by Robert "Bork" Blanda - Co Owner, MyManZone.com ®

When I first purchased a machine for My Man Zone, I wanted an "everything machine" that would give me the HD and other capabilities for my new LCD TV behind the bar. Considering all the hype that was put on Windows Media Center, I figured this would be a walk in the park. Not true.

I cut a hole in my wall in the basement to support the television, PC, cable box (further referred as an STB - set top box) and began wiring. Installation went pretty smooth since i had 18" between the wall partition and the concrete block. Plenty of room to actually mount the units "in-the-wall."

I took a local trip to Best Buy and bought the least expensive tuner card (most machines do not come with them). I purchased the Hauppauge PVR-150 (WinTV version). I was reluctant to install the WinTV software because I wanted to use the Media Center that came with the machine. Needless to say the install went very well.
I later found out that the version of this card that I purchased was not intended to work with Windows Media Center Edition (further referred to as MCE). There are two versions of the software. However, mine was working and people wanted to know how I got it to work with MCE. I had no idea – it just did. The quality wasn’t great since I was using standard definition cable over analog lines. But it worked, and it recorded my favorite shows. I was pretty impressed. I had a make-shift media center behind the bar.

Not so fast. I upgraded to Verizon Fios, and let me tell you – here come the headaches. First and foremost remember that the tuner card I purchased was an “analog cable” or NTSC card. Since the world has gone DTV (Digital Television), this card will no longer pick up signals from the cable company. Darn it.

So, I took a trip to Circuit City after doing some online research. I purchased the ATI external USB TV Wonder 650. The feature that made this box so attractive was that it was ClearQAM compatible. Let my research help you with this. ClearQAM is a signal that comes over the cable line and can be used with any TV that has a digital tuner. These days, most flat panel televisions have this already. This also supported ASTC (over the air HD) satellite signals. Perfect? Hardly. In very fine print on the side of the box, it states that MCE does not support ClearQAM and you have to use the bundled software that comes with the TV Wonder 650. Ok… so I installed the software against my better wishes. Catalyst Media Center Suite comes with the TV Wonder, so in order to get the channels I needed, I had to install this suite.

In defense of ATI, they did what they could to make this possible since MCE doesn’t support ClearQAM to date. I installed the software, and after a two hour ordeal with scanning the channels, it worked. Great.

Remember folks, ClearQAM doesn’t support encrypted channels, so say goodbye HBO, ESPN, Nickelodeon, Discovery, etc. What you’ll get is HD versions of the major networks, a few weirdo channels and public television. Acceptable? Not in my book.
My solution, however, was pretty simple, but not cheap. I installed a second television (ugh) and got another converter box from my cable company. Now, I get all my channels on one television, but can get the other channels on the second TV. Now I can watch two games at one time in HD.

I know what you’re saying. “Why didn’t he just do that and eliminate the media center all together?” Well, to be honest, I could have. However, I didn’t want to submit to Verizon for the DVR box and have a monthly fee. I also wanted to have the latest and greatest media center that I could have that would support all the music I have on my network including some DIVX stuff that I share between machines. This is really handy and each machine can see all the media that I share. MyManZone is somewhat complete.

I have a serious comment about Windows Media Center that you should all heed. Most of these cards on the market say that they are Media Center and Vista certified. While they work and are certified, what they don’t tell you is that you cannot setup a set-top box without the official “MCE REMOTE.” This was perhaps the worst part of this whole ordeal.

Think about this for a minute. The tuner cards and boxes say they are MCE / Vista certified. They come with a remote. But they don’t work with Windows Media Center. Let me reiterate because it bears repeating. Even though the cards come with a remote, they are NOT DESIGNED FOR WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER. It simply will not get past the IR HARDWARE NOT DETECTED error message that you’ll get when trying to install it. You’ll have to bear with the software that comes with the tuner device. Bummer.

Also, for those of you who purchase the Hauppauge cards, take another warning. The software it comes with, WinTV, is the worst software in the world. It’s completely disorganized and extremely difficult to use. If you’re a novice user, stay away from it. In fact, if you’re a genius, stay away from it. It’s evil as  Satan. This is a shame because the hardware seems to be engineered well.

Rob