Vista Home Premium for Digital TV Product Key Validation

[Guest]

I purchased an HP Media Center PC six months ago with Vista Home Premium for
Digital TV, which included an ATI TV Wonder digital cable tuner with the
package. It came with on product key for Vista and a separate product key
for support for digital TV. During my first startup of Media Center, I was
prompted to enter the digital TV product key, which I entered and it
accepted. The digital cable tuner never did work right, which I traced down
to my DSL modem not allowing Digital Rights Management to occur with the
tuner. I just replaced my DSL modem with a new one, and suddenly both my
Vista product key and my Digital TV product key became invalid. I used phone
support to re-validate my Vista product key. However, I cannot seem to
validate my Digital TV product key within Media Center. When I go into setup
for Media Center, it askes me for the Digital TV product key, which is the
same one I've alwasy had. It responds that the product key is invalid and
gives me no other options. Is there any way to separately validate the
Digital TV product key similar to the way the Vista product key is done?

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

This isn't a Vista issue? You need to contact HP or ATI to resolve the
problem.

 

[Guest]

I don't understand why this isn't a Vista issue. Why would both my Vista
product key validation and my Vista Digital TV product validation codes both
become invalid at the same time if it was an ATI or HP issue? I was able to
solve one of them through Microsoft by re-validating my Vista product
validation key. I would assume a similar fix woudl be available for the
Vista Media Center for Digital TV product validation key.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

"Vista Home Premium for Digital TV" would be a proprietary HP marketing name
and a PC setup that includes the digital cable tuner hardware. I'm sure if
you check with HP you'll find this to be true. While the built-in Media
Center has the capability to display a digital TV signal, anything
associated with the enabling of this setup is from third party vendors.

 

[Guest]

It sure appears to be a Microsoft product. The Microsoft Genuine Product
Advantage product sticker on the side of the computer contains both product
keys, one for Vista and one for Digital TV support, all on one sticker.
While it doesn't specifically say it, the Microsoft description of CableCARD
support eludes to this version
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/cablecard.mspx. I called HP and they said to call Microsoft.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Your right. It appears that you have to activate through your cable provider
according to the "How do I troubleshoot activation issues with a CableCARD
on a Windows Vista Digital Cable Compatible PC?" section in that document.
According to the instructions there, you may need the serial number on the
card. (This may be referring to the activation number)

 

[bgreen51]

OK, I finally restored my PC to factory condition and this problem magically
disappeared. I still don't get any pairing information on the CableCard, but
at least I'm back to square one. I did find a very helpful troubleshooting
guide at
http://utahtechinfo.com/video/cablecard/CableCARD_DCT_TROUBLESHOOTING_GUIDE.pdf.