How to set up Sage TV for Clear Qam??

[Ericft]

I just saw that the new beta 6.2.5 supports clear Qam for HVR-1600...really excited to try it but don't really know how to set up the TV source. Do I set it up to tune cable TV or OTA/antenna broadcast? And then after it asks me what EPG update service to use, it asks whether to use cable TV or antenna broadcast..once again which one do i choose? I have tried a few combinations and still get NO SIGNAL. Does Cox cable here in Providence RI not have clear qAM channels... I believe it does coz I have plugged a clear qAM HDTV and worked well. Is there anything in Sagetv that i have to change in setup?
Any help would be much appreciated as this support is the reason i got the HVR 1600 in the first place. Tired of shifting my rabbit ears around everytime I want to tune into a different HD channel. Thanks!

[DRB]

I need the answer on this too. I've set up QAM in the Winn200 app and it works but haven't got it going in Sage yet. Maybe I didn't give the channel scan long enough to find anything.

DRB

[Koofic]

Originally Posted by Ericft

I just saw that the new beta 6.2.5 supports clear Qam for HVR-1600...really excited to try it but don't really know how to set up the TV source. Do I set it up to tune cable TV or OTA/antenna broadcast? And then after it asks me what EPG update service to use, it asks whether to use cable TV or antenna broadcast..once again which one do i choose? I have tried a few combinations and still get NO SIGNAL. Does Cox cable here in Providence RI not have clear qAM channels... I believe it does coz I have plugged a clear qAM HDTV and worked well. Is there anything in Sagetv that i have to change in setup?
Any help would be much appreciated as this support is the reason i got the HVR 1600 in the first place. Tired of shifting my rabbit ears around everytime I want to tune into a different HD channel. Thanks!

For QAM on a 1600 you have to set it up to tune cable in Sage. It took me quite a while to get the channel scan to pick up all the clear QAM signals. The scan took about 1/2 an hour, after which I backed up the frq file then redid the scan. It took about four tries to get everything, then I manually combined the frq files to get the complete list.

[Polypro]

Can you just remap the physical channel to the same one as the HDHR?

P

[FMAX]

Originally Posted by Koofic

For QAM on a 1600 you have to set it up to tune cable in Sage. It took me quite a while to get the channel scan to pick up all the clear QAM signals. The scan took about 1/2 an hour, after which I backed up the frq file then redid the scan. It took about four tries to get everything, then I manually combined the frq files to get the complete list.

Do You have better details....
I tried many combos, but this is what I thought was the correct sequence....
WinTV 418 TS Capture, Digital TV Tuner, Tune Cable TV, XMLTV Data, Cable/Satellite, (Comcast)my local.
I then do channel search and nothing.
I also have a HDHR and tried to follow same setup by mapping channels individualy....Nothin!
I do have Signals with WinTV but they show non-standard numbers (2022 qam-2) not the digital numbers (84-101)
I am trying this on an independent (OLD) server running the sage beta 6.2.5

I Here there is suport for HVR-1600 ???
Anybody have any Luck?????
PS.. it is the Correct HVR-1600 V.74041

Thanks for the Help...GO BEARS!

[Koofic]

Originally Posted by FMAX

Do You have better details....
I tried many combos, but this is what I thought was the correct sequence....
WinTV 418 TS Capture, Digital TV Tuner, Tune Cable TV, XMLTV Data, Cable/Satellite, (Comcast)my local.
I then do channel search and nothing.
I also have a HDHR and tried to follow same setup by mapping channels individualy....Nothin!
I do have Signals with WinTV but they show non-standard numbers (2022 qam-2) not the digital numbers (84-101)
I am trying this on an independent (OLD) server running the sage beta 6.2.5

I Here there is suport for HVR-1600 ???
Anybody have any Luck?????
PS.. it is the Correct HVR-1600 V.74041

Thanks for the Help...GO BEARS!

Your sequence looks OK to me. The only difference on mine is that I'm using Zap2It instead of XMLTV.

My HVR-1600 wouldn't tune any QAM stations until I messed with my physical cabling for a while to get the signal level just right. The original setup with two splitters found a few channels with WinTV but none in Sage. My second attempt was a straight run with no splitters. This time Sage picked up five or six channels but the tuner would lock onto one and just stay there. Here's a little step by step of what I mean:
1. Start watching a show on 16-1 WFXT-HD
2. Change channel to 4-1 WBZ-HD
3. The screen goes black for a second, then continues to show me show on WFXT-HD even though Sage says I'm now watching the show on WBZ-HD.

