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Windows => Television => Topic started by: DocLotus on May 20, 2020, 06:44:10 pm

Title: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 20, 2020, 06:44:10 pm
There seems to be no simple way to delete unwanted TV Tuners from the Manage TV Tuners screen in MC.

I have disabled 5 of them (all bad units) but can't find any way to actually remove them from the list.

I have 11 devices showing up & need to remove 5 of them as they have failed & are no longer working.

Any ideas ?
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: Yaobing on May 20, 2020, 07:46:19 pm
MC can only detect existence of devices but can not remove any.  You have to remove them physically from your computer and uninstall their drivers.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 20, 2020, 11:06:51 pm
Something is still missing.

* I removed the hardware.
* I uninstalled the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun software.
* I uninstalled the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun App (from the MS Windows Store).
* I rebooted the computer but the four Silicon Dust HDHomeRun TV Tuners are still showing up in Manage TV Tuners screen in MC.

What did I miss?

Any other ideas?
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: JimH on May 21, 2020, 06:46:23 am
Are the devices disconnected and unplugged?
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 21, 2020, 08:30:35 am
Yes, completely removed along with all software.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 21, 2020, 08:35:07 am
Here's what I'm trying to get rid of.

All the SiliconDust HD HomeRun TV Tuners on the list.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: JimH on May 21, 2020, 10:33:13 am
Try installing Silicondust software again and redetecting tuners with it.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 21, 2020, 11:49:33 am
Reinstalled all software but am getting the dreaded "Failed to build digital preview graph".

I'm about to give up (again) on MC for TV as it is simply too confusing to set up.

There needs to be a better way to do all this for the TV.

I don't have these problems with other TV software... they may be less "advanced" & with a simpler interface but they just work  >:(

Could the "Failed to build digital preview graph" problem be associated with the reason I'm trying to remove the Silicon Dust HD HomeRun tuners as they are bad?
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: JimH on May 21, 2020, 03:54:25 pm
Did you use Silicondust's software to redetect the tuners?
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 21, 2020, 04:28:01 pm
I used JR MC as that is where I am having the problem of trying to remove it from the MC Manage TV Tuners screen.

I also tried to load it from the Silicon Dust software...

The Silicon Dust software loaded one time but has come up with a totally black screen ever since. That's the same problem I have been having for some time whenever I try to run TV using only Silicon Dust software. It used to work but somewhere along the line it started acting up. I have uninstalled & reinstalled it several times & the same thing will happen... I might run OK one or two times then on maybe the second or third load the black screen shows up & it won't run thereafter.

As I mentioned previously, the reason I want to remove it from MC's Manage TV Tuners screen is because I've had a lot of problems with this one tuner (HD HomeRun Connect Quatro) & believe it may be defective.

It has always been one rather touchy tuner, it would stop working, I would unplug the power to it, reinsert the power connector & it would work for a few hours, a few days or not at all. That's another reason I believe it is defective.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: RoderickGI on May 21, 2020, 05:01:36 pm
Do they still show up in Windows Device Manager? If so, delete them from there, reboot, and you should be good.

The Silicon Dust software may have left all the tuner information in the Registry.

It could also just be MC knows about them and won't forget them, in which case you will need to run some part of TV Setup. But I leave that side of it to Jim and Yaobing, as I'm not familiar enough with it.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: JimH on May 21, 2020, 10:16:07 pm
On the HDHomerun black screen, move your cursor to the right side.  A listing of channels should show up.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 21, 2020, 11:26:07 pm
That's the problem; nothing shows up on the right side like it used to. After uninstalling & reinstalling the Silicon Dust software today the channels did show up one time only but since then only the black screen. When they did show up everything on the screen was really big & out of proportion.

