No tuners found after disabling 4 of my 10 HDHR's

[barnabas1969]

I have a perplexing problem. I have been in the process of moving to a new place over the last week. At the old place, I had two HDHR Prime's, and two HDHR-3US (dual ATSC/QAM tuners that were connected to an outdoor antenna).

At the new place, I won't have an antenna (at least not for now... I may explore that option in the future).

When I installed the CableCARD tuners and the HTPC at the new place, I went into the HDHR Setup program and it showed that the ATSC tuners were "not found" (as I expected). First, I went to every channel that I receive OTA and edited the sources so that Media Center wouldn't try to use the ATSC tuners. I tested several channels and everything worked fine.

Then, I went into the HDHR Setup program and changed the ATSC tuners to "disabled". When I clicked "Apply", the ATSC tuners disappeared from the list. I thought this would be a good thing... because I didn't want any chance that Media Center would try to use those tuners.

When I went into Media Center and tried to tune a channel, it said that there were no tuners available to satisfy the request or something like that. I thought that running TV Setup again would solve the problem. But, when I ran TV Setup, it said that there were no tuners found.

I tried several different things, and nothing worked. I was stumped, so I finally just did a System Restore and everything is working fine again. It is back to the point where all of the OTA tuners are un-checked in the Edit Sources menu.

I'm just stumped as to how I can "clean up" those missing tuners. Anybody know how?

EDIT: I should add that while Media Center could not find my tuners, I was able to view my copy-freely channels using the Silicondust "Quick TV" program. The copy-freely channels are all my local channels which are also available OTA.

[Ed]

You did't re-run through TV setup in WMC? Or you did? Cause I'm pretty sure that's the only way to remove/add listed tuners in WMC that were added/removed from your system. Or am I just not understanding correctly?

As for the problem you had, it probably just wasn't adhering to/recognizing the tuner priority reorganization. Why? Who knows; a butterfly flapped its wings in Africa or something.

[barnabas1969]

You did't re-run through TV setup in WMC? Or you did? Cause I'm pretty sure that's the only way to remove/add listed tuners in WMC that were added/removed from your system. Or am I just not understanding correctly?

Yes, I ran through TV setup in Media Center. It said "no tuners found". It would not allow me to continue through the TV setup.

As for the problem you had, it probably just wasn't adhering to/recognizing the tuner priority reorganization. Why? Who knows; a butterfly flapped its wings in Africa or something.

I don't understand what you're getting at here. I think you misunderstood my problem.

[Ed]

Yeah, I must not be getting something.

So the ATSC tuners are hooked up to and installed in your system, but you don't want to use them? Is that correct? Cause that's how I'm picturing it. Or are they not, and Media Center still thinks they are?

[barnabas1969]

No, the ATSC tuners are no longer part of my network. I no longer have an antenna. I moved to a new location. I do not have an antenna anymore. That's why the HDHR setup program reported the ATSC tuners as missing or not found, which is what I expected since they are not connected to my network anymore.

I un-checked the ATSC tuners in the "Edit Sources" menu in Media Center, and everything worked fine. The ATSC tuners are still listed in the HDHR Setup program, but they are shown as missing/not-found (or something like that). The problem starts when I tell the HDHR Setup program to "disable" those ATSC tuners. It (appropriately) deletes them from the list of tuners. But then, Media Center cannot find ANY tuners (not even the HDHR PRIME tuners, which are connected to my network).

[barnabas1969]

To clarify:

In the HD HomeRun setup utility, you can choose the type of signal you want to receive. For the HDHR-3US, you can choose "Cable", "Antenna", or "Disabled".

When you choose "Cable", it is a QAM tuner (non-encrypted, or "Clear QAM").

When you choose "Antenna", it is an ATSC tuner (OTA, or Over-The-Air).

When you choose "Disabled", the HD HomeRun Setup utility removes the tuner from the config (after you click the "Apply" button).

[Ed]

OK, so the tuners are removed - but WMC and the HDHR program are still expecting to find them?

I would say uninstall the HDHR program, the drivers for the old ATSC tuners (if separate from the program) and all that goes along. And then run windows disk cleanup and CCleaner if you have it installed - both files and registry option. Because it shouldn't be reporting them as in there if they aren't hooked up, and that's all I can think about why it would still think it's attached when you have removed them. Then once the HDHR program is working right (not reporting them as entries, found or not) go through WMC TV setup.

I thought originally, from my misreading I guess, that the tuners were still attached to the system; just not hooked up to an antenna.

