QAM mappings keep getting lost

[LaoChe]

I finally got my cableco to give me a cablecard (that was not easy) and got a HD HomeRun Prime. HDHR Setup software found 175 channels and they were also nicely mapped already (in the HDHR setup tool I see 28 instead of 112-0-28, the guide number is correctly mapped to 28 and the guide name is even correct. I removed all of my sources from Sage, went into sage.properties and deleted all of the mmc/encoder lines. I started the opendct service went into the Sage UI and did a full channel scan.

Unfortunately it only came up with 68 channels (and they were not nicely mapped the way the HDHR setup was) so I am thinking I am doing something wrong and maybe Sage isn't communicating with OpenDCT or maybe something with the OpenDCT settings? I noticed a couple of settings related to QAM tuning but I didn't want to change anything yet. Hopefully I am just missing something simple?

Thanks!

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by LaoChe

I finally got my cableco to give me a cablecard (that was not easy) and got a HD HomeRun Prime. HDHR Setup software found 175 channels and they were also nicely mapped already (in the HDHR setup tool I see 28 instead of 112-0-28, the guide number is correctly mapped to 28 and the guide name is even correct. I removed all of my sources from Sage, went into sage.properties and deleted all of the mmc/encoder lines. I started the opendct service went into the Sage UI and did a full channel scan.

Unfortunately it only came up with 68 channels (and they were not nicely mapped the way the HDHR setup was) so I am thinking I am doing something wrong and maybe Sage isn't communicating with OpenDCT or maybe something with the OpenDCT settings? I noticed a couple of settings related to QAM tuning but I didn't want to change anything yet. Hopefully I am just missing something simple?

Thanks!

The first thing you will want to do is stop the OpenDCT service.

If you just converted from using your Prime for ClearQAM over to using a CableCARD, you might need to delete the lineups starting with qam under C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\config\lineup and make a note of the names.

Then remove the lineups you deleted from that folder in C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\config\opendct.properties so that they lineup get automatically re-generated. The lines will start with sagetv.device.parent.<device_id>.lineup=. Remove the entire line.

Unfortunately, OpenDCT doesn't cope greatly with devices changing roles from a channel detection standpoint. If the thought of doing all of this looks tedious and you want to just go back to a clean slate, you could just delete all of the files in C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\config\lineup. and delete C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\config\opendct.properties.

You can now start the OpenDCT service again.

[LaoChe]

I still think I am doing something wrong. I did as you suggested and started with the clean slate by deleting all of the old files. I did another channel scan in Sage and I only got 64 channels. Did a second scan and most of them were no longer working.

I did verify that OpenDCT was running before I did the scan (I just started the service, I did not use the console-only option). After the scan I did have a new opendct.properties file and in the conf folder I do have a dct_hdhomerun.properties file that seems to have all 175 channels with correct programming information (channel.0028=28,,true,BET-E.....,http\....:5004/auto/v28,,-1,,,0,UNKNOWN,false) so it seems to be getting the correct data from the cablecard but I notice there is no .properties file for the tuner. I know when I deleted the old conf/*.propeties files there were additional files for each tuner (maybe those were only for non-cable cards and they shouldn't be there now). I don't see any kind of log nor do I see anything in the properties file to turn on logging. Any thoughts on where to look next? I feel like maybe I am half way there?

Thanks.

[KryptoNyte]

Have you had a chance to read the OpenDCT install instructions that EnterNoEscape linked to in his first post of the long OpenDCT thread? Is there a Sage scan in there? I was thinking not.

Additionally, have you been able to verify that the cablecard is properly paired with the HDHR device, and activated by the cableco? Have you used the HDHR viewer to tune and watch a channel completely absent of Sage involvement?

[Fuzzy]

These scans - are you trying to set up the CableCard tuner? or QAM?

