Hi guys, I came across this thread as I searched for problems  with a recently purchased Hybrid Volar Max.

I am running Windows 7 RC, and I've also tried this on WinXP on an old PC.

I have a Time Warner digital cable box which I hooked up to the tuner. I've tried using various software, including the one included with it, but none of it picks up a digital signal. Not on Win7, not on XP. I can get an analog signal on the AverMedia software, but the picture is very fuzzy.

I am simply stomped and have no idea what to do.

cereal killer:

I have a Time Warner digital cable box which I hooked up to the tuner.

I'm unfamiliar with TW, but.... the folks I know with ComCast cable boxes have the following configuration: the cable box does the channel decoding and outputs the selected channel on a non-channelized output (HDMI, composite[A/V], component, S-Video) or to a fixed "channel" 3 or 4 on co-ax'. You can't TUNE something that doesn't use CHANNELS -- you can't use a tuner on the output of a cable box, except to select its single output channel (3 or 4) if it has a coaxial output and that must be NTSC [non-digital] by definition.

Since you seem to say you've connected an output of the cable box to the Volar Max, I'm guessing your box has a co-ax' mono-channel output and your Volar should only find analog channel 3 or 4.

Perhaps I've misunderstood your configuration?

If I have NOT misunderstood your description, the appropriate configuration would be to disconnect your cable box and re-connect its coaxial input cable to the Volar Max. I cannot promise what you'll find, but I expect it will do better than connecting to a decoder-box's output.

Hope this has made sense and been of use. Good luck!

Basilisk:

cereal killer:

I have a Time Warner digital cable box which I hooked up to the tuner.

I'm unfamiliar with TW, but.... the folks I know with ComCast cable boxes have the following configuration: the cable box does the channel decoding and outputs the selected channel on a non-channelized output (HDMI, composite[A/V], component, S-Video) or to a fixed "channel" 3 or 4 on co-ax'. You can't TUNE something that doesn't use CHANNELS -- you can't use a tuner on the output of a cable box, except to select its single output channel (3 or 4) if it has a coaxial output and that must be NTSC [non-digital] by definition. Since you seem to say you've connected an output of the cable box to the Volar Max, I'm guessing your box has a co-ax' mono-channel output and your Volar should only find analog channel 3 or 4. Perhaps I've misunderstood your configuration? If I have NOT misunderstood your description, the appropriate configuration would be to disconnect your cable box and re-connect its coaxial input cable to the Volar Max. I cannot promise what you'll find, but I expect it will do better than connecting to a decoder-box's output. Hope this has made sense and been of use. Good luck!

Thank you for your helpful response.

You are spot on with your understanding of my config. I have a co-ax coming from the wall to the cable box's IN plug, and component cables connecting it to the TV. There is an OUT plug, which I used to connect to the Volar Max. So this means that I cannot receive a digital signal with this method? I am a bit puzzled as to why, because my understanding on the subject (as you can tell) is very thin.

If I have NOT misunderstood your description, the appropriate configuration would be to disconnect your cable box and re-connect its coaxial input cable to the Volar Max.

Does this mean to disconnect the cable that comes from the wall that goes in the IN plug on the cable box, and connect it directly to the Volar Max? If so, I tried that the other day and the result was the same. Is there anything particular I need to look for, because if so, I'll do it again.

Do I have ANY options to get a digital signal and be able to record my channels that I have from my provider? Seems like most are able to.

Also wanted to add. In Windows 7, the analog's signal is pretty good, but it is in black and white. In XP it seems to work perfectly. I'm guessing issues with the driver in Win7?

cereal killer:

I have a co-ax coming from the wall to the cable box's IN plug, and component cables connecting it to the TV. There is an OUT plug, which I used to connect to the Volar Max. So this means that I cannot receive a digital signal with this method?

I repeat: I have zero familiarity with Time Warner. Also, I have no personal experience with [ComCast] "Digital", though I have friends with it and could try some tests.

The "goal" of a decoder box is to select one channel, of your choice, and present that one channel to your TV on all its outputs. It does not decode all channels at once. The only reason for it to have a co-ax' output jack is to present that one selected channel in a manner that very old TV's (without S-Video, component, composite or HDMI inputs) can receive. Like old "console game" boxes or VCR's, it converts the single selected channel to a synthesized channel 3 or 4 on the co-ax output. And since it is converting to the old NTSC channel standards, not the digital ATSC standard, you can only receive analog on it -- allbeit it could be the analog conversion of a digital cable channel (with reduced resolution, obv.).

If I have NOT misunderstood your description, the appropriate
configuration would be to disconnect your cable box and re-connect its
coaxial input cable to the Volar Max.

