CableCARD Issues on an XPS420

Are you using M-Cards or S-Cards? I notice someone else on a Comcast system was reporting spotty channel outage after a Fiji update. He had four ATI tuners and was running Ultimate. His machine was set up with dual boot and when he went back into Vista with Media Center .18000 everything was there.

I've had a few problems with ABC-HD (which is a 720p service) with M-Card SA-800 in LA West Valley Time Warner, but they've resolved it. That was a head end M-host problem.

There could be a conflict with the channel mapping and the new guide or a problem with ATI Tuners with your host on Comcast depending on the card. If you have M-Cards, have Comcast bring you a couple of S-Cards which run on a different host on the head end.

I also got a Windows Update (listed as optional) the day before yesterday for the ATI Cable Card Tuner. You might go to Windows update and do a manual search and look for hardware and see what that entail.

I have the 1.17 firmware as well (full version 1.17.1.08040741 [Apr  7 2008 - 16:29:12]. When I ran the update it found both my tuners, did an update and said it was successful--all this without doing the ATI update routine of removing the cable cards, rebooting and running the update between 2 and 10 minutes up in the session.

If you read through the green button, you'll see a few cases of cable card issues like this, but all have been related to Comcast so it's hard to say if the problem is ATI, Comcast or MS MCETVP or an S-Card, M-Card problem.

I had S-Cards when the issue started.  When they replaced the cards they put in M-Cards.  So it doesnt seem to matter which type I am using, but I get the same issue.

Does anyone know what the proper signal range is for these tuners?

That's interesting, that exactly the same thing that happened to the other Comcast subscriber. He set up dual boot so he could switch between MCVP and MC.

I have a feeling it has to do with the guide and if you do the dual boot you might try other zip codes (maybe even other cities) and see what results you get.

Chris,

I had installed it on an XPS420 with almost no issues whatsoever.  The only thing that went wrong is that I was missing a few channels.  IMHO, I would include it on the restore disks and if someone "accidentally" lost their Vista restore disk, they would have it on the replacement.  Also, the information that came with the update only specifies that it has the same hardware requirements as Vista itself.

Thanks,

John C.

Media Center TV Pack 2008 works wonderful on my Dell XPS 720. As Microsoft has said its up to the OEM if they want to release the TV Pack.. others will  , Dell will not and its backword compatable to all vista OS's  ,  unlike what some Dell employees may say.

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@Anonymous-Chris_M wrote:
chapmanjw,

Dell has not yet decided when or if it will include Fiji Windows Media Center TV Pack in future PCs. What has been decided is that none of our currently selling PCs and older ones will not be given Fiji since it is not backwards compatible to older Vista systems.

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Chris,

Whoever is saying that it is not compatable with "older" Vista systems is completely incorrect.  The entire Microsoft "Fiji" beta test was conducted by instaliing the update on RTM versions of Vista.  The testers were also given the final executable to install the Gold update on their systems.  This is the file that's been leaked to the internet and people like Toronto have downloaded and installed.

My comment about Dell and Media TV Pack on Dell OS's  was not Directed At or to Chris_M  , Chris_M is great i have much respect for him and what he does on our behalf .. sorry if i offended  anyone .