Sage TV and Comcast cable

[PTRMAN]

In my region, Comcast just rolled out its "all-digital" cable service and I need some help.

I used to get by with a three-way cable splitter - one lead went to the DVR and primary TV, one went directly to a TV and the third went right to my TV card. Everything worked.

The DVR/primary TV still works great, but I had to put one of Comcast's adaptors onto my second TV. The TV has been rendered a dummy device - tuned only to channel 3 to receive the output from the adaptor, which now changes channels, changes volume, and turns TV on / off.

I'm not sure how to configure my PC now. I have another adaptor from Comcast that I can use, but it seems like I would no longer be able to set up a recording schedule and forget it. But as it is I'm getting nothing on the PC.

See, if I put the adaptor on I'd have to leave Sage TV tuned to channel 3 and use the adaptor/remote to change channels. Just like my second dummy TV is now. But then I'd have to manually change the channel and tell Sage to record a show whenever I wanted to record a show, right?

the cable firms keep saying they're making things "better", but to me this is just another method of limiting my ability to record and watch what I want when I want.

Has anyone else faced this problem?

[DOS64K]

Everthing should still "work" as before, at least until your Comcast provider starts encrypting everything but your locals. You dont mention whether your "TV Card" was analog or digital, but the signal being sent now is digital. That's what the DTA box is for (Digital to Analog).
You can bypass the DTA box altogether by using an ATSC (digital) capture card or an Silicon Dust HD Homerun (my recommendation) as your tuner.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by PTRMAN

See, if I put the adaptor on I'd have to leave Sage TV tuned to channel 3 and use the adaptor/remote to change channels. Just like my second dummy TV is now. But then I'd have to manually change the channel and tell Sage to record a show whenever I wanted to record a show, right?

You need an IR Blaster so your PC can change the channels on the Comcast STB (Set Top Box).

Many TV Tuner cards come bundled with an IR Blaster. If yours does not, you can buy a USB-UIRT to handle this. The blaster is just a little Infrared light connected by a wire to the USB jack on your PC. It works sort of like a universal remote control. You put the blaster in front of your STB and it can send signals to the box to change the channels just like your remote control. Sage works directly with the USB-UIRT and also the blasters that come with most Hauppauge TV capture cards.

And as to your first question, yes you can use a coax cable direct from the STB to your capture card and your capture card will always stay tuned to channel 3. An even better choice though is to use the S-Video or Composite (RCA jack) connector (whichever ones you have on both your capture card and STB). These will provide a slightly better picture than the coax connection.

[PTRMAN]

Thanks for the responses. For the record I've got a Hauppauge 1800 card, with both analog and digital inputs. I've tried both connectors (with a coaxial cable) and Sage TV setup/channel scan finds nothing. I do think I have an IR blaster that came with the card - have to look around to find that.

My cable signal is coaxial from the street into my house and then up to the cable jack in the wall - does using a different connection the last 10 feet or so really make a difference? Does the signal degrade significantly more over coaxial cable the last few feet?

Also, when I run Setup/Setup Video Sources in Sage TV, I have two choices
1) Hauppauge WinTV 885 Video Capture and 2) Hauppauge WinTV 885 TS Capture. Does the choice depend on which input jacks I'm using?

EDIT - I only have three input jacks on the card. -
1) Analog cable TV (had been using this)
2) ATSC / QAM Digital TV
3) S-Video / Composite

Sounds like I should be able to run coax right into ATSC digital jack with no "adaptor" box. But that hasn't worked before.

[sainswor99]

k, let's back up just a second; that card has two tuners, which will show up in SageTV:

1. The analog tuner is labeled Hauppauge WinTV 885 Video Capture
2. The digital tuner is labeled Hauppauge WinTV 885 TS Capture.

You will probably need to set them up with different EPG Lineups even if you use a Set Top Box or Digital Adaptor with the analog input.

First, are you sure that all analog channels have been disabled? If you connect a TV straight to the cable, do you get nothing ? (Sounds like you already tried that, but just wanted to be sure).

If you have no analog channels, you can use the DTA (supplied by ComCast) connected to the coax input on your card if you have an IR blaster (which came with the card) to tell the DTA to change channels for you. See the SageTV manual on page 152 on how to set up the TVTuner (follow steps 3B) for use with an external cable box.

The digital channel gets a little different; IF Comcast is broadcasting clear QAM channels, you can use the digital input connected directly to the wall (or a splitter). You'll need to scan for channels, and then go through a process of remapping the physical channel (the frequency where the channel is located) to a logical channel (the numbers you would enter on a cable box to watch). This allows the EPG to sync up. Again, see the manual (page 152) to help with this.

HTH; if not, write back.
Stu

Originally Posted by PTRMAN

Thanks for the responses. For the record I've got a Hauppauge 1800 card, with both analog and digital inputs. I've tried both connectors (with a coaxial cable) and Sage TV setup/channel scan finds nothing. I do think I have an IR blaster that came with the card - have to look around to find that.