If that's not it, then I throw my towel into the ring and say I'm just incapable of reading something here right or something/just not grasping something here correctly.

[barnabas1969]

@Ed: OK, so you don't even have an HD HomeRun tuner, right? How 'bout you bow out? I'm asking for advice from people who have experience with HD HomeRun tuners, OK? Did you not notice that I posted this in the SiliconDust HomeRun Tuners sub-forum? I also have TON of experience with Windows workstations and servers... going back to Windows 3.0 (bet you never even saw that, did you?).

The drivers for ALL HD HomeRun tuners are the same! It's one set of drivers, one set of programs to manage them. It doesn't matter what combination of HD HomeRun tuners you have... you're using ONE set of drivers/programs.

Now, can someone who actually HAS SOME HD HOMERUN TUNERS please comment?

[Ed]

Lol, sorry for trying to help. Good luck

[barnabas1969]

OK, so the tuners are removed - but WMC and the HDHR program are still expecting to find them?

When you "disable" them in the HDHR setup program, the HDHR setup program is NO LONGER expecting to find them (and, that's what I want to happen. The HDHR setup program updates the config so that Media Center should not be expecting to find them anymore. I still have six CableCARD tuners shown in the HDHR setup program... but Media Center can't see them either!

My whole point here is that deleting 4 tuners should not cause Media Center to be unable to find the other 6 tuners!

[Just13d]

I found this thread http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewt ... 41&t=16343

The only thing I can think of is that maybe when you disable one tuner it stops the service from running? Not a expert so I hope this might help. Have you opened a ticket with SD?

[barnabas1969]

Thanks for the find. I looked around their forums and didn't find anything similar. I'll check that out when I have time.

[JohnW248]

Thanks for the find. I looked around their forums and didn't find anything similar. I'll check that out when I have time.

I would install the Ceton Diagnostic Utility and then use it to remove tuners and then discover tuners (they don't have to be Ceton). Then open MC and run TV Set-up

Likewise I sometimes use the "repair" tab in advanced under the SD Set-Up utility to fix some Windows services when MC can't find a tuner....again they don't have to be SD tuners in that case since it's just stopping and starting a service---they seem to do it better than I do manually.

[Crash2009]

I don't have an HDHR either. You mind if I just hang out and antagonize you a bit?

[barnabas1969]

I don't have an HDHR either. You mind if I just hang out and antagonize you a bit?

Not at all, just join the party!

jasonl at the SD forums suggested this:

Try disabling the ATSC tuners in HDHomeRun Setup, then rebooting the PC, and then going through the setup wizard in WMC again.

I'm almost certain that I rebooted at least once after disabling the tuners in HDHR Setup, but I'll try it again when I have time. For now, the HTPC is working fine. I have lots of other stuff to do right now.

[mcewinter]

I've omitted and reintroduced my HDHR several times while keeping the HDHRP constant. I've always done so by running TV setup. Can't you just go back in time a bit and take a simpler approach?

[barnabas1969]

I've omitted and reintroduced my HDHR several times while keeping the HDHRP constant. I've always done so by running TV setup. Can't you just go back in time a bit and take a simpler approach?

Do you mean that you didn't disable them in the HDHR Setup program? If so, then wouldn't that accomplish the same thing as un-checking the tuners in Media Center's "Edit Sources" menu? That's what I did at first, just to prevent Media Center from attempting to use the ATSC tuners. I thought it would be cleaner to remove them completely. Honestly though, I don't relish the thought of going through TV setup and re-doing all of my guide customizations. I may just leave it as it is now until the next time I'm forced to run TV Setup for whatever reason (like if the cable company changes their lineup).

[mcewinter]

I've omitted and reintroduced my HDHR several times while keeping the HDHRP constant. I've always done so by running TV setup. Can't you just go back in time a bit and take a simpler approach?

Do you mean that you didn't disable them in the HDHR Setup program? If so, then wouldn't that accomplish the same thing as un-checking the tuners in Media Center's "Edit Sources" menu? That's what I did at first, just to prevent Media Center from attempting to use the ATSC tuners. I thought it would be cleaner to remove them completely. Honestly though, I don't relish the thought of going through TV setup and re-doing all of my guide customizations. I may just leave it as it is now until the next time I'm forced to run TV Setup for whatever reason (like if the cable company changes their lineup).

I never even thought of taking that approach. I never suspected media center would try to use them if I setup tv without them. It would be cool if you could simply toggle them rather than editing channels each time.