HVR-1600 setup in SageTV

[puravida]

I have a question about setting up the HVR-1600 with SageTV. The version of the card I have does support QAM.

I currently have the cable plugged into the QAM input and I was able to find about 60 channels via the scan. ( I am not using the NTSC analog input on the card because I assume most of those will stop working at some point ).

Anyway, I found the naming of the QAM channels to be confusing and the lack of guide info makes the whole thing a giant PITA for me.

My question is: Can i use one of the cable converter boxes Comcast is issuing to receive programming data and make the channel numbers more meaningful?

I would go from wall to converter to HVR-1600.

Will this work? What are the disadvantages?

Thanks in advance

[Djc208]

You loose HD capability as the box will only output HD via HDMI or component. The cable output will probably be analog SD.

What do you have selected for your EPG linup? What you may need to do is select the OTA EPG linup since the station labels may not be changed from the original station. Otherwise what you would need to do is choose the cable linup and then re-map the channels to their EPG listing. The new interface makes this much easier. You can use the preview window to see the station and then match that to the correct EPG channel.

On a separate note I'd probably still use the analog input. It gives you a second tuner, especially for older shows or those that haven't yet gone HD where it doesn't make a difference anyway. You can always delete the tuner later or use one of the cable boxes to convert the digitial chanels back to analog and use the s-video (preferred) or cable input on the card to get those channels.

[puravida]

Thanks for the response.

As far as HD, I didnt mention in my first post that i also have an HD-PVR because I didnt want to over complicate my question. So I have the HD covered. The 1600 will cover less important stuff.. ie, recordings for the kids..

I dont remember what i selected for the EPG type. I will go back and re scan using OTA EPG to see if it makes a difference.

If that fails, youre saying use the preview window to see what channel it is and then re-map? That seems time consuming and also a guessing game unless the station shows a watermark.

[puravida]

Since the 1600 is additional to my hd-pvr, do you think the connection to the comcast conversion box to the 1600 would simplify things for me?

I actually have an extra one of these boxes laying around so I wouldnt have to purchase it..

Just wondering everyones thoughts..

[Djc208]

Well the channel setup would be easier but then you have to figure out how you're going to do channel changing on two different cable boxes and the reliability issues involved there. The Hauppage IR blaster is a one-per-PC setup only.

Personally I'd go ahead and just re-map the channels. You may be able to find a listing of which stations are which on-line. Most times the QAM channel is the same as the OTA channel. Otherwise you may find there's a system to the Comcast numbering that makes it easy to re-map them. Either way you only have to do it once.

[puravida]

OK, i wont use the box..

I rescanned with OTC data but the results were similar.

So now i have a bunch of channels like "27-11 DTV27.12". I also see a station id but where do I find out what station matches the station id. I can not find it in zap2it.

[Djc208]

You can try http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx for OTA channels in your area (you don't have to provide name and phone #) which should give you the major ones. That should help identify the station.

Otherwise you're going to have to use the preview function to test it out, or just accept the tuner setup and surf the channels and make a list of what is what, then go back in and re-map.

Not all of the channels you're seeing may be regular TV channels. I get about 8 that are "on-demand" channels. They're not scrambled but there may or may not be content on them depending on who in the area is using them.

[puravida]

ok thanks. And you said this is a one time thing? what happens if comcast re-arranges and I need to re scan? I assume in that case, i'll have to do it again?