Upgraded v7-v9 finds no channels on HD-Homeruns

[Nerva]

I tried to upgrade from SageTV v7 to v9, and I cannot get it to find any channels on my HD-Homerun tuners.

I initially tried to leave v7 there and install SageTVSetup_9.0.12.506_R1.007.exe on top of it. I was able to watch shows that had already been recorded with v7, but when I tried to watch live TV, it said "no signal" and I got the error popup "there was a problem using a sagetv component." Further checking confirmed it could not record shows. I also could not preview any channels from the channel setup screen. I tried removing all my tuners from SageTV setup and re-adding them using Schedules Direct -- the channel listings were there just fine, but I couldn't tune the channels. I tried disabling Windows Firewall outright to see if that would help, but it made no difference. Next I tried watching channels directly using Windows Media Player from the HD-Homerun setup program, and it had no trouble playing live TV -- so clearly it is a SageTV problem.

Next I tried completely uninstalling SageTV and installing v9 from scratch, but again, it couldn't tune any channels.

Update: I tried falling back to a v7 backup and it is having the same problem. Not sure what is going on...

The only other factor I can think of is I also inadvertently ended up installing the latest update of the HD-Homerun software and it auto-updated the firmware -- but I've never had problems with that sort of thing previously, and it seems strange that I can watch live TV from two computers (server and desktop) using other software, and only SageTV seems to be having a problem.

[KryptoNyte]

Are you using the HDHR Prime with cablecard or the standard HDHR without cablecard?

[Nerva]

It is over-the-air using four HDHR3-US devices (total of 8 channels).

I should mention that the HDHomeRun Setup channel scan works just fine...

[KryptoNyte]

When you installed the latest HDHR software, did you enter the setup for it and select "SageTV" app in the pulldown? SageTV must be installed prior to the latest HDHR software for that item to appear in the pulldown as I recall.

[Nerva]

Yes, I did. Is the install order a big deal? I would think if I installed HDHR and then SageTV, I could go back and change the pulldown on HDHR.

[Nerva]

OK, I gave it another try installing v9 from scratch. First I uninstalled both SageTV and HDHR. Then I installed SageTV v9 immediately followed by HDHR, selected SageTV in the pulldown, scanned for channels and found a bunch. Then I ran SageTV for the first time, went through the setup... and when it got time to add/configure video sources, I clicked on one of the HDHR's, and the next screen appeared with the "Digital TV Tuner" button -- normally in v7 I would wait a few seconds for the button's outline to turn red and then click on it -- but it didn't turn red even after 30 seconds -- so I clicked on it without the red border and it said, "There was a capture error in playback. Details: ERROR (-2,0x80004005): There was a problem using a SageTV component. Please re-install the SageTV application." Then it was red, so I clicked on it again, and it said it was "Detecting Broadcast Standard" (which I never saw in v7). Then it took me to the screen where I choose to capture broadcast TV. Then I choose Schedules Direct, put in my name and password, select my provider schedule, choose Basic Service (not sure how it is any different from Extended Basic Service). Then scan for channels... and none are found...

My first guess for a problem based on all that would be it is a firewall issue, where HDHR can talk to the devices but SageTV can't... but I have Windows Firewall disabled... In the past I've seen file system permission issues interfere with making recordings, but I can't even find the channels in the first place, so I don't think it has anything to do with being able to write to disk.

[EnterNoEscape]

In Windows, the HDHomeRun is presented to SageTV via the BDA driver provided when you install the HDHomeRun software. When you select SageTV in HDHomeRun Setup, that tells the software to create specific .scn files in the SageTV directory with names that look similar to what the device shows up as when you add it (e.g. Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner XXXXXXXX-1-0-QAM.scn). SageTV uses these files for the actual channel scan (not the device itself). If you don't see these files in the SageTV folder or they only contain the line # Generated by HDHomeRun Setup, you need to do a channel scan within HDHomeRun Setup under the Digital Cable tab.

[brandypuff]

I'm using OpenDCT with HDhomerunPrime. The prior reply implies that OpenDCT is not needed with HDHR?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by brandypuff

I'm using OpenDCT with HDhomerunPrime. The prior reply implies that OpenDCT is not needed with HDHR?

It is not needed if you are only interested in ClearQAM or ATSC. That being said, if you want to use OpenDCT for this, you will want to check the HDHomeRun Setup software and make sure the device you're trying to set up through OpenDCT is set up to use the source type that you're interested in using. OpenDCT will not figure that out for you and only the most recent beta allow it work with ClearQAM without another tuner with a CableCARD being accessible to map the channels for you.

Have you run a channel scan on the HDHomeRun Prime itself? OpenDCT will relay that list to SageTV; SageTV doesn't give it enough time to do this any other way at this time.

