTSC analog), click the sources tab. Click a device on the left, and click either "Auto Scan" to scan all channels, or enter in a channel number under "Channel Number" and click "Tune". MAKE SURE UNDER TUNING MODE YOU HAVE "Channels by Country" SELECTED! (Selecting all channels scans EVERY frequency, which can take upwards of 5 hours) Auto scan will find all channels on the spectrum and add them automatically. Using the manual "Tune" button will add channels if it locks into a signal. So for example, on ATSC if I enter in 64 and click Tune, it will find my 3 ABC channels (out of Philadelphia) and automatically name them WPVI-HD, WPVI-SD and WPVI-WX and automatically give them proper channel numbers.
3) After you scan and add all the channels you want, I suggest using the "Channels" tab to organize your channels and add them to different "Suites" as WinTV calls them. This way in the main program when viewing the channel list you can filter the list by specific types of channels.
4) I suggest getting this official WinTV addon, the reason why I went through all the trouble of getting WinTV to work: http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/software/utils/wintv_signal_monitor.exe
(Operational directions: http://hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_digital_signal_monitor.html). Its a sweet plugin which shows the signal strength of ATSC and QAM channels. It is great for finding a sweet spot for your antenna!

 

sounds good, i will read it later

 

Thanks for the write-up. I'm getting video but no sound with QAM. And WinTV doesn't detect the receiver as 1500, it's being identified as unknown.

 

Just to let you know, I barely get ANY QAM channels, let alone ones with audio. I get all of four channels (UPN, spanish channel, comcast on demand previews and UniversalHD), all of which I will never watch.

How many QAM channels do you get?
I remember saying you watched QAM channels in Quickplay. Do they have audio there?
Do the analog and ATSC channels have audio?
What is the part and serial number on the bottom of your tuner card? Which revision?
Can you confirm in the device manager that the tuner is using driver version 1.21.25165?



BTW: this is what my devices tab has (removed the serial number from view):

 

I can't get WinTV 6 or windows to detect the HP tuner as an HVR-1500 - it always shows as 'Unknown Board'. Did you edit .inf file?

I think that's why I can't run the Digital Signal Quality plugin, with the error "Did not find Hauppague Board"



> How many QAM channels do you get?
Around 40 with Quickplay's channel scan. WinTV QAM scan seemed to get stuck at 125hz... picked up 13 channels.

> I remember saying you watched QAM channels in Quickplay. Do they have audio there?
Yes. It works as expected.

> Do the analog and ATSC channels have audio?
Analog yes audio. ATSC no audio, only video.

> What is the part and serial number on the bottom of your tuner card? Which revision?
438587-002
439130-002
A

> Can you confirm in the device manager that the tuner is using driver version 1.21.25165?
yes

 

edit:

AHHH i forgot a step...



Go into the PVR folder in the hauppauge_cd_3.4d1 extracted folder. And install HCW_ChanDB.EXE. Very important file.

 

Finally got WinTV to work.

Followed the OP steps except installed WinTV last. Card is now ID'd by WinTV as HVR-1500, and digital signal quality add-on works.

but, sound still would not work with digital TV.

I fixed the sound by reinstall of hcwSMD07.exe. (I also tried install hcwSMD05.exe before this... but still no sound.)

The feature I was looking for was a way to manually add/edit QAM channels, which doesn't seem to be available in WinTV, and QAM channel scan is worse than HP QP. So I'll stick with HP QuickPlay to watch digital TV.

I think WinTV would be good for OTA Antenna DTV.

ETA: There is a very basic video editing tool in the hauppague CD: nanoPEG. You can also use to edit TV videos recorded off QuickPlay.

 

I edited the directions and added the HCW_ChanDB.exe file in one of the steps. Im guessing you installed it.

You say that HP's scanning is better.

Do I need the 1GB partition to use quickplay for watching TV? I installed windows without the 1GB partition (and without quickplay).

 

I have the HP analog/digital card too and have a few questions if one of you has a second to please help me get up to speed on the advantage of your modifications. BTW, I email Hauppage support before Christmas asking why no 1500 drivers or support files were available on their site but they never returned my emails!

* I understand that with WinTV I will be able to use the signal plug-in, but is there any other advantage to WinTV? I don't mind installing it if there is a real improvement but I am trying to avoid unecessary stuff on this PC if it isn't useful.

* When you do this modification, will the card always now show up as a Hauppauge 1500 within windows?

