Every HD Channel Tuning into Same Station

[QuasiInsomniac]

Hey everyone, just made the jump to 6.2

Having an odd problem here. I noticed that my HD tuner (HVR-1600) is tuning into the same channel no matter what I pick from on the Program Guide. For example, I flipped on the HD recording of the Office tonight, and found that while the PG info said "The Office", the show recorded was CSI. Tried removing the source and adding it back in as well as manually adding the channels that didnt seem to be working right; no luck. Searching the forums didnt provide any similar issues that I could find.

And as a side note, I was noticing a lot of skipping and sometimes crappy audio with my HVR-1600 SD recordings a while back. I think I found that it flaked out when it was trying to record an HD show and two other SD shows. I looked at my recording settings and one of the SD tuners was set to record at 6GB per hour. I did the quick math, and correct me if I'm wrong, but should you exceed the bus limit on the PCI bus (33MB per sec?) you would notice problems odd and otherwise from your recordings because said bus would be maxed out.

[QuasiInsomniac]

<Bump>

Submitted a support request, but wanted to see if anyone here might have the same problem.

[theguru]

I've had the tuning problem as well. i change the channel, but the same station displays.

Same HR-1600 as well.

[QuasiInsomniac]

Any resolution on this yet? I dont watch a lot of HD, but when I switch over to all HD stuff, I'm going to get a little bored with one channel. I currently have a support request in but Sage has been no help so far. I did see in another thread that Sage had offered a modified version of a dshow file. I haven't tried it yet because Sage is currently recording and because the fix was designed for the same problem, only with qam. Let me know what you think.

[Conejo]

What diagnostics have you done?

1. Restarted SageTV...
2. Powered down and restarted PC...
3. Checked the .freq file...
4. Clicked the VIEW button in 'SageTV Setup Video Sources ... Channel Setup' on the enabled channels...
5. Checked the video in Hauppauge application
6. Reinstalled the Hauppauge setup, BDA drivers...
...

[mskitty666]

I too noticed this behavior when setting up my tuner. I discovered that if I have live tv playing/recording this will happen. Usually pressing stop and selecting the new channel works. It is my suspicion that this happens because the digital tuner takes too long to tune the channel. On some channels it can take ten seconds or more to tune it fully and I get more trouble with those. I also expirience this with my digital cable STB. Often it will try to tune the channel, miss and not change channels at all. Perhaps this is some flaw with digital signals in general. I'm looking for a way to adjust the timeout with regards to tuning new channels but I don't think this is possible right now.

[bcjenkins]

Since upgrading have you run through a channel scan again?

B

[QuasiInsomniac]

Yep, done all the standard diagnostics, and even ran thru the channel scan again. No luck.

Rolled back to version 6.1.6, 6.1.9.6.1.10, and 6.1.19 and still same problem everytime.

There is probably a corrupt file somewhere or a setting in my properties file that is screwing things up. Unless someone can give a suggestion, I have to wait on Sage support to get back to me, or blow away and install (which I don't want to do, I like all my favorites and stuff).

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by QuasiInsomniac

There is probably a corrupt file somewhere or a setting in my properties file that is screwing things up. Unless someone can give a suggestion, I have to wait on Sage support to get back to me, or blow away and install (which I don't want to do, I like all my favorites and stuff).

Your favorites 'and stuff', like current recordings and watched shows, are stored in your Wiz.bin file database. So long as you save these files and preserve your recordings you should be able to rebuild everything else. Your SageTV setup info is stored in your *.properties files and can be rebuilt without affecting your wiz.bin database.

Your REBUILD should go something like this:

0) EXIT SageTV (and the SageTV Service, if running)

1) COPY all the wiz.* files to a safe location.
2) RENAME your /ProgramFiles/SageTV/ directory to '/SageTV_BKUP'

3) REINSTALL the TUNER DRIVERS
4) INSTALL a new version of SageTV
5) Once you have your system working (tuners, settings) you can:

6) Tell SageTV where your current RECORDING DIRECTORIES are (if you haven't already done it) so SageTV can see your previously recorded files

7) EXIT SageTV (and the SageTV Service if running)
8) COPY a version of your saved wiz.bin file to your SageTV/SageTV directory
9) Start SageTV and wait for the application to find and match all the previously recorded material (**this may take a while)

10) If you have placeshifter, or other STVi or addons, you will need to setup these and any user accounts again.

