MCE signal set up fails at set-top box remote recognition step!!

I have an HP Pavillion Elite desktop running Vista Home Premium (fully loaded for my work as a graphic designer: INvidia graphics card, tuner card, 8mgs of RAM, a terabyte of hard drive, quad core processor, etc). The desktop is almost a year old and I have yet to be able to get Media Center to set up and run a tv signal. I've installed all the MCE updates and I've been to a million forums and FAQS and have come up dry.

Everything was fine when I was just running an analog antenna into the desktop, but when I changed to Time Warner Cable, trying to get MCE to work with the set-top box has been a totally frustrating experience.

First I got "Cannot locate IR Cables" error. And set up shut down right there. So I purchased Microsoft's MCE remote control for $33.40 just to get the IR receiver and emitter cables. That solved the "Cannot locate IR Cables error" but now I have a whole new set of errors.

There's obviously a good connection going on between my cable box and my computer, because the little preview window in MCE set up shows previews of my reception and it is perfect. I can even change those channels on my computer during set up using my cable remote. The problem comes in trying to change the channel on the computer using MCE's remote, or in trying to get MCE to recognize my remote's IR signal.

I've tried everything MCE suggests during the wizard set up but nothing works. None of the codes listed for the Samsung Cable Box work, and there are 20 codes, so its a big task to keep going back and forth trying each one of them.

When that doesn't work, MCE tries to recognize the cable remote by asking me to direct the IR of the remote toward the MCE receiver and to press "0" on the remote control panel and hold it. The light in the MCE receiver lights up, but according to the set up screen no signal is being recognized. The other option MCE suggests is to manually reprogram the MCE remote "from scratch". That also didn't work. Eventually MCE says to check the remotes batteries (which I've done) and to try the entire set up process all over again. I did that too. About 30 times. Still doesn't work.

I'm stumped now at how to fix this. If the cables I purchased directly from Windows don't work I don't know what else to do.Without that recognition MCE refuses to finish set up of the signal on my computer, so I can't even bypass that process and change the channels on MCE manually. It just stops set up in its tracks. I've gone without the ability to watch or record tv on my computer for almost a year now. I specifically bought Vista Home Premium for the MCE feature and am really regretting it now. Since Vista came loaded on my HP computer when I bought it, Microsoft wont allow me to get free support, even though the computer is still under warranty. It says I need to talk to someone at HP. HP says they can't figure out whats wrong and says I need to talk to Microsoft. Microsoft's website says phone support is 59 dollars. Can anyone out there help me figure this out?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

stef

 

Its been four months and I got no replies to my post, and I still can't use Media Center to view cable tv on my computer. Does anyone know if Windows 7 addresses MCE issues?