Does this mean to disconnect the cable that comes from the wall that goes in the IN plug on the cable box, and connect it directly to the Volar Max?

Yes.

If so, I tried that the other day and the result was the same. Is there anything particular I need to look for, because if so, I'll do it again.

Do I have ANY options to get a digital signal and be able to record my channels that I have from my provider? Seems like most are able to.

I fear you are at the mercy of TW subscribers for further information: I thought digital cable usually provided a mix of analog and digital channels and that both could be viewed using the Volar Max -- provided they were not encoded channels (which are typically "Premium" channels for which you pay extra).

Also wanted to add. In Windows 7, the analog's signal is pretty good, but it is in black and white. In XP it seems to work perfectly. I'm guessing issues with the driver in Win7?

Uhhhh... well... that's a new one to me. I wonder WHICH Windows 7 RC you are running. I'm running build 7265x86 on one computer, and 7235x64 on the other (IIRC); last I looked, Microsoft was only posting build 7100, but I grabbed later ones from a torrent (on TPB). If you can find a later build, try an upgrade (not re-formatting/full) install over yours.

I regret I can't answer your problem. I'll tackle any further Q's you post if I can. Good luck.

Thank you, you've been very helpful and I've learned quite a lot even if nothing can be done with my situation. I'm going to give the wall coaxl straight to Volar Max another chance, perhaps I didn't tinker with the setup options enough.

My RC is older than yours, I don't recall the exact number. I might have to grab an upgrade.

So technically speaking, beyond the Volar Max, it is possible to record an HD signal with the right tuner card? I'm guessing that card will have to have a component (or HDMI?) input?

cereal killer:

Thank you, you've been very helpful and I've learned quite a lot even if nothing can be done with my situation. I'm going to give the wall coaxl straight to Volar Max another chance, perhaps I didn't tinker with the setup options enough.

My RC is older than yours, I don't recall the exact number. I might have to grab an upgrade.

So technically speaking, beyond the Volar Max, it is possible to record an HD signal with the right tuner card? I'm guessing that card will have to have a component (or HDMI?) input?

Bear in mind this stick has both an analog, and a digital section.  any "fuzzy" images would clearly be using the analog portion.  Digigital is either there or not, no fuzzys.

If i had to guess, i would say you are only using the Analog portion of your stick.  Once you set up the tuner in 7MC, you should to a manual channel scan. keep an eye on it, it should show you anything it finds.

Also, if your guide has no data for the QAM (digital) stations it finds, you wont see anything.  Youll need to go into the channel configuration screen and poke around and see what in there.

heres the rule of thumb:

Analog stations are always whole integers - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc

Digital stations are always fractional decimals - 4.1, 5.2, 6.8, etc...

You cannot get digital through the box with a tuner stick.  Its just not transmitted. You MUST go directly to the wall, or a splitter form the wall to get QAM.

When you set up the Tuner, if 7MC does not a find a QAM tuner, then something is wrong.  This stick is a hybrid, it should have both an analog and t QAM tuner.

I agree with what The_Mack wrote, above.

cereal killer:

I'm going to give the wall coaxl straight to Volar Max another chance, perhaps I didn't tinker with the setup options enough.

With all four W7rc installations [over two computers, including upgrades], I can't recall -any- "tinkering" being required in Tuner setup. The only option was to select my two Guides -- one for the analog side, one for the digital.

If you aren't being asked to set up both analog and digital tuners (the two built-in tuners of the Volar), that's a serious problem -- suggesting one of your Volar's tuners is unrecognized/broken.

As I've written in much-earlier postings, I had to select -different- Guides for each tuner: "Cherry Hill... ComCast" for analog, and "Cherry Hill ComCast... (CR)" for digital channels, IIRC. If you select the wrong Guide for digital, your digital stations may be missed; if your provider is not offering a correct Guide, I believe there's a way to manually identify digital stations [but I haven't learned how].

My RC is older than yours, I don't recall the exact number. I might have to grab an upgrade.

I downloaded 7260 from a Torrent server, but I no longer recall which! If you don't understand Torrents, this isn't the venue for learning them and their risks. The following torrent link might be a viable source, but I can't make any promises about it: http://depositfiles.com/en/files/soblt37s5 . It is worth repeating that I had none of your problems with the original (build 7100?) W7rc and you could be wasting your time trying new builds for just this issue. BTW: I believe MS is up to build 7268 now.

So technically speaking, beyond the Volar Max, it is possible to record an HD signal with the right tuner card? I'm guessing that card will have to have a component (or HDMI?) input?

