Yes, I’m an idiot.

After wasting money trying to make a usb DVB-T TV tuner work, I decide to try a PCI card TV tuner.

So I buy a $70 special from a local supplier (XITD … or as I like to call them: excited). It also has cyberlink powercinema 5 software bundled

At first, it seems to work well… it scans analogue and digital channels.

But I soon notice I cannot receive digital channel 9

Also: if I enable time shifting, then ony 1 analogue channel is viewable (all the others display static).

I know its not the TV signal, as the swann usb tuner displays all the digital channels correctly.

I’m fairly sure its not a software problem, as I also ran the arcsoft totalmedia (for the swann usb tuner)… and I get the same problem (no channel 9)

Mandy calls XITD, wanting to exchange it, as it looks like there might be a hardware fault, but they fob her off (they are really not interested in exchanging a faulty item).

OK, I contact cyberlink. I tell them the symptoms, and ask if I might have a faulty card… but they get me to try all sorts of software solutions (increase RAM to 1 GB, reinstall powercinema, uninstall all other video viewing software, then reinstalling powercinema, upgrading software drivers for sound and video (but they are already as up to date as I can find, but they reckon drivers from 2005 are too old…).

If you want a summary of the cyberlink suport, take a look at these links:

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/cs/support/qa.jsp?m=9216ae1226343cfd49e9e75b83b89e64&ID=CS000475831

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/cs/support/qa.jsp?m=9216ae1226343cfd49e9e75b83b89e64&ID=CS000475834

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/cs/support/qa.jsp?m=9216ae1226343cfd49e9e75b83b89e64&ID=CS000476703

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/cs/support/qa.jsp?m=9216ae1226343cfd49e9e75b83b89e64&ID=CS000490923

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/cs/support/qa.jsp?m=9216ae1226343cfd49e9e75b83b89e64&ID=CS000491390

After a few months, they refer the matter to their R&D dept… and so far, I have not heard anything more (over 1 month of silence now).

I also decide to try contacting prolink, and they send me some different software (tvExpert)… The software actually displays the signal strength as a number. It seems to go from 0 (no signal) to 100 (perfect signal). Most channels have a signal strength of 80, but channel 9 has a strength of 27 to 50.

So I’m told: sorry, you cannot view a channel unless the signal strength is at least 70… Well, obviously… thats why I’m asking for some help!

At this point I’m just going to give up.