Warning! HP ExpressCard TV Tuner, Vista 64x and Windows Media Center is GLITCHY!!!

I have the newer version of the ExpressCard Tv Tuner ending in 002, running on a Vista Ultimate 64 with ThinkPad T61 (used to have hp 14.1 inch).

I have to say I am pretty disappointed now. The Cable TV and Windows Media center is glitchy. And just now for the first time the expresscard drooped out and I had to pull it out and restart WMC.

The Most Annoying Problems

At time choppy video and radio if you pull the card out and restart live tv it is ok sometimes.

• Windows Media Center Hangs forcing me to force quite eshell.exe from the processor list.
  
• I don't remember this on 32bit windows, and being on Lenovo has nothing to do with it.

Does anyone know if I am using the most up to date drivers? 2.0.25149

 

Not sure why you have those issues but using HP's Quickplay it works great on my 9700t. It used to stutter some but I bought a 1TB external drive and no issues since. Quickplay uses the drive w/ the most free space for buffer/pvr functions. I suppose media center does the same? The drive used for your buffer isn't constantly accessed is it? That's my only idea....oh I'm using Vista Ultimate x64 btw.

 

I have the digital/analog tv tuner (ends in 001)

I have been unable to get the analog connectors working.

All the software insists on using the digital input only.

Ideas?

 

I have one of each, 001 & 002, both work about the same.

I have not had any negative issues with my TV cards...my only gripe would
be for a longer leed on the antenna.

 

Are you using media center or quickplay? In quickplay you can choose between the analog/digital. I'm not sure about media centers setup. I had nothing but problems w/ media center and it not detecting my tv card. No issues w/ quickplay tho. :shrug:

edit: media center worked this time. dumb thing. anyway, going thru the setup, tell it "no the digital tuner is not connected". it defaulted to analog for me.

 

I was able to get my HP expresscard working with both digital and analog in media center by following the procedure from this link.
http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/vistahdtvinstall.html

 

Still does not work. No options at all (other than the digital TV Antenna) in either Media Center or Quickplay

Joe

 

No luck.

Joe

 

These issues sound like Media Center, Windows and/or hardware issues with your laptop versus issues with the tuner card itself. Media Center is a pig of a program that sucks resources and you need a good graphics card on your PC or you are going to get the problems you describe. Live TV needs a lot of processing power from the graphics and high quality video needs even more.

There are times when I find it is best to just reboot my laptop and clean out the cobwebs from other programs that have been running to get things going right. Multitasking multiple programs that need processing power (CPU and/or video) is often just not realistic.

 

Well, I have the the fastest CPU that was available, 4 gigs of RAM, 500+ gigs of hard drive, a clean Vistax64 install, and only one program installed (VMWare Workstation), as I do not run any 3rd party programs directly on the machine (everything runs in VM's), and the High Definition captures are absolutly flawless, so, I believe the hardware is up to the task at hand, and there are no "cobwebs" involved.

The problem exists on 3 machines, so it is repeatable, and the problem existed before the SP upgrade, so thats not the issue either.

I am thinking that somewhere in the registry (or a driver enum flag), a flag is getting set that telling QuickPlay and Media Center that the card is only digital, and has no analog inputs.

FWIW, at one time, other software (AMCap for example) could create a capture pin and filter for the card, and either the pin or filter dialog would show a channel changer.

This leads me to believe its a driver issue. I have uninstalled/reinstalled the drivers, starting with the original drivers that shipped with the card, (then I think the drivers that came with the 9500T SWSetup?), and then the updates from HP (I believe they say the driver is for the "002" version), also with no luck. Now this may be a "cobweb" issue

Ideas are welcomed

Joe