AverMedia A180 -- 2 Cards Anyone Using These?

[RasterMan]

I have GBPVR up and running with one Avermedia TVHND MCE A180 tuner running unter XP Pro SP2. I'm sure my PC is configured well enough to support two tuners. I picked-up a second A180 tuner and installed it. My problem is that I can't seem to get XP to see the two cards. I gbpvr config I set up the second card and it seemed to scan for channels and everything. Although, it is not actually the second card. I know the two cards work as expected when installed in the PC by themselves. So, most likely not a problem with one of the cards.


I think the Avermedia drivers supports two cards because their Media Center program mentions it. But, I can't get the two cards configured with that program either.

Anyone using two of these tuners with the latest version of gbpvr?

Anyone have any ideas what I missing here???

[whurlston]

The second card must be set to device #2.

[skate15e]

I have used two A180 cards for several years now. I have not had any problems with the latest version on GBPVR and the two cards. Do you have the most updated drivers? In GBPVR when setting up the tuners, I set the first one up with the default device number (0 I think) and then the next card up with one above that (1 I think). I am able to use both cards simultaneously.

[RasterMan]

I have used two A180 cards for several years now. I have not had any problems with the latest version on GBPVR and the two cards. Do you have the most updated drivers? In GBPVR when setting up the tuners, I set the first one up with the default device number (0 I think) and then the next card up with one above that (1 I think). I am able to use both cards simultaneously.

Yes, I did set (in config) the first card as #1 and the second card as #2. I named the first card set-up as "ATSC Viewing" and the second card as "Recording Tuner", Just to be able to distinguish between the two. Needless to say this did not work for me. Even after several trys. I can scan for two different channel listings for each named tuner but it is realy only on one tuner. I proved this by only having 2 channels on one tuner and several different ones on the other. When I tuned to one station from one tuner and disconnected the antenna from the tuner the siginal was lost. When I tuned to a different channel (only on the other tuner) and disconnected the antenna from the other tuner the signal remained but was lost when I disconnected the antenna from the first tuner. So both channel listings were from only one tuner card.

In my researching this problem, I noticed that there are several different versions of the A180 drivers. There is one older driver from 2005 that Avermedia states is for dual card set-ups. I tried that as well. One person in abother forum claims he had luck using a MS VISTA driver under XP in order to get QAM working under SAGE Video. I beleive I've tried all version of the drivers.

So my questions now are ....
What is the version number of the Avermedia drivers that are working?
When you look at your Device Manager in XP do both cards show-up?
Do they have the same drivers?

Also, When you installed the two cards and started XP, did XP automaticely find the two cards and set the drivers for them? Did you load the drivers beforehand or after the cards were installed.

I sure would like to get this matter resolved because I know it is possible to run with two A180's

[skate15e]

Here are the answers to the questions you asked...

The drivers are 3.5.0.44 - I can send you the file if you need it but I just downloaded them for the AverTV website.

I am showing two separate devices in Win XP, they are both using the same drivers.

The cards were both installed when I performed the latest clean install of Win XP SP3. I just installed the drivers after I had the OS reinstalled. I do seem to remember that when I installed the drivers, the windows found new hardware dialog popped up several times. You have to click next and all windows to install the devices for them to work properly.

Hope this helps...

I don't think this would matter since you are able to tune the channels ok but...I am only tuning OTA ATSC signals with my tuners.

[RasterMan]

skate15e... Thanks for the info

While wating for a reply I played around alittle further and managed to resolve the problem.

Perhaps this will help others that might be having a simular problem.

I discovered a couple of files included with the Avermedia "Aver Media Center" program (version 1.6.0). The two files are.... "removedrivers.exe" and "installdrivers.exe". Hadn't seen any mention of these files in the docs.

I removed both my cards, rebooted XP ran the file... "removedrivers.exe"
This seemed to havecomplety removed any reference of the previously installed drivers within XP. Turned-off the PC, re-installed the two cards, and re-started XP. When XP first presented the "Found New Hardware" screen, I canceled out of that and ran the file..... "installdrivers.exe". That install program located the two A180's and installed the drivers (version 3.5.0.44). I think those drivers were part of the "Media Center" install.

I ran gbpvr's config program and was able to set-up the two tuners. without any problems. I tested the set-up and was able to view one station while recording another.

BTW... I too only tune to OTA ATSC signals.

Thanks for the help.

[skate15e]

No Problem, glad you got it working.