Hi all,
Here's the issue... I have TV Pack 2008 installed on my nice, flash Windows Vista Ultimate 64 OS that I, as a loyal Microsoft customer, paid them handsomely for (can you tell I have a gripe about TV Pack - essentially an upgrade to make Media Center provide the same basic teletext/interactive functionality as a £20 set-top box, yet unavailable to the masses as a simple Windows Update?).
In theory, Media Center should now be great, finally giving me basic (but useful) DVB-T features such as subtitles, interactive services and teletext.
First and foremost, I'm in the UK receiving Freeview on 2 Hauppauge Nova-T PCI cards and a single Nova-T Diversity USB stick set on 'twin tuner' mode, therefore giving me 4 DVB-T tuners (transmitter: Bluebell Hill in Kent, in case that helps). I've also installed a beta driver for the Diversity stick which resolves a problem where all channels provided by Channel 4 somehow inherit additional sources which don't physically exist (eg list sources for Channel 4 / E4 / More4 etc, and I get 8, sometimes 12 tuners, when I only have 4)!
So, I thought everything would be resolved, particularly considering I've also installed all currently available upgrades to the TV Pack, including one released in the last couple of weeks, but it's not.
Here's an issue which has dogged my installation since day one, and the reason behind me re-installing Vista yet again...
* I install Vista.
* I install TV Pack 2008 and all related software including updates.
* I scan for all channels across all 4 tuners.
* I then re-number all channels and hide those I'm not interested in... for example: I want all BBC entertainment channels (BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4) to appear at numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the guide list, then ITV 1, 2, 3,4 at 5, 6, 7, 8, then Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4, E4+1, More 4, 4Music, Film 4, then all Five's channels, miscellaneous, all the news channels and finally a handful of radio stations. I don't want any of the crap that Freeview throw in, such as the shopping or pay TV channels, so I hide them.
* So, it takes a long time to do it, but it's worth it. Or at least it should be.
* Having experienced this issue before, I decide to download the latest guide listings straight after lining up my channels the way I want them.
* As expected, several previously-hidden channels are now back in my guide, sharing channel numbers with those I do want. And channels I do want are also now back at their old guide positions, but sharing with channels I've previously moved to that position! (For example: ITV1 was originally on channel 3, but since I wanted BBC Three to be there, I moved ITV1 to channel 5. However, following the guide listings update, ITV1 was back at channel 3, sharing with BBC Three. ITV1 was also still at channel 5. As a second example, this time of a channel I didn't want at all, TMF - which was originally at channel 21 until (a) I disabled it and (b) put Sky Three in its place at channel 21 - is now back at 21, sharing with Sky Three).
* So, thinking it'd resolve the situation, I went to edit and merge listings for each affected channel, for example: map ITV1 (at channel 3) listings to those on ITV1 at channel 5. I'd then confirm "combine channel 3 with channel 5", which would make ITV1 appear only at channel 5, with only BBC Three on channel 3, as I wanted it.
* Success! Or at least I thought. I updated the TV listings a few times again during the day, quit out of Media Center, rebooted Vista, etc. Everything worked fine last night, but then this morning... everything's in a mess again. My listings, rather than being...
1 - 4: BBC channels
5-9: ITV channels
10-16: Channel 4 channels
17-19: Five channels
20 - 23: Dave, Sky Three, UKTV History and Virgin1
80-82: BBC News, BBC Parliament, Sky News
704: BBC Radio 4
705: BBC Radio 5 Live
708: BBC Radio 7
710: BBC World Service
...are now (with incorrectly-positioned channels highlighted in bold pink,and channels that shouldn't be there at all in bold green)...
1: BBC One
2: BBC Two
3: BBC Three
3: ITV1
4: Channel 4
4: BBC Four
5: ITV1
5: Five
6: ITV2
7: ITV2+1
8: ITV3
9: ITV4
10: Channel 4
11: Channel 4+1
12: E4
12: UKTV History
13: E4+1
13: Channel 4+1
14: More 4
15: 4 Music
16: Film 4
17: Five
18: Fiver
18: 4 Music
19: Five US
20: Dave
20: Virgin 1
21: Sky Three
21: TMF
22: UKTV History
22: Ideal World
23: Virgin 1
23: Bid TV
24: price-drop tv
28: ITV4
29: E4
31: ITV2 +1
32: Film 4
80: BBC NEWS
81: BBC Parliament
82: Sky News
100: Teletext
102: Rabbit
300: 4TV Interactive
704: BBC Radio 4
705: BBC Radio 5 Live
708: BBC Radio 7
710: BBC World Service
Can anyone shed any light on this please? Sounds like TV Pack isn't re-mapping guide channels correctly. Surely, when a user chooses to re-number them, the guide should know where to re-map its latest download data to? It used to work perfectly pre-TV Pack.
Hopefully there will be a solution which means (a) I won't have to spend yet another day re-installing Windows Vista and getting my machine configured to the way I want it, and (b) a simple way to watch TV, which Media Center should provide... after all, if it's to be adopted by the mainstream, it surely needs to work at least as well as a £20 set top box!
Oh, and as a side-issue (which I haven't noticed since the re-install but it got increasingly bad prior to it), has anyone noticed that sometimes, when you change channel, the sound disappears? You either have to change channel again, then go back, or press stop and play to bring it back. This seems to be with live TV only.
And a final nugget of advice to anyone trying to convert WTV files back to DVR-MS using the TODVRMS app... it doesn't always work... it'll play those files fine pre-reinstall, but then both post-reinstall before TV Pack and post-reinstall after TV pack, you'll find the files will either crash Media Center / Media Player / other players or play without sound, or as a static picture, etc. Be careful!
Back to the main issue: if anyone can help, I'd be really grateful - thank you.
