"Weak Signal" but Live TV works great as does tuner on the TV

[pmann19]

"Weak Signal" but Live TV works great as does tuner on the TV

I have a Windows 7 64 bit HTPC with a Hauppauge HVR-1800 tuner card.
I am able to tune 9 digital channels (8VSB modulation) on my TV and one analog station NTSC modulation). The signal is very good. I am able to watch those same 9 ATSC channels in Windows Media Center with a very clear picture (no shutter or lag, etc.) but the antenna signal strength shows up as weak (only one red bar) in the Windows Media Center TV Settings/Digital TV Antenna Signal Strength. As a result Windows Media Center will not record anything because it believes the signal strength is weak. I have tried the "Scan For More Channels" utility and it detects all 9 channels but signal strength still shows as weak. I have updated all drivers and I am now at loss for how to continue troubleshooting this issue.
I have a Channel Master CM-4221HD Antenna and Channel Master CM-7777 Titan 2 Preamplifier installed on the chimney of a one story house (about 35 feet off of ground level). There is 100 feet of cable between the antenna and my TV/HTPC. The Preamplifier power is plugged in at the 50 foot mark. I have only one splitter inline sending the TV signal to the TV and the HTPC.
I formerly had a SiliconDust HDHomerun installed on the system via USB so I did not have to rent a DVR from Charter but I have disconnected that unit and uninstalled any associated software. During this time I removed the HVR-1800 from my system but I have since reinstalled it and Windows says it is operating properly.
Before we moved to our current home I had the system working perfectly picking up OTA channels with a bowtie antenna and boosting the signal with a similar preamplifier. We moved cross country and I then had Charter TV and was recording QAM channels but when Charter adopted Switched Digital Video in my area I had to purchase the SiliconDust HDHomerun. But now I am back to an antenna and frustrated.
I have tried rerunning the Setup countless times but I always get the same outcome. I have tried tuning to a channel and watching live TV and then pressing the record button and after a short pause Windows Media Center tells me the signal is too weak. I have installed and run the Hauppauge Signal Monitoring software and get a signal strength between 25 and 30 (the range is 0-30 with 20+ being "Good".)
Can I force Windows Media Center to record despite the supposed "Weak Signal Strength"? Does anyone have any experience similar to mine?

 

[pbcopter]

Welcome to the forum.

Have you seen this?

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2708283?wa=wsignin1.0

 

[pmann19]

Tried but not luck.

Hi pbcopter,

Thanks for the tip, I did try to edit the registry as indicated by the support article even though it did not exactly describe my issue. I can watch live TV without issue I do not get my error message until trying to record.

 

[pbcopter]

I guess I missed that. I have not run into your problem before. I'll see what I can find.

 

[pbcopter]

You might try looking and/or posting here

TheGreenButton

 

[pmann19]

Thanks for pointing me to TheGreenButton.tv. I use to visit the site a lot when I was first getting started with WMC. I thought Microsoft shut it down, I didn't realize it still exist, just new domain, very exciting.

 

[pmann19]

Solved

See my thread View topic - "Weak Signal" but Live TV works fine as does tuner on the TV

 

[pbcopter]

You're welcome.

I'm glad they were able to help you.

 

[dsperber]

Thanks for pointing me to TheGreenButton.tv. I use to visit the site a lot when I was first getting started with WMC. I thought Microsoft shut it down, I didn't realize it still exist, just new domain, very exciting.

Just in passing, the current TheGreenButton.TV site is NOT run by Microsoft any longer. The MS site got taken over by spam and was simply abandoned by MS.

The current site is completely independent (but with a very similar name), but for the same purpose as when MS managed it, and run and used by the same group of developers and users who were always interested in WMC. Also the new TGB forum software is much more modern than when MS ran their own site.