Major Channel Setup changes: channel scanning & remapping

[Opus4]

The STV has been updated -- see the first post of this thread for details or here:
STV update version 2009062501, for SageTV v6.5.18 RC

The only change mainly affects anyone using a SiliconDust HDHR under Windows with cable channel numbers greater than 1023 entered in the HDHR's channel editor. The logical channel numbers should now be mapped correctly.


Oh, and since the v6.5.18 RC has been released, the preview window issues should be resolved. Let us know if problems are still encountered when previewing a channel.

- Andy

[setherd]

I'm running the latest version ofHDhomerun and sagetv.
Sage is missing about half my channels including major ones like NBC.
these all display fine using the HDhomerun software and I have them labeled properly in the hdhomerun setup.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by setherd

Sage is missing about half my channels including major ones like NBC.
these all display fine using the HDhomerun software and I have them labeled properly in the hdhomerun setup.

Are you sure they are missing, or are they merged with the same station name from another lineup & listed somewhere else in the Program Guide?

If they really are missing, then double check that you have following these instructions, exactly as written (note that OTA & QAM instructions are different):
HDHR setup for Windows

- Andy

[setherd]

The only thing i didn't do was shut down sagetv server when upgrading the Hdhomerun drivers. I'll do that and report back.

and some stations are missing and some are listed but wont display anything and others work fine.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by setherd

and some stations are missing and some are listed but wont display anything and others work fine.

Are you sure you've rescanned all HDHR tuners in SageTV after rescanning in the HDHR software?

- Andy

[setherd]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Are you sure you've rescanned all HDHR tuners in SageTV after rescanning in the HDHR software?

- Andy

yes, several times.

[ace007]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Are you sure they are missing, or are they merged with the same station name from another lineup & listed somewhere else in the Program Guide?

If they really are missing, then double check that you have following these instructions, exactly as written (note that OTA & QAM instructions are different):
HDHR setup for Windows

- Andy

I actually ran in to this the other day when I had to rescan my HDHR channels after comcast moved NBCHD. Not sure the exact order of what happened but I finally tried removing the HDHR tuners and then adding them back in and rescanning. I had previously mapped them to the same channel that comcast uses verse the 13-1 type format but many channels were missing.

I also have a digital over the air tuner I was playing with that I left mapped to the 13-1 format and Sage merged those channels from HDHR to the digital ATSC versions. I understand why you guys do that but I would prefer that if I select a different guide that you don't try to merge channels with the same name.

Just a request...

[shewhorn]

I just noticed a strange little anomaly... I've noticed at least one channel is missing... but it's not. My setup includes a Hauppauge 1800 which has an analog input and an HD input. I also have an HD-PVR being fed by an HD cable box so I have 3 inputs total. I just noticed that channel 5 from the HD input on the 1800 is missing... but it isn't... but it is. Here's the deal When I go into channel setup for the 1800's TS input it's there:

5-1-WCVBDT-[85-5-1]
WCVBDT (WCVB-DT) Boston (Manchester)

That's how it's listed in the setup.

For the HD-PVR it's on "channel" 705.

So these all show up in the setup just fine but when I go to the program menu, 5-1 from the 1800's TS input is not there which is strange because other similar channels like 4-1-WBZ HD - [86-4-1] and it's equivalent listing on the HD-PVR input which is "channel" 704 both show up in the program lineup.

So what's going on here? If I'm recording Discover Science HD via the set top box and the HD-PVR and I want to watch channel 5 in HD (via the 1800 input) whilst that's recording, I can't.

Is this a bug or user error (FWIW, yes the channel is definitely enabled)? I just did a full channel scan on the 1800's HD input but the problem persists.

Cheers, Joe

[Opus4]

shewhorn: That isn't a bug. I had asked you above:

Originally Posted by Opus4

Are you sure they are missing, or are they merged with the same station name from another lineup & listed somewhere else in the Program Guide?

For details, see p. 47 and/or p. 149 in the v6.5 PDF manual.

And, if you've got 2 similar named channels in the guide, then one of them isn't mapped to the correct station. (Zap2it stations don't have spaces in the call letters, as far as I know, so double check the ones with spaces first.)

