2250 Help Setting Up

[Ronno6]

HELP !!
Try as I may I cannot get Sage to set up 2 analog and 2 digital tuners using the Hauppauge 2250. I can set up 2 as one or the other, or 1 as analog and 1 as digital. What am I missing??
Plus, QAM channel tuning is VERY iffy. Sometimes I receive some, sometimes none. (?)
I downloaded the latest version of SageTV today.


Computer info:
Asus M2NPV-VM MB
AMD Athlon X2 4400
2gig RAM
Nvivia 7600GC
Hauppauge 2250 Dual tuner

[paulbeers]

There could be several issues in your post, so we need to take this one by one:

1. Sage has always allowed me to setup an analog and a digital "per tuner" with the 2250. In fact my 2250 is setup to capture 1 QAM and one analog (via composite) per tuner. Since I don't see a lot about your setup in your post or in your signature, let me ask you a few questions:
A. What driver are you using?
B. Are you capturing analog via the tuner or via svid/composite from an STB?
C. When I did my setup for the 2250, both the digital and analogs were listed as "analog" capture in the setup, are you sure you can't assign two different types of capture per "analog" tuner? (i.e. analog tuner #1 and analog tuner #2)

2. Now the next part is your complaint about the QAM tuning. Are you sure you aren't having signal issues? First the 2250 is a bit more touchy when it comes to QAM (as compared to HDHomerun). It needs a stronger signal. Also, if the run was originally used for analog capture, you may not have noticed low signal issues previously because analog has a lot of give as opposed to QAM which has an "all or nothing" type signal so if your signal strength is too low you are just going to get nothing.

I think that covers everything I can think of right now.

[Ronno6]

Thanks paulbeers,

1 (A) I downloaded the driver here:
090331_22xx_7.6.1.27090.PreRelease.zip
I hope I did things correctly, but can't say for sure.

1 (B) I am capturing all by tuner, either digital or analog: no svid or compsoite.
1(C) I attempted to set up digital and analog capture during the Video Source Setup, but it only utilized whichever was selected last.

The incoming cable feed is split a couple of times before getting to the 2250, but the same level signal is fed to an Akai TV and it tunes QAM flawlessly. Also, the WinTV application has no trouble tuning the QAM stations, only Sage has trouble. Sage tends to show a 100% signal strength on the meter, but say "No Signal" in the preview screen.

I dunno.

[heatvent]

I would update to the latest beta of Sage. It seems to work better for me.
Also update to the latest Hauppauge drivers (http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/softw...xdrv_27118.zip).

I am pretty sure (99.9% certain) that your issue with the latest tuner is you are selecting to use the same channel lineup each time you tune. What happens is the channels are rescanned digital and you lose all of the analog ones.

In my area, I use comcast and there is an analog EPG and a digital EPG. For the analog, I select Comcast ANALOG for my area and scan channels. Then I add the digital tuner and select Comcast DIGITAL for my area and again scan channels. It's a little confusing but if you were to select analog again, Sage would still find the digital channels on the digital tuner and then overwrite the channels that were previously saved for analog.

Again, the latest beta has VAST improvements in QAM scanning so I would highly recommend.

[Ronno6]

I have apparently got the first tuner performing both digital and analog tuning. But, as I didn't use the channel lineups, I now have almost all of my channels saying "No Data" on the program guide. Will they fill? I think I have data for only 1 channel.

Is there somewhere I can find a step-by-step guide to hold my hand through setup of this tuner?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Ronno6

I have apparently got the first tuner performing both digital and analog tuning. But, as I didn't use the channel lineups, I now have almost all of my channels saying "No Data" on the program guide. Will they fill? I think I have data for only 1 channel.

If you don't pick any lineups to use with the tuners, you won't get EPG data from SageTV; you will only have EPG data if the channel includes it in the digital broadcast.

Reconfigure the EPG Lineup option on Source Details for each configured tuner, be sure to scan again for every digital tuner, then make sure the channels match the correct stations, previewing & remapping if needed. Also, be sure the digital tuners use one lineup and the analog tuners use another.

- Andy

[Ronno6]

Problem is that the analog and QAM stations are all in one lineup. How do I tell SageTV not to scan for the analog channels when scanning for the QAM channels and vice-versa for the analog stations?

[Opus4]

Doesn't the lineup selection list have a couple different providers for your cable company? Often, there is a separate Digital listing vs. non-digital. If not, there are at least a couple ways you could do this:

1) Configure the digital tuners with the cable lineup, then choose to copy an existing lineup when configuring the analog tuners.

2) Configure the analog tuners with the cable lineup, then choose No Lineup when configuring the digital tuners. After the digital tuner scan, remap the found channels to their proper stations. I like this one because you end up with a digital tuner lineup that only contains the channels the tuner can receive.

- Andy

[heatvent]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Doesn't the lineup selection list have a couple different providers for your cable company? Often, there is a separate Digital listing vs. non-digital.

This is what I was saying in my post as well. Select the non-digital EPG for the analog tuner and scan channels so it activates only the channes that were successfuly scanned.

Then select digital and scan channels. These will be in a separate "Digital" lineup.

[Ronno6]

I'll give it a shot. Since the QAM channels are transmitted over analog cable, (they are part of the basic cable package) there is no separate lineup for the QAM channels. Looks like I'll have to do the remapping procedure.

I do also have basic digital cable service, which requires a Motorola STB to tune. Is there a way to tune those stations without the STB? Does requirement of the STB indicate encryption? Should this topic be addressed in another thread?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Ronno6

I'll give it a shot. Since the QAM channels are transmitted over analog cable, (they are part of the basic cable package) there is no separate lineup for the QAM channels. Looks like I'll have to do the remapping procedure.

I do also have basic digital cable service, which requires a Motorola STB to tune. Is there a way to tune those stations without the STB? Does requirement of the STB indicate encryption? Should this topic be addressed in another thread?

Anything that requires an STB to tune, is encrypted and there is no way to pick those up without hooking your STB to your Sage server.

[Ronno6]

If I use the same lineup for analog and digital, can I select the channels I want Sage to scan, and deselect those I want Sage to skip for each tuner?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Ronno6

If I use the same lineup for analog and digital, can I select the channels I want Sage to scan, and deselect those I want Sage to skip for each tuner?

No -- see the Channel Setup section of the SageTV PDF manual, starting on p. 161 for v6.5. The 2nd paragraph tells you that tuners using the same lineup share enabled channels.

I'm not sure why you are reluctant to use the analog lineup for the analog tuner and the digital lineup for the digital tuner -- you've asked what to do and so far at least 2 people have told you this. That is the easiest way for you to set up your lineups, unless you choose to connect an analog tuner + IR blaster to the STB and thus need to use the digital lineup for that instead of the QAM tuner. In that case, copy the lineup or use no lineup for the QAM tuner, as I said above.

- Andy

[Ronno6]

Thanks, Andy.I guess I did pretty much ask the same question twice (at least.) Thanks for reddening my bottom.

It is not that I am reluctant, I just always search for the simplest way. As that way is the way that I have been instructed, that is the way that I will use.

Thanks to all.