Media Center issue - blank screen (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

I have a Windows XP Pro Media Center 2004 HP computer. I haven't had any problems with MC for a long time, then all of a sudden around tuesday/wednesday this past week it stops working. I can open the program, watch videos, listen to music, but I can't watch TV. When I click on "My TV" it opens up, shows the little loading icon, then shows a black screen with no sound. At one point I had it working but the audio kept chirping every couple seconds randomly, then it went out after about 20 minutes. I can see the video signal with DScaler and I tried rolling my system back by a week, but nothing seems to work.

Any ideas? I got my computer in April/May 2004 and my video card is a Radeon 9200. I don't think it's a driver/codec issue, but I could be wrong.

 

[Parker Clack]

Morgan:

It sounds like an issue with your tuner since the audio and video work ok otherwise. Is the tuner built into the motherboard? You could also try opening your case, turning off the power then remove and reinsert the tuner card (if it comes with one). If the tuner is built in to the motherboard and your get another tuner card remove the older tuner card drivers so when you insert your new card XP will recognize it. Then when you get into Media Center you will need to set your tuner up again to use the new tuner card.

Since you are running XP I would highly recommend that you pick up a Hauppauge MCE500 tuner card (this allows you to record two shows at once or record one show while watching another).

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The tuner came built into the computer, but I'm not sure if it's built into the motherboard. The thing is, I can see video using the tuner in other programs, I just can't see it using Media Center.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

After trying to install a couple different codec packs, one of them now does this thing where it tells me that Media Center is trying to access ffdshow and asks if I want it to be able to. When I click yes, MC doesn't work. I tried clicking no, and now it works fine. I guess problem solved?

 

[Parker Clack]

Well if everything is working as it should it sounds like you have your problem fixed.