Installed 2nd Tuner Pblm vbox 150 & avermedia a180 and vbox doesn't tune much... why?

[dealsdyker]

I was a single tuner Avermedia A180 system and decided to install a second tuner. So I bought and today installed a vbox 150 card. The vbox scans for channels and that takes a lot longer than I remember the A180 taking to scan. And after it scans it will only pull in about 1/3 of the channels that the A180 can pull. The rest show a signal strength (through Sage) of 0%. What gives? I did swap the cables in back but it didn't help.

Is the A180 that much better of a tuner than the vbox? Or is there something I'm missing? I installed the vbox driver version 705.7 from here.

In my device manager I am showing 2 devices for the single vbox card:
-VBOX DTA-150 Receiver, BDA Capture Tuner
-VBOX TV Receiver, BDA Tuner Driver (DTF 8600-ATSC)

Both devices (remember, only one VBox card though) show they are running the 705.7 driver.

[jayrbrown77]

try manually setting the frequency-channel-subchannel in the channel setup.

[dealsdyker]

Originally Posted by jayrbrown77

try manually setting the frequency-channel-subchannel in the channel setup.

I don't know where to get what it "should be" from? Should I get the frequency-channel-subchannel from the Avermedia tuner and copy that to the vbox card? TIA.

Also, Sage doesn't recognize a vbox 150 but it finds a "vbox Bic951" tuner... is that normal?

[dealsdyker]

I have to say, I don't really get this. When I'm in setup looking at the channel's for the v150 and I say "tune" it says 0% and "no signal". But when I quit setup and just go to the guide and tune to that channel it tunes fine. I think it is using the new tuner b/cuz when I go back into setup/video-sources and select the vbox bic951 it says "Currently being used for LiveTV=TRUE". So why, when I'm in setup for that tuner, and I tune that same channel (or any channel) does it take eons to tune it in, and then eventually say it can't tune it?

I'm on 6.0.19. And again, maybe I'm not doing something right... I don't know...

[Slack]

The behavior you describe is the same as my VBOX DTA 150.
1) Tuner is seen as Bic951
2) Channel scans take FOREVER - and they look as though each and every channel is failing.

I'm currently attempting to add a second VBOX DTA 150 to a very stable & reliable SageTV 5 box.

It ain't going so hot.

I noticed a blurb at the top of the video sources setup dialog admonishing me that for dual tuner setups I must complete the configuration wizard for ALL sources again.

Seems like a pain, when my cards are the same, and line-up is the same, even more so when the channel scan takes 30+ minutes to complete.

[dealsdyker]

Originally Posted by Slack

...It ain't going so hot...

There was a Capture error in playback. Details: ERROR (-4,0x8007045d): Tehre was an problem using the capture device. Please be sure you have the latest drivers installed for your capture device, and that they are installed correctly

Well either I have a junk vbox or something is just messed up. But pretty much I was wrong when I (hoped) that it was all working. It isn't. What do I do at this point? RMA the new tuner card? Just toss it in the trash? Ebay it to some other poor sucker? The vbox just doesn't bring in signals. I thought the vbox was supposed to be a better card than the a180.

[dealsdyker]

more researching and I'm seeing that others have had problem installing both aver and vbox cards in the same machine. Some get lucky and for whatever reason it works great. I'm not gonna screw around much more unless someone has a suggestion as I'm pretty sure after more research it is just driver/card incompatability. Especially after watching the spinning sage logo/icon when trying to tune the 150. I'm going to sell the vbox card on ebay and buy an a180 card.

Fortunately I ghosted the partition right before I installed the new card so I'll just restore that backup after the superbowl is done.

Anyone want a vbox 150 card cheap?

[Slack]

Got my dual tuner 150 issues sorted.

I did full channel scan on both 150s. While they are scanning, the preview box seems to invariably show 'No Signal' and you'll rarely see it pull in anything and display it. You just gotta have faith.

A couple of times wile I cared to watch the scan in progress, I'd see the strength meter peg @ 100%, yet nothing was playing in the preview.

I had convinced myself that each card and each signal were good by swapping anntena leads to my good single card config. then swapping cards.

After I was feeling good about both cards, I just bit the bullet, let Sage do a full scan (x2). Then went to the guide and started recording two things at once. No problems.

YMMV.

[dealsdyker]

Tonight I tried installing that second A180 tuner and EXACTLY THE SAME THING happened... Both tuners showed as working in device manager with no problems but the second tuner could only tune about 25-50% of the channels. On top of that, I went back to the first A180 and it couldn't tune anything any more either. I tried replacing the splitter and all the rg6 wires but nothing helped. I tried going back to a SINGLE TUNER in the machine (remove 2nd a180 card, no splitter) and the first tuner STILL couldn't tune more than 25%. I also tried deleting ALL the tuners from Sage and starting over but to no avail... same problems. Fortunately, again, I ghosted an image of the drive and restored the ghost with the 2nd tuner removed and I'm back to 100% signal on my SINGLE tuner system.

So I'm asking, what possibly could be going on? Why would sage lose the ability to pull a signal? What might be getting messed up when I go into setting->video sources->channel lineup->search for channels? Why, even after I remove the second a180, would the first a180 lose its ability to pull a signal? I'm pretty sure all my tuners are good since the problem is so similar when adding a second tuner, regardless of brand of the second tuner. I realize this might be a total hardware issue but I'm clueless as to how to troubleshoot since Sage is my only program that uses the tuner. So I'm coming asking for any help you can give.

The A180 driver is 1.2.2.23. Windows XP MCE 05 with all service packs up to date.