[LaoChe]

cablecard. I disconnected both of my older (non cable card) HDHRs before deleting all of the .properties files as described above just to be sure there wasn't any overlap. I also removed all of the tuners from the SageUI.

When I went back to the UI I added a single tuner (1 of the 3 from the new HDHR Prime). Without doing an initial scan I see about 350 channels about half of which have a check mark. However, for example I have "39 E! Entertainment Television" checked which doesn't work when I press play but I also have 45-0-39 which is the actual channel that maps to "39 E! Entertainment television" and does work when I press play. Incidentally the HDHR Setup program shows tune 39, guide number 39, guide name ETV-E.

I interpreted this line of the OpenDCT walkthrough "It is now time to restart SageTV and detect / configure the tuners" as suggesting that I run a scan in Sage but maybe that is not right. I guess I am just not sure if OpenDCT is
getting the same information from the CableCard as the HDHR Setup software and Sage isn't getting it or if OpenDCT isn't getting it right because of something I've missed.

Thanks.

[LaoChe]

I was in the process of starting all over (deleting all .properties files, etc.) to be sure I didn't miss anything. I also did a channel scan using the HDHR sofware (hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner0). I also ran opendct console-only in case that made a difference and I noticed this message in the output:

- The HDHomeRun Prime appears to be in ClearQAM mode. You either need to use a channel lineup from a device with a CableCARD or manually map the channels with their programs and frequencies. Auto-mapping is enabled by default and will find the best match based on other lineups.

That seems like it might cause the problem I am seeing. It's not obvious how to switch the HDHR from ClearQAM mode in Linux. When I run the setup GUI program from a windows PC I am able to set the device to use cablecard but that doesn't seem to affect the Linux system that Sage is on nor do I see that option anywhere.

[LaoChe]

Incidentally, when I use the HDHR Setup software from a Windows PC there is a CableCard menu that shows the cablecard status as follows:

Card Manufacturer Motorola
Card Authentication success
Card Validation none
3DES encryption supported
OOB Frequency 75.250 MHz
OOB Lock 2.048 Mbps
Signal Strength 100% (7.4 dBmV)
Signal Quality 43% (16.1 dB)
Channel List cablecard-oob

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by LaoChe

I was in the process of starting all over (deleting all .properties files, etc.) to be sure I didn't miss anything. I also did a channel scan using the HDHR sofware (hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner0). I also ran opendct console-only in case that made a difference and I noticed this message in the output:

- The HDHomeRun Prime appears to be in ClearQAM mode. You either need to use a channel lineup from a device with a CableCARD or manually map the channels with their programs and frequencies. Auto-mapping is enabled by default and will find the best match based on other lineups.

That seems like it might cause the problem I am seeing. It's not obvious how to switch the HDHR from ClearQAM mode in Linux. When I run the setup GUI program from a windows PC I am able to set the device to use cablecard but that doesn't seem to affect the Linux system that Sage is on nor do I see that option anywhere.

That message happens when the channel 5000 is detected as a part of your lineup. That's because 5000 is the first channel that the HDHomeRun Prime assigns when it's in ClearQAM mode. The hint is happening when OpenDCT is trying to retrieve your lineup. Do you have a channel 5000 on your cable lineup?

[Fuzzy]

I have never done a channel scan to setup my prime with a cablecard. I've always simply selected the lineup in sage and enabled the channels I wanted.

[Tiki]

I always do a scan through the Prime's web interface. If that doesn't work, Sage won't work. If you see your proper list of channels in the web interface, that's a good sign the cable card is set up and paired properly.

I'm not at home to check, but I'm pretty sure the validation: none line indicates a problem.
I've gone through the Comcast activation process several times because I have 2 Prime's and I've moved and had to set them up in a couple different cities. More often than not Comcast has problems activating the cable cards and you have to call in multiple times before they get it right. In one case they simply could not activate the card and I had to take it back and exchange for a new one.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I always do a scan through the Prime's web interface. If that doesn't work, Sage won't work. If you see your proper list of channels in the web interface, that's a good sign the cable card is set up and paired properly.

