Vista - Problems with Media Center and analog TV Tuner

I have a problem with a TV Tuner and Media Center. (My specs are detailed in my profile.)

I have an Asus My Cinema PE9400 Combo card that has both analog and HD hardware encoders. OTA HD works great through Media Center, but analog has a terrible picture and stutters quite badly. This even happens when I record (without watching) and playback later. As a result of my troubleshooting, I have found that the issue isn't the card, but Media Center itself.

I installed TotalMedia (provided with the Asus tuner card) and all forms of broadcast work great. HD OTA, Analog OTA and DirecTV s-video input all have a flawless picture and no stuttering.

Is there anyone that can help? I like Media Center and would like to continue using it, but the stuttering is just not worth it. Are there any utilities I can run to find out where the conflict is? Why does MC have the problem, but not other apps?

I've gone as far as I can and need an expert's help.

Thanks in advance!

I am having a very similar issue with my AverMedia Hybrid VolarMax tuner on my laptop when I connect an analog cable signal. Picture and sound both stutter horribly in Media Center but work without issue in the AverMedia software supplied with the tuner. I'd also like to use Media Center since my laptop came with an itegrated remote for WMC. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi, I also am having trouble with the WMC on a Medion laptop with Vista Home premium, 32 bit operating system.

When I try to go to anything to do with Live TV it takes ages to get anywhere, then either tells me that the files are missing or corrupted, or there was a problem with the hard drive. The tuner (a DVB-T Tuner Expresscard64) appears to be working fine, and on one occasion, I turned it of, then on again, and I got TV, but very jerky. It worked 6 months ago, but will not now.

My nephew has a Dell desktop, and had this same problem some time ago, and found that it was one of the Vista updates that caused the problem, I am waiting for him to reply to an email to try and tell me which one of the upgrades caused the problem. He only found about this due to having to reinstall all programs from scratch, then finding the problems with the new updates, so he had to start again until he identified the particular update, and eliminated it.

I have contacted Medion (Australia) and they informed me in very short order, that the only solution is a 'factory install', after several hours with Microsoft Australia (I will give them their due, they did try hard) I was again informed that a 'destructive' install was the only way to resolve the problem.

It would appear that with Microsoft putting this as an integrated part of their operating system, they have managed to 'do it again'. Thanks Microsoft.

Does anyone have any sugestions as to how I can resolve this issue without going back to a full factory install. The two main reasons I have against a factory install is that it wold take me 1-2 weeks to reinstall my software, and with only a 6 Gig\month download limit, it would take me 2 months to download all the Vista upgrades.

Does anyone have any information as to whether Windows 7 overcomes these problems. I know it worked before because it still has my previous TV & radio channels stored in memory, but I can't even edit these now.

I am having the same problem with watching live TV via Media Center (Verizon FiOS non- HD) on my newly purchased Dell XPS 430- picture and sound skipping. Had no problems before on Windows XP/Media Center. Any suggestions- frustrated? Thanks, Microsoft!

Analog TV broadcast will be gone in a few days in areas of USA and everywhere USA by June, so enjoy the Digital HD Stations OTA, as they exceptionally better in every way. But for those who need use of analog playback of Tuner Cards and have issues,this can especially happen sometimes, if any multimedia codecs and drivers have been previously installed. Nice powerful Processors,Graphics and lots of memory will certainly get things working better for starters. Known Tuner Manufacturers like Hauppauge usually get good results with Vista Media Center. Clean up any third party codecs and drivers and uninstall the Tuner Card, then reinstall the Tuner Card might be a first choice.

Thanks for that Digitall2, my problem is that I am in Australia, which at present is more than a sunburned country. From what I've found on this & other forums, there are a number of other aussies also having the same problem. The analog TV over here is going to be progressively phased out from mis this year, but this tuner I have is supposed to pick up analog & digital. I am sure that I got both when I was last successful in using Live Tv about 6 months ago.

My nephew had a similar problem with the TV tuner on a Dell desktop running Vista, and the only way he could resolve the matter was a desrtructive reinstall. I am not in a position to do that at this time, so I was wondering if anyone know of the particular Vista update that may have caused this conflict, so it could be selectively uninstalled.

Thanks again for your interest.

I found the solution to my issue. I reduced the resolution that Media Center is playing through my TV to 720P and it solved the problem.

I was also able to solve the problem by not watching in full screen When I watch in a normal window (in 1080i), the studdering is gone.

Neither one of those solutions are the best fr me (if my TV can handle 1080i, I should be able to watch full screen, but I digress)...

So until I find a different work-around, I guess this will have to do...

Dan