Please help with HDHomeRun and SageTV

[blips]

I had SageTV running on a MacBook Pro with my HDHomeRun. I was just testing it out until I got my Mac Mini. I purchased a new Mac Mini and I installed SageTV to test it out and it does not see my HDHomeRun. What can I do to get it to find it? When I got to set up video sources it just says "No video capture devices found" and tells me to click continue and takes me back to the main menu. I installed the HDHomeRun Gui interface and I can tune channels with my Mini so I know that the mini can see it. Now how to I get SageTV to see it?

[blips]

Nevermind, I installed 6.5.12 beta over 6.5.9 and it seemed to fix it.

[sandor]

So what are your thoughts on a Mac SageTV server?

[blips]

Last night was the first night I really had to play with it. I'm still trying to learn how it works. There are a few things that are not working right and I have not had the time to play with it.

My issues are as such:

1) The guide data is not completely filled in. When I first set up SageTV on 3/30 it was not all there. I then let it run over night because I thought the guide data updates over night. Last night it was not filled in at all. When I started tuning in some stations to watch live TV and then it filled up a little bit. I will see what it is like tonight.

2) The HDHomeRun has 2 tuners. I hook up one to my antenna and one to cable. When I watch TV over the antenna after about a minute it pixelizes and the sound is out of sync. I don't know if my cable run to the antenna is too long and I need an amplifier.

3) I tried watching live tv over the cable tuner and after 15 minutes it seemed like it would pixelize and stutter. I am now beginning to wonder if the Mac mini is not able to handle SageTV. I just purchased the new Mac Mini: 2.26Mhz, 4GB Ram, 320 GB hard drive 7200rpm. I will try to play with it over the next couple of days. If I cannot get it to work right I might have to try EyeTV, but I really like the SageTV interface better.

4) I am in the Chicago market and their is no way I can get Channel 2 (CBS) over the antenna. I have to get it from cable but for some reason I cannot get any guide data to load for it. When I was playing with SageTV on my MacBook Pro it was the same way. Now when I get some guide data for the other channels I still do not get any for CBS Channel 2.

If anyone has any suggestions on the issues above I'm all ears. I probably should start a new thread with these issues though.

[lotusvball]

Have you named the channels from the HDHomeRun the same as they are at Zap2It. They must be named the same for guide data to show up for them.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by blips

My issues are as such:

1) The guide data is not completely filled in. When I first set up SageTV on 3/30 it was not all there. I then let it run over night because I thought the guide data updates over night. Last night it was not filled in at all. When I started tuning in some stations to watch live TV and then it filled up a little bit. I will see what it is like tonight.

do you have the guide data/tuners setup correctly? if you have a different source for each of the HDHR's tuners, you need to make sure the two tuners have the correct source set (this will change what guide data is downloaded)

2) The HDHomeRun has 2 tuners. I hook up one to my antenna and one to cable. When I watch TV over the antenna after about a minute it pixelizes and the sound is out of sync. I don't know if my cable run to the antenna is too long and I need an amplifier.

what signal strength, etc are you getting in the HDHR software?

3) I tried watching live tv over the cable tuner and after 15 minutes it seemed like it would pixelize and stutter. I am now beginning to wonder if the Mac mini is not able to handle SageTV. I just purchased the new Mac Mini: 2.26Mhz, 4GB Ram, 320 GB hard drive 7200rpm. I will try to play with it over the next couple of days. If I cannot get it to work right I might have to try EyeTV, but I really like the SageTV interface better.

the mini should have no problem, but i would try to record everything to a second hard drive. this mini has the nVidia 9400m GPU, right? i've run for quite a while on a 1.83 ghz macbook with archaic intel gma 950 graphics without a problem.

