Step one is to select the right guide for your area during TV signal setup. This should be fairly straight forward though if you find that you don’t have a complete lineup of listings available in later steps you may want to choose another nearby location.

Entering the zip code of a nearby urban center might provide better results for your lineup if you find that your unable to select the proper lineup options in the later steps. Afterward complete the TV Signal Setup as usual then enter the TV Guide. You should now have a channel lineup, hopefully somewhere close to what you need in the end.

Now we’ll add any channels that are missing from the guide. Go to the TV –> Guide menu under Settings in the main menu. Here you should see an option to Add Missing Channels.

After entering this menu you’ll see options to add either Analog or Digital Channels to your lineup (provided you have the proper hardware). The steps are slightly different for each channel type but should be fairly simple.

Select the type of channel you’d like to add Channel for analog, QAM channel for ClearQAM or ATSC for antenna channels. Next Media Center will ask a series of questions about the channel you’d like to add including the name of the channel, the channel number and modulation (if applicable).

If you are unsure about QAM modulation, for example, in the United States selecting QAM256 is a fairly safe bet. If that turned out to be the incorrect choice however you can always change the modulation later through the Edit Channel menu.

Once you’ve entered your missing channels re-enter the TV guide and you’ll notice that you’re still missing the guide data for each of these channels. That’s because though you have assigned a name and number to these channels Media Center still isn’t sure which data to use for the channel.

To tell Media Center what guide data to use for this channel we need to bring up the Edit Channel menu for this channel. Press the i button on your remote or right-click the channel with your mouse. Select Edit Channel from the menu. You can also use this menu to disable any channels that appear in the guide that you don’t receive by selecting Disable Channel.

Inside the Edit Channel menu you’ll find a number of options available. The one we’re interested in is Edit Listings. This is the option that will allow us to assign the listings to be used for this particular channel. Once selected you should be presented with a large list of potential channel listings to assign to the channel.

This list should include all the channels downloaded by the Media Center guide retrieval application. As you can see above, even though I’ve selected an analog lineup I’m still given the option to select paid digital channels (even those on the opposite coast!).

Select the lineup that best represents the channel you’re currently editing. This is made slightly easier by using the “Show Preview” option and the details of the currently selected listing at the bottom. The currently selected channel will play in the background and should match up with the details listed.

Once you’ve got the right lineup selected Save your settings and return to the TV guide. You should now see the selected data imported to the guide along with a name assigned by Media Center to the channel.

Repeat these steps for each channel you need to customize and you should have your custom lineup ready for use in no time! Remember to remove any channels that you may not receive as well by selecting Disable Channel from the menu.

Spice up your TV guide even more using the My Channel Logos program and custom color logos!

Despite the fact that clearQAM signals from your cable company are digital signals that doesn’t mean they are HD quality. A quick check of your area on the SiliconDust website will show you that not all clearQAM channels are even close to true High Definition Resolutions. In fact a quick look at the Columbus, OH area shows that the majority of stations are being sent out at 480i/p, which is basically analog resolution in a digital wrapper.

To add insult to injury, your cable company’s compression methods can produce image artifacts and other distortions of the original image lessening the image quality even further. Many enthusiasts will be quick to tell you that antenna based digital reception is by far the superior method of bringing HDTV into your home. Content broadcast over the air is uncompressed and so doesn’t include these artifacts and distortions introduces by cable and satellite providers.

However, not all over the air content is sent out in the highest possible format either. Digital over the air is typically broadcast in either 720p or 1080i. Both formats have their advantages, 720p gives smoother motion packing twice the frames but half the resolution of 1080i which provides twice the pixel at half the frames per second. Typically 720p is the preferred resolution for fast action events such as sports, while 1080i would be preferred for most movie and TV series’.

This is where the problem with how American providers have chosen to implement digital distribution comes in. In the United States providers have chosen to distribute all content in a single resolution instead of choosing the appropriate mode for a particular show. Fox and ABC have chosen 720p while most other networks are broadcasting in 1080i. As a side note, this single resolution ideal is also present on the cable/satellite side of things with a listing of resolutions for each channel found on CNET’s HDTV World page.

So remember that not all digital is created equal and even if it says “HD” it may very well not be a High Definition at all. While over the air is certainly the best method for getting a clear HD signal it has it’s own pitfalls, including being limited to only the local stations. In my opinion, the best way to get all your HD is to try out all the options available to you and select the best combination of methods.

For even more information visit hdtvprimer.com.

The best resource for not only locating the sources nearest you but also helping to decide which antenna is best for you is found at Antennaweb.org. Entering you address into Antennaweb will return a list of stations broadcasting near you along with a color coded guide. The color guide is an estimate of the type of antenna you will need to pick up that particular station. Clicking on the guide color will also bring up a chart and description of the antenna needed.

As you can see it will also provide you with exact compass headings and distances to each station. This can be helpful for those who own a rotating antenna. For those of us who don’t have rotation equipment, Antennaweb will also provide you with a map by click the “View street level map”. Though it certainly isn’t Google Earth quality it can give you a general idea of which way to point your antenna.

Once you’ve got your antenna setup, getting it to work in Media Center isn’t terribly hard. From the “Tasks > Settings > TV > TV Signal > Set Up TV Signal” you can setup your tuner to accept ATSC signals which is what you’ll need to get digital channels over the air. In some cases you may need to use manual setup if Media Center doesn’t detect ATSC signals automatically. Your tuner may or may not support ATSC, you’ll need to refer to the manual or manufacturer’s website for details.