Yes, to clarify, a scan is not required to set up Sage. The channelmap is held by the cablecard (or the tuning adapter, if used), so no scan is required to identify channel to frequency relationships. Sage tells the HDHR (via OpenDCT) to tune to channel 104, and it simply does so. The Prime's web interface channel lineup page is a nicety for troubleshooting and testing, but it serves no real function in a sagetv/opendct environment.

[LaoChe]

I started this whole process again (deleted all sage.properties mmc/encoder lines & deleted all opendct.properties and lineup files, started both services). This time I also went into /opt/sagetv/server and deleted anything that looked like a tuner file.

I ran opendct in console only mode and got the below output which seems to indicate that it is finding the hdhr and figuring out that it is using a cablecard. I did an initial setup of the tuner in Sage UI without doing a channel scan and I see all of the channels correctly but when I press play on any of them they don't work I just get nothing. I tried the same in the program guide and get a no signal message.

I am pretty sure the cablecard and hdhr prime are working because the hdhr software gets the channels correct and they are all viewable. That leads me to think the problem is when sage goes to tune a channel it is not communicating with opendct. I did confirm that opendct is running and I turned on Sage debug logging (although nothing meaningful seems to show up there) - is there any way to figure out where the breakdown is?

INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.638 | 09:59:37.629 [FFmpegAsyncInit-22] INFO Main - FFmpeg loaded in 510ms.
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.646 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO HDHRNativeCaptureDevice - Encoder Manufacturer: 'Silicondust', Number: 0, Remote IP: '/192.168.1.49', Local IP: '/192.168.1.55', CableCARD: true, Lineup: 'dct_hdhomerun', Offline Scan Enabled: false, RTP Port: 8358
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.649 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO SageTVManager - The capture device 'DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0' is ready.
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.652 [SageTVTuningMonitor-54] INFO SageTVTuningMonitor - Tuning monitor thread started.
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.652 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO SageTVSocketServer - Opening ServerSocket on port 9000...
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.652 [SageTVSocketServer-55:9000] INFO SageTVSocketServer - Started listening on port 9000...
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.660 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO HDHRNativeCaptureDevice - Encoder Manufacturer: 'Silicondust', Number: 1, Remote IP: '/192.168.1.49', Local IP: '/192.168.1.55', CableCARD: true, Lineup: 'dct_hdhomerun', Offline Scan Enabled: false, RTP Port: 8440
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.660 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO SageTVManager - The capture device 'DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-1' is ready.
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | [GC pause (G1 Evacuation Pause) (young) 55M->24M(128M), 0.0318233 secs]
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.699 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO HDHRNativeCaptureDevice - Encoder Manufacturer: 'Silicondust', Number: 2, Remote IP: '/192.168.1.49', Local IP: '/192.168.1.55', CableCARD: true, Lineup: 'dct_hdhomerun', Offline Scan Enabled: false, RTP Port: 8446
INFO | jvm 1 | 2016/10/09 09:59:37.738 | 09:59:37.699 [HDHomeRunDiscoveryReceive-38] INFO SageTVManager - The capture device 'DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-2' is ready.

[LaoChe]

Sage debug log just in case they can help

[EnterNoEscape]

If you're not seeing any activity in OpenDCT when a tuning a channel through SageTV, there's a good chance you added the wrong capture device. Do your capture devices look something like DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 on 127.0.0.1:9000?


