All:

Over the past several years I have put up with MCE and then VMC and have tried to make it work for my family room. My family loved having one remote provide access to pictures, music, tv, etc.  That being said, the switch to digital cable tuner has been horrendous.  I've put up with protected content errors, tv tuner not found errors and a whole host of other errors that have put me over the edge.   I thought it was because I had older hardware so I went out and purchased a brand new pretty high end PC (core 2 8100, 4gb ram) (digital cable ready) and purposefully didn't install anything other than OS and updates (except for the cumulative vista mc pack that screws up digital cable recordings) to keep it all clean and trouble free.  

I went out of town this week and when I came back, I find that none of my recordings happened (tv tuner not found error)...this pushed me over the edge.  Live tv worked just fine, so I am now giving up.

I am switching to TiVO and have already requested an RMA for the computer (thankfully i can still return it).  I want to THANK everyone here and those in particular that have helped me over the past several months with my issues.   I really appreciate it and you helped me from giving up earlier.  However, I can no longer wait for MS to get their act together on something as simple as recording TV. 

There are some great deals out there for HD Tivos through the holidays. Get a 1TB Tivo for far less than a digital cable 2-tuner PC.

I am glad you publicize this and I hope someone from MS actually reads this. They are losing customers at an alarming rate because of shoddy product releases like their digital cable tuner. I am an expert computer user and have also found the digital cable OCUR PC setup and use to be a miserable experience. In fact, your same error happens to me all the time. In case you still want to salvage the VMC PC here is what works for me. Go into "device manager" and completely uninstall the digital cable tuner which is found under some type of non-intuitive location (I think it is network devices). Next unplug the tuner completely from the usb port on your computer. Then restart the computer WITHOUT the tuner in place. Open up media center and then plug it in. My media center will then recognize the device and reinstall correctly. A total pain in the ass but thought I would share.

Thank you for posting. 

However, I read posts like yours and I try to understand how my setup is any different, or if I am doing anything different, where mine just works.  Works so well that I gave up the crappy cable DVR, works so well that my friends want to give up their TIVOs for my system, works so well that I rarely, if ever, have a stumble.  I went through DVR nightmares with my cable company and this is a world of difference.

I have been happily recording with Media Center since the 2005 edition and I have only run into the protected content message twice (the American Gladiator / NBC mixups) earlier this year and have only had one tuner not found message in over 3+ years.

I went from a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop with Media Center 2005 to a Dell XPS 410 with Vista Home Premium to a dedicated Dell Inspiron 530 and haven't had any major issues - only minor issues are me making a mistake.  The biggest issue this year was the August problem with the guide not updating and I still had at least one week out where my cable box had only their normal one week (7 days out).

I can understand with people having issues like yours, frustrations which I am thankful I have not had to experience, why Microsoft may have chosen to offer the TV Pack (Fiji) as OEM only.

I am sincerely glad I haven't had to go through the challenges you have faced, but I don't know what I have done differently that makes my systems work correctly and without issue.

On another note of luck or I don't know what, I have several Linksys DMA2100s and I rarely ever (won't say never) get the issues that others post about.

I sincerely wish you good luck, and I am glad I am not running the same problems.

I don't get it either. My 65 year old parents are running an XPS420 with dual cablecards and they don't have any problems.

Some people are running into problems. I've seen tons of issues here and in my business but, I'll call up some long time clients and ask them how it's going, they never have any issues. I've seen them all over the years...

My biggest tip, put a scheduled task in to reboot the system at like 4-5am every day or every other day. Keeps the system fresh and you see lots less problems. Just shut down all the media center servies before rebooting (task kill command). All you need to do is create a small batch file.

I appreciate some of the comments on here and I'm GLAD that some people aren't having any issues.  That being said, this site is full of people having issues with DCT's...the level of technology is just not ready for mainstream USA. 

BTW: I have tried what others above have proposed--rebooting, turning on optimization, etc...they really aren't viable long term solutions--way too much work for something as simple (to me) as recording TV.

While I was NOT a fan of Tivo, they seem to offer what I need..they allow me to move my tv programs with simple clicks to portable devices--try doing that with MS software (and I know that MS had to do some things in order to get cable labs to allow dct's to begin with, but that's not my problem).  They allow me to view my photos and listen to music through the Tivo UI from my PC on the network.  And, the biggest thing--it seems to (so far) just work when I turn it on. 

I hope one day the PC platform will get to that level as I really liked the MS GUI and many parts of my VMC PC attached to the TV.  

I've said this before... my solution is a TiVo HD for encrypted cable and a Vista Media Center with a HD Homerun for clear QAM (and DVDs and AVIs and MP3s and Internet Radio...).

If MS keeps losing people to Tivo and other Media Center products, is it really worth continuing development? Now that there is no DirecTV tuner I know quite a few people are closing the chapter on MS Media Center and moving on.

When will MS learn to start listening to their customers instead of thinking for them?

I'd say the people with the most issues are the most vocal.

You don't tend to see posts of " everything is great, good job"

I have had issues myself, which have all but been resolved. My current issue is Qam channels keep moving around, but that's cables fault, not MS.

Overall, I am quite happy.

There isnt anything good on anyway.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people base their entire opinion on the DVR aspect of MediaCenter.  If this is the main and only reason you are using it, then you have indeed made a mistake.  There are better more stable solutions out there. For the money, a dual tuner HD Tivo DVR is pretty tough to beat today.

