HP Express Card TV tuner

Question

For those that might want to know.  I thought I would take a chance and order the HP express card analog tv tuner to try with my new Dell E1505.  I really wanted a more compact solution than hanging a usb tuner off my computer.  To my amazment, it actually works!!!.   I have only had it for a couple of hours now but it seems to be working with no problems.  For those that are interested there are a few things that you should know as I had a few challenges getting it installed.  The card costs 179,00 + tax from HP (this is for an expresscard slot like the 1505 has.  When I got the card it did not have any drivers that came with it.  It came with a media center remote and the normal usb media center receiver.  (Well you can't have everthing), but at least the card is less of a hassle than another thing hanging from your computer.  When I got the harware it came with a document disk but I could not find any drivers on the disk or any other disk.  Of course when I put it in the dell it asked for the drivers.  A seach through the hp site was useless when I looked for drivers for the card under the cards name.  I eventually looked at the drivers for one of the HP computers it was supposed to support (dv800XX) and found a listing for an mce tv tuner for a yauni card (if you look real close at the card you can see this is the actuall manufacturer.  I downloaded and installed that driver.  It comes as a self extracting zip file which you must extract to a directory.  Next you have to go to the directory and run the setup program (I think I ran it twice before the system worked).  After a reboot, when the card is inserted the blue lights came on and it worked correctly.  Had to go to media center to set up menu get media center to recognize.  Now it works with no noted problems.  Took about 30 minutes to an hour for me to figure the above out  But now I am glad i went this route rather than the usb tuner offered by dell.  Dell should take note that it was a close run-off between them and hp on my choice, the media direct option on the smaller (15 vs 17 Dell) is what swayed me (this option was only on the 17 inch HP from what i could tell.  Otherwise I might have opted for the HP based on the express card media card. Of course now that I know this card works on the dell I am even happier with my ultimate choice.

Mcoffman · Answer

thats great!  I bet your post will be interesting to alot of people - especially how you got the correct drivers, etc.   Marie

scottjg24 · Answer

BarnacleBill, Do you have the XP Media Edition 2005 on your E1505? I just got my E1505 a month ago but I needed XP Pro to take into work & college. Will that HP tuner card work under XP Pro? ScottJG24

BarnacleBill · Answer

Don't know if it will work on XP alone.  I use the media center interface to work the tv.  The card did not come with separate software to work tv, If it were to work I would image you would need to get one of the freeware media center edition look-alikes.   Bill

Mcoffman · Answer

That brings up a question I had for my other computer.  Can you buy Media Center to install into a pre-existing windows XP?

BarnacleBill · Answer

Don't know  if you can buy MCE now.  At first Microsoft only allowed manufacturers that met strick hardware requirements buy it.  But I think I have seen it on some of the custom computer websites for sale.  Check out New Egg or other such site.   Bill

navverma · Answer

Hello Bill,   Great to find out somebody who is really concerned about compactness. I got my Inspiron 6400 just 20 days ago and like you I am also interested in having a TV tuner solution that fits right inside the laptop. I don't want anything that hangs out. Till now I have also been searching some TV Tuners for my laptop. Great to hear how you managed to get your HP tuner card work into the dell laptop. I believe that like my laptop yours also has a 34mm Express Card Slot. Is it so?   I saw a tuner on the AverMedia website that's called 'AverTV Hybrid+FM Cardbus' and I really got interested in it. But they have not even given the size of the Cardbus although they say that it is compatible with WinXP Media Center Edition 2005. So I don't know whether this Cardbus can be attached to the Express Card slots that I have in my Laptop. Do you have any information about this.   Thanks

BarnacleBill · Answer

I know that Aver Media is supposed to have released an expresscard solution, however I did not hear that it would have FM so I assume it is probably not the same card. I did a little searching before getting the hp card and could not find a place that sold the express card solution for aver media. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Just so you know the hp card does not have fm radio either.

Bill

Cornezy · Answer

hey bill, can yo uplay video games on this tv tuner? Like your ps2 and such? Thanks!

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