The only setup that worked in both WinTV and Sage was with one splitter. It seems like the tuner has a narrow range of signal strength and signal/noise ratio that will work in Sage. Any less and you get nothing, any more and the tuner locks onto a signal and won't let go.

[Humanzee]

Like FMAX, in wintv2000 I get QAM channels with numbers like 2011, 2012, 2014 etc. Not the 48-1, 48-2 that I am used to seeing via ATSC OTA. Could this be causing a problem with sage's scan for QAM channels. If I recall correctly, the scan started with channel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. It would take a long time to get to the 2000's but it stopped well before then.

Also, I get no sound on QAM channels with the wintv app, anybody else see that and then get it to work in sage? I read someplace that this is only an issue for live tv in the wintv app, but recorded files playback fine with sound.

Having given up on QAM last night at midnight, I tried to setup analog tuning on the 1600, but immediately got a playback error when you get to the preview screen. Any ideas?

[DRB]

Win-TV pick-up all the channels, Sage seem to find alot of the channels but only one would come in with a picture. I think I will try a amp on the line and see what I get.

DRB

[SprDtyF350]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

Like FMAX, in wintv2000 I get QAM channels with numbers like 2011, 2012, 2014 etc. Not the 48-1, 48-2 that I am used to seeing via ATSC OTA. Could this be causing a problem with sage's scan for QAM channels. If I recall correctly, the scan started with channel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. It would take a long time to get to the 2000's but it stopped well before then.

The channel numbers WinTv finds really don't mean anything. Sage won't scan into the 2000's, only into the 100's. The channels you would see from your cable would fall in there. Mine start at 81.6 and stop at 120.10 and I get about 67 channels. Not all are good for anything. Some are music, some are on-demand stuff, others are previews. Some of my channels show up with the station id and the right channel numbers. Like 4-1, 7-1, etc. I have had to map each channel though to the station number shown in the guide to get the guide data to match. For example, Sage displays my HD NBC channel as 4-1, which is really 122-4-1. The guide data though is at 211. Once mapped it all works.

Very confusing since ATSC uses one set of numbers, QAM another, and WinTV something else. It has been working very well though. I am missing one of my network channels (Fox) but get the others along with 5 PBS channels AETVHD, and TNTHD among others.

[sabre]

SprDtyF350, could you show the exact steps you use to map the channels, using the example that you started w/ the NBC channel. I have been having trouble getting the EPG data to show. Thanks

[SprDtyF350]

Originally Posted by sabre

SprDtyF350, could you show the exact steps you use to map the channels, using the example that you started w/ the NBC channel. I have been having trouble getting the EPG data to show. Thanks

I will try but it still confuses me sometimes too..

Lets say my NBC channel is showing in the guide as 4-1. It will show the picture and it is the right channel, just no guide. I looked into the channel setup and found that channel 4-1 was listed like this:

4-1 - WRC1 - [122-4-1]
WRC-1

I also found in the channel setup a channel 211. It showed in setup like this:

211 - WRCDT
WRCDT (WRC-DT) Washington, DC (Hagrstwn)

Channel 211 will not show a tv picture but it does have the right guide data.

I went to the remap button for channel 4-1 and picked "Map different station to this physical channel". I picked 211. When I went back to the normal guide after a few seconds the guide data then showed for 4-1. I then had 4-1 with guide data, and a picture.

I hope this helps. It definitely is confusing.

See ya, Randy

[sabre]

Thanks Randy,

I had removed the beta after getting CPU spikes in 6.2.5, but really want to use QAM and hope it gets more stable.

And with your guidance , the EPG concern is addressed. Thanks much.

[SprDtyF350]

Originally Posted by sabre

Thanks Randy,

I had removed the beta after getting CPU spikes in 6.2.5, but really want to use QAM and hope it gets more stable.

And with your guidance , the EPG concern is addressed. Thanks much.

No problem.. Hope ya get it to work. CPU spikes have not been a problem for me with 6.2.5. Only time I see high CPU usage is if Comskip is doing its thing. I also use the Nvidia decoder as I would be maxed out with the default Sage decoder..

See ya..

[Taddeusz]

I finally took the time earlier in the week to figure out how to setup Clear QAM on my HDHR. I followed the steps outlined in a previous thread to create a channel list with fake channel numbers linked to the correct frequencies and program numbers. Then in SageTV you map whatever channel it is to the fake channel number and the HDHR will tune it.

It was confusing at first but I got it figured out. If only SageTV had a QAM scan option. It would also be nice to be able to have program listings for only QAM channels. I temporarily screwed up my channel data because I selected the same channel listing as my other two analog tuners. SageTV wanted to start recording analog programs from my HDHR because of this. I had to use a seperate Cox Cable listing for my area and assign it to the HDHR and disable all the analog channels. Then add and map the Clear QAM channels to the correct cable channels so that the EPG data would be correct.

