Windows Media Center - Radio Only

philahern

I've used an old laptop to tune the channels in a few times now, bringing it round to friends to see if they can pick up the channels etc. All of a sudden it stopped working and I can now only pick up the 10 radio stations. Anyone have an idea why this is happening?

Details:
Windows Vista with media pack.
Windows Media center
Signal from Woodcock Hill
Checked the signal and wires and everything is fine.

watty

Problem with MPEG4 Codec selection.

philahern

Yeah think it's something to do with that alright but can't understand why they channels won't even tune in now. Also, can't see why it would just stop working when it worked fine before.

Gerry Wicklow

Win Media Centre automatically retunes if it finds a stronger signal, even temporarily. If you have been trying if different locations it may have changed the settings.
From the EPG, right-click on the channel name - select edit channel - edit source and see if it is the correct frequency.

As far as I know, only Windows 7's Media Center is compatible with MPEG-4, previous versions won't use a H.264 codec even if you have one installed.

watty

yes, other than Windows 7 MC, which works, XP & Vista MCE are rubbish. 3rd party SW is better.

MS finally after 16 years of NT have got the Media Center [sic] Working properly. The Win7 MC is very impressive.

Try DVBviewer (not free, but not expensive) and CoreAVC as codec for MPEG4.

STB

Software: Mediaportal is free.

Codec: PowerDVD codec (bundled with trial - codec doesnt stop) free and works with Media Portal

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056109402

watty

Media Portal updates XP to MP11 which is bad and installs SQL also. It's a sort of Windows version of Myth TV.

I'd not recommend it unless you know your system works and you want a dedicated media TV box.

The older PowerDVD codec I have uses over 80% cpu on AMD Athlon 64 3700+ with GT210 type card and the CoreAVC uses less than 10% on HD.

mossym

watty wrote: »

MS finally after 16 years of NT have got the Media Center [sic] Working properly. The Win7 MC is very impressive.

yup, but speaking to the microsoft guys myself at ces, and from news rumblings, it looks like it might not move much past where it is now, they are talking about it like a failed experiment

philahern

Thanks for the replies guys. Just to clarify I'm not looking to install anything else, it's on oldish laptop with no space on it. It was working just fine once I installed the media pack but just won't retune now. No signal either because it was last tuned in my parents house.

I thought there might have been something changed in the saorview setup that is stopping me tuning the channels but if not I'll try and figure it out and post back.

Thanks.

watty

Saorview working fine here on Win 7 64bit MC and "Total Media 3.5" also on Win 7

Saorview working fine on here XP (32 bit Pro SP3) on: ProgDVb, DVBviewer and "Total Media 3.5"