"Record an HD signal" confuses me, above. Both my Volars and my Hauppauge 2250 record [unencrypted] analog and digital channels, so "yes, the Volar can record a digital channel." An HD channel is just one level of digital signal... not all digital need be HD. Nor does the content of the digital signal have to be "clean", as when they broadcast an old analog source they've up-converted.

I don't know of tuner cards recording non-channel [non-broadcast/non-cable] HD -- such as the digital signal from a DVD player. My H2250 may have an S-video input (I seem to recall someone posting a reference to it), but I don't expect analog HD could be coerced up an S-video wire as it was designed for SD/ED frequencies. [S-video is just a slightly-improvement AV (yellow RCA-jack) protocol in that it separates two sub-signals which cause interference.]

Putting an HDMI -input- on a TUNER adds another burden of copyright protections & cost that the market hasn't justified, yet.


If at some point you feel your questions are too Off Topic for this thread, remember there's a "Contact" (email) option near the "Reply" button.

The "tinkering" just referes to stations that are not included in the guide.

7MC will not display digital channels that dont have related guide data, or the ocorrect PSID.  Just the way it was designed.  By defaut, it will not show encypted stations or stations with no guide data or PSIDs.

You can force it by going to the channel setup and selecting the missing stations, and mapping guide data in (if there is any).

for example, I recieve all my local stations and my PBS stations in QAM, and they show up fine in the guide.  However, there are several Religious stations, Shopping Networks, Spanish stations, and a few odd networtks such as MyTV, and SPIKE that either dont have guide data, or dont re-transmit the PSID for 7MC to identify them so it just turns them off until you go and manually add them to the guide.. 

 

Hi everbody,

I am new to this forum, I have an Avermedia Avertv Hybrid Volar Max, I have it connected to cable and to my Pc running windows Vista 32 home premium.

When using Aver media center I can watch analog cable and digital Qam cable, but with Vista Media center I cannot watch Qam, I can only watch analog cable.
I have the Tv pack installed and I am using the 1.0.0.88 drivers, please help me.

Thanks.

Hi, I haven't visited the forum in some time, but I'm in the process of taking my wife's old laptop (Compaq Presario V5000) and converting it into a simple PVR and streaming media player for my exercise room.  I ordered an AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX and received it the other day, and I'm having several issues getting it working.

For starters, I use Time Warner Cable in Austin, TX, and the exercise room has no cable box or anything.  I've rebuilt the laptop with XP MCE 2K5 and patched to the absolute latest in Windows Update.  I've installed the most recent drivers for the Volar MAX and connected it straight to the wall outlet with coax.

Here's what works:

• Aver Media Center seems to see both analog and digital channels through the coax and seems to decode them smoothly.

Here's what doesn't work quite as well:

• Windows Media Center finds the analog channels but doesn't seem to find the digital channels.
• The analog channels that Windows Media Center does find are painfully slow and choppy.  I don't know if this is because the analog receiver in this device is software-based instead of hardware-based or what.
• I can't figure out how to send A/V output through the S-Video/composite 2-in-1 cable that's connected to the Volar MAX.  Right now my TV is getting no signal at all, but I can see the video does that play (smooth in AMC and choppy in WMC) on the laptop screen.

Can anyone please help?  I'm feeling incredibly stupid and just know that this should be easier than it seems!

Thanks in advance,
Scott

EDIT: I did figure out that the S-Video/component 2-in-1 is for input, not for output.  I used the S-Video output of the laptop itself and a mini phono-to-RCA cable to get video and audio to the TV (it's an old SD-CRT).  Odd thing is that AMC doesn't send the actual TV signal over S-Video.  I suspect this is because of the way it's using hardware decoding, but that leaves me in a very weird spot.  Basically the one that's smooth decoding won't output to my TV, and the one that does output to my TV is incredibly choppy.  Do I just need to return this TV tuner and look for another one?

I'm having trouble getting my Volar Max Aver Media Center installed.  Simple setup with Vista Home Premium, SP3, 32 bit, coax from the wall.  I just received the tuner from Newegg today and believe the drivers on the cd are the most current.  Aver MC detects analog channels, moving to next it detects clear qam channels, but then freezes and will not move to the next step.  Anyone have any ideas?

 Felix

 

I have a Volar Max USB H826D that says HDTV Ready atsc Volar MAX on the fron and I dont have the cd as it was lost during  a recent move.  I have tired downloading a number of drivers from the web site and none will work with XP Home.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Jeff

Hi would you mind telling me the name and size of the files you used to install the Yolar Max?  I have XP Home and it doesnt work with the files posted in the Avermedia web site

 

thanks

Jeff

 Jeff, this is what I installed for using with MCE.  (39 MB) H826D_MCS.1.7.2.08062403_Drv_1.0.x.88.  Good luck.