HDHR/digital tuning in v6.5 & later

[davefred99]

I updated to all the latest HDHR beta software and the latest Beta Sage STV and it all worked out well for me.
One thing that I might suggest to anyone that is updating all this is to be sure to turn off the Sage service and close down sage completely before re-scanning in sage after the HDHR scan and zapto it updates are completed.
I even went as far as removing all tuner sources and re-adding them one at a time. This didnt take to much extra time and made for a smooth transition.
Dave.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by davefred99

I updated to all the latest HDHR beta software and the latest Beta Sage STV and it all worked out well for me.

I'm glad it worked, but...

One thing that I might suggest to anyone that is updating all this is to be sure to turn off the Sage service and close down sage completely before re-scanning in sage after the HDHR scan and zapto it updates are completed.
I even went as far as removing all tuner sources and re-adding them one at a time. This didnt take to much extra time and made for a smooth transition.

... you should't have to do all this extra stuff. I ran in service mode & didn't remove any other sources. I wanted the other sources to remain because my HDHR QAM tuner copied the lineup from one of the existing sources. In fact, I even had the SageTV service running & UI open while the HDHR channel editor was open & scanning. The downside of that was that the SageTV service exited & restarted when I finally closed the HDHR software.

I do recommend making a backup copy of your SageTV installation before testing/changing anything.

- Andy

[SprDtyF350]

All worked. Didn't restart, delete, etc. anything.. As long as you get everything right in the HDHR setup Sage seems to do what it is supposed to...

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by Opus4

The downside of that was that the SageTV service exited & restarted when I finally closed the HDHR software.

Yeah, I noticed this too. I don't like the the HDHR setup program doesn't warn you that it is about to kill and restart the service. I hope the app is at least doing a clean net stop of the Sage service and not just killing the process or something.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Yeah, I noticed this too. I don't like the the HDHR setup program doesn't warn you that it is about to kill and restart the service. I hope the app is at least doing a clean net stop of the Sage service and not just killing the process or something.

The log looked line a clean exit -- I've sent an email to ask whether the service was getting stopped on purpose or by accident.

Edit: It was restarting the SaegTV service all the time, but that will be changed to only restart when needed. And, it is a clean process of stopping the service, then restarting it, which seemed to be the case from the log.

- Andy

[appelm]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Have you installed all the required updates? That includes the STV, the DLL, and the HDHR software listed in the first post of this thread.

Make sure you are still using the correct STV by going to System Information. If that screen lists something else, it isn't the correct STV to use for the scan in SageTV.

Are you using Vista? Maybe there is still an issue about where the HDHR software is putting the .scn file.

Make sure you are assigning the correct Guide Name and Number in the HDHR Channel Editor after its scan by checking the correct listings on the Zap2it site.

If you still have problems, I'll probably ask to see your scn file and your debug log. (The SageTV log would need to come from the UI where the scan was run.)

I finally got it to work. Since no one else seemed to be having problems I worked on this for almost 2 hours today. I tried it several times and finally was able to get it to work. I think my setup got totally wacked before the latest STV fix when I had been trying unsuccessfully to fix it myself.

I tried so many permutations to get it to work today. Finally I basically scratched by hdhomerun install. I exited everything, removed the hdhomerun software, re-installed it, double checked the firmware had been uploaded, re-ran the hdhomerun scan. Then before opening Sage, I removed all the encoder lines in the properties file for hdhomerun tuners. In Sage, I re-added the hdhomerun tuners and did the scan. This time the scan worked properly and all the channels were properly mapped.

fyi, not using Vista.. all XP pro.

[Opus4]

BTW: there is a new release of the HDHR software. I have not used it, but it doesn't look like the changes would affect channel scanning/setup. It says it fixes the problem of always restarting the SageTV service -- 20080719beta1.

- Andy

[Conejo]

Tested the latest beta versions. Nice!

I filled in the Guide Number with cable lineup info.
Threw in a couple of Music Choice channels for testing.
All the channels were assigned a phy-1008-lineup for physical. Nice.
Not all channels were set active. I had to scan through the list and look for errant Physical channels and activate them. Easy enough.

Question: When is the Solitaire Plugin going to be ready?

[AzJazz]

I forgot to mention that I did need to manually enter all the guide numbers from Zap2It to the HDHR setup in order for things to work out OK, so it still required some manual intervention for proper functionality.

[Conejo]

AzJazz,

When you say "enter all the guide numbers from Zap2it", do you mean the cable channel numbers 2-1000, the station call letters or the stnID/sntNum info. The setup directions do say you have to use the first two IDs in the HDHR setup process.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your comment.

Were you hoping the HDHR Setup would be fully programmed with Station ID and Channel Assignment and you'd just be required to select the channels you want? It's possible to do, and SiliconDust is close to achieving it. But this falls under the umbrella of cloud computing, where *someone* on your same system enters the correct cable lineup then a second person enters the exact same values. From this we can assume it's verified. There could be other check/balances used to prevent shinanigans, but this type of live updating could also allow for lineup auto-updating.