Dan.
Here's the issue... I have TV Pack 2008 installed on my nice, flash Windows Vista Ultimate 64 OS that I, as a loyal Microsoft customer, paid them handsomely for (can you tell I have a gripe about TV Pack - essentially an upgrade to make Media Center provide the same basic teletext/interactive functionality as a £20 set-top box, yet unavailable to the masses as a simple Windows Update?).
In theory, Media Center should now be great, finally giving me basic (but useful) DVB-T features such as subtitles, interactive services and teletext.
First and foremost, I'm in the UK receiving Freeview on 2 Hauppauge Nova-T PCI cards and a single Nova-T Diversity USB stick set on 'twin tuner' mode, therefore giving me 4 DVB-T tuners (transmitter: Bluebell Hill in Kent, in case that helps). I've also installed a beta driver for the Diversity stick which resolves a problem where all channels provided by Channel 4 somehow inherit additional sources which don't physically exist (eg list sources for Channel 4 / E4 / More4 etc, and I get 8, sometimes 12 tuners, when I only have 4)!
So, I thought everything would be resolved, particularly considering I've also installed all currently available upgrades to the TV Pack, including one released in the last couple of weeks, but it's not.
Here's an issue which has dogged my installation since day one, and the reason behind me re-installing Vista yet again...
* I install Vista.
* I install TV Pack 2008 and all related software including updates.
* I scan for all channels across all 4 tuners.
* I then re-number all channels and hide those I'm not interested in... for example: I want all BBC entertainment channels (BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4) to appear at numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the guide list, then ITV 1, 2, 3,4 at 5, 6, 7, 8, then Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4, E4+1, More 4, 4Music, Film 4, then all Five's channels, miscellaneous, all the news channels and finally a handful of radio stations. I don't want any of the crap that Freeview throw in, such as the shopping or pay TV channels, so I hide them.
* So, it takes a long time to do it, but it's worth it. Or at least it should be.
* Having experienced this issue before, I decide to download the latest guide listings straight after lining up my channels the way I want them.
* As expected, several previously-hidden channels are now back in my guide, sharing channel numbers with those I do want. And channels I do want are also now back at their old guide positions, but sharing with channels I've previously moved to that position! (For example: ITV1 was originally on channel 3, but since I wanted BBC Three to be there, I moved ITV1 to channel 5. However, following the guide listings update, ITV1 was back at channel 3, sharing with BBC Three. ITV1 was also still at channel 5. As a second example, this time of a channel I didn't want at all, TMF - which was originally at channel 21 until (a) I disabled it and (b) put Sky Three in its place at channel 21 - is now back at 21, sharing with Sky Three).
* So, thinking it'd resolve the situation, I went to edit and merge listings for each affected channel, for example: map ITV1 (at channel 3) listings to those on ITV1 at channel 5. I'd then confirm "combine channel 3 with channel 5", which would make ITV1 appear only at channel 5, with only BBC Three on channel 3, as I wanted it.
* Success! Or at least I thought. I updated the TV listings a few times again during the day, quit out of Media Center, rebooted Vista, etc. Everything worked fine last night, but then this morning... everything's in a mess again. My listings, rather than being...
1 - 4: BBC channels
5-9: ITV channels
10-16: Channel 4 channels
17-19: Five channels
20 - 23: Dave, Sky Three, UKTV History and Virgin1
80-82: BBC News, BBC Parliament, Sky News
704: BBC Radio 4
705: BBC Radio 5 Live
708: BBC Radio 7
710: BBC World Service
...are now (with incorrectly-positioned channels highlighted in bold pink,and channels that shouldn't be there at all in bold green)...
1: BBC One
2: BBC Two
3: BBC Three
3: ITV1
4: Channel 4
4: BBC Four
5: ITV1
5: Five
6: ITV2
7: ITV2+1
8: ITV3
9: ITV4
10: Channel 4
11: Channel 4+1
12: E4
12: UKTV History
13: E4+1
13: Channel 4+1
14: More 4
15: 4 Music
16: Film 4
17: Five
18: Fiver
18: 4 Music
19: Five US
20: Dave
20: Virgin 1
21: Sky Three
21: TMF
22: UKTV History
22: Ideal World
23: Virgin 1
23: Bid TV
24: price-drop tv
28: ITV4
29: E4
31: ITV2 +1
32: Film 4
80: BBC NEWS
81: BBC Parliament
82: Sky News
100: Teletext
102: Rabbit
300: 4TV Interactive
704: BBC Radio 4
705: BBC Radio 5 Live
708: BBC Radio 7
710: BBC World Service
Can anyone shed any light on this please? Sounds like TV Pack isn't re-mapping guide channels correctly. Surely, when a user chooses to re-number them, the guide should know where to re-map its latest download data to? It used to work perfectly pre-TV Pack.
Hopefully there will be a solution which means (a) I won't have to spend yet another day re-installing Windows Vista and getting my machine configured to the way I want it, and (b) a simple way to watch TV, which Media Center should provide... after all, if it's to be adopted by the mainstream, it surely needs to work at least as well as a £20 set top box!
Oh, and as a side-issue (which I haven't noticed since the re-install but it got increasingly bad prior to it), has anyone noticed that sometimes, when you change channel, the sound disappears? You either have to change channel again, then go back, or press stop and play to bring it back. This seems to be with live TV only.
And a final nugget of advice to anyone trying to convert WTV files back to DVR-MS using the TODVRMS app... it doesn't always work... it'll play those files fine pre-reinstall, but then both post-reinstall before TV Pack and post-reinstall after TV pack, you'll find the files will either crash Media Center / Media Player / other players or play without sound, or as a static picture, etc. Be careful!
Back to the main issue: if anyone can help, I'd be really grateful - thank you.
Dan.