Is there a way to record the same show more than once on multiple channels/tuners

[puppy]

My current setup has both an SD cable tuner and multiple OTA tuners.
Reception on the OTA tuners can be unreliable at times, so I want my favorites to record a show twice on 2 tuners (using the SD as a backup). Is there a way to do this? I tried creating 2 favorites for the same show and a different channel, but only one show records (usually the HD OTA tuner).
On Sage V6 I was able to do this by using the OTA tuners with the OTA guide information which had different show ids from the Zap2It guide, so they would record the same show. Unfortunately with V7 I no longer get reliable EPG data from the tuners. Some channels are all 'No data' or have data missing. On V6 this was never an issue; I assume this is a V7 bug.

Michael

[MattHelm]

Maybe it would be better to "fix" the OTA tuners? I know a lot about setting up that type of system (My dad has 2 antennas, pointed at different cities, and work PERFECT). If you give me a little details about the OTA setup, I might give you some suggestions!

[puppy]

Fixing the tuners was my initial plan.
I have a WinTV-HVR-850, a WinTV-HVR-1600, an old DVICO Fusion HDTV 3 Gold and 2 Kworld KW-UB435.
They all worked fine with V6. I even reinstalled my old V6 copy on another machine with the WinTV-HVR-850 just to confirm that OTA EPG was ok and all channels came in fine.
So I am fairly certain it is not an issue with the stations or the tuner.
I am in the Toronto area and get about 20 stations from Canada and the US.
For some stations (US and CAN) I get most of the schedule with a few 'no data' holes. At least one station (CAN) seems to be good all the time. A few stations show no data at all or sometimes randomly seem to fill a couple of time slots.
I tried reconfiguring tuners(removing/re-adding, etc). I tried a clean V7 install on another machine with one WinTV-HVR-850 tuner. So far no success. I suspect that V7 has a bug or V6 was more tolerate of the data returned in the OTA stream.
I'm considering switching back to V6.

[dgeezer]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Maybe it would be better to "fix" the OTA tuners? I know a lot about setting up that type of system (My dad has 2 antennas, pointed at different cities, and work PERFECT). If you give me a little details about the OTA setup, I might give you some suggestions!

When you say two antennas facing different directions do you have them using a combiner, backwards splitter or attached to different tuners? I have just started researching upgrading my OTA reception. I've played with it a bit in the past,but my Clear QAM feed from Time warner recently flaked out. No changes at all in my hardware and suddenly I can't get a clear picture on any channel. I had their tech come out who tested the signal at the HDhomerun and said that it was within parameters for their equipment. No other ideas except to get a Time warner cable box. I moved my tuners switched splitters added an amp, removed the amp, moved the HDHomerun and finally came up with something that's watchable but not perfect.

Anyway my problem is that I get about half my OTA stations from about 30 to 40 miles away and the other ones from about 4 or 5 miles away at about 90 degrees from each other. I am thinking that one larger antenna pointed northwest and a smaller bow-tie pointed southeast might work fine. Right now I have a yagi style antenna in my attic pointed northwest at the 30 mile away staions. The closest station (I can see the tower) is the only one where I can't get a clear strong signal.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by dgeezer

When you say two antennas facing different directions do you have them using a combiner, backwards splitter or attached to different tuners?

I have them hooked to different turners. As the main "network" feeds (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and CW) are about 99% the same during prime time, this works well. About the only time it doesn't, is Saturday and Sunday afternoon (sports), but dad has had zero issues so far, and he's had all 10 (4 OTA, 6 cable) of his turners on at the same time! I just took his 2 HDHomeruns off the cable, and hooked one to each antenna.

BTW, I would never recommend mixing the feeds. Microsoft store had HDHomeruns for $59 just a bit ago, I think the deal is still on.

Originally Posted by dgeezer

Anyway my problem is that I get about half my OTA stations from about 30 to 40 miles away and the other ones from about 4 or 5 miles away at about 90 degrees from each other. I am thinking that one larger antenna pointed northwest and a smaller bow-tie pointed southeast might work fine. Right now I have a yagi style antenna in my attic pointed northwest at the 30 mile away staions. The closest station (I can see the tower) is the only one where I can't get a clear strong signal.

The plan above looks good to me.

Dad's are both at the 55 mile range, about 160 degrees apart, no issues at all.

Use TVfool to make sure none of the 30 mile channels are VHF. Dad has 2 or 3 that moved back after the lost their second feed. Most bow ties don't do VHF at all. If you do need VHF, and have a decent pole/tower, here is one with both that should (???) work (I'm using it inside the house (rental), no pole or amp, and at about the same range as your close one) :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the one I got dad, but he needed the extra range, even witha 30' tower:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And for the close set (Heck, any wire should work at that range!) :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Oh, remember that over driving a HDTV signal is just as bad as too little signal.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by puppy

Fixing the tuners was my initial plan.
I have a WinTV-HVR-850, a WinTV-HVR-1600, an old DVICO Fusion HDTV 3 Gold and 2 Kworld KW-UB435.
They all worked fine with V6. I even reinstalled my old V6 copy on another machine with the WinTV-HVR-850 just to confirm that OTA EPG was ok and all channels came in fine.
So I am fairly certain it is not an issue with the stations or the tuner.
I am in the Toronto area and get about 20 stations from Canada and the US.
For some stations (US and CAN) I get most of the schedule with a few 'no data' holes. At least one station (CAN) seems to be good all the time. A few stations show no data at all or sometimes randomly seem to fill a couple of time slots.
I tried reconfiguring tuners(removing/re-adding, etc). I tried a clean V7 install on another machine with one WinTV-HVR-850 tuner. So far no success. I suspect that V7 has a bug or V6 was more tolerate of the data returned in the OTA stream.
I'm considering switching back to V6.

Very weird, 7 should support more turners, not less. I have had issues with my WinTV-HVR-1600, but that was the card/driver, not SageTV. Have you check all your drivers? (just asking) I've always had MUCH better luck with the HDHomeruns.

[dgeezer]

Thanks. I don't need VHF, one of our locals switched back to their original VHF frequency after the switch over was completed and got so many complaints from people, probably with uhf antennas only, about reception that they returned to their uhf frequency.
I'm sure you're right about using a dedicated tuner for each antenna. . I have 2 Hdhomerun tuners already. When I open the Hdhomerun configuration program and view Wfmy, the tower I can see, I get 100% signal strength but only about 50% quality.
It's kinda fun to try and do something to my SageTV setup again. :-)

[puppy]

After some experimenting, I have decided to use Slugger's mc2xml EPG Plugin with some custom filters to generate duplicate shows with new ids for the OTA channels and matching airings. This will allow my favorites to record both the SD and HD versions of the same show, as they will be seen as different shows.
In future, if I have more time, I may write my own plugin.