PVR-150 works fine with wintv won't with sage

[gunnyhud]

I am in the military stationed in germany. I have a cable tv service on my base that has both german and afn channels. My computer is equipred with a pvr-150. No matter what setting I use in the setup (NTSC, PAL, USA, GERMANY) the only channels that show are the german channels and even then all the channel number are different from my tv. I am not sure if anyone has ran into this problem before and I haven't seen it in this forum, but it's extremely frustrating. If anyone has any suggestions or questions please HELP ME. One last thing, all channels show up correctly when I view with wintv, and I am running sagetv 4

[stevech]

Are you accustomed to using a multi-standard TV set (NTSC/PAL) which auto-switches according to what you're watching?

PS: May I respectfully suggest that you choose your forum topic titles a bit more carefully in the future.

[gunnyhud]

Sorry about the forum title. (*changed to match post below*) I have both types of televisions in my house. I have a multi system and I have american televisions. The mutli system picks up every channel and the american television picks up all the AFN channels. My computer picks ups all channels through wintv. Thanks and I appreciate any help you can throw my way.

[gunnyhud]

This is about the third time I've posted for some help, someone please help! I live in germany on a military base with cable service from tks cable (german company). They carry AFN and other channels. With wintv I can view all the channels by scanning with united states and ntsc_m setting. When I use sagetv and use united states and nstc all I get are the german channels. Does anyone have any idea of what either I am doing wrong or the program is? Can this be fixed, please help

[mike1961]

Not sure if this will help but I had a problem with frequencies in that Win TV would display channels clear but in Sage many were totally fuzzy. I was able to fix it with the Frequency Shifter. I think the problem is partially due to the fact that WinTV has a wider range when it searches for the frequency than Sage does for a given channel. If you can get the approximate frequencies or if your cable company is as uncooperative as mine has been, you may need to "play with test frequencies" nearby the range of NTSC standards as I did. Once you figure out how far off one station is "shifted" from the norm then most will probably be shifted an equal amount. See the thread I posted at:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ighlight=fuzzy

Also, see the standard frequencies for antenna and cable:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ssignments.asp

And YES, I agree with you, this thing was terribly frustrating. Most of my channels came in totally fuzzy. But, once you get the right frequency or a nearby one, you can easily fix it. I also notified Sage Tech support that they should consider having a setting in the setup somewhere about being able to specify a range. So, for example: if you scroll down the NTSC chart you will see the following NTSC frequencies for channels 52-54:

391250000L, // 52
397250000L, // 53
403250000L, // 54

So, try increasing channel 53 from 39725 to say 39745, then 39765, etc...also try decreasing as well until you find a frequency that comes in clear. Now, if you can just call your cable company and they provide the frequency then great...but mine seems to have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about or why I want such information as if I'm some kind of thief or something. But, as long as the frequencies are within the normal standard range somewhere you should be able to find them. Sometimes they shift them off slightly to make room for digital or analog frequencies.

Mike

[gunnyhud]

Thank you very much for your answer, I am going to try them right now. Thank you for trying to help, you seem to be the only one, thanks again.

[Wheemer]

Sage really sorta lacks in this situation. I seem to get better reception from my analog cable in WinTV, and it defiante looks perfect straight to the tv.

I think somehow the tuning system in windows or sage is not so good.

[mike1961]

Almost forgot - the Freq Shifter program is free and should help a lot when adjusting and fine tuning channels. Here's the link:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12068

Regarding the prior post - I think Sage and Win TV should have the same reception. But, if the "automatic tuning" is on in Sage Properties then Sage may not be properly tuning in the channel. However, if one can get the frequencies from their cable co. then it should be identical. Also, I wonder if that's why it takes so long to change channels because it's trying to auto tune to the right frequency.

Mike