My system:

Asus A7N8X E Deluxe using onboard audio
Athlon 2800+
40GB HD (yes 40GB I am using an old one for testing)
Hauppauge 500MCE KIT (remote irblaster etc)
LiteON DVDRW drive & liteon CDRW drive
500W PSU
Nvidia 5200FX 256mb RAM
2x512 Mushkin pc3200


So far I have been able to install KnoppMyth and go through the setup process. After it is complete no channels are visible, it is just a static like screen. I also get no audio although I am not sure if that is because I got no video or if I need to manually install drivers for my onboard audio. I used to have a really old hauppauge that I have to run a audio out from to an input on my sound card. I was thinking initially that it would be similar but I guess the audio gets ran through internally to the sound board. also my remote is not working and it is the remote that came with the 500 card.

1.) No video from my Hauppauge 500
2.) No sound
3.) Remote not working

The remote model number is MX519B and came with the 500. It also says RC6ir on the back. It is silver on the front and black on the back. The remote connects to the irblaster (I gues thats what the big thing is) and then the IR blaster connects to the PC via USB.

How can you browse the net in MythTV? I am currently just connected to my PC monitor and it would be nice to have a browser I could use so that I do not have to swap hard drives everytime I come across a problem and want to research it.

If I get this system running I swear I will make a writeup with pictures and step by step instructions so that idiots like me don't have to ask dumb questions. If someone thinks they have an answer or if you need more information let me know.

Please see: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=TroubleShooting
Especailly: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=BlackScreenWatchingTV

If something in these is unclear, and you can tell us specifically what it is that you don't understand, I'll update them with a clarification. If you have a recent card you will need to upgrade your ivtv driver, so follow the directions to check the log files, and if they show that the card is not recognized, do the upgrade.

The "kit" remotes that come with the 500MCE, 150MCE and 250MCE kits are standard MCE USB remotes. They should work out of the box with R5C7. The only gotcha is that some of the very newest ones need new button definition files. Searching here for "MCE remote" should turn up the details.

BTW - You do not need a jumper to your sound cards line-in for recording sound with any PVR card. This is one of the advantages of using them. The 1/8" jack on most of these cards is an audio input for sources like a cablebox or camcorder which use the S-Video or composite video inputs which don't include the audio signal.

Hey thanks for the reply. I have went through the BlackScreenWathcingTV that you linked to already and although I found it very useful I came up with only the same results. Its not a normal snow, instead its more black and pixelated. There is no sound and no picture on CH5 or CH6 or any other channel. The GettingBackIntoMyTVSetup was nice to come across as I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to alter the configs.

I just tried running the card with WinXP and even though it works the picture was horrid. It was extremely pixelated. This makes me think the connection is not good. I just got new cableTV, cable internet, and phone today and the install dudes come out and put everything in. I asked him about being able to split the cable for internet and hooking it up to a tuner and he said yeah that it should work fine. He is supposed to put a frequency blocker on the TV coax to prevent internet frequencies going to the TV and also a blocker so TV frequencies do not go to the modem. He put the blocker on the straight TV line but did not put a blocker on the Internet Coax line.

Anyways my TV has clear reception so I am going to run that line back through the basement and up to my PC tuner card to see what it looks like in WinXP first and then MythTV second.

Thanks again for the help. I will post my results back here.

Well I ran the coax from my TV which got great reception to my tuner and in WinXP I get the exact same crappy picture. So with that I just put the cables back the way I had it originally because at this point I see nothing wrong with how I have it ran.

How can I tell what type of tuners I have on my card?

Also I cannot get the remote to work in WinXP either. the only button that works is the power button which puts the PC in a sleep mode.

Its funny I am having all these problems now. 7 years ago I bought my first PC. I paid a little over $2000 for a gateway. It had a TV tuner PCI card in it. Hauppauge was the brand name same as I am trying now. Odd thing is that tuner worked flawlessly. I could record shows (manually only) and watch a clear picture. It strikes me odd that it would be difficult to produce a PCI tuner card that worked just as good as any built in tuner on a TV.

Checking the logfiles would be a really good place to start. They contain all this information and more. This page contains detailed instructions on how to check the logfiles, complete with example commands that you can cut and paste into a shell session to check the logfiles for information related to specific issues. http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=CheckingLogFiles

The only remaining question is, "Why is it so hard to get people to check the logfiles?"

Well I have found out some things. Bad news.

WinTV-PVR-500
NTSC/NTSC-J
23552
RevD587

And then when you peel back that sticker it reveals:

23552 D587
Samsung
TCPN 221P30A
060116 AAC D

Fortunately for me a google search for "23552 rev D587" resulted in me finding out I am not the only one. Its RMA time to Dell. Sucks for me.

I wanted to mention with these tuners I found several posts on the net about the bad picture quality. 2 said that the Composite in tuner works fine with a great picture. I bought an RF converter from radio shack but it never powered on so I will be returning it today. I am curious to see if I get the same good quality on the second tuner as the others.