Vista Ultimate and Avermedia a180

[amdx2user]

I just upgraded to vista ultimate. Now I'm having issues with my two a180s. During the channel autoscan I get zero signal strength and the status is reported as "failed." My fusion 5 lite is working fine in beyond tv 4.6. I know that my a180s are working b/c they work in the avermedia tv software. I've stopped all the MCE services and uninstalled the avermedia tv software. The drivers for the cards are the lastest from the website. Any ideas why the cards aren't working properly?

[DPR]

I am having a similar problem. I submitted a ticket and will post updates here as well. If anyone has any suggestions, please post!!

==========================================
Product = Beyond TV / Beyond TV Link
BTV Confirmation Code = not available
Tuner Card = Other
Other = ATI Theater 650 Pro PCI Express x1
TV Source = Digital / HDTV Antenna
Tuner Card 2 = Avermedia AVerTVHD A180
TV Source 2 = Digital / HDTV Antenna

Problem Description:

New Dell E520, Vista Home Premium with ATI THEATER 650 PRO PCI EXPRESS x1 already installed and working great with latest version of BeyondTV (4.6.1).

Only being used with an OTA HDTV environment (no other sources.)

That setup has worked very well for about 2 weeks.

Trying to add a new PCI ATSC card (Avermedia a180). Using the setup wizard I cannot get past the screen where it tries to auto tune each digital channel.

I have tried multiple drivers for the a180, including:
* the one Vista automatically installed from its online source
* the latest one for Vista 32 hosted on the Avermedia page (3.5.0.47).
* the one recommended on your support page (http://www.snapstream.com/download/hardware/default.asp) (3.5.0.44).

I have confirmed that the card itself is ok as I installed the AverTV software and it operates the tuner just fine. Confirmed that AverTV was actually using that tuner by having AverTV and BeyondTV (which was using the ATI card) both showing a different ATSC channel at the same time.

I have deleted the driver and let it reinstall multiple times, also.

I also have tried disabling the Media Center services (including rebooting and confirming that those services were not active) and this didn't appear to help, either.

Have you had another issues with this card and Vista? I had thought I read great things about this card with Beyondtv (and other DVR products such as MCE) so I didn't think there would be any problems.

Sorry I cannot supply the Confirmation Code info right now as I am not at that computer right now.

You can use the above email address to search for my purchase key if necessary.


Any suggestions?
========================================

end of ticket.

[DPR]

Just an update. Sent a debug log, beyondtv log, and a confirmation number from the System information upload. Still open at this point.

Just a question for anyone out there - is ANYONE actually running this avermedia a180 card with either Vista Home Premium or Vista ultimate?

[DPR]

Another update. Also opened a support ticket with Avermedia. They said that it should work just fine.

They suggested testing ONLY using the A180 card. So I pulled the ATI 650 card and it STILL would fail in the BeyondTV setup wizard when attempting to auto tune the digital channels. Also, I tested the AverTV product with this setup and it once again worked just fine.

Frustrating. I ordered a Hauppauge 950 USB ($60 after rebate @ Circuitcity.com). Hopefully that works better. But I'm not giving up on the A180. Hopefully that will get resolved and I'll have 3 OTA tuners.

[lostinva]

I don't have the a180, but I do have a m780 combo and it doesn't work correctly in Vista. AverMedia's software works just fine, but in BeyondTV (and Media Center), only the analog tuner functions correctly. A digital channel scan yields nothing but "failures" and program crashes.

[cncb]

I had the exact same problem and submitted a ticket but I didn't want to authorize my copy of Vista so decided to go back to XP (ran out of time). So, the ticket was closed with no resolution. In any case, the cards worked fine in Vista Media Center so it most likely is a BTV issue.

[DPR]

Latest response to my open ticket:
=====================================
From what you are saying -- and from other's reports -- looks like something happened with Vista -- vs using XP and this tuner card.

I'm entering a bug report for the developers to look into this for you.

Thanks for reporting the issue!

Tier 1 Technical Support
Snapstream Media, Inc.
=====================================

[jeffreyd_tx]

Subscribing because I have the same problem with ATI 650 and Vista Ultimate.

[cncb]

Did anyone ever get a solution to this problem??

[soundsnake8]

I had an Avermedia M780 same issues submitted tickets to Avermedia Tech support and Snapstream Tech support. Avermedia said I must have a bad card so I RMA'd it to PC Alchemy got a new one .... same story. Returned it for a refund 2+ weeks ago (still waiting for that) but Snapstream and Avermedia have dropped the ball on this one, I dont know who is to blame here but so far nothing is being done. Too bad only a couple of PCI e cards out there. So glad I switched everything over to PCI e The "Geatest breakthrough in PC history" and nobody is making anything to plug into the slots. Good Luck On This One......

Soundsnake8
AMD 5600 AM2 Biostar MOBO 2 G DDR 2 Nvidia 8600 GT

[DPR]

I politely requested a 4 week update on 7/30. That request was ignored so I less politely asked for a 6 week update just today.

Yet they still sell the A180 in there store and claim that it is Vista ready.

How do they 'forget' to confirm that their existing supported tuner lineup works before they release their version 4.6 which advertises SUPPORTS MICROSOFT VISTA ? Particularly when they SELL that tuner in their own estore?

[Zack]

Ok, a few things here could have gone better

Let me try to break down the problems.
1. You didn't get a response because our ticketing system saw that you already had an internal bug report filed. When/if the bug were to get fixed, you'd get an update. I've asked the support guys to fix that so they at least give you a reply.

2. The bug wasn't getting fixed. It basically got lost in the clutter of the tracking system. In this case, thanks for complaining. I'm working with the dev team to better categorize inbound support bugs so that they aren't lost like this.

3. The "vista ready" text was taken from the marketing literature that we were supplied. Our store is a combination of our own text and marketing materials from the vendors of the cards. We're updating the store to indicate it actually doesn't work. If someone bought this card specifically for vista, contact orders@snapstream.com and they should be able to do something about that.
(You'll probably want to reference my statement and this thread when writing orders)

Which doesn't excuse.....
4. The card actually doesn't work in beyond tv in vista. In graphedit (a basic directshow tool) you can't hook the atsc source to the card's filter. Beyond TV needs that to work in order to use the card.

Why did we miss that?
5. No other BDA compliant card in the history of us testing BDA cards has had this problem. We checked a bunch of cards, just not the aver before the release. We literally have hundreds of cards that are supported across the Beyond TV line and we don't always test each card before a release.

So what's happening?
6. We have an idea as to why it's not working, but there isn't a clear fix yet. I've noted this thread in the bug and we'll put in updates as we have them.

So that's the straight dope on the problem. I promise you that we weren't sitting in the conference room with our fingers templed trying to figure out how to screw over aver media card owners and then laughing manically "muwahahahaha".

We're just a bunch of tech guys trying to do a huge list of different things and some times the left hand (dev) doesn't know what the right (marketing) is doing.

I'm personally sorry that this experience has sucked so much for you guys. I'm going to do what I can to ensure that this doesn't happen in the future.

[DPR]

Hey Zack, thank a bunch. A very detailed response. Above and beyond. Hope you guys find this crazy bug as the A180 has a great following here (from what I have read) on non-vista machines. Again thanks and I shall wait some more. muwahahahaha

[Zack]

Ok, it's fixed in the next beta.

If you'd like to try it, join the betaprogram at beta.snapstream.com.

Thanks
-zack

P.s. and yes, i even use an a180 at home

[DPR]

Wow, outstanding. I don't think I want to go the beta route, but it is great to know that it will be part of the next release. I do have 2 working tuners now so I can wait. Thanks again.