Is one of your TV tuners giving you problems? Maybe some of your recordings are poor quality compared to the others, no audio or garbled video or audio streams? Track down the problem tuner by using the Recording History inside Windows 7 Media Center.

First note the recordings that are giving you trouble. Jot down the title and episode of the recording and which channel it was recorded from. Then enter the Recorded TV display. From there select View Schedule from the upper left hand corner.

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You should see a list of upcoming recordings on the right and a small menu on the left with Sort by Series, Sort by Title, Series and History. Select the History option from the menu on the left hand side.

Now on the left you should see a listing of TV episodes that have been recorded previously. On the left there should also be a set of options for sorting the history and a button that will clear the entire history to this point. Find the recording that you noted earlier on the right and select it.

Once you’ve located and selected the recording that is giving you problems you should get details on the date and time of the recording, program title, episode title, description, channel and the tuner that was used.

At this point you should probably take special notice of the tuner that was used to make the recording. You may need to locate new drivers or contact the manufacturer for support if you are experiencing audio or video problems with recordings from one particular tuner and not another.

From here you can continue on to get the details of the series’ upcoming recordings as well as the channel and storage settings assigned to this series. To access this information select the Series Info button on the left.

Digging deeper you can fine tune the details and settings for each scheduled series by selecting Series Settings. You can also opt to cancel the series from being recorded in the future.

From Series Settings you’ll have access to most of the same settings available in the Recordings Defaults found under Tasks –> Settings -> TV -> Recorder -> Recording Defaults. Suspiciously missing from these options at this point is the ability to change the recording start time. At this time the only way to alter that setting is in the Recording Defaults.

More importantly, once you’ve located the tuner information for the recording you’re having trouble with you can begin to further troubleshoot any potential hardware problems. If you find you’re having trouble that can’t be solved through the settings and options provided under the series settings or recording defaults it may be time to turn to the hardware manufacturer.

Poor quality recordings, lost or garbled audio and video or skipped recordings could be the result of hardware failure. In some instances solving the problem means downloading the newest drivers and in others you may have a defective tuner that needs replaced.

In any case, hopefully, this guide has helped to shaved a little bit of time off of your troubleshooting efforts. Knowing which piece of hardware is giving you trouble and what is happening before, during and after the scheduled recording can be invaluable to solving the problem faster.

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