Windows Media Center "Tuner not available" error message

Question

My TV tuner was working great then all of a sudden it's not.  Whenever I try to watch TV, I get "tuner not available.  The tuner in currently in use by another application or is not working".  There are no other programs running. 

Not sure what is going on.

Answer 1

Hello, Lannie1234

Check your Device Manager for any problems. Go to Start, type “device manager” in the search box and press enter. Check if any item is unknown or has a yellow Exclamation /!\ next to it.

If so, what is the error?

We look forward to hearing back from you.

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David

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 2

I have the same error on a different card. I use an ATI HDTV Wonder. I have all of the drivers installed and working properly because Nero Home recognizes and uses the tuner perfectly. I prefer Windows Media Center however and would like to use it.

Why would Windows 7 Media Center have the tuner error and Nero Home have no problems with it?

And before you ask, Nero isn't taking over the tuner or anything as this error has happened from day one of my Windows 7 installation and Nero was just installed today.

I believe that this error is something in Windows Media Center and not the drivers as most seem to say.

Actually, it most likely is drivers, in your case.  ATI themselves have stated that they're still working on tuner drivers for Win7:

Advisory:

Drivers for the ATI TV Wonder™ HD 600/650 series and All in Wonder™ HD series are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2010.

The driver availability date is subject to change without notice at the discretion of AMD and/or the affiliated AMD Certified or OEM Partners.

Due to the incompatibility between Microsoft Windows 7® and ATI’s legacy TV Tuner products (ATI Theater 550 Pro chipsets and older), driver support will not be available.

(from http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU39_ATITVWonderDrivers.aspx )

Just because it works in Nero Home doesn't mean that it should work in Media Center.  MC has always had rather strict driver reqirements for tuner cards.

@ JoeCane:  one thing to keep in mind is that hardware vendors, not MS, write drivers.  MS simply makes them available (either in-box, or via Windows Update) for your convenience.

If ViXS didn't write and publish a compatible driver, then, well, that's their decision.

FWIW, I've actually had good results with my tuners - between two machines, I have 2 nVidia DualTV MCEs (which aren't even in production anymore), 3 HDHomeruns, 2 Hauppauge boards (an HVR-1250, and an HVR-2250), and an ATI Digital Cable Wonder.  All work with no sleight-of-hand.

-Chris

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Answer 3

Forget Windows7 not good driver support for tuners. Where is: ViXS PureTV-U 48B0 driver for Windows 7.

Answer 4

I lost my tuner card twice now (at least according to media center). However, it worked fine under it's own (Compro) S/W, no errors in the device manager nor with the drivers. I had to do a system restore twice to get it back (also loose all the TV related menu's in the media center). I believe it is media center, nothing to do with drivers and all those other cheap comments, it's a bug but will they ever admit to it or even investigate, dont think so -> windows 7 will fix it, yeah right. I have the impression, but nothing more than an impression, in my case it seems to have happened evertime I have loaded an upgrade for Cyberlink's PowerDVD Ultra ( just a guess at the moment).

Answer 5

I have the same problem, different card. I use the original card that came with my HP XP PC P/N 5188-6014. Thought it was the card and have now tried two others with no joy.

  I think it could be a conflict with a windows security update... and boy have I had a lot of them lately.