Once your tuner is setup for ATSC, the TV Signal menu will now show an option for checking Antenna Signal Strength. This will go through the list of channels one by one checking the signal strength of each station then cycling back through the list. This can also help you fine to your antenna’s position along with the Antennaweb map.

Getting your local channels live with digital over the air can prove to be the perfect supplement to content delivered over the internet. Being able to not only catch your local news live but also broadcast network shows in full HD can prove the last thing to take care of before turning off that cable for good.

You can even find directions to create a home-made antenna at tvantennaplans.com. The results of this do it yourself hack are actually surprisingly good, allowing me to pick up digital stations over 40 miles away with nothing more than some coat hangers and tinfoil. Of course results will depend on your location and the signal strength in your area.

Hopefully, this guide as well as the previous two on replacing your cable company bills with free alternatives have you well on your way to enjoying your favorite content for less. Unfortunately, at this time Antennaweb and 7MC don’t support ATSC in some countries including Canada. Be sure to check back often to find the best ways to save even more with your Media Center setup.

If you haven’t already be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the Canceling Your Cable series on Hack7MC!

Setting up your Windows 7 Media Center is easy, making it your own can be easy too. Here are 10 simple steps you can take to make your Media Center experience more complete, more personal, more enjoyable.

1. Add ClearQAM to Your TV Listings
2. Add Custom Apps to Your Extras Library
3. Do It Better – Add Apps with Custom Icons and Details
4. Add MKVs to Your Movie Library
5. Use A Better Movie Library – Media Browser
6. Expand Your Sound from Stereo to Surround
7. Play Your Music in FLAC
8. Check Your Local Weather
9. Listen To Online Radio through Shoutcast
10. Add Boxee Streaming TV to Your Media Center

These 10 simple hacks will create a better Media Center for you and your family to enjoy. Don’t forget to check back to Hack7MC to get the latest hacks for your Windows 7 Media Center.

Keep in touch: Bookmark Hack7MC on Del.icio.us, subscribe to the RSS Feed or even Follow along on Twitter.

First, some background. Like the United States, Canada has decided to transition all television broadcasts from analog to digital. These new digital signals have greater effective range, provide a crystal-clear high definition picture, and as with all over the air network TV broadcasts are free and legal to access. It’s worth noting that over the air signals represent the best high-definition picture quality you can get for network television – better than cable and much better than satellite. While high definition is available for a fee via cable and satellite, those high definition channels are subject to ever-increasing compression and picture quality degradation as they try to squeeze more and more content into your subscription. And unlike cable and satellite, over the air broadcasts are not encrypted and can be easily incorporated into a Media Center setup, copied over to your iPod, and are generally easy to use. The United States has nearly completed their digital transition, and will be shutting down the analog broadcasts in February 2009. Canada is well into its transition, with most major markets now broadcasting in digital and 100% of the country switching over to digital by 2011 before we shut down our analog transmitters. Here in Toronto, I can get access to every major US and Canadian network in full high-definition glory using a $40 antenna that I put in my attic.

You can find the rest of the post where you’ll be taken through adding ATSC to 7MC using a SiliconDust HDHomerun (a popular clearQAM and ATSC tuner) over on his blog at The Green Button.

The first step is to check your tuner manufacturer’s website for the most recent drivers for your particular tuner card. If there are newer drivers you may want to install these before going on. The next step is to run a normal TV Tuner setup in Media Center. If you have already run the initial setup you can run the tuner setup again by going to Tasks > Settings > TV > Setup TV Signal. Follow this wizard and be sure you have an available ClearQAM tuner presented during the setup and follow through the TV Channel Scan.

Note: Certain older Hauppauge cards may need a registry fix which can be found here at Mike Wren’s blog.

Often this scan returns "0 channels found", fear not. Once you have completed the wizard, you will most likely need to add these channels to your TV listings manually. Go to Tasks > Settings > TV > Guide > Edit Channels. Here you will be presented with what is most likely a lengthy list of channels with your basic cable channels numbers and labeled. Just past these neatly organized channels, though, you will find a mess of channels marked simply with numbers and displaying (or not) a small lock beside them. This is the cash crop, these are ClearQam channels.

Once we have come to this point enable the "Show Preview" option on the left and scroll down through the ClearQAM channels until you come to one or more that do not show the lock icon beside them. You can also refer to SiliconDust’s webpage to identify ClearQAM channels you will likely receive in your area. Selecting the channel name on the right with "Show Preview" enabled should bring up the channel in the background and play audio from the channel. If you don’t see/hear this it may be a false positive and you should move on until you find one that comes in correctly.

When you reach a ClearQAM channel that comes in properly mark the checkbox next to the channel number to enable this channel in your TV guide listing. Once you’ve completed marking all the channels that come in save your settings on the left then we’ll move on to setting up the channels in the guide.

Enter your TV guide listing from the main menu and scroll until you come to the channels you just added to your guide listing. You’ll notice that none of these channels have names or program data associated with them. To change this click on the channel number on the left and then select "Edit Channel".

Here you can once again refer to your local ClearQAM listing through Silicon Dust’s site if the channel numbers match that listing you can simply watch the channels momentarily to determine which channel you are viewing. Then you have the option of Renaming the channel and Editing Listings associated with the channel. Note that when possible you should choose the listing associated with a "DT", "DT2", etc after the callsign as these will give you the listings for the digital channel and include any HD information that is available.

That’s it, you should now be able to enjoy your ClearQAM channels from inside Windows 7 Media Center!

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