fine tuning mce channels (and holding them)

subway

this is driving me bananas right now,
feel free to tell me im wasting my time or suggest an alternate fix if you can

im currently running mce 2005 with ntl analog via a pvr 150 mce.
mostly all is well, mostly...

bbc 1, sky 1 and setanta have no sound using the frequencies provided via mce,
this i believe is caused by the pvr 150 being crap (great pic, crap everything else) and thinking nicam stereo means no sound...
the workaround i have found is slightly detuning the channels which degrades the picture but gets the sound in.
i do this by modifying the relevant entries in the registry.

however, every now and then, mce resets the registry settings causing the sound to drop out.
my first port of call was to create a .reg that puts my changes back and create a silent shortcut to this from mce.
2 problems with this, even though it installs silently, it causes mce to minimize....
and also, the tv has to be stopped and some other form of media engaged to allow the registry seting to be applied.
this is all killing the WAF of mce for me.

the registry settings are not lost after a reboot so having the reg file run at startup is no use.
it seems to lose config at different times everyday so a scheduled task wont work either.

i see 2 options, 1: somehow write protect the section of the registry containing the details, but this probably wont work anyway
or 2: someone can tell me how and when mce resets the config and i can try to figure out how to disable it....
there is also option 3: someone suggests something else

any help is, as always, much appreciated

subway

ok, ive just removed all control over that folder from the system account...
will mce make changes as SYSTEM, administor or a user?

BaZmO*

I don't have an answer to your problem but you might be able to help mine. For some reason on NTL Setanta has gone missing and I can't seem to tune it in doing it the normal auto set up way. Is there another way to tune it in?

Sorry for hijacking your thread but you sound like you know what you're doing and might be able to help.

subway

it should come in automatically via the tv setup option.
do you have roll up 2 installed?

navigate over to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\TS353-1]

and add a dword with the name 104 and the value 0EC82E00 and you should get setanta

BaZmO*

subway wrote: »

it should come in automatically via the tv setup option.
do you have roll up 2 installed?

navigate over to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\TS353-1]

and add a dword with the name 104 and the value 0EC82E00 and you should get setanta

Sound. Although it sounds very complicated. I'll give it a bash when I get home.

Cheers.

subway

its not as bad as it sounds, post up if you need a hand or some screenshots

SouperComputer

Granted the reception abilities of teh PVR 150 aren't so hot, but is there anything you can do to improve the signal/reduce the noise on it?

BaZmO*

I've been trying to find that location in Explorer to no avail.

subway

its not explorer, sorry.
click > start > run
type regedit and enter.
then browse to that location

@souper, the reception on the pvr is spot on.
unfortunaltey the hardware revision i have gets confused by some stereo signals and disables the sound.
if i detune it slightly the reception degrades and the nicam doesnt come through and then i get good sound...

so far so good on disabling all permissions to that section of the registry

BaZmO*

subway wrote: »

its not explorer, sorry.
click > start > run
type regedit and enter.
then browse to that location

Done all that and it's actually there already.

When I originally set up my media centre Setanta was tuned in fine and then one day it was replaced by Channel 6 while still having Channel 6 in it's original spot. So I have 2 Channel 6 slots showing up in the TV Guide.

subway

so, still on this issue...
by removing write permission to that section i have been able to hold the channels in place

but.....
i just noticed today that my guide hadnt been updating,
apparently mce when updating the guide makes sure that the bit of the registry where the tv data is kept hasnt been corrupted, and if it has, fixes it.
since my bit of the guide is write locked it wouldnt update.
ive given mce back access and it updated the guide, and reset my channels.

but.....
that solves the problem of what process was resetting the guide data (and when it was happening)

using the tool "guidetime" http://www.avsoft.nl/Tools/guidedltime/
i have been able to reschdule my guide download time to early morning, just before my mce does its routine (share recorded tv on network and reboot)
ive added the registry key as a startup item and that should make bob my uncle...

pfew, talk about using a sledghammer to crack a nut, or whatever that saying is....

FrankGrimes

Interesting thread.

I'm using a PVR500 MCE with Vista Ultimate. BBC1, Setanta, and to a lesser extent, Sky 1 all have delays in picking up the sound, but do pick it up after about 10 seconds. Sounds like it's related to your problem but I haven't tried (un)finetuning them cos I wasn't aware it could be done and am loathe to reduce quality in a picture that is just about passable.

I have a signal amplifier hooked up just before the htpc as my NTL cable is split 4 ways in the attic. I'd have thought that would've been a fairly standard setup and that the amplifier would address this, but does it seem like if I had a 100% signal I wouldn't have these sound problems?

subway

the 10 seocnd thing was something i also experienced, but it wasnt guaranteed to come in so i cant rely on it.

the problem is one of 2 things:
poor signal - ntl tells hauppauge it has a nicam signal, ntl signal isnt strong enough for nicam but hauppauge either switches to mono (10 seocnd delay) or keeps waiting for nicam (no sound)

or

hauppauge receives nicam fomat but isnt sure how to decode it.
sits with it for a while and either switches to mono (10 seocnd delay) or keeps waiting for nicam (no sound)

i dont know enough about nicam or hauppauge to say for sure, but i do know that hauppauage have a track history of hardware with dodgy sound

BaZmO*

Anybody any suggestions on my Setanta problem?

subway

tbh, it doesnt make sense,the channel info is sent from the headen
as you can see from my post earlier, the headend writes the correct data into the registry each time it updates.

if youve tried setting the tv up from scratch already
you could try the following -

resintall your tv card (physically boot without it at least once)
try the mce reset utility (http://www.salloway.org.uk/mediacenter/util/index.htm#config2); start at the least intrusive wipe and wpork up to full wipe if they dont work.
create a new user account and set up mce in there.

ill try to think of some stuff to try.

can you also post up a text file of your that location in your registry that we mentioned earlier. (when you have that section of the registry open, click on file > export; that will make a .reg file, open that with notepad and save it as text)