It all worked out in the end. My only real problem is that I still need an antenna hanging off one of my HDHR tuners so that I can get the local ABC affiliate in HD. They're having a stupid dispute with Cox Cable because their parent company wants fees from Cox for carrying their HD feed. It's really annoying that I need the antenna just for one channel. But some of my favorite shows are on ABC.

[Humanzee]

So it helps if you are using a version of Sage that supports QAM, I usually just update to the most current beta as soon as they are out. I assumed I was already running 6.2.5 and spent hours pulling out my hair trying to get QAM channels to show up, I even bought a special cable amplifier that will work with my cable modem. Finally after giving up, I happened to check my version number and the light bulb above my head came on. Doh.

I agree that they should figure out a way to do a separate line up for QAM channels. I too had to find a near by cable system to get a clean line up that I could match program info too. Further, there are some QAM channels that aren't on the regular cable line up for what ever reason. Granted they aren't the best in programing, but there is at least 1 more PBS channel that I'd like to map correctly.

[sabre]

Has anyone had success using the PredefinedQAM.frq file for scanning to save time? I put in the the Ch 80 + frequencies from the QAMScan-Hauppauge WinTV 418 TS Capture-0.frq file since the ones prior to them had no channels.

But when i do a scan it jumps to ch 80 like i think it should, but then it does not find any of the channels when i do a full scan. Anyone have success using this?

[FMAX]

just to clarify to a few ,
HDHR set up was well defined by Silicone Dust( )
and ther set up program scanned the channels very well.

Win TV is the problem,unless i don't get the picture.

Sage tv doesn't scan QAM,right? therefore allowing it to scan is useless.

Does all QAM use same addresses (84-110) like with the HDHR and my QAM tv.
or does Hauppauge use a different channel marking sequence?
(i've seem 84.121, 210-1-4, those look like ATSC to me.)

I don't think signal strenght is the problem I have a 4-way Powered amp to the 2 tuners of the HDHR and the 2 tuners of the WinTV.
HDHR shows signal 75-90%

I read somthing in another thread with the latest beta version about adding a string to the properties file, to enable or force QAM searching...?

what i read was vague, any professional out there have any luck with that yet?

EPG data...HDHR only recieves unencrypted channels usually networks, so when you set up guide data use SatTV(if using Cable)or cable (if using sat)
that way what you remapp won't effect your other tuners.

[Yooper]

The problem I've found is that if you select a cable line-up, it will include all the channels, including the encrypted channels. The encrypted channels will not work.

With the HDHR I used their utility to see which ones actually were un-encrypted. Then I selected the local digital cable network and then went thru and un-selected the ones that were encrypted, leaving only the ones that were not encrypted.

If you select "deselect all", it deselects channels for the other cards as well, so you can't use this.

It is a bit tedious, since there are a lot of digital channels.

For the 1600 card, I have not figured out quite how to do it yet. I assume it would pick up only the same channels as my HDHR so I can use the existin channel line-up.

I don't need the 1600 since I got the HDHR, but I might need it in the future.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by FMAX

Sage tv doesn't scan QAM,right? therefore allowing it to scan is useless.

It does, at least it did for me with the 1600.

I then got channel number that showed up like 111.1, 111.2 etc. These also show as 111-0-1, 111-0-2. Once I got those to show up in the guide I had a hard time remapping them. I ended up disabling every channel in the line up and then adding a new channel with the station call letters from a like channel in my line up, then putting in 111-0-1 as the channel to tune. I ended up with duplicates in my line up, but only enabled the one with the station ID. So now I get ABC HD on two different channels in my program guide. One over firewire and one via the 1600. Good enough for me. Sage can figure out which to record off of. Some channels with the same call letters get combined by Sage in the program guide and some do not.

Its working, so I've moved on to other topics.

[FMAX]

I will post a walk thru sometime this weekend....

I had 1 of 2 problems.

1st I created a blank text file "QAM_FRQ_CACHE.ENABLE" reading the instructions in the release notes for the latest BETA....
SageTV V6.2.6 Release Candidate

2nd I unhooked my other cable so that only the ATSC connector was used.

this is just a brief message for those in need, I will post a walk thru with help on channel mapping this weekend.....

I'll start a new thread with a link from this to that.

REVISED::::::::::::
Link to Walk Thru...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...47&postcount=1

I hope this ends this thread,
and hope this pays back all the help I've recieved in this forum.

Keep Posting good Ideas!

Go Bears!!