Ubuntu and tv/dvds

Recently downloaded and tried Suse 10.1 and Ubuntu 6.06. I liked Suse until I discovered it wouldn't recognize my tuner card. Card has been recognized and working since kernel 2.4.10, so I found this strange. A workaround to change card and tuner numbers creates kernel panic leading to shutdown. Ubuntu recognizes card fine. Just no TV programs that will install (xawtv has always worked) and dvds can't play (codecs not connecting). Been a while since I have used a Debian-based OS, but I'm not clueless. By the way, tuner card is basically a Hauppage 150 put out by Leadtek. Got to say, I like Ubuntu (other than the brown color), so I hope I can resolve this.
I agree that Mandriva is treated like an orphan by it's own company. Personally, I wouldn't buy an "Enterprise" edition of any distro that treats the desktop version
like this, I would pick something I am comfortable with. Suse and Ubuntu have the right idea. Oh well. chuck