[Nerva]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

In Windows, the HDHomeRun is presented to SageTV via the BDA driver provided when you install the HDHomeRun software. When you select SageTV in HDHomeRun Setup, that tells the software to create specific .scn files in the SageTV directory with names that look similar to what the device shows up as when you add it (e.g. Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner XXXXXXXX-1-0-QAM.scn). SageTV uses these files for the actual channel scan (not the device itself). If you don't see these files in the SageTV folder or they only contain the line # Generated by HDHomeRun Setup, you need to do a channel scan within HDHomeRun Setup under the Digital Cable tab.

That possibly sounds like a very good explanation for what I'm seeing, but there's two problems with that:

1) I'm doing over-the-air HDTV, so it is ATSC, and from what you're saying it isn't necessary to make those files if you're just using ATSC?

2) When I load up HDHomeRun Setup, select SageTV for BDA, go to Digital Antenna and run scan... no files starting with Silicondust or ending with .scn show up in C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\Common\ like you say it should.

[Mountainbreeze]

This probably won't help, but it might...

I recently loaded v7 of STV on a Vista box to try it out (so far, I really like it). I too could not get any of my OTA channels from my HDHR's to show up. Then I remembered the BDS setting in the HDHR Setup utility had to be set to SageTV. So I did that and still got no channels. Then I tried rebooting the box and then BOOM, all channels were found. I did not do another HDHR Setup channel scan to get it to work.

FWIW, I too cannot find any .scn files anywhere on the system drive.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Mountainbreeze

FWIW, I too cannot find any .scn files anywhere on the system drive.

Maybe Silicondust has changed how they do things. This is what I still see on my own machine and I know since at least 5 years ago to be how it was done.

[Tiki]

The .scn files are used for clear QAM digital cable. For over the air ATSC, you're not supposed to need to do a scan in the Silicon Dust software first - you're just supposed to do the scan in Sage, and it should take a long time because it's doing a real scan (not just reading the .scn files).

[Mountainbreeze]

Yeah, when I first did the scan in STV V7, it took about 3 or 4 minutes and the status showed zero channels found during the entire time. After setting the HDHR BDA setting to SageTV and rebooting the box, the scan took about the same amount of time but the number of channels found increased throughout that time.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Tiki

The .scn files are used for clear QAM digital cable. For over the air ATSC, you're not supposed to need to do a scan in the Silicon Dust software first - you're just supposed to do the scan in Sage, and it should take a long time because it's doing a real scan (not just reading the .scn files).

Ah, thanks for the insight.

[Nerva]

Originally Posted by Mountainbreeze

Yeah, when I first did the scan in STV V7, it took about 3 or 4 minutes and the status showed zero channels found during the entire time. After setting the HDHR BDA setting to SageTV and rebooting the box, the scan took about the same amount of time but the number of channels found increased throughout that time.

Have you tried doing that since the HDHR 2016-11-19 update? That's the other possibility -- that the update made it not work with SageTV properly...

[Nerva]

OK, I tried taking another crack at it.

I used "the nuclear option" and restored the boot drive from a backup I made just prior to trying to upgrade from v7 to v9. Then I installed the latest HDHR software -- v7 worked just fine both before and after installing it. So it's clearly not the recent HRHR update that is causing problems.

Next I completely uninstalled STV and reinstalled v7 from scratch (actually v6, then v7 upgrade, then v7 patched exe to work with v6 licenses). Again, it had no problems dealing with the HDHR's -- I would select "add a device", then click on "Digital Tuner", a second later a red border would appear, then I would click again on "Digital Tuner" and a channel scan finds the usual suspects.

Next I completely uninstalled v7 and installed v9 from scratch. Once again, it has an error trying to access the device and says to reinstall STV.

So, clearly it is a problem specific to v9 and over-the-air HDHR's.

[Fuzzy]

While not technically a 'fix' for it apparently not working well in windows v9, you CAN use OpenDCT for ATSC with the HDHR's as well, and then don't even need silicondust software on your server. OpenDCT will talk to the HDHomeRun's directly over the network, not going through BDA or any drivers whatsoever. I've been using it for my ATSC tuner for a while now (mainly because I already was using it for my Prime, so I figured I'd use it for both).

[BobPhoenix]

I have V9 setup with a HDHR and OTA without problems (see attachment) - specifically the 1040ACD5-0 and 1040ACD5-1 tuners. The other HDHR primes are QAM. Not sure what to tell you but I'm not having problems with mine on SageTV V9

[Mountainbreeze]

The HDHR that I have been using is one of the originals that is loaded with the latest firmware. I am new to STV (currently using BeyondTV) so I have been tring it out on an old Vista OS computer. A few days ago, I reloaded the computer with my base backup (OS plus updates and just a few apps) then loaded the current V9 of STV. Went through the setup with no problems except that when I configured it to run as a service, I had to go through the entire setup again. Both times, I had no problems connecting to the HDHR. Now if I could only get the computer to wake up to run comskip...