Tuner Priority w/Live TV

[will]

Hello,

I've recently reconfigured my tuner priorities to default to my HD-PVRs before my ClearQAM/analog tuners. The scheduler respects this change, however, if I watch live TV and the station is available with both analog and HD-PVR Sage defaults to the analog (the HD-PVRs are both free).

How can I fix this?

I prefer not to watch any analog TV but I do keep a couple of stations enabled as overflow for tuner conflicts. Also, because I use Time Warner, none of the guide data marks a show as HD anymore (the change happened in 2014).

[Monedeath]

I just have to ask. Where are you that you still get analog tv signals?

North America switched to ATSC, a digital broadcast standard, years ago. Although I guess someone might have a waiver somewhere, I doubt it.

[blade]

My cable tv provider still provides the channels from the basic lineup via analog along side the digital version of the channels. Then again they also offer both 1 Gbps and now 10 Gbps internet (up and down) so obviously bandwidth isn't a concern for them. Gotta love fiber optic.

[stanger89]

You should be able to just set the Tuner Merit for the analog tuners lower than everything else.

If there are clear QAM versions (or encrypted but Copy Freely) I'd get another QAM/CableCard tuner.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by blade

My cable tv provider still provides the channels from the basic lineup via analog along side the digital version of the channels. Then again they also offer both 1 Gbps and now 10 Gbps internet (up and down) so obviously bandwidth isn't a concern for them. Gotta love fiber optic.

Oh right, forgot about the Cable Companies as mine went digital awhile ago.

As Stanger mentioned, tuner merit should do the trick for the most part. Lower numbers have lower priority. Although Sage doesn't completely abide by merit alone, it normally goes for the the available tuner with the highest merit first.

It doesn't distinguish between live tv, manual, favorite, or intelligent as to which tuner it attempts to use first. Although where scheduled recordings are concerned, I'm sure the scheduler does some shuffling of its own based on record priority.

[will]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

Where are you that you still get analog tv signals?

I'm using Time Warner Cable. I'm in Albany, NY - about two and half hours from NYC. Before this, I was in Rochester, NY; analog was still strong and going.

I avoid analog recordings like the plague because of the quality but it is nice to have as a fall back if you are recording a three hour news talk show that airs daily and you might not watch AND there are other digital shows being broadcasted at the same time. I don't mind the lower quality for these ephemeral recordings.

Originally Posted by stanger89

You should be able to just set the Tuner Merit for the analog tuners lower than everything else.

I don't think that will work because the digital/analog tuners for the HVR-2250 are reported as a single tuner in the properties file.

Ideally, I'd like my tuner priority to go:

1. HVR-2250 Digital Tuner #1
2. HVR-2250 Digital Tuner #2
3. HD-PVR #1
4. HD-PVR #2
5. HVR-2250 Analog Tuner #1
6. HVR-2250 Analog Tuner #2

Is this possible?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by will

I don't think that will work because the digital/analog tuners for the HVR-2250 are reported as a single tuner in the properties file.

If that's the case then you shouldn't be able to have both digital and analog lineups configured for a single tuner.

Ideally, I'd like my tuner priority to go:

1. HVR-2250 Digital Tuner #1
2. HVR-2250 Digital Tuner #2
3. HD-PVR #1
4. HD-PVR #2
5. HVR-2250 Analog Tuner #1
6. HVR-2250 Analog Tuner #2

Is this possible?

I'm pretty sure the 2250 is a dual tuner card, it's not a dual analog+dual digital, it's just a dual tuner card, you shouldn't be able to define for lineups for it.

[will]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm pretty sure the 2250 is a dual tuner card, it's not a dual analog+dual digital, it's just a dual tuner card, you shouldn't be able to define for lineups for it.

It is and in SageTV I add it as four sources total (two analog, two digital). However, in the properties file I only have four encoders listed total, not six. Because in reality, I only have four physical tuners (two HD-PVRs and one HVR-2250 (dual)).

