Dual Tuner and Dual EPGs Confusion

[m0ng00se30]

Ok guys.. I've read all the posts I could find on this and I'm still confused a little... ok a lot. Let me give you the run down on what I'm doing.

2 tuners (250) soon to be 3 once I get this figured out!!

Tuner #1 Comcast Cable (Tv Tuner)
Tuner #2 Dish Network (Svid)

Ok.. I see that you can't have dulipcate channels.. IE if FOX is 10(comcast), I can't have it as 247 (Dish). I have every channel on Dish that I can on Comcast, but the reason I wanted this was to record things that I'm missing by having only 1 Dish receiver.

SO... if the way I under stand this is right... Let say I disable Comcast Channel 10 (FOX) because I have a better picture on DISH Channel 247 (FOX). Ok now the tricky part... Let say I'm watching a baseball game on ESPN using the SAT tuner... Now nothing I have set to record from FOX will work because I'm using the SAT tuner, and Sage knows NOTHING about the cable tuner (channel 10) because I had to disable it. IS this correct??

Or am I so far off track I need a GPS to get back in line?

Or is this only a perfect mess if all turners are connected to the exact channel feeds (CATV[non-digital]) and all have same channels?

Thanks!!

Mike

[White94Cobra]

AFIK you can have duplicate channels. I have four tuners... one with DirecTV and three with Charter cable. All of my locals are on duplicate channels (below 100) plus lots of others (ESPN, SCIFI). In the guide it lists both channels with their call letters

I.E. (ignore the call letters, I'm sure I got them wrong)

3 KQCA (NBC)
3 Northwest Cable News
10 KTXT (ABC)
10 KTVL (CBS)

DirecTV is plugged into the SVideo input on tuner 4, and I gave tuner 4 the highest priority in the properties file. When it isn't recording anything it will default to tuner 4 (most of the time). If tuner 4 is recording something, it distributes to the other tuners. For example - It knows to record Survivor on either channel 10 or channel 13 depending on which tuner it selects.

BTW - I'm using the Sage guide service, not XMLTV - but several months ago I was using XMLTV with the same setup. In fact, I even had one tuner with both Cable and DirecTV and it worked.

[m0ng00se30]

I must have something set incorrectly then... because if I have ESPN (CATV 13) enabled... then ESPN (DISH 140) will NOT show up in the EPG. Comcast is channels 2-86, Dish kicks in at 100-9000 I Think these days.

Maybe the .properties file has an answer in it.

Does anyone else have this setup, and NOT running into the same wall that I am? To me the way its working for me right now doesn't make sense, but I'm new to the whole sage thing, and have never owned a Tivo so maybe its just an adjustment I'm not use to yet?


Let me clarify what I'm saying about this.... lets take TechTV since I don't have it on my catv, but I do on dish! If I have to remove Fox from my CATV be cause its duplicated on my DISH, then anytime I'm watching TechTV I will never be able to record anything on FOX even tho I have will have a tuner with it available on CATV 10 (that I had to remove to make it show up as DISH #247)!! This just doesn't sound right, and I believe I got something setup incorrectly!

BTW Thanks Cobra... at least I know its something that can be done and I just need to track down whats different. I have a feeling its something with the PRIORITIES you mentioned.. since i haven't seen that setting before I'll dig through the .properties file tongiht!!

THanks

[JJarmoc]

I must have something set incorrectly then... because if I have ESPN (CATV 13) enabled... then ESPN (DISH 140) will NOT show up in the EPG.

You will only see ESPN listed in the program guide once. However, in the background sage keeps track of both instances. There's no need to clutter up the epguide with duplicate info.

For example, let's say your dis has ESPN on 140, and HBO on 150, and your cable has ESPN on 13. You may only see ESPN on 13. BUT, if you record something on HBO (150, through the dish) and then select to watch/record something on ESPN (which the guide displays as 140) Sage will use the second tuner, tuned to the channel 13, to fulfil your request.

Make sense? The channel numbers are really pretty meaningless when you get into a multituner setup, sage handles the details for you.

[m0ng00se30]

Oh... well that does make sense...

So sage knows I have ESPN on 13, and 140.. and just chooses the best one for the job??? Guess this proves its smarter than I am. So it just a matter of picking which one I want to show up... either 13 or 140 in the guide.

Is thats the way it works then that solves everything... sorry I didn't test this first, but I was just at a loss.


Thanks for the reply.. that eases my mind on getting my wife use to sage, from a NO epg product like Showshifter!!

Thanks again!!!

[White94Cobra]

That's interesting... mine shows both channels in the guide. On one screen I can have two NBC's, two CBS's and two ABC's. They show the correct call-letters, channel #, and show the correct graphic.

[stanger89]

It might work different for local channels since different CBS's often have different lineups and some people might get more than one set of local channels.

[m0ng00se30]

Question would be .... is it keying off on? The call letters maybe? or is there some unique # for each channel that identifies it?

cobra... you mean you have 2 CBS channels listed? or is one a local station WTOK, and one a national "CBS" feed? Maybe thats the difference?

On the downside of this.. i got A LOT of channel logos to find now... arrgghhh

Mike

[White94Cobra]

I have two of each network, plus I'm pretty sure I have two of all other duplicates. I just thought of why though... I have a Sacramento feed from DirecTV but my local feed (Medford, OR) through Charter Cable. No locals for Medford on DirecTV so I "live" at my uncle's house.

[m0ng00se30]

Hahaha... that would explain it...

[JJarmoc]

I'm pretty sure it's keyed off call letters, which would mean that local feeds of national stations could be duplicates, but still show up seperately.

[m0ng00se30]

OK here is another senerio... I'm trying to look into.

My CATV runs 2-68... Dish starts at 100-9999. I want my DISH channels to show up in my list, seeing that CATV is lower numbers ESPN 13 gets in the list over ESPN 140. Normally I wouldn't complain but the CATV really sucks in my area, and would much rather see things throught SAT.

What can I do to "make" this happen... I tried to record somthing last night like discussed earlier, and I'm not sure it knows that the unlisted duplicate channels exsist!!! I'm' going to keep trying to make it record the senario that I'm wondering about.

Thanks folks!!

[White94Cobra]

I ran into a similar issue. I always wanted it to record from the Sat. input if possible, and fall-back to the cable tuners when necessary. There is a way to change the priorities of the tuners in the properties file. I gave my tuner that the Sat. is plugged into the higher priority and it records everything it can on that tuner (most of the time). I'll see if I can find a thread to reference.

Here you go:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...tuner+priority

[m0ng00se30]

As always thanks for the great support!!!