Channel remapping - basic questions...

[tmaddison]

OK, so I feel stupid because I've been using Sage for many years now (starting with v 3) and for some reason I just can't wrap my head around this. I've read the manual, I've browsed the forum. There's lots of highly technical discussions about the remapping process but they all seem to start with the idea that the reader actually understands certain terms - and I can't find a "glossary" anywhere that tells me this...

Perhaps there's a thread here that already lays out the basics of the remapping process, if so point me there!

My issue is I've added an HD tuner card, tuned the QAM channels, and want to tie it in with EPG data. We just have one source - Cox expanded basic, North County San Diego/Vista.

I've tried a number of things but everything I read seems to point to the need to set the HD tuner card to NOT use it's own EPG lineup and remap the QAM channels to the corresponding listing for their analog counterparts.

To do this, I'm thinking I need to remap the "logical" channel, not the "physical" channel.

For instance.... on my system (Cox expanded basic, San Diego North County/Vista) we get analog channel 6 - listed as XETV, and digital channel 6-1, listed as 6-1 CW. They're the exact same channel with the exact same programming, god forbid they could ID them as "XETV" and "XETVHD" so it would be obvious, but that's another issue.

I think "6" and "6-1" are the respective "logical channels", and the "physical channel" for 6-1 CW is 79-6-1.

I'm guessing I need to remap the logical channel of 6-1 CW to 6 XETV.

If I remap 6-1 CW to 6 XETV, then the program guide listing for 6-1 CW (which used to say "no data") disappears completely - the line that used to be in the Program Guide is gone. All I'm left with is a listing for 6 XETV.

So.... from what I've read, even though 6 and 6-1 are separate physical channels, this means SageTV will now treat the listing for "6" is as a single channel, and record the program in either HD or not depending on the priority of tuners.

I have three tuners - two analog and one digital. One of my analogs is priority 0, one is priority 1. The digital is also priority 0. These are the defaults from the sage.properties, I didn't change anything. I assumed there were two priority 0 tuners because one was analog and one was digital....

If all this is the proper train of logic, do I now need to change the priorities so the HD tuner is the only 0 and bump the analog tuners to 1 and 2, to make sure any program that is broadcast in HD is recorded in HD first, unless the HD tuner is busy with something else?

Or... am I completely off... and misunderstanding (which is likely...)?

[Opus4]

Please see "Remapping Stations for EPG data using ATSC or QAM Digital Tuners" on p. 166 of the v6.6-B PDF manual. This explains that you often need to remap the channel for QAM or ATSC digital tuners. Note that when you remap channels, you do not want to select an SD station for an HD channel because then you will either have SD recordings marked as HD or vice-versa. There should be HD versions of the station names.

Logical & Physical channel number terms are explained on the previous page.

If you did not editing of the merit values for the tuners, then they all have merit 0; SageTV doesn't automatically adjust the merit value, affecting priority. And, higher merit is higher priority. Note that HD airings will be preferred for scheduling, so you may not need to adjust the merit value.

- Andy

[tmaddison]

Thanks...

For those who might be having the same mental block, I finally figured out what was keeping me from getting this done right..

In my house I get one single source of channels - Cox San Diego North County - Vista expanded basic. I don't subscribe to anything that requires a decoder box or cablecard.

My intent here was to receive just channels available via clear QAM, not anything that required descrambling. All the clear QAM stations I want to get are just exact duplicates of their analog counterparts.

What was NOT working for me is that I had this idea that since Cox broadcasts 10 or 15 stations HD stations in the clear, along with my standard analog lineup, if I used the proper lineup for the service I was getting (again, Cox San Diego North County - Vista expanded basic) I would then need to remap the HD stations to show the same programs as their analog counterparts. Even though the HD stations are included in this package, they are not listed out separately in the program guide information.

I don't know why they do that.. Probably to further make everyone think the only way to get HD is to rent a box or subscribe to a higher level of service.

As an aside, when I called Cox to see if they could point me in the direction of a listing of what clear QAM stations were available on my system (something which is apparently top secret, not listed anywhere on their site...) all they would tell me is "we can't guarantee you'll get ANY, you need to rent a box.." Over and over again, despite the fact that I told them I KNOW I'm getting clear QAM channels and ALL I WANT IS A LIST OF WHAT THEY'RE BROADCASTING... If I beleive the customer service rep, HE didn't even have access to that list...

Anyway, trying to remap the HD channels I was getting to their analog counterparts was what was messing me up.

My second problem is the Sage manual I had was a couple of revs older than the one I was pointed to above... The latest manual has a LOT more explanation of what's going on here.

So... once I figured that out, I figured out I needed to use a different program guide with the HD tuner - the Cox North County Digital -Vista guide, even though I was not subscribing to that service. THAT shows me about 900 channels I don't get, but DOES include the clear QAM channels (in the 700 range....)

Once I chose that lineup and rescanned (for "updated channels"), it worked. I THOUGHT I was going to have to remap from the channels I'd picked up to the 700 series channels, but somehow it figured that out - perhaps by Station ID?

THEN all I had to do is go through and disable all the random channels that Sage seems to think I should get but only come in black... I'm guessing those must be audio-only channels...?

Seems to be working fine now, thanks!