I have recently upgraded my PowerSpec MCE 410 from MCE 2005 to Vista Home Premium (w/ TV Pack), upgraded memory (to 3GB) and the video to ATI (Sapphire) 4550. PowerSpec came with two AverMedia SD tuners and after the upgrade I also added AverMedia HD Volar Max to watch Comcast cable Clear QAM channels. Overall, I am satisfied with Vista MCE with TV Pack (except the .TWV files that not yet supported by DVRMS tools, or Media Player).

From time to time, I cannot watch some of the HD channels as MCE reports no TV signal for them while some other HD channels works at the same time just fine.

Today, I was expecting Heroes to start recording on HD channel 3.1, as I was watching a previously recorded show. I received a message that Hereos could not record due to "No TV Signal" error. This was a surprise to me, as I saw Chuck playing just fine ~5min earlier on the same channel. So, I changed the channel to 3.1 and no surprise the channel was available and Heroes was showing in great HD quality. Then I tried to manually start the recording. This caused the screen to freeze first and then to display the message "No TV Signal". I switched to another channel, came back and it was working again. Tried to start manual recording, got the same result.

Has anyone else experienced this before? Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mustafa.

Do you have the AverTVHD Volar MAX or the AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX?  Are the old SD tuners still installed or just the HD tuner?  You might try setting up your TV sources again if the old tuners are still installed and just use the HD tuner - no SD tuners to see if VMC is trying to use one of the SD tuners when it should be using the HD tuner.

I figured it in the mean time. In my area NBC SD is listed as channel 3 and NBC HD 11.1. Since Vista MCE had a feature renumber the channels, I had renamed/renumbered the NBC HD to 3.1 so that it is more convenient. Apparently Vista messed things up with that. Even though the channel was still available, recording wasn't passible anymore. I recently rescanned the channels to reset them to the original number and it works fine now.

I had a similar problem -- NBC HD clear QAM (11.1 in San Francisco area) would not record (no other QAM channels had this problem), even though I could watch it live.  If I had an NBC show scheduled to record, I would get an error message "no signal".  If I tried to record manually, I got an error message "encrypted".  Neither were true, of course.  I was using Win7RC and Avermedia Duet HD (dual QAM tuners).

I fixed the problem by switching the tuner card to Hauppauge HVG-2250 and NBC records fine now.  I cannot explain why this fixed the problem, but it absolutely did fix it!  Perhaps a combination of a copy protection setting by NBC in combination with the Avermedia driver???  Who knows?

I phoned Avermedia tech support.  The technician tried to duplicate the problem at home and could not.  Avermedia is also in the SF Bay Area as am I and he also uses Comcast cable, so, again, I have no explanation why this happened.

Unfortunately, the Hauppauge tuner is nearly twice the price and the additional analog tuners are useless (this card has 2 QAM/ATSC and 2 NTSC tuners).  The cheapest one I found was the white box version (without the media center remote) on Amazon.  You can always return the tuner to Amazon within 30 days.

sfshank:

I had a similar problem -- NBC HD clear QAM (11.1 in San Francisco area) would not record (no other QAM channels had this problem), even though I could watch it live.  If I had an NBC show scheduled to record, I would get an error message "no signal".  If I tried to record manually, I got an error message "encrypted".  Neither were true, of course.  I was using Win7RC and Avermedia Duet HD (dual QAM tuners).

I fixed the problem by switching the tuner card to Hauppauge HVG-2250 and NBC records fine now.  I cannot explain why this fixed the problem, but it absolutely did fix it!  Perhaps a combination of a copy protection setting by NBC in combination with the Avermedia driver???  Who knows?

I phoned Avermedia tech support.  The technician tried to duplicate the problem at home and could not.  Avermedia is also in the SF Bay Area as am I and he also uses Comcast cable, so, again, I have no explanation why this happened.

Unfortunately, the Hauppauge tuner is nearly twice the price and the additional analog tuners are useless (this card has 2 QAM/ATSC and 2 NTSC tuners).  The cheapest one I found was the white box version (without the media center remote) on Amazon.  You can always return the tuner to Amazon within 30 days.

Did you mean HVR-2250?

 I have the exact same problem. I even wanted to record the same show (Heroes)

Here is what I got. My setup is Windows 7 with AT 650. I had to force W7 to use the Vista drivers, as this card is not supported in W7 yet (and will never be). But, I got everything working, except this.

Channel 7.1 (WHDH-HD, NBC) shows up as one bar red in the signal strengh, but I can see the channel perfectly. When I try to record anything MCE will say that there is no signal, given that it thinks that there isnt. I think something is happening that is confusing the tv card. 

 

It sounds like the guide is picking the VHF station 7. Channel 7 has switched back to UHF 42 I think it is. You may want to redo the TV setup.

They were broadcasting on both for a while but have now got aproval to remain on UHF

 

Hey Guys,

 

I am also having the exact same issue.  I can see a channel perfect with no signal loss issues whatsoever.  Then when I try to record (either scheduled or manual), the picture will go away and Windows 7 Media Center will say there's no signal.  This channel won't work again until I close media center then reopen it.  I am also using the AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX.  My channel with issues is 8.1 out of Greensboro, NC.  Could we possibly be experiencing something related to VHF signals?  Maybe our tuners aren't happy with the VHF signal.  I show one red bar for signal stregnth for that VHF channel, yet UHF towers which are either right beside that VHF tower (within 1 mile) or further away have all the green bars.  I think that Avermedia should look into this problem, and stop dismissing it when people call or email customer support.  I guess it could possible be an issue with Windows 7 Media Center?  Either way, if the live picture is perfect, there is no excuse whatsoever for not being able to record.  If this is a firmware or software issue it needs to be fixed fast!

Okay Guys,

 I figured out my problem for Windows 7 Media Center.  It seems that our channer 8.1 got FCC approval to simulcast on 35.1 after numerous customer complaints about weak signal.  They will eventually stop broadcasting on 8.1.  Anyway, as a previous poster mentioned, Windows Media Center freaked out about having two different channel input sources.  I had to go into the channel settings and uncheck the VHF frequency (8.1).  I left the UHF 35 as the only signal since it is the stronger of the two.  Now it records perfect.  If anybody else has this issue with a VHF channel, I would first rescan the channels (just to see if they have recently gotten approval to broadcast on UHF).  After scanning, look at the channel source and see if there is more than one source.  If there are, uncheck the VHF frequency.  Save all changes.  Exit out of WMC then open it again.  Hopefully your recording will work now.    

I was having the exact same problem with the same channel (living in Jamestown, NC).  This solved it perfectly.  Thank you so much for posting this information.