Cable QAM & EPG data

[ckent]

Hi, I realize that this may be a basic question, but I'm a little overwhelmed. I just started using SageTV with my WinTV HVR-1600 so I could watch my QAM cable channels on my computer (and record programs in the future).
I was able to get it to scan all the available channels (which is essentially the network channels (abc, pbs, nbc, etc) and cspan and some others), but of course there is no automatic program data to go with this arbitrary lineup. Is there anyway to link a particular QAM channel with a EPG that SageTV would get off the internet? If anyone could point me in the way of any threads or websites that breaks it down step it would be immensely helpful.

I've gone a little crazy trying to figure it all out on my own.

[Opus4]

You have to remap the digital channels as described in the SageTV PDF manual's "Remapping Stations for EPG data using ATSC or QAM Digital Tuners" section, starting on p. 164.

- Andy

[ckent]

thanks for the info, it helped me figure it out. didn't have the epg properly set up at first, which didn't help

[handburger]

Hi guys, noob here, and I'm really sorry if this question has been asked a bunch of times before. I am trying out the SageTV trial right now, and I have a hvr-1600 (1 NTSC 1ClearQAM/ATSC tuner) and I hooked it up to my cable port. I live in San Francisco and just did a scan for all the channels. ~100 channels came up and they work but how do i associate any guide information with these channels? I'd like to be able to see the channel name/guide info for each channel so i can schedule recordings and things like that.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

* merged *

[Opus4]

See the manual section referenced in my above post.

- Andy

[handburger]

so is the only way to do this is to go through and figure out what each channel is manually? The silicon dust guide isn't a very good indicator, and that took about 3 hours with bad results... Is there no better way at this point?

[kbyrd]

I don't know of a better way. I was lucky, I was only interested in a few channels and the station call sign mapping was pretty good by default so it was easy to spot most of them. For Discovery and History channel, I just stumbled across them.

[handburger]

Originally Posted by kbyrd

I don't know of a better way. I was lucky, I was only interested in a few channels and the station call sign mapping was pretty good by default so it was easy to spot most of them. For Discovery and History channel, I just stumbled across them.

Yeah it looks like thats pretty much the only way to do it at this point, I guess the cable companies aren't really making this info public (unless anyone knows of a better way )

[handburger]

Hi all, I'm using the newest beta of SageTV and I'm having an issue with some channels not picking up the guide data. Most of the channels get the data but the "broadcast ones" (they are all being received via Clear QAM in San Francisco on Comcast). I've attached a couple screen shots to show the behavior i am experiencing.

No Data Channels:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Picture2-1.png

Correctly Working Channels:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...4/Picture4.png

* merged *

[Opus4]

handburger: Your channels are not mapped correctly. Again, please see the post I referred you to near the top of this topic.

- Andy

[handburger]

Originally Posted by Opus4

handburger: Your channels are not mapped correctly. Again, please see the post I referred you to near the top of this topic.

- Andy

Hi Andy, I remapped the channels to the identical name, and that seemed to take care of it, thanks for your help. I guess it didn't dawn on me that the channels were mapped incorrectly, because the name Sage had was correct.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by handburger

I guess it didn't dawn on me that the channels were mapped incorrectly, because the name Sage had was correct.

That's just it -- the name wasn't correct, according to the listings on the Zap2it site. It can be confusing because the broadcast channel may say it is "KTVU-DT", but when I looked it up, the Zap2it site says it is "KTVUDT" and it must match the Zap2it name to get the Zap2it EPG data. (Which is why the manual says to refer to your lineup on the Zap2it site... but I suppose it should include a Zap2it web site link in the PDF file.)

- Andy

[kbyrd]

I'm on Comcast in the Bay Area as well and I can confirm that this (what Opus4 said) is exactly what I had to do. I ended up mapping my scanned channels to the 700 and up channels (i.e. 703 is KNTVDT the NBC affiliate) saying comcast digital was my provider. This worked perfectly and zap2it's data correctly shows which are HD shows and which are not.