Only two things currently show up... the HD HomeRun logo upon loading the software & the hidden settings on the upper left.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: RoderickGI on May 22, 2020, 01:33:28 am
Device Manager.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 22, 2020, 11:04:19 am
Hauppauge WinTV Quad HD are showing in Device Manager under Sound, Video & Game Controllers (with Show hidden Devices turned on) but there is no Silicon Dust HD HomeRun showing up anywhere (I looked at every Device Manager entry).

I actually uninstalled & reinstalled Silicon Dust HD HomeRun to see if it would then show up in Device Manager... no joy.

I have no idea what is wrong.

Can now not scan for TV channels in MC as every time I do it says "Failed to build digital preview graph" & "No channels found".

Now I have no TV at all in MC.

This is getting rather tiresome.  Like I've suggested to all my friends "Forget TV on the computer, it's a real pain in the backside. Simply go out & buy a real TV. You will have less grief, spend a lot less time & money in the long run".

My experience goes back to the late 1980's with TV tuners in the computer. It was simpler then & has (for me) gotten a lot harder to get things running.

Maybe it's time for me to take my own advice & Simply buy a real TV & be done with it :P
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: RoderickGI on May 22, 2020, 04:27:24 pm
Yet my installation using a local Australian PCIe quad tuner has been running for seven years, with no issues like this at all. The only thing I've needed to do is rescan channels when the broadcasters change them, and chase a decent EPG source. Managing TV recordings, schedules, and so on was much harder before MC, using a Topfield with a laptop connected to it via a serial cable, running some software that did all the scheduling and managed the recordings. Much harder.

As you have no TV now at all, why don't you just run TV Setup and select the option to "Reset all television settings", Surely that will clear out the uninstalled tuners. Just make sure all the software and drivers for them are gone before you do it. Yaobing has written some excellent forum posts and Wiki articles on what to do, such as: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/TV_Tuners and https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/TV_Setup


Don't give up yet!



BTW, you may have disabled the bad tuners, but did you move them to the bottom of the list in "Manage Television Devices"? That would mean the bad ones aren't used first.

Disclaimer: I'm no expert on reconfiguring television in MC, because I just haven't had to do it really. Not since the first installation. A couple of tweaks, but no extra setup processes.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: S. Pupp on May 22, 2020, 04:59:45 pm
As a last resort, you could reinstall or reset Windows.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: JimH on May 22, 2020, 05:10:31 pm
Try installing Silicondust software again and redetecting tuners with it.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: RoderickGI on May 22, 2020, 05:23:48 pm
As a last resort, you could reinstall or reset Windows.

Last resort or not, that is such bad advice. Please don't recommend that sort of thing just to fix an application. There are far better ways to fix software.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: Yaobing on May 22, 2020, 07:39:38 pm
If you have HDHomeRun that you still need, uninstalling SiliconDust software would make them not working.  You might find specific HDHomeRun under Windows Device Manager, Software Devices, but I don't think the bda devices show up there.  SiliconDust bda devices are strange as they do not show up under Sound, video and game controllers.

Like I said before, MC does not remember these devices.  MC loads them.  It is Windows that remembers them.

A simple approach is to just disable these unwanted devices in MC's Manage Devices.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: S. Pupp on May 22, 2020, 09:15:37 pm
Last resort or not, that is such bad advice. Please don't recommend that sort of thing just to fix an application. There are far better ways to fix software.

Last year, after spending days trying to get MC working, I reset windows and reinstalled my software.  In hours, I accomplished what I couldn’t in the previous days.  There may indeed be better ways to fix a problem, but sometimes it is less frustrating to just start again from scratch.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 22, 2020, 11:04:04 pm
Quote
Reset all television settings
Done several times... no joy.

Quote
As a last resort, you could reinstall or reset Windows.
I have the hardware to build a new desktop which will also require a clean installation of Win 10; that should take care of the problem.

Quote
There are far better ways to fix software.
I just wish I knew what that way is... so far have not found it.

Quote
A simple approach is to just disable these unwanted devices in MC's Manage Devices.
Have disabled them, several times in fact but a TV Reset always turns them back on.