[malbec]

I wish I could report good news as well. However, I just spent my own 1-2 hours fiddling with this. I have followed the instructions to EXACTLY without any luck. Everything works fine in the HDHR, I can view all of the shows in HDHR via VLC just fine. However, Sage can't seem to connect and find the shows as I get the notorious "no signal."

Any tips to try, or am I to send in a bug report?

[Opus4]

You could send in a bug report, but I would be interested in seeing the .scn files that the HDHR software creates and the debug log from SageTV -- both sagetv_0.txt and sagetvclient_0.txt, if the UI is not acting as the server.

And, just to make sure: the instructions you followed included using the DLL from the first post of this thread and the STV update downloaded from within SageTV?

- Andy

[malbec]

Thanks Andy. THis will be a stupid one, but after a reboot, some rest, and one more attempt from scratch, I got it all to work. Thanks!!!!

Now, question no. 2 .. if all stations work, except for one ... Silicondust issue I assume?

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by malbec

Now, question no. 2 .. if all stations work, except for one ... Silicondust issue I assume?

Is the non-working channel active (green dot) and contain a proper remap similar to the other channels? Is it a full-time stations, or a VOD?

[malbec]

The channel works fine using VLC out of the HD Homerun setup to view the channel. However, when attempting to access it in Sage I get the "no signal." The channel is the "CW" so a full time station. The mapping in Sage looks like all of the other channels that do work. Sage bug report? Silicondust? Both?

One additional piece of detective work (I think). In Sage, I get a signal strength reading of 87 - 93% for all of the working channels. The not working one flashes betwen 70 and 0 and then cuts out. Again, can view it in VLC...

Also, I have no intention of hijacking this thread, so if you would ... a response limited to which one you think may be the cause so I can get the proper bug report filed... Thanks!

[Opus4]

I don't have a problem where a channel is viewable in VLC but not in SageTV, so.... my guess would be to file a bug report with SageTV. They will probably ask for a debug log, like I mentioned above, and maybe they will be able to tell where the tuning problem is.

- Andy

[Opus4]

I've released a new STV update for the v6.4 beta.

The biggest change for this version is that during the channel scan in SageTV, channel names can be matched to channels on other lineups. This means that you can configure your HDHR tuner to use no lineup if other tuner(s) already use lineup(s) that contain the channels that the HDHR tuner can receive. This can result in a much smaller list of channels in Channel Setup -- rather than a complete digital cable TV lineup of hundreds of channels, of which only a fraction are clear QAM, the lineup will only contain the channels found in the HDHR's Channel Editor scan.

I've used this to go from a lineup with 399 channels, only 28 of them clear QAM, to a lineup containing just 28 channels. That makes it easier to manage the channels that the tuner can actually receive.

See the first post of this thread for more detailed instructions on how to set up the HDHR tuners on Windows using the latest HDHR software & the SageTV v6.4.5 beta. Let me know if any of the steps are still too unclear.

- Andy

[technazz]

I've got this working from a working 6.4.4 setup. I followed the directions with the new DLL and the updated stv and new HDHR software.

Just a few comments.

I got no signal or wrong after remapping to delfault logical channel. I think it was beacause I didnt remove my 6.4.4 HDHR source and add it again. So I removed both tuners, shut down Sage UI and service and then restarted re-added the source scanned and it worked. I also found that I had to scan on both HDHR tuners for some reason. If I just scanned on when I set up the other it didnt work. I think the scn file in generated upon a scan in Sage.

Technazz

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by technazz

I got no signal or wrong after remapping to delfault logical channel. I think it was beacause I didnt remove my 6.4.4 HDHR source and add it again. So I removed both tuners, shut down Sage UI and service and then restarted re-added the source scanned and it worked.

In v6.4.5, did you just try to change the lineup for the existing source, then? I can see that not working if you had previously set up QAM on the HDHR using the old method of selecting Antenna for the tuning option. I should probably update the instructions to say to remove the old HDHR source if coming from the old setup style. Maybe you could just do a full reconfigure w/o first removing it, unless that is what you tried.

I also found that I had to scan on both HDHR tuners for some reason. If I just scanned on when I set up the other it didnt work. I think the scn file in generated upon a scan in Sage.

The HDHR scan creates the .scn file & SageTV's scan uses the info in that file to create the .frq file. So, if there is no scn file, SageTV's scan won't work properly for QAM on the HDHR in Windows.

You can, however, copy the scn file for one HDHR tuner (or other QAM tuner) to the scn file for another tuner & continue form there. That was a tip I was going to add, based on feedback I've seen.

- Andy

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by technazz

I also found that I had to scan on both HDHR tuners for some reason. If I just scanned on when I set up the other it didnt work. I think the scn file in generated upon a scan in Sage.

Technazz

This is new since the change to Direct QAM. Since each tuner can be set to ATSC or, now, QAM a .frq translation file needs to be built per tuner.

If both tuners are to be set the same you could just copy and rename the first QAM.frq file -- but since the changes that Andy made to the STV I think it's easier to scan one, scan the second then make any necessary changes to the second in Sage and be done.