This one really has me ticked. Microsoft has released a Media Center “TV Pack” (similar to a Power Pack or Service Pack). The update/upgrade enables Clear QAM support for Windows Media Center inside of Vista SP1.
This is important because? Well, it means that you can now watch HD programming over cable, without the need for a CableCARD. Of course, your cable operator probably doesn’t offer all HD channels via Clear QAM, they’re only required to offer network programming. However, having perfect-clarity of all the network channels in (unencrypted) HD is something that killer apps like TiVo and Eye TV have done well… and Media Center has failed on.
But, here’s the catch: You can’t have it! Microsoft is only making the “TV Pack” available to OEM providers (computer manufacturers). This means that you have to buy a brand new PC, with tuner cards pre-installed, in order to get Clear QAM.
The real insult is that Clear QAM is asked for the most by people who don’t want to buy a new PC… people in the market for a new PC, can just get a CableCARD-enabled PC. This update would benefit most customers who already own a Media Center PC, and could just plug in a TV Tuner with QAM support (and nowadays, most tuner cards support Clear QAM).
Microsoft, this is backwards logic, and it’s downright immoral. The company has done the hard work of enabling Clear QAM inside of Media Center. Now, it’s time to offer that support to customers that have endured the upgrade path to Windows Vista.
This is one of those I’m not going to let Microsoft go on. It was downright unacceptable that Media Center could only support Clear QAM over CableCARD. Now it’s downright unacceptable that they won’t commit to giving the update to consumers.
You might also like...
They have included native ClearQAM support in Windows 7 Media Center. It’s somewhat of a painful process still in build 7000 but not so bad to put anyone off of using it. I have a small write-up o getting it working on my blog: http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/01/manually-adding-clearqam-channels-to.html
Keep in mind that your guide only works on the HDHomeRun. And, it works because HDHomeRun ships good drivers that don’t really require a lot of tweaking to enable ClearQAM.
In fact, they are the only tuner maker that has posted a TV Pack 2008 guide, I would suggest following that instead for Windows 7 Public Beta, from my experience it works well.
If you have an AVerMedia tuner, you’re left with plug and pray. Some tuners have had their ClearQAM enabled in an updated drive, auto-detected by Windows 7… and a lot haven’t. I would suggest writing to AVerMedia now if your tuner isn’t, as now is the time to get this stuff fixed. If everyone did, they would fix it.
If you have a WinTV Tuner, you’re going to have to follow the same steps for TV Pack 2008. Unfortunately, Hauppauge looks like they aren’t going to go back and add ClearQAM support for all their old Media Center-compatible tuners… shame on them for that.
Actually, I used a Hauppage 2250 while writing the guide. ClearQAM support in Windows 7 is far better than even TV Pack 2008 had to offer. With only a handful of exceptions ClearQAM seems to be working very well for most hardware.
I’m certainly not saying that it isn’t, but the HDHomeRun is one of the few devices that works without major surgery… still…
With Hauppauge you do still need to do registry hacks on most tuners. My HVR-1600 finally works with ClearQAM on the betam with registry tweaks enabling the ClearQAM “PowerToy”. I’m still get a little sick every time I have to refer to proper cable functionality as a PowerToy.
Anyways, it still doesn’t work fully right. For example, my HVR-1600 is supposed to be a dual tuner adapter. But, Media Center only sees it as a single tuner, HVR-950… no matter what I try to tell it otherwise. It works, but only as a single ClearQAM tuner.
I wouldn’t be ticked if this was TV Pack 2008, and I wouldn’t be ticked if Microsoft committed to fixing it. But, they’ve actually done the opposite and said they won’t to both. Their notion that folks will just pony up and buy Windows 7 after that much abuse, is borderline on delusional.
if i have the hvr-1850 , a relatively newer card, i can see the qam tuner in wmc but it only sees 7 channels, when i try to edit chnnels none of them are good…
is the registry hack necessary in my case?
Jack, odds are the 7 channels are due to your cable operator only pushing local channels over ClearQAM. To access additional channels, you’re looking at needing to acquire a CableCARD tuner.