[Aside] Copying or Backing Up your wiz.* files on a regular (weekly?, daily?) basis can also cut down on the time you may spend in the mental ward of your local lockup.

People with a little bit of disposable income handy might want to invest in 'Image Backup' software that allows you to 'freeze' a copy of your boot/system/apps partition and recover from annoying errors like this. I use Acronis True Image, but if you have the instructions you could create a Linux boot cd that can create a similar image file and save it to an external USB drive. [/Aside]

** Failure to 'wait a while' when SageTV is rematching the recorded files to it's wiz.bin database may cause SageTV to drop recorded material from it's internal list.

[QuasiInsomniac]

Thanks for that info. I had no idea that was the case with the wiz.bin file.

Sage support sent me an email that said the most recent beta fixes my issue. I wont be able to try it for another couple of hours but if others already have and their issue is resolved, it'd be nice to know about it on here.

Does anyone know how stable the most recent beta is?

[QuasiInsomniac]

Just upgraded to the beta Sage support suggested. Absolutely no change in the problem. All HD channels still tune to same station (CBS). For those of your that had similair problems, what area of the country/state are you in?

[Yooper]

I've noticed this problem for quite some time. It seems that if there is any problem with your HD setup, or if the channel is encrytped or nonexistent, then it will arbitrarily display another channel.

For the most recent beta, I had two new HD channels show up in the lineup. Both of these new channels actually showed another channel - these channels are probably encryted.

[ybrew]

My problem with channel changes is thus...

I'm using an antenna, just worrying about the locals, and only worrying about abc, cbs, nbc & fox.

I've got an hdhr and two fusion gold HD's (USB)

occassionaly I'll be recording fox but it'll be tuned to NBC, or vice versa.
Since I've got 4 hd tuners and need 4 channels only, i'm thinking about setting up abc and nbc on the hdhr and using a different lineup and using cbs & fox on the fusion gold's.

I'm hoping if the tuners each only have access to two channels they'll never try to change channels.

I keep meaning to set this up. Maybe this week.

[QuasiInsomniac]

Well, Sage support asked me to do a channel scan in WinTV. Guess what, same problem, only tuning into one station. I reinstalled the drivers again for the HVR-1600, and wouldn't you know it, the HD tuner won't tune anything now. When I purchased the thing, it was the only game in town pretty much, but now I think I can finally wash my hands of this Hauppauge junk.

I put in a support request with Hauppauge, I'll post here when I hear back from them....

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by QuasiInsomniac

Well, Sage support asked me to do a channel scan in WinTV. Guess what, same problem, only tuning into one station. I reinstalled the drivers again for the HVR-1600, and wouldn't you know it, the HD tuner won't tune anything now.

Did you try running the HWCLEAR application first, and then restart the PC for the install?

[QuasiInsomniac]

I didn't actually, only because I didn't want to reinstall the drivers for the three other tuners. But I guess it'll have to do it now if I want my loan HD channel back.... Doesn't really seem worth it for one channel does it?

[QuasiInsomniac]

Ran HWCLEAR and HD portion of tuner doesnt work at all now. I think I may try to RMA it because it sounds like something is fishy.

[Conejo]

I know how frustrating this can be. It should work, since you paid money for what was supposed to be a working product, but sometimes Windows doesn't want to cooperate and sometimes it's the position or combination of cards on the motherboard.

If you're still willing to try things, test with just the Hauppauge WinTV drivers and application:

1) Swap a PCI position; test
2) Pull out the other capture cards; test
3) Pull out any board not necessary for the test; and test

Yes, it could be a bad board, but it could be a hardware conflict that a replacement board won't cure.

4) RMA the board for a replacement; test
5) Pull out the board, sell it on eBay, purchase another brand; test

by this time, you can tell us how much you like or dislike the newly elected President of your favorite, unfavorite country.