4) I am in the Chicago market and their is no way I can get Channel 2 (CBS) over the antenna. I have to get it from cable but for some reason I cannot get any guide data to load for it. When I was playing with SageTV on my MacBook Pro it was the same way. Now when I get some guide data for the other channels I still do not get any for CBS Channel 2.

do you have the source setup correctly? (your cable provider, etc)

[blips]

Originally Posted by sandor

do you have the guide data/tuners setup correctly? if you have a different source for each of the HDHR's tuners, you need to make sure the two tuners have the correct source set (this will change what guide data is downloaded)

I have one tuner set up as Antenna Chicago Broadcast
I have the cable set up as Comcast-Schaumburg which is a suburb close to me. I also had a choice of Comcast-Elmhurst and there was one other choice if I remember correctly. I do not know which suburban Comcast location I belong to. Should I just try each one? I can tune the stations that do not have any data.

Originally Posted by sandor

what signal strength, etc are you getting in the HDHR software?

Signal Strength is 81%-83% and Signal Quality jumps from 81%-100%.

Originally Posted by sandor

the mini should have no problem, but i would try to record everything to a second hard drive. this mini has the nVidia 9400m GPU, right? i've run for quite a while on a 1.83 ghz macbook with archaic intel gma 950 graphics without a problem.

Yes I do have the mini with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU.

Originally Posted by sandor

do you have the source setup correctly? (your cable provider, etc)

Again, I do not know which suburb my Comcast is out of as I'm in between several choices. Should I just try the different suburban Comcast source?

[blips]

Originally Posted by lotusvball

Have you named the channels from the HDHomeRun the same as they are at Zap2It. They must be named the same for guide data to show up for them.

How do I name the channels from the HDHomeRun? All I do is select the channel in SageTV in the tuner set up. Most channels come up and I'm only have a problem with 1 station. All the other channels come up with some guide data.

[blips]

I think I'm starting to understand the guided data issue. I selected my cable base digital package. I cannot tune any of the channels that are listed because they are encrypted. I do a channel scan and I get more channels to show up. It then finds the local unencrypted channels like 2-1 (CBS), 5-1 (NBC), 7-1 (ABC), 9-1 (WGN) & 32-1 (FOX). These are the channels that I can tune with the HDhomerun. They were not in the original channels set up from SageTV. Is this why I'm not getting guide data on these? If a tune a channel to watch live tv it will find a few hours worth of guide data. Is there any way I can "map" these channels to have the guide data of the standard definition channel? Or the guide data of the encrypted local channels from Comcast to the ones that I can receive? Meaning map the guided data of Comcast channel 187 (ABC) to the tuned channel of 7-1 (ABC)?

[sandor]

Originally Posted by blips

I think I'm starting to understand the guided data issue. I selected my cable base digital package. I cannot tune any of the channels that are listed because they are encrypted. I do a channel scan and I get more channels to show up. It then finds the local unencrypted channels like 2-1 (CBS), 5-1 (NBC), 7-1 (ABC), 9-1 (WGN) & 32-1 (FOX). These are the channels that I can tune with the HDhomerun. They were not in the original channels set up from SageTV. Is this why I'm not getting guide data on these? If a tune a channel to watch live tv it will find a few hours worth of guide data. Is there any way I can "map" these channels to have the guide data of the standard definition channel? Or the guide data of the encrypted local channels from Comcast to the ones that I can receive? Meaning map the guided data of Comcast channel 187 (ABC) to the tuned channel of 7-1 (ABC)?

yes, re-mapping physical and logical channels is covered somewhere in the SageTV manual, i forget which page. You can also find the station ID number on Zap2IT and enter that manually, this station id is what is used to match channels received to guide data....

i'll try to figure out where in the manual all this is, but they cover it in great detail.

[blips]

Originally Posted by sandor

i'll try to figure out where in the manual all this is, but they cover it in great detail.

Ooo, a manual. I will have to check that out.

[blips]

Ok I needed to "Map Different Station to this Physical Channel" in the channel set up. Now my guide data is coming in. That is about all I can do from work. I will have to work on the rest at home tonight.

Thank you so much for helping out a newbie.