So even though I can have different guide data for my digital/analog HVR-2250 tuners I don't think I can have different priorities. I think the reasoning behind this is SageTV is smart enough to know that the analog/digital tuner is the same device so if I'm recording something off digital then the analog isn't free. Also, recording scheduler only shows four tuners total.

I wouldn't have to even think about priorities if Time Warner still marked shows as HD in the guide data

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm pretty sure the 2250 is a dual tuner card, it's not a dual analog+dual digital, it's just a dual tuner card, you shouldn't be able to define for lineups for it.

The 2250 will allow both an analog and digital line-up on the same tuner under SageTV. My system ran that way for years before they dropped analogue support on Cable TV. Sage was/is smart enough to realize it is the same tuner and use one or the other, but not both at the same time. So in that respect, you're right, it can only tune two channels at a time. But you're wrong on lineups.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by will

I don't think that will work because the digital/analog tuners for the HVR-2250 are reported as a single tuner in the properties file.

Ideally, I'd like my tuner priority to go:

1. HVR-2250 Digital Tuner #1
2. HVR-2250 Digital Tuner #2
3. HD-PVR #1
4. HD-PVR #2
5. HVR-2250 Analog Tuner #1
6. HVR-2250 Analog Tuner #2

Is this possible?

Encoder merit works on the idea of the higher the number, the higher the priority. So if you set the merit of Digital Tuner 2 at 6, digital tuner 1 at 5, and worked down towards 1, it should work. You might want to dig in the properties file further, IIRC, as your have 4 lineups configured under the 2250's, there should be 4 entries in the properties file for it. Your tip-off will be the broadcast type field, if I'm remembering correctly. (Because of how they identify, it will almost look like just two entries, but there are 4(the other two will have an additional descriptor tied to them). Try searching for "encoder_merit" and look at the surrounding descriptions, you'll likely find 6 instances of it(or more if you've had other tuners in your config previously and did not fully purge them))

I distinctly remember doing the reverse, as I didn't fully trust the clear-QAM line-up CableOne provided. So in my case QAM/Digital was given a lower merit, but I may have just set it for the card as you allude to as that would have been sufficient for my needs at the time... But that isn't what I remember.

[will]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

Try searching for "encoder_merit" and look at the surrounding descriptions, you'll likely find 6 instances of it(or more if you've had other tuners in your config previously and did not fully purge them))

I searched and I only have four instances of encoder_merit. The HVR-2250 is only reported as two tuners in the properties, as far as I can tell.

I've attached my properties file; am I over looking something obvious?

[Monedeath]

Sorry about the large time lag on getting around to this, don't normally hit this forum on my computer, so opening zip files is a challenge.

Ok, looked through it, only seem to see 4 tuners configured, with the 2 "broadcast_standard" being used defined as either undefined for the PVR's, or QAM for the Digital tuners, and the last channel used for both of them reflects the use of digital, as NTSC(North America)/PAL(most everywhere else) doesn't allow for sub-channels last I checked.

So going by that excerpt of your properties file, I'd say you do not have the analog tuners setup at all, and never have. (Or they weren't included) As there should be a properties entry unique to NTSC, and the only hit I had for NTSC in this file wasn't relevant to this.

I'll have to see if I still have an old properties file kicking around from back in the day, but as I'm not at home, that'll be awhile.

[teedublu]

In my case I have an old PVR250 (PCI card) hooked to a Comcast DTA that outputs on ch 3 (or 4). It is lowest merit of 0 and is used as last resort properly when recording favorites. But in Live TV, it gets picked first if the Channel is Std-Def. Not a major issue, I just have to remember to not select SD channels for Live TV, particularly since the tune change for the DTA is slow due to the IR blasting.

This worked properly in 7.1.9 because I had to use Preview (in Video Setup) to test it, otherwise I had to change the merit. Now, I don't have to, but I prefer that it worked like it did before.

It still does this with v9.1.8 for windows.

TW