I would hope that anyone who has bought into the Mediacenter solution realizes that it is actually a centralized interface for all digital content.  Being able to view and play all my music,videos,movies,pictures, view incoming calls,check voice mail, listen to internet radio as well as controlling my irrigation,lights and hvac on any TV in my house makes for a pretty slick setup.  I have 90% of the functionality that you would see in a $50K+ setup for less than 10% of the cost.    Does my system or any of the systems I have setup work 100% of the time , absolutely not, Is media center perfect…. No way, not even close, however it is has proven to be reliable enough for all my friends and family as well as a few customers.( I do part time work for a custom audio, video shop)  You have to accept what it can and can’t do as well as realize that it is a complex setup and will break from time to time.  It isn't for everyone, especially the DVR part.

The most common mistake that I see is people applying every update that is out there..  As soon as I have a machine configured and running correctly, I turn off any and all updates.  When things do break, I only apply patches that apply to the actual problem I’m experiencing.  This has proven to make everyone happy. 

jbworks:

I would hope that anyone who has bought into the Mediacenter solution realizes that it is actually a centralized interface for all digital content.  Being able to view and play all my music,videos,movies,pictures, view incoming calls,check voice mail, listen to internet radio as well as controlling my irrigation,lights and hvac on any TV in my house makes for a pretty slick setup.

Most people don't have the rest of the home automation so their MCE system comes down to TV, Photos and Videos.  But MS doesn't appear to be supporting the future path of movies which is BluRay and they also are falling behind on getting HDTV into MCE.

OKay m 2 cents on this.

First good luck with Tivo it is a great system however cable card is not end of story. I have installers here that have more problems with Tivo's getting cable cards to work and stay working than anything here. I bet have of Cox's tech calls are for tivo related errors.

The problem lies with cable cards in genereal they are flakey and not a mature technology so don't expect perfection from Tivo cable card you might get it you might not.

I have had zero issues with my cable card pc and couldn't be happer. YMMV I have installed in 6 customer houses and they have had only one issue and that turned out to be a signal issue.

I am just saying cable card is not a great technology and has not been fined tuned by any means. I always say get S-cards if you can as they seem to be more reliable even on Tivo's then m-cards, but the s-cards are getting hard to impossible to get in most areas.

Oh brother! If I had a dollar for every so long thread that I run accross, I could retire by now. You can replace VMC with sage, tivo, mythtv, beyond tv, media portal, and you'll see other users have a host of issues as well. Although I sympathize with the original posters troubles, HTPCs are complex ecosystems which is one of the reasons why people will buy from an HTPC oem. S1 Digital is a good example of an htpc oem. They limit the choices based on a working set of hardware, drivers, software that has been tested as well as can be tested before releasing the platform for sale. They generally work well out of the box which is why you pay a premium for these systems.

People think that the platform is loaded with issues, but it's usually those the are having the most problems are the most vocal. Better and more stable solutions is a very subjective statement regarding the platform stability for these types of systems. You should see people complain about Tivo in thier forums. It's amazing that VMC works as well as it does considering the amount of stuff people throw at it. i.e. plugins, blu-ray/HD-Dvd software players, codec packs, commercial detection/removal, different container formats etc. Try doing that on a Tivo.

There is always a trade off that you have to be willing to live with such as limited expandability in a closed box platform, or the flexability of expansion which can introduce instability.

I have three DCTs in an HP box that the guts were transplanted into a nice htpc case running ultimate. I've had issues that two of the DCTs were doa, but the other one just never quits working. The two replacements will be installed over the weekend, and once I'm statisfied that they are working properly for recording analog channels. I'll schedule the cable man to come out for the cable card install. This is my third MCE build and all three have been stable and reliable. Cable card is a little more touchy, but this is to be expected because this has never been done before. It's on the bleeding edge, but overall my experience with DCTs has been good so far.

I wish the original poster the best, and that you find an appropriate solution for your requirements.

jbworks:

It never ceases to amaze me how many people base their entire opinion on the DVR aspect of MediaCenter.  If this is the main and only reason you are using it, then you have indeed made a mistake.  There are better more stable solutions out there. For the money, a dual tuner HD Tivo DVR is pretty tough to beat today.

I would hope that anyone who has bought into the Mediacenter solution realizes that it is actually a centralized interface for all digital content.  Being able to view and play all my music,videos,movies,pictures, view incoming calls,check voice mail, listen to internet radio as well as controlling my irrigation,lights and hvac on any TV in my house makes for a pretty slick setup.  I have 90% of the functionality that you would see in a $50K+ setup for less than 10% of the cost.    Does my system or any of the systems I have setup work 100% of the time , absolutely not, Is media center perfect…. No way, not even close, however it is has proven to be reliable enough for all my friends and family as well as a few customers.( I do part time work for a custom audio, video shop)  You have to accept what it can and can’t do as well as realize that it is a complex setup and will break from time to time.  It isn't for everyone, especially the DVR part.

The most common mistake that I see is people applying every update that is out there..  As soon as I have a machine configured and running correctly, I turn off any and all updates.  When things do break, I only apply patches that apply to the actual problem I’m experiencing.  This has proven to make everyone happy. 

I agree with you on all counts, except the update part. As an IT director I would never recommend to anyone not to install the security updates as well as reliability and compatibility updates that Microsoft releases every month. What I have done is turning off updates from installing automatically and instead manually review each one before installing them. With the ability to rollback to a previous restore point or the ability to uninstall a single update in Vista, there's very little risk to installing updates. As long as you keep track of what the last change to your system was before an issue occurred it is a nobrainer to first rollback that change. It's called change management. The occasional issues I had with a windows update were all quickly resolved by uninstalling the offending update until MS released a new update.