* Does this install provide a decoder that is better than the Windows one or any one that HP installs? The windows one sucks for Vista media center. I found a great utility that lets you switch which codec media center uses. I did not know there were other codecs installed on my PC. One of the others worked better. People say the Power or Cyber DVD 7 codec really produces nice fluid images on laptops. I may have to buy that. My 6150 video is pretty taxed by full screen.

* Had you all already installed the latest drivers from the HP site for the card which were released 11/2007?

>>Do I need the 1GB partition to use quickplay for watching TV?<<

What is the story with this? Is this something WinTV needs? I never saw anything like this for the HP install.

FWIW, my card is:

HP P/N: 438587-001
HP S/N: 439130-001
HP RMN: HSTNN-TH15

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

I don't have the same hardware config as you so I can't help with definitive answers, but here's what I can tell you.

Yes

I think it does install its own decoder. If it is better than stock one, I don't know. I have 8600 GPU and I use Media Center only for watching analog TV so codec performance isn't a problem.

yes.

As to if WinTV is worth it, I haven't really used it much, but I'm keeping it installed for ATSC use. IIRC, a serious drawback of Quickplay digital tv tuning is when you switch from QAM to ATSC and back you have to rescan channels.

 

When I get a replacement card from HP that had a different part/serial number on it, HP said there was no difference while Hauppauge said they have no info as they dont support the card (support has been deligated to HP).
So even though it is a Hauppauge card they dont "officially" support it.

There are actually 1500 drivers from hauppauge, although they are outdated (May 2007). If you inspect the HVR-1600 driver file you will see four entries for the HVR-1500 model:
The 7710 HVR-1500
The 7717 HP branded tuner card
The 7790 HVR-1500 with QAM
The 7797 HP branded tuner card with QAM

Ive tried five programs for viewing TV with this card:
HP Quickplay
Windows Media Center
Hauppauge WinTV
Orb
WatchHDTV

I think the best for VIEWING is Windows Media Center. Best quality, support for updated tv guide (although it only supports only the main DTV channel, no support for secondary, tertiary or quaternary DTV channels like 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, etc.).
I think the best for controlling the channels you can find how to organize things is WinTV. The digital signal monitor puts it over the top; its something i really need and want. For some reason the quality of the image is not all that great. Maybe it is the decoder...
I think the best for changing channels for a quick TV viewing is HP Quickplay. WinTV and Windows Media Center seem to be a little sluggish changing channels.

Orb is in a league of its own. It streams your TV using a decoder so you can watch it in Windows Media Player (or your favorite media program). Channel changing is a hassle since it has to stop the decoder, change the channel, then restart the decoder. Using it you will see that it is meant solely for watching TV like a slingbox, from across the world. So I dont really compare it to WinTV/WMC/HP Quickplay as a local viewing solution. What is nice about Orb though, is that it lets you select what MPEG decoder you want to use, and you can experience the difference in quality quite handily. Orb comes with DScaler, but installation of software from Cyberlink (Quickplay, PowerDVD, etc.), or InterVideo (WinDVD), or other programs with in-house mpeg decoders will net you choices of other decoders.

WatchHDTV is just junk .


Is WinTV necessary? No. You can get by fine with Windows Media Center. But I just dont like having to add channels and name them in WMC myself. WinTV automatically picks up all channels in the air along with their callsigns. (WMC as stated only supports channels like 3-1, 6-1, 10-1...it doesnt automatically pick up 3-2, 3-3, 6-2, 6-3, 10-2, 10-3, etc.) And the signal monitor in WMC is a few clicks away, forcing you to stop watching tv, while the WinTV monitor allows for watching while monitoring, great for adjusting an antenna.

No. It will continue to show up as HP Digital/Analog TV Tuner.

As stated above, the HP and Hauppauge drivers have four different drivers for the HVR-1500 (this is directly from the hcw85bda.inf driver file):
CX885.M7710 = "Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1500 (Model 77xxx, Hybrid ATSC)"
CX885.M7717 = "HP Digital/Analog TV Tuner"
CX885.M7790 = "Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1500 (Model 77xxx, Hybrid ATSC/QAM)"
CX885.M7797 = "HP Digital/Analog TV Tuner"

Unless you force the HVR-1500 driver onto the unit (which is not recommended) the unit will continue to show as "HP Digital/Analog TV Tuner".

Yes. However, you dont have to install WinTV in full to get the decoder. The decoder which WinTV uses is the file hcwSMD07.exe located in the driver zip file in the folder SMD.

Personally, I think the best MPEG decoder out there is DScaler.
Windows Media decoder takes a lot of resources and produces a so-so image.
Cyberlink uses very little resources, but I dont think the quality is up to part.
DScaler is a good mix of quality and resource use.