Quote
Last year, after spending days trying to get MC working, I reset windows and reinstalled my software.  In hours, I accomplished what I couldn’t in the previous days.  There may indeed be better ways to fix a problem, but sometimes it is less frustrating to just start again from scratch.
I hear you & believe the new computer build may be my ultimate solution. I know what you are talking about concerning the software; this is one of those problems that can take hours or even days to discover how a resolve but may take only minutes to actually fix.

Oh well... computers can be so much fun🤬
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: RoderickGI on May 23, 2020, 12:34:32 am
Given that you have tried everything mentioned above, and that Yaobing says MC only loads the tuners it finds (in the Registry I assume Yaobing, given the hardware has been removed), and it is Windows that remembers them.

My next step would be to uninstall the Silicondust software again, reboot, then search the Windows Registry for an appropriate term. "Silcondust" would seem to be best, and for each record found I would check that it is one of the tuners I want to remove, and then I would delete that record from the Registry. That might take a while. There would be multiple records.

Back up your Registry before you do the above. Reboot once you are finished.


If the tuners show up after that, you have gremlins in your PC.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: Yaobing on May 23, 2020, 09:14:14 am
Given that you have tried everything mentioned above, and that Yaobing says MC only loads the tuners it finds (in the Registry I assume Yaobing, given the hardware has been removed), and it is Windows that remembers them.

More precisely, MC loads devices using the Windows API.  So we don't know where in registry a specific device info is stored.  We store some specific configuration info of a specific device, but we do not use the info unless we are able to load the device through Windows API.
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: Yaobing on May 23, 2020, 09:45:07 am
OK, I found a way, and it makes perfect sense.

Run HDHomeRun Setup program.  On the first tab, "Configuration", is a list of devices and their status.  A good device should have status "OK".  A removed device would have a status of "Not Found".  Click the Source Type drop-down list of that device.  The choices are "Digital Antenna", "Digital Cable", and "Disabled".  Choose "Disabled".  Click Apply or OK.  SiliconDust will update the registry.

Now restart MC and run Manage Devices.  That removed device will no longer show up.

So, for HDHomeRun tuners, in order to remove an unwanted device, you need to remove the physical device (unplug power, and unplug ethernet cable), AND run HDHomeRun Setup and disable the device from there.

The opposite is also true.  If you want to put a good HDHomeRun device back online, you should plug and power cable, plug the network cable, AND run HDHomeRun Setup.  The device will show up with Status "new".  After click OK or Apply, the status will become "OK".  Now MC will pick it up (restart MC if necessary).



Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 23, 2020, 10:18:51 am
Yaobing... YOU ARE THE MAN👲

A PERFECT resolve to a weird problem.

When it comes to TV, YOU my friend are usually the one with the answers.

THANKS SOooooo much for your help.

Doc 😍
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 23, 2020, 10:24:14 am
After resolving the weird remove HD HomeRun problem I did a new channel scan... ALL RAN PERFECTLY 😁

I now have my TV back.

Thanks again, Yaobing 😛
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: Yaobing on May 23, 2020, 10:48:32 am
Cheers!
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: RoderickGI on May 23, 2020, 05:16:42 pm
There is (very very nearly) always a way, and when you find it, it is obvious.

Yaobing is the expert here.  8)
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on May 23, 2020, 06:39:06 pm
There is (very very nearly) always a way, and when you find it, it is obvious.

Yaobing is the expert here.  8)
Agreed... like I said "this is one of those problems that can take hours or even days to discover a resolve but may take only minutes to actually fix."
Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: JimH on June 14, 2020, 01:31:34 pm
This may have had a happy ending:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,125787.0.html

Title: Re: How To Delete Unwanted TV Tuners From Manage TV Devices List
Post by: DocLotus on June 14, 2020, 03:27:34 pm
Yes... Things are looking better & better each day.

Thanks again to all who helped with these really weird problems 😂