- Andy

[shewhorn]

Originally Posted by Opus4

shewhorn: That isn't a bug. I had asked you above:

I think that was someone else, I've not posted to this thread before (well... at least I don't remember it).

And, if you've got 2 similar named channels in the guide, then one of them isn't mapped to the correct station. (Zap2it stations don't have spaces in the call letters, as far as I know, so double check the ones with spaces first.)

I assure you that they are (mapped to the correct station). There seems to be a fair degree of inconsistency here in terms of what Sage is doing. I can verify that if I record on say... 765 (Discovery) and then watch live TV on WCVB 705 that it will work so, the channel is there (thanks for that verification). This however is the *ONLY* channel in my entire lineup (at least the only one I've noticed) that does this. It's actually quite a nice feature but for whatever reason, with the exception of WCVBDT the rest of the Clear QAM channels appear in two different places... below 100 for the input on the 1800, and above 700 for the inputs picked up via the HD-PVR channel lineup via the set top box. For example, for WBZ I have:

Hauppauge 1800 "WinTV 885 TS Capture Digital TV Tuner":
4-1 - WBZ HD -[86-4-1]
WBZ HD

Logical (Guide) Chan# 4-1
Physical (Tuning) Chan#86-4-1
Station: WBZ HD , ID:91
Desc: WBZ HD

and for the HD-PVR...
4 - WBZ
WBZ Boston (Manchester) /* This is for the standard def channel */

704 - WBZDT
WBZDT (WBZ-DT) Boston (Manchester)

Logical (Guide) Chan #704
Station: WBZDT, ID: 20431
Desc: WBZDT (WBZ-DT) Boston (Manchester)


Now for channel 5.... on the 1800:
5-1 - WCVBDT - [85-5-1]
WCVBDT (WCVB-DT) Boston (Manchester)

Logical (Guide) Chan # 5-1
Physical (Tuning) Chan #85-5-1
Station: WCVBDT, ID: 19596
Desc: WCVBDT (WCVB-DT) Boston (Manchester)

And on the HD-PVR:
705 - WCVBDT
WCVBDT (WCVB-DT) Boston (Manchester)

Logical (Guide) Chan # 705
Station: WCVBDT, ID: 19596
Desc: WCVBDT (WCVB-DT) Boston (Manchester)

The point here is that the listing information for channel 4 and channel 5 are consistent. Why then does channel 4 in HD show up in my program guide on 4-1 and also on 704 but channel 5 *only* shows up on 705 (in the program guide)?

Cheers, Joe

[Fuzzy]

the reason those channels are not being combined in the list, is because it uses the CALLSIGN to determine if they are the same channel. For example 1, you have 3 different callsigns, therefore, 3 different occurances in the guide. (WBZ HD, WBZ and WBZDT). Example 2 both use the same callsign (WCVBDT), therefore they will both be shown at the first occurance in the channel line-ups (5-1 in your case).

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by shewhorn

I think that was someone else, I've not posted to this thread before (well... at least I don't remember it).

Sorry, I thought your username sounded familiar, but it wasn't the same.

Oh well, the merged channel point I mentioned still remains the same & there is other pertinent info in prior posts of this thread. There are a couple posts higher in this thread that talk about OTA & QAM scanning. For any channels that don't get mapped correctly automatically, you will need to remap them yourself.

I assure you that they are (mapped to the correct station).

No, they aren't. Look at the station IDs that you've listed -- "WBZDT" has a Zap2it ID (>=10000); "WBZ HD" does not. "WBZ HD" was not automatically mapped to the correct station by the OTA scan, so you will need to remap its station manually. "WBZ HD" will only receive EPG from the broadcast stream, if the data is in the stream, while "WBZDT" will receive approx 2 weeks of data from SageTV/Zap2it.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

the reason those channels are not being combined in the list, is because it uses the CALLSIGN to determine if they are the same channel.

Actually, channels from multiple lineups are merged by being the same channel object in SageTV's database w/the same station ID. Once mapped to the correct channel object, the callsign (station name) will obviously be the same since it is from the same channel. However, it is possible to create another channel object with the same name but a different ID & they will not get merged.

- Andy

[setherd]

I'm going to try and do a big post later with more info but now just a quick update.