My cable signal is coaxial from the street into my house and then up to the cable jack in the wall - does using a different connection the last 10 feet or so really make a difference? Does the signal degrade significantly more over coaxial cable the last few feet?

Also, when I run Setup/Setup Video Sources in Sage TV, I have two choices
1) Hauppauge WinTV 885 Video Capture and 2) Hauppauge WinTV 885 TS Capture. Does the choice depend on which input jacks I'm using?

EDIT - I only have three input jacks on the card. -
1) Analog cable TV (had been using this)
2) ATSC / QAM Digital TV
3) S-Video / Composite

Sounds like I should be able to run coax right into ATSC digital jack with no "adaptor" box. But that hasn't worked before.

[PTRMAN]

Stu,

Many thanks for enlightening this newbie! I always wondered what the difference between tuners was, but essentially I was too lazy to RTFM.

I did try regular TV connected directly to coax and nothing comes through. With the adaptor I get my subscribed channels.

The only appeal to the adaptor (that I see) is if you buy anything beyond the basic subscription package you can get channels higher than 125. Since I have the most basic package from Comcast it doesn't really help me any.

I'll scrounge up the IR Blaster (it's here somewhere, I know it) and run it with the adaptor box. (yet another thing to plug in! I might need a second power strip!).

Thanks again. I'll report back on success/fail.

[sainswor99]

You may also want to try to see if Comcast is broadcasting any of the locals in clear QAM (on your digital tuner); if so, then you'll at least have two tuner options for those channels. Simply split the feed before your DTA, and plug in one feed to the digital tuner on your Sagebox. Take the other feed from the DTA and set up the analog tuner on a different channe lineup.

Good luck.

[PTRMAN]

After being left on hold for 30 minutes I gave up on asking Comcast about their QAM broadcasting. Another day maybe.

I'm having some problems with install.

Cable runs to back of DTA, then from there into 1800 card (Analog input). I found the Hauppauge IR Blaster that came with the card set up. It consists of a USB plug-in IR receiver which itself has two IR plug in jacks on the back - I have an IR blaster plugged into the IR1 jack, with the emitter right over the DTA receiver).

I run through Setup as directed until I get to Select a Tuning Plugin to use with Hauppauge WinTV 885 Video Capture TV Tuner Channel 3 Source.

I have three options:
1) DirectTV Serial Control
2) USB-UIRT Transceiver
3) ACTiSYS IR200L

By the Sage TV documentation there should be a fourth option for using the Hauppauge IR Blaster (bottom page 268 in the manual). I've tried to install it from the original Hauppauge driver disk.

I'll try to install it, restart, and rerun the Sage setup.

EDIT - didn't work. Still only have the three options. If I try #2 then I get an error message. Back to Hauppauge to check to make sure I've got their latest drivers.

[Fuzzy]

reinstall sage, and make sure you select the Hauppauge blaster options in the setup. The hauppauge laster needs to be installed prior to installing sage.

[PTRMAN]

Anyone know where I can find the Hauppauge IR Blaster Configuration application? Trying (again) to install Sage TV after Vista reinstall.

EDIT - let me back up. After reinstalling Vista Ultimate (64-bit) my Hauppauge card was recognized and it now works with Windows Media Center, the IR Blaster that came with the card, and my Comcast DTA. It actually works! I can use the remote to change the channel or volume, or I can do the same from within Windows Media Center by using the onscreen buttons.

However, Sage TV doesn't want to work this way. Page 268 of the manual says I need to install the Hauppauge IR Blaster Configuration Application before Sage TV. I don't know what is meant by the "Hauppauge IR Blaster Configuration Application", nor can I find it anywhere. I've asked Hauppauge for clarification on this. But since the remote does work as it is supposed to with WMC, do I really need to uninstall Sage, find the (rumored to exist) Hauppauge IR Blaster Configuration Application? Seems like it is already installed and working.

If I don't need to install it (again?), then why won't Sage recognize it and allow me to set up Sage the way I want? I know a bit about PCs but really nothing about TV Setup on the PC, so any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by PTRMAN

I found the Hauppauge IR Blaster that came with the card set up. It consists of a USB plug-in IR receiver which itself has two IR plug in jacks on the back

The Hauppauge IR hardware plugins into the tuenr card, so you don't have a Hauppauge IR receiver/blaster, you have their MCE tuner kit which comes with an MCE IR receiver/blaster, which connects via USB. SageTV can use the receiver by selecting the MCE Remote option in the UI, but you'll need 3rd party software for that blaster. There is a sticky at the top of this hardware forum that has links for IR blaster info.

- Andy

[PTRMAN]

My card (HVR-1800) does not have any ports or plug-ins for an IR blaster.

The IR setup I have is a USB plug-in receiver. The receiver has two ports in the back, labeled IR1 and IR2. My card has no ports for

Thanks. I'll poke around in the stickies and see what I can figure out.