Edit: I see from your log that they are named like DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 on 192.168.1.55:9000. Are you running OpenDCT on a different computer than SageTV?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by LaoChe

Sage debug log just in case they can help

It looks like Sage is detecting the network encoders from opendct (your prime plus both regular HDHomeRuns). But I don't see any tuning requests to them in this log. It looks like there was some tuning requests on the HDHomeRun 1323a6ac Tuner 0, which is NOT using OpenDCT, that is sage's built-in HDHomeRun support. If you want to use OpenDCT, you need to use the sources that are named:

DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 on 192.168.1.55:9000
DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-1 on 192.168.1.55:9000
DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-2 on 192.168.1.55:9000
HDHomeRun HDHR4-2US Tuner 1041FDDD-0 on 192.168.1.55:9000
HDHomeRun HDHR4-2US Tuner 1041FDDD-1 on 192.168.1.55:9000
HDHomeRun HDHR-US Tuner 1016C800-0 on 192.168.1.55:9000
HDHomeRun HDHR-US Tuner 1016C800-1 on 192.168.1.55:9000

Those are what sage will use to talk to OpenDCT.

Ignore these:

HDHomeRun 1323a6ac Tuner 0
HDHomeRun 1323a6ac Tuner 1
HDHomeRun 1323a6ac Tuner 2
HDHomeRun 1041fddd Tuner 0
HDHomeRun 1041fddd Tuner 1
HDHomeRun 1016c800 Tuner 0
HDHomeRun 1016c800 Tuner 1

as they are sage's direct connection, which will work for ATSC and QAM, but they won't work for the cablecard, and won't allow using opendct's channel map for the qam tuning on the regular dual tuners hdhr's.

[LaoChe]

You're awesome and I'm an idiot. The tuner shows up at the top of the list in Add New Source as HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 which is what I have been using all along. But with 3 HDHRs and 3 analog tuners it is a long list of available tuners and if I had bothered to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list I would have noticed that is shows up again as DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 on 192.168.1.55:9000

The DCT prefix would have been an obvious choice. Also, if anybody else is struggling with the same issue there is another way to tell if Sage is communicating with OpenDCT (correct me if I am wrong) - for the first time when connecting to the DCT version of the tuner I did not get an option to tune in an antenna broadcast. Cable TV was the only option (which makes sense).

I just tried 20 channels at random and 16 of them seem to be working. I probably need to go through all of them one at a time to see if it is working completely. But this seems to finally be working.

Thank you all so much for your help. I don't think I ever would have figured this out myself.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by LaoChe

You're awesome and I'm an idiot. The tuner shows up at the top of the list in Add New Source as HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 which is what I have been using all along. But with 3 HDHRs and 3 analog tuners it is a long list of available tuners and if I had bothered to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list I would have noticed that is shows up again as DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 1323A6AC-0 on 192.168.1.55:9000

The DCT prefix would have been an obvious choice. Also, if anybody else is struggling with the same issue there is another way to tell if Sage is communicating with OpenDCT (correct me if I am wrong) - for the first time when connecting to the DCT version of the tuner I did not get an option to tune in an antenna broadcast. Cable TV was the only option (which makes sense).

I just tried 20 channels at random and 16 of them seem to be working. I probably need to go through all of them one at a time to see if it is working completely. But this seems to finally be working.

Thank you all so much for your help. I don't think I ever would have figured this out myself.

In light of this, I've been thinking it might be nice to put a flag to disable native hdhr support. There's an easy point in HDHomeRunCaptureManager.java that it can be done at, where it will disable it if it can't load the native library, we can put that as an or flag to disable it with a boolean property defaulted to false (mmc/disable_native_hdhr=false) as well. I'm not sure how often it'd be used, and I suppose it will end up with an issue at some point if someone turns it on and forgets about it - but it doesn't make a lot of sense to have the same device showing twice in the list, and this seems the 'cleanest' way to handle it.

[LaoChe]

Thanks again everyone - it's working fine now.

Just one follow up for anybody else that stumbles across this. I did have to still remap the logical channel numbers on a good number of channels to get them to work - e.g. channel 28 shows up as 28-BET / BET which is correct and plays OK but channel 29 shows up as 29-TRUTV - [81-0-29] / truTV and does not work. The physical channel (29) is fine, it's just the logical channel.