HDhomerun tech support recommended I delete all my .scn and .frq files. then reinstall the hdhomerun app and scan again.
I did that. I found the same channels as before.

Now the Sagetv scan takes a long time-- like 15 minutes.
the weird thing is I now found more channels but they are channels not found by hdhomerun's app. I even found 2 premium channels that I guess must be clear qam-not sure why. I had an HBO version and cinemax action. and those were each coming in on 2 different channels(total of 4 channels for the 2 stations).

but I still can't get my local NBC affiliate which comes in fine in HDhomerun.

what else would would help sage at this point? are there any log files I could upload?

[Opus4]

setherd: make sure you are following the HDHR instructions I posted above. If the HDHR QAM scan in SageTV takes a long time, then SageTV isn't seeing the .scn files. If you are using Vista, you may need to copy the scn file to the SageTV installation directory where sagetv.exe is located. You can enable debug logging and start a new thread to post your logs, scn files, and frq files instead of continuing it here.

- Andy

[setherd]

moving the .scn files to my sagetv directory fixed it. apparently the latest HDhomrun software put it in my virtual store folder by default.
I moved it and all worked well!!!!

here are 2 minor things I notice though.
When previewing a channel. the channel previewed is correct but the label that comes up in the small tv window always displays the Previous channels name.

say I checked channel 8 wfla then checked channel 10 WTSP.
when I check channel 10 it shows WFLA still. it's always 1 channel behind. even if I come out of channel setup and back into it.

Once I got my channels working with HD homerun. somehow for my nvidiat dualTV card (sdtv only) it had turned off my SD channels and had copied the lineup from my HD homerun setup. Not sure how that happened or how I could repeat this. It was an easy fix at least.

thanks for your help Andy!!!

[valnar]

I'm still on the main 4/15 release of software from Silicondust for my HDHR. I have not done a channel scan or changed anything since before this current Sage beta cycle.

Should we also be using the latest beta firmware from Silicondust in conjunction with the latest Sage RC? Or does it matter?

I may have picked up a couple more clear QAM channels but I didn't want to go through the hassle of rescanning until all these changes settle down.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by valnar

I'm still on the main 4/15 release of software from Silicondust for my HDHR. I have not done a channel scan or changed anything since before this current Sage beta cycle.

Should we also be using the latest beta firmware from Silicondust in conjunction with the latest Sage RC? Or does it matter?

I may have picked up a couple more clear QAM channels but I didn't want to go through the hassle of rescanning until all these changes settle down.

Wel whether you stay on the 4/15 firmware for HDHR or move to the latest beta 20090703beta2 like I have (works great) the only way to pick up any more QAM channels is with a scan. So if you're going to go to the trouble of picking up a couple of stations you may as well upgrade. I've noticed better tuning and better picture with some of the latest HDHR betas.

Gerry

[Tomahawk51]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Don't worry too much about the preview window issues like that; we know about it & are working to improve that too.

For now, you might want to stop the preview (use the Stop command) and press Play on the next channel you want to preview.

- Andy

So in looking at re-importing HD PVR 2250 sources today, I notice that when I choose to preview channels...it never actually changes the channel. The progress window clearly comes up, and the preview accurately shows the correct channel that is being viewed (i.e. NOT the one that was selected).

Is this specifically known? I recall this happening in previous stable releases as well.

I always suspected that maybe Intelligent Recordings was grabbing the card or something. Not sure about that theory though...

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

So in looking at re-importing HD PVR 2250 sources today, I notice that when I choose to preview channels...it never actually changes the channel. The progress window clearly comes up, and the preview accurately shows the correct channel that is being viewed (i.e. NOT the one that was selected).

Is this specifically known? I recall this happening in previous stable releases as well.

Are you using the v6.5.20 release candidate? Channel previews should work correctly using that version of SageTV. If you are using v6.5.20, make sure you are using the STV that came with it rather than an older or customized STV.

- Andy

[Tomahawk51]

Yep, I'm on the .20 release. I also am using "SageTV3.xml".

I recently removed all plugins and went to this STV as I had to submit logs for an unrelated DVD stuttering issue.

Am I wrong on the STV or something?