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In the digital age, different devices are experiencing increasing levels of interconnectivity. This new merging between various pieces of hardware or software offers users a plethora of ways to enjoy media content.
One way some people like to watch videos is via their computers, and a digital device registration application is one way that they can enjoy streams from cable TV right from their PCs or laptops.
However, there is a chance that this application could also slow down your machine. We’ll look at what the tuner is, what the application does, why it might cause slowdowns, and what you could do to disable it should you want to.
Table of Contents
What Is the Digital TV Tuner in a PC?
These days, it is common for people to enjoy video streams right from their computers. However, there might be some videos or programs that are on digital cable TV that a user simply might not see elsewhere.
That’s no problem, however, because the digital TV tuner registration application effectively makes your computer into a two-in-one device. The tuner allows the computer to receive digital TV signals. In essence, you can use the registration application to turn your computer into a TV.
The digital TV tuner application is a part of the Windows Media Player program. If the application is active, it can allow the digital TV tuner to start automatically once you run the Windows Media Player program. This can take some of the hassle out of receiving and enjoying your favorite TV signals.
As convenient as this might be, it can also come with some problems.
Namely, some users report it seems to slow down the performance of their PCs. This effect can be quite noticeable at times, making it easy to see that the device tuner application is the likely culprit once it starts running. We’ll get into how the registration application works and what you can do about this slowdown in the next sections.
Some readers may be familiar with older TV tuners that used analog signals. In these cases, the tuner cards would capture frequencies sent out over the air via radio waves. In the past, some people may have purchased hybrid cards to allow their TVs to receive both analog and digital signals. With the move over to more and more digital content, it has become less necessary for analog options, but they are still available.
The technology in modern PCs supports digital tuning, and almost all TV channels on cable that you should encounter will probably offer digital broadcasts in HD.
Because Windows Media Player supports the digital TV tuner device registration application, that is what we will focus on here. We’ve provided some basic information on analog options for readers who might be interested.
Is the Digital TV Tuner Device Registration Application Important?
Many users see that the digital TV tuner device registration application is running, and they wonder how important it might be to their Windows Media experience. Additionally, they might wonder if turning it off entirely could have any downsides in terms of their entertainment or viewing experiences. The correct answer to this question depends on how you use your computer.
If you want your computer to double as a digital TV that can pick up channels and broadcast shows for you right on your desktop screen, the digital TV tuner device registration application is an important part of this process. If you remove the application, you will remove your ability to watch premium cable channels from your cable provider right on your computer screen.
If you do not use your computer to double as a screen for cable TV, the device tuner registration application is probably less important to your overall PC needs.
Even if you do like to use your computer as a television from time to time, it is possible that you are experiencing some of the performance issues that we referenced earlier and will dive further into a bit later. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the application, so its removal or continued usage is up to each individual user.
If you don’t use your computer for traditional cable TV, it might be a good idea to remove it. If you experience slowdown issues when Windows Media is active, that’s another reason why you might want to remove it.
Regardless, there are ways to check your computer to see if it might be experiencing issues that are slowing it down. You can narrow these results to see if the digital tuner device registration application is the culprit.
While there could be other reasons for your computer to act sluggishly, if the device tuner application is running, it is likely slowing down your PC to some extent. This is because of the nature of the application and what it does when scanning.
Why Is the Digital TV Tuner Device Registration Application Slowing Down My PC?
If you run your Windows Media program with the digital device registration application active, you may notice that your computer could seem quite slow to you in terms of its responsiveness or functionality. There are a couple of reasons for this:
First, the application is scanning constantly. It is looking for any TV tuners that might be attached to your PC. Unlike some other applications which might scan for new components the first time they are activated only, the device registration application is trying to perform this action a lot. Because it is always in a sort of “active and looking” state, it is using up resources to do its job. Consequently, it is slowing down your computer.
Second, when the registration application starts, it should start a background process called ehPrivJob.exe. This process stores very large files on your hard drive. It could also create some registry entries that are invalid. While neither of these things should be harmful to your computer, the combined results can show up as a slowed down PC that is not performing at its best.
Even if you have some storage space left on your machine, having only a minimal amount available can cause it to slow down.
It can be difficult to know if the registration application itself is causing problems, but there are ways to check this for yourself. One common thing some users do is to go into their preferred antivirus software to check this out. We should point out here that the registration application is not malicious in any way.
Antivirus software often provides a convenient way by which we can measure which programs, if any, might be causing issues with our computers. Some software offers a ‘Performance’ tab that can check your PC for various parameters. In this window, it can show you which programs are slowing down the computer.
It should also show you which ones are doing it the most, and some software may also give you a percentage rating of just how much a program is causing issues. The digital tuner registration application tends to be near the top of such lists.
Your chosen antivirus software may have a feature that stops or puts to sleep some of the programs that are causing performance issues in your computer. While this can be a useful tool, we’ll also show you how to turn off or completely remove the TV tuner device registration application by other means.
How Do I Disable the Digital TV Tuner Device Registration Application?
If your computer is experiencing too many issues in dealing with the digital TV tuner device registration application, this section can show you how to shut it down or remove it. Before we begin, we stress again that this removes the functionality of using your PC like a digital TV. If this is one of the main reasons you use your computer, you may wish to keep the application going. Regardless, you can follow these steps to remove it from your machine:
1. Go to your ‘Windows’ button at the taskbar on the bottom of your screen.
2. Once opened, type or find the ‘Control Panel’ and navigate to that.
3. Inside the Control Panel window, find ‘Programs and Features’ and click on it,
4. There should be a pane on the left side of your screen. In this pane, find ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ and select the plus sign next to it in order to activate another menu.
5. From this new menu, scroll to the ‘Media Features’ subheading and expand it.
6. Once it is expanded, find ‘Windows Media Player’ in that new list and uncheck it. Confirm your choice if necessary.
7. Restart your PC for the changes to take effect.
Bottom Line
Having an all-in-one media device can be a great thing. Computers are one of the main things many people like to use for as many tasks as possible, and their inherent versatility makes it easy to see why that is.
While a good PC can make a decent TV, the processes it might need to run in order to do so through Windows Media Player could be too excessive to make it worth your while.
If you’re having troubles with a slow PC because of the digital TV tuner device registration application, some steps in our guide may help you make your machine speedy again.