If I'm not mistaken, I linked to this driver file in step 8 of my guide in the first post.

HP labels the driver as being from November 5, 2007, but inspection of the hcw85bda.inf file (the actual driver file) shows the driver is really dated June 14, 2007.

I installed Quickplay from the SWSetup folder (c:\swsetup\qpw\setup.exe) and it seems to work fine. I am now running Quickplay 3.6 which I got from this forum, a link to cyberlink's FTP. So I can confirm that this 1GB partition is NOT necessary to run quickplay inside of Windows.

If I'm not mistaken, the 1GB partition is placed at the beginning of your hard drive and is used by HP quickplay OUTSIDE of windows to play DVD's and CD's without needing Windows running.
I have never used it or attempted to use it. Heck, I even removed the 1GB partition.


On a final note, your serial number indicates you are using the first revision of the card, the one which does NOT come with QAM support.

 

Just want to show you what codecs Orb is reading out to me:



HCW decoder was installed by the WinTV install.
DScaler decoder was installed by Orb.
Quickplay decoder was installed by HP Quickplay.
CyberLink decoder was probably installed by HP Quickplay since it is a Cyberlink product. Mind you I installed three different versions in my quest to be up-to-date...3.0, 3.2 then 3.6. I am 100% sure you can also get this codec with CyberLink PowerDVD.
Microsoft decoder is junk. It takes up too many resouces. I am not particularly sure which Microsoft program installs this codec. I'm guessing Windows Media Encoder.
Intervideo was installed by WinTV.

I think you can get another Intervideo decoder from Intervideo WinDVD.
You can also get a LeadTek decoder from installing the drivers for LeadTek tv tuners :-D.

Maybe one of these days I can make a website where I can publish these MPEG decoders, just the necessary files, no installer.

I think DScaler is number 1 for quality.
I think CyberLink is number 1 for resouces.

 

Thanks to everyone for their posts. I am going to experiment with this.

One quick question: I have downloaded Dscaler but it seems like it is going to take some work to get it going with this card. Is there a way to use the Dscaler codec via Media Center? It seems that you have to use the Dscaler program if you want to be able to use their codec?

Thanks again.

 

I went through all these steps, primarily to be able to edit TV recordings once saved without a lengthy conversion required for Windows Media Center. Unfortunately, the MPG files that it saves are audio only, no video. Something about this conversion process doesn't work quite right

Any chance they'll be releasing a software pack for the 1500?

 

But WinTV works fine, right?


Chaz, you might want to try recording with Orb.
Orb works exceptionally well with this TV tuner.

Just install Orb, setup the tv, and then watch tv locally (you login to mycast.orb.com with your account that you create during the software setup and then click a few places, click a channel and start watching video straight in Windows Media Player. You can even record with Orb. Recordings are stored in WMV assuming you choose the Windows Media Streaming format. There are options for 3GP and RM. The PLS option is just WMV in a WinAMP PLS file).

 

Yes, WinTV works -- and TitanTV can be used to change channels, but not record, as record doesn't work. My favorite is Media Center -- intuitive, easy to use, nice UI, slick... It's all good until you get to that DRM'd recorded video format. If you want to burn DVD's, it's a pain. Will take a look at Orb (haven't heard of it before) thanks for the link.

 

I followed this to the letter and it works great but had the same problem as the quote with no sound on digital channels.

Once I reinstalled this part, all the digital channels started normally and with sound. So I'm gonna have to go with moving this step to LAST in the sequence, but other than that, this method is spot on. I'm a wintv fan since I downgraded to XP from Vista.

Hope this helps some.

 

Does anyone know how to change the codec in windows media center on vistA? when i watch DTV over the air it is really choppy and laggy.

btw Does anyone have the issue with orb 2.0 (the newest one) in configuring the tuner? It asks me if i would like to set up my TV tuner that it has detected, i click yes, and then nothing...

 

UPDATE: so i got the laggy issue fixed by formating but the orb issue still not fixed. can you guys explain how u got digitial ATSC channels configured and working on orb?

 

I have a HP Pavilion DV6516TX with Vista Premium. I got a Mercury TV tuner card and tried playing with Quickplay 3.2. Connected the audio out from tv tuner to mic in..but am not able to get any sound ..any guesses how to get over this?

 

Vista MediaCenter Decoder Utility
easy to find with google.

 

Does anyone know how to backup the WinTV scanned channels in Vista?
They were stored in the registry in XP and easy to backup.

