Just got an AVER A180 card, need some help

[ould]

Hi all,

As part of me registering SageTV I decided to get the HD package deal which included the A180 card and streamzap remote(which sucks imo). Anyways I threw the A180 card into my pc and downloaded the drivers from AVER's site. They installed trouble free. I then proceeded to fire up Sage and add my new Source. Low and behold it is listed in available tuners so I select it and go through the steps. I select Digital TV Tuner as the video source and continue on. I then select the audio capture device(wasn't sure what to pick here actually so just picked the default selection) and continue to the next screen. This is where it asks me to setup tuning but my only options are "external STB" or "don't configure tuning". I assume that this is not correct as I think I need to have the card do the tuning. For fun I just selected "don't configure tuning" but alas this did not work at all. I searched through the forum but couldn't find any help really.

Can anyone help me out as I want some OTA HD....

Kevin

[ould]

Just curious, I was browsing Aver's site and noticed a section with WinXP software/drivers? Am I supposed to be using these with Sage? I downloaded the MCE drivers and installed them so maybe that is my problem?

I know lots of people are using this card so some help would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin

[gplasky]

If you're running MCE you would need the MCE drivers. If you're running WIn XP you would need the XP drivers. If you ARE running MCE you need to make sure none of the MCE services are running. Search the forum for the specific names but I think they begin with eHome. I don't have that card or do HD on Sage but I also believe you should be able to configure it to use the Sage TV guide or XMLTV too. I believe you need to you the BDA drivers.

Gerry

[chrisc16]

Attached is a screenshot of what my source setup looks like for my A180. Naturally I use the second option, Use tuner on capture card for antenna/broadcast. I'm not sure why you wouldn't have those options.

-Chris

[ould]

Originally Posted by chrisc16

Attached is a screenshot of what my source setup looks like for my A180. Naturally I use the second option, Use tuner on capture card for antenna/broadcast. I'm not sure why you wouldn't have those options.

-Chris

Chris,

Yeah that is what I expected I would see but I don't get that. Do you by any chance have a copy of the drivers that you used to get this going? Maybe you could email them to me and that way I know at least it isn't a driver issue which I suspect it is at this point. AVER's site is a little hard to navigate and doesn't give much explanation as to which drivers do what. I am going to try the XP drivers when I get home and if that doesn't work I will PM you with my email address in case you still have the drivers you are using kicking around, even a link to the correct ones if that's all you have. Seeing as Sage sells these things you would think they would provide a link to the drivers here somewhere or at least a HOW-TO.

Thanks,

Kevin

[ould]

Ok I took another crack at getting this working when I got home from work. I found the place to download the WinXP Aver brand tv app which came with a driver. It came with the same driver I already had installed though so I am guessing there is only one driver for this thing. In any event I decided to try out the crappy AverTV app. Low and behold after figuring out it's clunky interface it seems to work. It found all the channels that I used to get with my set top HD tuner that I had before I got into this HTPC thing. So I went back into SageTV and tried to add the tuner again but I still get the same f'in thing. It's really beginning to piss me off now. Maybe my drivers are too new? I am using a beta version of Sage so maybe I should roll back to an official version? I am not sure at this point but it sucks having this shiny card with it not working....

Basically my problem is I can't set it to use the internal tuning on the card it only gives me the options of "using an external satellite or cable tuner" or "don't configure tuning". Obviously neither are what I want.

Any help would be great.

Kevin

[gplasky]

It's obvious for some reason Sage is not seeing your tuner, thus not offering to set up tuning for you. What OS are you running? If you're running MCE there are services you need to turn off or Sage will never see your card correctly. Are you loading the BDA drivers? There are other people running this card with no issues so it's something you're doing or not doing.

Gerry

[ould]

Gerry,

I realize other people are running the card without issues, hence why I asked for some help. I am running Windows XP and have loaded the correct drivers, they are the only drivers available for the card actually and are BDA. The tuner works good with the Avermedia TV app so not really sure what Sage's problem is. I got fed up tonight and just decided to watch some tv so I will look into more tomorrow or something.

Kevin

[chrisc16]

Kevin,

My A180 is using driver v. 1.2.23 dated 6/8/05. Is yours the same?

Also, I wonder if maybe the BDA tuner is being locked by another application? Although you said you had just downloaded the Avermedia application today.

-Chris

[ould]

Chris,

I was wondering the same thing as well if it is being locked by some other application but it seems to work fine with the Avermedia app under similar conditions(no sage running obviously though). I have since uninstalled to Avermedia app but left the driver in tact. I believe it is the same driver as what you are using. So basically my card does function properly with the Avermedia app(which is utter crap compared to sage) but Sage refuses to be able to use/see the internal tuner. I have tried everything I can think of.

Kevin

[chrisc16]

I would suggest submitting a support request, if you haven't already. Mine literally worked out of the box. I never had any trouble configuring the A180 in Sage. There must be something about your PC that Sage doesn't like.

-Chris

[elaw]

Kevin,

This is probably a dumb question, but what version of Sage are you running? You should at least have release version 4.1 to use the HD card. If you had an older version and upgraded, I wonder if it could be something leftover from the old install?

[ould]

Chris,

Thanks for the help, I did submit a support request at the same time I posted this thread. They have responded once but their response left a little to be desired, they weren't very clear so hopefully when they respond back maybe it will help.

Elaw,

I am using one on the recent Beta versions actually so I am pretty up to date and my initial install was 4.1.x so that shouldn't be an issue. I may revert back to an official release to see if it helps though.

Thanks again,

Kevin

[gplasky]

Since you're running Windows XP do you have Service Pack 2 installed? Have you installed the latest DirectX 9? People are trying to help but you're not providing much info to troubleshoot. Processor, mb, memory, chipset, other installed apps, etc. all can have something to do with your issue.

Gerry

[ould]

Well I think I partially solved my problem. It seems that I was using the Sage_MC169 STV and a beta version of Sage. I reverted back to the latest official release which also set my STV to the factory default STV3. I then added the card in and it brought up the correct options. I then reloaded the Sage_MC STV and the correct options were gone. So I believe there is a bug with both the new Beta and the SageMC STV causing the card to not be configured properly.

Now I just need to figure out how to do the EPG and setup my channels properly.

Thanks everyone,

Kevin

[gplasky]

Sage_MC has probably not been updated to the version of the STV that supports your card. But using the latest beta with the latest Sage3TV.XML should. If it doesn't then file a bug report. (Don't choose the old Sage3TV.STV by mistke.)

Gerry