 

Hauppauge has updated the HVR-1500 installation programs to later versions than what the first page of this thread shows, and what is on the HVR-1600 webpage. You can get the latest package that includes newer drivers, a newer version of wintv6, etc., here, as "CD_4.1a.zip ":

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hvr1250.html

Please note that when you install the WinTV portion, that you will get an error when it tries to install the help files, the manual, and a couple of other things. Those things seem to be missing on the install file they posted (!). Go ahead and say ok when you get the messages.

After you ensure everything works after you finish the installs above, go back to the webpage above, click on the "accessories" tab, and download and install the digital signal strength meter and the WinTV scheduler.

You should still deinstall the old HP drivers, and remove the old WinTV package (if you previously installed it) as the first page of this thread shows before you install this new package. Following the procedure I outlined here is much faster, and you only go to one website. Everything worked perfectly the first time.

I am REALLY impressed with this HP/Hauppauge tuner. It picks up digital stations with its little antenna better than a standalone ATSC tuner I have with a high gain antenna and an amplifier! I bought my HP tuner off ebay for about $60, and it is worth every penny. I'm using it on an ASUS F3 laptop, so it is definitely compatible with other brands of computers.

Jon

 

Thank you Jon for posting this ....

Michael

 

I have installed WinTV by following this guide and it works great with one exception: When I record a program, reply gives my audio-only; no video, just a black screen. I can record OK in Media Center, but the WinTV record utility is giving me his problem. Any suggestions?

 

Hey everyone - i just want to start off by saying thank you for this post. I bought this tuner off of ebay and the drivers, etc. that came with it didn't work at all....but thanks to this thread I got it working!!

The thing now is, I'm trying to get some clear QAM channels in quickplay but it doesn't seem to have that option. In quickplay I have an Analog HP Tuner and a Digital one. I'm only given three options for TV source to scan for: Analog TV (Cable), Analog TV (Antenna) and Digital TV (ASTC). Is there supposed to be a QAM option? Even when I do a Digital Scan I get nothing...

Just a note on my hardware/setup so you have that info: I have the newest revision of the tuner card which has the QAM tuner. The driver installed in Device Manager is 1.21.25165.0. WinTV shows a Clear QAM tuner under sources and finds 3 QAM channels but gets no video/sound for them. Thanks for any help!!

 

Never mind - I just had to update to the newest version of Quickplay. All set now

 

Dear Tokar

Please help me through the installation of my HP express tuner card. I have spent a week studying everything I can find, but still no picture. Your posting is the most informative I have found, but still no result for me. I have tried all your instructions in detail.

My hardware: tv tuner HP express P/N 438587-001, s/n 439130-001, HP rmn hstnn-th15 REV B, on vista home premium SP1, using HP Pavilion laptop Intel core 2 duo t7500 2.2 GHZ 3 gb ram

I have tried wmc, wmportal and win tv

tv signal is rv out after the set top box with sky tv nz ie the signal works on a tv set but not the tuner card

with wmc, the card switches on - light turns blue, but I get no signal through no matter which tv setting i use

with wm portal it keeps wanting a server source

with wintv/menu/suite manager - nothing happens

I am aware its a rebranded haupage hvr 1500 - have tried wm encoder and every driver I can lay my hands on

I WOULD be very grateful if you could walk me through. Please.

I cannot find any IT personal in NZ to help, and HP support (as you probably know) is no good (have tried - wasted my time)

Thank you

Fred

 

Can you get channels "over the air" via the included telescoping antenna and WMP or Quickplay? That would at least confirm that your tuner is working before you try troubleshooting set top box hookups which can be tricky in themselves.

 

thanks we dont get any tv reception where I live other than through a satellite dish (sky tv). I am using the post set top box, rf out signal, which runs the tv fine but is not "seen" by the tuner card. As I say the card switches on but doesnt get any visible signal despite trying all the options. TV in NZ is PAL. It sounds like i need an encoder of sorts but have tried many encoders and drivers (everything I can find)

 

Given that model number, you have the version that is one version older than the current version. As stated elsewhere on this forum:

The first version digital card was analog tuner + ATSC.
The second version digital card is analog tuner + ATSC/QAM

I have only seen references to NTSC with these cards, not PAL, but I admit I have not done in-depth research on this.

 

Hello all,
can this HP thingy be used on non-HP, non-Vista (WinXP) notebook?
If yes, should I follow this guide too?

Thank You.

BTW, I have revision B

 

wow, this is the only way to watch tv on my laptop here in Argentina, Lot of thanks man!!